Medical fitness is one of the most challenging, demanding, yet invigorating branches of personal and fitness training that aspiring trainers can branch into. Not to mention, it’s also highly competitive and requires a certain degree of empathy, skill development, and personal investment to keep up with.
If you’re considering getting a medical personal fitness trainer certification and starting an online or in-person business within this niche, here are some important things to consider before making a decision:
Identify the clients you’ll work with and how you’ll bring them onboard
A medical fitness expert works with clients with various pre-existing medical conditions and complications, ranging from musculoskeletal disorders and problems to cardiovascular conditions, extremely high or low body weights, and various other disorders, diseases, and conditions. This means you’ll most likely have clients with physical, mental, and emotional challenges and requirements that are a step above the average fitness client, and you’ll need an effective channel to connect with them as well.
Most likely, you’re going to be working in conjunction with doctors and physical therapists who are evaluating their cases alongside you. Your job will be to focus on the fitness aspect of their overall health, helping them achieve goals and aims set by their physicians and therapist.
As to how you’ll even connect with these clients, you’re most likely going to need a strong referral system or a way to market to patients with different health challenges directly. The former, however, builds a line of trust and dependability.
Understand that it’s a niche that requires a lot of personal attention
One of the most important things to understand about this niche for any certified personal trainer is that it will require a lot of personal attention from each client. It differs from general personal training, which is also tailored to clients’ goals, in the way that every single person you work with will have strict limitations, goals, and requirements that they need to work with simultaneously. You can’t push them to go harder and risk aggravating their disease or worsening health indicators. You can’t go so easy on them that they’re right back to where they started either. It’s a very delicate balance and one that is not easy by any means. You need to be extra careful while working as a medical fitness trainer, encouraging clients to find ways to cope with their health while still accomplishing and crushing their goals.
Figure out your medical fitness operating systems
Whether you’re offering services online or in-person, you need to have a completely functional system in place. Will you be working as an independent trainer? Are you going to offer services at clinics or hospitals or as part of a larger health model or facility? Will you mandate testing or rely on reports before taking on a client? If so, how and where will they get tested? Do they need express approval from their physician or therapist? Will you need their approval on the goals you set? There are several factors to consider when working as a medical fitness trainer.
Furthermore, you’ll also need to specify what services you’re going to be offering. They can range from personal training, semi-private or group training, nutrition advice, grocery tours, behavioral coaching, and other services that come with the territory.
It’s safe to assume that the stakes are higher as a medical fitness trainer since you’ll be helping patients manage and combat diseases and the risks associated with them.
Decide the type of equipment you’ll be using or recommending
Since medical fitness training also relies on the use of various types of fitness equipment, it’s safe to assume that you’ll be needing equipment for your practice and niche clientele. This includes supportive equipment for high-risk or patients with larger bodies, lightweight equipment that is safe for people with musculoskeletal complications, and tools that allow patients to perform difficult exercises despite physical restrictions. You need to decide which of these tools you’ll invest in personally or where clients who are training remotely can invest in or access them. Sometimes you may have to find equipment-free alternatives for remote training since people may not be able to afford or even find these tools.
Strategize ways to train clients online and remotely
This brings us to another very important point: strategize your modus operandi. You need to have clear, effective, and efficient systems in place to run a medical fitness business, whether it’s online or in-person. There needs to be a flexible system for everything from billing and insurance to the mode of instruction, scheduling, referrals, consultations, and everything in between in order to make this work. Every client’s disease history should be on the record, and every doctor’s recommendation, every insurance payment, billable hours, etc., should be logged. It’s time-consuming and quite challenging because it’s not as straightforward as your regular personal fitness training clients. You can’t just send pre-recorded videos and expect them to follow; you have to be careful of their physical challenges and struggles during every movement and ensure that it’s not going to aggravate their symptoms either.
This is one of the most challenging facets of medical fitness training, and it may take trial and error, along with some serious education and training, to understand.
Medical fitness is one of the most rewarding yet challenging fitness niches anyone can join. It’s an excellent field for anyone who’s looking to develop specialized training and skills, help clients in versatile ways, and maximize the impact their profession has on others around them. You can sign up for medical personal health trainer programs through our website, where we’re bringing you some of the most incredible training opportunities. Register today for the rigorous program and obtain your personal trainer certification in this, or other specialties, today.