Blog posts of '2017' 'October'

Becoming a personal trainer offers you the freedom to be your own boss, to control your schedule and help others achieve their personal dreams of losing weight and improved health.

By applying your expertise to help your clients become happier and healthier, you’ll see first hand results of your fitness and training expertise.

To ensure the success and growth of your business, the following are 3 boxes you should check for your future success and the success of your clients.

1. Professional Certification for Personal Trainers

If you are just starting out as a personal trainer, or are preparing to start your practice, you will want to earn a professional certification through an industry organization for your specific area of expertise.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, employers and clients prefer to hire personal trainers and instructors who are certified by an accredited organization. Specialty certifications are available for CrossFit, yoga, pilates, martial arts, personal training and weight training.

The National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA) offers a list of organizations that are accredited. To find a fitness instruction program that is accredited by NCCA, do the following:

1. Visit: http://www.credentialingexcellence.org/nccadirectory
2. Choose “Fitness and Wellness” from the industry menu
3. Leave the other boxes blank
4. Click “search”

The following are accredited or accepted industry organizations you should consider to earn your certification in the areas of your expertise:

• Pilates: Pilates Method Alliance https://www.pilatesmethodalliance.org/  
• Yoga: https://www.yogaalliance.org/
• Personal Trainers: American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) https://certification.acsm.org/personal-trainer-comparison-chart
• Weight Training: AFPA Fitness https://www.afpafitness.com/
• CrossFit: https://certifications.crossfit.com/

2. Personal Trainer Insurance

Your clients see you as the expert on personal fitness… And they are relying on your expertise and knowledge to help them achieve their goals. However, if one of your clients injures himself or herself while being trained, you open yourself up to a potential lawsuit.

Whether you train your clients in a gym, provide training out of your home, or go to clients’ homes, you will want to have a personal trainer liability insurance policy as a critical safety net.

Here are just a few of the situations where you could find yourself in need of insurance or being blamed (falsely or otherwise) for problems in the course of your personal training:

1. Client using poorly maintained equipment is injured by the equipment while in a workout session.
2. Client has a high propensity to injure himself, but doesn’t disclose it, and hurts himself during a workout session with you.
3. Client falsely accuses you of inappropriate or sexual misconduct.
4. A facility or client requires you to hold a certain amount of insurance coverage.

It's standard practice for your gym to require you to hold a personal trainer general liability (GL) policy.

General liability insurance is considered third party insurance because it protects the you and the gym from claims by your clients (who are third parties) in the event that they are injured at the location where you are training them.

Your personal trainer insurance should include professional liability coverage as well. Personal trainer professional liability, also called errors and omissions, or malpractice insurance, is first party insurance meaning that it protects YOU from liability in the event that your client is injured because of an exercise or advice that you provide to them while guiding their training.

Should I Forgo Insurance and Self-Insure?

Self insuring means that you are holding enough financial reserves on your own balance sheet to pay for medical, health or other damages to an injured party or to defend yourself in the event of a lawsuit. Most personal trainers do not have this type of cash.

As an independent fitness professional, you don’t have time to worry about defending yourself from potential lawsuits. The cost of a lawsuit can run in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. And the peace of mind that insurance brings can be had for a relatively small cost, often only pennies per day.

Your insurance policy allows you to focus on what you do best, while not having to worry about being exposed to unnecessary liability.

Coverage for your personal trainer business can be had for only pennies per day, including professional liability insurance, as described above.

3. How to Save a Life - Know CPR and First Aid

By partnering with a local gym where you can meet your clients, you can gain referrals as well as increase your visibility for other potential new clients who work out there. Great personal trainers are often hired by their local gyms to help with exercise classes.

You can be a major asset to your local gym by having training in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and/or First Aid. This can literally be a lifesaver for clients and for your reputation as a personal trainer.

Just ask local Maryland spinning instructor, Kevin Owens, who saved the life of Sergey Orekov, one of his class participants, by performing CPR on him.

In the middle of the spinning class a man who was participating, and probably overdoing it... suddenly collapsed, falling off of his spinning bike.

