Personal trainers need to build a unique identity to stay one step ahead of the competition in an “industry that is becoming saturated”, according to Sunderland academic and author, Morc Coulson.
Coulson is a senior lecturer at the University of Sunderland and has been involved in the health and fitness industry for the past 20 years. He says the market has become so overcrowded that personal trainers must specialise and ensure they up-skill their CV through continued professional development.
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He makes the recommendations as part of an updated version of his handbook for personal trainers, the 10th book in his Complete Guide Series, a culmination of his knowledge in the area of Health & Fitness, which have become key texts for many students and institutions around the UK and overseas.
Morc says: “I wrote my first guide to personal training five years ago, but because knowledge in health and fitness areas and trends have shifted rapidly I needed to reflect the changes in national occupational standards. We are talking about trends such as HIIT, boot camps, suspension training and kettlebells.
“Health and fitness is now provided as a service and most personal trainers are self-employed so I have tried to build a portrait of everything that’s needed as a personal trainer, and that includes creating an identity, as without that you are just one of the thousands of trainers struggling to get clients. They need to focus on specialist areas that will make them stand out, that could be anything from older clients to those with specific health conditions.”
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He added: “A lot of personal trainers are already adding additional qualifications such as sports therapy and sport massage to their CV, hopefully the Complete Guide will help them find that edge. This is something we also teach our students, it’s a core text that can provide a stepping stone that gives them that extra continued professional development in a highly competitive industry.”
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The Complete Guide to Personal Trainers is endorsed by REPS (Register of Exercise Professionals), the largest independent public register for the Health and Fitness Industry in the UK.
Author: Pedro van Gaalen
When he’s not writing about sport or health and fitness, Pedro is probably out training for his next marathon or ultra-marathon. He’s worked as a fitness professional and as a marketing and comms expert. He now combines his passions in his role as managing editor at Fitness magazine.
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