The New Age of Personal Training

And it goes way beyond fitness

Why do people hire personal trainers and what are they looking for when they hire one?

The traditional reasons are simple, people want someone knowledgeable on fitness who can help them get fit. People hire someone because at the end of the day they are too tired to have to figure out a working routine themselves. They hire someone who can help them be accountable. They hire someone believing that this person will help them reach their performance, weight, or aesthetic goals.

People hire personal trainers for help getting fit.

Is that all?

With the rise of social media as a tool of business for personal trainers the reason why personal trainers are being hired has started shift.

Personal trainers are no longer only viewed as these big or extra lean humans that have perfect bodies who will help us do the same.

When we see a personal trainer on social media who has built a successful brand for themselves we probably see someone whose influence goes way past fitness.

When someone builds a personal brand they are sharing a part of themselves and their story on social media and that is what people connect with.

People are looking for trainers to be multifaceted now. They want to see and connect with the human behind the personal trainer and that is often who they end up hiring.

What this means is the job of a personal trainer has changed.

Yes, people want you to answer their fitness questions, but they also want more.

They want answers to their deeper questions about sleep, lifestyles, how you balance work with other priorities in life.

Think about it, you a see a trainer on Instagram with a big following talking about the struggles of running a business and getting 8 hours of sleep every night because she knows that’s important. Someone hear’s that story and things click for them. They decide to work with her not just to get fit but because they believe she could help them with their sleep because she’s struggled with it herself. She understands. They’ll be able to talk to her.

What does this change mean for you as a trainer?

Well, to start you need to change the way you view yourself. You need to realise that your influence and brand goes beyond just the fitness realm.

This could mean that you need to focus on educating yourself past just fitness as well. It means, now more than ever, you need to make sure you know what you are talking about and sharing.

You get to be more than just a trainer. Don’t be afraid to share the parts of you that go beyond fitness because these are the important parts. These are the parts that people are going to connect with.