How To Become A Fitness Manager: What It Is and Career Path

What is a fitness manager and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Fitness managers are professionals that specialize in assisting customers or clients in accomplishing their goals in lifestyle and health. Primarily, as a fitness manager, you are responsible for recruiting and training personal trainers in their job duties respectively. Also, you must prepare schedules and work assignments weekly for fitness trainers. In addition, you must ensure that clients are treated to high-quality services and assistance when they need them.

As a fitness manager, you must ensure that the gym facility is kept safe, orderly, and clean. It is also a part of your duties to ensure that the equipment in the gym is maintained in good working condition. You must monitor the initial workouts of new clients and get feedback.

To be a successful fitness manager, you must possess customer service skills, communication skills, and listening skills. Educationally, you must hold at least a bachelor's degree in kinesiology or other relevant fields. You will earn an average salary of $59,351 in a year.

ScoreFitness ManagerUS Average

Salary

3.5

Avg. Salary $44,522

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

4.4

Growth rate 19%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.66%

Asian 7.72%

Black or African American 7.68%

Hispanic or Latino 12.88%

Unknown 4.70%

White 66.36%

Gender

female 34.67%

male 65.33%

Age - 47

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 47

Stress level

4.4

Stress level is moderate

7.1 - high

Complexity level

7.3

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

10.0

Work life balance is excellent

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a fitness manager

Explore fitness manager education requirements

Most common fitness manager degrees

Bachelor's

68.2 %

Associate

13.9 %

Master's

9.3 %

Start to develop specific fitness manager skills

Skills	Percentages
CPR	28.53%
Cleanliness	13.78%
Program Design	10.47%
Fitness Programs	5.48%
Direct Reports	5.13%

Research fitness manager duties and responsibilities

Supervise hiring and managing of personal trainers and group exercise instructors, including payroll information.
Establish a CPR and AFAA Pre-Training for instructors to comply with industry standards.
Individualize exercise prescription plan development and implementation, facility maintenance, payroll management, sales, recreation programming
Answer phones, handle any complaints and make sure everything run smoothly in the gym.

Apply for fitness manager jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a fitness manager job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do fitness managers rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Fitness manager reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Oct 2019

Pros

I love and believe in Fitness. I like I can do what I love and make great money. I love working around people. I love keeping a healthy lifestyle.

Cons

There is nothing I don't like.