You’re eating well, exercising regularly and following the same routine that kept you fit for years. Yet you’re gaining weight, feeling exhausted, struggling to recover and wondering what’s gone wrong.

For many women, this becomes a frustrating reality during their late thirties, forties and fifties.

But what if the answer isn’t to train harder or eat less?

In the latest episode of the Storm Fitness Academy Podcast, I spoke with Bria Gadd, also known as The Period Whisperer, about women’s health, perimenopause, exercise, recovery and why fitness professionals need to rethink how they support women through midlife.

Bria is a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner, Integrative Nutrition Health Coach and NASM-certified Personal Trainer with more than 17 years of experience in women’s health.

Her story offers some valuable lessons, not just for women experiencing these changes, but for anyone working in the fitness industry.

Listen to the Podcast

When Doing More Exercise Stops Working

Bria’s journey into women’s health began with her own experiences.

For years, she worked as a personal trainer and nutrition coach, helping women improve their health through exercise and nutrition.

Like many fitness professionals, she’d been taught a fairly straightforward approach to weight management: move more and eat less.

And for a long time, that approach appeared to work.

But around the age of 35 to 37, things started to change.

Bria noticed that both she and many of her clients were experiencing similar problems.

Despite maintaining their usual healthy habits, they were struggling with weight gain, fatigue, anxiety, poor sleep and changes in their menstrual cycles.

Naturally, Bria responded in the way many dedicated fitness enthusiasts would.

She got up earlier, exercised harder and tightened up her nutrition.

Unfortunately, things got worse.

Her sleep deteriorated, her energy levels dropped and she continued to struggle with her health.

Eventually, she realised something important.

The answer wasn’t necessarily to work harder. She needed to understand what had changed.

For personal trainers, this is a particularly important lesson.

When a client stops making progress, it’s tempting to increase their training volume, reduce their calorie intake or encourage them to be more disciplined.

But what if the problem isn’t their effort?

What if they’re already doing too much?

What Happens to Women’s Bodies During Perimenopause?

Perimenopause is the transitional period leading up to menopause, during which reproductive hormones fluctuate and menstrual cycles may become less predictable.

For some women, symptoms are relatively mild. For others, they can significantly affect everyday life.

Common symptoms include:

• Changes in menstrual cycles
• Hot flushes and night sweats
• Sleep disturbances
• Changes in mood and anxiety
• Difficulty concentrating or brain fog
• Changes in body composition
• Fatigue and reduced perceived recovery

These symptoms vary considerably between individuals.

Bria explained that one of the biggest mistakes we can make is looking at these changes in isolation.

Hormones interact with many other physiological systems, and a woman’s experience of midlife can also be influenced by sleep, nutrition, stress, physical activity and underlying health conditions.

However, it’s important to recognise that not every symptom in midlife is caused by perimenopause.

Persistent fatigue, unexpected weight changes and poor recovery can have other explanations, including thyroid disorders, iron deficiency, inadequate energy intake or sleep problems.

This is why fitness professionals need to understand both the physiological changes associated with ageing and the limits of their professional role.

Understanding Health Debt: Are You Spending More Energy Than You Have?

One of the most interesting concepts Bria introduced during our conversation was something she calls health debt.

She compares the body’s energy resources to a financial budget.

Every day, we have demands placed upon us.

We work, exercise, look after our families, manage responsibilities and deal with the various stresses of everyday life.

All these activities require physical or psychological resources.

At the same time, we need sufficient nutrition, sleep and recovery to support those demands.

Bria suggests that when our demands consistently exceed our ability to recover, we begin accumulating what she calls health debt.

It’s a useful analogy for understanding why someone might struggle to recover from training.

Imagine someone working long hours, sleeping poorly, managing family responsibilities and completing five demanding gym sessions every week.

They might have the discipline to keep going, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re recovering adequately.

Eventually, they may notice declining performance, persistent fatigue, reduced motivation or a general feeling that everything is becoming harder.

The important distinction is that health debt is Bria’s coaching framework, rather than a recognised medical diagnosis.

Nevertheless, the underlying message is worth considering.

Training is only beneficial when the body has sufficient resources to adapt to it.

Exercise provides the stimulus, but recovery is where adaptation takes place.

Should Women Exercise Less During Perimenopause?

This was one of the most important questions arising from our conversation.

If someone is struggling with fatigue and recovery, should they reduce their exercise?

The answer depends on the individual.

Bria described how she had previously followed a demanding training routine involving resistance training, high-intensity exercise and cardio.

As her circumstances changed, she realised she needed to reconsider how much training she was doing and whether she was recovering sufficiently.

However, this doesn’t mean women should automatically reduce their exercise when they reach perimenopause.

In fact, regular physical activity becomes particularly important during midlife.

Resistance training can help preserve muscle mass, improve strength and support bone health.

Aerobic exercise remains important for cardiovascular health, metabolic fitness and general wellbeing.

The key is finding an appropriate balance.

For example, someone who is sleeping well, eating adequately and recovering between sessions may be perfectly capable of following a demanding training programme.

Someone experiencing severe sleep disruption, persistent fatigue and considerable life stress might benefit from temporarily reducing their training load.

Rather than asking whether women should train harder or less, perhaps a better question is:

How much training can this individual benefit from and recover from at this stage of their life?

That’s a much more useful starting point for effective programme design.

Why Recovery Matters Just as Much as Training

One of the themes that kept emerging during our conversation was the importance of listening to your body.

Bria explained how fitness enthusiasts can become so focused on discipline and consistency that they ignore signs that something needs adjusting.

We’ve probably all experienced this.

You wake up feeling exhausted, but you’ve promised yourself you’ll train.

So you drink another coffee, drag yourself to the gym and complete the session anyway.

Sometimes that’s perfectly reasonable.

But if you’re consistently exhausted, sleeping poorly and struggling to recover, repeatedly pushing through may not be the most productive approach.

This is where good coaching becomes particularly valuable.

A personal trainer should consider more than simply whether a client completed their previous session.

They should also be interested in how the client responded to it.

Did they recover?

How did they sleep?

Are they experiencing unusual soreness?

How are their energy levels?

Has their performance improved or deteriorated?

These questions can help coaches make more informed decisions about exercise intensity, volume and progression.

Recovery shouldn’t be viewed as something separate from training.

It’s an essential part of the process.

Are Fitness Trackers Helping Us or Making Things More Complicated?

Another interesting part of our conversation focused on technology.

As a sport scientist, I love data.

Heart rate monitors, fitness watches, calorie-tracking apps and recovery metrics can provide valuable information about someone’s training and lifestyle.

But I’ve also started questioning whether we sometimes become too dependent on them.

For example, imagine waking up feeling refreshed after a good night’s sleep, only to discover that your fitness watch has given you a terrible sleep score.

Suddenly, you’re questioning how well you slept.

Or perhaps your watch tells you that you haven’t recovered properly, even though you feel energetic and ready to train.

Bria and I discussed the importance of using technology as a tool rather than allowing it to dictate every decision.

Fitness trackers can help identify trends, monitor training loads and support behaviour change.

However, they aren’t perfect measurements of how someone feels or performs.

Sometimes the simplest questions are just as valuable.

How do you feel today?

Are you hungry?

Are you satisfied after eating?

Do you feel recovered from your last session?

Technology should help us understand our bodies, not replace our ability to listen to them.

What Personal Trainers Need to Understand About Women’s Health

For me, one of the biggest takeaways from this interview was the importance of looking beyond the client’s immediate fitness goal.

A client might approach a personal trainer because they want to lose weight, build muscle or improve their fitness.

But those goals don’t tell us everything we need to know.

We also need to understand their lifestyle, health, training history and current circumstances.

This is particularly relevant when working with women experiencing perimenopause.

Here are five practical lessons for fitness professionals.

1. Ask Better Questions

Don’t focus exclusively on body weight, calorie intake and exercise habits.

Ask about sleep, stress, recovery, energy levels and any changes that might affect their training.

With appropriate sensitivity and consent, discussing menstrual health and menopause symptoms may also be relevant.

2. Individualise the Programme

Two women of the same age can have very different experiences of perimenopause.

One might be training for a marathon while another is struggling with severe sleep disruption.

Their training programmes shouldn’t automatically look the same.

3. Prioritise Strength Training

Maintaining muscle mass and strength becomes increasingly important with age.

Progressive resistance training can support physical function, bone health and long-term independence.

The goal should be to develop strength progressively, using an appropriate training dose.

4. Consider Recovery Before Adding More Exercise

When progress slows, don’t automatically increase the training load.

Review the client’s recovery, nutrition, sleep and overall activity first.

Sometimes a change in training stimulus is needed. Sometimes the client needs more time to recover.

5. Recognise When to Refer

Personal trainers can provide valuable support through exercise and lifestyle coaching.

However, they shouldn’t diagnose hormonal disorders, thyroid problems or nutritional deficiencies.

Clients experiencing persistent or concerning symptoms should be encouraged to speak with an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.

In the UK, the NHS and NICE provide evidence-based guidance on menopause assessment and management.

Could Women’s Health Be a Valuable Specialism for Personal Trainers?

Towards the end of our conversation, I asked Bria what advice she would give to personal trainers interested in specialising in women’s health.

Her response highlighted the importance of continuing to learn.

Women’s health involves far more than simply modifying exercises during pregnancy or menopause.

It requires an understanding of physiological changes, behaviour, recovery, lifestyle and the challenges women experience at different stages of life.

For aspiring personal trainers, this represents an opportunity to develop a valuable area of expertise.

However, specialising responsibly also means recognising where exercise coaching ends and clinical healthcare begins.

Additional education in menopause, female physiology, exercise programming and behaviour change can help trainers provide more appropriate support.

Building relationships with healthcare professionals can also strengthen the service they offer.

Most importantly, good coaches need to remain curious.

They need to listen, ask questions and avoid assuming that the same approach will work for every client.

The Biggest Lesson: Better Coaching Isn’t Always About Doing More

One thing I particularly enjoyed about speaking with Bria was how her experiences challenged some traditional fitness assumptions.

As coaches, we’re often surrounded by messages about discipline, consistency and pushing ourselves.

And those qualities certainly have their place.

But sometimes, the most effective decision is to adjust the plan rather than simply demand more effort.

For someone experiencing the changes associated with midlife, that might mean modifying their training, prioritising sleep, improving their nutrition or seeking medical advice about persistent symptoms.

For a personal trainer, it means taking the time to understand the person standing in front of you.

Because ultimately, effective coaching isn’t about giving everyone the hardest workout possible.

It’s about helping people make sustainable progress in a way that supports their health and quality of life.

Connect with Bria Gadd, The Period Whisperer

Want to learn more about women’s health, perimenopause, hormones and healthy ageing?

