Market-driven fitness instruction: transforming the role of personal trainers in health promotion practices

Abstract

Background

Personal trainers play a crucial role in the health promotion system by guiding the public in scientific exercise. This study aims to examine how the removal of mandatory occupational certification reshapes the professional structure, labor relations, and health promotion functions of personal trainers within a market-driven fitness industry.

Methods

This study adopts a tripartite perspective encompassing labor, capital, and consumers, and uses participant observation alongside semi-structured interviews with 42 participants to explore how, following the removal of mandatory occupational certification for personal trainers at the policy level, market mechanisms reshape labor relations and professional structures among personal trainers through interactions between consumers and gym operators, and to analyze the impact of this transformation on health promotion practices.

Results

The findings indicate that the national policy of abolishing mandatory occupational certification for personal trainers shifted control of the fitness industry back to the market. In this context, consumers’ demand for low-professional but highly emotional fitness guidance increasingly shapes the work content of personal trainers. Gym operators, in turn, translate these consumer demands into specific work requirements for trainers, effectively restructuring the labor relations between commercial fitness venues and personal trainers in practice. In this process, the erosion of trainers’ professional expertise not only undermines the scientific rigor and effectiveness of fitness instruction but also weakens the social foundation of health promotion.

Conclusions

This study provides a new perspective for understanding the structural challenges faced by health promotion under market-oriented conditions and offers important empirical evidence to inform policy regulation of the fitness industry.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-026-26537-8.

Introduction

The latest research shows that nearly one-third of the global adult population, approximately 1.8 billion people, has not met the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended standards for physical activity [1]. If the current trend continues, the proportion of physically inactive adults worldwide is expected to rise to 35% by 2030. In response to this growing concern, the WHO issued the Global Action Plan on Physical Activity 2018–2030, which set a clear global target of reducing physical inactivity [2]. The plan emphasizes the importance of coordinated efforts at the societal, policy, and systemic levels to expand opportunities for physical activity and improve access to related services. Recognizing the negative health impacts of insufficient physical activity, many countries have introduced national strategies and policies to promote participation in sports and exercise. For instance, China’s Healthy China 2030 Plan Outline explicitly calls for improving national health through the promotion of physical activity. Similarly, the United States’ Healthy People 2030 initiative highlights that governments, communities, and civil organizations should collaborate to enhance public health literacy and improve overall well-being. Japan’s Health Japan 21, Australia’s Sport 2030, and Ireland’s Get Ireland Active action plan also illustrate the growing commitment of governments around the world to strengthening health promotion. It is precisely under the influence of these calls from various parties that, over the last half decade, fitness and gym-going have transformed from a bodybuilding subculture into one of the fastest-growing mainstream cultures of our time [3]. According to The 2025 HFA Global Report published by the Health & Fitness Association (HFA), between 2023 and 2024, the global fitness industry recorded an average revenue increase of 8%, a 4% growth in the number of fitness facilities, and a 6% increase in consumer participation [4]. The report further predicts that 91% of industry operators expect continued revenue growth, accompanied by an expanding population of fitness consumers. These findings demonstrate that commercial fitness venues and personal trainers have become important intermediaries and implementing agents in encouraging individuals to engage voluntarily in physical exercise.

A global study on the development of the fitness industry suggests that, although digital technologies have created favorable conditions for home-based workouts, many regions still show a strong preference for in-person exercise at commercial fitness facilities [5]. In these settings, consumers often seek professional guidance and personalized training programs from qualified instructors. Personal trainers, who possess specialized knowledge and experience, play a central role in helping consumers achieve their health and fitness goals through structured and supervised programs [6]. For operators of commercial fitness venues, consumer needs and experiences are key factors that influence business sustainability [7]. This interaction forms a triangular relationship among three parties: labor, capital, and clients. Consumers, motivated by their health goals and spending capacity, directly shape the types of fitness programs offered, the structure of personal training services, and the nature of their interactions with instructors. Business operators, acting as capital holders, respond to market demand by establishing facilities, hiring instructors, and setting revenue objectives, which collectively determine the operational models and labor arrangements of fitness venues. Personal trainers, as labor providers, balance the expectations and interests of both operators and consumers through their daily work. They adjust course content and scheduling according to management requirements, communicate with clients to understand their needs, and deliver services that align with consumer expectations. Personal trainers serve as crucial intermediaries who directly connect business operators with consumers. Their professional performance influences not only the operational outcomes of fitness facilities but also the capacity to attract and retain new participants within the fitness market. Therefore, understanding the micro-level labor practices of personal trainers is essential for developing more effective strategies that promote the sustainable growth of the fitness industry and encourage wider public participation in evidence-based physical activity.

