How to Host a Fitness Instructor Training
Learning how to host a fitness instructor training course can help your staff grow together. Find out how to host a fitness instructor certification course inside.
- Hosting a fitness instructor training will have space and equipment requisites that vary from organization to organization.
- A Certified Personal Trainer (CPT) and Group Fitness Instructor (GFI) are the most common instructor certification courses to host.
- You can usually apply to host a fitness instructor training directly on a certifying organization’s website.
As a gym owner, learning how to host a fitness instructor training course could benefit your facility by providing your staff with an engaging experience that adds to their professional credentials. Having skilled staff is an effective way to make your fitness business management easier than ever.
To help you get started, we’ll break down how to host a fitness instructor certification course and find available fitness instructor workshops. We’ll also fill you in on anything else you should know before you host a private training.
Gym management can sometimes be more time-consuming than people realize. Learn how Exercise.com can help make your fitness business management more efficient with the best personal training software platform around by booking a demo today.
How to Host a Fitness Instructor Training
Fitness training is a unique field that offers a wide array of specialty certifications ranging from cancer to sport performance certifications. These specializations can help your fitness facility market to a specific population since they are considered advanced certifications.
How do I start a fitness instructor career? To become a fitness instructor, you’ll need at least an entry-level fitness instructor certification of some sort. This could be as a Certified Personal Trainer (CPT) or a Group Fitness Instructor (GFI) for starters.
It is important to note that many fitness facilities want staff to have reputable certifications which are oftentimes NCCA accredited. This helps to showcase the organization’s legitimacy so that you can have faith in your staff members. Some of the top NCCA-accredited organizations are:
- National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM)
- National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA)
- American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM)
- American Council on Exercise (ACE)
- International Sports Sciences Association (ISSA)
- National Exercise Trainers Association (NETA)
There are quite a few more that aren’t included above, but these are some of the industry leaders to date. To host a fitness instructor training, you’ll want to try to partner with an organization that is comparable to one of the above.
What is the best fitness instructor certification?
Choosing the best fitness instructor certification for your gym will depend on your target clientele or products. For example, if you’re catering to a geriatric population, you might want to focus on a Group Fitness Instructor (GFI) or Corrective Exercise Specialist (CES) certification course.
The best fitness instructor certifications for beginners will be a basic accredited CPT or GFI certification. In essence, these certifications are the most dynamic since they allow your instructors to work with nearly any client; although they might not be experts in any one particular area.
Many organizations will allow you to host a workshop for either CPT or GFI in two days or less. If you’re planning on opening a new facility or revamping your staff, this could be a good way to be sure everyone is credentialed and ready to start when needed.
A personal training certification (CPT) is more desirable if you want your staff to work with one individual at a time. With this certification course, instructors should be prepared to assess, program, and deliver workouts to anyone in the general population.
Exercise.com’s versatile workout software can help newly-certified fitness instructors by providing them the resources needed to conduct assessments, create and log workouts, and deliver one-on-one training both in-person and virtually. Combining strong resources with educated staff can help improve your client satisfaction.
This same software can also be used in conjunction with those who boast a Group Fitness Instructor (GFI) certification. This allows fitness instructors to use each of the aforementioned features while delivering workouts in a group format, via television, and with a customizable exercise library for any unique partner workouts.
How do I host a fitness training course?
Hosting a fitness training workshop will require some research since each organization has different requisites for facilities to host an instructor training course. For example, the National Exercise Trainers Association (NETA) has just a few criteria to host a course, such as:
- Ability to host at least 20 students including the classroom and activity space
- Fitness equipment and studio that can accommodate the space and needs of the course
- Personnel to serve as clients during the course
Other organizations may be more specific when you apply to host a fitness instructor training course. Usually, the more specific the training certification is, the more specific the requirements will be. A USA Weightlifting course will require a specific amount of space, barbells, plates, and so on, to be sure that each participant is able to get adequate practice time.
Organizations that offer fitness instructor training courses will typically allow you to apply to host a course right on their website. So to host, you’ll want to decide which organization and certification fit your needs the most, then simply apply to host the course. Before you apply, you’ll have to decide whether you want to host a private or public course.
There are some advantages and disadvantages of hosting public vs. private trainings. With public trainings, you can most likely have a larger group and potentially pay less per person for the session overall.
Private fitness instructor training is more exclusive, since outside trainers, including your competitors, won’t be able to attend the session. That said, these can be more costly to you and your staff members.
Ecommerce software for gyms and personal trainers could serve as a valuable asset for public or private training workshops. You’ll be able to collect your workshop fees by selling the event at whatever cost is necessary so that you can collect fees and distribute them to the certifying organization.
To make matters even easier, members, staff, and other participants will be able to register and pay for the event using your custom-branded fitness app, so you won’t have to manually handle registrations or over-booking concerns.
All of these tools serve as valuable resources while hosting a workshop, but more importantly, these resources are customizable so that you can make any adjustments to products, events, and more for all of your dedicated fitness center members.
How to Host a Fitness Instructor Training: The Bottom Line
Whether you’re looking to improve the credentials of your staff or looking to boost publicity, hosting a fitness instructor certification course can be an effective way to become more established in the fitness industry. Choosing a versatile certification course from an accredited organization can help bring in new members and guests.
Learning how to host a fitness instructor training course is a quick way to improve your staff’s involvement and education. See how Exercise.com can help make training and workshop hosting easier by booking a demo today.
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