You can follow Bria’s work, access her educational resources and listen to The Period Whisperer Podcast through the links below.

• Website: Bria The Period Whisperer
• Instagram: @bria_period_whisperer
• Facebook: Bria The Period Whisperer
• YouTube: Bria Gadd, The Period Whisperer

Interested in Becoming a Personal Trainer?

At Storm Fitness Academy, we believe great personal trainers do more than prescribe exercises. They understand their clients, recognise individual challenges and help people build healthier, more fulfilling lives.

If you’re passionate about fitness and would love to help others, explore our Level 3 Personal Training qualification and discover how you could turn that passion into a rewarding career.

Get in touch

For a friendly, no-obligation chat about your next steps, simply fill out the form below.

The post Why Your Body Changes After 40, Even When Your Habits Haven’t, with Bria Gadd appeared first on Storm Fitness Academy.

And before you ask, yes, that boss is you.

One of the biggest challenges facing newly qualified Personal Trainers is deciding how much to charge.

Too expensive, and you worry nobody will hire you. Too cheap, and you might find yourself working ridiculous hours just to make ends meet.

So, is £30 an hour enough to make a decent living as a Personal Trainer?

The answer depends on your circumstances. But there’s a common mistake that can make even a busy Personal Trainer struggle financially.

Welcome to the £30 Personal Trainer Trap.

Listen to the Podcast

How Much Do Personal Trainers Actually Earn?

Let’s imagine you’re a newly qualified Personal Trainer charging £30 per session.

You’ve managed to attract ten regular clients, each training twice a week.

That’s 20 sessions per week, generating £600.

Multiply that by 52 weeks, and you’ve got £31,200 a year.

Not bad, right?

Except there’s a problem.

Actually, several problems.

First, you’re probably not going to work 52 weeks a year. Unless you’ve developed an extraordinary immune system and decided that holidays are for the weak.

Let’s assume you deliver 20 sessions a week for 46 weeks.

That’s £27,600 in annual revenue.

But that’s revenue, not profit, and certainly not your take-home pay.

You still need to account for business expenses, taxes and all the hours spent working when you’re not actually training clients.

The Hidden Costs of Personal Training

Depending on how you operate, your expenses might include:

• Gym rental fees or commission
• Public liability and professional indemnity insurance
• Coaching software and client management systems
• Website hosting and marketing
• Accountancy and bookkeeping
• Continuing professional development
• Equipment and travel
• Payment processing fees

And let’s not forget the seventeen subscriptions you’ve signed up for and can’t remember the passwords to.

Now consider the unpaid hours.

Writing programmes, replying to messages, managing appointments, marketing your business, meeting potential clients and doing admin.

Suddenly, those 20 sessions a week could mean considerably more than 20 hours of work.

The important question isn’t simply how much you charge per session. It’s how much you actually earn for every hour you work.

Why Do New Personal Trainers Charge Too Little?

In my experience, there are three common reasons why new Personal Trainers undervalue themselves.

1. Fear of Losing Potential Clients

Many newly qualified trainers worry that nobody will pay them.

So they look around the gym and compare themselves with more experienced professionals.

They think:

“Dave charges £40, but he’s been doing this for five years. I’ll charge £25.”

Which is an interesting business strategy.

You’ve essentially told everyone that you’re not as good as Dave before anyone has even met you.

Of course, experience can justify different pricing. But being newly qualified doesn’t automatically mean you should be the cheapest trainer in the gym.

Clients are looking for someone who understands their needs, communicates effectively and can help them achieve their goals.

Price is only one part of that decision.

2. Comparing Yourself with Other Trainers

The fitness industry is full of comparison.

We compare qualifications, physiques, Instagram followers, client numbers and prices.

Unfortunately, we rarely know what’s actually happening behind the scenes of someone else’s business.

That Personal Trainer with 20,000 Instagram followers might have fewer paying clients than someone who barely posts online.

And the trainer charging £70 per session might have significantly higher overheads than someone charging £40.

Their business isn’t your business.

Before setting your prices, you need to understand your own expenses, target customers, service and financial goals.

3. Feeling Guilty About Charging Money

This is perhaps the most interesting reason.

Many people become Personal Trainers because they genuinely want to help others.

At Storm Fitness Academy, we regularly work with students who want to improve people’s health, confidence and quality of life.

Some have experienced their own personal transformations and want to help others do the same.

These are wonderful reasons to become a fitness professional.

But sometimes that desire to help creates an uncomfortable relationship with money.

People begin to believe that charging a fair price somehow makes them greedy.

As though earning a decent living means they’ve stopped caring about their clients.

But think about it.

Doctors get paid.

Teachers get paid.

Physiotherapists get paid.

And nobody seriously argues that they should work for free simply because their profession involves helping people.

So why should Personal Trainers feel guilty about making a reasonable living?

Can You Be a Good Person and Run a Profitable Business?

Absolutely.

In fact, I’d argue that building a financially sustainable business can help you become a better coach.

When you’re constantly worrying about money, working excessive hours or desperately searching for new clients, it’s difficult to provide your best service.

You become stressed, exhausted and potentially resentful of the career you originally loved.

That isn’t good for your wellbeing.

And it isn’t particularly good for your clients either.

There’s an important distinction here.

Being generous isn’t the same as undervaluing yourself. And making a profit isn’t the same as exploiting people.

You can treat customers fairly, offer genuine value, provide excellent support and still charge enough to make a decent living.

Equally, charging more doesn’t automatically make you a better Personal Trainer.

Higher prices should be justified by the quality, scope and value of the service you deliver.

The goal isn’t to extract as much money from people as possible.

It’s to build a sustainable business that benefits both you and your clients.

Stop Selling Personal Training Sessions

Here’s another mistake I regularly see.

Personal Trainers advertise themselves like this:

“Personal Training, £30 per hour.”

And that’s their entire marketing strategy.

But think about what your customers actually want.

Nobody wakes up in the morning thinking:

“Do you know what would make my life complete? Paying a stranger to watch me perform lunges for sixty minutes.”

Most people aren’t looking for personal training sessions simply for the sake of having sessions.

They’re looking for solutions to problems.

They want to:

• Lose body fat and feel more comfortable in their clothes
• Get stronger and improve their physical capabilities
• Build confidence in the gym
• Improve their energy and overall health
• Manage stress and feel better mentally
• Remain active and independent as they get older
• Develop habits they can maintain for years

You’re not simply selling an hour of exercise. You’re offering professional support to help someone improve their life.

And when you understand that, the conversation changes.

Instead of competing purely on price, you can communicate the genuine benefits of your coaching service.

This doesn’t mean making unrealistic promises or guaranteeing results.

It means helping potential clients understand how your knowledge, guidance and support can help them work towards their goals.

How to Set Your Personal Training Prices

So, should every Personal Trainer immediately double their prices?

Absolutely not.

Imagine me ringing all our newly qualified Storm graduates tomorrow.

“Congratulations on qualifying. You’re now charging £100 an hour. Good luck!”

That probably wouldn’t end particularly well.

Instead, I’d recommend three practical steps.

Step 1: Know Your Numbers

Before deciding what to charge, calculate how much you need your business to generate.

Consider your desired personal income, operating expenses, unpaid working hours and how many sessions you can realistically deliver.

Let’s compare three different session prices, using 20 paid sessions per week over 46 weeks.

These figures are before business expenses and tax.

Notice the difference between charging £30 and £50.

At exactly the same number of sessions, that’s an additional £18,400 in annual revenue.

Of course, increasing your prices might affect demand, particularly if your customers are price-sensitive.

But the example demonstrates why pricing is such an important business decision.

You don’t necessarily need to work more hours to generate more income.

Sometimes you need to review what you’re charging and the value you’re providing.

Step 2: Understand the Value You Provide

Ask yourself:

• Who do I want to help?
• What problems do these people experience?
• What outcomes are they hoping to achieve?
• What makes my coaching service valuable?
• How can I demonstrate that value honestly?

For example, perhaps you specialise in helping people who feel intimidated by gyms.

Your ability to provide reassurance, build confidence, teach exercise technique and create a supportive environment could be particularly valuable to those clients.

Alternatively, perhaps you enjoy working with older adults who want to improve strength, mobility and independence.

The more clearly you understand your target audience, the easier it becomes to design and communicate a service that meets their needs.

Step 3: Build a Business, Not Just a Busy Diary

If your entire income depends on selling individual hours, there’s a limit to how much you can earn.

You only have so many hours available.

And if you stop working, your income may stop too.

That’s why it’s worth exploring different ways of delivering your service.

For example:

Monthly coaching packages

Rather than charging for individual sessions, you could offer structured monthly programmes combining exercise sessions, progress reviews and appropriate support between appointments.

Small-group Personal Training

Working with small groups can make coaching more affordable for individual customers while potentially increasing your revenue per hour.

Hybrid coaching

Some clients may benefit from a combination of face-to-face training and remote programme support.

None of these approaches is automatically more profitable or suitable for every business.

But they demonstrate that selling individual sessions isn’t your only option.

The aim is to create a service that meets your customers’ needs while allowing you to earn a sustainable living.

Why Being the Cheapest Personal Trainer Is a Dangerous Strategy

There’s always someone willing to charge less.

If you’re charging £40, someone will charge £30.

If you’re charging £30, someone will charge £20.

And eventually, you’re competing with a bloke on YouTube giving away workouts for free while wearing a vest three sizes too small.

That’s a difficult battle to win.

Rather than trying to be the cheapest Personal Trainer, concentrate on becoming someone people genuinely want to work with.

Someone who’s knowledgeable.

Someone who listens.

Someone who communicates clearly.

Someone who’s reliable, honest and professional.

Someone who cares about helping people succeed.

Those qualities help build trust, relationships and a positive reputation.

And in a service-based industry like Personal Training, those things matter enormously

Final Thoughts: Know Your Worth, But Earn It

I don’t believe there’s anything wrong with wanting to make money.

And I certainly don’t believe that wanting to help people means you should sacrifice your own financial wellbeing.

You can be ambitious and ethical.

You can be successful and generous.

You can care about people and still charge a fair price for your expertise.

But there’s one important principle I’d encourage every aspiring Personal Trainer to remember.

Knowing your worth is important, but delivering value is what earns you the right to charge for it.

If you’re currently charging £30 per session, I’m not suggesting you need to increase your prices tomorrow.

That might be entirely appropriate for your circumstances.

Instead, ask yourself one simple question:

Is my pricing helping me build the business and lifestyle I actually want, or am I just keeping myself very, very busy?

Because being busy and being successful aren’t always the same thing.

Want to Build a Successful Career in Personal Training?

