Exercise Specialists create exercise plans for clients to help improve their health, especially those dealing with specific health conditions. They are fitness instructors who also help clients perform fitness techniques to keep fit. They mostly work in healthcare settings analyzing patient's fitness to assist them in achieving their health goals. They assess their lifestyle, physical activity patterns, and eating habits to come up with the best exercise plans.
Exercise specialists also work with amateur and professional athletes who want to boost their performance. Here, they perform cardiorespiratory and metabolic function tests to evaluate their physical fitness and capabilities. In order to succeed in their role, exercise specialists should have experience in patient care, teaching ability, listening skills, attention to detail, and communication skills.
Exercise Specialists work 40 hours a week. Their working hours largely depend on their clients' schedules. They may be required to work additional hours in the evenings past working hours, over the weekends, and on public holidays when they have many clients.
Exercise Specialist Overview
Working as an Exercise Specialist
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an exercise specialist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $18.89 an hour? That's $39,285 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 10% and produce 1,500 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does an Exercise Specialist Do
There are certain skills that many exercise specialists have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed detail oriented, interpersonal skills and customer-service skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be an exercise specialist, we found that a lot of resumes listed 16.2% of exercise specialists included patient care, while 9.7% of resumes included customer service, and 8.0% of resumes included fitness programs. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the exercise specialist job title. But what industry to start with? Most exercise specialists actually find jobs in the health care and non profits industries.
How To Become an Exercise Specialist
If you're interested in becoming an exercise specialist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 59.3% of exercise specialists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 28.2% of exercise specialists have master's degrees. Even though most exercise specialists have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become an exercise specialist. When we researched the most common majors for an exercise specialist, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on exercise specialist resumes include associate degree degrees or doctoral degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become an exercise specialist. In fact, many exercise specialist jobs require experience in a role such as internship. Meanwhile, many exercise specialists also have previous career experience in roles such as personal trainer or exercise physiologist.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the right jobs to get there.
Exercise Specialist Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of physical therapy aide you might progress to a role such as physical therapist eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title clinical manager.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for an Exercise Specialist
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Peace Health Exercise Specialist-Cardiac Rehab Exercise Specialist-Cardiac Rehab | Peace Health Peace Health | 11/06/2020 11/06/2020 | $39,63211/06/2020 $39,632 |
Peacehealth Exercise Specialist-Cardiac Rehab Exercise Specialist-Cardiac Rehab | Peacehealth Peacehealth | 11/05/2020 11/05/2020 | $39,63211/05/2020 $39,632 |
Performance Physical Therapy Exercise Specialist Exercise Specialist | Performance Physical Therapy Performance Physical Therapy | 10/27/2020 10/27/2020 | $31,30510/27/2020 $31,305 |
Oregon Health & Science University Exercise Specialist-Relief Exercise Specialist-Relief | Oregon Health & Science University Oregon Health & Science University | 10/10/2020 10/10/2020 | $47,10410/10/2020 $47,104 |
Peace Health Exercise Specialist-Cardiac Rehab Exercise Specialist-Cardiac Rehab | Peace Health Peace Health | 09/24/2020 09/24/2020 | $39,63209/24/2020 $39,632 |
Calculate your salary
Use Zippia's Salary Calculator to see how your pay matches up.
Exercise Specialist Resumes
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming an Exercise Specialist. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write an Exercise Specialist Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Exercise Specialist resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationTop Colleges for Exercise Specialists
1. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC • Public
2. Columbia University in the City of New York
New York, NY • Private
3. University of Florida
Gainesville, FL • Public
4. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
5. San Diego State University
San Diego, CA • Public
6. Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL • Public
7. University of Wisconsin - Madison
Madison, WI • Public
8. University of Connecticut
Storrs, CT • Public
9. University of Washington
Seattle, WA • Public
10. University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
Minneapolis, MN • Public
Top Skills For an Exercise Specialist
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 16.2% of exercise specialists listed patient care on their resume, but soft skills such as detail oriented and interpersonal skills are important as well.
- Patient Care, 16.2%
- Customer Service, 9.7%
- Fitness Programs, 8.0%
- Blood Pressure, 6.7%
- Emergency, 5.9%
- Other Skills, 53.5% See All Exercise Specialist Skills
Best States For an Exercise Specialist
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as an exercise specialist. The best states for people in this position are Alaska, California, North Dakota, and Utah. Exercise specialists make the most in Alaska with an average salary of $58,288. Whereas in California and North Dakota, they would average $53,872 and $52,818, respectively. While exercise specialists would only make an average of $48,421 in Utah, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Alaska
$58,289
Avg. Salary
2. North Dakota
$52,818
Avg. Salary
3. Utah
$48,421
Avg. Salary
How Do Exercise Specialist Rate Their Jobs?
Top Exercise Specialist Employers
Exercise Specialist Videos
