How Much Do Personal Trainers Make in the United States?

Has it always been your dream to work as a personal trainer? It’s the perfect job for anyone who loves physical fitness and helping others to get into fantastic shape.

Before you start trying to become a personal trainer, though, you should know you’re going to face some stiff competition. There are well over 800,000 personal trainers in the U.S. right now.

But you shouldn’t necessarily let this derail your career plans. You’ll still be able to benefit from becoming a personal trainer in so many ways.

For example, a personal trainer can make about $65,000 on average. You’ll come to love the personal trainer salary from the start.

You should, however, know that your salary as a personal trainer will depend on a variety of factors. Check out several of the factors that might play a part in how much you’ll be able to make when you work as a personal trainer.

Are You Certified?

Technically, you might be able to get away with working as a personal trainer without getting certified. There are people who will do this without blinking an eye.

But if you’re serious about becoming a personal trainer, you should make sure you’re a certified trainer before you begin working. Getting one of these online personal training certifications will show others that you’re legit.

You’ll also find that people will be more willing to pay you a premium personal trainer salary when they know that you know your stuff. You shouldn’t ever start working as a personal trainer without getting certified to some degree.

Where Are You Located?

There might be more than 800,000 personal trainers working throughout the country right now, but they aren’t all in the same places. There are some areas that have more personal trainers than others.

If you just so happen to live in a city or town that doesn’t have a wealth of personal trainers, you might be able to use this to your advantage. You won’t have as much competition, so it could very well lead to you being able to make a lot more money over the long run.

Who Do You Work For?

There are some personal trainers who will work for one specific gym, fitness center, etc. There are others who will start their own personal training companies and work for themselves.

You’re welcome to take whichever approach you want while working as a personal trainer. But you should know that who you work for will affect your personal trainer salary.

If you work for a company, you’ll likely be able to start at a higher salary than you would be able to make on your own. But at the same time, you might find that you’ll be capped as far as how much you can make while working for a company.

If, on the other hand, you decide to branch out on your own, you might not be able to make as much money as you would be able to otherwise. But as your personal training company grows, it’ll put you in a much better position to make a pretty penny as a personal trainer.

How Many Clients Do You Have?

Regardless of who you work for when you become a personal trainer, the number of clients you have will have a big impact on what your salary is. The more clients you’re able to work with, the more money you should be able to make.

Initially, you might only have a few personal training clients, if that. But as you work in the industry for a longer time, you can begin working with more clients and potentially make a lot more money.

How Experienced Are You?

Just like with any job, your experience level as a personal trainer is going to have an effect on your take-home salary. You might need to spend at least a few years making a relatively low salary as a personal trainer before starting to see it increase.

It’ll be important for you to learn as much about the personal training industry as you can at first. It’ll enable you to get the experience you need so that you can start charging your clients more money.

What Is Your Reputation Like?

Your reputation is going to be another thing that will affect your personal trainer salary. If you’re someone who other people love working out with, that’s going to bode well for your future career earnings.

When people are talking about you and telling everyone they know about how great you are, others will start to line up to utilize your personal training services. Your reputation could have you making way more money than you ever could have imagined as a personal trainer.

Do You Produce Results?

At the end of the day, people who come to you and ask you to be their personal trainer will want to see results. If you’re able to deliver in this department, it’s going to have a positive impact on your salary.

People will be more than happy to pay you more money than they might otherwise when they know that they’re going to be able to achieve their goals through you. It’s another reason why you should get certified and make sure you know what you’re doing. It could pay off in a big way down the line.

See How Much Personal Trainers in Your Area Make

Personal trainers are going to make different amounts of money in different pockets of the country. You should do some research into how much personal trainers in your area are making right now.

This will help you decide if working as a personal trainer would be the right career for you. It’ll also make it possible for you to decide how many certifications you would like to get to compete with other personal trainers in your city or town.

Get more career-related advice by reading through some of the other articles published on our blog.