With a health and fitness management degree, you can start your exciting and rewarding career as a personal trainer, group exercise instructor, gym owner, and more! As more Americans continue to emphasize their health and wellness, there’s never been a better time to jump into this growing industry. In fact, experts estimate that this field is expected to grow by 11% over the next decade.
If you’re considering earning a fitness management degree online and want to know how to get started, you’ve come to the right place. Here’s a helpful overview of how to begin your career in fitness management:
Whether taken online or via in-person courses, a fitness management degree allows you to pursue a career in the health and wellness industry.
Degree holders will develop both the knowledge and critical skills to create one-of-a-kind exercise programs, assess each patient’s medical history and needs, and provide nutritional guidance to improve clients’ health and overall quality of life.
While enrolled in an online fitness management degree, you’ll cover important topics such as physical activity and nutrition epidemiology, rest and recovery strategies, social psychology, and advanced exercise prescription. These courses are designed to help you develop the hands-on experience you need to help clients through a commercial gym, rehabilitative center, or other related fitness facility environment.
This degree program is designed to set you off on a path of success and put you directly in front of employers who are looking for your unique skill set. Employers looking to hire those with online fitness management degrees are searching for candidates who not only have the educational requirements for working in this field but have the soft skills such as leadership, excellent communication, an understanding of the psychology of people, as well as the ability to pay close attention to details when developing fitness and nutritional programs.
These soft skills and more are quickly developed when you pursue a health and fitness management degree. And with the average employer only taking about six seconds to review a resume, highlighting these skills will help you rank above the competition.
Now that we’ve gone over what an online fitness management degree is, let’s take a look at the career opportunities you’ll have access to upon graduation because there are plenty!
Here are a few of the other top jobs you can get with an online fitness management degree:
A personal trainer is a very client-facing job. Your daily tasks will include meeting with clients and learning about their personal goals and fitness levels to tailor a unique training program that will help them achieve their goals.
Personal trainers commonly work within a gym setting, though some may work on a contractual basis. One of the coolest aspects of working as a personal trainer is that you get to mark your client’s progress and see your training programs take off. There’s a certain level of personal satisfaction that comes with that!
Perhaps you love health and wellness, but you’re not that interested in doing all that physical activity yourself anymore. In cases like this, why not further your career by stepping into a fitness manager role?
As a fitness manager, you will oversee the personal trainers within a gym or rehabilitative setting and help maintain the facility’s daily operations. With a role like this, you still get to be working in a field you’re passionate about, but in a context that allows you to flex your administrative muscles.
While this is not an exhaustive list, they are just a few of the online fitness management degree jobs you can go out for upon graduation.
If you’ve made it this far, then your next question is likely going to be, “How do I get started in a fitness management career?” And the top answer is to look for quality online fitness management degrees and enroll in school, like Bryan University.
Enrolling in an online fitness management program not only sets you up for success down the line but also helps set you apart from the competition.
The average employer receives about 100 resumes per job opening. And, as mentioned above, with so little time spent reviewing applications, employers are going to seek out buzzwords like “health and wellness fitness degree” when searching to make a hire. This puts you at the forefront of recruiters!
But let’s go back to that first question: How do you get started finding the right school? Here are some factors you should consider when deciding on which college to enroll in:
The health and wellness industry is centered around two things: proper knowledge and technique and people skills.
Being a nutrition coach, for example, requires you to have a firm understanding of anatomy, as well as how to provide nutritional guidance for various populations. An individual’s nutritional needs change as they age. Whereas teenagers tend to need more calories to aid in their development, older adults may have fewer calorie needs due to loss of muscle mass or decreased physical activity. As such, the way you would approach both populations’ nutrient needs is going to vary wildly.
Though this is just one example, it goes to show how you’ll need to develop a deep knowledge of the needs of the population you’re working with. If you’re training to become a personal trainer, for example, you’ll want to enroll in a program that will assign you tasks similar to those you’d perform in your career upon graduation.
In addition to this, you’re also going to want to look for online fitness management degrees that allow you to develop your interpersonal skills.
The health and wellness industry is extremely client-facing, so you’re going to not only have to develop a deep understanding of their needs, but the skills to make them feel comfortable.
While those who engage in the health and wellness industry for a career feel at ease, patients may not always feel comfortable working out or getting professional assistance. You need to possess the interpersonal skills to put them at ease. Doing so will make it easier for them to achieve their goals.
Oftentimes, those who are considering online classes are doing so because it works better with their schedule. If this is you, then finding a program that offers flexible class schedules is paramount to your success. After all, you don’t want to take on too much at once. Otherwise, it could backfire on your ability to pursue a career in this field.
At Bryan University, our online fitness management degrees are split into two courses, at a time, at eight weeks per course.
Furthermore, you want to enroll in a program that will accept the work you’ve already put in. For example, you may have already been working in the health and wellness field or completed your Personal Trainer Undergraduate Certificate or Associate’s Degree in Applied Exercise and Fitness.
If this is the case, and you want to further your education and expand your career opportunities, Bryan University allows you to easily transfer the credits you’ve already earned so you can get a head start on completing your Bachelor’s degree. The sooner you obtain your degree, the sooner you can head out into the workforce.
Are you ready to jumpstart your exciting career as a personal trainer or wellness coach? Did you already complete some credits and want to learn more about transferring them over to your Bachelor’s Degree? If you answered yes to either of these questions, let the staff at Bryan University help!
We take great pride in our online fitness management degrees and are excited to see what lies ahead for you as you take this journey. Contact us today at 1-888-768-6861 to request more info. This rewarding career is only one call away.
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