A career in Health and Fitness
Jessica Sweet explains the career paths for individuals who love all things Health and Fitness
From as young as we can remember, the importance of eating well, exercising, and looking after our overall well-being is drilled into us. Once you navigate through adolescence and enter adulthood, you may have developed a love for health and fitness. While some people see keeping fit and healthy as a chore, others thrive from taking good care of their bodies. If you fall into the latter camp, why not get paid for it?
There are plenty of career paths you can look into which can combine your love of health and fitness alongside inspiring others to follow suit and make healthier lifestyle choices. Here are just a few popular occupations where you can relish in your passion while helping others live their best lives in the process
Personal Trainer
For those who love nothing more than going to the gym, you are bound to come across personal trainers who are there helping clients reach their fitness goals. If you have taken a little look at how they work or you have even hired one yourself, you may have a lightbulb moment and realise that you could do what they do! If you are drawn to this career path – read on!
Personal trainers have a wide array of work options available to them. Some prefer to run their enterprise at home, whereas others travel to clients’ homes. As we have said, there is the option to work at a gym too. Before you can jump into this field, you will need qualifications under your belt, so why not consider a personal training course from The Fitness Group? They specialise in personal training courses that will earn you the credentials needed to work in this sector. You will gain an array of skills and experience that will enormously benefit your clients.
Dietitian
Most of us know the importance of eating our five fruits and vegetables each day. They are great for lowering blood pressure, reducing the risk of heart disease, and even preventing some types of cancer. If you have always been passionate about healthy eating and nutrition, why not look into becoming a dietitian? Although regular exercise is a must for a healthier lifestyle, what you are putting in your body matters just as much.
A dietitian’s role is to help interpret the science of nutrition and translate it into day-to-day information about food. In addition, they advise others on their food and nutrition choices, helping them make more informed decisions about what they consume. There are several routes you can go down to qualify as a dietitian. While many take an approved programme at a university, some people opt for a degree apprenticeship. The latter allows you to earn a living while gaining qualifications in the process.
Gym Manager
Those who love all things health and fitness but prefer the administrative side of it all, have you thought about becoming a gym manager? This could be the perfect career path if the idea of working directly with clients does not appeal to you. Understandably, a gym manager’s role will vary depending on the facility you work at. For instance, you could be a manager for the entire facility or be tasked with managing a particular section of the gym.
There are not any formal qualifications to become a gym manager. However, you will need to have a strong passion for health and fitness. Also, as you will be overseeing gym employees, you must have excellent communication skills.
Athletic Trainer
For individuals who would like to work with professional sportspeople, why not look into becoming an athletic trainer? Such trainers work closely with and guide athletes, enabling them to work at their best performance. You will be responsible for preventing, diagnosing, and treating any injuries that could happen during the sport.
An athletic trainer plays a key role in setting exercise and training schedules for athletes. There are certain characteristics you must possess to flourish in this occupation. Athletic trainers need to have excellent communication skills, empathy, compassion, persistence, and patience, as well as the ability to perform in high-stress environments. The minimum education requirement for athletic trainers is a bachelor’s degree in the field of exercise science.
Massage Therapist
Some people believe that a massage therapist must only help people feel good and relax. While this takes up a large bulk of the role, massage therapists do a whole lot more. For example, you may spend time helping an injured client recover with a sports massage. There may be other massages you do which treat muscle problems that cause pain when the client engages in fitness or sports.
Many people are drawn to massage therapy as you can launch your career quickly, set your hours, and have freedom and flexibility. There are massage therapy courses you can embark on which will help you find your specialism.
Referee
Those who enjoy sports will know only too well that there are rules attached to any game, otherwise, things can quickly spiral out of control! If you like the idea of reinforcing such rules, rather than running onto the field and playing the sport yourself, becoming a referee or umpire may be the perfect carer choice. These professionals are in charge of enforcing the rules of the game, you must get a thorough knowledge of the game.
Referees can be found in a wide array of sports games, especially football, and rugby. Their primary role is to make sure teams play fairly and abide by the rules. To flourish in this sector, you need to be a confident speaker. After all, you will be raising your voice a lot! Those keen on becoming football referees can embark on a structured training programme provided by the FA (Football Association). To begin, you will need to register with your local County Football Association and take a Basic Referee’s course.
Blogger
Have you got a knack for writing? Do you enjoy all things health and fitness? If you have answered yes to both and believe you can put pen to paper, why not get paid for your words? Becoming a health and fitness blogger can be an excellent way to make money while getting to indulge in your hobby and passion – how great does that sound?
Sure, there may be many health and fitness bloggers already out there doing their thing. But, if you believe you have the gift of the gab and can lure readers in, sharing your thoughts, opinions, and advice with readers could see you earn a fortune. Creating a blog is only half the battle. To get people flocking to your page, you will need to look into guest posting, promoting on social media channels, and getting to grips with backlinks.
Those who are passionate about their health and fitness can explore a plethora of options. Any of the careers listed above could be financially lucrative and allow you to indulge in your passion while giving out useful tips and advice to fitness newbies.
Conclusion
Many of the roles we have mentioned do not require university degrees either. This means you will not have to worry about forking out a fortune to land your dream job. Provided you have got the enthusiasm, drive, and passion for health and fitness, you could end up moving into a brand new career that gives you a great sense of accomplishment.
Page Reference
If you quote information from this page in your work, then the reference for this page is:
- SWEET, J. (2022) A Career in Health and Fitness [WWW] Available from: https://www.brianmac.co.uk/articles/article716.htm [Accessed
About the Author
Jessica Sweet is a freelance journalist.