If you are looking for a training niche, baby boomers should be at the top of your list for more than one reason:

• First, it is estimated by IDEA that 51% of all personal training sessions are purchased by people over 45 years of age, and if you break the statistics down further, 25% of personal training clients are over the age of 55.
• They encompass 78 million people (potential clients)
• They are all about slowing or stopping the aging process, control $2.1 trillion in disposable income and spend more of that money on health care than on any other item.
• Many are also beginning to hear from their healthcare providers that they need to make lifestyle changes, so this group is literally being “shoved” in your direction.

Know Your Boomers

Baby boomers are people born between 1946 and 1963, currently 45-62 years of age — not great grandmothers that are living in an assisted living community. Believe me when I tell you that baby boomers really want to believe that 50 is the new 30. And, as trainers, you know that the closest thing there is to a fountain of youth is living a healthy lifestyle to avoid or manage chronic disease and remain active until a ripe old age.

Recession-proof Clientele

If you can manage to work successfully with this crowd, you will cultivate a very loyal and financially stable group of clients. They won’t be tempted to move when another club opens up down the street with fancier, newer equipment and lower membership dues or when a new training studio comes to town promising to change their life. This group places a high value on the specialized services, programs and training that a good personal trainer can provide. More than ever with the current financial market, doesn’t this look like a group to cater to?

Be Aware

But let me be clear — to safely and effectively work with this clientele, you need advanced training. This set of people, as a whole, is the best educated and most traveled group in US history, and they have high expectations. They are very willing to pay top dollar for great goods and services that they see the value in, but if they aren’t seeing results or doubt your professionalism, they will not hesitate to look elsewhere.

When working with this group, more than just about any other, you need to be able to personalize a program for the client. Don’t rely on a “cookie cutter” approach to be successful with such a diverse group. Focus your skills on developing programs that are appropriate for a wide variety of different health conditions and health levels. You are going to find 45-year-olds who need to start with less intensity than some 60-year-olds.

Don’t assume that just because a client is not elderly that they don’t have a whole lot of health issues to deal with! Baby boomer clients will be presented with all sorts of chronic concerns, such as metabolic syndrome, diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, osteoporosis, high blood pressure, etc. And if you think that people with these conditions are not already in your club or studio, you are not doing your due diligence with health assessments. I’ll argue that if you don’t even know what conditions they are suffering from, you can’t be taking very good care of them!

What do you have to say about baby boomers?