4 Personal Trainer Resume Examples & Templates for 2025

Personal trainers are fitness professionals dedicated to helping clients achieve their health and wellness goals through tailored exercise programs and nutritional guidance. They work in various settings, including gyms, fitness centers, and private practices. Personal trainers must have strong interpersonal skills, technical knowledge of fitness principles, and the ability to motivate and inspire clients. 

Welcome to today’s training. We’ll be building a jaw-dropping personal trainer resume, and together, we’ll get there in no time. Ready?

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Personal Trainer Resume Example

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Entry-Level / Junior Personal Trainer Resume Example

Junior personal trainers must possess strong interpersonal skills, technical knowledge of fitness principles, and the ability to motivate and inspire clients. Crafting a resume for an entry-level personal trainer involves highlighting these skills, along with relevant certifications and achievements.

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Mid-Level Personal Trainer Resume Example

A mid-level personal trainer has several years of experience and a proven track record of helping clients achieve their fitness goals. They may have specialized in certain fitness areas and often take on more responsibilities, such as leading group classes and mentoring junior trainers.

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Senior Personal Trainer Resume Example

A senior personal trainer is a seasoned professional with extensive experience and a strong reputation in the fitness industry. They have a track record of successful client transformations and often take on leadership roles, such as managing fitness programs or training other trainers.

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Resume Templates for Personal Trainers

We’ve analyzed 11 million resumes made in the Zety Resume Builder, and here are the 2 most chosen templates for coaches’ resumes:

Cascade

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Cascade is one of our best resume templates and it will work magic for your personal trainer resume. It’s creative but also professional. Hints of colors and a bar containing some additional information only boost the readability. Great choice for all pros who want to get noticed!

Concept

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Concept is a unique resume template. Why is that? See the bar on the left-hand side? It includes only dates of your employment and education, leaving the entire right side of the document for all the details, allowing you to highlight your progress perfectly.

Diamond

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A gem in our vault, Diamond is a modern resume template that uses creative resume icons to catch the attention of the reader. A might header will only help you highlight your contact details, and the amount of white space will make reading the entire resume easier. Choose this template and creating an eye-catching resume will be easier than a single push-up.

How to Write a Personal Trainer Resume:

1. Format Your Resume for a Personal Trainer Properly

Creating a solid training plan is key for personal trainers to help clients reach their fitness goals. Similarly, having a well-formatted resume is crucial for your job search. Just like a good training plan sets up fitness success, a well-organized resume sets you up for landing your dream job.

Here’s how to format a resume for a personal trainer:

• Follow the reverse-chronological resume format, listing your most recent achievements first and going backward with the previous ones.
• Add subheadings to make your resume more readable.
• Select a professional font and set its size to 11–12 points.
• Adjust the resume margins to 1 inch on each side of the page.
• Make a single-lined spacing in the text.
• Include all the following sections:
• Resume Header (with your contact info)
• Resume Profile
• Experience
• Education
• Skills
• Extra sections
• Keep the right resume length. A one-page resume is good, but sometimes you might need a two-page resume to highlight all your impressive qualifications.
• Save your resume as a PDF file unless another type of file is required.

See what your resume should look like to impress your future clients. Visit our guide: Best-Looking Resume in 2025

2. Prep Your Resume to Fit the Coaching Job Description

Are you aware that the employment of fitness trainers is about to grow by 14% in the upcoming years? It's way faster than the average! But no matter the amount of job offers—you still need a great resume work experience section.

Here’s how to ace it:

• Start with your latest job.
• Include a job title, company, and dates.
• Show relevant achievements. 
• Quantify whenever it’s possible.
• Add resume power words to boost the readability once more.

Before we move on, let’s see these power words:

Action Verbs for Personal Trainers

• Developed
• Conducted
• Tracked
• Provided
• Led
• Motivated
• Ensured
• Maintained
• Collaborated
• Designed
• Implemented
• Trained
• Increased
• Managed
• Consulted

Now, let’s see how they work in your resume keywords:

Resume Keywords for Personal Trainers

• Develop personalized fitness plans
• Conduct fitness assessments
• Track client progress
• Provide nutritional guidance
• Lead group fitness classes
• Motivate clients
• Ensure proper form and technique
• Maintain client records
• Collaborate with healthcare professionals
• Design rehabilitation programs
• Implement fitness workshops
• Train and mentor junior trainers
• Increase client retention
• Manage fitness equipment
• Conduct client consultations

Pro Tip: As a personal trainer, you probably have a lot of freelance work up your sleeve. To show it on a resume, follow the instructions above, replacing the company name with “Freelance personal trainer.”

3. Add Education to Your Personal Trainer Resume

Adding an education section to your resume might seem unnecessary. But so does leg day for so many gym clients, right? So if you want a 100% in-shape resume, never skip that part.

