Youth fitness training is an amazing niche for trainers to explore, given that it allows you to work closely with talented young people, develop interesting approaches and techniques to health and fitness, and make them build long-lasting habits that they can sustain throughout their lives.
You might be working in a school as part of PE training and health, as a coach, or as a certified personal trainer specializing in this niche, dealing with clients of all ages and fitness levels and with varied requirements.
Whether you’re offering youth fitness training in general or working as a certified fitness trainer with youth athletes, here are some key dos and don’ts that you should keep in mind:
Do incorporate varied exercises and movements
To create a successful workout program for youth fitness clients, you need to focus on incorporating a variety of movements and exercises that enable you to work on various aspects of fitness, including stability, strength, muscle-building, stamina-building, cardiovascular health, weight management, and more.
Don’t focus extensively on weightlifting
Weightlifting is not ideal for youth fitness clients, especially those in their growing years. Instead, you can use the knowledge you develop in your exercise instructor certification, developing workouts that incorporate bodyweight movements and other strength-building equipment like resistance bands, medicine balls, free weights, and light dumbbells that will not stress their bodies out.
Do: have certain goals and outcomes in mind
When working with young clients, you should set a few goals and outcomes that you base your training sessions around. This will provide you with clear objectives and structure to your workout plans, whether to improve athletic performance, help kids understand fitness and nutrition, encourage movement in daily life or other more serious goals such as weight management for obesity prevention. Goal-setting encourages your trainees and clients to aim for something tangible, achievable, realistic, and within their reach, and a clear direction on getting there.
Don’t force clients to develop unhealthy habits
However, while setting goals and outcomes to achieve, you should also be careful because you’re working with an incredibly vulnerable, impressionable group of individuals. Never pressurize them into taking shortcuts or developing unhealthy habits such as starving themselves, exercising excessively, depriving themselves of treats and balanced foods, aspiring to look a certain way, or resorting to extreme measures to get ‘healthier.’
The habits and conditioning we experience as young children and adolescents often shape our lifelong relationship with food and exercise.
Do try to make exercise fun and engaging
When you become a certified exercise instructor for youth fitness, one of your biggest challenges will be to make exercise fun and engaging. Try incorporating play and making workouts centered around games, add fun competitive elements, and keep it engaging.
This will help build a positive association between exercise and health, even if it’s for competitive training or more stringent purposes. There are several ways fitness trainers can do this, including a healthy reward system, using healthy competition, setting varied goals, and trying out different types of exercise to keep it from getting boring.
Don’t make exercise a daunting, overwhelming thing
Simultaneously, ensure that you’re not turning fitness and exercise into something daunting, overwhelming, and terrifying for your clients. You don’t want them to be afraid of working out or dreading any exercise.
Instead, you want them to look forward to it, be curious about the benefits of working out, and want to do better by themselves. Instead of using exercise to punish them for eating a hamburger or not performing their best in a sport, treat it as a safe avenue and space to express and explore their emotions, feel their best, and use it as a healthy mechanism. Be very careful in how you talk about exercise to young people and the affiliations you create.
Do teach them how to nourish and nurture their bodies
One major aspect that youth fitness trainers need to focus on is teaching young adults and children how to nourish and nurture their bodies. While you can separate nutritional advice from fitness training for older clients, it’s harder to categorize that way for younger ones. Join a fitness trainer program that teaches you about nutrition, so you have the right knowledge and insights when working with clients and make it educational. The sooner they learn about the benefits of food and the importance of good nutrition, the better it will be for them in the long run.
Don’t use fear when talking about food and nutrition
However, when you do teach them how to nourish themselves, the best foods to eat, and how to make healthier choices, do so without fear-mongering or demonizing their favorite foods. Fear is never a good motivator when talking about food and should not be your go-to strategy. Instead, talk about food more neutrally, emphasizing eating a well-balanced diet and developing a healthier relationship with nutrition. Often young kids are prone to eating disorders and developing negative relationships with nutrition in their teens and adolescence, and your role as a fitness trainer can break that cycle for many.
Youth fitness training is a very important and highly specialized niche that deals with a segment of the population whose exercise needs are highly specific. You can join W.I.T.S. Education’s fitness trainer education programs which offer you advanced training and specialization in youth fitness trainers. They help certified fitness trainers develop a wide range of skills that make them more employable, carve out niche services, and provide them with the education to advance their careers.
About the Author
Marlin K. is a fitness trainer and educator specializing in adolescent and childhood fitness, helping clients in high school and below develop a healthy, positive relationship with exercise, grow an interest in nutrition, and find ways to move their bodies.
