Strength And Conditioning Coach Salary Guide (2024)

If you want to know what a typical strength and conditioning coaches salary is, you're in the right place.

In this article, we discuss:

• Average Salary For Strength And Conditioning Coaches In The UK
• How Does The Average Strength & Conditioning Coach Salary Increase With Experience?
• How Does The Institution You Work For Affect Your Salary?
• Can Your Location Influence Your Strength and Conditioning Pay?
• Tips for Boosting Your Salary With Additional Qualifications

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Average Salary For Strength And Conditioning Coaches In The UK

One of the first questions you might have when considering becoming a strength and condition coach is “does the role pay enough to meet your financial expectations”.

To understand the starting salary a strength and conditioning coach could earn you, analysing data gathered from job websites such as Indeed and Glassdoor is a good place to start.

If you visit the Indeed website, you’ll learn that the average salary of a strength and conditioning coach in the UK is £26,165:

This only illustrates part of what you could earn in this role since strength and conditioning is an umbrella term, encompassing different roles. 

With this in mind, it’s equally important to understand the lowest and highest salaries you could earn. 

Glassdoor provides information about your salary expectations, illustrating the amounts you could earn from the data they’ve collated:

Now that you’ve gained insight into the salary ranges you could earn as a strength and conditioning coach, let’s discuss how these salaries can be impacted by the following factors.

The Average Strength & Conditioning Coach Salary Increases With Experience

It will come as no surprise that your salary as a strength and conditioning coach will increase as you gain more experience in this role.

The reason you're earning potential increases as you spend more time in the role is you develop skills that allow you to take on new responsibilities and gain promotions.

The employment pyramid below demonstrates one way you can utilise your experience to take on more demanding roles and increase your yearly salary over time.

Let’s take a look at the jobs you could undertake from the employment pyramid based on your experience and what responsibilities and salaries you could have. 

1. Strength and Conditioning Internships (£17,000 per annum)

At the bottom of the employment pyramid, one of the first roles you will likely undertake is that of a strength and conditioning intern.

This is true if you’re nearing completion of your level 4 strength and conditioning qualification, making you eligible to become a strength and conditioning coach intern at a football club.

A football strength and conditioning salary is difficult to secure at this stage with many clubs offering internships instead, either as free placements or as minimum wage positions, such as the one offered here by Peterborough United Football Club:

An internship offers you the chance to work in a sporting environment but also demonstrates your abilities to increase your future employment prospects.

2.Strength and Conditioning Graduate Roles (£21,000 per annum)

After completion of your level 4 strength and conditioning degree, you may consider applying for a graduate role.

This role allows you to understand how to plan and deliver sessions for aspiring athletes coupled with assisting the head coach with pre-event warm-ups.

If you were passionate about rugby, on the UKSCA website, you could apply for a graduate teaching assistant role to develop your strength and conditioning skills:

In a graduate strength and conditioning role, you can earn up to £21,000 depending on the organisation advertising the position. 

It’s also a great opportunity to gain experience and has demonstrable skills you can use as evidence to secure another position further up the employment pyramid.

3. Strength and Conditioning Academy Coach (£23,000 per annum)

If you’re a new graduate or have significant S&C experience, applying for an academy role might be worth considering.   

This is a great opportunity to impress your future employer through their training programme and potentially secure employment with them.

Fitness Mastery, for instance, offers graduates the opportunity to complete their training programme and receive guaranteed employment upon completion:

In an academy role, it’s possible to earn up to £23,000 as this reflects your experience as well as being trained to industry standards for the work you carry out in the future for your employer

4. Strength and Conditioning Coaching Assistant Salary (£25,000 per annum)

After the successful completion of a graduate position or internship, you might want to apply for a coaching role as the next progressive step in your strength and conditioning career. 

It’s a perfect role to demonstrate the strength and conditioning coach skills you’ve developed and apply them to optimise an athlete’s performance.

Jason Floyd Golf Academy has recently advertised for a strength and conditioning coach who can assist with strength training and nutritional advice:

It’s important to note that strength and conditioning assistant salaries can vary depending on the level of expertise required.

If you’re in a position that requires you to assist with youth set-ups, you’ll likely be paid less than a position working with a first-team squad in a professional capacity.

