Liability Insurance for Group Fitness Instructors

Fitness instructors provide hands-on training and advice for clients wanting to reach health goals. With this level of personalized care, there exists a good amount of liability. At the bare minimum, fitness instructors need coverage for general liability claims like a slip and fall, professional liability claims such as a client asserting your training program caused their injury and product liability claims like if a cleaning solution used on a piece of equipment causes a client to have an allergic reaction.

Going far beyond the bare minimum, IFG provides comprehensive coverage for the real world with additional coverages like rental damage for accidents that cause damage to the space you’re renting, stolen equipment coverage for when your vital equipment goes missing, and even important ancillary coverage like identity theft protection. Contact our team to review the types of coverage options we have for fitness professionals.

Yes, IFG provides coverage for many different types of fitness classes and training programs, both for instructors providing one-on-one fitness training, as well as, instructors that teach group fitness classes.

You’ve probably heard “comprehensive coverage” from different insurance carriers, but what does that mean? At Insure Fitness Group, we’ve developed a suite of coverages specifically for those in the health, fitness, and wellness fields. Comprehensive coverage to us means you have complete peace of mind knowing you’re covered under most any type of claim that you might come across in the course of your career. Here’s a few quick examples from each of our coverage classes:

• General Liability: a client is doing a tough workout routine and between running back and forth between box jumps and over-head squats, they slip on some water on the floor and injure themselves. They sue you for their medical bills and lost wages because their injury prevents them from working.
• Professional Liability: your client pulls a muscle while performing the exercise you instructed them to. They demand you cover their medical expenses.
• Products Liability: you’re using a cleaning product on the equipment that causes one client to have an adverse allergic reaction. They intend to sue you for their injuries.
• Stolen Equipment: a theft-by-force has left you without some piece of vital equipment.
• Rental Damage: your client is getting really into their kettlebell swings by the mirror when the weight slips from their grasp and crashes into the glass. The property owner holds you liable and demands you pay for the damages.

Each of the above examples would be covered under their respective provisions, up to their limits.

IFG’s fitness instructor insurance covers a wide array of different training classes and regimens.  From Spin to Zumba, and so many more different health and wellness modalities, chances are good we cover your chosen area of practice. However, if you don’t see you specific modality currently listed, just get in contact with a knowledgeable account specialist to see if we can have yours added.

Absolutely. There are many cases where clients that have been injured have gone after both the gym chain and the fitness instructor themselves. Gym chains will generally carry their own general and professional insurance policies that may afford basic protection for employees, but to ensure you won’t be left having to cover any shortfalls yourself, you should always carry your own fitness instructor insurance policy. IFG’s policies also afford full portability, meaning no matter where you offer services - from a private home, to a chain gym, to a small, local gym, in all 50 states, you will still be covered.

General liability covers claims that arise simply from being in business. These can be as mundane as a client slipping on a puddle of sweat on your space’s floor. Professional liability claims relate to the actual service you provide and so covers claims related to the instruction or specific advice you provide. As an example, a client may assert that your regimen pushed them too hard and they were injured as a result. With professional liability insurance from Insure Fitness Group, these types of claims are covered up to $1 million per occurrence and a $3 million annual aggregate. 

Instantly! A really convenient aspect of our online membership portal lies in the fact that as soon as you purchase your policy, you get instant access to proof of insurance. You can purchase a policy, make payments, and review your policy documents from anywhere in the world where you have an internet connection.

Nope, never. IFG’s fitness instructor insurance plan was created to be transparent and upfront both in terms of pricing and coverage. Just scrolling through our insurance plan tells you exactly what you’ll pay and what all is covered from the get-go. As you’re comparing your options for fitness instructor insurance watch out for low base rates that then have additional fees for membership dues or additional modalities. As well, make sure your policy is occurrence form over claims-made. Some claims-made policies will charge an additional fee for being able to file a claim after the policy expires. If you’re ever in doubt, ask the insurance company if they charge additional fees before securing coverage.

