The development of personal trainers in China's fitness industry

As an emerging profession, personal trainers have developed rapidly in China in recent years. They have become popular occupations in the current fitness industry and have become popular in the sports labor market. The birth and development of personal trainer not only meets the individualized demands of people's fitness consumption, but also brings huge profits for the fitness industry, becoming one of the key elements for the sustainable development of the fitness industry. Below we interpret the development of personal coaching career in China from several aspects.

First, what is a personal trainer

Personal trainers refer to coaches who have certain certification qualifications and provide “one-to-one” “customized” paid fitness services to employers in operating fitness venues.

The main job content of the personal trainer is health testing and evaluation, formulating a personalized fitness plan for the bodybuilder; training, service, and guidance; keeping track of the exercise progress of the bodybuilder, adjusting his or her fitness plan in time; providing health advice for the bodybuilder and helping fitness Establish a healthy lifestyle.

The professional qualities of personal trainers include: professional theoretical qualities; professional skills; interpersonal communication skills; self-learning and creative abilities; professional image quality; professional ethics.

There are several reasons for the rise of personal coaching career in China: personalized consumer trends, rapid development of the economic level has spawned a personal coaching profession; the rise of personal trainers is the result of the in-depth development of the fitness industry, the successful market operation of fitness companies and the sports market The product of international development; at the same time, the private education certificate system has provided support for the sustainable development of the personal coaching profession.

Second, the development status of personal trainers in China's fitness industry

The proportion of personal trainers in China's fitness companies is about 80%. 94% of them are born in sports majors, including 55% of the total undergraduate level, 27% of junior college students, and 3% of graduate students. Personal trainers are mainly highly educated sports professionals. In personal trainers, men account for 78%, which is far higher than women. The gender structure is not reasonable. The personal coaching team is dominated by young people, of whom coaches aged 21-30 account for 90.7%.

Personal trainers hold a wide variety of qualifications, the highest proportion of which is the professional physical fitness coach certificate issued by the Asian Sports and Physical Fitness Institute (AASFP). Many personal trainers also have 2-3 qualification certificates. Among these various kinds of certificates, there are many certificates of different sports items and grades, in addition to the special certificates with the title of “Personal Trainer”. Among them, the top three are the AASFP Advanced Personal Fitness Coach Certification, the ATP Australia Fitness Coach Certification, and the IFBB Wade Personal Coaching Certificate. Those so-called “International Authority” certificates are favored by fitness instructors, and the market recognition of domestic certificates is low. Most people do not know whether these certificates have been certified or approved by the relevant departments. Market demand is the determining factor for coaches to choose a certificate.

There are a large number of certification bodies for personal trainers in China, and overseas institutions occupy the vast majority. There are three types of private certificate institutions: the nature of the association, such as the International Fitness Federation (IFBB); physical education and training institutions, such as the Asian Sports and Physical Fitness Institute (AASFP); general fitness companies (clubs), such as the Inipas fitness club Wait.

Personal trainers are expensive to train. In addition, certificate holders must continue to pay for “follow-up training” to ensure that the certificate does not expire. Too high fees are currently the most dissatisfied areas in the certification and training of private education certificates.

Personal trainer training courses include sports human science courses such as sports physiology and interpersonal communication skills. These are usually required courses in most certificate training courses; there are also practical courses closely related to the market. . Most people think that private training courses are more practical than those in universities. The duration of training for each private certificate is usually 7-12 days, and the shortest is only 5 days. Insufficient class hours are considered the biggest problem in the existence of training courses.

According to the survey, the personal trainer training course usually arranges 2-4 trainers, the least is only one trainer, and the teaching staff is complex. In order to save costs, more and more training institutions tend to use local training resources at training sites.

76% said that through the study of the course, their own quality and ability have improved. Fifty-five percent of respondents stated that the greatest gain in the personal coaching certificate course is to improve their ability to communicate with customers.

Surveys show that the number of personal trainer certification agencies in China continues to increase. Among these training institutions, except for a few institutions that cooperate with some units in the sports sector (such as individual sports associations) or colleges and universities, and get the “recognition” of these non-executive agencies, none of the certification bodies have actually been certified in terms of qualifications. The relevant administrative department has reviewed it. There is a lack of uniform auditing bodies and auditing standards for personal trainer qualification certification, lack of credibility for certification approval, and confusion in the issuance of certificates and qualification certification. Although fitness companies require personal trainers to hold certificates, “certificate-based posts” are not based on legal constraints but are based on market competition.

In a fitness company, a personal trainer certificate is equivalent to a "work permit." Surveys have shown that increasing income is a determining factor in attracting people to the profession. Most people think that when they work as a personal trainer, their salaries increase more than before. Up to 62% of people expressed satisfaction with the benefits of investing in personal trainer certification, reflecting the fact that engaging in personal coaching services can indeed increase the income for practitioners.

Most personal trainers believe that the most important thing to strengthen is the theoretical analysis and guidance ability and social communication ability. The manager of the company thinks that the current fitness coach needs to improve is the service awareness and ability. 70% of corporate executives believe that there is a gap between the quality and ability of personal trainers and the expectations of clients. All companies have stated that they attach great importance to the service of personal trainers. They all require that private coaching services must be held for employment. The average per capita of business managers considers personal trainers to be a highly specialized career, and 80% of managers believe that a national standard for personal trainers should be established. However, in some health clubs, there still exists the phenomenon of “certificate” light capability and “title” light service. Up to 90% of companies encourage coaches to obtain personal coach qualification certificates, and about 75% of companies have organized employee training and research activities. All the companies surveyed have done a certain degree of packaging and publicity for some outstanding personal trainers in the company. 30% of the fitness companies set up an independent personal coaching department.

Third, the main problems in the development of personal coaching in China

1. Personal coaching lack of policies and regulations for career development

At present, China’s labor department has not established a personal trainer as a formal occupation. The country has not yet established the professional standards and supporting management system for personal trainers, and has not issued policies and measures to encourage this career development. Without the guidance of the government, the personal coaching profession is still in a state of disorderly natural development.

2. The market for professional coaches’ professional certification is confusing and lacks supervision

At present, there is a lack of unified auditing bodies and auditing standards for personal trainer qualification certification, lack of credibility in certification verification, and confusion in the issuance of certificates and qualification certification. Personal coaching training institutions are even more confusing, and the quality of training is becoming increasingly prominent. Personal coaching training is basically in the "three nos" state with no management, no appraisal, and no guarantee.

3. There is a deviation in the professional orientation of the personal trainer

At present, people's understanding of the emerging profession of personal coaching is still vague and superficial. It lacks a deep understanding of the role and value of personal trainers in fitness companies. There is a lack of deep understanding of the professional qualities that personal trainers should possess. The value of personal trainers for the survival and development of fitness companies has not been truly understood.

4. The quality of personal trainers is outstanding

Due to the short development time of the personal coaching career and the lack of an effective certificate and training quality supervision system, there is still a considerable gap between the professional level of the personal trainer in the sports labor market and the rapidly growing market demand.

Personal coaching is a special sports industry, and it must be implemented according to law. The implementation of the professional certification system for personal trainers is an inevitable requirement for standardizing the sports labor market and is also an urgent need for the development of the fitness industry. It is to guarantee the employment ability and working ability of personal trainers, and to better satisfy individual sports consumption demands, and to standardize the certification and training market for personal trainers. Provide strong support.