Personal Trainer in Dubai | Your Questions Answered

A little while ago I asked on my Instagram if you had anything you would like me to make a YouTube video about. I got a bunch of questions about being a personal trainer in Dubai, so I decided to make a video to answer them. However, I know some of you prefer to read blogs instead of watching YouTube videos, and I don’t want to leave anyone out, so I thought I would also make this blog a little Q&A session about being a personal trainer in Dubai and answering your questions in both places.

I got 3 great questions and I’m just going right into answering the first one…

Question 1: Why did you move and why Dubai?

I always knew I wanted to move away to another country. I never traveled growing up and didn’t get my first passport until I was like 14 or 15. When I started traveling, I would always think to myself “How it would be to live in this country?” I never enjoyed being a tourist and doing touristy stuff, but I loved imagining being a part of the community and going to the places where the locals go.

And I have always had a desire to just move out and away… When I was 14 I moved to Sweden for one year without my parents. At 17 I moved into my own place. I’ve always had this like, need, to move and to go somewhere. And I always knew I wanted to move even further away, but decided I had to finish my education first.

What I wanted was a place with:

Warmer weather
Lots of sunshine and
English as the spoken language, or at least one of the main languages. So I had a way to communicate with people.

And for me, Dubai fit all those criteria. So when I got the opportunity to move I went for it. And I really like helping people, so as a woman I felt like in this region I can really make a difference and influence other women and help change their lives and make people healthier. Even more, than I was able to back home in Denmark if that makes sense.

Question 2: How did you get a job as a Personal Trainer in Dubai?

About two months before I graduated I applied for a job as a personal trainer in Dubai. At this point, I had around three years of experience as a personal trainer and about six years of experience in the fitness industry in general. I competed three times, and truth be told I just got the job right away. I had about two months to get a driver’s license (because at 26 I didn’t have one – in Copenhagen all you need is your bike!), finish my degree, sell all my stuff and move out of my apartment.

The day after I graduated I was on a plane to Dubai and started this whole new life down here. So for me, getting a job here was very easy. I had all the qualifications and I found the job posting on my school’s website. So that’s where I found it. I didn’t even look for it. It just showed up right in front of my face and I felt like it was meant for me. So I just, yeah, applied and got it and went for it. That’s it. Still I’ll admit the whole process and moving was super scary, but worth it in the end.

Question 3: How do you make it as a personal trainer in Dubai (when all the other trainers are competing, super shredded, really big, etc.)

I understand this question as if the person asking is seeking advice on how to stand out if you are not standing out as the trainer with the most impressive physique.

My advice would be to focus on yourself and on how clients can benefit from working with you. Don’t focus on what everyone else is doing! Why would anyone want to coach from you if your focus is not improving yourself and what you can give your clients, but on what everyone else is doing?

Chances are that if you’re not a massive bodybuilder yourself, you’re probably not the ideal person to help someone who wants to become a massive bodybuilder anyway, so just don’t focus on that segment. Of course, it does help to have a good body and to have competed. If you want to be a personal trainer and have 10 kg. to lose, work on getting in better shape. Your body is your business card as a trainer. And especially competing is great exposure and it’s a way for people to find you and contact you and want to work with you, but it’s not the only way. That being said, I’ve personally experienced success throughout my own career despite my weight and body fat percentage fluctuating quite a bit.

It all comes down to your ability to attract clients. My best tip to anyone wanting to be a personal trainer either in Dubai or anywhere else is to get very clear on who your ideal client is and find out exactly what do you need to bring to the table to be the best trainer for this specific type of person. How are you going to be the best person to help that exact person reach their goals?

Your ideal clients should reflect the person you are the best at helping. If you have a particular niche, you’re much more likely to attract people that want to have you as their trainer because they need and want the specific knowledge that you have and only you can offer them.

Imagine your a client wanting to learn how to deadlift and you’re looking for a coach.

Would you pick the coach who markets himself as coaching both fat loss, muscle gain, bodybuilders competing, fitness for elderly people, kids, boxing, powerlifting, and weight loss? Or, would you pick the coach who’s a powerlifter and markets himself coaching powerlifting only?

99,9% you’d pick the guy who’s an expert on what you’d like to learn.

When picking your niche, choose one thing that you will become the best at coaching and the clients will come to you.

If I take myself as an example, I’ve been working full time as a personal trainer in Dubai for three years. I’ve done pretty well for myself. As a physical therapist and personal trainer, my ideal client is a woman who has some sort of injury or musculoskeletal issue but still wants to improve her fitness and get in better shape. She’s done physical therapy before and now she wants to continue training and get in shape, but she needs someone who understands how to do a body transformation AND her specific needs from a medical perspective. A regular trainer might not understand exactly what her needs are, so for that particular type of client, I am the perfect fit. And that’s the type of person I help.

Of course, if someone comes to me and they just want to lose weight or build muscle or they’re a man or they’re older or younger, I might still say that I can help them. If I feel like I can. But I market myself to one specific type of person only. And when those people find me, they only want me as their trainer. That’s why, to be attractive to my particular niche, I don’t have to be super shredded to have a full schedule. When my clients find me there’s not a lot of convincing or selling for me to do because they know I’m the person that can help them reach their goals.

So to summarize: My advice is to find out what it is that makes you special as a trainer. What are you (or what can you become) the best at? Really, really get clear on your niche and your clients will start coming to you, I promise.

That is all I have for today’s Q&A! I really hope you enjoyed today’s questions and answers and if you have more questions about being a personal trainer in Dubai, being a personal trainer in general or anything else, feel free to comment down below any question you have and I will answer them in another Q&A another time.

You can also watch some footage from our trip to Fujairah, a 25 min. circuit workout AND the whole Q&A “live” on my YouTube channel:

If you liked this blog you may also like A Day In The Life Of A Dubai Personal Trainer and Dubai Personal Trainer: 5 Things I Wish I Knew Before