Existing international research on the fitness industry has primarily focused on Western developed countries, exploring topics such as marketization processes, consumer culture, body aesthetics, and emotional labor [8, 9]. However, there remains a lack of research on how personal trainers in China, a country with a large and rapidly growing fitness population, enter the profession, reshape their work practices under managerial control, and respond to the embedded influence of consumer demands. Building on this gap, the present study aims to examine the occupational entry pathways and the underlying logic of labor practices of personal trainers in China from the perspective of interactions among labor, capital, and clients. It further analyzes how their work behavior, shaped by the restructuring of market mechanisms, influences the practice of health promotion.

Literature review

Under the influence of healthism discourse, health has been conceptualized as a form of personal achievement and self-expression [10]. One of the key manifestations of the pursuit of health is the pursuit of the ideal body, which is embedded in practices of health maintenance and body management [11]. Fitness serves as one of the primary means through which individuals shape their ideal bodies via body-maintenance practices. However, because individuals of different ages and genders possess varying physical structures, beginners who engage in fitness training without professional guidance often fail to achieve the desired results and may even experience negative health consequences [12]. Consequently, an increasing number of fitness beginners tend to seek assistance from professional personal trainers in commercial fitness venues. In this process, personal trainers primarily promote health by guiding individuals to engage in scientific and regular physical exercise [13]. Some studies, from the perspective of public health, have highlighted the facilitating role of personal trainers in encouraging more people to participate in physical activity and in providing professional health training [14]. However, other studies have pointed out that because the profession maintains close contact with fitness consumers and must continuously meet their evolving expectations, personal trainers are often required to assume broader roles as health promoters beyond that of exercise planners [15]. This phenomenon also poses new challenges for public health. Specifically, although personal trainers may not possess formal expertise in other domains, they frequently perform functions that require specialized knowledge, such as those of mental health advisors or nutritionists [16, 17]. Further research has found that some personal trainers not only display strong confidence in offering guidance beyond their area of professional expertise but also regard the provision of such non-specialized advice as an integral part of their occupational identity [18, 19]. In practice, this kind of non-specialized guidance provided by personal trainers has at times resulted in individual harm and has exposed them to potential legal risks [20].

Even within the field of fitness itself, personal trainers often cause exercise-related injuries among beginners due to unscientific or inappropriate training advice. Research adopting a gender perspective has suggested that social and cultural environments construct gender-specific aesthetic standards for the body, which may lead some personal trainers to offer excessive training recommendations [21, 22]. Other studies from the consumer perspective have pointed out that fitness consumers often use appearance and body shape rather than professional competence as the criteria for evaluating personal trainers [23]. This tendency often leads to inappropriate personal trainer selection and exercise-related injuries. Additional studies have shown that because personal trainers possess highly diverse educational backgrounds, and only a minority hold formal education in sports or exercise science, there is significant variation in the training programs and recommendations provided to consumers [24]. These inconsistencies expose consumers to potential health risks, a problem reflected in the numerous reported cases of fitness-related injuries [25]. Although many countries have introduced professional qualification programs and certification examinations for those working in the fitness industry, such systems are often superficial, and the level of mandatory regulation varies considerably [26]. The situation in China is similar. Initially, several Chinese government departments issued policies that classified personal trainers under the category of occupational social sports instructors, requiring individuals to pass relevant examinations in order to obtain a national qualification certificate for social sports instruction. For a long time, possession of this certificate was a prerequisite for working as a personal trainer [27]. Under the former national occupational qualification system, a five-tier certification structure was implemented. Taking Level 5, the minimum entry level, as an example, applicants were required to have at least one year of relevant work experience in the industry. In addition, they had to complete no fewer than 150 h of formal professional training and pass standardized assessments before being recognized as qualified personal trainers. The training and assessment covered multiple domains, including professional ethics, sport and exercise science–related knowledge (such as physical education, exercise science, health assessment, and sport management), as well as relevant policy and regulatory frameworks, combining both theoretical and practical components [28]. However, after 2020, administrative reforms led to the abolishment of this qualification certification, effectively removing the mandatory entry threshold for personal trainers at the national level. Although the Sports Vocational Ability Training Certificate (Personal Trainer), issued by the Human Resources Development Center of the General Administration of Sport of China, has since been regarded as a partial substitute, it does not carry mandatory authority [29]. Moreover, the proliferation of various social-level certificates related to personal trainers has resulted in issues such as formalized training processes and low credibility in qualification certification within China’s personal training industry [30].