5. First Team Strength and Conditioning Coach (£35,000 per annum)

To work in a first-team as a strength and conditioning coach you need to have extensive experience and a proven track record to secure this position.

If you’re a new graduate, you may find it difficult to work for a first team, unless it’s being offered by a semi-professional sporting outfit.

Reading the job description below from Wrexham AFC, you can see that they want to hear from applicants who hold these qualities:

You’ll increase your employment prospects in this role if you manage to gain work in different sports settings and have accredited qualifications for this field of work.

6. Head of Strength and Conditioning Salary (UK) (£55,000 per annum)

It takes several years of education and experience to earn a head strength and conditioning coach salary. 

To be effective in this role, you’ll need the ability to manage and lead a department to help deliver programmes for athletes.

The University of Pennsylvania, for example, is looking for the next head of its strength and training department who possesses these qualities:

The salary of the head of the strength and conditioning department can vary between positions with major sporting outfits offering salaries up to £55,000 per annum.

This is because prices can vary between organisations and between different sporting types who are looking to hire a strength and conditioning coach.

7. Director of Sporting Performance (£100,000 per annum) 

If you want to earn a director of strength and conditioning salary, you’ll be responsible for managing the strength and conditioning department as well as the sports science department.

The director of sports role can be a financially rewarding job with UK Talent capping the figure at just over £78,000:

In America, this job can be even more lucrative with sports science departments offering lucrative six-figure salaries to secure the right candidate.

Here in the UK, the Welsh Rugby Union is seeking an interim sports director to deliver high-performance strategic plans, among other duties:

Working as the director of strength and conditioning is one of the most prestigious positions you can hold within this field.

After many years of experience and development, you should find yourself climbing up the employment pyramid to take on this type of role.

The Institution You Work For Will Determine Your Strength Conditioning Coach Salary

Alongside the type of role you undertake, your strength and conditioning coach salary can also be determined by the institution you decide to work for.

There are several institutions where you can find employment, including: 

• Schools, colleges and universities
• Studios or private gyms
• Performance clinics
• Positions assisting athletes
• Professional and semi-professional sports outfits

Let’s take a deeper dive into these institutions and the roles you could undertake and the salaries associated with them. 

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It’s Possible To Earn A Healthy Strength And Conditioning Salary At A School, College Or University (£21,000 per annum)

Working for an educational institute is a common route to take after becoming qualified with a variety of roles for you to undertake.

Colleges and universities, for example, run elite athlete programmes, especially sports-focused ones like Loughborough and Leeds Carnegie.

Institutions of this calibre offer scholarships and programmes to attract high-performing athletes to compete in regional and national competitions.

This is a great opportunity to train upcoming talent, optimising an athlete’s performance and minimising injury risks. These roles are highly sought after, such as this position at Burnley College:

The role advertised here is a graduate support role, which at the college level, could earn you a salary between £19,000 and £21,000 a year.

An S&C Coach Salary Can Vary If You Work In A Private Studio or Gym

If you’re not attracted to working in an educational setting, then you might find a strength and conditioning position at a studio or gym more appealing.

Across the UK, there are hundreds of fitness centres that specialise in strength and conditioning, training amateur and professional athletes.

In studios or gyms, strength and conditioning coaches can earn money through different economic models, including:

• Receiving a fixed salary
• Receiving a part-time salary combined with part-time freelance work
• Working under a freelance-only model

Performance Project illustrates the earning potential of working in a fitness centre as they recently advertised for a strength and conditioning coach, who could earn up to £30,000:

Such a position carries many benefits, including having access to an established client base and a guaranteed monthly income.

Working In A Performance Clinic Can Earn You A S&C Coach Salary (UK) Providing Greater Client Care (£26,000 per annum)

Performance clinics differ slightly from studios as they examine what can affect an athlete’s overall performance.

Strength and conditioning studios operate differently, tending to focus on the physical components of training that are addressed.

For example, Clubheath in Chelsea is looking for a candidate who understands the client’s symptoms, medical history and treatment goals:

According to data held by Payscale, it could earn you up to £26,000 each year. So if you want to provide overall care for your clients, this might be the job for you.

Athletes May Offer You A Private Strength And Conditioning Coach Salary To Help Improve Their Performance (Salary varies)

You can be hired by an athlete in a private role to help them improve their physical performance.

