Posted 20 May 2024

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Why the Over 50s Make Great PTs

As more and more people change careers in their later years, we take a closer look into why people over 50 make great personal trainers.

More people than ever before are turning to personal trainers to help motivate them to get in shape and reach their fitness goals. However, not everyone wants to be trained by a heavily muscled 20-something who looks like Hercules. Some of us prefer to be trained by someone closer to our own age and ability and this has led to a huge rise in people over 50 qualifying to become a personal trainer, find out more below.

Am I Too Old To Become a Personal Trainer?

A career in health and fitness is a great choice for the over 50s, not only will you get to stay fit and active yourself, but the hours are also very flexible. Set your own timetable and easily fit this career around your family and lifestyle commitments (and if you’ve taken an early retirement, you’ll still have plenty of time to enjoy it whilst earning a little extra money to help you out).

A lot of people may think ‘Oh I’m too old for that’ or ‘People won’t hire me’ but the opposite is actually true! The fitness industry is crying out for more trainers in their fifties and sixties to fill the demand for the growing number of clients who want to train with someone their own age. Older people in the gym may feel intimidated by the younger, stronger trainers they see in the gym, putting them off training in future.

Also, in this industry, life experience really counts. Perhaps you’ve always been quite sporty, or you’re passionate about eating healthily and have loads of tasty recipes to share; the things you’ve learned throughout your life can really help the clients you’ll train.

Interested in discovering a little more about this rewarding career path? Find out how to become a personal trainer here.

Will I Get Clients As An Older PT? 

Did you know that there are over 23.2 million people aged 50 and over in the UK (that’s over a third of the population) so you’ll have plenty of potential clients to target your personal training business towards (not to mention the other age groups that will also benefit from training with someone with more life experience). Here are some other tips to boost your personal trainer business.
 
People often choose to re-train and enter the fitness industry for the sense of satisfaction and fulfilment this career gives – you’re able to help others look and feel better about themselves and make inherent changes that benefit their lives.

When we reach our 50s/60s, many people have worked most of their lives in a career they weren’t particularly passionate about – it paid the bills but wasn’t anything special; sound familiar? When the time comes to think about what happens in the next chapter of our lives, it’s worth actively seeking the happiness we get from being able to indulge in our interests and passions – if that’s health and fitness, personal training might be what you’ve been looking for!

You’ll get to enjoy the social side of being a personal trainer, meet all kinds of new people that share the same passions as you, and make new friends.

Bringing Life Experience to Personal Training

As a personal trainer with more life experience, you’ll be able to train clients of the same age range that are looking to achieve different fitness goals than younger clients. Your client may want to get fitter so they can run around with the grandchildren in the garden, climb the stairs without getting out of breath or simply to lift their suitcase into the overhead compartment on a plane themselves.

Whatever their goals, you’ll be able to understand their needs and cater to their requests a little easier than a trainer who is much younger and fitter and who doesn’t fully understand how the body feels as it ages. You’ll know when to push your clients and when to go easier on them.
 
Sometimes you’ll be able to use the life lessons and hindsight you’ve gained in your role as a personal trainer: in your 20’s you may have been encouraging your clients to train really hard, lift heavy weights and run marathons to get fit, but in your 50’s you’ve learned what works and what doesn’t.

You may have even been through various fitness levels yourself which helps you understand that everybody is different and the lifestyles we lead at different points in our life are very different too. For example, you’ll understand that a single client in their 20’s has far more time and motivation to train than a mother in her 30’s with two children to look after.

You’ll instinctively know what type of training will suit their lifestyles better and how to give them the best workouts with the time they can devote to their training.

It’s Never Too Late To Start Your Dream Fitness Career 

Whether you blew out the candles on your 50th birthday yesterday or a good few years ago, there’s no better time to consider re-training for an exciting career in the health and fitness industry!

Learn more about our personal training courses here.