Personal training is full of inherent risks for both trainers and their clients. The nature of fitness, exercising, and training is full of injury risk. For personal trainers, this means potentially being liable for those injuries or for larger claims such as negligence. But, there are safety nets out there for you to cover yourself and your business.
Learn more about liability coverage, why you need it, how much is cost, and how you can go about protecting yourself from the liabilities that come with training.
What is Liability Insurance for Personal Trainers?
Liability insurance for personal trainers is a way of protecting themselves from the costs associated with risks that come with training. When you take on a client as a personal trainer, you take some responsibility for the care and safety under your instruction. This means you are liable for any injuries during training that might be your fault, such as:
- Injury from poor instructions.
- Injury from a recommended exercise.
- Injury from over training, sometimes after a session.
If one of these types of incidents occurs and there is harm to the client, you could be sued for negligence and could be stuck with the costs of medical and legal bills which a liability insurance policy will help to alleviate.
What is ‘Negligence’?
Negligence, in legal terms, is: The failure to exercise the care toward others which a reasonable or prudent person would do in the same or similar circumstances.
Essentially, failing to provide the same knowledge and skills that you’d expect from a professional in the industry. For personal training, it’s knowing how to train while maintaining the health and safety of your client.
Four Elements of Proving Negligence
Negligence is proven by four elements:
- Duty: As a personal trainer, your ‘duty’ is to train your client with care up to the industry standards. This means providing expert instruction by having safe programs.
- Breach: Breaching your duty is when you fail to provide what should be expected.
- Cause: The cause is the exact reason the breach of duty occurred.
- Harm: And finally, the harm that befell the client. This, in most cases, is a physical injury which could also turn into mental stress or ‘pain and suffering’ post-exercise.
Do Personal Trainers Need Liability Insurance?
Though it’s not mandatory to practice with liability insurance, there aren’t many good reasons not to have it to protect yourself and your personal training business. Exercise and intense workout comes with many inherent risks that could leave the trainer at fault, leaving them to pay medical bills and for any pain or suffering lawsuits. With a policy in place, you’re protected by the insurance who could help cover the costs.
What Types of Liability Insurance Work Best for Personal Trainers?
The two types of liability insurance to look at are ‘general liability’ and ‘professional liability’ which both cover different types of risks that you’ll run into as a personal trainer.
General Liability
General liability covers the physical risks of the industry such as bodily injury, property damage, etc. In personal training, this is mostly just injuries that can occur in normal exercise and is not a result of negligence.
Professional Liability
Professional liability covers the risks that are more abstract and are claims against your personal training business. Negligence, as covered above, is the largest and most frequent claim covered by professional liability insurance. For example, if your programming calls for multiple push-ups and that leads to an injury, a client might allege that you caused their injury due to poor advice or programming of the workout.
How is Liability Insurance Calculated?
When calculating the premium cost of your liability insurance, providers take many things into account, such as:
Your Business Premises: First, a provider will want to know where you practice to ensure it’s suited for training with up-to-date equipment and safety protocols.
Your Experience: A big factor in deciding a premium is how long you’ve been training. A newcomer to the field may have higher premiums because less experience presents a higher risk for the provider.
Claims History: A provider will most certainly look into your past history to make sure you aren’t having to frequently file claims. Someone who, in the past, has been forced to file frequently means a higher risk for the provider which leads to a typically higher premium.
Policy Features: Of course the more features of your policy, the higher the cost tends to be for the premium. Most providers, specifically those who work exclusively with personal trainers and liability insurance, have plans that match your needs and cut the unnecessary features that drive up costs.
Coverage Limits: First, the higher the policy limit, the higher the policy will cost. Keeping your deductible low (meaning more out-of-pocket spending) will help keep your premium low but will mean you pay more when filing a claim.
What is an Average Cost for Liability Insurance?
With all the factors in play, as listed above, the price of liability insurance for personal trainers can vary greatly. A newcomer to the industry will pay higher premiums on average than someone who has been training for 35 years. So, the average cost of liability insurance for personal trainers really depends on where you are in your career and the size of the policy you’re looking for.
For broad strokes purposes, a typical policy for a personal trainer can range anywhere around $200, reaching up closer to $500 for costlier policies.
CrossFit RRG Coverage
For a unique insurance solution that takes the hassle out of the insurance process, check out the policies available from CrossFit Risk Retention Group and see how a community-owned company can simplify liability coverage so you can focus more on your clients and your business.
Whether you’re already a CrossFit affiliate or are just looking for personal training coverage, CrossFit RRG has you covered with competitive premiums that protect you and your business so you can focus on what you do best.
Contact us today to learn more about our policies and the application process.
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