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25 Best Personal Training Books to Improve Your Skills

best personal training books

If you’re searching for the best books for personal trainers to take your career in the sports industry to the next level, this article reviews 25 books to help you in different areas in the industry, including:

We are confident at least one of these books will strengthen your skills as a fitness professional and elevate your career.

Are you looking to expand your client base? Enquire about studying one of our advanced fitness courses at level 4, you can learn specialised skills to train new people. To learn about the full range of courses we provide, download our prospectus.

 

Best Business and Marketing Books for Personal Trainers

#1 Start with Why, Simon Sinek

If you’re hoping to achieve further success as a personal trainer, Start with Why, is one of those books on personal training that will help elevate your career.

The book gets you to understand why you became a trainer in the first place, drawing upon public figures such as Martin Luther King and Steve Jobs and their leadership skills.  

Sinek notes that these successful leaders all think, act and communicate the same way; for them, it is not what they did but why they carried out their work.

The book encourages you to think the same way to generate future success for yourself and your clientele.

Realising why you became a personal trainer, whether that was to help others or understand the science behind fitness, this book will inspire you to come up with innovative ideas for classes and training programs to give you a competitive edge in the industry. 

#2 Money: Know More, Make More, Give More, Rob Moore

best personal training books

If you’re working in the fitness industry, there is a strong possibility you’re self-employed. Navigating the industry can be a daunting task, particularly if you’re looking to start up a business or increase your client base. 

Money is among our recommended books for self-employed personal trainers. It details the history of money, its evolution, and its psychological impact on society. This information can revolutionise your career and find new ways to market your PT services.

Moore also details his journey to millionaire status, giving you a blueprint to improve your professional status in the industry. 

It's for this reason that we’d say this is one of the best business books for personal trainers looking for something to give you the confidence to generate more revenue for your business and tap into new sectors of the industry.

#3 The Trusted Trainer, David Osgathorp

Personal training certification books

If you’re worried about losing your clientele, The Trusted Trainer will prevent you from making easy mistakes.

Osgathorp has excellent ways to provide excellent customer service and boost client numbers, something that not many other PT or fitness instructor books provide. 

He encourages you to care about clients’ wellbeing before demonstrating your expertise as a trainer, making every exchange a positive one and having clients that want to push themselves because that will challenge you too.

This book is useful if you’re looking to develop your social skills and become a positive influence in your clients’ lives and learn something from them too.

#4 Dare to Win, Jeff Chegwin & Carmela Diclemente

recommended books for personal trainers

We are all human and making mistakes can occur in any industry. Dare to Win encourages you to embrace your faults as they can lead to personal and professional growth. 

If you have suffered a setback; losing a client, for example, Chegwin and DiClemente have examples of public figures who have also experienced the same in their careers and learnt from their mistakes, such as; J.K Rowling, Beyoncé and Einstein, offering you ways to rebound in your career.

The book also teaches you to be patient with results. Rewards are gradual, like a fitness program, and you’ll always encounter some pain barriers along the way to achieving goals with your clients.

If you’re feeling discouraged or at a roadblock in your career, this book will help you unlock your potential which makes it one of our top books for personal trainers!

#5 Ignite the Fire, Jonathan Goodman

best nutrition books for personal trainers

Trying to build your career from the bottom up? We recommend you read Ignite the Fire, which teaches you how to gain a clientele base, a good reputation and generate a decent income.

We rank this amongst the best personal trainer certification books as it breaks down the building blocks of becoming a PT; training, finding your target market, creating workouts for beginners and how to handle different types of clients. 

He also guides you on how to get more clients and how to create efficient systems for personal training.

After reading this book, you will have a better understanding of where you want to work in the industry and how to achieve the best results for your clients thanks to personal trainer books like this.

#6 Personal Trainer Pocketbook, Jonathan Goodman

anatomy and physiology books for personal

If you feel your career is stagnating, Personal Trainer Pocketbook is amongst the best personal training books online to help get it back on track.  

It helps you reignite your passion and make money from the fitness industry, encouraging you to have better organisation, as a technique to increase your productivity; creating schedules to save time and be more cost-effective.

He also teaches you how to market and sell your services to your clients, allowing you to expand your business.

From this book, you will find new inspiration for your career and find new methods to be productive within your daily schedule.

