In the final stage of the gym opening process everything starts to feel very real. Once a location has been chosen, the next steps are to negotiate and sign a lease, create an opening timeline, and plan the grand opening event for the facility.

How Do I Become a Personal Trainer?

Jim Kielbaso, MS, CSCS, spoke at the NSCA's 2013 Personal Trainer Conference about finding balance between working with personal training clients vs athletes.

Diana Vives, MS, CSCS,*D, presents, "Building a Career for the Performance Trainer"

It is the job of the personal trainer to help clients reach their goals in a safe and effective manner. However, it can be easy to lose sight of the big picture of a client’s life and have tunnel vision on specific training aspects that may not matter.

High standards improve the quality of professionals working within the fitness industry. This article provides steps that may help to increase income for personal trainers.

The purposes of assessment are to gather baseline data and to provide a basis for developing goals and effective exercise programs. Gathering and evaluating the various pieces of information give the personal trainer a broader perspective of the client. The process and the data collected assist the trainer in identifying potential areas of injury and reasonable starting points for recommended intensities and volumes of exercise based on the goals and fitness outcomes.

In this career series article, developing personal training skills to train special populations is discussed; it includes starting out as a novice through the expert level.

During the initial interview, the personal trainer and client assess compatibility, develop goals, and establish a client-trainer agreement.