At Storm Fitness Academy, we believe becoming a successful Personal Trainer involves much more than learning exercise techniques and writing training programmes.

You also need the confidence, communication skills and business knowledge to attract clients, deliver an excellent service and build a sustainable career.

Our Level 3 Personal Training qualification helps aspiring fitness professionals develop the practical knowledge and skills needed to start their careers.

Whether you’re completely new to the industry or considering a career change, we’re here to help you take the next step.

Explore our Personal Training qualifications and start building a career doing something you love.

Need some guidance?

Fill out the contact form below, and we will contact you shortly after.

The post The £30 Personal Trainer Trap: Are You Charging Too Little? appeared first on Storm Fitness Academy.

There had been plenty of smiles, plenty of energy and, in my case, plenty of heavy breathing. But the session also gave us a lot to think about as coaches.

Toby is an Olympic bronze medallist, having been part of Great Britain’s men’s 4 × 400 metres relay squad at Paris 2024. You can explore his athletics background on his World Athletics profile.

Our conversation covered natural talent, consistency, sprint technique and why being strong in the gym doesn’t automatically mean you’re ready to run flat out.

Here are the lessons that stood out for me.

Listen to the Podcast

Natural talent is only the starting point

Toby first realised he was quick in the playground, where other children struggled to catch him. He played rugby, swam, played tennis and generally enjoyed being good at sport.

There was an athletic background in his family too. Both his parents had competed at county level in sport.

But Toby was clear that talent alone doesn’t take you all the way. His explanation brought together three ingredients: natural ability, the right training environment and the mindset to keep going over the years.

For anyone becoming a personal trainer, that’s a useful reminder. Your clients arrive with different abilities and experiences. Your job is to help them develop from their own starting point, with a process they can stick to.

Consistency includes knowing when to rest

Toby described taking his nutrition, sleep and training seriously from around the age of 15. Balanced meals, enough protein, carbohydrate, fruit and vegetables were habits he developed early.

He also talked about an approximately 80/20 approach to eating, allowing room for enjoyment alongside a consistent foundation.

However, his commitment occasionally went too far. He admitted that he would turn up to training even when he was ill, something he is still learning to manage.

That part of the conversation matters. We often praise people for never missing a session, but good judgement is part of being consistent too.

Toby’s training includes harder weeks, easier weeks and planned periods of rest. Recovery belongs in the programme, rather than being something you only think about when everything starts falling apart.

Sprint training tips start with preparation

When I asked what personal trainers should consider before taking clients sprinting, Toby’s immediate answer was hamstrings.

He emphasised the demands of fast running, particularly for people who aren’t accustomed to it. His concerns included running mechanics, preparation and repeating hard efforts as fatigue builds.

I had a slightly embarrassing example of my own.

Once, my sport and exercise science students asked whether they could leave early. I told them they could if they beat me in a sprint.

No warm-up. No sensible build-up. Just a teacher who should have known better.

Three strides later, I felt the ping. I spent the next two weeks limping.

Toby’s point was that strength in the gym doesn’t automatically prepare someone for the coordination and demands of sprinting. It’s a different task, and it deserves proper preparation.

The warm-up is part of the coaching

Our workshop included an extensive warm-up, with mobility work, running drills and a gradual build-up towards faster efforts.

It wasn’t just something to get out of the way before the interesting bit. It was a substantial part of the learning.

I recognised the RAMP structure we cover with our strength and conditioning learners:

• Raise: gradually increase heart rate and body temperature.
• Activate: prepare the muscles involved in the session.
• Mobilise: work through the movements and ranges needed.
• Potentiate: build towards the demands of the activity.

Toby acknowledged that the workshop’s roughly hour-long preparation wouldn’t fit every client session. The lesson was the sequence and attention to detail, rather than copying that duration into every programme.

For a new participant, drills can make preparation engaging while giving the coach an opportunity to observe how they move.

Give clients a clear technique focus

When I asked Toby for one simple coaching tip, he focused on bringing the hips forwards, using the glutes and staying relaxed through the upper body.

He described how some runners appear to sit into their running, and suggested this cue as something to explore when coaching faster movement.

We also discussed the cone drills from the workshop. These gave us a clear target for where to place our steps and an opportunity to practise rhythm and stride length.

The detail I particularly liked was Toby’s warning against turning the drill into exaggerated bounding. The aim was to run fluidly, with spacing adjusted progressively.

As a coach, a cue gives you something to try and observe. Watch how the individual responds before deciding whether it is helping.

What about sprinting and muscle growth?

Toby also spoke about his physique and how little designated upper-body work he does in some phases of his training.

He described two upper-body exercises a week, alongside core work, seasonal circuits and his wider sprint programme.

That was interesting, but it’s his personal experience. The interview doesn’t establish that sprinting alone will build someone else’s upper body, or that it should replace their resistance training.

The more useful coaching takeaway is to consider how the different parts of a programme fit together, rather than copying one feature of an elite athlete’s routine.

What I took away as a coach

The workshop reminded me how much there is to learn when you step outside your usual training environment.

It’s easy to take a group outside, ask them to run hard and judge the session by how exhausted everyone looks. Toby gave us much more to think about: preparation, movement quality, useful cues and managing fatigue.

For personal trainers, the question is whether your client is prepared for what you are asking them to do, and whether you can coach it well.

If you are a personal trainer and want to develop those skills further, explore our Level 4 Strength and Conditioning course.

And listen to the full interview with Toby for more on his approach to training, consistency and sprint coaching.

Want more information about any of our courses? Get in touch via the form below.

The post Sprint Training Tips from Olympian Toby Harries: What Personal Trainers Can Learn appeared first on Storm Fitness Academy.

In my latest podcast interview, I caught up with boxing coach and former student Harry Radenhurst. I had the pleasure of teaching Harry during his sport and exercise studies and his Level 2 Gym Instructor qualification.

Our conversation explored his journey from a shy teenager to a passionate coach, the difference between making someone fitter and simply making them tired, and why the best coaches keep learning.

Whether you want to become a personal trainer, already work in fitness or coach a sport, Harry’s experiences offer some useful lessons.

Listen to the Podcast

From shy teenager to boxing coach

Harry discovered boxing at around 13 after falling out of love with football. The culture around football had not suited him, and boxing gave him somewhere he felt he belonged.

He describes himself at that age as shy and anxious. Stepping into the ring helped him discover confidence he had not realised he possessed.

His mum was surprised when he had his first fight. For Harry, that reaction highlighted just how much he had changed.

Later, he moved from studying A levels to attending a boxing academy. Although he enjoyed subjects such as philosophy, sociology and history, the opportunity to train every day appealed to him.

As he developed as a boxer, another interest began to emerge: coaching.

When lockdown brought competition to a halt, Harry had time to reflect on what he wanted to do. He began coaching at 18 and went on to establish an amateur boxing club while at university.

The experience that had helped him believe in himself became something he wanted to offer others.

“You’re not just teaching them to box, you’re teaching them to believe in themselves.”

That is a powerful reason to become a coach. You get to help someone develop a skill and discover what they are capable of.

Good coaching starts with understanding people

Harry’s early interest in sociology and philosophy might seem a long way from boxing. Looking back, he can see how those subjects connect with his work.

Sociology encourages him to think about the backgrounds of the people he coaches. What opportunities have they had? What challenges are they facing? What might affect their ability to attend training?

Philosophy connects with the values behind his coaching. What does he stand for? How does he want to treat people? What does success mean to him?

These questions matter in personal training too.

Two clients can arrive with the same fitness goal and need very different support. One might need encouragement to try something unfamiliar. Another might need help slowing down and following a manageable plan.

A good coach takes the time to understand those differences.

For Harry, being interested in people and human behaviour is central to the job. Knowing boxing techniques gives him something to teach. Understanding people helps him teach it effectively.

Your client is the hero of the story

During our conversation, I shared an idea I often discuss with students and graduates: your client or athlete is the hero of the story.

You are their guide.

This idea comes from the StoryBrand approach to business, but it translates well to coaching. Your role is to support someone else’s progress through clear instruction, encouragement, feedback and appropriate challenges.

Harry recognised this immediately.

A boxing coach can prepare an athlete, support them in training and offer advice from the corner. Once the boxer steps into the ring, they have to perform.

That deserves recognition.

The same applies when a personal training client completes their first press-up, becomes confident in the gym or builds a consistent exercise habit. They are the person doing the work.

Being proud of your coaching is healthy. Keeping the client’s needs and achievements at the centre of it helps you use that pride constructively.

Practical experience and education belong together

Harry completed two years of sport, health and exercise science studies before choosing sports coaching for his third year.

Studying coaching helped him understand some of the things he was already doing instinctively. It also introduced ideas he could take into his sessions.

He described hearing the term “pracademic” on a coaching course: someone who combines practical experience with academic understanding.

That combination appealed to him.

Experience gives you opportunities to observe people, solve problems and learn what happens in real sessions. Education helps you question your assumptions and explain why you choose a particular approach.

Our discussion touched on training habits passed down through boxing gyms without much questioning. I recalled being told to spit out water during a training session, despite having no fight coming up.

Experiences like that show why coaches need to ask questions rather than follow a practice simply because it is familiar.

A useful question is:

What is the purpose of this, and does it suit the person I am coaching?

Harry’s decision to complete his Level 2 Gym Instructor qualification reflected that willingness to broaden his understanding and improve the support he could offer his boxers.

A good session needs a purpose

One of the most useful parts of our conversation concerned the difference between helping someone improve and making them exhausted.

Harry shared a phrase used in boxing:

“When a boxing coach doesn’t know how to make someone better, they try to make them tougher.”

It is a challenging observation, and one worth considering in the wider fitness industry.

A demanding session can feel satisfying. Clients may enjoy working hard and leave feeling they have achieved something. But effort alone does not tell us whether the session met its objective.

We discussed how session structure should reflect what you are trying to teach or develop. Harry explained that he usually wants his boxers to be sharp for technical work. He also described using fatigue deliberately on some occasions, with a specific coaching purpose.

The wider lesson for personal trainers is to be able to explain your choices.

Before a session, ask yourself:

• What does this person need to achieve today?
• Why have I chosen these exercises?
• Does the order support the session’s purpose?
• How will I judge whether it has been successful?

Those questions give your coaching direction. They also help clients understand the value of what they are doing beyond how tired they feel afterwards.

Can personal trainers use boxing pad work?

I asked Harry about personal trainers incorporating pad work into their sessions.

His response was supportive, with a clear distinction.

He sees value in activities that get people moving, enjoying exercise and trying something different. Fitness pad work can be part of that.

However, holding pads does not automatically make someone a boxing coach.