Here’s what to include on your personal trainer resume education section

• Earned Degree
• Minors and Majors
• City and State of Your School
• Date of Graduation (unless you’re still studying, in this case, expected graduation date)

Here’s what you can also include:

• Appropriate Coursework
• Relevant Awards
• Extracurricular Activities
• Sport’s Achievements
• Honor Societies
• Impressive GPA (that’s 3.5 or higher)
• Latin Honors
• Studying Abroad

Haven’t graduated and don’t plan to finish your degree in the near future? That’s totally fine! Just make sure to state your education on a resume still properly. Visit our guide to learn how it’s done: Unfinished Education On a Resume

4. Show Skills in Your Personal Trainer Resume

Time to show the skills you have. After all, you need a complex set of skills that combines hard and soft skills. Let’s see what they can be.

Personal Trainer Resume Skills

Hard Skills

• Fitness Assessment 
• Yoga 
• Creating Exercise Programs 
• Weight Training 
• Exercise Physiology 
• Aerobics Training 
• Spin Classes 
• Record Keeping 
• Trail Running 
• Safety Techniques 
• Road Biking 
• Nutrition 
• Swim Training 
• Specific Fitness Trends 
• Free Weights 
• CrossFit 
• Step Classes 
• Pilates 
• Zumba

Soft Skills

• Interpersonal Skills
• Critical Thinking
• Leadership Skills
• Discipline
• Empathy
• Time-Management Skills
• Problem-Solving Skills
• Communication Skills
• Organizational Skills
• Active Listening
• Motivation 
• Personal Development 
• Creativity 
• Business Acumen 
• Coaching Methods 
• Patience 
• Adaptability 
• Flexibility 
• Fitness Knowledge 
• Personal Development

As you can see, there are a lot of hard skills and a lot of soft skills you can include in your resume. Make sure to have a mixture of these two types. I know it might be easier to think of your hard skills, but it’s soft skills matter a lot!

Also, don’t list all your skills! Instead, pick only those you’ve found in the job offer. And if you’re working as a freelance personal trainer, choose only those that you feel are your biggest strengths.

As a personal trainer, you also need a great set of, no surprise, personal skills. See what they include: Personal Skills for a Resume

5. Include Extra Sections in Your Personal Trainer Resume

Including some additional resume sections shows your personality, backs some of your soft skills and can really boost your chances of impressing your future client. Plus, these can work as great conversation starters, which is extremely helpful when in a short break between burpees!

Here are some sections to consider adding to your personal trainer resume:

• Memberships and Associations
• Relevant Certifications (i.e. NASM Certified Personal Trainer, AED/CPR, etc.)
• Fitness Activities
• Projects
• Awards and Honors
• Conventions
• Volunteer Work
• Hobbies and Interests
• Language Skills

There are more useful resume tips. See them here: 50 Best Resume Tips for 2025

6. Write a Personal Trainer Resume Objective or Resume Summary

In my HR report, I’ve found that people don’t look at a resume for too long. No matter how much time you spend writing a resume, always include a brief summary in your resume profile.

There are two types:

• A professional summary for personal trainers with more than two years of relevant experience.
• A career objective for personal trainers with less than two years of training others.

Here’s how to write them both:

Coach Resume Summary

Coach Resume Objective

If you’re handling a freelance personal trainer resume, just replace the company with what you want to do for your clients.

Need some extra inspiration for your resume? Visit my guide: Inspirational Quotes for Your Resume

7. Add a Cover Letter to Your Personal Trainer Resume

Always include a cover letter to your resume. It shows that you’re willing to walk the extra mile for a better effect. And that’s definitely a quality we desire from our personal trainers!

Here’s how to write a cover letter:

• Start a cover letter strongly with your biggest achievement.
• Prove that you’re the right fit for the job by listing more relevant achievements.
• Keep the right cover letter length. Anything longer than a page is too long.
• Format your cover letter, making it consistent with the way your resume looks.
• End your cover letter by offering a date and a place to meet and discuss how you can help them achieve what they want. 
• Send a follow-up email in three days if you haven’t heard back from them.

I’ve got something extra for you to finish our training. Visit my guide: How to Write a Personal Trainer Cover Letter in 2025

Plus, a great cover letter that matches your resume will give you an advantage over other candidates. You can write it in our cover letter builder here. Here's what it may look like:

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See more cover letter templates and start writing.

Looking for other jobs in well-being and healthcare too? You might want to have a look at one of our other guides:

• Dietary Aide Resume
• Yoga Teacher Resume
• Physical Therapy Resume
• Physical Therapy Aide Resume
• Health Coach Resume
• Massage Therapist Resume
• Caregiver Resume
• Athlete Resume
• Coaching Resume
• Professional Resume Samples

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This article has been reviewed by our editorial team to make sure it follows Zety's editorial guidelines. We’re committed to sharing our expertise and giving you trustworthy career advice tailored to your needs. High-quality content is what brings over 40 million readers to our site every year. But we don't stop there. Our team conducts original research to understand the job market better, and we pride ourselves on being quoted by top universities and prime media outlets from around the world.

Sources

• Bureau of Labor Statistics: Fitness Trainers and Instructors
• TestGorilla’s The State of Skills-Based Hiring 2024