Become a Personal Trainer in Montana

You will need the following to become a personal trainer in Montana:

At the minimum, be 18 years old
Have a GED or its equivalent
Hold a current adult CPR/AED Certification
Get certified through a well recognized personal training organization

Personal Trainer Certification Montana

Here are the best personal training certification options in Montana:

Please take the quiz and which certification will be most beneficial for your specific Montana personal trainer career goals.

Personal Trainer Certification Montana Cost

The cost of becoming a personal trainer in Montana will depend on which certification you choose but typically ranges from $449 to $999.

Do you need a license to be a personal trainer in Montana?

Personal trainer licensure is not mandated in Montana, however, a majority of employers prefer athletic trainers who have credentials from nationally recognized institutions.

Personal Trainer Schools in Montana

Having a recognized personal trainer certification will position you ahead of your peers. Here are some kinesiology schools I would recommend in Montana.

If you haven’t already, be sure to take the quiz to find out the best personal trainer certification for your career.

How Much Do Personal Trainers Make in Montana?

In Montana, a personal trainer will earn $60,853 annually, but their salary can fluctuate between $43,898 and $74,757 based on factors such as the city, academic and professional certifications, years of experience, and other skills that could add value to the business. You can view the salary report here.

Make sure to check out the general guide on how to become a personal trainer.

How To Become A Personal Trainer in Montana

Table of Contents

State Fitness Rating

Before becoming a personal trainer in Billings or any other major city in Montana, you must understand the fitness industry.

For this, I’ll present the state fitness rating based on a ranking system conducted by exercise.com.

This rating will allow you to understand the market response to health and fitness levels.

This market response indicates the level of opportunity you’ll have access to.

I’ll be using two critical metrics for this, those being obesity prevalence and top gym access.

Obesity prevalence tells us how healthy the general population is, indicating how engaged the people are with the fitness training industry, especially in achieving their fitness goals.

The level of market interaction tells you roughly what the client prospects and business opportunities look like.

Montana has an obesity prevalence of 25.5%. This is pretty good and shows a relatively healthy population.

Thus, Montana is the 7th least obese state in America, indicating that people consider their health and fitness a worthy investment.

That’s good news for you since it means your client prospects look good if you have the right training program.

The next piece of data is the top gym access.

In case you were wondering, top gyms are the popular, large commercial gyms with franchise chains nationwide.

These gyms are relevant in this rating because they signify easy, affordable, and highly accessible fitness facilities.

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They include the following brands:

Gold’s Gym
24 Hour Fitness
Anytime Fitness
Crunch Fitness
Orange Theory Fitness
Planet Fitness
Snap Fitness
YMCA
LA Fitness

Regarding Montana, there are 59 top gyms with a population of 1,042,520 inhabitants.

That gives the state a top gym per capita ratio of 5.66 gyms per 100 thousand residents, giving Montana a 23rd place slot out of 51.

For the fitness consumer, this is a decent level of access to options for exercise programs in fitness centers or health clubs.

However, for fitness professionals, only having the potential to work at 59 gyms is rather limiting.

Overall, Montana is the 8th fittest state in America, which indicates a healthy health industry for you to ply your trade as a fitness trainer.

Personal trainers who want to increase their chances of getting a job in any of the top gyms should strive to have their certification apart from the national certification, such as the gold gym personal trainer certification.

Fitness Market Makeup

With the majority of people in professions that involve outdoor activities mostly makes it is unnecessary to need a gym to stay fit.

Personal trainers in Montana only need to work on the remaining percentage of the populace who live a sedentary lifestyle.

Activities like kayaking are second nature to the natives of Billings and Missoula, MT, so be ready for various clients during your training sessions.

After obtaining your personal trainer certification in Montana, your sports nutrition knowledge will also be a key factor in helping you stand out and deliver service that will bring results to your new clients.

This will help your clients while growing your reputation.

Such a fitness market will also likely be receptive to a group fitness instructor, so brush up on your crowd control skills to tap into that market segment.

Personal Trainer Certifications in Montana

Personal training certification in Great Falls and other cities is needed to get a job as a personal trainer in Montana.

I have written an article on my best personal trainer certifications. Use this as a guide to becoming a certified personal trainer in Montana.

Overall here are my top 2 best personal trainer certificates in Montana. Ensure you have all or any of them when you decide to become a personal trainer in Great Falls and other areas.

Personal Trainer Jobs in Montana

Montana’s fitness culture and industry are quite active, which means personal trainer jobs in Missoula and other areas should present great opportunities.

Montana does have a small population overall, so despite the great platform; it’s a tough battle to earn your place.

With only 59 commercial gyms to choose from statewide, you would need to supplement an employment position with other business engagements.

