Do I Need to be Certified to Get Insurance?

do i need to be certified as a trainer to qualify for insurance?

Rating

Insurance (if not-yet-certified)...
by: sportyjk

From a professional liability perspective, you really should NOT be training CLIENTS (people who pay you for your services) until AFTER you're certified as a trainer. You can practice with friends, or on yourself, as you prepare to get certified...
To look at it another way: If you were about to go into a court of law, would you rather be defended by a LICENSED lawyer, or someone whose "applying-for" or "pending" a license?

As personal trainers, we're not required to be licensed by the state (as lawyers, doctors, nurses, even physical therapists and certified athletic trainers are required), which means there's even MORE chance of less-than-qualified people working in our field. A client sometimes becomes overly-concerned about certain aches/pains & if (s)he has a "bad session" with you (BIG area of interpretation on that term!), (s)he may decide to "sue you" ... even for things like "being mean" or "not understanding" or "not achieving the results you promised". Seems outlandish, but it has happened.

Do yourself a favor & 1st get certified (lack-of-income should be a strong motivator!), then immediately apply for professional liability insurance(being a member of a professional trainers' organization like ACE, NASM, ACSM, will generally allow you to enjoy a group discount, partly due to the fact that you had to pass a minimum-qualifying test to be certified).

This is esp. important if you plan on training 1:1 from your own home or from the client's home/outdoors. Not only is it your word-vs-your client's word, if there's an insurance claim, there's likely no witnesses, either. That could be very expensive, very quickly. One claim could put you in debt for a long time.

On the other hand, some fitness clubs or private studio owners may allow you to train clients BEFORE you're actually certified, provided you demonstrate that you are actively working on attaining certification (like setting a test date & getting the training manuals.)... they will temporarily cover you under the club/facility's liability insurance. As a matter of fact, if you only work at a fitness club/studio that already covers its employees with prof'l liability insurance, you will likely NOT need to get your own liability insurance coverage.

Good luck in your new training career!

Rating

You don't need a certification
by: Anonymous

A much shorter answer than the last one...

NO.
You don't need to be certified to have insurance and you don't need to be certified to train.

HOWEVER
This is a slippery slope if you practice without certification or insurance...even with your friends. There is real risk if injury and you will be held liable due to neglegence

Insurance:
Personal Trainer (PT) insurance is just standard liability insurance. You can buy this for your self at any time through any insurance company. You may already have this if you currently have insurance on your home or apartment. PT liability insurance would be MORE and used specifically for your business. Many insurnace companies will ask if you are certified and may not provide coverage for your business if you are not. IF they do it will be a significantly higher premium.

Training with or without a certification:
You don't need a certification to train. However, you do to call your self certified, clearly. There is no regulatory group or agency for trainers. Basically I can create a test...call it a certification and if you take it you are certified...being recognized is a different story. However, if you are going to represent youself as a trainer you should; 1. be certified or be VERY clear that you are not. 2. have insurance.

Rating

YOU DONT NEED TO BE CERTIFIED TO GET INSURANCE
by: Anonymous

The person above just don't know the difference between "SHOULD" and "HAVE TO"... YOU DON'T NEED TO BE CERTIFIED TO GET INSURANCE. The difference is the price. If you are CERTIFIED insurance will cost about 15% less than if you are not...that's all. Actually,recently,being insured is being considered more important than being Certified,since if you are going to get sued,you are going to get sued regardless of you having a Certification or not. I'm Certified and have always been,but i just don't like these people that are always bragging about how being Certified means that you know what you are doing,since I know lots of trainers which are certified by the supposed best Associations and said trainers don't even know how to properly stretch a person,what a periodization works or what plyometric exercises are for.

Go figure...

Go and get your Liability Insurance right now as you have the right to get it even if you are not certified. Once you are covered,you can start helping people and get certified in the process. All this of course,assuming that you know what you are doing. In my personal case,I was a professional athlete with world championship experience,so I was exposed to elite training methods right before I was even considering becoming a trainer,so for me getting certified was more a matter of having the paper,but I was really trained hundreds of people for over 0 years,before I got certified for the first time. If you don't have enough experience,then get certified first,before you train people,but if you actually know what you are doing and you have an athletic background as a base,go ahead get insured and start helping people and keep working on your certification.

There's a reason why there's more obesity in USA while there are way more trainers than before and that reason is: BECAUSE MOST CERTIFIED TRAINERS DO NOT KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING.

Knowledge will bring success...A PAPER WON'T.

Good luck!

Rating

don't need to be discouraged
by: Anonymous

I just needed to agree with this last comment. In my case I also was an athlete but in addition, I was a certified trainer for several years and got out of the field letting my certifications run out though I stayed current with new training practices and philosophies. Now, I am going back into the training profession and need to get certified. I already have a couple clients and need space to rent. So, I need liability insurance to train my clients. And I can't wait to take my cert. Test and wait to get the cert etc. etc. So thank you for that piece of advice. If I wouldn't have kept reading I would have been discouraged. Now where too get the insurance.

Do I Need to be Certified to Get Insurance?

Comments for Do I Need to be Certified to Get Insurance?