Unfortunately, yes. Fitness instructors are trained professionals that must exercise great care in how they offer their services to clients. Forgetting to spot a client who falls and injures themselves can lead to a professional liability lawsuit which, without insurance, would be up to the individual fitness instructor to cover out of pocket. Injuries and property damage to third parties that result from the actual fitness instruction you’re providing are covered under the professional liability provisions of your fitness instructor insurance policy.

Having a client lift more weight than they’re able to, not correcting bad form, pushing too hard, or creating a regimen that ignores a past injury the client disclosed are all also examples of events that could spur a professional liability lawsuit. With IFG, our members are covered all the way up to $1 million per occurrence and $3 million per year for unfortunate accidents like these.

IFG provides comprehensive insurance policies for an incredible variety of popular classes like Zumba and Pilates plus many more health and fitness modalities for the low annual rate of $179. We also offer the same comprehensive coverage for fitness instructor students for just $25 per year. In addition to this coverage, members are afforded a variety of benefits including a free website, access to members-only exclusive content, and discounts from the leading names in fitness gear and accessories.

From a legal standpoint, a liability is something you’re financially responsible for. When you’re giving hands-on fitness training to clients, they are trusting you to provide instruction in a safe and professional manner. Even with the utmost care, accidents can, and do, still happen. When a client is injured or something is damaged, most people want to be compensated to be made whole. Some may pursue a lawsuit against you or simply ask you to cover their medical bills or other expenses. However it occurs, as the one providing the service, you can be held liable for injuries and damages that happen while you’re engaged with a client. Fitness liability insurance covers these events up to $1 million per occurrence and a $3 million annual aggregate for both professional and general liability claims.

Pilates requires some tough positions and hands-on instruction to help clients achieve proper muscle balance throughout the workout. All it takes is one client asserting that your regimen caused them some form of harm for thousands of dollars in legal defense fees to be required. Without robust coverage, you’ll face paying these costs yourself.

Zumba may seem like a pretty tame method of fitness instruction but all it takes is a client slipping during a session or even the assertion that your instruction caused them some form of injury or other loss. Without fitness insurance coverage, you can be left paying for these claims out-of-pocket. With legal fees and medical costs, a claim’s dollar amount can quickly add up.

Definitely! One of the great features of IFG’s fitness instructor insurance plans comes in the form of the host of additional benefits you get as a member. We’ve partnered with the leading names in health and fitness to get you exclusive offers and discounts, grant members access to curated content from top fitness pros, and even include a free website with our policies. 

Yes, IFG offers all of the same benefits of our professional member plans to students for the low rate of just $59 per year. Even in training, fitness instructor students face many of the same liabilities as full-fledged fitness instructors. Without the protection an IFG fitness instructor student insurance policy, you may face having to pay for the costs of injuries or damages out-of-pocket.

Our plan limits are based on years in the business of covering fitness professionals through a multitude of different claims. A claim for injuries against you can cost thousands of dollars and may skyrocket if the asserting party decides to sue and you need legal protection. That’s why we set our general and professional limits at $1 million per occurrence and a $3 million aggregate for all claims filed. We’ve found this level of insurance to be more than adequate for most members but not excessively so such that you’re paying for more coverage than you actually need.

We only use occurrence form coverage with our policies which means that no matter when you file your claim, as long as the loss event occurred while the policy was still active, you’re absolutely covered. With a claims-made policy, if you don’t file a claim with your insurance carrier while your policy is still active, the claim typically won’t be covered. About the time a claims-made policy is set to expire, the produce will generally attempt to sell the policyholder a “tail”, which allows the insured to file claims for a determined amount of time post-expiration. This functionality is already built-in with an occurrence form policy.

Insurance companies are rated based on how financially stable they are. This is critically important when it comes to having an insurance plan that actually has your back when you need it most. An A-rating by an independent agency like A.M. Best means that the company is financially sound and that, in the event you have a claim, the insurance company is well-positioned to be able to cover all of the associated costs. Having an insurance policy with a company that isn’t able to provide the coverage you purchased is never a settling thought which is why you should always look for an A-rated insurance company.