How To Protect Your Clients’ Skin From the Sun

protecting-your-skin-while-training-outdoors

How To Protect Your Clients’ Skin From the Sun

When we step outside without protecting our skin, we put ourselves at risk of damaging our skin and developing skin cancer. As a personal trainer, it’s your job to care for and promote the health of your clients, so advocating for skin health and cancer prevention is certainly not out of bounds.

Train in the Shade

The sun is strongest between 11 am and 2 pm. If you plan to take your training session outside, consider doing it before or after these times of the day. If you are outside during these hours, seek shaded areas like under trees, under park pavilions or in the shade of a large building. Staying in cooler, shaded areas during the hottest times of day will not only protect your skin from the sun but will make you and your clients more comfortable during exercise.

Cover Your Skin

When you venture outside, make sure to wear breathable clothes that cover up areas of skin that may get a lot of sun exposure like shoulders, head, arms, and legs. Make sure to wear hats to protect your face, chest, and scalp. Maybe even consider giving away ball caps with your brand or gym logo to clients who sign up for summer sessions with you.

Wear Sunscreen

The American Cancer Society suggests that everyone wear a broad spectrum (UVA/UVB) sunscreen with an SPF of 30 or higher every single day. It has been proven that using daily sunscreen lowers your risk of skin cancer.

Make sure you are choosing a sunscreen that doesn’t include chemicals like oxybenzone and homosalate which can disrupt hormone levels, fluid retention, and thyroid function. Non-chemical barrier sunblocks like non-nano zinc oxide are a great choice not only for preventing burns, but for preventing ocean pollution. Just be prepared by the “whiteness” they will lend to the skin!

If you plan to take your training session outside throughout the summer, buy a few bottles of sunscreen to keep on hand for you and your clients to use or encourage your clients to bring a bottle of their favorite sunscreen before they show up for their session. Don’t forget to put sunscreen on easy-to-forget places like the tops of your ears, the backs of your hands, hair parts and lips.

A summer glow looks great on everyone, especially when they’ve been working hard with a personal trainer, but you can enjoy that glow without baking under the sun or tanning beds. Choose to use tinted moisturizer, sunless tanning lotions and mousses instead. Some of these lotions even have an SPF of 30 or higher and can protect you when you step outside.

Now it’s your turn to take action. Did you know that most fitness careers don’t require formal education or a degree?

Learn more about the variety of fitness industry careers. There is always something exciting about earning a new training or coaching certification and applying that new knowledge of how you train your clients. This also helps you hit the reset button.

Check out what it takes to start a career in personal fitness training. This is your most affordable and fastest way to become a highly qualified personal trainer.

Is your recertification coming up? Learn more about earning your CEU credits. You can find the full list of CEU courses here.

If you are ready to start your online personal training or coaching business, don’t forget to learn more about our online coaching course. You will also really enjoy this very comprehensive training course called Online Expert Empire.

There is always something exciting about earning a new training or coaching certification and applying that new knowledge of how you train your clients. This also helps you hit the reset button.

NESTA and Spencer Institute coaching programs are open to anyone with a desire to learn and help others. There are no prerequisites.

Thanks for reading!

The NESTA/Spencer Institute Team

PS: Click here to see many helpful business/career resources