There are many reasons why becoming a personal trainer is a good idea. If you love keeping fit it’s a great way to use the passion to earn money. It’s also a good way of helping others to improve their fitness levels, and their overall health. Most people think of these health improvements as being physical, but that is only part of the story.

Becoming a personal trainer can also help you to improve the mental health of some of your clients. This is an incredible power to have.

How personal training helps to improve mental health

You may not realize it, but mental health issues are a significant problem in Australia.Around 45% of Australians will experience a mental health issue at some point in their lives. You can have an impact on some of these people simply by becoming their personal trainer. It’s an opportunity to make a real difference to someone’s life by giving them a channel for their problems and providing them with an improved outlook.

Working with a client who has mental health issues

If you want to work as a personal trainer you need to study for a Certificate IV in fitness. This studying provides you with the overall knowledge that you need to work in the personal training industry. It’s often a good idea to supplement this knowledge with additional training that helps you to work with a wide variety of clients. This can include attending mental health awareness events, to improve your ability to work with clients who have problems with their mental health.

If you decide to work as a personal trainer, you may not always be aware that you are working with a client who has a mental health condition. However, if you do become aware, there are things that you can do to make the experience more beneficial for them.

  • Communicate in a friendly and supportive manner without being too intrusive. Communication is something that many people with mental health problems find difficult, so it’s important to get this right.
  • Make sure that you provide regular updates about how the client is doing. Make sure that you concentrate on the positives.
  • Set goals and objectives before you start. This is something that you may do with any client. In the case of a client who has a mental health condition, it takes on an increased level of importance.
  • Recognize the client’s limits and do not push past them. Trainers often push people past the limits they thought they had, with great success. This is unlikely to be the case if you try to push a person with mental health issues too far. You are more likely to cause them stress and reverse some of the positive effects of the exercise.

It’s a proven fact that exercise can have a positive effect on mental heath. By being a personal trainer, and having good training processes, you can make a real difference to a client’s life by helping to improve their mental health.