Today’s fitness professionals do more than just help you lift weights at the gym. They need to be educated in movement and motivational techniques, and in creating healthy lifestyles. A Fitness professional needs to be well-rounded, innovative, and to view fitness through an exercise as medicine lens, helping clients lose weight, build muscle, reduce medications, reduce blood pressure, and manage stress. Lane’s Fitness and Lifestyle Specialist program will prepare you for an exciting, fast-growing, and ever-changing career as a fitness professional.
Do you enjoy sharing your passion for health and fitness with others? Are you actively looking for ways to help people? Do you enjoy being active and on the move? Through Lane’s Fitness and Lifestyle Specialist program, you’ll have the opportunity to impact the mental, emotional and physical well-being of individuals and groups.
When you’re ready to get started, just apply! Our Admissions office staff will guide you through the steps to enroll to get you started right. You can also contact Admissions with any questions you have about the college, to schedule a tour of the campus, or just to say hello. If you’re not ready to apply today, you can request more information on the program and we’ll get in touch to make a plan that works for you.
Through our classes both in-person and online, you’ll learn to:
- use and select training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for teaching all fitness levels
- understand and apply principles related to anatomy, conditioning, injury prevention, physiology and functional training
- administer fitness assessments such as for body composition, cardiovascular endurance, flexibility, muscular strength and endurance
- using best practices, design and demonstrate safe and effective exercise programs for individuals and groups
- acquire interpersonal skills in the areas of leadership, motivation and communication
- design and teach group exercise classes
After completing the certificate, you’ll have the knowledge and skills to be employable and to sit for national certification exams in the fitness industry.
Lane offers students the best of both worlds: a wide variety of courses to choose from and small class sizes. At Lane, you’ll never take a class with more than 40 students, and your class will always be taught by an instructor, not a grad student. Our attentive faculty have worked in the fitness industry, and bring experiences from the real world into the classroom! Because of our small class sizes, you’ll have the opportunity to get to know your instructor on a first name basis.
The faculty and advisors for the program can help you meet your career goals. They can answer any program specific questions you might have, and help you find opportunities outside of the classroom. Advisors will help you schedule your classes and plan for the future. You’ll work with them to create a term by term planner that meets your needs and goals to ensure you complete your certificate.
Need to meet with one of our Health Professions program advisors? Check out their drop-in advising schedule.
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Program Coordinator
Employers are interested in more than just your degree. It’s important that you’re able to show that you have relevant, real world work experience. As a student in the Fitness and Lifestyle specialist program, you’ll intern in a supervised and structured work environment in the professional fitness industry. Fitness and Lifestyle Specialist students have interned on campus at the Fitness Education Center, in physical education classes and at off-campus sites such as the Y.M.C.A., InShape, and Eugene Swim and Tennis. Throughout your internship you will put your classroom experience and skills to practice in real world applications. You’ll develop soft skills (like communication and relationship building), a professional network and the experience you’ll need to stand out when you start your career.
While earning your certificate, you'll automatically earn the Group Exercise Instructor career pathways certificate. This certificate will help demonstrate to employers your ability to lead group fitness activities. Interested in earning this certificate on its own? Reach out!
While you’re completing your certificate at Lane’s main campus in Eugene, you’ll have access to the well-equipped Fitness Education Center. Our equipment includes Free Motion cable machines, TRX suspended trainers, Paramount Functional Trainers, Olympic platforms, a Treadwall, and a variety of fitness assessment equipment such as the Bod Pod, bioelectrical impedance and functional movement screening grid. These learning labs allow for practice and skill building that meets the needs of today’s fitness professional.
Lane’s main campus is tucked into the foothills of the Oregon Cascades, providing a stunning landscape for your education. With incredible resources on campus like advising, tutoring services, the library, First Year Experience and so many more, you have the opportunity to make the most out of your degree. Lane also offers student housing at Titan Court in downtown Eugene, next to our Mary Spilde Center. Ready to learn more? Schedule a campus tour to explore our beautiful campus and amazing facilities.