Teaching boxing for competition involves a different depth of knowledge and responsibility. Harry also cautioned against people assuming that attending a fitness boxing class means they can defend themselves.

This is something I make clear when teaching pad work workshops. I explain my experience and qualifications, what I can teach and where my expertise ends.

For fitness professionals, the lesson is straightforward: describe your skills honestly and recognise when someone needs a specialist.

You can deliver an enjoyable session while being clear about its purpose and your scope of practice.

Keep learning, even when you feel like a beginner

Harry’s coaching journey has taken him beyond the UK, including a period working in Malaysia.

An opportunity developed after he began coaching there and sharing content on TikTok. A businesswoman approached him about helping establish coaching at her gym, leading to several months of work.

He now wants to visit more boxing gyms around the world, learn from different coaches and document the experience.

What stood out was his attitude towards learning.

Harry described entering gyms with humility, showing that he was eager to learn rather than trying to prove how much he already knew. In his experience, that approach encouraged other coaches to help him.

It is an attitude any fitness professional can adopt.

Attend a workshop. Observe another coach. Ask why they use a particular approach. Try being the learner again.

You do not need to travel internationally to find someone who can teach you something valuable.

Progress means being willing to start

Harry also spoke honestly about perfectionism.

He wants to share more content, but sometimes records something, decides it is not good enough and leaves it unpublished.

That reluctance to be a beginner appears in other areas too. Despite his boxing experience, he described finding it uncomfortable to feel less capable in the weights gym.

Many of us will recognise that feeling.

You might know a lot about fitness but feel nervous coaching your first client. You might want to record a video but dislike watching yourself back. You might be considering a qualification and worry about returning to study.

Harry’s experience is a reminder that confidence often develops through participation. You give yourself something to learn from by taking the first step.

What aspiring coaches can learn from Harry

What I enjoyed most about this interview was Harry’s enthusiasm for helping people and improving his craft.

He is ambitious about coaching, but he recognises that becoming better involves understanding people, continuing his education and learning from others.

His journey offers several useful principles:

• Take an interest in the person behind the fitness goal.
• Keep your client or athlete’s progress at the centre of your work.
• Combine practical experience with continued learning.
• Give every session a clear purpose.
• Be honest about the limits of your expertise.
• Allow yourself to be a beginner.

These are habits you can begin developing long before you feel like an experienced coach.

Ready to take your next step into fitness?

If Harry’s story has made you think about turning your interest in fitness into a career, explore the qualifications available at Storm Fitness Academy.

If you are unsure which route suits you, get in touch via the form below. We can have a conversation about your experience, goals and the best pathway for you.

You can also find Harry’s boxing content on Instagram and TikTok by searching Hurst_Boxing.

Subscribe to the Storm Fitness Academy podcast for more conversations with coaches, fitness professionals and former students.

The post What Makes a Good Coach? With Boxing Coach Harry Radenhurst appeared first on Storm Fitness Academy.

The post What Do Gym Owners Really Look for When Hiring a Personal Trainer? Chris Kraszewski Shares His View appeared first on Storm Fitness Academy.

Is it having the best physique?

Knowing more exercise science than everyone else?

Having thousands of Instagram followers?

According to gym owner and Personal Trainer Matt Lambert, the answer is much simpler.

Be good with people.

Take initiative.

Keep learning.

Talk to members.

Care about what you do.

And be prepared to work.

I recently sat down with Matt for the Storm Fitness Academy podcast to talk about a fitness career that now spans around 25 years.

Matt started at the bottom, doing work experience in a local health club, cleaning equipment and learning from the trainers around him.

He qualified as a Gym Instructor and Personal Trainer, built his own client base, moved into management, started a successful running club and eventually became a gym owner himself.

Today, he still coaches alongside running a health club with thousands of members.

That means Matt has experienced the fitness industry from almost every angle.

He has applied for jobs.

He has built a PT business.

He has managed trainers.

And now he hires them.

Here are some of the biggest lessons from our conversation.

1. Personality Matters More Than Most New PTs Realise

I asked Matt a question I like asking gym managers:

When someone applies for a Personal Trainer job, what are you actually looking for?

His answer was immediate.

Personality.

Obviously, you need to be properly qualified.

But once those qualifications are in place, Matt is looking for something else.

Can you talk to people?

Are you approachable?

Are you confident without being cocky?

Can you work as part of a team?

Will members warm to you?

Are you willing to learn?

In Matt’s words, he wants someone who has “a bit about them.”

It’s difficult to define perfectly, but most of us know what that means.

You don’t have to be the loudest person in the room.

You don’t need to become some exaggerated Instagram version of a Personal Trainer.

You do need to be someone people feel comfortable around.

Because personal training is ultimately a people business.

2. Learn People’s Names

One of the simplest pieces of advice in the entire conversation might also be one of the most valuable.

Learn people’s names.

Imagine walking into your gym and hearing:

“Morning Sarah. How was your holiday?”

Or:

“Hi Dave. How did that 10K go at the weekend?”

It’s a tiny interaction.

But it tells that member:

I noticed you. I remember you. You belong here.

Matt explained that when somebody eventually decides they might want some personal training, who are they likely to approach?

Probably not the trainer who has ignored them for six months.

They’ll approach the trainer who smiles, says hello and remembers what is happening in their life.

Those tiny conversations accumulate.

And eventually they create trust.

3. Have More Conversations

This is something I tell our students at Storm all the time:

Have more conversations.

New Personal Trainers can spend enormous amounts of time thinking about Instagram.

What should I post?

Should I make a Reel?

What hashtags should I use?

Do I need a logo?

Meanwhile, there are 100 people walking around the gym who they haven’t spoken to.

Matt’s advice was straightforward.

Get out there.

Talk to people.

Smile.

Be helpful.

Ask questions.

Take an interest.

You don’t need to walk up to somebody and immediately try to sell them twelve PT sessions.

Just become somebody they know.

Social media can absolutely support a PT business.

But don’t hide behind it.

The ability to comfortably speak to real people is one of the most valuable skills you can develop as a Personal Trainer.

4. Don’t Wait for Someone to Give You an Opportunity

Matt’s own career began through work experience.

He initially worked voluntarily for several hours each week.

That eventually became a paid shift.

One shift became more hours.

More hours created more opportunities.

And eventually he qualified and progressed within the industry.

We talked about what Matt would think today if a newly qualified Personal Trainer walked into his gym and asked to speak to the owner rather than simply emailing a CV.

His reaction?

They’re proactive.

That person has already demonstrated something useful.

They’ve shown initiative.

They’ve stepped outside their comfort zone.

They’ve created an opportunity for a conversation.

Matt even made the point that sometimes a gym might not technically be recruiting, but if the right person walks through the door, a position can sometimes be created.

That’s a very different approach from sending 30 identical CVs and waiting for somebody to respond.

If there’s a gym you’d genuinely like to work in:

Go there.

Train there.

Meet people.

Introduce yourself.

Ask questions.

Make yourself known.

5. Your First Job Doesn’t Need to Be Your Dream Job

Matt didn’t start as a gym owner.

He didn’t even start as a Personal Trainer.

He started cleaning.

He shadowed other trainers.

He helped with gym inductions.

He ran fitness tests.

He watched.

He listened.

He learnt.

And that experience compounded over time.

There’s an important lesson here for newly qualified PTs.

Sometimes your first opportunity isn’t about earning the maximum possible salary.

It’s about getting close to the people, environment and experiences that can accelerate your development.

Work experience can help.

Shadowing a good coach can help.

Attending workshops can help.

Trying other trainers’ classes can help.

Matt actually said that if he were starting again, he would probably hire a few different Personal Trainers himself simply to experience how other coaches worked.

What did they do well?

How did they greet him?

How did they explain things?

What did he enjoy?

What would he do differently?

That’s professional development you can’t always get from a textbook.

6. You Have to Genuinely Like Helping People

Fitness knowledge matters.

But there is a theme that runs through Matt’s entire career.

He likes people.

He enjoys coaching.

He enjoys conversations.

He likes seeing people improve.

Even after around 25 years, he still personally trains and delivers group sessions.

He told me he doesn’t wake up thinking:

“I’ve got to go to work.”

That’s quite a statement after a quarter of a century in one industry.

Part of the reason is that fitness was never simply a job to him.

He genuinely enjoys it.

That matters because clients can normally tell when you’re interested in them and when you’re simply going through the motions.

A successful Personal Trainer doesn’t just enjoy exercise.

They need to enjoy helping other people exercise.

There is a difference.

7. Practise What You Preach

Matt has always been involved in sport himself.

Running.

Swimming.

Gym training.

Competitions.

More recently, HYROX.

That has helped his career because when he talks to clients about exercise, it comes from genuine experience.

He isn’t simply telling somebody else to train.

He’s a participant too.

That doesn’t mean every Personal Trainer needs to look like a fitness model.

They don’t.

But having a genuine enthusiasm for physical activity makes a huge difference.

You understand what training feels like.

You understand motivation.

You understand frustration.

You understand injuries and setbacks.

You understand the satisfaction that comes from working towards something.

And that shared experience gives you plenty to talk about with clients.

8. Keep Looking for What’s Coming Next

One of the most interesting parts of Matt’s career has been his involvement in HYROX.

His gym spotted the growth of functional fitness relatively early and converted space into an area suitable for HYROX-style training.

Matt then did the event himself.

The initial handful of members taking part eventually grew into a much larger community of people training and competing together.

Why has it worked so well?

Because people aren’t simply exercising.

They’re training for something.

They have a goal.

They have an event in the calendar.

They have training partners.

They have a community.

They have times they want to beat.

Matt also explained that this has been excellent from a gym perspective because it creates engagement and retention.

People have a reason to keep coming back.

This is another important lesson for fitness professionals.

The industry keeps changing.

HIIT has had enormous periods of popularity.

Functional fitness grew.

HYROX exploded.

New training methods, events and communities will continue to emerge.

Good coaches don’t blindly jump onto every trend.

But they do keep their eyes open.

As Matt put it, you want to try to get ahead of the wave.

What Do Gym Owners Look for in a Personal Trainer?

If you’re currently completing your PT qualification and hope to work in a gym, Matt’s advice can be simplified considerably.

A gym owner wants someone who is:

Qualified.

But also someone who is:

Approachable.

Friendly.

Reliable.

Proactive.

Willing to learn.

Comfortable speaking to members.

Enthusiastic about fitness.

Able to work within a team.

Prepared to make an effort.

Your Level 3 Personal Training qualification gets you through the first door.

Your behaviour determines what happens afterwards.

You Don’t Need Thousands of Instagram Followers

This might be one of the most reassuring messages for new Personal Trainers.

Matt openly admits social media isn’t his strongest area.

Yet he has built a career lasting around 25 years.