To succeed in this role you would need to have strong marketing skills to attract the right clientele to make training professional athletes a success.

Celebrity S&C coach Gunnar Petersen, for example, is reported to have earned a salary of £400,000 per year:

If you want to work in providing a more direct service to clients and know how to market yourself, then being hired as a specialist in strength and conditioning to help athletes might be the career path for you.

You Could Earn A Premier League Strength And Conditioning Coach Salary Training Football Players (£30,000 per annum)

If you’re passionate about football, you might like the prospect of working for a football team as a strength and conditioning coach.

It’s a great opportunity to work with all age groups within a football academy to optimise their performance through the training programmes you’ll implement.

You’ll discover that more reputable football teams with bigger revenue streams will influence the professional strength and conditioning salary (UK) you can earn with them. 

The wages of strength and conditioning coaches hired for established teams such as Arsenal Football Club can average £32,222 per year.

This is thanks in part to the club generating £384.5 million in revenue during the 2021/22 season. This would have stemmed from several sources, including:

• Match day tickets
• Stadium hire
• Sponsorships 
• Merchandise sales
• Broadcasting agreements
• Transfers
• Prize money

Teams that play further down the football pyramid, earn significantly less revenue compared to teams playing top-flight football.

This is because the funding sources listed above offer significantly fewer opportunities to generate significant revenue.

For example, Colchester United who is currently playing in League Two is reported to have annual revenue of £7.7 million.

As a result, they are more likely to offer a lower salary for a strength and conditioning team compared to premier league teams. 

On the Aspire Media Group website, this is reflected on the Lead Academy Strength & Conditioning Coach position that Colchester United advertised, offering a salary of £21,000:

It’s important to remember that you’re more likely to get a job with a high-profile team if you have accumulated enough experience and hold the desired qualifications for the position. 

Now that you’ve learnt how institutes can influence your strength and conditioning pay, let’s look at how location can influence it too. 

A Job Location Can Influence Your Strength and Conditioning Pay

When you’re trying to calculate the strength and conditioning coach salary (UK) you could earn, you should take into account the region in which you will work.

If you’re wondering what the average salary of a strength and conditioning coach in London is, then you’ll be glad to know that the Economic Research Institute indicates this is approximately £43,592:

This is more than the average salary for the rest of the UK, which is reported to be £24,557 according to Payscale.

The reason you can earn more in London compared to other areas of the UK is that the capital attracts high-skilled workers, which in turn leads to higher wages.

These salaries are reflected in job adverts you can find online. Fitness Mastery, for instance, is seeking a Strength and Conditioning graduate who could potentially earn up to £27,000:

This position is above the national average and it is only a graduate role, there is potential to earn even more if you find another London-based job matching your skill set.

After considering your preferred location for employment to maximise your earning potential, let’s look at how additional qualifications can boost your strength and conditioning pay.

Earning Additional Qualifications Can Boost Your S&C Coach Salary

If you’re looking to maximise your earning potential, did you know that your strength and conditioning salary can be boosted by earning additional qualifications?

Achieving a qualification in level 3 personal training, for example, will strengthen your anatomy and physiology, nutrition and business knowledge.

This will allow you to deliver specialist programmes to non-athletes either helping them lose weight whilst also aiding athletes in recovery following an injury.

Personal Training Aberdeen shows how additional accreditation economically boosts your strength and conditioning business because your personal trainer salary is generated from a wide range of services:

Personal Training Aberdeen can offer this range of services because they’ve completed several qualifications and courses including: 

• Personal Training
• Strength and Conditioning 

So if you’re looking to expand the range of services you offer to boost your earning potential, gaining extra accreditation is a wise investment.

If you're looking to expand the bespoke services you deliver, you may also want to consider completing a level 4 personal trainer course.

You could complete a level 4 diabetes qualification, for instance, helping you understand how to create programmes that advise personal training clients with diabetes. 

This will help you give you a competitive edge in the market as you look to attract clients to your services.

Before You Go!

As a strength and conditioning coach, you can earn more money with additional qualifications and take advantage of different locations, as discussed in this article.

Don’t forget with a level 3 pt qualification you can create a competitive edge in the market for yourself, giving you the ability to train a diverse range of clients.

If you would like to develop your skill set, you can learn about all the courses we offer by downloading our latest prospectus now.