What Are Other Jobs for Personal Trainers?

After chatting with hundreds of trainers (and being one myself), I can confidently say that we all ask ourselves the same question:

What else can I do with this piece of paper other than train clients?

Whether you’re happy with training clients or you’re ready to jump to another part of the fitness industry, it’s natural to wonder what else is out there for personal trainers.

Can you have your cake and eat it too?

Are there jobs for personal trainers other than the traditional route of training clients?

While training clients is a great way to make money, it’s not the only option. Let’s take a look at some other jobs for personal trainers.

Hyper Focus on One Niche

I know, I know. I said jobs outside of being a personal trainer. But just hear me out.

Is there one area of fitness that you would say is your specialty?

Do you have a long-term goal to work with only one type of client?

Why not dedicate yourself to that now?

For example, if your goal is to work exclusively with athletes and you’re still working with gen pop, you can start that pivot toward athletes now.

No matter what your specialty is, you can start to hyper focus on it.

This will allow you to work with clients you want and charge a much higher fee since you’ll be considered a specialized trainer.

With that said, let’s talk about non-training options.

Fitness Sales

Personal trainers know a lot about both exercise science, nutrition, and supplements.

If you’re like most trainers, you started learning about the industry long before you had a piece of paper to prove it.

You can easily get a job as a salesperson in your chosen field of the fitness industry.

Your in-depth knowledge of the products would be an asset to any company and your people skills would come in handy when trying to sell those products.

For example, here are several sales positions within the fitness industry:

Gym and fitness studio memberships
Diet programs
Supplements
Fitness equipment
Affiliate marketing

Manage a Gym or Fitness Studio

If you’re business-savvy and you enjoy what goes on behind the scenes at a gym, then running a gym or fitness studio could be a great option for you.

As a manager, the team will look up to you to help guide them through their fitness careers.

You have a lot of potential to help trainers excel and progress.

If you enjoy that managerial and mentor role, this could be the next step after personal training.

Open a Fitness Franchise

Do you know what McDonald’s sells?

It’s not hamburgers.

Ryan Reeves said it best in his tweet:

“McDonald’s doesn’t sell burgers, it sells franchises. It’s a real estate company, not a fast-food restaurant.”

There are plenty of McDonald’s equivalents in the fitness industry including Planet Fitness, Crunch, and YouFit.

These franchises are a great way to get started as a fitness business owner without having to start from scratch.

There are many different fitness franchises to choose from, so you’re sure to find one that’s a good fit for you.

Not only will you have the support of the franchise, but you’ll also have access to their brand recognition and marketing.

Open Your Own Gym

If running a franchise puts a bad taste in your mouth, but you like the idea of being a business owner, you can open your own gym.

Of course, this is a very big undertaking and it’s not for the faint of heart.

You’ll need to have a well-thought-out business plan, access to capital, and a lot of grit.

Of course, this option requires more of an investment than some of the others on this list, but it can also lead to some great rewards.

Fitness Writer

If you can write well and you know your stuff, I highly recommend going the route of writing fitness articles.

Becoming a fitness writer can do more than help you earn extra income outside of training clients.

You can also get your name out there in front of new clients and fitness businesses.

It’ll also increase your credibility and authority as a personal trainer, which can help you launch into different areas of the industry.

For example, it’ll be a lot easier to transition into becoming a fitness influencer if you already have published articles.

If you’re interested in trying your hand at fitness writing, check out my article on fitness topics to write about.

Fitness YouTuber

Maybe you can talk about fitness for hours, but the idea of writing an article or e-book sounds more like a nightmare.

How do you feel behind a camera talking about what you know?

If you’re more comfortable in front of a camera, then starting a YouTube channel could be the perfect way to monetize your knowledge.

Video is the fastest growing content medium and it’s not slowing down anytime soon.

But it’s also important to be realistic with this route.

If you want to make this a profitable career option, this is going to take an immense amount of dedication.

Unless you’re focusing on a super niche part of the industry, you’ll be going up against some big guns (pun intended).

Jeff Cavaliere and Jeff Nippard to name a couple of examples.

If you’re passionate, dedicated, know your stuff, and, most importantly, you’re ready to put in the work then get to it.

Fitness Model

If you’re comfortable in front of the camera and you’re proud of the body you’ve built, then why not get paid to show it off?

And I’m not talking about posting a few pictures on Instagram and calling yourself an influencer.

I’m talking about getting paid to pose in real fitness publications.

With that said, social media isn’t necessarily bad.

If you’ve already built a following through your fitness website, blog, and social media pages, your transition into fitness modeling will be that much easier.