Graduating soon? How to get a head start in the health & fitness industry

Whether you are graduating from a university or have just completed your apprenticeship, it is an exciting time in your life when you can finally take the skills you have learned during your course and apply them to a work environment. If you are interested in becoming an active worker in health and fitness, you have to be aware that it is a very competitive industry (which we know, as we work for people in the industry every day!). However, with the right training and experience, you can get a head start on all of your competition, and settle into the job of your dreams. We did a little research and put together the following information to help you in your journey.

Consider your Pathway

If you have undertaken a fitness apprenticeship, most likely in Health and Science, you will have had the opportunity to explore a range of pathways. This includes experience in gyms, hospitals and even potentially work in fitness journalism or blog writing. With this wealth of experience, it is important to take the time to consider what you enjoyed the most. Just because you have taken a health-based degree does not mean that you have to automatically go with being a fitness instructor in a gym. Instead, you can look into more niche markets. Do you enjoy helping with vulnerable groups of people? Fitness Instructors are always needed within hospitals to help with physiotherapy. With the correct qualifications you can work alongside people who are obese, part of the older generation, are looking to overcome an injury or have a disability. Whilst you will need a DBS check in order to work with vulnerable people, it is an extremely rewarding pathway and can bring a new sense of independence to a person’s life. On the other hand, if you would rather talk about health, diet and exercise than taking fitness classes, you may actually want to run your own blog or write fitness articles. Whilst you may need a journalism degree to get you ahead of the game, you will have the opportunity to lift back the cover on the latest fitness techniques and health discoveries. Your writing will inspire people to make positive changes in their lives, for instance by losing weight or creating an exercise regime. The more research you do into your potential fitness career, the more likely that you will be able to gain the experience you need to secure a future job. That way you can start looking into internships or voluntary work to get you some experience within your chosen field. Just don’t expect to find your job immediately. You will need to build up your skill set before you are ready to take on your dream fitness job.

Start in the Online Community 

If you are interested in either becoming a fitness trainer in a gym, or a personal trainer, it can be extremely difficult to find your footing at the start of your career. For a Fitness Trainer it may be very hard to be hired in a gym, due to an abundance of trainers looking for the same job, whilst a Personal Trainer may not yet have a large enough client-base to get regular work. That is why both versions of a trainer should start their journey by going online. Trainers now have the opportunity to work with clients through a virtual headset or through video interfaces. This can be in the form of screens attached to work out equipment, or just by through monitoring a client through exercise/fitness software that they wear to monitor their heart beat and exercise routines. Not only can the trainer use digital training in order to find new clients, but this sort of technology is perfect for bringing classes together that are interested in achieving a new fitness goal. Whether it is for beginners or advanced fitness gurus is entirely your own prerogative. You can host your own class, monitor each of your students’ progress and even speak to your clients, giving them active encouragement throughout each session. This is a great way for trainers to make some money and give them a great burst of experience by teaching them how to host an exercise class.

Thinking of the Basics

A lot of recent fitness graduates tend to have dreams of either running their own gym or creating their own classes. However, before you jump into thinking up each class’s fitness regime, you need to take some time to fill out the paper work and think of how you are going to handle your business. You need to consider where you are going to host your gym, what sort of exercise machines are you going to purchase, as well as what sort of gym insurance you need. These may sound a little dull when you first encounter them, but the last thing you need (when you open your gym) is to be faced with a lawsuit because one of your clients was hurt on a faulty piece of equipment. Something as simple as a spill on the floor can lead to an accident. So always keep the basics in mind when you are considering opening up a gym. Be sure to keep a list and weekly reminder to make sure that all of your gym is covered and you know exactly what problems need to be addressed next. This will keep your gym in tip top condition and encourage fitness enthusiasts to return.

The Importance of Marketing

Never under estimate the importance of an advertising campaign. Whilst you will ultimately build up the reputation of your own gym and your skills, you will need to give your fitness business a chance to flourish against your competition. That is why you should keep your marketing skills updated for both online and physical campaigns. Make sure that your gym (or your fitness business) has a proper website that has been updated with the latest SEO techniques. That way it will appear on page one of Google’s Search and you can keep it in the public eye. You may also want to go online and research what fitness campaigns have previously worked. That way you form your own unique ideas that can advertise your brand to new clients.