Personal Trainer Courses: 5 Ways to Become a Trainer
You Might Be About to Waste Money on the Wrong Personal Trainer Certification – Here’s How to Avoid It
Let me be straight with you. There’s a mistake many new personal trainers make every year. And the sad part? Most of them only realize it after they have already spent their money and time.
Think about this for a moment. You see an ad online:
“Become a certified personal trainer today for only $69!”
Sounds like a great deal, right? Fast, cheap, and easy.
But here’s the truth most people don’t tell you: some of these “certifications” are almost useless when you try to get a real job.
Not long ago, I was reading a post in a personal trainer forum. A newly certified trainer was super excited. He had just finished an online course and was ready to start his career.
But he had one simple question.
Would gyms actually accept his certification?
He said he finished the course in just a short time and paid $69.99 for it. In his own words, it felt a little too easy.
Right away, I knew what was happening.
His certificate most likely came from what is called an unaccredited personal trainer certification. In simple words, this means big gyms and serious fitness companies do not recognize it.
So when he walks into a gym to apply for a job, there’s a high chance they will simply say no.
Money gone. Time wasted. Confidence crushed.
And sadly, this story happens again and again.
Right now, thousands of people are trying to figure out which personal training course is actually worth their time and money. Some programs can open real career doors. Others just take your money and give you a piece of paper that means very little.
That’s why I decided to break everything down in a clear and simple way. No confusing words. No sales talk. Just the truth so you can make the right choice before you commit.
Below, you’ll see five different ways people become certified personal trainers.
Three of them are accredited paths that gyms respect and trust. These can help you build a real career.
Two of them are unaccredited paths that may look easy and cheap, but can cause problems later.
By the end, you’ll clearly know which path is smart and which one to avoid.
Here’s what we’ll cover.
Accredited Options
Certification through an accredited U.S. organization
Vocational college programs
University degrees (Bachelor’s or Master’s level)
Unaccredited Options
Online courses with no accreditation
Internal gym training programs
Let’s break them down one by one so you don’t make the same costly mistake many new trainers make. 💪
Personal Trainer Courses: The 5 Options
to Consider for Your Career
1. Certification via Accredited US Company
Most major personal training certifications go through a vetting process to ensure that an unbiased, third-party organization can assure the public a safe standard. For personal training in particular, the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA) is the certification agency that reviews some of the most prestigious personal training courses.
Aspiring personal trainer organizations must go through a validation process analyzed by experts to ensure they meet a high standard of professionalism, health, welfare, and safety.
Some of the most popular NCCA-certified personal trainer bodies include:
- NASM
- ACE
- NSCA
- ACSM
- NESTA
- NCCPT
- NCSF
At the time of this writing, the AFAA is undergoing the credentialing process and will soon be added to this list.
The ISSA is worth mention as well. While not NCCA-certified, ISSA is accredited through the Distance Education Accrediting Commission (DEAC) and National Board of Fitness Examiners (NBFE), but as we note in our Best Personal Trainer Certification post, these are not as highly regarded as the NCCA.
Getting a Personal Trainer Certification through an Accredited US Company
To get a personal training certification through, for example, NASM or ACE, you have to be 18 or older, have a high school diploma or GED, and be CPR certified. From there, you can visit the website of the organizations to complete the certification process.
You’ll need to get some personal trainer study materials, prepare for the exam, and pass, to get the official license.
For a side-by-side, objective, comparison of the major certification bodies and how to go about choosing which one is right for you, check out the aforementioned blog on personal trainer certifications.
Who Accredited US Company Certifications are best for
If your goal as a trainer is to work in nearly any gym, get strong fundamentals on exercise and exercise science, and even move on to a more entrepreneurial career in personal training, this may be a route for you.
Vocational college and universities also offer accredited personal trainer courses, however, these require different financial commitments as well as time commitments. Opting to complete a personal trainer course through self-study is who this route is best for. If you don’t do well studying on your own and need constant feedback or value a school setting, the next two options may be better for you.
2. Certification via Vocational College
Vocational colleges (also known as vocational schools or trade schools) are brief, career-specific programs that help to quickly prepare you for a career in personal training. These schools partner with accredited certification bodies (ex. NASM) to develop academic programs that are specific to one type of personal trainer certification.
For example, I was a professor at California Healing Arts College (CHAC) for the Personal Fitness Trainervocational program. The objective of this program was to help graduates get into a successful personal training career with NASM certifications. This class offered two programs: one 30 weeks long, 900 clock hours, and 32 credits, and the other 42 weeks long, 900 clock hours, and 32 credits.
These timeframes are fairly standard with vocational schools, as are the opportunity to work in a professional environment while in school (externship).
