Personal trainer

As a personal trainer you could:

• help clients set short and long-term fitness goals
•  plan a fitness programme to help clients achieve their goals
•  teach, motivate and coach clients in how to follow their programmes safely and effectively
•  give advice on health, nutrition and lifestyle changes
•  help clients with their workouts
•  check and record clients' progress, like measuring heart rate and levels of body fat
•  promote your services and do business admin tasks if you are self-employed

• customer service skills
• the ability to teach pupils how to do something
• the ability to work on your own
• physical skills like movement, coordination, dexterity and grace
• knowledge of psychology
• knowledge of teaching and the ability to design courses
• patience and the ability to remain calm in stressful situations
• sensitivity and understanding
• to be able to carry out basic tasks on a computer or hand-held device

You can get into this job through:

• a college course
• an apprenticeship
• applying directly
• specialist courses run by private training organisations
• the armed forces

You could take further instructor courses to learn new skills to offer clients, like:

• yoga
•  pilates
•  nutrition
•  group training

With further training, you could also work with people recovering from illness or who have certain medical conditions.