Florida Legislature: Regulating Personal Training Industry

By John Hawley

A gym owner who I provide website services for recently called me in a panic to remove the personal trainers pages from his gym site as his insurance carrier wouldn't renew his policy as they were listed. He went on to say the scuttlebutt is that personal trainers are coming under increasing scrutiny as a source of uncollected tax revenue by the states and federal government.

As government becomes increasingly involved one can assume they will be looking at every aspect of this business including professional licenser, which it seems the industry loosely self-regulates through certification programs and academic degree programs. For instance, will the state and federal government tighten regulations on who is legally allowed to provide nutritional recommendations? If a drug protocol is prescribed by the personal trainer and found to have an adverse effect during a contest prep might clients sue the trainer with greater ease if regulator controls tighten? Can personal training certificate programs be held liable for the actions of their trainers?

One such piece of legislation going forward in Florida is:

SB 984: Personal Trainers

GENERAL BILL by Sachs

Personal Trainers; Providing for the powers and duties of the Board of Athletic Training with respect to the regulation of personal trainers; creating and providing for the duties of the Florida Association of Fitness Examiners; providing for the duties of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation; providing requirements for licensure by examination for personal trainers; requiring that the department renew a license under specified circumstances; prohibiting sexual misconduct in the practice of personal training; providing penalties for violation of the act; specifying acts that constitute a violation, etc.

See also http://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/201...ext/Filed/HTML