#7 Conscious Coaching: The Art and Science of Building Buy-In, Brett Bartholomew

best personal trainer books

If you’re searching for ideas to improve your skills as a trainer, then Bartholomew’s Conscious Coaching has useful tips to help you.

Bartholomew offers one of the greatest books for personal training because he teaches you to pursue conscious coaching instead of reductionist coaching.  This allows you to adapt to your clients’ needs and create workout routines tailored to their fitness and goals. 

The book also teaches you to acknowledge your shortcomings and strengths, this will help you encourage clients when they are trying to overcome their physical challenges.

The information written in this book will develop your emotional intelligence when a client needs the right motivation, arming you with the correct skills to help them achieve amazing fitness results.

#8 How To Be An Awesome Trainer Ben Coomber

Best books for personal trainers

We couldn’t write a list of books personal trainers should read without Awesome Trainer, which has plenty of advice and useful information for you to learn from.

This book doesn’t focus on your technical knowledge but on how you can become more personable as a trainer.

Coomber can help organise your working day if you’re searching for ways to manage your time better and deliver premium services to your clients.

It will transform your career making your daily commitments more streamlined and efficient but also making you an understanding and inspiring mentor to your clients.

 

Best Nutrition Books for Personal Trainers

#9 Go Dairy Free, Alisa Fleming

kinesiology books for personal trainers

No two clients are alike, which is why sometimes you need to factor in their dietary requirements when working towards their goals. Nutritional books for personal trainers are a great way for you to assist clients outside of the gym.

Go Dairy Free is a collection of recipes and information to help you assist clients with a dairy-free lifestyle.

The book offers alternatives to dairy food, identifying naturally mineral-rich foods to ensure clients are getting essential vitamins and minerals daily.

If you have dairy-free clients due to an allergy or intolerance, Fleming offers crucial information for PTs looking to improve their knowledge of this nutrition and help clients with their diet.

#10 The Real Meal Revolution: Low Carb Cooking, Jonno Proudfoot

Personal Training Books 2

In today's busy and modern world, your clients might be tempted to eat food that is easy to prepare but bad for their diet. 

The best nutrition books for personal trainers are an antidote to that mindset and Proudfoot’s book is no different. It offers healthy and highly nutritious recipes that are easy and quick to prepare.

Whether you train clients with diabetes, are gluten-free or interested in going sugar-free, this book takes the attention away from restriction and puts the focus on making food easier to prepare.

These recipes will help change your client's perspective on what they can prepare in such a short period, improving their health and performance in the gym.

#11 The Functional Nutrition Cookbook, Lorraine Nicolle and Christine Bailey

personal trainer certification books

If you have clients with health conditions that need managing, Nicolle’s and Bailey’s healthy and nutritious recipes can help them.

Recommended books for personal trainers usually contain information that is easy to decipher and this book with its bullet-point presentation, makes it easy for you and your clients to bring these recipes to life.

Whether your clients have immune or hormone disorders, the book will help improve their health with recipes tailored to help different conditions.

After enjoying some of the healthy dishes from this book, your clients will be able to cope with their conditions and commitments to fitness at the same time.

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#12 The 5:2 Diet Book, Kate Harrison

best business books for personal trainers

You cannot work in the fitness industry without discussing clients’ intermittent fasting. Fortunately, Harrison’s personal trainer book will help answer clients’ questions. 

The 5:2 Diet Book details her weight loss journey, using scientific evidence. She demonstrates that you can still eat the foods you love but still enjoy health benefits. 

Harrison also highlights the positive effects this diet can have on cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer's. It makes it a good book for personal trainers as it provides you with ideas to assist clients who find it difficult to follow a strict diet.

Your clients will see they can enjoy food but also achieve the physical results they are after, thanks to Harrison’s diet and lifestyle.

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#13 The Ultimate Bodybuilding Cookbook, Kendall Lou Schmidt

best business books for personal trainers

Clients will always have different goals, in some cases, they may wish to bulk up. The Ultimate Bodybuilding Cookbook is one of those good books for personal trainers as it helps your clients build muscle. 

You may find your clients are tired of the same old protein-packed diets, this book brings new recipes to the table if they are looking for something new. 

Its nutrition tables allow clients to alter portion sizes to help build strength and muscle mass correctly, making it one of the best personal trainer books to share with their clientele.

If your clients are looking to count macros or calories, each recipe has a complete breakdown of calories per serving and grams of protein, fat, and carbohydrates, making it easy to track their food.