The courses are in-person as opposed to online, and you can expect an experienced personal trainer as your professor. What is great about vocational colleges is that the entire course is geared towards helping you become a successful personal trainer. Contrast this to going through an accredited certification body or university, where your coursework will be geared strictly towards a certification or will include education outside of personal training, respectively.
The cost of these types of programs generally range from about $15,000 to $20,000 for a 300- to 900-hour course.
Getting a Personal Trainer Certification through a Vocational College
Perhaps the best way to find a vocational college that offers personal trainer courses is through a simple Google search. Then, find the section on Admission Requirements and follow the steps or reach out the college directly for insight.
Who Vocational College Certification is Best for
Compared to the cost of going directly through an accredited US company (generally less than $1,000), vocational colleges can be much more expensive. However, because the entire program is dedicated to helping you perform in all aspects of training, vocational programs tend to create the best trainers.
“because the entire program is dedicated to helping you perform in all aspects of training, vocational programs tend to create the best trainers.”
These programs are best for students who enjoy a school-like setting, the ability to interact with professors and their peers, benefit from hands-on experience, and who might be intimidated by self-study programs. These programs tend to be a lot shorter and less expensive than the final accredited option: going through a university.
3. Certification via University Programs with Bachelors or Masters
The most expensive and time-consuming route for a personal trainer course is by far going through a University. If you opt for this approach, expect 4+ to get a bachelor’s degree and 6+ years if you want a master’s degree.
As mentioned before, your coursework will not be entirely focused on personal training. For the bachelor’s, the first two years will have semi-focused coursework, then the final two years will have a few personal trainer classes sprinkled in. The degree is not in “personal trainer” per se, but rather something like kinesiology.
For example, Louisiana State University (LSU) offers a BS in Kinesiology, with several different areas of concentration including:
- Fitness Studies
- Human Movement Science
- K-12 Health & PE
- Physical Activity and Health
For the Fitness Studies concentration, the focus is to prepare students for careers in “personal training, strength and conditioning, corporate wellness as well as hospital, government and community-based fitness settings.”
Check out the course requirements on this program to see how it mixes general studies (ex. English, math, science, biology) with kinesiology courses and fitness studies concentration courses:
Source: LSU
sIf you were to continue your studies into the graduate level, your master’s wouldn’t be in personal trainer either. It would be a Masters in Kinesiology, or some other specific science (physical therapy, athletic training, exercise physiology).
Getting a Personal Trainer Certification through a University Program
Should you decide that going through a University is the right career path for you, you’ll have to check out the initial admissions requirements of the university you want to attend and apply to get in. Once in, you’ll have to satisfy the coursework for that particular concentration of study. Go to the website’s of the universities with personal trainer-like programs, and get in contact with the school to ensure it matches up with your career goals and to get guidance.
Going through the university route is a bit more daunting than the other accredited options on this list, however, a quick call to the admissions office will help you determine if a program is right for you and how to go about getting in.
Who University Programs are Best for
If you are in a rush to get into the personal training industry and want to get to work fast, it should be obvious that four to six years of school is not going to get you there. This is not to say you can’t xenical orlistat price work on your personal trainer certification with an accredited US company while in college, but if you want to focus on your education this method clearly takes the longest.
University programs tend to be best for people who want to experience college, round out their knowledge in other areas, like the idea of having an actual degree to fall back on, or who want to pursue higher education like a master’s degree.
However, a master’s in Kinesiology or other health and fitness science won’t really get you anywhere as a personal trainer in my experience; this is best suited for those who want to be more involved in research-style work or athletic management-style work. If you just want to be a personal trainer, a master’s degree is likely and overextension of your time and money and is unlikely to attract more clients than a trainer with a bachelor’s, a vocational degree, or a certification from an US accredited program.s
4. Certification via Unaccredited
Online Options
Compared to the previous three options, the title of this approach, “unaccredited online options,” may seem like a terrible choice. However, like many things, it has its place for certain people. I am not one of those people, but perhaps you are!
We learned above about personal trainer credentialing agencies like the NCCA, an organization that stands to uphold standards of professionalism, health, welfare, and safety. These standards are important to gyms and other types of employers, and should be important to you if you want a job at an established fitness institution.
A personal trainer may not be held in the same regard as an attorney with a law degree and who has passed the bar exam, or an accountant who has a CPA recognition, but the credibility behind these certificates is meaningful. With an unaccredited personal trainer certification, you’d kind of be like a person who takes a nutrition class and claims they are a nutritionist.
“if you were trying to get private clients who didn’t care if you had credentials, this certification would be fine.”
