As the fitness industry grew over the last 25 years the interest for becoming a personal trainer skyrocketed as well. It’s easy to see why people were, and still are, attracted to the career. As a personal trainer you have the opportunity to directly impact people’s health and the quality of their lives. That’s powerful.

Unfortunately we all know how much churn the profession has with the average career length of trainers being less than 3 years. After trainers enter the industry filled with passion, pay for a certification on their own to self-educate, and then get hired at their first gym they realize two things. First, that they have a lot more to learn. Second, the job of being a personal trainer can be quite challenging.

The gyms hiring the most personal trainers over the last 25 years have learned that they have to make big investments into their new personal training hires in order to set them up for success. Gyms and Personal Training Education Departments can do this by curating content for their trainers. With the right content and tools at their disposal, personal trainers are much more likely to build a successful, sustainable client base that benefits the gym they’re in.

In this post, we’ll share the lessons we’ve learned from our customers on how to curate content for your personal trainers and how it will benefit them, their clients, and the gym businesses they work for.

Want to know how you can add hybrid personal training to your business to free up more personal training 1-on-1 slots and convert more members to training services? Check out our in-depth guide here.

Photo by Wes Hicks / Unsplash

BENEFITS OF CURATING CONTENT FOR YOUR TRAINERS
If your team hasn’t already invested into building a trainer education library and knowledge base, here’s why you should seriously consider prioritizing it.

Better onboarding for new trainers
When you bring new personal trainers into your gym, it’s incredibly important for them to recognize that they are going to be your brand ambassadors on the floor with gym members. They will have the most opportunities to engage, build relationships, and help retain clients to the gym.

By having a curated knowledge base for your new hires to review, you can get them up to speed efficiently and ensure they understand your gym’s expected best practices right from the start.

Easier marketing
Gym members love to have access to a variety of programs, classes, and experts with deep knowledge when they join a gym. By having curated educational resources for your trainers, you’ll attract more clients by having more on offer.

Whether that’s an exercise library to help with their form or quality training programs, you’ll be able to use this content as a marketing tool to draw in new clients and showcase the level of service you provide.

Better reputation for gym chains
Having curated content that is used throughout your gym locations will help build a reputation for quality.

Keeping those standards high by making sure all trainers are adhering to the same information means you won’t have any locations dragging down your reputation.

Consistent level of service for clients
Clients also benefit from a consistent level of service when all trainers are using the same source for their educational content. If clients change locations or trainers for whatever reason, it’s important they continue to experience a high level of service - having curated educational lessons and resources that all trainers follow will help achieve this.

Photo by Victor Freitas / Unsplash

WHAT RESOURCES CAN PERSONAL TRAINING EDUCATION DEPARMENTS BUILD?
There is a wide range of content you can provide personal trainers to help set them up for success. Here are some ideas that do consistently well with our clients:

Create a standardized exercise library
This is one of the most effective ways of ensuring personal trainers are offering a consistent, quality training service.

Having a library with videos and descriptions of how to coach clients means trainers are only showing clients approved exercises, and each is using the same form.

This is a useful tool for trainers to rely on when teaching clients and can
be shared with clients to use outside of personal training sessions to keep up with progress.

If you don’t have the time to dedicate to creating a bespoke exercise library, StrengthPortal has an extensive library with over 300 videos you can use. Each exercise comes with a training video and description, and you can add your own videos to customize it to your brand.

Create program templates for trainers
There is a lot of variation in personal training programs, but it’s crucial that all trainers provide high-quality, effective programs that get results safely.

Creating templates ensures all training programs are high-quality and effective while giving trainers enough creative freedom to personalize each one.

Templates are easy to create and can be handed out to all new trainers. Most trainers will be happy to have support when first creating programs and as a chain, you can review the programs to ensure they are meeting expectations.

Map out their journey towards making a sustainable income
Most personal trainers go into the profession with a love of fitness and want to make a difference with clients. However, few think about how to map out their career and make a sustainable income as a trainer.

By offering a career map to new trainers, you’re showing them how they can have a long, successful career in your fitness business.

This should include key information on:

• How to get a full schedule as a personal trainer.
• How to transition clients who have cost constraints over from 1-on-1 to small group or hybrid training.
• How to increase their personal income.
• How they can eventually move up into management at your gym if they wish to.

By having this information readily available from the beginning, you’ll help trainers become successful much quicker, which is a win-win for them and your gym business.

START BUILDING AN EDUCATIONAL TRAINING SYSTEM AND TOOLS FOR YOUR TRAINERS
As you can see, the best way of setting new personal trainers up for success is by giving them the tools they need to delivery high-quality training services right from the start.

Although personal trainers are experts in their field, having this support will not only help them bring in new clients, but will also help you retain them as employees for your fitness business in the long-term.

If you’re ready to start curating the best content for your personal trainers, head to our guide on how you can build an exercise library for your trainers and clients.