I recommend developing an online fitness platform to expand your service offerings versatilely.

Online fitness is one of the fastest-growing sectors in the industry, so it would be wise to get involved.

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If you haven’t already, be sure to take the quiz to find out the best personal trainer certification for your career.

Best Cities to Be a Personal Trainer in Montana

Being such a small state in terms of population, you’ll find only one city in Montana has over 100k residents.

Ideally, I suggest aiming for population centers such as towns and cities with numbers of no less than 100 thousand residents.

Fitness is a numbers game, so the more people you have access to, the more prospects you have the potential of converting.

Let’s have a look at the seven most populated cities in Montana:

City In Montana	Population
Billings	109,577
Missoula	75,516
Great Falls	58,434
Bozeman	49,831
Butte-Silver Bow	34,915
Helena	33,124
Kalispell	24,565

The personal trainer job outlook is a bit bleak in cities with a low population.

Definitely, the athletic trainer job outlook for a personal trainer in Missoula or a personal trainer in Billings, MT is far better because of their population.

Personal Trainer Salary in Montana

Before becoming a personal trainer in Missoula or any other city, you must consider how much you could earn.

Trainers in Montana can look forward to an annual average income of $56,113 per year.

This is well below the national average of $61,802 for trainers nationwide.

This might seem like an unfortunate revelation, but the average income is only as good or bad as how you’ll spend it.

What I mean by this is how your income measures up to the cost of living.

For that, we’ll need to look at the quality of life rating.

Make sure to check out the full guide on personal trainer salary.

Quality of Life Rating

Having a career in a specific location makes you subject to that location’s living conditions and culture.

Earning a decent income is one thing, but having a fulfilling lifestyle to apply your earned resources is actually what it’s all about.

Regarding Montana, the quality of life is considered among the best in America.

The health of a population is typically a good initial indicator of this, but besides that, Montana has some other great things going for it.

Healthcare, business freedom, social tolerance, and environmental quality are significant aspects of life in Montana.

Travel connectivity, housing, and education are not the best, however.

But as far as the cost of living is concerned, Montana has a CoL slightly higher than the national average.

Because of that, and in the face of a below-average income, I’ll give Montana a 6.5 out of 10 quality of life rating.

Methodology

After detailed research, I was able to come up with this unbiased review using the following parameters:

The population of the state and its major cities.
The obesity figures as compared with other states.
Personal trainer certifications available in Montana
Availability of personal training schools & colleges.
Career prospects for personal trainers.
Earning potential for certified PTs.
Quality of Life (QoL).

Final Words on How to Become A Personal Trainer in Montana

Montana is a great place when looking at the population’s health statistics.

It also has a reasonably active fitness industry for its size.

But size matters, and despite all the promise, Montana’s sparse population presents too little opportunity to carve a new space for oneself.

The below-average income potential and the above-average cost of living exacerbate this.

The small number of gyms also means Personal trainer jobs in Great Falls and other areas are harder to come by than you would like.

In essence, Montana is a great place to indulge in a fitness lifestyle, but not the best to try and find success in the fitness industry.

FAQs on How to Become a Personal Trainer in Montana

How do I become a personal trainer in Montana?

Have a college degree in an exercise-related field or a personal training certification from an accredited body such as:

– Aerobics and Fitness Association of America (AFAA)
– National Council on Strength and Fitness (NCSF)
– American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM)
– National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA)
– World Instructor Training Schools (WITS)

What qualifications do I need to be a personal trainer?

The basic qualifications you need to take up a role as a personal trainer are:

– You must be 18 years old or older
– You must have a high school diploma
– You should be CPR/AED certified

Lastly, you must be interested in keeping fit and imparting the same to others.

How long does it take to become a personal trainer?

The choice of your certification program will determine the length of time it will take to complete it.

Whereas some certificate programs can be completed within 3 months, some can take up to a year to be completed.

Is becoming a personal trainer easy?

Becoming a personal trainer is not hard based on my years of experience in the fitness industry. Still, it would help if you were committed to studying and practicing in the gym to acquire the necessary knowledge.

You must be purposeful in helping clients get value from your skill and knowledge base.

References

https://www.exercise.com/learn/ten-fittest-states-in-the-us/

https://www.salary.com

https://www.teleport.org

https://www.americankinesiology.org/SubPages/Pages/Kinesiology%20Institution%20Database

Tyler Read

Tyler Read, BSc, CPT. Tyler holds a B.S. in Kinesiology from Sonoma State University and is a certified personal trainer (CPT) with NASM (National Academy of sports medicine), and has over 15 years of experience working as a personal trainer. He is a published author of running start, and a frequent contributing author on Healthline and Eat this, not that. |

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