Overall, the employment environment for personal trainers tends to be relatively rigid and disadvantaged. A comparative study of Norway and the United Kingdom examined how different institutional frameworks influence occupational conditions in the fitness industry. Despite significant differences between the two countries’ institutional regulations, the internal operational logic of the fitness industry produced remarkably similar outcomes in the occupational practices of personal trainers [31]. Specifically, research on fitness industry management has found that although certification is often required for entry, the low threshold for obtaining such qualifications leads to an oversupply of labor in the market [32]. This oversupply discourages employers from addressing low wage levels or improving employee rights and protections. In other words, holding a certification does not significantly affect the income of personal trainers [33]. Another study further indicated that although personal trainers are often perceived by consumers as professionals with respectable and authoritative roles, in reality their financial rewards and job security are minimal [34]. Unless they act as salespeople by promoting fitness packages to consumers, their income is likely to decrease even further. Under these conditions, where personal trainers lack salary advantages yet must simultaneously perform both emotional and physical labor, they are more prone to occupational burnout, which in turn negatively affects their capacity to provide health promotion services to consumers [35, 36].

In summary, existing research has identified several problems within the fitness industry that are closely related to health promotion, including the weak professionalism of personal trainers and inconsistent requirements for mandatory qualification certification. However, it remains unclear how non-mandatory professional credentials influence stakeholder practices and health promotion outcomes. Building on this gap, the present study takes China as a case to explore the following questions: What are current attitudes toward these non-compulsory qualification certificates within the fitness industry? How do such changes reshape the ways personal trainers provide exercise guidance to consumers? What impact do they have on labor relations between personal trainers and fitness venue operators? And how do they ultimately affect the practice of health promotion? Addressing these questions not only contributes to filling a gap in academic research but also offers important practical implications for improving the effective provision of fitness services within public health initiatives.

Methods

This study employs a combination of participant observation and semi structured interviews to examine how personal trainers enter and adapt to commercial fitness venues, and how operators’ management strategies and consumer demands jointly shape trainers’ occupational positioning and work practices, thereby affecting the practice of health promotion. The participant observation was conducted in City J in China, a representative medium sized city with an active fitness industry and a dense distribution of commercial fitness venues. To ensure diversity and representativeness of the sample, purposive sampling was used to select six typical commercial fitness venues as primary sites for observation and interviews; these included three large full service gyms and three small fitness studios. The researcher entered each site as a consumer and carried out continuous observation over a two year period from 2022 to 2024 in order to gain in depth understanding of operators’ management practices, personal trainers’ everyday work routines, and consumers’ motivations for exercise. Based on these observations, the study invited a total of 42 respondents to participate in semi structured interviews, comprising 12 personal trainers, 5 venue operators responsible for recruitment and daily operations, and 25 consumers who had purchased in person personal training sessions.

During participant observation, the researcher established trust with operators, personal trainers, and other consumers while acting as a consumer, and maintained an observation log documenting field impressions relevant to the study. To address potential observer effects, the researcher also kept reflexive notes that recorded positionality, emotions, and judgments; these notes were subject to critical review during data analysis to enhance transparency and credibility. Semi structured interviews were conducted only after informing participants of the study purpose and obtaining their informed consent. Interviews were audio recorded and transcribed within 48 h after each session to facilitate subsequent analysis. All interviews were conducted one on one in gym lounge areas or in quiet locations chosen by participants, and lasted between 30 and 60 min. A semi-structured interview guide was developed specifically for this study (see Supplementary File). Interview topics for personal trainers included motivations for entering the field, career development, and work experience. Interviews with venue operators focused on business conditions, hiring criteria, and job requirements. Interviews with consumers addressed reasons for purchasing personal training, and perceptions and attitudes toward personal training services.

