There are so many wonderful things about the health and fitness industry, one thing that stands out the most from a professional point of view is the fact that it is a very open-ended field. In terms of the work that you can do with the knowledge that you already have, the options are nearly limitless. You can either work for someone or you can be an entrepreneur.
In both cases, there are several different things that you can do ranging from being a health and fitness consultant, a one-on-one trainer, or a fitness writer, to even breaking into the entertainment industry and hosting a fitness-related show. Like any knowledge-based sector, once you know how to help people with their health and fitness goals, you can start turning into a lucrative outlet.
What’s even better is that you don’t have to be limited to a certain job, you can pursue multiple things at the same time. You could do personal training in the morning, teaching in the afternoon, and doing your own health and fitness podcast in the evening. It’s all about what works for your lifestyle and what kind of work that you enjoy doing. In terms of reaching your ultimate potential, it really boils down to how well you can do a certain task. Some people are better at running a business, while others are better at performing a job. Here are a few career paths you should consider if you are interested in getting into the health and fitness industry.
1. Sports Nutrition
Being a sports nutritionist is slightly different from being a general nutritionist in the sense that you will primarily be focusing on athletes. Where general nutritionists focus on balancing the diet in order to manage problems like diabetes, your focus will be to help athletes develop strength, endurance, or any other physical fitness-related goal they hope to achieve. Sports nutritionists earn a decent living, though it can vary quite a lot. Some of the top nutritionists that work with professional athletes can easily charge hundreds of dollars per consultation and can easily make millions of dollars a year. More importantly, when you develop a stellar reputation for yourself, the amount you earn and the sources through which you earn both grow exponentially.
2. Trainer
Personal training certification allows you to become a trainer which is one of the most common things that people do when they start off in the fitness industry. For some people, this is the field of work that they want to be in for the rest of their lives, while for others it is simply a convenient place to start as the demand for personal trainers never ceases. However, even as a trainer with a PT qualification, you can focus on specific things and move on from simply being a workout trainer. If you have a background in martial arts you can go towards that, if you are more into strength training you can focus on that, if you are into extreme sports then why not train athletes for that? Even as a trainer, there are options.
3. Sports Coach
Taking a step up from a trainer with a focus on sports, you can further your education and your career by focusing on a specific sport. If you enjoy basketball, you can become a sports coach for basketball teams. As a sports coach, you will help all kinds of teams and even individual players improve their performance and achieve objectives. Many sports coaches work double duty as sports coaches and fitness coaches for the people they help. This helps increase your value for the team as you’ll be able to provide both services in-house. At the very elite levels, when you are completely in charge of game strategy, you can move towards being a dedicated sports coach. At the higher levels, you will be compensated very well.
4. Physiotherapist
Another very lucrative option is becoming a physiotherapist. You can help individual clients who need physical rehabilitation, or you can focus solely on athletes. In fact, you can even be on the payroll for official sports teams and in turn their go-to person for fitness. However, becoming a certified physiotherapist will require some additional certifications.
The sports industry is one in which there is no defined age for retirement. There are a lot of sports coaches and even fitness coaches who are well into their 70s and beyond and are still extremely sought after. Some of the prominent names in the sports industry only became critically acclaimed well after their retirement age. The longer your work experience, the more people will want to work alongside you. Initially, your own physique and your fitness level will play a part in how easy it is to get a job, but once you have results to prove your worth, all that will change.
