Becoming a Fitness Trainer in Maryland

As a personal trainer in Maryland, you will face the task of helping get the state’s residents fit and healthy. A 2010 study conducted by The National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity found that adults in Maryland have some serious variances in their levels of physical fitness. While 43% of adults claim to get 300 minutes of moderately intense aerobic exercise each week, or 150 vigorous minutes, almost 24% state that they had no physical activity over the course of the month surveyed.

Once you begin work as a personal trainer in Maryland, it will be your daily duty to help all of your clients reach or exceed their fitness and wellness goals. From the novice you may have to help getting started skipping rope, to the competitive athlete looking for serious core training, you will be their go-to person. You will help develop an exercise and wellness plan for them and then work to keep them motivated and goal oriented to reach their peak level of fitness.

Penn Foster Career School's Online Personal Trainer Programs

Take the first step towards preparing for your career in the fields of personal fitness and nutrition through Penn Foster Career School's online programs:

Personal Trainer Career Diploma

As a personal trainer, your career opportunities are not limited to gyms and fitness centers. For properly qualified candidates, the possibility exists to work in a prestigious medical center such as Johns Hopkins Center’s Physical Medicine Rehabilitation in Baltimore. Although that is not everyone’s preference, there are plenty of other options like working in senior centers or training people of all ages somewhere like Fiterrifix Personal Training. The options are there; the choice is yours.

The employment opportunities for personal trainers in Maryland through the year of 2022 are very bright according to the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation Division of Workforce Development and Adult Learning. They have projected an increase in demand of 21% for personal trainers, or approximately 1800 new jobs.

Steps to Becoming a Personal Trainer in Maryland

In order to realize your career goals as a personal trainer, you need to lay the proper foundation. That begins with obtaining an education that will allow you to become professionally certified as a personal trainer,

Degree Programs for Personal Trainers in Maryland

As you begin pursuing your education to prepare you for a career as a personal trainer, you will want to be sure that the major you choose will be relevant to your needs. Whether you opt for a two or four-year degree program, many of Maryland’s colleges and universities will allow you to take some or all of your classes online. Degrees in the following areas will prepare you for a career as a personal trainer:

Sports Medicine, with courses such as:

• Orthopedic assessment

• Physiology of exercise

• Therapeutic modalities in sports medicine

• Lifespan health and fitness

• Biomechanics for exercise and sports science

Physical Education, including courses like:

• Movement activities

• Motor learning

• Development, learning and assessment

• Exercise physiology

• Foundations of physical education

Kinesiology, with courses such as:

• Psychology of sport

• Physiology of exercise

• Motor development

• Biomechanics

• History of sport in America

While the degree programs listed above are far from the only ones that will help prepare you for a career as a personal trainer, they are the most commonly sought by those currently in the fitness industry. While not every employer will require a degree, most will, and a degree is required by many national certifying agencies for personal trainers.

Professional Organizations Offering National Certification for Personal Trainers

While not all employers of personal trainers in Maryland will require a national certification, the majority will. If you find that an employer does require that of you or you feel that it is professionally beneficial for you to have one, it would be a wise investment of your resources. A recent review of fitness clubs in Maryland revealed that the following employers prefer or require personal trainers to be certified:

• Merritt Athletic Club – Towson, White Marsh, Eldersburg, Canton and Baltimore

• Lifetime Fitness – Columbia and Rockville

• Town Sports International – Silver Spring and Bethesda

• 24 Hour Fitness – Annapolis

• JRG Fitness Operations, LLC – Havre de Grace

Examples of national professional organizations that offer personal trainer certification include (but are not limited to):

• American Council on Exercise (ACE)

• The Cooper Institute (CI)

• American Fitness Professionals Association (AFPA)

• International Sports Sciences Association (ISSA)

• National Exercise Trainers Association (NETA)

• National Association for Fitness Certification (NAFC)

• National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM)

• National Federation of Professional Trainers (NFPT)

• National Exercise & Sports Trainers Association (NESTA)

• American Senior Fitness Association (ASFA)

Maryland’s Working Environment for Personal Trainers

When you think about where you will work as a personal trainer in Maryland, what is it you picture? You may see working in a gym or fitness club as your future, but there are other options.

For example, the first private personal training studio in the state of Maryland, the Columbia Association in Clarksville, opened in 2012. Here, there are is everything you would expect to find in a fitness center, however you work one-on-one with your clients there using state of the art equipment in beautiful surroundings.

Maryland is also the home to a few professional sports teams which offers the unique possibility of gaining employment with a professional sports organization. The Baltimore Ravens, of the NFL, hire professional trainers to help cross-train their athletes, work on strength and conditioning or in some cases work one-on-one with one of their players.

Colleges and universities are also employers of personal trainers. Too many students forget to take time to work out and lapse into a sedentary lifestyle. The same is true of faculty members. As such, many institutions will provide the services of a personal trainer to help keep fitness levels up and everyone involved healthier in general.

As was stated earlier, you may choose to pursue a career as a personal trainer in one of Maryland’s many health and fitness clubs. Some of the top facilities you may consider while seeking employment are:

• Brick Bodies – Baltimore, Reistertown, Padonia and Perry Hall

• Powerhouse Gym – Cambridge

• Gold’s Gym- Silver Spring

• Cross Fit Diesel- Columbia

• Sport & Health Gym- Gaithersburg

Finding and keeping employment as a personal trainer in Maryland is only half the benefit – you’ll also be able to enjoy knowing you are helping others live healthier, happier lives.