For data analysis, the study applied thematic analysis and followed the six phase procedure of thematic analysis to code observation logs and interview transcripts and to extract themes [37]. To protect participant privacy, observation logs and interview records were de-identified and assigned anonymized codes prior to formal analysis. Personal trainers were randomly assigned codes PT-01 to PT-12, operators were coded BO-01 to BO-05, and consumers were coded CON-01 to CON-25. To ensure the trustworthiness of findings, the study employed methodological triangulation and data triangulation. Methodological triangulation combined participant observation with semi structured interviews to enable cross validation of participants’ reported accounts against observed behavior, thereby strengthening analytic rigor. Data triangulation integrated information from personal trainers, venue operators, and consumers to capture multiple perspectives on the interactions among labor, capital, and clients in practice. This multi source evidence base also provided important comparators during coding and theme development, allowing the researcher to iteratively refine interpretations and improve the robustness and credibility of the analytic results.

Results

Perceptions of professional qualification certificates in the fitness market

Building upon the previous background discussion, this section examines the awareness and recognition of various types of certification in the fitness market following the abolishment of the National Occupational Qualification Certificate in China. The findings indicate that although the vast majority of consumers are unable to distinguish among the different professional certificates circulating in the market, nearly all gym operators and personal trainers are familiar with the National Occupational Qualification Certificate, and a considerable proportion of personal trainers hold this credential. However, despite a general consensus among industry practitioners that relevant certification should be obtained before entering the profession, there remains no unified agreement on which specific type of certificate is most appropriate. Moreover, some interviewees demonstrated a limited understanding of the category or level of the certificate they possessed.

“I’ve noticed that personal trainers always list all kinds of certificates on their resumes. I don’t really know how much each one is worth, but just seeing them makes them look really professional.” (CON-08).

“Right now, there’s no national requirement that personal trainers must have a National Occupational Qualification Certificate to get hired, but the unwritten rule in the industry is that you at least need some kind of fitness-related certificate.” (BO-02).

In several interviews, personal trainers confused certificates issued by social organizations or industry associations with the National Occupational Qualification Certificate. In terms of acquisition processes, certificates issued by certain social organizations or industry associations often require only short-term training after payment of a fee, and some can even be obtained without any formal professional training.

“My certificate is a personal trainer certification issued by an international association. I read online that it is pretty well-regarded, but it is actually quite easy to get and costs just over 200 CNY (approximately USD $28). My boss paid for it and in reality there was no training involved.” (PT-10).

“At that time, I studied systematically for two months. I went to classes every day, and different courses had different teachers. In the end, there was an exam, and if you passed, you could get the certificate. It was more or less the same type as the National Occupational Qualification Certificate, but now there are so many training institutes that you can get a certificate as long as you pay.” (PT-01).

More importantly, when discussing their experiences of obtaining these certificates, most personal trainers emphasized the duration and cost of the training rather than recalling specific course content. Some personal trainers who entered the fitness industry earlier mentioned that training programs in the past were relatively long, and holding the National Occupational Qualification Certificate was a mandatory requirement for employment at fitness institutions. In contrast, personal trainers who joined the industry in recent years reported that the duration of certification programs has been significantly shortened, with some courses allowing participants to obtain certificates within just a few days. This transformation has effectively eliminated professional entry barriers in the industry. Furthermore, both gym operators and personal trainers consistently stated that possession of a professional qualification certificate, regardless of its type or issuing body, does not influence salary levels. In other words, within the employment market for personal trainers, the specific type of professional qualification certificate held has little to no impact on access to employment opportunities.

“If they want to get hired, it is very easy to get a certificate. The number of certificates they have does not affect how much I pay them.” (BO-01).

“I feel like anyone can work in this industry. It is more sales-oriented. My salary does not depend on these certificates; it mainly comes from earning commissions by selling fitness classes.” (PT-02).