He has trained countless clients.

Built a running club.

Managed teams.

Built group training programmes.

Developed HYROX training.

And become a gym owner.

There is an important distinction here.

Being good at creating fitness content and being good at being a Personal Trainer are not the same skill.

Social media can absolutely help you grow a modern fitness business.

But don’t make the mistake of thinking a large following is a prerequisite for success.

You can build a brilliant career by becoming extremely good at:

Coaching.

Communicating.

Building relationships.

Getting results.

Being reliable.

And becoming somebody people recommend.

So, How Do You Become a Successful Personal Trainer?

After talking to Matt, I’d reduce it to this:

Get qualified. Get experience. Talk to people. Be useful. Keep learning.

It isn’t particularly glamorous.

But perhaps that’s the point.

Most successful fitness careers aren’t created by one viral Instagram Reel.

They’re created through thousands of small interactions.

Remembering somebody’s name.

Helping someone with an exercise.

Taking an extra course.

Showing up early.

Asking an experienced coach a question.

Trying a new class.

Introducing yourself to a gym manager.

Supporting a nervous client.

Doing a little more than was expected.

And then doing it again tomorrow.

Matt started with a few hours of voluntary work in a gym.

Around 25 years later, he owns one.

That’s what playing the long game can look like.

Listen to the Full Conversation With Matt Lambert

In the full Storm Fitness Academy podcast episode, Matt and I discuss:

• His journey from work experience to gym ownership
• What he looks for when recruiting Personal Trainers
• How new PTs can get noticed by gym managers
• Why conversations are more important than hiding behind social media
• Building strong relationships with gym members
• Lessons from 25 years in personal training
• The growth of HYROX and group training
• His advice for anyone entering the fitness industry

Want to Become a Personal Trainer?

If you’re passionate about fitness and like the idea of helping other people become healthier, stronger and more confident, personal training could be an incredibly rewarding career.

At Storm Fitness Academy, we help people turn their interest in fitness into a professional career.

Our Personal Trainer packages combine industry-recognised qualifications with practical support designed to help you actually succeed once you’re qualified.

That includes:

• Level 2 Gym Instruction
• Level 3 Personal Training
• Level 4 Strength and Conditioning
• Nutrition education
• Fitness business training
• Ongoing graduate support
• Practical workshops and opportunities to learn directly from experienced fitness professionals

Explore our Personal Trainer courses:
https://www.stormfitnessacademy.co.uk/courses/

Or, if you’re still deciding whether personal training is right for you, don’t overthink it.

Fill in the contact form at stormfitnessacademy.co.uk and have a conversation with us.

Tell us where you are now and where you’d like to get to.

We’ll help you work out the next sensible step.

Already Qualified?

Matt’s advice is just as relevant if you’ve already got your certificate.

Don’t sit at home waiting for your first client.

Get into gyms.

Attend workshops.

Talk to people.

Learn names.

Try classes.

Meet coaches.

Ask questions.

Put yourself in environments where opportunities can happen.

Your qualification allows you to call yourself a Personal Trainer.

What you do next is what builds the career.

The post How to Be a Successful Personal Trainer: 8 Lessons From Matt Lambert’s 25-Year Fitness Career appeared first on Storm Fitness Academy.

Is this really what I want to do for the rest of my life?

That was the position Hugo Hunt found himself in.

Hugo had studied at university before moving into the pharmaceutical industry, working within advertising and helping pharmaceutical companies communicate their products.

On paper, it made sense.

He was interested in human biology, healthcare, science and creative work.

There was just one problem.

He wasn’t happy.

Eventually, Hugo made a career change into personal training.

When I caught up with him on the Storm Fitness Academy podcast, we talked about why he made the change, how he tested different career options before committing, what he has learnt since becoming a fitness professional and why sometimes the biggest risk is simply becoming too comfortable.

If you are considering a career change to personal training, there are some really useful lessons in his story.

When a Good Job Still Doesn’t Feel Right

One of the interesting things about Hugo’s story is that he wasn’t escaping a terrible industry.

He spoke positively about the pharmaceutical industry and the contribution it makes to healthcare.

The problem was more personal.

He wanted to feel closer to the impact of his work.

Working in advertising meant he might contribute towards something that ultimately helped patients, but he rarely got to see the outcome himself.

Personal training offered something different.

You work directly with people.

You can see someone’s confidence increase.

You can watch their movement improve.

You can see them become stronger.

You hear when they tell you they are sleeping better, feeling fitter, enjoying exercise or doing something they previously thought they couldn’t do.

For Hugo, that direct relationship with the person he was helping became incredibly attractive.

Why Personal Training Appealed to Him

There was another motivation behind Hugo’s career change.

He had become increasingly interested in the role lifestyle plays in long-term health.

Exercise, strength training, cardiovascular fitness, nutrition, sleep and other healthy behaviours became subjects he wanted to understand more deeply.

Rather than simply being interested in health himself, he wanted to help other people improve theirs.

Personal training provided a vehicle for doing that.

But the job itself also fitted the kind of lifestyle he wanted.

He wanted:

• More face-to-face interaction
• A less sedentary working life
• Greater control over his time
• The possibility of running his own business
• Work that felt meaningful
• The flexibility to eventually combine online and face-to-face coaching

This is an important point if you are considering becoming a personal trainer.

Don’t only ask:

“Would I enjoy training people?”

Ask:

“Would the lifestyle of being a personal trainer suit the life I want to build?”

Those are two slightly different questions.

The Danger of Coasting in a Career

One of my favourite observations from the conversation was Hugo’s description of being comfortable in a job.

He said:

“The most dangerous position you can be in in a job is when you’re coasting.”

I think there is a lot of truth in that.

If your job is absolutely unbearable, you will probably do something about it.

The more difficult situation can be when everything is just about good enough.

The salary is decent.

The job is secure.

You’re competent at it.

People expect you to continue.

Changing career suddenly feels risky.

So another year passes.

And then another.

Hugo admitted that becoming deeply unhappy in one particular role eventually gave him the push he needed.

Sometimes dissatisfaction is useful information.

It doesn’t automatically mean you should resign tomorrow morning, but it might be telling you that something needs to change.

Don’t Just Think About a New Career, Test It

This was probably the most useful idea from the entire podcast.

Before becoming a personal trainer, Hugo considered several different careers.

At one stage, he thought about making documentaries.

So instead of spending six months researching what life as a documentary maker might theoretically be like, he entered a documentary competition and actually made one.

He discovered it wasn’t for him.

Excellent.

That wasn’t a failure.

He had collected information.

He also considered psychology and mental-health-related work.

Again, he found ways to experience elements of that world before committing completely.

At the same time, he began studying areas of exercise and mobility that interested him.

Gradually, the evidence started pointing towards personal training.

Fitness coaching combined many of the things he wanted:

Helping people.

Health.

Exercise.

Human interaction.

Problem solving.

Business.

Independence.

Being physically active.

As Hugo put it, think about:

What’s the quickest way I can test whether this is right for me?

That’s brilliant career advice.

You Don’t Need to Have Your Whole Career Figured Out

People often contact us at Storm believing they need a ten-year career plan before enrolling on a personal training course.

You really don’t.

You need a sensible next step.

Hugo didn’t know exactly what his eventual fitness business would look like when he started.

He qualified.

Then he started gaining experience.

He got a job working in a gym.

He started coaching people.

He attended workshops.

He continued learning.

And his ideas became clearer because he was actually doing the job.

This is something I see repeatedly with our students.

Confidence rarely arrives before action.

It usually develops because of action.

You learn something.

You try it.

You gain experience.

You make mistakes.

You improve.

Then the next decision becomes easier.

From Fitness Enthusiast to Fitness Professional

Another part of Hugo’s experience that really stood out was how much he enjoyed being around people who shared his interests.

Anyone who loves training probably recognises this.

You can only tell your uninterested work colleagues about your latest 10K, squat session or thoughts on strength training for so long before you realise their eyes have glazed over.

In the fitness industry, those conversations are normal.

Hugo described how being surrounded by trainers and coaches reinforced his feeling that he was moving in the right direction.

He could talk about health, training and coaching with people who were equally interested.

That sense of belonging matters.

Changing career isn’t only about changing what you do between nine and five.

Sometimes you are changing the environment, conversations and people surrounding you too.

Personal Training Isn’t Just About Six Packs

Our conversation also moved into Hugo’s developing coaching philosophy.

His interest is increasingly centred around helping people remain strong, mobile, fit and physically capable throughout their lives.

We spoke about strength training, cardiovascular fitness, running, mobility and maintaining the ability to perform everyday activities as we age.

That reflects something important about modern personal training.

The stereotypical image of the PT shouting at someone while they do burpees is increasingly outdated.

A good personal trainer might help someone:

Become stronger.

Improve their fitness.

Move with more confidence.

Prepare for a sporting challenge.

Lose body fat.

Build muscle.

Return to exercise.

Develop healthier routines.

Remain physically capable as they get older.

Or simply enjoy exercise again.

Personal training is ultimately about helping someone use exercise to improve their life.

That creates a huge range of potential career paths for someone entering the industry.

Find the Area of Fitness That Interests You

Hugo has developed a particular interest in mobility, strength, running and long-term physical capability.

Another trainer might become passionate about menopause and women’s health.

Someone else might love bodybuilding.

Powerlifting.

Older adults.

Exercise referral.

Hyrox.

Sports performance.

Pre and postnatal fitness.

Weight management.

Online coaching.

The important thing is that you don’t need to choose your niche before becoming qualified.

Your niche often emerges through experience.

Work with people.

Coach different clients.

Attend workshops.

Keep learning.

Pay attention to the subjects you can’t stop talking about.

Your direction will gradually become clearer.

What Is Hugo Doing Now?

Hugo has now left his previous career and works within a gym, building as much face-to-face coaching experience as possible.

Alongside that, he is beginning to work with his own clients.

His longer-term goal is to develop a hybrid coaching business combining face-to-face personal training with online coaching.

He wants to build something around the areas of health and fitness he is most passionate about while also creating a lifestyle that provides greater flexibility and work-life balance.

And I think his approach is sensible.

Become good at coaching first.

Build experience.

Understand your clients.

Develop your ideas.

Then gradually build the business around it.

Should You Make a Career Change to Personal Training?

If you’re reading this because you’re considering becoming a personal trainer, don’t ask yourself whether you can guarantee that you’ll love the industry for the next 30 years.

Nobody can answer that.

Instead ask yourself:

Do I genuinely enjoy health and fitness?

Do I enjoy helping people?

Would I like a more active career?

Do I enjoy learning about training and the human body?

Would I like more control over my working life?

Could I see myself coaching people?

