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10 Books Every Personal Trainer Should Read

  • Blog, Personal Training
  • June 25, 2021

The great thing about books is that you can learn directly from the experiences of experts in a matter of hours. We can all learn a thing or two about storytelling and creating memorable experiences that impact hundreds of people. After all, personal trainers often have the same goal in mind – to help members achieve their fitness or health goals through subtle but continuous guidance. 

In our second series of mPowered, we invited PT experts who’ve been in the fitness industry for many years to talk about what the future of personal training looks like. They gave us a couple of book recommendations that can help you: 

    • Understand your members better
    • Create more meaningful engagements with members
    • Forge a successful coaching career  

Scroll down to discover our book recommendations.

Legacy by James Kerr

“An amazing example of high performance culture where the team is more important than any of the individuals. You can’t help but read that and want to apply as much as you possibly can to how you run a business.”

Jack Malin, Membr

Black Box Thinking by Matthew Syed

“I think it’s a really good book for anyone in business. It focuses on aviation and how they learn from their mistakes. Learn from your mistakes and move on, build strategies, so that you don’t repeat the same mistakes over and over again.”

James Lorey, YOUR PT UK

Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins

“A brilliant listen with many takeaways. It’s about mental and physical resilience.”

Aaron McCulloch, YOUR PT UK

The Ultimate Early Gym Engagement Playbook!

A 12 week strategy to get new members reach their first 25 visits effortlessly

Download your copy

The E Myth by Michael E Gerber

“From a business perspective as a PT, realizing that just because you’re good at being a PT, doesn’t mean you’re going to be good at developing and growing a successful PT business. All the systems, processes and concepts within the book were really useful for me to really think about how I was going to kind of scale and grow my business.”

Paul Swainson, Future Fit

Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson

“Although it’s a really, really old book, I think it’s really current. You need to be constantly looking at opportunities rather than being really content with what you have. Because you never know when what you have will just be taken away.” 

Carl Smith, Concept Fitness Consultancy

Good to Great by James C Collins

“A wonderful business book. I think one of the most important things in business is to get humbled and recognize what you’re not really good at. Remember – the clients will follow, for the most part, whatever the staff does. So, first and foremost, you got to win the hearts and the minds of the team.”

Mike Gelfgot, Activate Brain & Body Inc

Notable mentions:

While the books above got into the spotlight, there were a couple of books that made it into the conversation that absolutely deserve to be included in the list:

    • Conscious Coaching by Brett Bartholomew
    • Never Lose a Client Again by Joey Coleman
    • Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink
    • Beyond 2.0 by Jim Collins (& anything else he’s written!)

If you missed any of the second series of mPowered, you can listen to all of the episodes on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. In the meantime, why don’t you check out our special recap episode with the biggest takeaways.

More from the Membr Blog:

5 steps to scaling your business with personal trainer software

The Best Software for PTs who need a bit of Organisation

6 Steps to Rebuild Your Gym After COVID-19

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