Selection criteria for personal trainers in the fitness consumption market

In addition to various professional qualification certificates, operators of commercial fitness venues tend to place greater emphasis on traits such as physical appearance, communication skills, and instructional competence when recruiting personal trainers. From the perspective of operators, personal trainers are expected to possess a combination of these attributes because each serves a different function at various stages of consumer engagement. In the early stages, a trainer’s appearance primarily attracts potential clients, while in the later stages, effective communication skills and professional instructional outcomes help promote course sales and strengthen consumer loyalty to a particular fitness venue. However, some personal trainers pointed out that, in practice, appearance and communication skills are the factors that directly affect their sales performance. When these two attributes are particularly strong, they can often compensate for deficiencies in professional instructional ability.

“In the early stage of fitness consumption, people pay more attention to appearance because professionalism is not very obvious yet. But later on, it really comes down to communication skills and professional ability. So a trainer with a good appearance can attract potential clients in the beginning, but if they also have skills and professionalism, their performance will definitely be better in the long run.” (BO-04).

“A female trainer I used to work with didn’t really have much professional skill, but she looked good and was pretty slim, so she could still sell fitness classes. I think having professional skills as a trainer just helps you teach clients better, but only if you are good at sales will you get more classes.” (PT-06).

Beyond sales performance, professional guidance still represents an essential dimension of personal trainers’ work practices in the delivery of fitness services. Nevertheless, our findings indicate that consumer demand for and attention to professional competence remain relatively limited. Since the majority of personal training consumers are beginners, their primary goals typically focus on achieving short-term outcomes such as fat reduction, body shaping, or the acquisition of basic exercise skills. Once these objectives are reached, many consumers discontinue purchasing training sessions, resulting in a highly stage-specific pattern of consumption. In this context, the professional expertise of personal trainers is rarely questioned by consumers. Even when disagreements arise over training methods or goals—such as exercise order or target muscle groups—personal trainers can usually guide consumers to accept their advice through effective communication.

“After having my child, I gained about 30 pounds. One day my older son said he thought I had gotten fat, and that made me start paying more attention to my weight. I thought about getting a personal trainer to help me lose the weight and get back to my previous shape.” (CON-20).

“Actually, a lot of people can’t really tell which trainers are professional and which are not, because most clients are mainly focused on losing fat, and doing more cardio is usually enough. If we have disagreements specifically about training methods, I guide them to accept my suggestions through communication.” (PT-04).

It is evident that consumers’ short-term and utilitarian beginner-level demands have weakened their rigid expectations regarding trainers’ professional competence, further allowing trainers’ instructional content to become, to some extent, permeated by a performance-oriented focus on course sales. In practical terms, this tendency manifests in trainers’ deliberate adjustments to training content and pacing. While designing programs based on consumers’ physical conditions and fitness goals, trainers often modify routines to increase the perceived variety and richness of sessions in order to enhance consumers’ motivation for continued course purchases. This orientation toward weak professionalism and strong performance-driven behavior is reflected not only in teaching practices but also in trainers’ perceptions of their own career development. During interviews, many personal trainers described their occupation as a temporary and age-sensitive career, noting that aging and generational differences between themselves and their primary client base would eventually reduce their competitiveness in the market. Consequently, they tended to attribute career success to qualities such as strong communication skills and appealing appearance rather than to professional expertise in fitness instruction. Overall, when consumers’ short-term goals of body shaping and emotional engagement intersect with personal trainers’ tendency to define professional success through sales performance and interpersonal interaction, the collective demand for high professional standards within the fitness industry becomes significantly diminished.

“A lot of people just want to lose weight when they first start, but trainers still recommend that they focus on strength training first and then gradually lose fat. This happens because trainers want to extend the duration of the fitness program. If someone loses weight in just a month or two, they might not continue coming. By adding all kinds of other exercises to the program, the sessions become more varied and last longer. However, the trainer may not be thinking about this from a professional perspective, but just wants you to buy more classes.” (PT-12).

“This industry really relies on youth. I’ve hardly met any trainers over forty, and the ones who do stay are definitely doing very well. Most clients are under forty too, and they probably prefer trainers who are around their age. Otherwise, there might be a generation gap that makes communication harder.” (PT-03).