On the other hand, if you were trying to get private clients who didn’t care if you had credentials, this certification would be fine. But, like our friend from the forum who speculated that his online certification was a bit too easy, you’d probably be ill-suited to represent personal training and may be doing a disservice to your clients due to your lack of knowledge.
Getting a Personal Trainer Certification through an Unaccredited Online Option
The obvious way to find one of these unaccredited personal trainer courses is by a Google search for “online personal trainer certificate” or some equivalent. If you stumble across an online personal trainer course and are not sure if it is accredited, you’ll probably know because of the inherent low cost of entry. You should also be able to do some research on the site to see if the program is credentialed or not.
Who Unaccredited Online Certifications are best for
Again, this type of certification might work for you if your clients really don’t care about your credentials or if you don’t want to get a job at a formal fitness intuition like a 24-Hour Fitness, L.A. Fitness, or some other professional industry setting.
If you want to do the minimum to have an essentially worthless certificate, an inexpensive, non-credentialed option might be for you.
5. Certification via Gym Program
Most corporate gyms have in-house programs to help their trainers utilize skillsets and approaches that are important to the gym. However, while these programs may help you to progress within a specific gym or brand, they will not necessarily transfer to other gyms and will not mean you are accredited.
“these programs may help you to progress within a specific gym or brand, they will not necessarily transfer to other gyms and will not mean you are accredited.”
One of the best examples we’ve found of an internal gym program is the Equinox Fitness Training Institute (EFTI) available at Equinox gyms. Equinox, like other gyms who offer internal personal training programs, teach you specific skills that relate to Equinox, almost like an internship where the student pays.
There are a lot of pros to this type of program, you’ll learn lots of skills and concepts to help you become a good trainer and benefit from a well-thought education format (as is the case with Equinox). The cons, however, are that you’ll have to pay for a non-accredited program (Equinox charges $1,399 for non-members), you don’t get a personal trainer certification, and the certification of completion you get from the gym won’t transfer to other gyms should you seek employment elsewhere. Furthermore, many of these types of programs want you to get an accredited certification after you complete their program anyway.
To learn more about the Equinox experience, and to give you a good idea of what to expect within these gym-specific programs, we reached out to a friend of ours who was a trainer at an Equinox in New York. Jamie Wolff, now an Integrative Health Coach with Walnut Health, shared some insight regarding her experience at Equinox:
On choosing Equinox?
Jamie, like many trainers looking for some specific PT course or path that would provide her real-life experience, was new to the industry. When she heard Equinox had a training program, she went for it.
“It was the only gym I knew of that really invested education in their trainers – which I needed as a newbie. The beautiful space motivated, as opposed to many other gyms, which are dark and less-than-inspiring.”
On skills learned
Most gym programs will help you learn about sciences like anatomy and physiology, kinesiology, strength and cardiovascular training, and design personal training programs for your clients. The gym program also taught Jamie sales skills that are difficult to come by on your own:
“I was blessed with a wonderful manager (which isn’t always the case) who understood my strengths and weaknesses. But I also learned some basic sales “skills” like the need to move slightly beyond your comfort zone – which helped me.”
On getting an accreditation
Jamie already was NASM-certified before she joined Equinox, but mentioned you can also get hired if you haven’t finished an accreditation course. She did say that the gym had a requirement to get an accredited certification within a few months of completing their program, however.
Getting a Personal Trainer Certification through a Gym Program
Programs like the ones offered at Equinox and other corporate gyms don’t actually provide you with accredited personal trainer certs. As mentioned on the Equinox site, “Equinox Academy is a training program, not a certification.”
With these programs, you get a certificate of completion, not an actual license that is recognized at other gyms.
However, as we learned with Jamie, the experience of working with a gym to hone your skills can be rewarding. If you are interested in this path, contact the local corporate gyms you’re interested working at and inquire about their programs. Similarly, you may be able to find information on these programs online.
Who Gym Programs are best for
Gym programs are best for the personal trainer newbie who wants to be brought into an environment where they will be able to interact with other experienced trainers as well as potential clients. The programs will provide a soft introduction to national certifications and help you establish some knowledge of the coursework within national certs such as exercise science, anatomy, program design, and other concepts.
Many aspiring trainers look to these programs as guaranteed pathways to careers with gyms, however that is not the case. Equinox notes this on their website, and mentions their program is designed to help novice trainers but does not guarantee participants with jobs at their gyms.
Think of the gym program as an introduction to personal training under a live setting.
Which Personal Trainer Course is Right
for You?
Choosing the right personal trainer course is not the same for everyone. The best option really depends on a few important things in your life.
For example, think about your career goals. Do you want to work in a big gym? Start your own coaching business? Or train people online?
