Looking for more information on Personal Trainer Insurance to make sure your butt is covered if something happens??? You’ve come to the right spot!  Being a personal trainer is one of the most rewarding professions you can have. When a client comes to you in the beginning of their journey, you have the opportunity to completely change their life. There’s nothing more rewarding than watching someone improve their health and raise their confidence right in front of your eyes.

Personal trainers may be praised when a client reaches their goals, but every situation doesn’t always end perfectly. Personal trainers put extreme demands on their clients on a daily basis and are at a high risk when training clients under their personal supervision. Although you may be very cautious with your training techniques, accidents unfortunately happen and you need to be prepared and knowledgeable about personal trainer insurance.

Personal Trainer Insurance

As with any profession where you have a client who has hired you for your expertise, you need to be prepared for injuries and accidents in case they happen.  Personal trainer insurance is necessary to protect yourself when training clients weather it be working in a gym, a private home studio, yoga instructor, pilates instructor, etc.

Don’t take the risk of being uninsured!

There are two main types of Personal Trainer Insurance: General Liability Insurance & Professional Liability Insurance

General Liability Insurance

General liability insurance protects you in the case of injury or property damage occur to others while under your supervision.  This could include (but not limited to):

• Property Damage
• Bodily Injury
• Medical Issues
• Lawsuits
• Sexual harassment claims
• Third party claims

Example: Suppose you are training a client who accidentally drops a 65 pound barbell on someone else’s foot and breaks their toe.  You are at risk of being held liable for this accidental injury even though it wasn’t directly to your client.

General liability insurance protects you in the case of injury or property damage occur to others while under your supervision.  This is usually the least amount of insurance you should have.  It’s the most common type certified for personal trainers to have. This could include (but not limited to):

• Bodily Injury & medical bills
• Injury to a third-party (not just related to your services) and related medical bills
• Legal defense costs
• Property Damage liability resulting from damage to someone else’s property
• Actions of temporary staff covered as standard
• Sexual harassment claims

Example: Suppose you are training a client who accidentally drops a 65 pound barbell on someone else’s foot and breaks their toe.  You are at risk of being held liable for this accidental injury even though it wasn’t directly to your client.

When and Where Would Coverage Apply?

As a personal trainer, you know that you usually don’t work in one location at all times.  Many instructors or personal trainers travel to private residences for in home training, go to a gym or even conduct online personal training via the web or video.  The good news is, when you get most general liability insurance coverage, you will be covered anywhere you train! Talk to your insurance provider about where you typically train clients and they can help you determine what type of coverage you need.

If I work in a gym, am I covered under the gym’s personal training liability policy?

Depending on what type of employee you are to the gym (full time employee vs independent contractor), you may or may not be covered under their insurance policy if an emergency were to occur. More than likely if you are an independent contractor working somewhere, you will need to have your own insurance to protect yourself.

How Much Does General Liability Insurance Cost For Personal Trainers?

The typical cost is somewhere around $15-$30 a month.  You can usually obtain coverage for up to $1 million per incident, or a $3 million aggregate limit.

Professional Liability Insurance

Professional liability insurance  is the second type of personal trainer insurance that you need to be aware of.  This type of insurance (also known as Errors and Omissions or E&O) will protect you in a situation where your client ends up in a bind after a service you provide.  Often times these are negligence claims but can be any of the following (but not limited to):

• Negligence
• Lawsuits
• Services previously performed
• Personal damage & injury

Example:  Let’s say you were training someone and you had them on the treadmill doing sprints.  On the last sprint, your clients twists their ankle and ends up falling off the moving treadmill and ends up in the ER with a sprained ankle.  Your client then ends up suing you for negligence having them blaming you for pushing them too hard on the treadmill.

Don’t get caught in a nightmare lawsuit and get yourself protected with customized personal trainer insurance based on your own needs!As the old saying goes, It’s better to be safe than sorry (especially when your reputation is on the line).

Professional liability insurance  is the second type of personal trainer insurance that you need to be aware of.  This type of insurance (also known as Errors and Omissions or E&O) will protect you in a situation where your client ends up in a bind after a service you provide.  Often times these are negligence claims but can be any of the following (but not limited to):

• Claims of negligence even if you haven’t actually made a mistake
• Personal damage & injury
• Bodily injury to a third-party resulting from your services
• Legal defense costs in case of lawsuits
• Claims for libel and slander arising from your services (including previously performed services)
• HIPAA violations covered up to $25,000
• Claims arising from services performed by employees, interns and temporary staff

 

Example:  Let’s say you were training someone and you had them on the treadmill doing sprints.  On the last sprint, your clients twists their ankle and ends up falling off the moving treadmill and ends up in the ER with a sprained ankle.  Your client then ends up suing you for negligence having them blaming you for pushing them too hard on the treadmill.