Labor relations and interactions between commercial gym operators and personal trainers

In employment practices within commercial fitness venues, professional qualification certificates and visible attributes such as appearance often serve as preliminary criteria for recruitment, while trainers’ ability to sell fitness courses becomes evident only after a period of work. Most gym operators reported that as long as applicants meet basic requirements and possess a good physical image, they are usually given a trial opportunity. According to our interviews, most personal trainers’ income consists of three components: a basic salary, commissions from selling fitness courses, and hourly training fees. Although many personal trainers appear to have relatively high annual earnings, their base salary typically hovers around or slightly above the local statutory minimum wage. While the operators’ direct labor costs for these salaries are not particularly high, the social insurance contributions required for employees remain substantial. China’s Labor Contract Law stipulates that employers must sign written labor contracts with employees, which formally define employment relationships, wages, and working conditions, and make mandatory social insurance contributions on their behalf, including pension, medical, unemployment, work injury, and maternity insurance. However, given the industry’s low entry barriers, we found that many gym operators often reduce employment costs through informal practices such as not signing labor contracts or avoiding social insurance payments.

“If I had to pay social insurance for every new trainer I hire, the labor cost would be too high. My business just couldn’t afford it.” (BO-03).

“As far as I know, in our industry it seems quite common for bosses not to sign labor contracts and pay social insurance for their employees.” (PT-09).

From a labor law perspective, unlike freelance personal trainers who work at multiple gyms, in-house personal trainers generally provide long-term and regular services to a single commercial gym. Even if some do not receive a base salary, their work schedules, client assignments, and working hours are still managed by the gym, indicating a clear subordinate employment relationship. This arrangement further confirms that business risks are borne by the gym operator rather than individual personal trainers. In addition, most operators regularly organize internal training sessions to enhance personal trainers’ sales techniques and professional competence, reinforcing the managerial control that operators exercise over personal trainers.

“Before, I left mostly because the classes I was supposed to take were all taken by other trainers, and the boss didn’t really give me much. At that time, there were three trainers in total, and new clients were picked by the other two first, taking most of them, and I got what was left. But now, at the gym I work at, clients are assigned in rotation, which is much fairer.” (PT-11).

“The regular training sessions are pretty comprehensive. We exercise together, learn some sales skills, and also how to guide clients in using fitness equipment, and so on.” (PT-05).

It is therefore evident that, from the standpoint of subordination, a de facto legal labor relationship exists between gym operators and personal trainers, yet the absence of formal labor contracts and unpaid social insurance remains widespread. Our findings suggest that this situation is linked to both the high mobility of workers within the fitness industry and the limited awareness and varied attitudes of personal trainers toward labor rights and protection. On one hand, frequent job mobility across gyms leads operators to provide social insurance only for those personal trainers who demonstrate stable performance and longer tenure. On the other hand, some trainers show limited understanding of their labor rights and, even when aware of violations, tend to avoid pursuing legal action due to the complexity and high cost of the process.

“Here, we usually only pay social insurance for personal trainers who have worked for more than a year and performed well. If someone works just a month or two and leaves, I haven’t made any money from them, and I couldn’t afford to pay social insurance for everyone.” (BO-05).

“There were four personal trainers from our batch who stayed. Later, when I left, I found out that everyone except me had social insurance. Afterwards, I couldn’t find the right department to defend my rights. I even called a lawyer, and they said it could take one or two years to go through the process to get it back, and the lawyer’s fees were expensive. It just felt too troublesome, so I gave up.” (PT-07).

Discussion

This study, drawing on a tripartite perspective that includes labor (personal trainers), capital (commercial gym operators), and consumers, conducted a thematic analysis of interviews with all three groups. The findings reveal that, in the context of the abolition of mandatory national occupational qualification certification in China, the entry barriers and professional standards for personal trainers have significantly declined. Meanwhile, consumers’ limited demand for professional fitness instruction has led personal trainers to shift their focus toward the promotion and sale of fitness courses rather than the provision of scientific training guidance. At the same time, the high labor mobility within the fitness industry has allowed gym operators to evade employment responsibilities, resulting in a continual decline in personal trainers’ labor conditions and constraining their professional agency as key actors in health promotion.

