Scientific and professional aspects of the personal trainer as a profession

Abstract

Over the past decade more and more people have been visiting fitness and wellness centres with the number of visitors not only numerically increasing, but also encompassing an age range that is much more extended than before. While the younger and relatively narrower spectrum of the population had already been intensively using these sports facilities before the 2000’s, nowadays these establishments provide all kinds of physical and recreational activities for the whole population, ranging from kids’ fitness to functional training and aerobics, water aerobics to yoga and senior training. In these centres we meet individual training opportunities, group classes as well as the personal trainer creating customized workout programs. Those clients looking for a smart solution and interested in an effective way of training will primarily use personal trainers to benefit from professional and safe workouts. Based on the overview of the international professional publication landscape we came to the conclusion that the main focus points examined are: effectiveness of the personal trainer, preservation of the client's health, diversity of institutions providing a great range of qualifications, lack of professional regulation, trainer’s interpersonal competences, female over-representation and discrimination against overweight clients. With these aspects in mind, our aim was to recapitulate the most prominent research results of this dynamically developing field as they all can serve as a baseline for the relevant research in Hungary and finally, as a driver to promote health indicators, fitness and well-being of everyday people that are the working population.