The 5 Best Books For Personal Trainers

Did you know that there are more than 13,770 registered personal trainers in the UK? This statistic shows just how saturated the personal trainer market is.

Therefore, it’s crucial to stand out from the crowd – and one of the best ways to do this is by reading books. Only by reading books can you increase your specialist knowledge and learn about the key ingredients to running a successful personal trainer business.

But which books should you read? To answer this question, we spoke to Sheffield-based personal trainer Nick Screeton, owner of LEP Fitness. Nick has read hundreds of books and has run his business for 8 years. Here are his top 5 picks.

1. Change Maker – John Berardi

This fantastic book provides plenty of useful tips, including how to:

Overcome fitness industry challenges that all personal trainers encounter
Create a purpose and vision statement for your personal trainer business
Deliver what your clients want every session
Build and master relationships
Design systems, get more clients and increase your earnings
Grow your reputation and be the ultimate fitness professional

This book is a Bible for personal trainers, and I urge you to purchase it today.

2. Level Up – Mark Coles

If you don’t follow Mark Coles on Instagram, then you need to. Mark is one of the UK’s most experienced personal trainers and has built an extremely successful personal training business called M10 Fitness, based in Nottingham.

In Mark’s book ‘Level Up’, he explains how you can:

Improve your reputation
Overcome self-doubt and personal limitations
Create high personal standards for you and your clients
Build a successful personal and business brand
Increase your sales and get a full diary of paying clients
Develop a coach’s eye
Manage your time and increase productivity
Manage your finances

As you can see, ‘Level Up’ provides a comprehensive overview of what it takes to be a personal trainer and is written by one of the best.

3. Atomic Habits – James Clear

Building daily habits is a crucial part of growing a successful personal training business. Getting a full diary of clients doesn’t happen overnight. Therefore, it’s essential to break your business’s goals into small, bite-sized chunks that you can work on:

Daily
Weekly
Monthly
Quality
Yearly

James Clear’s book ‘Atomic Habits’ is the best book on habits I’ve ever read. By reading the book, you will learn how to:

Build success habits into your daily life
Fix bad habits
Learn the secret to self-control
Understand behaviour change
The role of friends and family in shaping habits

The lessons learned in this book will help you become a better coach and can be used to support your clients. Your clients will get better results and your reputation will grow – it’s a win-win situation.

4. E-Myth – Michael E. Gerber

If there’s one business book all personal trainers must read, it’s this one.

Michael E. Gerber teaches you how to make small businesses profitable. He provides you with the tools to scale your business and be more efficient with your time so that your business works for you rather than against you. In the book, you can expect to learn:

The business development process
Strategy
Delegation
Systems
Management

What’s great about this book is that it’s not some boring business textbook that makes you fall asleep after one page.

Instead, Michael uses an engaging story of one of his clients about how they made their small business larger and more profitable. I can promise you that you won’t want to put it down once you start reading.

**5. F*cking Unstoppable – Paul Mort**

Before you ask, there’s no typo! The book is called ‘F*cking Unstoppable,’ and it’s a short and excellent book on how to overcome your own mindset limitations, conquering the demons that are holding you and your business back.

Paul uses a no-nonsense approach and cuts straight to the chase. You can read the book in less than 2 hours and it will have a profound impact on your mindset. Having an improved mindset will ultimately benefit you, your business, and your clients.

5 bonus book recommendations:

The above books are essential for all personal trainers. But don’t worry if you’re not a big reader – you can also download them on ‘Audible’.

If you read the above books, I can guarantee that you’ll see a big difference in all areas of your life (not just in your capacity as a personal trainer).

If you want to stand out from the crowd even further, then here are and extra 5 book recommendations to add to your collection once you’ve finished the other books: