There are several stops along the healthcare continuum: 

• Personal physicians and specialists play an important part in addressing and preventing minor medical concerns from becoming major ones
• Behavioral health specialists help to provide healthy emotional outlets and can help us to reframe negative situations into ones we can manage
• Dentists and ophthalmologists assist in maintaining our ability to maintain health through nutrition, digestion, balance, and safety
• Physical, occupational, and cardiac therapists assist in rehabbing post-injury or intervention
• Surgeons, oncologists, and emergency care physicians intervene when no amount of preventive care can save us.

And, although the fitness industry and personal training profession is taking steps forward, personal trainers are not traditionally considered to be healthcare workers.

Maybe it’s due to the variance in necessary education and professional qualifications to become certified. Or that so many personal trainers simply stop educating themselves once they pass their certification.

Perhaps it’s due to the wide variety of interpretations and application of fitness by professionals in the field. Or simply the lack of professionalism exhibited by said professionals.

Maybe it’s because so many of us take training and nutrition advice from just about anyone who has ever played a sport, wielded influence, eaten a vegetable, lifted a weight, or has a small waistline. Or perhaps it’s because the average churn rate of personal trainers is less than 2 years before they move onto another career.

Whatever the case may be – personal training done well may have the potential to make the largest impact on an individual’s health and quality of life. No other healthcare provider wields a more powerful drug or therapeutic than fitness professionals do – exercise is the wonder drug.

Exercise makes positive impacts on heart, brain, bone, gut, and skin health, decreased risk of cancer, improved pain management, weight management, relaxation, sleep quality, sex life, mood, and cognitive performance. Movement literally is the best medicine. There is no drug that provides the same broadly impactful benefits. And the wild thing about it is that exercise is inherently available to us all.

Unfortunately, it’s not always nearly as simple as moving. Knowing how to properly assess for individual needs, structure programming, instruct exercises well, think critically, progress and adapt to each client’s ever-changing needs is a valuable skillset.

This skillset is one that those of us in the fitness industry believe in wholeheartedly yet struggle to demand respect for. It is time we stop making ourselves small when it comes to our role in the health outcomes of our clients.

Everyone benefits when personal trainers take seriously their role in their clients and communities health and wellbeing. Happy clients do what anyone pleased with a service do – they tell anyone and everyone who wants to know (and even those who don’t). Which leads to referrals, full training schedules, a better quality of life for coaches, and less likelihood of leaving the profession.

When trainers learn to learn and take pride in their services, everyone wins.

– Coach Sam