If several of those answers are yes, it’s probably worth exploring.

And you don’t have to hand your notice in tomorrow.

You can start learning alongside your existing career.

You can talk to trainers.

Attend workshops.

Spend time in gyms.

Learn more about the industry.

And, most importantly, start collecting some real-world evidence about whether it suits you.

Stop Waiting for Complete Certainty

There was one recurring theme throughout my conversation with Hugo.

Action.

He tested documentary making by making a documentary.

He tested other career options by getting experience.

He explored coaching by studying it.

Then he enrolled on his qualifications.

Then he started working in a gym.

Then he started coaching clients.

There wasn’t one enormous leap.

There were lots of smaller steps.

That’s usually what a successful career change looks like.

You don’t need complete certainty.

You need enough confidence to take the next sensible step.

Listen to the Podcast

In the full conversation, Hugo and I talk about his move from pharmaceuticals into fitness, preventative health, mobility training, running, career decisions, coaching and his plans for the future.

Thinking About Becoming a Personal Trainer?

If you love health and fitness but feel as though your current career isn’t giving you the purpose, flexibility or fulfilment you’re looking for, personal training might be worth exploring.

At Storm Fitness Academy, we help fitness enthusiasts become confident fitness professionals through nationally recognised qualifications, practical workshops and ongoing personal support.

You don’t need to know exactly where your fitness career will eventually lead.

You just need to take the first step.

Explore our Personal Trainer Courses

When Hugo decided to qualify, he chose our Advanced Personal Training Package, which gave him more than just the core PT qualification. It also included our Nutrition Course and Fitness Business Course, helping him develop a broader understanding of how to support clients effectively and how to start building a successful career and business in the fitness industry.

And if you’re still thinking:

“I’m interested, but I’m not quite sure whether this is right for me…”

That’s completely fine.

Fill out the contact form and have a chat with us.

There’s no pressure to enrol. Tell us where you are now, what you’re considering and what you’d like your career to look like, and we’ll help you work out the most sensible route.

Related Reading

If career-change overthinking sounds familiar, read:

Why You’re Overthinking Becoming a Personal Trainer

Sometimes you don’t need another month of research.

You just need enough information to take the next step.

The post Career Change to Personal Training: Hugo’s Journey from Pharma to Fitness appeared first on Storm Fitness Academy.

When people think about jobs in the fitness industry, Personal Trainer is usually the first role that springs to mind.

But the fitness industry is much bigger than personal training.

You could work on a gym floor, coach athletes, run group classes, support people with health conditions, manage a fitness facility, build an online coaching business or even teach the next generation of fitness professionals.

And you don’t necessarily need to quit your current job tomorrow, buy 27 pairs of leggings and start shouting motivational quotes at strangers.

Many fitness careers can be started gradually, alongside your existing job, while you gain qualifications, experience and confidence.

So, if you’ve ever thought, “I’d love to work in fitness, but I don’t really know what my options are,” here are 10 careers worth exploring.

Listen to the Podcast

1. Gym Instructor

A Gym Instructor is often the entry point into the fitness industry.

You might work in a commercial gym, leisure centre, hotel, health club or independent fitness facility.

Typical responsibilities can include:

• Welcoming and inducting new members
• Showing people how to use gym equipment safely
• Helping members with basic exercise programmes
• Keeping the gym floor safe and organised
• Talking to members and building relationships
• Supporting classes and other activities within the facility

It is a particularly good role if you enjoy being around people and want to gain experience before progressing further.

For many people, becoming a Gym Instructor is also the first step towards becoming a Personal Trainer.

2. Personal Trainer

Personal Training gives you much greater responsibility for helping individual clients achieve specific health and fitness goals.

Rather than simply showing somebody how to use the gym, you might:

• Conduct consultations and fitness assessments
• Set goals with clients
• Design individual training programmes
• Coach exercise technique
• Support behaviour change
• Monitor progress
• Provide appropriate nutritional guidance
• Adapt programmes as the client’s needs change

A Level 3 Personal Training qualification is designed to develop the knowledge, skills and competence required to work unsupervised as a Personal Trainer. Learners need the appropriate Level 2 underpinning knowledge before progressing to Level 3.

Personal Trainers can also work in lots of different environments, including gyms, private studios, clients’ homes and outdoor settings.

If that sounds appealing, you can explore our Level 3 Personal Training course.

3. Group Exercise Instructor

Prefer coaching a room full of people rather than working one-to-one?

Group exercise could be a brilliant option.

Depending on your qualifications and interests, you could deliver things such as:

• Circuits
• Indoor cycling
• Boot camps
• Strength classes
• Functional fitness
• Studio-based exercise
• Small-group training

You need good communication skills, confidence and the ability to manage several people at once.

You don’t need to be the loudest person in the room either.

Some of the best instructors create brilliant classes because they are approachable, encouraging and good at making people feel comfortable.

4. Strength and Conditioning Coach

If you’re fascinated by strength, power, speed and sports performance, strength and conditioning could be the direction for you.

An S&C coach might work with:

• Individual athletes
• Sports clubs
• Teams
• Academies
• Schools and colleges
• Recreational athletes

The role goes beyond simply making athletes stronger.

Strength and conditioning involves analysing the demands of a sport and developing qualities such as strength, power, speed, agility and physical robustness.

The Level 4 Strength and Conditioning qualification we deliver is specifically aimed at people who are already Level 3 qualified and want to progress into this specialised field. It covers areas including needs analysis, testing, periodisation, speed and agility, sprint mechanics, plyometrics and strength and power development.

This is also why we include Level 4 Strength and Conditioning within our Elite Personal Trainer pathway for people who want to develop beyond the standard PT qualification and stand out from other trainers.

5. Exercise Referral Instructor

Not everyone who wants help with exercise is a healthy 25-year-old who wants bigger biceps.

There is a huge population of people who could benefit from becoming more physically active while also managing health conditions.

Exercise Referral qualifications allow fitness professionals to develop their knowledge of working with people who have medically controlled conditions and other health considerations.

That can open opportunities within:

• Exercise referral schemes
• Community health programmes
• Leisure centres
• Specialist fitness programmes
• Private Personal Training

Storm’s Level 3 Exercise Referral course, for example, includes areas such as medical conditions, professional practice and planning and delivering exercise referral programmes.

For somebody particularly interested in health, wellbeing and helping people who may feel excluded from mainstream fitness, this can be a very rewarding direction.

6. Sports Coach

If you love a particular sport, you might decide to combine fitness knowledge with sports coaching.

That could mean coaching:

• Football
• Rugby
• Athletics
• Boxing
• Tennis
• Swimming
• Strength sports
• Hyrox or functional fitness
• Youth sport

The qualifications you’ll need depend on the sport and organisation you want to work with, so you should always check the requirements of the relevant governing body or employer.

Fitness qualifications can complement your sports coaching knowledge particularly well, especially if you want to understand areas such as strength, conditioning, movement, programming and physical preparation.

7. Online Fitness Coach

Not every fitness professional spends their working day standing on a gym floor.

Online coaching has created another way of working with clients.

An online coach might provide:

• Training programmes
• Video consultations
• Exercise demonstrations
• Progress reviews
• Accountability
• Nutrition and lifestyle support within their scope of practice
• Online communities
• Hybrid online and face-to-face coaching

The big advantage is flexibility.

You are no longer limited to working with people who live within 20 minutes of your gym.

However, having an Instagram account and owning a tripod doesn’t automatically make someone a great online coach.

You still need the underlying coaching knowledge, communication skills and ability to programme appropriately for real people.

8. Fitness Manager

Perhaps you enjoy fitness but are also interested in leadership and business.

Fitness Managers and Gym Managers can be responsible for things such as:

• Managing staff
• Recruiting trainers
• Membership experience
• Health and safety
• Facility operations
• Class timetables
• Sales
• Staff development
• Customer retention
• Financial performance

Some people start as Gym Instructors, progress into Personal Training and eventually move into management as their experience develops.

For someone who enjoys both people and organisation, management can provide a completely different career path within the fitness industry.

9. Fitness Tutor or Educator

You can even build a career teaching other fitness professionals.

Tutors and assessors help aspiring coaches gain the knowledge, practical skills and confidence needed to enter the industry themselves.

This could involve:

• Teaching anatomy and physiology
• Delivering practical workshops
• Coaching exercise technique
• Assessing learners
• Supporting students through qualifications
• Creating educational resources
• Mentoring new trainers

It normally comes later in your career because you’ll need relevant occupational experience alongside appropriate teaching and assessing qualifications.

For experienced fitness professionals who love explaining things and helping other coaches improve, education can become an incredibly rewarding progression route.

10. Self-Employed Fitness Business Owner

Finally, you don’t necessarily have to apply for somebody else’s job.

Many fitness professionals eventually create something of their own.

That could be:

• A Personal Training business
• A small private studio
• Outdoor fitness classes
• Online coaching
• Small-group training
• Corporate wellbeing
• Sports performance coaching
• Specialist coaching for a particular population
• A combination of several of these

This is where fitness becomes particularly interesting as a career.

You don’t necessarily have to choose one job title for the next 30 years.

You might spend part of your week Personal Training, coach a sports team one evening, run a class at the weekend and build an online coaching service alongside it.

Your career can evolve as your interests, qualifications and experience develop.

How Do You Find Jobs in the Fitness Industry?

Once you’ve started thinking about the type of role you want, start looking at real job adverts.

You don’t even need to wait until you’re qualified.

Looking at vacancies now gives you a much better understanding of what employers actually want.

One useful place to start is Jooble UK.

https://uk.jooble.org/jobs-online-fitness-coach

Jooble is a job search aggregator that brings together vacancies from multiple public sources. Its UK search allows you to enter both a job title and location, and job results can then be narrowed using factors such as employment type, location, experience and salary.

Don’t Just Search for “Fitness Jobs”

Try several different search terms.

For example:

• Gym Instructor
• Fitness Instructor
• Personal Trainer
• Fitness Coach
• Strength and Conditioning Coach
• Exercise Referral
• Wellbeing Coach
• Sports Coach
• Fitness Manager
• Leisure Assistant

Then add your location.

If you’re based in Sussex, for example, you might try separate searches for Brighton, Hove, Worthing, Shoreham, Crawley and Sussex rather than relying on one search.

Also look at part-time positions.

If you’re changing careers, getting your first fitness job doesn’t necessarily mean immediately leaving your current employment.

A few gym shifts per week can give you valuable experience, contacts and confidence while you build towards something bigger.

Jooble also offers email job notifications, which means you can keep an eye on new opportunities without manually repeating the same search every day.

And don’t rely entirely on job boards.

Once you’ve identified gyms, leisure centres or fitness businesses you’d like to work for, check their own careers pages and speak to them directly too.

