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How To Pursue A Career In Fitness While Working Remotely
Our physical and mental wellbeing is at risk due to not only the COVID-19 but also the social restrictions following the pandemic. Before we were forced to stay indoors, the global health club generated over $94 billion in 2019.
The fitness industry has been enjoying steady growth due to the democratisation of the information and raising awareness around health. There are now over 400,000 fitness professionals in the U.S.
The expansion of the fitness profession is not just from the growth of health clubs. The fastest-growing sub-sector is the apps and online programs built by fitness gurus to meet the rising demand for at-home workouts. The global fitness app market currently only makes up 2.4% of the market but is expected to grow at a rate of 12% CAGR between 2020-2024.
All these trends indicate that a successful career in fitness is possible whether gyms are open or not. Here’s how you can pursue a remote career in fitness.
Build Credibility with Credentials
When there’s more competition, you need to consider how you’d stand out as a fitness professional. Knowing how to workout alone won’t really demonstrate what unique value you can bring to others’ fitness progress. You need to be able to explain to clients various techniques and also help them understand their own body types. It’s not just about working out. It’s also about eating healthy and maintaining a consistent routine.
You can build credibility and gain your clients’ trust a few different ways. Start by obtaining relevant credentials and expertise in fitness. Another is by referrals. Evidence of transformation of just one client can be used to demonstrate the effectiveness of your method/approach. Many trainers use their social media to showcase success cases and upload content that helps demonstrate their fitness skills to attract new clients.
Decide the Path of Your Career
Determine what you want your career path to look like. Do you want to be a full-time instructor at a gym and work with the gym clients? Do you want to create your own training programs and sell the content to the audience? Do you want to have your private training business? Do you want to specialise in any client or fitness type?
Many gyms are offering online courses in light of COVID-19 restrictions, allowing their fitness instructors and trainers to continue working. Being a trainer at a gym has its perks as you don’t have to worry about customer acquisition or buying equipment. However, gyms will take a significant portion of your income and you won’t have a say in the clients you take on.
If you want to build your own fitness brand, then you have to start by what type of clients or workout you want to specialise in. Just like any business, you need to determine who your target customers are and what your product’s value proposition is. Much of the work will be focused on content creation. Unique programs with instructional videos and informative articles will make your customers want to rely on your advice to help build their own workout routines.
You could also create a very unique program based on your experience and sell it online as a home-workout challenge (e.g., P90X Workout Challenge). In this case, the product will be just the video content. Your online presence is going to matter a lot if you choose to go down this path. You’d want to create your own fitness blog and start attracting followers on social media. In the beginning, you may want to offer more personalised engagement for your clients. It’ll give you an opportunity for referrals and testimonials as well as learning how your techniques work on different types of people.
Regardless of the path you choose, the ability to create content and articulate the workout techniques is going to be key in your success as a fitness professional.
Explore Alternative Fitness Techniques for At-home Workouts
If you are working remotely with your clients as a fitness coach, that means that you have to consider the various home environments in which your clients work out. They often wouldn’t have fancy equipment and may also have limited space in their home. Finding different techniques that require minimal equipment use may be required. This trend creates an interesting opportunity for many fitness professionals.
You need to experiment with other techniques and apply your knowledge about the body to see how the clients can achieve a similar outcome without having heavy barbells, bikes, etc. Moreover, you should learn about nutritions and dietetics to help your clients live a healthier life.
Helping them develop healthy habits in general also will likely increase the success rate of your program as their outcomes can be negatively impacted if they are eating unhealthy food while following your workout routines.
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