The 10 best personal training books

There are now more than 23,000 personal trainers working in the UK, and the competition for clients is only going to increase.

Therefore, it's crucial to stand out from the crowd – and one way you can do this is by improving your knowledge of coaching, exercise, and nutrition. Reading books is one of the best ways you can increase your specialist knowledge and learn about the key factors to running a successful personal trainer business.

But which books should you read? We've compiled a list of 10 personal training books which all offer valuable insight for both new and experienced personal trainers.

10 Personal training books to make you a better PT

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 in every session
• Build and master relationships
• Design systems, get more clients and increase your earnings
• Grow your reputation and be the ultimate fitness professional

The book lays out a clear path to establishing and sustaining a successful business in the health and fitness industry, so it's particularly helpful for PTs setting up their first business.

2. Level Up – Mark Coles

If you don't follow Mark Coles on Instagram, then you need to. Coles 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 Coles' 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 good 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, and yearly. By reading the book, you will learn how to:

• Build positive habits into your daily life
• Fix bad habits
• Learn the secret to self-control
• Understand behavioural changes
• 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. So many of the barriers that your clients may face in achieving their goals will revolve around bad habits, so this book will be extremely helpful in understanding how bad habits are formed and broken. 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, Gerber uses an engaging story of one of his clients about how they made their small business larger and more profitable, giving you real-world examples at every stage.

5. F*cking Unstoppable – Paul Mort

F*cking Unstoppable is a short and excellent book on how to overcome your own mindset limitations, conquering the demons that are holding you and your business back.

Mort 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.

6. The Science of Nutrition – Rhiannon Lambert

As a personal trainer, you'll be aware that a massive part of achieving your personal training goals is ensuring you get the right nutrition. This book answers many of the common questions around dieting and nutrition, helping you to better understand how to answer the questions you may get from your clients. The book covers:

• What nutrition is and how to eat healthily
• Whether diets are right and how they work
• Plant-based diets
• How dieting affects your physical and mental health

Having a better all-round understanding of how your clients can achieve their health goals will ensure that you're offering the best possible service, so learning more about healthy diets through this book can certainly help.

7. Conscious Coaching – Brett Bartholomew        

Even if you're an expert at the physical side of personal training, you'll struggle to retain clients if you don't understand the psychological side. Having good communication is one of the most essential skills for a personal trainer, as building a positive relationship with your clients can help you grow your business.

Conscious Coaching is a book that explains how you can improve your communication and tailor it to each client, backed by behavioural science. This book covers the different personality archetypes and the best way to communicate with each, ensuring you're encouraging your clients to psychologically 'buy in' to your training, which is what will keep them coming back.

8. Day by Day – Kevin Mullins

Day by Day is a unique personal training book, as the content is split into days and months. Starting January 1st, each day you're given a helpful tip to read with an overarching theme for the month. This book is a great idea if you prefer to read in smaller stints. Some of the themes this book covers include:

• Goal setting and programme design
• Resistance and cardiovascular training
• Business building
• Coaching tactics

9. The Trusted Trainer – David Osgathorp

David Osgathorp has spent more than 20 years working in the health and fitness industry, and as a result, has multiple successful training businesses. With Osgathorp's knowledge that he's built over his years in the industry, this book provides first-hand advice on how to build and maintain a successful personal training business from someone who's been there and done it.

Topics covered in the book include:

• Client acquisition and retention
• Common mistakes and how to avoid them
• Branding and creating a business identity
• Building a business that suits your lifestyle

10. The Personal Trainer Pocket Book – Jonathan Goodman

Goodman's book compiles a list of common questions that every personal trainer may need an answer to at some point in their career.

The questions are sorted into topics such as:

• Starting your personal training career
• Marketing and attracting clients
• Day-to-day success
• Building a career in personal training

The author wrote the book with the idea in mind that it would be used as a point of reference when you need it, rather than being read cover to cover. So if you find you or your client have some questions around personal training that you can't answer yourself, that's where this book comes in.

5 bonus personal training book recommendations

If you want to stand out from the crowd even further, then here are five bonus book recommendations to add to your collection once you've finished the other books:

• How to be an Awesome Personal Trainer – Ben Coomber
• Time Warrior – Steve Chandler
• The Values Factor – Dr John Demartini
• The Chimp Paradox – Dr Steve Peters
• Mindset – Carol Dweck

Specialist personal trainer insurance through Insure4Sport

Whether you're new to the fitness industry or an experienced personal trainer, you may want to consider getting specialist personal trainer insurance.

Specialist personal trainer insurance through Insure4Sport includes Public Liability, Loss of Earnings, and Personal Accident cover to help provide financial protection for you and your business. Find out more about personal trainer insurance and get an instant online quote today.