This service industry offers excellent career opportunities for young people as well as retired sports professionals and champions
With millions of people from all walks of life including celebrities and senior citizens eager to lose weight and get into shape, fitness training is a rapidly growing career in India’s fast-track health and wellness industry whose aggregate annual revenue is estimated at a whopping Rs.2,000 crore. Demand for qualified professionals including aerobics and yoga instructors, and personal and corporate trainers, is spiralling and this service industry offers excellent career development opportunities for young people as well as retired sports professionals and champions.
Fitness trainers are in demand in gyms, hotels, health clubs, fitness centres, spas, tourist resorts and even cruise liners. After acquiring work experience, a fitness professional could set up an owned bodyworks centre, or organise on-site wellness and fitness programmes for large corporates. The basic qualifications required for a career (or second career) in health and fitness training are a well-maintained physique, and good knowledge of the human anatomy, diet, nutrition and modern gym equipment.
Obviously, to acquire knowledge and information related to health and fitness training, signing up for a certification programme is advisable. For instance, the Mumbai-based K11 Fitness Academy which has branches in Pune, Bhopal, Delhi, and Indore has established a good reputation for providing health and fitness teacher training. Although a certificate course from a reputed training academy is adequate, more ambitious trainers are signing up in droves for undergraduate and postgrad degree programmes in physical education offered by a rising number of specialist colleges and universities affiliated with the Sports Authority of India.
Although employment opportunities for qualified trainers are multiplying, entry level pay scales for fitness trainers tend to be modest ranging from Rs.7,500-15,000 per month. However, pay packets can swell dramatically for trainers with experience, personal style and client-management skills. The most lucrative jobs are of personal trainers to the rich and famous, and professionals signed up by high-end fitness centres, spas and resorts who take home Rs.40,000-2 lakh per month.
“With the health, fitness and wellness industry growing at 15 percent- plus per annum, the demand for certified trainers has skyrocketed. This industry has created a whole new range of fast-track career paths for thousands of young people and former sports champs, while keeping fitness training academies, and sophisticated health and fitness equipment manufacturers busy,” says Rizwan Sayed, founder-director of the Mumbai-based Your Fitness Club Pvt. Ltd (YFC), promoted in 2009 which currently has 14 branches countrywide with an aggregate membership of 50,000 enthusiasts.
“In 2009 there were many premium health clubs in India but none for the middle class. Thus was born Your Fitness Club to bridge the gap between premium clubs and the neighbourhood’s unorganised clubs. YFC offers superior facilities at affordable price,” says Sayed.
A commerce graduate of Mumbai University for whom health and physical fitness was a passion from his school days, Rizwan started a Ritz gym in 1999 while still a student of Rizvi College. While studying for his degree, he acquired a clutch of professional certificates from K11 Fitness Academy in sports nutrition and supplements, and CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) training.
Recipient of a slew of prestigious awards — the Bank of India SME 100 Award, Big Research Business and Service Excellence Award, Arch of Excellence Award from the All India Achievers Conference, New Delhi (2013), among others — Sayed has ambitious plans to establish 100 YFC gyms across India by the end of 2015.
“With lifestyle-related diseases on the rise, the health and fitness industry is sure to expand exponentially. Therefore demand for professionally qualified fitness instructors and trainers is set to keep rising continuously. For youth and sportspersons, this is a great career path which offers the twin benefits of good health and rewarding remuneration,” says Sayed.
Way to go!
Indra Gidwani