Working in a gym or a sports club can be a very rewarding experience, especially if you’re passionate about teaching others how to reach their fitness goals.
There are many reasons why we say this, and cover each one throughout this guide.
If you’re considering becoming a personal trainer or working in the fitness industry then in many cases you will be presented with two options, two pathways into the profession.
You can either try to fly solo and work for yourself as a self-employed worker or take a salaried position at an establishment like a gym or sports club/centre. There are many sports educations jobs that offer this flexibility, and that of the fitness trainer is no different.
Both fitness instructor jobs have several pros and cons.
How do you become a personal trainer?
Well, it’s a relatively straightforward process that involves taking the right personal trainer courses and pt qualifications. Once you’re there, you might be wondering ‘how much does a personal trainer make?’
Generally speaking, the figure ranges from £15,000-60,000 a year in the UK. As for how it takes to become a personal trainer, it can be as few as 3 months.
Working for yourself affords you freedom over your work schedule, the clients you work with, and how much you work. It also allows you to be adaptable. For example, many PTs were able to continue working throughout lockdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic because they got creative.
Working for a gym or sports club you won’t necessarily have that luxury, but what you will have is a secure income, fixed hours, and a world in which you don’t have to worry whether or not you’re filing your taxes correctly!
Once you’ve taken and successfully completed your pt courses, you should be able to work towards that personal trainer salary and land a coveted personal trainer job in your area.
Here are 10 more advantages to working in a sports club or gym:
Get Paid to be Healthy
The first benefit of working in the fitness industry is that you are essentially being paid to live a healthy lifestyle.
If you’re interested in being a personal trainer or sports coach for the right reasons (to stay healthy) then this should be like music to your ears.
Not that you need an incentive to stay in shape if you already enjoy it, of course, but it certainly sweetens the deal and makes it all the more enticing to live your best, healthiest life. And you may even get to earn extra by setting your own fees for private fitness classes.
As someone who works with people on reaching their health and fitness goals every day, it would be incredibly difficult - and hypocritical - to not live in line with healthy principles.
Access to Healthy Meals
When was the last time you saw a vending machine at the gym loaded with unhealthy processed snacks?
They exist, but most of the time you’ll have access to healthy protein-loaded snacks and vitamin-rich drinks the whole time you’re at work.
That makes it far more difficult for you to fall off the wagon and resort to bad eating habits at work, something which office workers succumb to more often than they’d like to admit. The gym isn’t the place to present an assortment of doughnuts at lunchtime.
Plus, you’ll be able to share great meal plans and recipes with your coworkers who are likely just as enthusiastic about healthy eating as you are!
Perks
If you decide you want the gym or sports club to be your workplace, then you’ll be able to cash in on any perks associated with that.
It’s possible that you get to eat in the canteen for free, for example, or perhaps you can get free merch which you can wear for your workouts.
You’ll also have all of the machines and equipment you’ll need to do your job in one place, so it won’t be on you to source and pay for everything.
Help People Achieve Their Goals
There’s something very rewarding about helping others.
Whether it’s helping them overcome adversity in their professional lives or helping them get stronger, tacts of altruism often come with a feeling of satisfaction.
You’ll have clients that you work with for weeks, even months, so you’ll be able to witness their progress first-hand and congratulate them at every milestone. You may even see them get to a better place in their own lives as a result of getting into shape, and you may even make a friend or two out of the process.
Wear Work Clothes you Feel Comfortable In
Most people don’t enjoy strict work dress codes.
While it can be nice to feel professional from time to time, more often than not most of us would prefer to go to work in clothes we feel comfortable in.
With gyms and sports clubs, the good news is that you can wear just about anything, so long as you can move around well and the material is breathable.
So, yes, you can literally roll out of bed and stick on your most comfy clothes to head to work, which makes those cold winter days easier on you.
You’ll Want to Look Your Best
And we don’t mean in terms of physique, though we’ll cover that next.
What we’re referring to here is the abundance of mirrors in gyms.
Something that may not have occurred to you at first, the presence of so many mirrors in one place has an interesting effect on most people - it makes you want to look your best.
While it’s always good to take care of yourself and your hygiene, there’s no better way to stay on top of your personal appearance than being thrown in front of several mirrors every day.
You’ll Be Inspired to Stay in Shape
When you’re surrounded by colleagues who take pride in their physical appearance, and around clients who are determined to get into the best shape of their life, you’ll want to do the same.
Not that you need the inspiration, to begin with, since we imagine you’re already in great shape, but it’s a motivating environment to be in.
A gym is a place where you can go to feed off the energy of others.
It’s a place that can lift you up when you’ve had a few days of feeling unmotivated.
If you want to constantly challenge yourself physically to be in the best shape you can, then working at a gym is a great way to do it. It serves as a constant reminder that every single minute of every day someone somewhere is training, working hard towards their fitness goals.
Free Gym Membership
Gyms for many of us are an extra expense that we’d rather not have to pay if at all possible.
If you decide to work at one, you shouldn’t have to pay a penny to be a member, which is a big deal.
Think about it like this, having access to a free gym membership is like adding money onto your yearly salary.
So not only do you get to use all the machines and equipment to stay in shape, but you also get money out of it. To us, that sounds like a certified win-win situation!
Whenever you go to the gym too you’ll have plenty of people there you can talk to and/or train with.
You’ll Impress Dates
There’s no denying the appeal the words ‘personal trainer’ can have on a dating profile.
Someone who trains for a living is obviously going to garner up some attention when it comes to dating.
If you’re single and ready to mingle, then working in a gym or sports club can boost your dating profile and help you secure an extra date or two.
Not that this alone is a reason to choose this as a career, of course, but there is also the matter of growing confidence.
When you speak with others every day, teach, and work on yourself, then you will naturally gain confidence over time which can translate to other aspects of life, such as dating.
Many Opportunities to Be Social
If you choose to become a self-employed personal trainer, you may well have a calendar full of appointments with clients, but you won’t have any coworkers. This is one of the downsides of going it alone.
If you work in a gym or sports club though, you’ll be able to form close-knit work relationships with your colleagues as well as socialising with your clients when appropriate.
If you aren’t the most outgoing person, then this can be a huge positive, as meeting people outside of work isn’t always easy.
If you want to get the inside scoop, you can easily find a personal trainer by typing in ‘personal trainers near me UK Superprof’. Working with a gym trainer you’ll get an insight into the reality of health and fitness jobs.
Enjoyed this article? Leave a rating!
Loading...
