So you want to become a Gym Instructor? In order to become a Gym Instructor you must have a keen interest in health and fitness and experience of using a gym. You certainly don't need to be an Adonis or have a catwalk figure. One of the most important attributes required by a Gym Instructor is people skills.

Gym Instructors, sometimes called Fitness Instructors will ordinarily supervise exercise sessions and techniques and design very basic exercise programmes for their clients. Occasionally Gym Instructors may be required to conduct a range of fitness assessments, provide nutritional advice and design exercise programmes over extended periods of time.

In the UK, if you want to be a Gym Instructor, you must hold YMCA Level 2 Fitness Instructor qualification; this can be completed in the context of Gym Instructor or Exercise to Music Instructor. Once you have qualified at level 2, you will then become eligible to progress onto the YMCA Level 3 Personal Trainer course- this course can be completed via distance-learning with some brief attendance or via direct delivery. Distance-learning courses tend to be much cheaper and with the quality of e-learning resources that are available, their quality is not reduced.

Once you become qualified as a Gym Instructor, you will be eligible to practice with clients; you will also be permitted to join the Register of Exercise Professionals (REPs) which will give you professional credibility. You will however need to purchase public liability insurance before you start to work with clients- this will cover you in the event that they injure themselves.

When selecting a training provider to deliver your fitness industry training, ensure that they deliver accredited, recognised awarding body qualifications and not just training courses. All qualifications will have an awarding body like Central YMCA Qualifications, City and Guilds and OCR- you should avoid like the plague companies that offer their own training courses as these are unlikely to have been quality controlled