How to travel the world as a Personal Trainer

In order to travel the world without a serious amount of money saved up, you’ll need to work throughout your trip. You might think that in order to work in other countries you’ll need to be prepared to work in hospitality or some other menial job, or perhaps be a writer or designer that can work from a laptop anywhere in the world. I’m going to tell you this isn’t the case. More and more people are taking their skill set abroad and finding work. And Personal Training is a skillset that is very appealing to employers the world over.

As a Personal Trainer wanting to travel the world, the first thing you might be thinking is that you won’t know the language of the country you’re planning on travelling to, so how can you train someone? But fear not, it is possible, and you could be living a life in paradise doing the job you love. What’s better than that? Even your travel expenses can be paid by working as a Personal Trainer. Here are some things to be ready for and the types of jobs available to the travelling Personal Trainer.

Are you qualified enough?

Before taking the leap, you’ll want to make sure you are prepared to travel as a Personal Trainer. Firstly, if you don’t have them already, you will need to get your qualifications in Personal Training. With the Australian Fitness Academy our Personal Trainer course will enable you to get qualifications of Cert III & IV in Fitness, which means you can work as a nationally accredited personal trainer. With the Australian Cert III & IV in Fitness you’ll then be able to work in the following countries by using the Global Portability Matrix:

• The Caribbean
• The United States
• South Africa
• United Arab Emirates
• Canada
• New Zealand
• Belgium
• The Netherlands
• Hungary
• United Kingdom
• Ireland
• Lebanon
• Poland
• Most of Europe in fact

That’s not all, though. Your qualifications will be more than enough in many other countries to be hired as a Personal Trainer. On top of that, lots of hotels and resorts that have guests coming from English speaking countries, or any of those countries listed above, will recognise your qualifications and want to hire an English speaking fitness instructor or personal trainer.

Even if your plan is to simply run fitness classes, which in Australia only requires a Cert III in Fitness, it is definitely worth getting both Cert III & IV in Fitness. This will give you a much better chance of employment. It also opens up many more opportunities.

As well as the qualifications mentioned above, you should look to gain some experience leading classes or training clients if you can, although it’s not a requirement for many employers, it will make you more employable.

If you want to lead group classes you could also get qualifications with companies like LesMills or Zumba, as these classes can be quite popular in many countries.

What jobs are out available to a Personal Trainer travelling?

Hotel or Resort Fitness Class Instructor

What many people forget when they think about travelling the world, is that the countries they want to travel often have hotels and holiday resorts built for western and English speaking travellers. Some of which are quite luxurious.

These hotels and resorts often offer daily exercise classes like aerobics, spinning or strength training to their guests and need someone like you to run them. The turnover of staff can be quite quick, as many trainers are travelling the world too. This means jobs often open up frequently. Therefore, if you have the qualifications and some experience teaching classes you can put your name down and start working as a fitness class instructor.

Hotel or Resort Gym Instructor or Personal Trainer

Similar to the above, many luxury hotels or resorts also offer personal training as an option to their guests. Or at least offer a gym that’ll need someone to look after.

As you can imagine, being someone’s Personal Trainer for a short period of time means certain skills are required: you’ll have to be good at assessing a guest’s current exercise program and level of fitness, and then develop a personalised exercise program that will help them maintain their goals and around their holiday.

To find these sorts of jobs, head to big hotelier chains or resort chains, usually more high-end hotels and resorts, and search on their website for careers or jobs. You’ll find numerous jobs available within the fitness realm. And if you get in, there’s a good chance that you’ll be able to hop between their hotels and resorts all over the world.

Cruise Ship Personal Trainer

Again, many cruise ships will offer their guests complimentary personal training sessions, as well as fitness classes. You’ll be able to run these sessions as well as carry out other fitness related jobs like gym and spa orientations.

If you want to travel from one place to another for free, you can use the cruise ship option to get you there. You’ll have free board, food and most of the entertainment available, and many will often pay you too. Just search Google for cruise liner companies and check their websites out for jobs. We have a listing of the Steiner company here who offer these types of jobs.

Travel with a client

If you are lucky, you might be able to get a wealthy client who travels the world. Although these are rare, and you won’t have the choice of where you’re going, if you put out the word that you’re willing to travel and train someone, you might get some bites. Make it known and someone within your network might have a client that wants such a Personal Trainer, and you’ll be recommended. This is a rare job to come across, but if you have that flexibility, it can’t hurt to put the word out.

Fitness Retreats

Also called fitness holidays or wellness breaks. These are purposely designed retreats that focus on a guests’ health whilst they’re away. They are a fairly new phenomenon but are catching on quickly. These types of jobs are great as they are usually hosted in some secluded area. They are a great way to spend a week or two, and if you want to have a positive impact on someone’s life, they are really good for influencing how people approach fitness in their life. Most people who attend these types of holidays are doing so to make big changes.

Local gym jobs

If you’re travelling to major cities around the world, and you already have a job in an international gym chain, or even if you don’t, you shouldn’t struggle to find work in a local gym within the city. These are more likely to be long term positions where you need to build a local client base, but if you’re planning on staying for long periods in each new country, you can do a similar job to what you have at home, but in new and exciting countries. Similarly, if you’re a specialist class instructor you shouldn’t struggle to find classes throughout the city where you can get enough work to fund your stay in that city.

High-end condos

If you travel through some affluent areas, or even if you’re near an affluent area, have a look for some high-end looking condos. Check out if the complex has a gym and if they do, there’s a good chance they’ll offer Personal Training services to their residents. If they don’t they should and you can be that person. Get in contact with the building management or even the doorman or concierge, and you’ll be able to get your name out to the residents and drum up some business.

Other places to look

Simply searching the internet for fitness jobs to travel the world, or fitness jobs at holiday resorts, or personal training jobs abroad can yield some good results. You will also look on job boards like Indeed.com, for fitness related jobs in other countries. There are numerous ways to get yourself a fitness related job to carry out whilst travelling.

Experience to take home

If you’re after an amazing experience for a year—or a longer or shorter period of time—the above jobs offer everything you need to get by and soak up new cultures and environments.

After working in lots of different countries with different trends and having access to training people from many different cultures, when you return to Australia, you will have a strong point of difference from your contemporaries. You’ll have picked up fitness trends that have yet to come over to Australia thus making you a leader in your field. This will help you stand out against other PTs.

You may have also worked in an environment where the clientele changes frequently, meaning that you’ll have been exposed to lots of different people in a very short space of time. This will help you develop your ability to get the best out of different personalities at an accelerated rate, further improving your point of difference and giving you experience beyond your years.

If you’re looking for a job to help you travel the world, get your Personal Training qualifications with the AFA and start your journey today.