What does a fitness manager do?
A fitness manager specializes in helping clients to fulfill their goals in health and lifestyle. Typically working in gyms and health facilities, they oversee fitness classes and supervise personal trainers to ensure efficiency and client satisfaction. They also participate in developing workout plans and programs, manage the facility's budget and schedules, offer gym memberships to potential clients, and monitor the conditions of equipment to ensure everyone's safety. Furthermore, as a manager, it is essential to lead and encourage the team to reach goals, all while implementing the facility's policies and regulations.
Fitness manager responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real fitness manager resumes:
- 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.
Fitness manager skills and personality traits
We calculated that 29% of Fitness Managers are proficient in CPR, Cleanliness, and Program Design. They’re also known for soft skills such as Customer-service skills, Communication skills, and Listening skills.
We break down the percentage of Fitness Managers that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- CPR, 29%
Conduct regular checks over space and equipment; enforce safety guidelines; maintain CPR certification and Red Cross Safety Drill qualifications
- Cleanliness, 14%
Managed staff of fitness Instructors and maintained the cleanliness and proper operation of corporate fitness facility equipment.
- Program Design, 10%
Facilitated district-wide training for club management on fitness program design.
- Fitness Programs, 5%
Established cross departmental integration with hospital staff, doctors and physical therapists for medical integrated fitness programs within the fitness center.
- Direct Reports, 5%
Conducted regular meetings with direct reports to review performance and offer guidance and motivation toward achieving individual and company goals.
- Punctuality, 5%
Ensured trainers and team members were consistent in punctuality, dress code, compliance, and customer service.
Common skills that a fitness manager uses to do their job include "cpr," "cleanliness," and "program design." You can find details on the most important fitness manager responsibilities below.
Customer-service skills. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a fitness manager to have is customer-service skills. Their role and responsibilities require that "many fitness trainers and instructors sell their services, motivating clients to hire them as personal trainers or to sign up for the classes they lead." Fitness managers often use customer-service skills in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "enforced fitness center policies and ensured cleanliness of fitness equipment and customer safety. "
Communication skills. Another soft skill that's essential for fulfilling fitness manager duties is communication skills. The role rewards competence in this skill because "fitness trainers and instructors must be able to clearly explain exercises that they demonstrate to clients." According to a fitness manager resume, here's how fitness managers can utilize communication skills in their job responsibilities: "demonstrate and utilize outstanding communications skills for the purpose of member retention and class enjoyment. "
Listening skills. Another skill that relates to the job responsibilities of fitness managers is listening skills. This skill is critical to many everyday fitness manager duties, as "fitness trainers and instructors must listen carefully to what clients tell them in order to determine the clients’ fitness levels and desired fitness goals." This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "coached, counseled, & communicated- 300 emails with members, staff, & group fitness instructors daily. "
Motivational skills. For certain fitness manager responsibilities to be completed, the job requires competence in "motivational skills." The day-to-day duties of a fitness manager rely on this skill, as "to keep clients coming back for more classes or to continue personal training, fitness trainers and instructors must keep their clients motivated." For example, this snippet was taken directly from a resume about how this skill applies to what fitness managers do: "provided exceptional customer service in an energetic environment, and provided enthusiastic and motivational support for all clientele. "
Physical fitness. A commonly-found skill in fitness manager job descriptions, "physical fitness" is essential to what fitness managers do. Fitness manager responsibilities rely on this skill because "fitness trainers and instructors must be able to lead classes and to demonstrate exercises to participants or their clients." You can also see how fitness manager duties rely on physical fitness in this resume example: "conducted personal training and pilates department fitness operations. "
Problem-solving skills. Another skill commonly found on fitness manager job descriptions is "problem-solving skills." It can come up quite often in fitness manager duties, since "fitness trainers and instructors must evaluate members’ or client’s fitness levels and create appropriate fitness plans to meet their needs." Here's an example from a resume of how this skill fits into day-to-day fitness manager responsibilities: "perform administrative duties such as payroll, employee scheduling, performance reviews, client retention, and conflict resolution. "
The three companies that hire the most fitness managers are:
- AEA Investors33 fitness managers jobs
- Anytime Fitness17 fitness managers jobs
- Texas Family Fitness13 fitness managers jobs
Compare different fitness managers
Fitness manager vs. Manager/personal trainer
A manager/personal trainer performs fitness training, human resource management, and sales in a single job role. First-aid certification is one of the main requirements for the role. The responsibilities of this role are teaching and evaluating a trainer's performance, offering feedback based on the results of the evaluation, creating a workout plan that works for the client, advising the client on nutrition and exercise, and ensuring that health and safety regulations are adhered to when working with equipment.
While similarities exist, there are also some differences between fitness managers and manager/personal trainer. For instance, fitness manager responsibilities require skills such as "direct reports," "strong customer service," "kids," and "timekeeping." Whereas a manager/personal trainer is skilled in "physical fitness," "customer service," "strength training," and "group training." This is part of what separates the two careers.
The education levels that managers/personal trainer earn slightly differ from fitness managers. In particular, managers/personal trainer are 2.2% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a fitness manager. Additionally, they're 0.2% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Fitness manager vs. Program/project manager
The program manager and project manager are two important positions within a company that are thought to be similar. However, program managers direct diverse projects and programs while project managers head the team who is responsible for ensuring a project is completed on time and within budget. Program managers are responsible for the conveyance of the company goals and generally act as a customer interface that helps clients get their desired update and change of a project. Project managers, on the other hand, focus on the project's schedule, scope, and resources needed to complete it on time.
Each career also uses different skills, according to real fitness manager resumes. While fitness manager responsibilities can utilize skills like "cpr," "cleanliness," "program design," and "fitness programs," program/project managers use skills like "project management," "program management," "pmp," and "status reports."
On average, program/project managers earn a higher salary than fitness managers. Some industries support higher salaries in each profession. Interestingly enough, program/project managers earn the most pay in the professional industry with an average salary of $123,832. Whereas fitness managers have higher pay in the hospitality industry, with an average salary of $41,256.program/project managers earn higher levels of education than fitness managers in general. They're 11.5% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.2% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Fitness manager vs. Deputy program manager
A deputy program manager is responsible for planning productive and engaging activities that would develop active group coordination and efficiency, helping each participant to reach maximum potential and personal goals. Deputy program managers handle the business development activities from conceptualization to execution, identifying resources and materials, finalizing participants, and allocating adequate budget to support the program objectives. They also resolve planning issues and discrepancies accordingly and set alternative resources as needed to prevent delays.
Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from fitness manager resumes include skills like "cpr," "cleanliness," "program design," and "fitness programs," whereas a deputy program manager is more likely to list skills in "program management," "project management," "dod," and "risk management. "
Deputy program managers make a very good living in the technology industry with an average annual salary of $120,885. On the other hand, fitness managers are paid the highest salary in the hospitality industry, with average annual pay of $41,256.Most deputy program managers achieve a higher degree level compared to fitness managers. For example, they're 10.0% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 1.2% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Fitness manager vs. Associate project manager
An Associate Project Manager helps the project manager in the successful implementation of the project. They ensure that projects are effectively planned and well-organized.
Types of fitness manager
Updated January 8, 2025
