As personal trainers, we need to get recertified every two years, that means we have to get a set number of CEUs (For more info on CEUs check out this post). For this reason alone it makes it an easy choice to get your nutrition certification, as the NASM course fills 95% of your continuing education quota.
It will set you back $900 though, so is it worth handing over the cash rather than opting for the cheaper courses?
As with most things in personal training and fitness, it mostly comes down to you.
If you have your own training business, then you likely know how to get clients and would have no trouble making use of your flashy new certification.
There’s a ton of opportunity out there for fitness experts that can offer nutrition services.
Here are a few routes you can go down:
Meal plans - The most obvious option is to offer nutrition services to your clients. Training clients often ask about nutrition and even specifically for meal plans anyway, so extending the scope of your services to include nutrition is usually a no-brainer.
Nutrition coaching - Another option is nutrition coaching, this generally includes more of a teaching role as you help your clients become better acquainted with the principles of nutrition and developing their own meal plans.
Clients ideas:
People you already train -They may want to get a better understanding of nutrition so they can achieve their goals, so I’d recommend you make them aware that you also offer these services. (you could even ask your current clients if they’d be interested in diet/nutrition coaching or meal plans, that way you’d have a rough idea of initial interest)
You could organize workshops or seminars - This is definitely a great opportunity to use your nutrition know-how. Organizing workshop allows you to take on several clients at once, meaning more income for you. Workshops and seminars also provide a feeling of security and credibility
Ebooks - Fitness ebooks are extremely popular, they are straightforward to write and publish and offer a source of passive income for a trainer. As with any digital product, you’ll need an audience to sell to. This can come from a social media following, an email list, or paid traffic, but without someone to sell to, your product won’t sell.
Recipes/cookbooks: These can be great options to take advantage of your certification. As with the others, you’ll need an audience to sell to, but it is somewhat passive after the initial work and can provide great value to your customers and clients.
You can also offer the recipe books and ebooks you write as bonuses for your personal training clients as a way to help them achieve their goals or to sign more people up to your workshops.
YouTube/Blog: This one doesn’t necessarily require certification, and requires significant upfront and ongoing work before receiving a payoff, but a nutrition certification does substantially bolster your credibility as an expert.
Everything on this list is easier with an audience. If you aren’t already, you need to be active on social media, at least Instagram and Facebook.
So a nutrition certification can open some doors for you as a fitness professional. In the end it comes down to how much you’re willing to put into it, from improving your current business to setting up online income sources, there’s a ton of opportunity out there.
Since you have to get CEUs anyway, even though it can cost a bit more, you can definitely make a nutrition certification worthwhile.