By knowing CPR and First Aid, Kevin was able to resuscitate the man, ultimately saving his life. The gym where he worked was lucky to have him and to have insurance in the case of such an occurrence.

Knowing CPR is not only an incredibly useful skill, but even if you never have to use it, it can look great on your resume, and knowing it may even be required by your gym.

You can learn CPR by visiting Red Cross website and finding a local class: http://www.redcross.org/get-help/prepare-for-emergencies/be-red-cross-ready/hands-only-cpr

Summary

Each client success story creates personal happiness and opportunities for you in the form of referrals, and chances to grow your clientele.

The three recommendations above, can put your career as a personal trainer on the right track. Becoming a personal trainer is an excellent business opportunity for those who are truly committed to it.

What kind of indoor cycling instructor insurance do you need? Due to the fast moving, aerobic nature of indoor stationary bicycle riding, aka “spinning”, as a spin instructor or owner of a spinning gym you should have an affordable general liability insurance policy.

You may also want to consider spin instructor insurance coverage to protect yourself from claims of sexual abuse and/or molestation, medical payments and professional liability insurance.

The bottom line is that as a spinning instructor, you can protect yourself and your business by knowing the types of liability insurance you should have and securing affordable coverage.

What are Indoor Cycling Insurance Risks?

You may not need all of the following types of coverage but read on... Due to the unique nature of spinning, you would be wise to have some form of indoor cycling instructor insurance.

This is because with the weighted stationary bicycle wheels and the competitive environment that spinning fosters, injuries are possible or over exertion may occur at any time before, during or after a spinning workout.

Examples of potential spinning hazards:

1. In the Zone: A participant who is totally “in the zone” sweats profusely on the floor and doesn’t clean it up, leading to a slipping hazard. After the workout their neighbor on the next bike slips on the sweat, falling down from the upper bike tier to the middle tier and chipping her front tooth in the process.
2. Hit the Brakes!: A student is going full speed and suddenly decides to stop the weighted wheel of the bike with their legs… But the wheel keeps going twisting the student’s ankle and tearing their knee tissue in the process.
3. Feel the Beat: Getting into the music, a student tries to maintain his 150 BPM heart rate and 500 Watts of power for an extended period, over-exerting himself. The next thing you know he's is on the floor having a heart attack... Do you know CPR?

Any of these could happen during a spinning class.

FITCO offers general liability as well as professional liability coverage for spinning class instructors including certified professionals, franchise owners and operators and independent contractors.

My Gym Offers Spinning… What Insurance Do I Need?

If you are running a gym, school or recreational center that offers indoor cycling, your instructors should provide you with copies of their liability insurance. You should also ask them to have your gym named as an “additional insured” on their policy.

In addition to requesting proof of spin instructor insurance from your trainers, your gym should also have a business property and general liability policy, as well as other insurance such as workers compensation and employment practices liability insurance.

Does Spin Instructor Insurance Include Professional Liability?

Professional liability coverage provides you with protection from claims of negligence while delivering professional advice or performing professional services. For personal trainers and athletic trainers, professional liability can also be referred to as malpractice insurance.

If a client follows your professional advice in the course of your duties as a spin instructor, and they hurt themselves, they could make a claim against you for negligence. Indoor cycling instructors choose the music and set the pace of the spinning regimen for their classes. As such, your students may blame you for any injuries they suffer.

Athletic trainer professional liability insurance, is also referred to certified trainers professional liability, or as errors and omissions (E&O) insurance or malpractice insurance.

Join the thousands of certified personal trainers who have chosen FITCO to protect them from being sued for bodily injury or damages that may occur in the course of their training.

What are the Benefits of Spinning Instructor insurance from FITCO?

Affordable: Insure yourself for as little as $ 0.63 cents per day.

Credibility: Establish credibility and professionalism with your clients and partners by having insurance. They will appreciate when you tell them that you have spin instructor insurance and that you may provide them with coverage as additional insured at their request, as described below.

Broad protection: Unlike certain other spinning instructor insurance policies that exclude important coverages such as sexual abuse and molestation, FITCO includes sexual abuse and molestation coverage automatically.

