This article is written especially for new personal trainers or personal trainers in training.

Some personal trainers tell their clients they can help anyone reach whatever personal training goal they want. That sounds like hard work! For most trainers here in Singapore, the best way to maximize our efforts is to find the most appropriate training niche for ourselves.

Here are three basic niches, although each one has several sub categories.

Working with people who want to be fit. This is a rather generic category, but usually this training niche involves people who wish to either become or remain healthy.

But people have different definitions of “healthy”. Many want to lose weight. Others may want to exercise to increase their strength and tone their muscles, while some just want to relieve their stress.

If this is your niche, then you have to be patient and you need to be a great communicator. Many of your clients don’t know much about proper nutrition and exercise, and motivation may be a problem. Some may require a lot of encouragement, while others need firm discipline. The knowledge you have isn’t the most important thing. It’s the relationship and partnership you forge with your clients as you lead them towards their fitness goal.

Assisting those who want a lean body. Some people just want to look great, and for many of them that means building muscles. For you, that means a lot of research on the subject, because you will need to be very scientific about your approach. The field of muscle building continues to amass new data regarding more effective techniques and nutrition, and you have to be familiar with very new development.

You also have to understand the difference in training younger clients and older clients, and there’s also a difference between training men and women.

But some of your clientele may not realize just how much work it is to build muscle, and so you may have to inform them beforehand. You may also have to brush up on your motivational techniques as well.

If this is your niche, then it also helps if you’re someone who do resistance training yourself. You know what it takes, and your body is proof that what you’re doing is effective. This isn’t your niche if you’re not built like a bodybuilder, even if you’re in perfect health altogether.

Training athletes. This niche can range from training amateur athletes who like to play for sport, to school athletes and professionals. They all share the same goal of obtaining a physique that suits their chosen sport.

What this means is that you’re going to have to specialize in a particular sport if you want to do well in this niche. That’s because you need a different physique for each sport, and that means you will have to use very different methods to attain your goal.

You have to be very familiar with the sport you’ve chosen, so that you can help guide your clients towards the right physiques. Football players need a lot of leg muscle strength and endurance. Basketball players need dexterity and jumping ability. Boxers need upper body strength and hand speed.

The athletes also won’t trust you if you’re not very knowledgeable about the rules and the current events in the sport you’ve chosen. Your clients will want to discuss their sport and they will assume that you watched the game last night on TV like they did. That means you have to share their enthusiasm as well, because watching a sports game you’re not interested in is one of the most boring activities ever.

And if you’re working here in Singapore, you may want to specialize in a popular sport, like football. Specializing in American football may not net you as many clients as you would like.

Pick the niche that suits your interests, and it will never be boring for you. That’s the most important rule!

To your success,

Coach Sharm
guruFitness.com