You will be able to introduce your clients to recipes that will improve their physical strength and this improves their body mass.

#14 Choose More, Lose More for Life, Chris Powell

Chris Powell Personal Trainer Book

Carbohydrates are an inescapable part of anyone's diet. Chris Powell’s personal trainer books always include information to help clients supplement their training and this book is no different.

Choose More, Lose More for Life is centred around a carb-cycling plan, which alternates between low and high-carbohydrate days. This helps align your clients' calorie intake and need for glucose with their body’s needs. This will help their fitness levels improve and prevent muscles from wasting away.

Powell has also designed 20 new workouts called ‘Nine-Minute Missions’, which will inspire you when coming up with rapid workout plans for clients.

After you have taught your client the benefits of carb-cycling from this book, they will be able to adjust their carb intake to match the physical demands of their workouts.

#15 Good Calories, Bad Calories, Gary Taubes

Books personal trainers should read 2

If you want to provide clients with information that nutritionists and dieticians specialise in, then Good Calories, Bad Calories is a great book for you to read.

It is one of the best sports nutrition books for personal trainers thanks to Taubes' research. He perfectly breaks down debates between carbohydrates and fats debate, debunks the myth that fats cause obesity and emphasises good nutrition is not only calorie intake, but the variety of foods that you consume.

This ensures your clients are getting the right balance of macro and micronutrients, which is crucial to leading a healthy lifestyle to consider alongside training.

This book will arm your cannon with nutritional information that can assist clients seeking guidance with their diet. 

#16 Strength Training Nutrition 101: Build Muscle & Burn Fat Easily...A Healthy Way Of Eating You Can Maintain: 2 (Strength Training 101), Marc Mclean

books for personal training

If you’re finding it difficult to recommend easy recipes for your clients to improve their diet, then Nutrition 101 can provide you with some ideas. 

This is one of the best nutrition books for personal trainers to help complement a weightlifting diet, simplifying calories, proteins, carbs and fats, allowing your clients to understand what they are consuming.

It also offers tips to help your clients eat cleaner, stopping them from eating food that could hamper their efforts to achieve their fitness goals.

It also provides information on the best foods clients should eat before and after a workout. This will increase their performance, recovery and development whilst they work with you.

McLean’s book will enhance your understanding of clients’ dietary needs, helping them to structure meals around their workouts to improve their results with you. 

 

Best Exercise and Training Books for Personal Trainers

#17 The Triathlete’s Training Bible, Joe Friel

Best exercise books for personal trainers

Up-to-date scientific research is what makes The Training Bible one of the best exercise books for personal trainers. It gives you the freedom to provide different training methods for your triathlete clients, looking to achieve their personal goals.

The book contains useful chapters for you to develop clients’ fitness, develop muscle strength, and adapt weekly plans for missed workouts.

It also has advice on how to improve in the areas; of swimming, cycling and running. Providing plans to improve fitness carried out by triathletes. 

Its fantastic resources will help clients excel in all areas of fitness and perform to the best of their abilities come event day. 

#18 The Strength and Conditioning Bible: How to Train Like an Athlete, Nick Grantham

books for personal trainer

If you have clients that have desire to train like an athlete, The Strength and Conditioning Bible is one of the best fitness books for personal trainers to read. Whether your client is a regular gym goer or has strength and conditioning experience, this book will cater to all levels of fitness. 

It covers training principles used by high-performance athletes, making information that is usually reserved for the elite accessible to everyone.

The book also contains contributions from 20 of the world’s leading experts in strength and conditioning, fitness, injury rehabilitation, and psychology. Giving you professional advice to help improve your clients’ fitness levels.

The Strength and Conditioning Bible is a great book for any trainer with multiple clients seeking different fitness goals, and tailoring programs to meet individual needs.

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#19 Your Workout PERFECTED, Nick Tumminello

Good books for personal trainers

If you know a client’s workout is correct but they aren’t getting results, good books for personal trainers such as Your Workout Perfected, can help you adjust the routine and not change it.

This book will help you find simple, scientifically-researched techniques to improve function, performance and general fitness.

It offers useful tips on providing training based on a person’s biological makeup and how to structure workouts to maximise results.

Thanks to this book, you will be delivering a premium service for your clients to improve their fitness levels. 