First, this study finds that the removal of mandatory occupational certification at the national policy level has lowered both the professional threshold and the overall competence within the fitness industry, while amplifying its commercial nature. From a public health perspective, the professionalism of personal trainers, who serve as practitioners of health behavior interventions, directly determines the effectiveness of health promotion. Research shows that only a small proportion of personal trainers holding certificates issued by various social organizations are able to pass practical examinations in exercise science [38]. For fitness beginners, improper exercise guidance can lead to physical injuries, metabolic disorders, and even health anxiety [39]. Personal trainers who have not undergone rigorous professional training often lack systematic knowledge in exercise physiology and nutrition. This not only increases the likelihood of injuries under unqualified instruction but also leads some trainers, driven by sales performance goals, to neglect consumers’ physical safety by promoting inappropriate fat-loss or muscle-gain methods, and in extreme cases, encouraging the misuse of nutritional supplements [40]. When the main focus of personal trainers shifts from providing scientific fitness guidance to selling training courses, fitness practices deviate from the fundamental goal of promoting health and may even reinforce a consumer culture centered on body aesthetics. This transformation significantly undermines the role of fitness venues as spaces for health promotion, turning them into purely commercial environments rather than settings for meaningful health intervention.

Although some studies suggest that an excessive emphasis on physical capital negatively affects personal trainers [41], this study finds that consumers tend to prioritize body shape and communication skills when selecting personal trainers. This preference also shapes the hiring standards adopted by the fitness market. Such a tendency is not accidental but is closely related to the characteristics of the fitness consumption market. It must first be acknowledged that, within the broader social context that promotes population health, health improvement and long-term well-being have become central narratives shaping contemporary fitness participation [42]. Guided by such health-oriented values, physical activity is increasingly framed as a form of long-term investment in individual health rather than merely a tool for improving physical appearance [43]. However, this study finds that within China’s commercial fitness market, motivations oriented toward health promotion tend to occupy a secondary position in fitness consumption practices when compared with goals characterized by immediate and visible outcomes, such as weight loss and body reshaping. One key reason lies in the fact that, unlike changes in external appearance, processes of health improvement are typically gradual, difficult to quantify, and less immediately perceptible, making them poorly aligned with consumers short-term consumption logic and performance-driven sales evaluation systems prevalent in commercial fitness settings. As a result, health-related discourse is frequently absorbed and simplified within commercial marketing narratives, often being reduced to slogans such as “scientific short-term body shaping” or “efficient fat loss,” rather than translated into fitness practices genuinely guided by health promotion principles. These highly commercialized narratives position health goals as subordinate to aesthetic ideals in the sale of fitness programs. In doing so, they not only diminish consumers demand for personal trainers professional expertise, but also constrain the potential role of personal trainers as long-term health promoters. Specifically, from the perspective of consumer characteristics, most fitness consumers are beginners who engage in fitness primarily for short-term and utilitarian goals such as body shaping. In this context, the physical attractiveness of personal trainers plays an important role in motivating and sustaining consumers’ willingness to exercise [44], which aligns with the commercial objectives of gym operators who rely on selling training courses as their main source of profit. Furthermore, the short-term and goal-oriented nature of consumers’ demands means that their expectations for personal trainers’ professionalism remain limited. As a result, fitness consumption often takes the form of experiential and emotional consumption rather than skill-based service [45]. This finding is further supported by empirical studies on Chinese personal trainers, which reveal that trainers often engage in aesthetic labor by constructing different types of personas such as advisor, friend, and idol to better serve their consumers [46]. From the trainers’ perspective, the fitness industry essentially belongs to the service sector, and their value creation process depends heavily on interpersonal interactions. Previous research has pointed out that the professional competence of personal trainers includes not only professional knowledge and instructional skills (technical services) but also service awareness and communication abilities (interactive services) [47, 48]. This indicates that fitness labor possesses both professional and emotional dimensions. However, these two dimensions often generate functional tension in practice. Personal trainers must rely on interactive services such as communication and emotional engagement to build client relationships. While this performative labor enhances their market competitiveness, it may simultaneously weaken their professional identity, which is grounded in technical expertise. When consumers’ low demand for professionalism coincides with the commercial interests of gym operators, personal trainers’ interactive service skills become their core competitive advantage. Consequently, their professional role shifts from that of a health promotion specialist to that of a commercial salesperson.

