Personal Trainer Resume Templates and Examples (Downloadable)

  • Personal Trainer
  • Certified Personal Trainer
  • Freelance Personal Trainer

Personal Trainer With No Experience

This guide provides expert tips to help you create a results-driven resume highlighting your best personal trainer experience.

Key takeaways: 

  • Use bullet points to showcase your work highlights. Start each bullet point with a strong verb like “created,” “motivated,” or “enhanced.”
  • Spell out the results of your past work as a personal trainer. Describe how your efforts helped the gym or facility achieve its goals.
  • Emphasize your skills relevant to a personal trainer role, such as strength training or client progress monitoring.

How To Write a Personal Trainer Resume

Using a template can help you write an effective personal trainer resume. Your personal trainer resume should usually include these sections:

  • Contact information
  • Profile
  • Key skills
  • Professional experience
  • Education and certifications

1. Share your contact information

Give your full name, phone number, email address, location, and links to any online professional profiles. Ensure your contact information is current so employers can reach you for an interview.

Example

Your Name
(123) 456-7890 | [email protected] | City, State Abbreviation Zip Code | LinkedIn

2. Write a dynamic profile summarizing your personal trainer qualifications

Impress hiring managers at the top of your resume by giving the three to five primary reasons you can excel as their next personal trainer. These key selling points may include your:

  • Years of related work experience
  • Main strengths or specialties in exercise science
  • Work style or approach to customer service
  • College degrees or certifications in your field

Example

Dedicated and certified personal trainer with a strong background in exercise science and kinesiology and over five years of experience in the health and wellness industry. Proven ability to develop personalized fitness plans, monitor client progress, and provide education on exercise techniques and nutrition. Recognized for improving client health outcomes and satisfaction and contributing to company wellness programs.

3. Add a compelling section featuring your personal trainer experience

Please use the experience section to provide detailed examples of your work and success in past personal trainer roles.

Example

Senior Personal Trainer, Johnson & Johnson, New York, NY | January 2020 to present

  • Developed and implemented personalized fitness programs for over 100 clients, improving fitness goals by 25% on average
  • Held educational sessions on fitness, nutrition, and injury prevention, increasing client retention by 30%
  • Tracked client progress, adjusting workout plans as needed and providing consistent feedback and motivation

Resume writer’s tip: Quantify your experience

When possible, use relevant performance data and metrics to show the results you’ve achieved as a personal trainer. Hard numbers put your work in context and give recruiters a better sense of your scope and impact.

Do
  • “Designed and led group fitness classes for university students and staff, increasing class attendance by 20%”
Don’t
  • “Designed and led group fitness classes for university students and staff, increasing class attendance ”

Resume writer’s tip: Tailor your resume for each application

Most organizations rely on some form of applicant tracking system (ATS) to identify qualified candidates for job openings. To get your resume through the initial screening and into the hiring manager’s hands, incorporate keywords from the job posting directly into your profile and skills section.

What if you don’t have experience as a personal trainer?

Writing a resume can be hard if you don’t have real-world experience. But remember, you still have valuable skills and knowledge from your education and training. Highlight any relevant coursework you’ve done or certifications you’ve earned. Also, consider including volunteer work or internships you’ve completed in your field, and emphasize your work ethic and willingness to learn. By focusing on these qualities, you can show how you’d be an asset to any team.

4. Include education and certifications relevant to a personal trainer

With the education and certifications sections, you can show you have a strong knowledge base in your field. Cite any credentials you’ve earned that speak to your abilities as a personal trainer. Following are templates to help you organize this information on your resume (note, years are optional).

Education

Template:

[Degree Name], [School Name], [City, State Abbreviation] | [Graduation Year]
[Relevant coursework or honors]

Example:

Bachelor’s Degree in Kinesiology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL

Certifications

Template:

[Certification Name], [Awarding Organization] | [Completion Year]

Example:

Certified Personal Trainer (CPT), National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM)

5. List personal trainer-related skills and proficiencies

A separate skills section lets you quickly display the different ways you can help clients or add value to an exercise facility. Below, you’ll find a list of key terms and skills to consider for this section:

Key Skills and Proficiencies
Cardiovascular workouts Client progress monitoring
Customer relations Customer retention
Fitness education Fitness training methods
Health and wellness education Injury prevention
Lifestyle modification counseling Nutrition and diet planning
Personalized fitness plans Strength training