Professional Liability Included: Fitness instructor professional liability coverage is included at no additional charge.

General Liability Coverage:

• $1,000,000 per occurrence/$3,000,000 aggregate
• $100,000 sexual abuse/molestation coverage
• $1,000,000 personal & advertising injury coverage
• $3,000,000 products and completed operations coverage
• $100,000 damage to rented premises coverage
• $2,500 medical payments coverage

Need more coverage? No problem! Additional per occurrence and general aggregate policy limits are available up to $2,000,000 per occurrence and $5,000,000 aggregate for only pennies a day.

Additional Insureds: If you are a spinning instructor who provides classes at a local gym or rec center, the gym owner may require you to name them as additional insured on your general liability policy. With FITCO, adding a gym or rec center as an additional insured is no problem. In fact, the first 10 additional insured are free, and just $25.00 thereafter.

Zero deductible: General liability policies have zero deductible. Certified trainer professional liability insurance may also have zero deductible.

Get started with FITCO today!

As a certified CrossFit™ instructor, trainer or coach, you’ve committed yourself to both to CrossFit and to helping others achieve their goals of improved personal achievement and physical performance.

Whether you are an independent CrossFit instructor, or run a CrossFit business with your own CrossFit gym, you can protect yourself and your practice from bodily injury and/or property damage claims with CrossFit instructor insurance from Fitco.

If you have your own CrossFit gym, commercial general liability insurance coverage protects you, the insured, from claims by third parties who may be injured on your premises. As the insured, commercial general liability coverage also protects you against claims for bodily injury and property damage that may arise out of the course of your operations, including products and completed operations and personal and advertising injury.

If you rent space in someone else's facility, having CrossFit instructor insurance should provide you with coverage for damages that may occur to the space that you use or lease. Insurance is there to help cover the costs of any damages.

Having adequate insurance coverage demonstrates to both your clients and your partners that you are serious about your career as a CrossFit trainer and are operating at a level higher than the amateur who has only casually committed themselves as a fitness instructor.

Crossfit instructor insurance from Fitco is available in all 50 states and may be acquired for as low as $0.63 cents per day! No deductible will apply for liability claims.

Crossfit Instructor Insurance Includes:

General Liability Coverage

• $1,000,000 per occurrence/$3,000,000 aggregate
• $100,000 sexual abuse/molestation coverage
• $1,000,000 personal & advertising injury coverage
• $3,000,000 products and completed operations coverage
• $100,000 damage to rented premises coverage
• $2,500 medical payments coverage

Need more coverage? No problem! Additional per occurrence and general aggregate policy limits are available up to $2,000,000 per occurrence and $5,000,000 aggregate for only pennies a day.

Additional Insureds

If you provide classes at a local gym or rec center, the gym owner may require you to name them as an additional insured on your general liability policy. With Fitco, adding a gym or rec center as an additional insured is no problem. In fact, the first 10 additional insured are free, and just $25.00 thereafter.

Exclusions

Why are exclusions important to understand? Exclusions are contained within every insurance policy to describe what is NOT covered. CrossFit training programs can include programs focused on CrossFit Kids, a special adaptation of the CrossFit program for children. If you run a CrossFit Kids program, Fitco insurance includes sexual molestation coverage to provide $100,000 of coverage per occurrence ($300,000 aggregate coverage) to protect against claims of sexual abuse or molestation by children or their parents.

Additional Professional Liability Coverage

As a certified CrossFit instructor or coach, you are considered by your clients to be an expert in CrossFit training. As such, your clients look to you for advice and guidance for how best to apply a CrossFit regimen to achieve their personal fitness goals. You develop the regimen, which may include running, sprinting, endurance training, weightlifting, plyometrics, kettlebell training, powerlifting, pullups, pushups, rowing and other exercises. Your students get busy doing the work. But if a student incurs an injury or harms themselves during a training session while following your instructions, or as a result of your instructions, you may be liable for any injuries they suffer.

You can protect yourself from this exposure by getting professional liability insurance, also called errors and omissions coverage, in addition to your general liability coverage.

Get started with Fitco insurance for your business today!