Combining this study’s finding that operators of commercial fitness facilities commonly evade their labor responsibilities toward personal trainers, it can be seen that the market logic described above not only changes the main content of trainers’ work but also reshapes the structure of labor relations between personal trainers and gym operators. On the one hand, the lowering of occupational entry barriers has enabled a larger number of workers to enter the industry with relative ease, thereby expanding the supply of labor and strengthening gym operators power within the labor market. This increased market power allows operators to reduce their employment responsibilities while simultaneously constraining the bargaining capacity of personal trainers as workers, further exacerbating the structural inequality between the two parties. On the other hand, in a fitness market dominated by sales-oriented logic, the combination of low professional demand and unstable income results in high occupational mobility among personal trainers. Driven by cost control and profit maximization, gym operators often reduce the welfare and benefits of trainers, leaving those without stable employment relationships unable to access social security. Consequently, their labor status and sense of professional identity are weakened. Given this industry context, some studies have found that certain personal trainers are even willing to compromise or lower their expectations regarding normal working conditions in exchange for employment opportunities [49]. This phenomenon further leads to misconceptions about their own profession and the emergence of job burnout [36]. Another study further demonstrates that levels of burnout among personal trainers are closely associated with job satisfaction and intentions to leave the profession [50]. Because personal trainers occupy a disadvantaged position in labor relations, characterized more by sales functions than by professional expertise, their motivation to seek legal protection is further constrained by the pressures of livelihood and the high costs of defending their labor rights. As a result, personal trainers themselves become part of the vicious cycle that continues to weaken the professional standards of their occupation. This predicament not only intensifies the sense of job insecurity within the personal trainer community but also diminishes their active role in health promotion under the influence of market logic.

The findings of this study offer important implications for the further development of training standards and governance frameworks within the commercial fitness industry. This study suggests that the current cycle of de-professionalization observed in the industry may need to be addressed through a critical re-examination of how professional training and certification systems for personal trainers are structured. One potential avenue for improvement is the establishment of unified baseline entry-level training standards at the industry level, reinforced through regular professional competency assessments to ensure minimum professional requirements. Building on this foundation, more specialized and systematic tiered standards could be developed around different types of exercise modalities and training domains. At the same time, clearer regulatory guidance is needed regarding the use of health-related marketing discourse in commercial fitness settings, in order to reduce the erosion of professional practice and health promotion principles caused by sales-oriented and highly commercialized narratives.

Conclusion

This study, through tripartite interviews with labor, capital, and consumers in the fitness industry, finds that following the removal of mandatory occupational certification for personal trainers at the national level, market demand has become the primary guiding focus of their work. As consumer preferences increasingly guide the delivery of fitness instruction, the professional components of personal trainers’ labor are diluted by the emotionalized expectations of consumers and the commercialized strategies of gym operators. This structural transformation not only reshapes the labor relations within the industry but also shifts the practice of fitness instruction from being guided by professional knowledge and public health objectives to being driven by market consumption and emotional experience. Such a shift gradually undermines the industry’s potential contribution to health promotion. In terms of academic contribution and research significance, this study incorporates personal trainers into the analytical framework of health promotion, revealing the interactive mechanisms between micro-level labor practices and macro-level health structures. It provides a new perspective for understanding changes in professional behavior and the social foundations of health governance within the wellness industry, while also offering empirical evidence to inform policy and regulatory efforts targeting this sector.

Authors’ contributions

Conceptualization: Z.X. & Z.D.; Data curation: Z.D. ; Formal analysis: Z.X. & Z.D. ; Investigation: Z.X. & Z.D. ; Methodology : Z.X. & Z.D.; Project administration: Z.D. ; Resources: Z.D. ; Software : Z.X.; Supervision: Z.D. ; Validation: Z.X. & Z.D. ; Visualization: Z.X. ; Writing - original draft: Z.X. & Z.D. ; Writing - review & editing: Z.D. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Funding

This research project did not receive any external financial support or funding.

Data availability

The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available due to privacy considerations but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

This research complied with the Helsinki Declaration and was approved by the Institutional Review Board at School of Law, Xingzhi College Zhejiang Normal University. The approval number is XZFX2201. Informed consent was obtained from each participant.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.