Online Fitness Courses

It’s no secret that we’re in a digital age, we have everything we need at our finger tips or indeed a tablet or mobile phone! When I was younger a tablet was something you took to make you feel better, not something you could use to access information…oh, how times have changed!

It never fails to surprise me that many children in schools now use tablets for their work instead of pen and paper, and that’s the same for training to become a personal trainer or fitness instructor. If you really want to, you could do all of your studying online to become a personal trainer or gym instructor, but is this the best way to train to become a personal trainer? Yes, it’s probably a bit easier to fit into everything else you have going on in your life, but you have to remember…..personal training is a very ‘hands-on’, practical job, if you’re studying every aspect online do you really get to experience and explore the practical side of things so you can apply them in a real life setting.

This blog explores the advantages and disadvantages of learning to become a fitness instructor or personal trainer through online fitness course or through the more practical ‘face to face’ approach. Many companies, like motive8IQ will deliver their courses through a ‘blended’ approach where you do some of your study online, and some face to face.

Online Fitness Courses
Benefits

• Flexible in approach. You can study at your own pace, in your own time.
• You can fit your online study around another job, your family or whatever commits you have. This is great if you are working full time or considering a career change but can’t commit to a full time course.
• You have time to research topics you may be unsure of.

Disadvantages

• Whilst you can watch videos, research online, read manuals, etc are you really getting a full understanding of how the body moves? How exercises and movement patterns should be executed? Remember the key to being a good personal training is not just having knowledge, it’s having the ability to apply the knowledge.
• Do you get to learn and practice the soft skills you need as a personal trainer or fitness instructor? Building rapport? Communication skills? Client retention?

Face to Face Learning
Benefits

• You get to apply the knowledge you are learning into a practical setting. Not only practicing how to execute the exercises and movement patterns but also getting support, reassurance and guidance from your tutor. Your tutor will be great ‘hands on’ support to give you cueing tips, alternative ways of how to explain how to execute an exercise, etc
• Not only do you get to practice how to perform the exercises yourself, you get chance to practice them on ‘clients’ and learn how to coach your clients through the exercises. This will allow you experience using different methods of communication and delivery as not all clients learn in the same way.
• Practice building rapport and your communication skills with your clients.
• Receive lots of advice from your tutor. Your tutor will have lots of experience in the industry, you get chance to pick their brains not only about their knowledge but about their experience too.

Disadvantages

• Time wise face to face learning may not be as flexible, for example may not fit around work and family commitments.

Blended Learning

As mentioned before, many fitness course providers, like motive8IQ, adopt a blended learning approach where they combine online learning with face to face study days. The reason we take this approach is because you receive all of the benefits mentioned above for both face to face learning and online learning. You get the flexibility of being able to study in your own time, the knowledge learned during this online study is then reinforced by the lectures and practical sessions delivered during the face to face study days.

During our face to face days we include lots of practical sessions so that you get time to practice all of the exercises and coaching techniques too. For us, this is a key part of the course. As a personal trainer or fitness instructor it’s not only essential that you have a good understand of anatomy and physiology and how the body moves but that you are confident enough to apply this into a practical session. Not only this, but you also need to understand how to communicate this to a variety of clients in addition to building a good rapport and relationship with your clients too – this is essential for retaining them long term.

So, all in all, if you’re looking to train to become a personal trainer or fitness instructor then we believe a blended learning approach gives you the best of both worlds!

If you’re looking to become a personal trainer or fitness instructor, then we are currently offering a 50% discount on all of our training courses. Contact us on 0113 243 0161 or email info@motive8iq.co.uk to book your place.