Basic Legal Agreements Every Fitness Instructor Needs

Do fitness instructors really need legal agreements? Absolutely! This blog explains the importance of contracts to protect your business and build trust with clients. From liability waivers to service agreements, discover the key documents every instructor should have in place. Let’s make sure your business is legally secure!

When it comes to a personal trainer’s legal preparedness, there are five documents that are important for a legally sound fitness practice. These documents guard the trainer’s business interests and reinforce trust and transparency with clients. Implementing these legal agreements makes sure of a balance between professional service delivery and legal compliance.
The five legal agreements every personal trainer needs are:

• Waiver of Liability
• Service Agreement
• Social Media Disclaimer
• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Service and Disclaimer

By using these documents in your personal training business operations, you create a transparent, accountable, and professional environment that not only protects your practice but also improves client trust and loyalty.

Conscious Counsel specializes in helping fitness professionals understand the legal implications of your practice in a smart and easy way. It can seem daunting and uninspiring but Cory has broken down the 5 key legal agreements that are a necessity to being a successful and legally covered as a fitness pro.

The 5 Basic Legal Agreements:

1. Waiver

Protect your business and assets by having clients sign away legal rights to hold you responsible for training together. Essentially, as a customer they are waiving their rights to bring any legal action against the company.
Within a Liability Waiver there are 3 key components:

• A list of activities. This includes any physical actions you may be doing during the class.
• A list of risks. Detail the risks that are associated with training and the class.
• A list outcomes of the risks

Then someone has to understanding the activities, the risks, and the outcomes of those risks, must agree to voluntarily participate. The participant also needs to give an affirmation of health that understanding all of the activities and risks, they are healthy enough to participate. Finally, they have to release you of liability.

2.Service Agreement

Communicate expectations with your clients openly and honestly, define the scope of your services and address things like how the services will be provided (online vs in-person), cost, cancellations, refunds, etc. usually held within the liability agreement. Essentially a service agreement is the relationship you have with someone purchasing your services.

3. Social Media Disclaimer

Link all your social media profiles to a properly worded disclaimer which lets people know your qualifications and explains people must practice at their own risk. Also, it is necessary to be transparent about your authentic qualifications and also what you may not be qualified for. The general rule is to be as open and honest as possible. (amongst many other things…).

4. Privacy Policy

A legal requirement if you collect anyone’s personal information as per federal and state/provincial laws. Examples are names, emails, date of birth, interests, phone number, etc.

5. Terms of Service + Disclaimer

The rules for people interacting with your website, online products, and any purchases offered through your site. The disclaimer allows you to list your qualifications, what your qualifications are not and include specific language around what you do and do not offer (i.e.: make no guarantees for certain results, not offering medical services, etc.). You will need a terms of service for processes such as refunds, returns, cancellations, exchanges, copyright infringement, recommendations.

Are Online Forms/Waiver Tools Legally Binding?

Yes, these are legally binding but with some contingencies. You must make sure there is a provision within your document that implicitly states that to whomever signs the document they understand the document will be signed electronically. Unchanged: Yes, these are legally binding but with some contingencies. You must make sure there is a provision within your document that implicitly states that to whomever signs the document they understand the document will be signed electronically.
Unchanged: You must have all the correct content, shown that the signee has acknowledged that they have read and understand the agreement, have them also acknowledged the document will be electronically signed, and finally, have the electronically signed legal document attached.

How Do You Get Someone to Sign a Waiver Using Zoom (or Other Platform)?

There are a few different apps you can use in which you create a waiting room where people have to sign a waiver before they are allowed to access your zoom meetings/sessions. It’s like having your class attendees sign in at the front desk before they enter the gym.

• Waiver Electronic
• Waiver King

Or if it’s feasible, you can do this check in process manually. It will be very important that you do not allow anyone who has not previously signed a liability waiver.

As an Independent Contractor, If I’ve Added a Business to My Insurance Policy, Should I Also Add Them onto My Waiver of Liability as the Facility?

Yes, to cover all bases add them to your waiver of liability.

How Should a Waiver Be Adjusted for Training Out of the Gym?

When it comes to teaching anywhere other than your gym, you must include this information on your Liability Waiver.
An updated list of activities, list of risks, and list of outcomes from those risks will be required for good practices.

Does the Creation of an LLC Shield My Personal Assets If I Am the Only One in My Fitness Business?

Waivers of liability are so important because your assets are available to satisfy the damages you may owe at law. When you create a separate legal entity like an LLC or an or an ESCORP or you in INC. the extent of your vulnerability (or the extent of the assets) that you will owe only belong to the party that facilitated that particular service. For example, it is possible for the Fitness Gym Inc. to have $3,000 in the bank and if its found someone was hurt and you have to owe that particular amount of money then the extent that you will have to pay will only be those $3,000.

If I Am a Private Fitness Instructor Operating Out of a Fitness Studio as an Independent Contractor, Do I Need a Waiver of Liability in Addition to the One the Gym Has?

Technically all employees would be covered by their employer with a legal concept called “vicarious responsibility”. However it can become hard to prove that the employer is responsible for an independent contractor.
When hired as independent contractor, do you due diligence and first, ensure they include you on their waiver of liability and second, make sure the waiver is up to industry standards. If you do not trust the company to do these two things properly, you can use your own waiver of liability.

Do You Need a Waiver of Liability for Recorded Online Classes, Such as on YouTube?

The short answer is no, you cannot use a waiver of liability on social media because you have no control over how the end user practices. To protect your business, it’s important to add a disclaimer that says users are practicing at their own risk.

There are a few ways to add this disclaimer. For YouTube, you can place fixed text in the caption section or display it as text at the beginning of your video. On social media platforms like Instagram or Facebook, you can add the disclaimer to your Terms of Service page and link it to all of your social media accounts.

Additionally, it’s important to protect your business with fitness instructor insurance. With the right insurance in place, you can focus on creating valuable content while staying protected. Insure Fitness offers coverage that ensures you’re safeguarded against potential risks when your content is used online.