How to Become a Personal Trainer in Montana in 2023

Hello everybody, and welcome to yet another PT Pioneer Career Review. In this article, I will continue with my state-by-state career review.

If you ever wondered what it would take to cut it as a trainer in each state, this one’s for you.

I aim to provide you with the vital stats and facts behind each state’s fitness industry, allowing you to decide where on the map your ambitions fit.

In this article, we’ll look at how to become a personal trainer in Montana and peering into its fitness industry.

For the sake of relevance and simplicity, I’ll only be looking at personal trainer jobs in Billings, Missoula, and Great falls since these are the largest cities.

Large cities tend to have more active industries, especially periphery industries such as fitness.

That’s where you should focus your attention when looking at a state.

I’ll also review credentials such as personal trainer certification in Billings and other significant areas.

So with that out of the way, let’s buckle up and hop over to Montana.

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

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.

They include the following brands:

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• 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 that 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 involves 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.

• NASM (National Academy of Sports Medicine)
• ISSA (International Sports Sciences Association)

Personal training schools in Montana

While getting your personal trainer certification in Missoula and other metros is a must, you might want to consider upskilling your credentials.

That can happen by enrolling in an associate or bachelor’s degree program in an exercise science-related field.

Montana has many exercise science schools you can choose from, but what’s the point?

The point is trainers and fitness professionals with degrees tend to be exposed to more and better opportunities.

This translates into a higher average income because you can leverage higher learning credentials.

The credibility and recognition behind a college or university degree put you at the front of your line for jobs and provide the right pre-selection bias with clients and collaborators.

Check out these kinesiology schools in Montana:

• Carroll College Health and Physical Education
• Montana State University – Billings Health and Human Performance 
• Montana State University – Bozeman Health and Human Development 
• Montana State University-Northern Health and Physical Education
• Rocky Mountain College Health and Human Performance
• University of Great Falls Health and Human Performance
• University of Montana Health and Human Performance
• University of Montana – Western Physical Education and Health

With such an active health and wellness industry, upgrading your credentials can be likened to gaining your personal trainer license in Montana.

The downside, however, is enrolling in a degree program takes time and money, especially when you consider going post-grad and the implications of student loan debt.

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Think it through and have a reliable roadmap for your career before jumping into the deep end.

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.

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:

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 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

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