Don’t get caught in a nightmare lawsuit and get yourself protected with customized personal trainer insurance based on your own needs!As the old saying goes, It’s better to be safe than sorry (especially when your reputation is on the line).

Why Do Personal Trainers Need Professional Liability Insurance?

Personal trainer professional liability insurance protects you in the event that a client injures themselves while training.  You may be liable for their injury even if you’re not there!  How does that work? If you designed a workout plan for your client to go home and do 25 body weight squats every night before bed and they hurt their back doing their “homework”, you may still be liable.  You could potentially get sued even if you’re at home sleeping when this happens.  Scary, huh!?  I think so!

Personal trainers and fitness instructors would be wise to acquire professional liability insurance to provide important liability protection to cover unforeseeable events.  Those who are private or independent contractors and do does small group exercise classes, personal training, yoga instruction, Pilates instruction, zumba instruction, aerobics, spinning etc.  should consider acquiring professional liability insurance for their personal training business.

By having this protection, you can assure that you’re covered for most unexpected situations that could happen in the fitness industry.

When and Where Would Coverage Apply?

As a personal trainer, you know that you usually don’t work in one location at all times.  Many instructors or personal trainers travel to private residences for in home training, go to a gym or even conduct online personal training via the web or video.  The good news is, when you get most professional liability insurance coverage, you will be covered anywhere you train! Talk to your insurance provider about where you typically train clients and they can help you determine what type of coverage you need.

What If I Get Sued and Don’t Have Professional Liability Insurance?

Obviously you want to prevent this from ever happening to you by being prepared however it’s still something that does happen often.  If you get sued without any insurance, you will need to defend yourself in court.  The legal bills and attorney fees could cost you tens of thousands of dollars.  If you end up losing the case, you will then potentially have to pay for the cost of injury or damage.

On the other hand, if you’re prepared with insurance before a claim unfortunately arises, your insurance company will be there to defend you in court.  The insurance company will take care of any attorney or legal fees which would obviously save you a tremendous amount of money and allow you to keep working as a personal trainer.

If I work in a gym, am I covered under the gym’s personal training liability policy?

Depending on what type of employee you are to the gym (full time employee vs independent contractor), you may or may not be covered under their insurance policy if an emergency were to occur. More than likely if you are an independent contractor working somewhere, you will need to have your own insurance to protect yourself.

How Much Does Professional Liability Insurance Cost For Personal Trainers?

The typical cost is somewhere around $15-$30 a month.  You can usually obtain coverage for up to $1 million per incident, or a $3 million aggregate limit.  It’s always a good idea to have a business liability insurance policy with at least a $250,000 limit (the more the better). Some personal training certification schools like ACE recommend their students to have $500,000 in business insurance coverage.

That’s a lot of coverage to protect you and costs less than a dollar a day out of pocket and will help you sleep at night!

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Do personal trainers need insurance?

If you are a private trainer and work at home or in a private gym, I would say having insurance is a complete necessity as you’re on your own.  Even if you’re working for a gym that’s insured, it’s better to protect yourself as well with your own coverage.

Disability Insurance For Personal Trainers

There’s always a chance YOU may get injured as well while training which leads you unable to work your normal job.  In a case of personal injury, this would be more of a disability insurance case.  Make sure to get a quote to discuss all your needs with the insurance company of your choice.  Personal training is a demanding job on your body, so make sure you have the coverage you need to protect yourself.

How Much Does Personal Training Insurance Cost?

Depending on what company you go to and what insurance level you decide to go with, it will vary.  Some companies claim to cover you for less than $23 a month which is excellent considering the cost it would be if a claim were made against you!

Why do personal trainers need liability insurance?

Personal trainers and fitness instructors would be wise to acquire general liability insurance to provide important liability protection to cover unforeseeable events.  Those who are private or independent contractors and do does small group exercise classes, personal training, yoga instruction, Pilates instruction, Zumba instruction, aerobics, spinning etc.  should consider acquiring liability insurance for their personal training business.

By having this protection, you can assure that you’re covered for most unexpected situations that could happen in the fitness industry.