Personal Trainer Resume

As long as there are people who want to get into shape, there will be a demand for qualified personal trainers to help them along the road to physical wellbeing.

But to convince gyms and clients that you’re qualified to guide people towards their fitness goals, you need a strong resume that highlights your skills, certifications, and passion.

Follow these three tips to whip your personal trainer resume into shape and impress employers:

1. Use action verbs to describe your experience

As a personal trainer, your job revolves around physical action. Your resume should be no different.

If you’re filling your resume with bullet points that start off with phrases like “responsible for” or “tasked with” you’re not describing your past accomplishments as best you could. Not only that, but your resume will be less likely to win over hiring managers as a result.

Instead, use strong action verbs to describe your work experience. Action verbs elevate your resume and bring a hiring manager’s attention to your active accomplishments, rather than a laundry list of job duties. In other words, starting sentences with action verbs is a simple way to make sure your resume packs a punch.

Here’s an example of how starting your bullet points off with action verbs can immediately make your personal trainer resume more impactful:

Sentence without action verbs

“Responsible for designing personalized fitness programs for dozens of clients.”

Sentence with action verbs

“Developed and executed personalized fitness programs for over 30 clients.”

If you’re unsure what verbs to include in your resume, here’s a list of action verbs that are perfect for any personal trainer:

2. Beef up your resume objective

Your resume objective is the “hook” that encourages gyms to take the time to read through your entire resume. It should concisely summarize how much experience you have, your skills, accomplishments, and career goals.

Unfortunately, many job seekers don’t know how to write a resume objective that makes an impact. Here’s an example of how not to write your objective:

Here’s an example of an unconvincing objective:

Personal trainer with 2 years of experience seeking a position in a gym or fitness studio.

An objective like the one above just isn’t going to cut it. Instead, personal trainers need to bulk up their introductions to include details on their skills, relevant experience, and accomplishments.

Here’s an example of a strong personal trainer resume objective:

Personal Trainer with 9 years of health and wellness experience across fitness centers. Possess proven track record in helping clients achieve fitness goals through customized exercises programs and diet plans. Consistently improve fitness center revenue targets by developing new programs and retaining clients.

Adding meat to your introduction like the one above will motivate employers to learn more about how you can contribute to their gym or club.

3. Add weight to your professional experience section

Once you’ve captured the attention of the hiring manager with your resume introduction, it’s time to sell them on your experience. The best way to do this is to add numbers to your bullet points whenever possible.

Numbers help provide evidence of how well you can perform the required job duties. Without numbers, your resume becomes just a list of claims.

Here’s an example of how to use numbers to highlight your successes as a personal trainer:

• Co-developed new fitness programs with management, with successful implementation that increased sales revenue by 34%

As most experienced trainers already know, sales is a big part of the job. A trainer who can increase membership sales is highly valuable to any gym. That’s why including a bullet point like the one above is essential.

However, adding one number to your professional experience will not be enough. Here are a few more ways that you can add measurable statistics to your resume:

• average amount of time it takes your clients to reach their goals
• # of clients you train every month
• how many clients you get through referrals
• Average % of body fat your clients lose
• number of classes you teach

What to do if you lack work experience

Applying for a personal training job without work experience can be intimidating, and knowing how to write a resume with no experience can be just as daunting.

Don’t let a lack of experience stop you from trying. It’s still possible to impress hiring managers with a resume that shows off all of your valuable qualities.

Instead of focusing on your lack of experience, use your resume to showcase what makes you qualified for the position, such as:

• Relevant education
• Certifications
• Transferable skills
• Relevant experience

4. Include the necessary skills and certifications

Skills and certifications are an important part of any personal trainer resume. With an industry that includes so many areas of specialty, it’s important to be specific about what qualifications you have.

Here are some general hard skills that you should add to your personal trainer resume:

• Expert knowledge of the human anatomy
• Ability to prescribe a nutritional and well-balanced diet to clients
• Capable of instructing clients in safe use of gym equipment
• Design fitness programs customized to the client’s abilities
• Strong grasp of motivational principles
• Possession of liability insurance
• Expert salesperson
• Weight training
• Endurance training
• Dedicated to safety and healthy exercise techniques

Additionally, here are some soft skills that are important for any personal trainer to have:

• Patience
• Active listening
• Verbal communication
• Motivating others
• Focus
• Confidence
• Constructive feedback
• Negotiation
• Optimism
• Persistence
• Goal setting
• Attention to detail
• Persuasion
• Inspiring others
• Reframing
• Discipline
• Humor
• Empathy
• Positive reinforcement

In order to become a personal trainer, you may also need to get certified by an accredited organization. Here are some relevant certifications to include on your personal trainer resume:

• Fitness Instructor or Personal Trainer Certification
• First-Aid and CPR Certification

How you list certifications on a resume depends on how much focus you want to give them. If potential employers require certain certifications, or you lack work experience, display them prominently in a dedicated certifications section on your resume.

If they’re not required, and you have plenty of work experience to showcase, you can include certifications as an addition in your resume skills section.

Remember that personal image is a big factor in getting a job as a personal trainer. Your own physical health will either prove or disprove that your exercise techniques actually work. So as a final tip, make sure you are in fighting shape when you go to hand in your resume.