Time: 6 a.m. Place: A large park in a city. At one end is a group of middle-aged people practising yoga, while another determined lot huff and puff as they walk and jog around the perimeter. Switch to a nearby fitness centre. In the basement, a group of 30 men and women are moving in perfect co-ordination in a high-impact aerobics class under the watchful gaze of their instructor. While in the gym above, another bunch of fitness freaks are pumping iron and working on their abs to the beat of a chart-topper.
Being fit has never been so popular, or as necessary as it is today. With millions of people eager to lose weight and get in shape, fitness training is one of the fastest growing careers in the health and fitness industry today. The demand for professionals like aerobics instructors, yoga instructors and personal and corporate trainers is catapulting upwards.
There was a time when the only people using personal trainers were professional athletes who needed help for injury management or excelling at their sport. Today people from all walks of life – from celebrities to senior citizens – are using personal trainers to help them learn how to exercise, lose weight, maintain all round fitness and adopt a healthier lifestyle.
The Work
As a fitness trainer you will train people in different aspects of physical fitness and help the obese and sedentary get into shape. You will instruct or coach groups or individuals in various exercise routines (weights, aerobics, and flexibility training), besides monitoring their progress through methods such as BMI (body mass index) and cardiovascular levels. If required, you will also give them basic advice on health and nutrition. You will demonstrate the correct use of various training apparatus and gadgets such as trampolines, weights, rowing machines, etc.
Your professional training and experience will also equip you to design specific programmes for different people – keeping in mind their age, lifestyle and health parameters. Suggest forward-bending exercises to someone with a spinal problem and you’ll only end up worsening the situation – making your poor client double up with pain!
Fitness trainers work in gyms, big hotels, health clubs, fitness centres, spas, tourist resorts and even cruiseliners. After gaining some experience you could choose to run your own fitness centre. Another lucrative option today is to organise workplace wellness and fitness programmes for large companies. Increasingly, companies are laying great emphasis on physical fitness over and above the fiscal fitness of the organisation. They are offering their employees the facility of a well-equipped company gym where as a fitness trainer you could be advising top-notch executives how to stay in good shape.
Because gyms and health clubs offer a whole variety of exercise routines such as weightlifting, aerobics, karate, kickboxing, spin cycling, yoga, pilates or tai chi, you can choose to specialise in the areas you are comfortable with.
Let’s take a look at some of the different kinds of work you could be doing as part of the fitness industry:
Fitness trainers help clients assess their level of physical fitness and help them set and reach fitness goals. They also demonstrate various exercise routines and help clients improve their technique. They also keep records of their clients’ exercise sessions to analyse their progress and physical fitness.
Personal trainers work with clients on a one-on-one basis with celebrities and others who like privacy while they work out — either at a gym or at the client’s home. The workout is specially tailored to suit the client’s specific health and fitness requirements. Obviously, you would prescribe a far more exacting routine for a football player or swimmer as compared to that for a film star or company honcho.
Aerobics instructors conduct group workout sessions that involve aerobics, stretching and muscle conditioning exercises. You could even conduct these classes in a gym or at your own studio.
Sports instructors coach professional and non-professional athletes on an individual basis. They organise, instruct, train and lead athletes specialising in indoor and outdoor sports or self-defence training such as judo and karate. Using their expertise in the sport, sports instructors evaluate the fitness level of the athlete and the athlete’s opponents to devise a competitive game strategy.
Yoga and naturopathy experts work in yoga or fitness institutes and in hospitals as consultants or instructors. Similarly, you could also work as a personal trainer for the well-heeled client who does not have the time or desire to go to a public gym or for someone suffering from a specific health problem. As more and more people look for holistic alternative cures and remedies that are natural and free from side effects, naturopathy and yoga have great promise.
Employment Opportunities
Today, fitness in India is a whopping Rs.2,000 crore industry and most fitness centres are swanky studios offering an array of fitness regimes such as aerobics, kickboxing, yoga, dancercise and other workouts with sophisticated machines. Moreover, be it at home or at the fitness centre having a qualified trainer has become the ‘in-thing’.
With gyms and health clubs mushrooming all over the country, the demand for qualified instructors is going up sharply. And this spells good prospects for those aiming to pursue fitness as their career. Trainers with the ‘right’ qualification can teach just about anybody who can pay to be healthy and fit — from hardworking executives to the stressed-out CEOs, the politicians, the self-conscious student, the middle-aged housewife.
There are many factors driving the emergence of financial planners. For one, money decisions have become more
What it takes?
Understandably, the first essential for this profession is an athletic body and loads of energy. Apart from a love for fitness, you need to practice what you preach. You can’t possibly flaunt dark circles and a paunch, while exhorting your clients to pound the treadmill and do fifty push-ups! As a fitness instructor you will also need to keep abreast of the latest developments in health science.
Besides a good physique and determination to spend long hours in spandex, you must have good knowledge of human anatomy, diet, nutrition and other health and fitness related matters.
You also need to be innovative enough to vary the exercise routine to avoid monotony and boredom. Make sure you introduce an element of “fun”, taking care to devise an upper and lower body workout that exercises all muscle groups uniformly.
To learn the basics, you will need to enrol for a professional training programme. But treat the course as a mere kick-off point. Keep reading up on fitness and experiment continuously — there’s no end to learning in this field as new research and equipment keeps hitting the headlines.
After finishing the course you can start with assisting a senior Aerobics Instructor before you start taking your own classes or become a personal instructor.
Good communication and interpersonal skills will hold you in good stead, as you have to deal with all kinds of people.
What you’ll make?
With the high premium placed on physical fitness and appearances, it pays to be fit… and help others become fit too!
While the pay may be a little low to start with, as you gain experience and develop a personal style and rapport your take-home dramatically improves. Of course the most lucrative jobs going are those of a personal trainer to the rich and famous, and those with high-end fitness centres, spas and resorts.
Once you’ve acquired a reputation, you could also be conducting one of the numerous fitness programmes or health shows on popular TV channels. Besides boosting your popularity, it will also augment your clientele.
– Courtsey — TimesJobs — For Career enhancement contact the experts @ BAR –