You also need to think about time. Some programs can be finished in a few months, while others may take years. Then there is the cost. Some courses cost a few hundred dollars, while others can cost thousands.
Another thing to consider is how you like to learn. Some people enjoy studying on their own online. Others prefer a classroom where teachers guide them step by step. And finally, think about the experience you want before becoming a trainer, because some paths give more hands-on practice than others.
Let’s break down the main paths so you can clearly see which one may fit you best.
Accredited Certification (The Most Popular Path)
For most people who want to start working as soon as possible, a nationally accredited certification is the smartest and most practical choice.
Programs like ACE, NASM, and NSCA are widely accepted in the fitness industry. Many gyms and health clubs look for these certifications when hiring new trainers.
Here’s why this path is popular:
-
You can usually finish the program in 3–6 months
-
The cost is often much lower than college programs
-
Most gyms recognize and trust these certifications
-
You can study online at your own pace
These programs also teach the core skills trainers need, such as:
-
Exercise science basics
-
Workout program design
-
Client safety and injury prevention
-
Basic nutrition guidance
-
Coaching and communication skills
For someone who wants to start training clients quickly and build experience fast, this path is often the best choice.
Vocational College Programs (Structured Learning)
If you prefer a more organized classroom-style environment, a vocational college program might be better.
These programs usually run through fitness schools or technical colleges. They offer structured lessons, regular classes, and sometimes hands-on practice in gym settings.
Benefits of this path include:
-
A clear learning schedule
-
Teachers who guide you through the material
-
Hands-on practice with equipment and clients
-
A more traditional school learning experience
However, these programs often take longer to complete and may cost more than national certification courses.
Still, they can be a good choice if you learn better with direct instruction and real-life training practice.
University Degrees (Long-Term Career Path)
Some people choose to study fitness through a university degree, such as exercise science, kinesiology, or sports science.
This path usually takes three to four years, but it provides very deep knowledge about the human body, movement, and health.
A university path can open doors beyond personal training, including:
-
Strength and conditioning coaching
-
Fitness management
-
Sports performance training
-
Rehabilitation support roles
-
Corporate wellness programs
It’s a strong option if you are already planning to attend college and want to build a long-term career in health, sports, or fitness leadership.
However, it is the most expensive and time-consuming path, so it’s not always necessary if your main goal is simply to start training clients.
Unaccredited Online Courses (Be Careful)
Now let’s talk about the option that often causes problems.
Many websites offer very cheap online personal trainer courses. They promise fast certifications and quick results.
But the problem is simple: many of these programs are not accredited.
This means:
-
Most gyms will not recognize the certificate
-
Employers may refuse to hire you
-
The education may be very basic or incomplete
The only situation where this might still work is if you plan to do private personal training and your clients do not care about formal credentials.
Even then, building trust without recognized education can be very difficult.
So while these courses may look attractive because they are cheap and fast, they often do more harm than good.
Internal Gym Training Programs
Some gyms offer their own internal training programs for new trainers.
These programs can actually be helpful because they allow you to:
-
Learn inside a real gym environment
-
Gain hands-on experience with clients
-
Understand how gyms operate
-
Improve your coaching skills quickly
But there is one big limitation.
Most of these programs do not give you an accredited certification. The training is usually only recognized inside that specific gym.
Because of this, the best strategy is often to combine both paths:
-
Get a nationally accredited certification
-
Gain real experience through a gym training program
This combination can help you build both knowledge and practical skills, which is what great trainers really need.
FAQs:
Do all personal trainer certifications let me work at any gym?
Not all of them. Only accredited ones like NASM, ACE, NSCA, ACSM are widely recognized by gyms and fitness institutions. Unaccredited online courses or internal gym programs usually won’t open the same doors.
What’s the fastest way to get certified?
If your goal is speed and cost-efficiency, going through an accredited US company like NASM or ACE is the quickest route. You can often complete self-paced study and the exam in a few months.
Are vocational college programs worth it?
Absolutely if you prefer hands-on learning, school structure, and mentorship. They’re more expensive and take longer than self-study certifications, but they prepare you thoroughly for a career in personal training.
Should I get a university degree to become a personal trainer?
Only if you want a broader education, managerial opportunities, or advanced research roles. A bachelor’s or master’s in kinesiology is time-consuming and costly and isn’t required to become a competent personal trainer.
Can I do private training with an unaccredited online certification?
Yes but only if your clients don’t care about formal credentials. These courses are inexpensive and fast but won’t be recognized by gyms or professional institutions, and the knowledge may be limited.
What about internal gym programs?
Gym programs, like Equinox Academy, are great for experience and skill-building in a live environment, but they don’t provide an accredited certification. Often, gyms require you to pursue a national certification alongside their program.
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