#20 The Complete Guide to Personal Training, Morc Coulson

best business books for personal trainers 1

Scientifically-focused books help with professional development and are the best personal trainers books for people employed in the industry to own. 

The Complete Guide to Personal Training, helps you focus on a client’s journey, providing you with detailed guidance to help you sign-up, assess, program design and monitor your client’s development.

Coulson offers you online templates from fitness assessments to marketing, helping you align your knowledge with the criteria expected from the national occupational standards for training, this ensures you’re delivering a professional service.

After purchasing this book, you will feel confident that you’re delivering high levels of service to your clients, which in turn will impress your clientele basis and increase retention of your services.

Anatomy and Physiology Books for Personal Trainers

#21 Practical Anatomy & Movement: A Guide for Personal Trainers, Andrea Thatcher

Personal training books online

If you’re thinking about purchasing personal training certification books, you should consider Practical, Anatomy and Movement.

The book contains fantastic medically-graded images, helping trainers understand the workings of the human body to help provide clarity on its anatomical features.

It also allows you to answer questions in each section of the book, so you can test your knowledge and identify areas that need improvement.

After studying Thatcher’s book, you will have a greater understanding of the human anatomy and the muscles you’re working with when training different clients. 

#22 Bodyweight Strength Training Anatomy, Bret Contreras

Personal Training Books

Bodyweight Strength Training Anatomy is one of the best personal training books if you’re looking for new ways to help your clients build muscle mass, increase strength and burn fat.

Kinesiology books for personal trainers teach you how to perform, combine, and sequence bodyweight exercises to work for all your clients’ muscle groups, which Contreras has plenty of ideas for.

The full-colour illustrations also help you see the application of these exercises and their effect on ligaments, tendons and bones. 

You will be able to explain to your clients why you’re performing the exercises and the benefits of each muscle group that is activated using the information in this book.

#23 Strength Training Anatomy, Frederic Delavier

Personal trainer books

When it comes to good books for personal trainers, Strength Training Anatomy can help take your anatomical knowledge further.

This is because it combines visual details with the best strength training advice, helping you learn exercises and how to perform them with your client. This book is no different.

Its 600 full-colour illustrations reveal how primary muscles, ligaments and connective tissues work whilst exercises are performed. He also shows you how to minimise mistakes by demonstrating common strength-training injuries that occur when exercises are performed incorrectly. 

Thanks to Delavier’s expertise, you will be able to improve your training techniques with clients and minimise the chances of them sustaining an injury, thanks to this book’s instructions to guarantee you’re performing them correctly.

#24 Anatomy of the Moving Body: A Basic Course in Bones, Muscles, and Joints, Theodore Dimon

Personal training books online

It can be overwhelming to study human anatomy, but thanks to personal training books like Anatomy of the Moving Body, it is easier to understand biological terminology.

Dimon Jr. helps you understand how parts of the respiratory system work, helping you manage the intensity a client carries out their exercises.

The book also describes how the ankles, shoulders and hands function, allowing you to explain to your client the benefit of carrying our calf raises, leaning lateral raises and hand lifts.

Anatomy will allow you to excel in your career, allowing you to demonstrate your expert knowledge to clients and giving them the confidence to retain your services.

#25 Anatomy of Movement, Blandine Calais-Germain

Good books for personal trainers

Anatomy of Movement is one of the books personal trainers should read. It is an ideal book if you’re looking to specifically develop your knowledge of the musculoskeletal system, its physical structures and how the movements of the human body.

Blandine Calais-Germain delivers the information with clarity, which is beneficial if you’re a trainer who wants your information to be simple to understand. 

You also get a tour of all bones, muscles and ligaments throughout the body, helping you improve your skills in anatomical functions of the body. 

If you pick up a copy of this book, you will have a greater understanding of medical and anatomical knowledge of the human body when you’re with your client in the gym.

 

Before You Go!

We hope that you’ve found exactly what you were looking for on our list of the best personal training books.

Don’t forget you can develop your personal trainer skills further with our level 4 PT coursesYou can learn about our other courses by downloading our free course prospectus!

 

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Written by Rebecca Felton

Content Writer & Fitness Enthusiast

Graduating from the University of Liverpool with a first-class degree in English, Rebecca’s combined passions for fitness and writing are what brought her to OriGym. Rebecca is a keen gym-goer and specifically enjoys lifting weights. Outside of fitness and writing, Rebecca enjoys cooking, reading, and watching the football.

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