Resume writer’s tip: Use descriptive action verbs

One of the best ways to enhance your resume is by starting each bullet point with a strong action verb. Dynamic verbs help you keep the hiring manager’s attention and show the varied nature of your experience. The following list can help you find a good mix of action verbs for your personal trainer resume:

Action Verbs
Created Decreased
Educated Enhanced
Evaluated Fostered
Generated Grew
Improved Increased
Introduced Lowered
Motivated Prevented
Ranked Reduced
Streamlined Trained
Updated Won

How To Pick the Best Personal Trainer Resume Template

A resume is a simple tool for professional communication and should be formatted accordingly. Choose a clear and straightforward template, and avoid any template with elaborate graphics or various colors and font styles. Simple resume design helps a hiring manager scan for relevant information. It also helps you tailor the document to each job application and make updates to your work history going forward.

Personal Trainer Text-Only Resume Templates and Examples

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  • Personal Trainer
  • Certified Personal Trainer
  • Freelance Personal Trainer
  • Personal Trainer With No Experience
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Raymond Ortiz
New York, NY 12345 | (123) 456-7890 | [email protected] | LinkedIn

Profile

Dedicated and certified personal trainer with a strong background in exercise science and kinesiology and over five years of experience in the health and wellness industry. Proven ability to develop personalized fitness plans, monitor client progress, and provide education on exercise techniques and nutrition. Recognized for improving client health outcomes and satisfaction and contributing to company wellness programs.

Key Skills

  • Cardiovascular workouts
  • Client progress monitoring
  • Customer retention
  • Injury prevention
  • Lifestyle modification counseling
  • Nutrition and diet planning
  • Personalized fitness plans
  • Strength training

Professional Experience

Personal Trainer, Johnson & Johnson, New York, NY | January 2018 to present

  • Devise and implement custom fitness and wellness plans for over 100 clients, improving health outcomes and client satisfaction
  • Monitor client progress using advanced fitness tracking software, adjusting workout plans as needed to ensure progress and prevent injuries
  • Conduct regular workshops and one-on-one sessions to educate clients on proper exercise techniques and nutrition, increasing client retention by 20%

Fitness Instructor, Pfizer, Santa Monica, CA | June 2015 to December 2017

  • Created and led group fitness classes, tailoring instruction to each person’s abilities
  • Co-developed a company wellness program that helped decrease employee sick days by 15%
  • Provided nutritional guidance and diet planning to clients, contributing to overall wellness and fitness goals

Education

Bachelor’s Degree in Exercise Science, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA

Associate Degree in Physical Fitness, Santa Monica College, Santa Monica, CA

Professional Development

  • Certified Personal Trainer (CPT), National Academy of Sports Medicine
  • Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS), National Strength and Conditioning Association
  • Fitness Nutrition Specialist (FNS), American Council on Exercise

Why this personal trainer resume example is strong: This resume excels with a prominent skills section showing the different ways the job seeker can add value to an organization.

Frequently Asked Questions: Personal Trainer Resume Examples and Advice

How do you align your resume with a personal trainer job posting?

First, look closely at the job post text and highlight words that are repeated or emphasized. Compare these highlighted phrases to the language you’re using in your resume, particularly the profile and key skills sections. Then, seek ways to align your resume language with the job posting while not copying phrases or misstating your background.

For example, if the organization seeks someone collaborative, call out that aspect of your experience in your profile. Or say the gym has many non-English speaking members. Highlight your foreign language skills both in your profile and as a separate section farther down the document. With adjustments like these, you can make your resume more relevant to each opportunity.

What is the best personal trainer resume format?

The combination or hybrid format, which merges a functional resume's profile section with a chronological resume's experience section. Most modern resumes (including the three on this page) follow this format because it gives hiring managers the clearest view of an applicant's strengths and work history.

Expert advice:

Include a cover letter with your resume

A good cover letter makes a valuable addition to most job applications. To write a standout letter, get specific. Tell the hiring manager why you’re interested in their organization and the specific personal trainer role they hope to fill.

Andrew Stoner

Executive Resume Writer and Career Coach

Andrew Stoner is an executive career coach and resume writer with 17 years of experience as a hiring manager and operations leader at two Fortune 500 Financial Services companies, and as the career services director at two major university business schools.

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