Why You Should Consider Specializing as a Personal Trainer

Personal trainers and coaches have the potential to help people from all walks of life. Whether it’s helping a client rehabilitate themselves after an injury, pushing them to improve their endurance so they can run a half marathon, or just simply guidance on eating a little better, every client is going to be different. 

Now, as much as personal trainers are capable of doing a lot for their clients, they can’t simply cover all bases. Entry-level personal training courses do give you a firm grip on the overall basics, but from here specialization is the name of the game.

You only have to look at some of the UK’s best personal trainers, the likes of Scott Laidler, Louise Parker, Nick Mitchell and others to understand you have to focus on a few key areas. Most importantly, you have be aware when a client’s needs are outside your scope of practice and when you’ll need to refer them on to another professional. Read on to learn about specializing as a personal trainer.

With all that being said, let’s take a look at a few specialisation routes you can consider…

1. Becoming a back pain specialist

It’s estimated that an eye-watering 49% of UK adults suffer from low back pain that lasts at least 24 hours.

In terms of the cost to the NHS, more than £1bn a year is spent on treatment. Clearly more needs to be done to support this and that’s where personal trainers come in. Upskilling with a Level 4 Low Back Pain course puts you right at the centre of change. You’ll be able to combine what you already know with new specialist knowledge and skills about posture, assessment strategies and the various options for back pain treatment.

2. Becoming an exercise for older adults instructor

It’s a fact that we’re all living longer and life expectancy is only going to increase in the next couple of years. By 2030, it’s estimated that one in five people will be over 65 and life expectancy will have hit 81 years.

For personal trainers, this means you have access to an ever-growing client base. By completing an older adult’s qualification, you’ll come to understand more about the aging process and how the exercise and training you offer can improve a person’s quality of life. Ultimately, you’ll be at the forefront of making exercise as inclusive as possible and that couldn’t be more important in this day and age.

3. Becoming a sports massage therapist

No one is bulletproof, not even world-class athletes and certainly not your clients, no matter the shape they’re in. It’s just a fact of life that injuries will happen and that’s why sports massage is the perfect string to add to your proverbial bow. 

Sports massage techniques have been proven time and time again to be effective at promoting recovery, improving performance and treating injuries. By becoming a qualified therapist, you’ll be able to provide more of an end-to-end service for your clients.

Written by Josh Douglas-Walton, fitness writer for HFE, the UK’s leading provider of online personal training courses.