New research, new equipment and new client expectations keep changing what a personal trainer is expected to know. This guide covers what CPD actually is, what it does for your career, how to choose a subject that matches demand where you work, and what to check before you pay.
David Francis
Head of Education · 20 December 2024 · 8 min read
Reviewed by
Victoria Zimmer
Two decades in Pilates, and the author of Create's yoga course
For more information on our content creation process, view our Editorial Policy.
New research, new equipment and new client expectations keep changing what a personal trainer is expected to know. Continuing professional development (CPD) is how you keep pace with that, and it is also how you turn general coaching into something specific you can be booked for.
This guide covers what CPD actually is, what it does for your career, how to choose a subject that matches demand where you work, and what to check before you pay. Create’s short courses and specialist awards are listed on the CPD course listing.
Any structured learning you do after your main qualification, to keep your practice current or to add a new skill. In fitness the label covers two different things. Some CPD courses are regulated qualifications in their own right, awarded at a level, for example a Level 3 award in exercise referral. Others are short courses recognised by the sector rather than sitting on a qualifications framework. Both count as CPD. They are not interchangeable when an employer or a referral scheme asks what you hold, so check which one a course is before you buy it.
The health and fitness sector is research led at its best. Sports science keeps producing new data, and the practical advice that follows from it changes. Staying current is the baseline reason for CPD, and on its own it is not a very persuasive one, because clients do not buy currency.
What they do buy is relevance. A client managing a knee problem, a client six weeks post partum, a client referred by their GP and a client who has never lifted a weight all want a trainer who has trained for their situation specifically. CPD is how you become that trainer for a defined group of people, rather than a generalist hoping the enquiry fits.
That has three practical effects. You keep more of the clients you already have, because you can follow them through changes in health and circumstance instead of referring them away. You attract enquiries you would previously have declined. And you become easier for other professionals to refer to, which is the cheapest lead source in the industry.
| CPD area | Clients it helps you work with | What it adds to your service |
|---|---|---|
| Older adults | Clients in later life, including those managing age related conditions | Programming and communication for a group that makes up a large share of gym memberships |
| Pre and post natal | Clients through pregnancy and the months after birth | A referral route from midwives, physiotherapists and local groups, and a reason clients stay with you through a life change |
| Menopause | Clients managing perimenopause and menopause symptoms | Training and nutrition support through a stage most female clients will go through |
| GP exercise referral | Clients referred by a health professional with a managed condition | Access to referral scheme work through health services and leisure operators |
| Kettlebells | General population and small group clients | A tool set you can run in a small space, outdoors or in a client's home |
| Circuit sessions | Groups rather than one to one | Group income that does not scale with the hours in your diary |
| Mental health awareness | Any client, particularly those training for wellbeing rather than performance | Confidence in conversations you are already having, and clearer boundaries on when to signpost |
| Lower limb injuries | Clients returning from knee, ankle or hip problems | Safer progressions, and a shared language with physiotherapists |
CIMSPA is the chartered institute for the UK sport and physical activity sector, and it publishes the professional standards that many employers use as a benchmark when they hire. Where a course maps to one of those standards, or is awarded by a regulated awarding organisation, it carries recognition beyond the provider who wrote it. That is what makes it worth putting on a CV or in front of a referral partner.
It also cuts the other way. A certificate that no employer recognises is a receipt, not a qualification. Before you pay for any CPD, find the awarding organisation or the standard it maps to on the course page. Every course in Create’s CPD range states what it is and how it is assessed.
The most common mistake is picking the subject you find most interesting rather than the one your market is short of. Both can be true at once, and when they are, that is your course. When they are not, demand wins.
If your enquiries keep coming from people managing a health condition, start with Level 3 GP exercise referral, because it opens work that comes to you through health services rather than through advertising. If you work in a gym with an older membership, training older adults is the highest use of your time. If most of your clients are women in their forties and fifties, exercise and nutrition for the menopause and pre and post natal support cover most of what they will ask you.
If the constraint is your diary rather than your client mix, look at group delivery. Instructing circuit sessions and instructing kettlebells both let you serve more people per hour. And if the gap is the business rather than the coaching, the PT Business Accelerator deals with pricing, marketing and retention directly.
First, the entry requirements, because some CPD is written to build on a Level 3 qualification and assumes you hold it. Second, who awards or recognises the course, because that is what an employer or a referral scheme will ask about.
A specialist service can be priced separately from general personal training, because it is not the same product. What you can actually charge depends on your location, your client base and how visible you are, so treat CPD as a route to a wider and more defensible offer rather than as a guaranteed uplift on your hourly rate.
Employability is more clear cut. When a gym or a leisure operator is choosing between two Level 3 trainers, the one who can also take the referral clients, the pre and post natal clients or the older adult classes is the one who fills more of the timetable. That is a straightforward argument to make at interview, and it is easier to make with a certificate behind it.
Retention is the part most trainers underestimate. Clients leave when their circumstances change and their trainer cannot follow them. Every specialism you add is one fewer reason for someone to go elsewhere.
List the enquiries and clients you have turned away or referred on in the last six months. The pattern is your shortlist.
Look at what the other trainers near you advertise, and more usefully at what none of them do.
A single specialism you can explain clearly is easier to market than three you mention in passing.
Before you pay, not after. Some courses assume you already hold a Level 3.
Decide the service, the session format and where the enquiries will come from while you are studying, so you launch the week you qualify.
Expanded with a guide to choosing a specialism, a comparison of CPD against a further qualification, and answers to the questions we are asked most. Course links updated to Create's current course pages.
David Francis
Head of Education
David has 15 years in the fitness industry, from personal trainer to higher education lecturer. He holds an MSc in Strength and Conditioning, managed the Level 3 programme at YMCAfit and led seven higher education sport programmes at Moulton College.
Reviewed by Victoria Zimmer, Two decades in Pilates, and the author of Create's yoga course.
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