Burnout among personal trainers is up. Are you at risk? This post shares a new study published in the Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research – ahead of print version. I’ve written for the fitness industry for over 20 years, published in places like Fitness Management, IDEA Health & Fitness Professionals, and NSCA’s Strength & Conditioning Journal. While I was still lecturing in Kinesiology at Iowa State University, I often found statistics from the Labor Force demonstrating very high job satisfaction among fitness professionals. I have to include that this was at a time that more fitness jobs were still part time. Fewer individuals were actually training at even the 32 hours lumped into full time work. Many included were fitness instructors teaching a few hours a week, and personal trainers included in those statistics were self-declared fitness professionals. Full Time? Today, or pre-pandemic, more trainers are employed full time. Many trainers are at risk for job-related addiction which often goes undetected and because of that is promoted. Consider it yourself, what’s the stereotypical trainer like? Chicken and broccoli? Protein shakes, Lululemons, always exercising and eating perfectly? Never misses a workout, often puts clients ahead of family or friends. Allows clients to dictate work schedule. Sound familiar? Reasons for Burnout Among Personal Trainers Work-related stressors for trainers during the pandemic included: Less access to clients if they were in an in person only service delivery Working 100% on commission for training sessions and or experienced layoffs Need to adopt new training services and delivery options for multiple revenue streams without the education, experience, or skills to execute quickly Inability or unwillingness to pivot quickly to adapt to the new and unique problems people faced during the pandemic and new need for marketing strategies that reached them Those stressors likely spilled over burnout among personal trainers personal lives. Financial burden and new home life changes affected all of us as home became work, gym, leisure time, and school for all of us and limited our additional sources of social support. I’m including results from abstract in the show notes as well as the link to it. My goal is to provide you with options and suggestions for you and for your team that have been proven to support burnout. Starting Your Own Business? Surround Yourself with Support In times when you may or may not be able or choose to gather in person, I hope that these will help you. One thing that definitely can, in a time for many they’ve taken a risk and begun their own business is knowing that while many suffered losses during the pandemic, for others in fitness 2020 has seen a huge growth. It’s for those willing to remember that where there is a problem and a solution, there is always a business model. If instead your burnout comes from work addiction… where you’re a trainer who finds herself (or himself) constantly reading, watching, taking courses, in addition to doing your own fitness workouts, seeking the best nutritional advice, and never breaking for your personal interests beyond your career vocation. What hobbies outside of fitness did you love, what people have you stopped spending time with, what activities do you love and lose track of time doing? Pre vs Post Covid Results Seventy-one subjects completed the survey before March 2020; after which, a worldwide pandemic (i.e., COVID-19) occurred possibly affecting employment workloads and work-related stress. Thus, post hoc analyses were conducted to assess differences in burnout scores pre-COVID-19 and post-COVID-19. Within PTs, 33.0% reported personal burnout, 29.6% reported work-related burnout, and 17.4% reported client-related burnout. Higher levels of burnout, across all scales, were observed in those who were PTs, women, unmarried, living alone, would not choose to be a fitness professional again, and took the survey post-COVI