We Can Help You Find Opportunities Once You’re Qualified

One of the advantages of training with Storm Fitness Academy is that our involvement doesn’t have to end when you receive your certificate.

We’ve built relationships with local gyms and major fitness brands, which means we can help graduates identify opportunities and connect with potential employers.

Our current Personal Trainer pathways include guaranteed interviews with David Lloyd and Fitness First, for example.

That doesn’t mean we can guarantee that somebody will offer you a job, you still need to impress the employer.

What we can do is help you become appropriately qualified, build your confidence, understand the industry and help put you in front of employers looking for fitness professionals.

And if your goal is self-employment rather than working for a gym, we can support you with that route too.

Which Fitness Career Is Right for You?

You don’t need to have your entire career mapped out before you begin.

Start by asking yourself:

Who would I most enjoy helping?

Would I rather coach individuals, groups or athletes?

Do I want to be employed, self-employed or perhaps a mixture of both?

Do I enjoy general health and fitness, or am I drawn towards a particular specialism?

What would I actually enjoy doing every day?

You may discover that Personal Training is exactly what you’re looking for.

Or Personal Training might simply become the foundation that eventually leads you into strength and conditioning, exercise referral, online coaching, management, education or your own business.

That is one of the great things about building a career in fitness.

There isn’t just one route.

Ready to Explore a Career in Fitness?

If you love fitness but you’re not sure which qualification or career path would suit you, get in touch via the form below.

We’ll talk through where you are now, what you’d ultimately like to do and the most sensible route to get there.

You can also explore our Personal Training courses and fitness qualifications.

And if you’re serious about building a long-term career and want to develop beyond the basic PT qualification, take a look at our Elite Personal Trainer Package, which adds Level 4 Strength and Conditioning alongside your Personal Training pathway to help you develop greater expertise and stand out in the industry.

You don’t have to know exactly where your fitness career will end before you take the first step. You just need to start moving in the right direction.

The post 10 Jobs in the Fitness Industry: Which Fitness Career Is Right for You? appeared first on Storm Fitness Academy.

You’ve got the certificate.

You’ve bought a few new T-shirts.

You might even have created an Instagram account and spent an unreasonable amount of time deciding which photo should be your profile picture.

There’s just one small problem.

Nobody knows who you are.

And if nobody knows who you are, how are you supposed to get Personal Training clients?

This is one of the biggest worries new Personal Trainers have.

You look around your gym and see established trainers with full diaries, hundreds of social media posts, testimonials everywhere and clients who seem to have been training with them since the invention of the dumbbell.

Meanwhile, you are standing there wondering whether changing your Instagram bio to “Helping busy people become their strongest selves” is going to suddenly make the phone ring.

Probably not.

But that doesn’t mean you have a problem.

It just means you are at the beginning.

Listen to the Podcast

Every Successful Personal Trainer Started With Zero Clients

This is worth remembering.

Every Personal Trainer you currently consider successful once had:

• Zero clients
• Zero testimonials
• Zero referrals
• Zero transformations
• Very little reputation

They didn’t magically become established.

They gradually became known.

And that distinction matters.

When people ask me how to get Personal Training clients, they often jump straight to marketing:

Should I run Facebook ads?

Should I post every day?

Do I need a website?

Should I make TikToks?

Should I start an online coaching business?

Possibly.

But these usually aren’t the first things I would worry about.

Your first objective is much simpler:

Get known by a small number of the right people.

You don’t need 50,000 followers.

You need five people who trust you enough to start.

Start With People Who Already Know You

One of the biggest mistakes new Personal Trainers make is trying to market themselves exclusively to strangers.

Don’t overlook the people who already know you.

Friends.

Family.

Work colleagues.

People from your gym.

People from your sports club.

Neighbours.

Parents from school.

People you’ve trained with.

Previous colleagues.

These people already have something incredibly valuable.

Trust.

That doesn’t mean you should start aggressively messaging everyone in your phone with:

“HELLO, WOULD YOU LIKE TO BUY 12 PERSONAL TRAINING SESSIONS?”

Please don’t.

Instead, start telling people what you are doing.

Something as simple as:

I’ve recently qualified as a Personal Trainer and I’m starting to take on a small number of clients. I’m particularly interested in helping beginners become stronger and more confident in the gym.

That’s marketing.

You are simply making sure people know:

who you help, what you help them with and that you are available.

You might be surprised how many conversations begin from there.

Get Clear About Who You Want to Help

Trying to train everyone can actually make it harder to attract anyone.

Imagine these two messages.

Personal Trainer available. Get in touch for sessions.

Compared with:

I help men and women over 40 get stronger, fitter and more confident in the gym without feeling intimidated.

Which one makes it easier for someone to think:

“That sounds like me”?

You don’t necessarily need an ultra-specific niche when you first start.

But you should have some idea who you enjoy helping.

Maybe that’s:

• Gym beginners
• People wanting to lose weight
• Women wanting to start strength training
• Middle-aged people wanting to become fitter
• Runners wanting to become stronger
• Older adults
• People returning to exercise
• People who feel nervous in gyms

Your message becomes much easier when you know who you’re talking to.

Your First Marketing Strategy Should Be Conversations

When new trainers hear the word “marketing”, they often imagine complicated sales funnels, advertising campaigns and social media algorithms.

At the beginning, I’d keep it much simpler.

Talk to people.

If you’re working in a gym, speak to members.

Ask how their training is going.

Ask what they’re working towards.

Help them when appropriate.

Learn their names.

Be approachable.

Don’t make every interaction a sales pitch.

The Personal Trainer who genuinely helps people will gradually become known as the person who genuinely helps people.

That reputation matters.

You can do exactly the same outside the gym.

Speak to:

• Local sports clubs
• Running groups
• Community organisations
• Local businesses
• Health and wellbeing groups
• Other fitness professionals

You don’t necessarily need to ask them to buy Personal Training.

You can offer something useful first.

Perhaps:

• A free workshop
• A short gym induction
• A strength training taster
• A mobility session
• A talk on exercise and health
• A beginner weights workshop

The goal isn’t always an immediate sale.

Sometimes the goal is simply:

Get people to experience you as a coach.

Let People Experience Your Coaching

This is particularly powerful when nobody knows who you are yet.

Telling someone you’re a brilliant Personal Trainer is not especially convincing.

Allowing them to experience your coaching is much better.

You could run a small introductory session such as:

Strength Training for Beginners

Invite six people.

Teach them something useful.

Coach them properly.

Make the session enjoyable.

Answer their questions.

At the end you can simply say:

“If you’d like some help putting this into practice, I’m currently taking on a few Personal Training clients.”

No aggressive selling required.

You’ve already demonstrated your value.

Don’t Wait Until You Feel Like an Expert

This is another trap.

You think:

“I’ll start promoting myself once I know more.”

Then you take another course.

And another.

And another.

Six months later you’ve got seven certificates and still haven’t told anyone you’re a Personal Trainer.

Continuing professional development is important.

But you don’t need to know everything before you can help somebody.

Your job isn’t to be the world’s greatest expert on exercise.

Your job is to safely and effectively help someone who knows less than you move towards their goals.

You can continue learning while you build your career.

In fact, you should.

Social Media Is Evidence, Not Magic

Social media can absolutely help you get Personal Training clients.

But don’t treat it like a vending machine where you put three Reels in and a client falls out.

When someone hears about you, there’s a good chance they’ll look you up.

Your profile should reassure them.

They should see:

• You coaching people
• Helpful training advice
• Your personality
• Your approach
• Your own training
• Testimonials
• Client progress
• Qualifications and development
• Your values

You don’t need to become an influencer.

You simply need enough evidence for somebody to think:

“This person knows what they’re doing, and they seem like someone I’d enjoy working with.”

That is a much more realistic goal.

Your First Clients Create Your Next Clients

Once you’ve got your first few clients, things become easier.

Because now you can start building proof.

You have:

Testimonials.

Results.

Photos.

Stories.

Reviews.

Referrals.

Most importantly, you have people talking about you.

Word of mouth is incredibly powerful in Personal Training because choosing a coach involves trust.

If somebody’s friend says:

“You should speak to my PT, they’re brilliant.”

That carries far more weight than you announcing that you’re brilliant yourself.

So give your early clients an exceptional experience.

Be organised.

Remember what matters to them.

Communicate.

Turn up prepared.

Review their progress.

Celebrate their wins.

Make them feel supported.

Then, when the time is right, simply ask:

“Do you know anybody else who might benefit from this?”

You don’t need an elaborate referral strategy.

Sometimes you just need to ask.

Don’t Be Afraid to Follow Up

A lot of Personal Trainers lose potential clients because they’re terrified of appearing pushy.

Someone says they’re interested.

You send them some information.

Then…

Nothing.

And because you don’t want to annoy them, you never contact them again.

Following up isn’t pushy.

Badgering someone fourteen times before breakfast is pushy.

A normal follow-up might simply be:

“Hi Sarah, just checking whether you had any questions about the Personal Training we discussed last week. No pressure at all, happy to help if there’s anything you’re unsure about.”

That’s professional.

People are busy.

They forget.

Sometimes they genuinely appreciate the reminder.

Don’t Compete With Established Trainers By Pretending to Be Established

There will always be someone with:

More followers.

More qualifications.

More experience.

A bigger physique.

A flashier website.

That doesn’t automatically make them a better coach for your potential client.

You have something they don’t.

You.

Your experiences.

Your personality.

Your interests.

Your coaching style.

Your reasons for entering the industry.

For some clients, those things will matter enormously.

If you’ve personally lost weight, started training later in life, struggled with confidence, returned from injury or transformed your own health, that experience may make you incredibly relatable to someone going through the same thing.

Don’t hide your story because you think you need to look like everybody else.

Your differences are often exactly what make somebody choose you.

Build Your Reputation One Person at a Time

When nobody knows who you are, your goal shouldn’t be:

Become famous.

It should be:

Become valuable to the people who do know you.

One conversation.

One helpful interaction.

One workshop.

One client.

One testimonial.

One referral.

Then another.

That’s how reputations are built.

Eventually somebody asks:

“How are you getting all these clients?”

And it looks like it happened overnight.

It didn’t.

Hundreds of small interactions created it.

A Simple Plan for Getting Your First Personal Training Clients

If you’re newly qualified, here’s where I’d start.

Week 1: Define your offer

Decide:

Who do I enjoy helping?

What problem can I help them solve?

Where could I realistically train them?

Week 2: Tell people what you’re doing

Speak to your existing network.

Update your social profiles.

Post clearly that you’re accepting Personal Training clients.

Week 3: Create opportunities to coach

Run a small taster session.

Offer a workshop.

Help people in your gym.

Start conversations.

Week 4: Follow up

Contact people who expressed interest.

Ask your first clients for feedback.

Ask for referrals.

Then repeat the process.

You don’t need 25 different marketing strategies.

You need a few simple ones that you actually do consistently.

You Don’t Need Everybody to Know Who You Are

This is probably the most important point.

New Personal Trainers sometimes think success requires becoming well known.

It doesn’t.

Imagine you eventually want 20 regular clients.

You don’t need the whole town to know you.

You simply need enough of the right people to:

Know you.

Trust you.

Understand how you can help them.

That’s a much smaller problem.

And one you can start solving today.

Want Help Building Your Career as a Personal Trainer?

Learning how to coach clients is only part of becoming a successful Personal Trainer.

You also need the confidence and practical skills to attract clients, communicate your value and gradually build a sustainable business.

At Storm Fitness Academy, our Personal Training qualifications are designed to prepare you for the realities of working in the fitness industry, not simply help you collect a certificate.

And if you want to go further, our Elite Package combines your qualifications with additional development and support designed to help you stand out from other Personal Trainers and build your career with greater confidence.

If you’re thinking about becoming a Personal Trainer, or you’ve already qualified and aren’t sure what your next step should be, get in touch with Storm Fitness Academy.

We’ll help you work out the best route for you.

The post How Do You Get Clients When Nobody Knows Who You Are? appeared first on Storm Fitness Academy.

How many sets should I do?

What rep range is best?

Should I train four days or five?

Should I add another interval session?

Do I need to change my exercises?

These things matter.

But there is another part of your programme that might have an even bigger impact on the results you get from all that hard work.

Sleep.

You can have a beautifully periodised training programme, eat plenty of protein and buy every recovery gadget known to humanity, but if you consistently sleep badly, you are making the whole process harder than it needs to be.

Training provides the stimulus.

Recovery is where your body actually responds to it.

And sleep is a major part of that recovery process.

Listen to the Podcast

Sleep and Exercise Recovery: Your Programme Is Only Half the Story

Exercise temporarily stresses the body.

That is the point.

Resistance training challenges your muscles. Running challenges your cardiovascular system. Sprinting, jumping and heavy lifting place demands on your nervous system.

Your body then adapts to those demands during the period between training sessions.

This is why recovery is actually recognised as one of the fundamental principles of effective training. Even our Level 4 Strength and Conditioning qualification specifically includes recovery strategies, including sleep and circadian rhythms, as part of effective programme design.

The problem is that fitness enthusiasts often concentrate almost entirely on creating a better training stimulus.

More sets.

More exercises.

More sessions.

More intensity.

But there comes a point where improving your recovery may give you more benefit than adding even more training.

Sleep and Muscle Recovery

If your goal is to become stronger or build muscle, your body needs more than a decent workout.

Resistance training stimulates changes within skeletal muscle, but those adaptations require recovery.

One particularly interesting laboratory study looked at healthy young adults following a night of normal sleep and a night of total sleep deprivation.

After the sleepless night, researchers measured an 18% reduction in muscle protein synthesis compared with the normal sleep condition.

That does not mean one terrible night’s sleep destroys your gains.

Life happens. Babies happen. Work happens. Neighbours inexplicably decide to have parties on Tuesdays.

But it does demonstrate something important.

The biological environment in which you recover matters.

If you are training hard but repeatedly cutting your sleep short, you may be undermining some of the very adaptations you are training to create.

Sleep, Hormones and Training Adaptation

You will often see exaggerated claims online about sleep “destroying your testosterone” or sending cortisol through the roof.

As usual, reality deserves a little more nuance.

However, sleep certainly interacts with the hormonal environment involved in recovery.

In that same controlled sleep-deprivation study, a night without sleep increased circulating cortisol by 21% and reduced testosterone by 24% the following day. Again, this was an extreme experimental condition involving total sleep deprivation, so it should not be interpreted as what happens every time you get six hours rather than eight.

The important lesson is simpler.

Sleep is not passive.

While you are asleep, your body is still doing an enormous amount of work related to physical recovery, metabolism and healthy brain function. The US National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute describes sleep as playing a vital role in physical health and healthy brain function.

So if you care about training adaptation, sleep should be considered part of the programme rather than something that happens after it.

Poor Sleep Can Make Controlling Your Appetite Harder

This might be one of the most overlooked effects of poor sleep.

Imagine somebody trying to lose body fat.

They have calculated their calories.

They are exercising regularly.

They have filled the fridge with sensible food.

Then they consistently sleep five or six hours.

Now they are tired, hungry and standing in the kitchen at 9.30 pm having an increasingly intense negotiation with a packet of biscuits.

Sound familiar?

Controlled sleep studies have found that sleep restriction can influence hunger and appetite. Research has reported changes in appetite-regulating hormones such as ghrelin and leptin, although the exact hormonal response is not identical across every study.

Another controlled study found that increased ghrelin following sleep restriction predicted greater food intake when participants were subsequently allowed to eat freely.

This matters because fat loss is not simply about knowing what to eat.

Most people already know that eating lean protein, vegetables and sensible portions is probably a better idea than attacking a family-sized bag of crisps every evening.

The difficult part is consistently making those decisions.

If poor sleep makes you hungrier, more tired and less able to regulate your behaviour, sticking to your nutrition plan becomes unnecessarily difficult.

So if someone is struggling with their diet, I would not automatically respond by making their nutrition plan more complicated.

I would ask:

How are you sleeping?

Sleep Can Affect Your Training Performance Too

Sleep does not simply affect what happens after your workout.

It can affect the quality of the workout itself.

Research involving collegiate basketball players found that extending sleep was associated with improvements in sprint performance, shooting accuracy, reaction time, mood and daytime sleepiness.

Research into resistance training has also found that sustained sleep restriction can reduce the quality and quantity of resistance exercise performed.

Again, you might still be able to train after a poor night’s sleep.

You might even have a decent session.

But zoom out over weeks and months.

If better sleep allows you to train with slightly more energy, complete slightly more quality work, concentrate better on technique and recover more effectively afterwards, those small advantages can accumulate.

That is why sleep can potentially improve your programme without you changing a single exercise.

Sleep Also Affects Your Brain

Good training requires decision-making.

You regulate effort.

You judge technique.

You react to your environment.

You learn new skills.

You decide whether to push harder or back off.

Sleep deficiency can impair attention, reaction time and daytime functioning.

That matters for everyone exercising, but it becomes particularly relevant for coaches.

Personal Trainers are constantly observing movement, making decisions, communicating and adapting sessions.

Being a good coach requires more than knowing some exercises.

You need to be switched on.

How Much Sleep Do You Need for Exercise Recovery?

There is no magic number that applies perfectly to everyone.

Sleep requirements vary between individuals.

However, the general recommendation for adults is around 7 to 9 hours per night.

Rather than obsessing about achieving exactly eight hours every night, look at the bigger picture.

Ask yourself:

• Am I regularly getting at least seven hours?
• Do I generally wake feeling reasonably refreshed?
• Am I constantly relying on caffeine to function?
• Do I become extremely sleepy during the day?
• Does my sleep deteriorate when my training load increases?
• Am I sacrificing sleep to squeeze in extra workouts?

That final question is particularly important.

If somebody is already training regularly but sleeping five hours because they wake at 5 am to get another workout in, I would seriously question whether that extra session is helping.

Sometimes the best addition to your training programme is removing something and going to bed.

7 Simple Ways to Improve Your Sleep

You do not need a £400 sleep tracker, eight supplements and a Himalayan yak-wool sleep mask.

Start with the basics.

1. Give Yourself Enough Time to Sleep

You cannot get eight hours of sleep if you only spend six hours in bed.

Start by working backwards from the time you need to wake up and protect an appropriate bedtime.

2. Keep Your Sleep Schedule Reasonably Consistent

Going to bed and waking at broadly similar times helps support a regular sleep-wake rhythm.

3. Create a Wind-Down Routine

Give yourself some separation between the chaos of the day and trying to fall asleep.

Reading, relaxing, taking a bath or simply dimming the lights can help create that transition.

4. Think About Your Caffeine Timing

Caffeine is useful, but it is still a stimulant.

Its effects can last for hours, so repeatedly drinking coffee late in the afternoon or evening may interfere with your sleep.

5. Be Careful Using Alcohol as a Sleep Aid

Alcohol may initially make you feel sleepy, but it can disrupt sleep later in the night.

6. Make Your Bedroom Sleep-Friendly

A bedroom that is quiet, dark and comfortably cool is generally recommended for better sleep.

7. Treat Sleep Like Training

You would not accidentally forget to train for three weeks and expect brilliant results.

Apply some of that same intent to sleep.

You do not need perfection.

You need consistency.

Stop Trying to Out-Programme Poor Recovery

The fitness industry loves complexity.

New programmes are exciting.

New exercises are exciting.

New supplements are exciting.

“Go to bed at a sensible time” is unlikely to generate millions of views on Instagram.

But that does not make it less important.

For most recreational exercisers, there are probably much bigger gains available from consistently doing the basics well than endlessly searching for a more sophisticated training programme.

Train regularly.

Progress gradually.

Eat well.

Walk.

Recover.

Sleep.

Then repeat it for years.

That is not particularly sexy.

But it works.

For Personal Trainers, Recovery Should Be Part of the Programme

If you are a Personal Trainer, your job is not simply to prescribe sets and repetitions.

You should be helping clients understand the factors that influence their ability to train, recover and make progress.

That includes sleep.

A brilliant programme that somebody cannot recover from is not a brilliant programme.

The best coaches learn to look beyond the hour their client spends in the gym and consider the other 23 hours of their day.

If you are already a qualified Personal Trainer and want to develop a deeper understanding of programming, performance and recovery, our Level 4 Certificate in Strength and Conditioning explores the scientific principles behind effective training, including recovery strategies such as sleep.

And if you are considering becoming a Personal Trainer and want to develop the skills and knowledge that help you stand out in a crowded industry, take a look at the Storm Fitness Academy Elite Package.

Because great coaching is not about finding the fanciest programme.

It is about understanding the person in front of you, applying the fundamentals and knowing what actually makes a difference.

And sometimes, the most powerful training advice you can give someone is:

Go home and get some sleep.

Got questions?

Thinking about becoming a Personal Trainer, but not quite sure where to start? Fill in the contact form below and tell us a little about where you are now and what you’d like to achieve. There’s no pressure and no hard sell, just a friendly conversation to help you understand your options and work out the best next step for you. If a career in fitness has been on your mind for a while, this could be a good place to start.

The post Why Sleep Might Be More Important Than Your Training Programme appeared first on Storm Fitness Academy.