As a personal trainer, you are entrusted with helping people achieve their goals. Dreams of achieving the perfect level of fitness are foremost in your clients’ minds and endless sessions can certainly take their toll on your body too. But there’s no doubt it can be extremely rewarding to see the result of yours and your clients’ work, and personal trainers can get a great buzz from working on the gym floor to achieve those goals.
While the physical work can cause aches and pains, there may be no end to the headaches you’ll suffer if you don’t have personal trainer insurance in place. Although the majority of trainers will have fantastic relationships with their clients, things can always go wrong and it’s important to be prepared. You can take great care to make sure that every precaution is taken to make each session as safe and stress-free for your client, but problems can arise. Insurance is one of the quickest and easiest ways to protect your business from potential claims – but what insurance do you need as a personal trainer?
Malpractice insurance
This is designed to cover you if a client brings a case against you for an alleged injury or illness suffered as a result of your session with them. Such a complaint can come on a number of grounds. They can argue that faulty gym equipment has caused them an injury. In this case, the owner of the gym may also be liable for any injury. A client may also seek compensation if your training itself has resulted in them injuring themselves or becoming unwell. Having malpractice insurance will help to cover the cost of any case brought against you or compensation which results from such a claim.
Although the gym owner may have their own liability insurance in place, if you are operating as a personal trainer you will need to take out your own malpractice insurance as the gym’s insurance may not cover you. Even if you are convinced that your client’s injury is not your fault, it’s essential to guard against any potential claim by having the right cover in place.
Personal accident insurance
While personal trainer insurance can help guard against any claims against, what happens when you are the one who is put out of action? Personal trainers will go the extra mile on a daily basis to help their clients – but if you suffer an injury and cannot do what you do best, your whole livelihood could be on the line. Being out of action for just a day can cost you money so it’s important to be covered if you are temporarily disabled.
With personal accident cover, you can be protected for loss of earnings during the period you are out of action. With many personal trainers working solo, you are effectively your whole business, so if your hands, body and mind aren’t able to get bring in the money, then who will? Personal accident cover can be tailored to suit you, with the option to extend to sickness cover or take out cover for just your hands.
Stock & equipment cover
While you as a personal trainer are quite literally the heartbeat of the operation, the equipment you use is also the essential. Stock and equipment insurance can cover you for the loss or damage of any equipment you use in relation to your personal training business.
Personal trainer cover
Most personal trainers will have a good idea of what works for certain clients to get the best results. However, it is worth checking your personal trainer insurance to check if certain activities are covered or not. Just as you do when putting together a program for a client, you should be meticulous when studying your personal trainer insurance to make sure you have the right cover in place.