A fitness professional is a professional

Professional

A professional is a person who is paid to undertake a specialised set of tasks and to complete them for a fee. The traditional professions were doctors, lawyers, clergymen, and commissioned military officers. Today, the term is applied to estate agents, surveyors , environmental scientists,...

 in the field of fitness

Physical fitness

Physical fitness comprises two related concepts: general fitness , and specific fitness...

 and exercise, most often instruction

Education

Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...

 (fitness instructor), including aerobics

Aerobics

Aerobics is a form of physical exercise that combines rhythmic aerobic exercise with stretching and strength training routines with the goal of improving all elements of fitness...

 and yoga

Yoga

Yoga is a physical, mental, and spiritual discipline, originating in ancient India. The goal of yoga, or of the person practicing yoga, is the attainment of a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility while meditating on Supersoul...

 instructors

Teacher

A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...

 and author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

s of fitness instruction books or manuals

Textbook

A textbook or coursebook is a manual of instruction in any branch of study. Textbooks are produced according to the demands of educational institutions...

. Fitness topics may also include nutrition

Nutrition

Nutrition is the provision, to cells and organisms, of the materials necessary to support life. Many common health problems can be prevented or alleviated with a healthy diet....

, weight-loss, and self-help

Self-help

Self-help, or self-improvement, is a self-guided improvement—economically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a substantial psychological basis. There are many different self-help movements and each has its own focus, techniques, associated beliefs, proponents and in some cases, leaders...

. Fitness careers are distinguished from exercise science careers such as athletic training, however the various types of fitness certification

Certification

Certification refers to the confirmation of certain characteristics of an object, person, or organization. This confirmation is often, but not always, provided by some form of external review, education, assessment, or audit...

s have more and more in common: the, "distinctions...have become blurred, with more similarities than differences given the common background that all fitness professionals must possess."

Fitness professionals screen participants for exercise programs, evaluate various fitness components, prescribe

Medical prescription

A prescription is a health-care program implemented by a physician or other medical practitioner in the form of instructions that govern the plan of care for an individual patient. Prescriptions may include orders to be performed by a patient, caretaker, nurse, pharmacist or other therapist....

 exercise to improve these components, and may also help people with specific or chronic conditions.

Notable fitness professionals or former fitness professionals include Richard Simmons

Richard Simmons

Milton Teagle Simmons , known professionally as Richard Simmons, is an American fitness personality who promotes weight-loss programs, most famously through his Sweatin' to the Oldies line of aerobics videos and DVDs and is known for his eccentric, outgoing and frequently flamboyant personality...

, Susan Powter

Susan Powter

Susan Powter is an Australian-born motivational speaker, nutritionist, personal trainer and author, who rose to fame in the 1990s with her catchphrase "Stop the Insanity!" She hosted her own talk show The Susan Powter Show in the 1990s.-Life:Powter was born in Sydney, Australia in 1957, living...

, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian-American former professional bodybuilder, actor, businessman, investor, and politician. Schwarzenegger served as the 38th Governor of California from 2003 until 2011....

 (Arnold Schwarzenegger's Total Body Workout

Arnold Schwarzenegger's Total Body Workout

Arnold Schwarzenegger's Total Body Workout is a 1983 musical compilation. The album has significant camp value amongst music collectors today due to the Schwarzenegger's well recognised thick Austrian accent issuing fitness instructions layered on top of several 1980s feelgood hits such as...

).