Primal Health Coach Institute: Primal Fitness Coach Certification

This certification is open to anyone serious about becoming a fitness coach — no prior fitness credential is required. It suits career changers entering the industry, fitness professionals who want to add a coaching layer to their work, and trainers ready to launch their own business. The methodology emphasizes sustainability and accessibility, so coaches can serve clients across a wide range of physical levels.

The curriculum is delivered across 23 chapters covering exercise science, coaching, and business. The fitness portion includes everyday movement, human posture and movement fundamentals, breathing, stretching and mobility, cardiovascular fitness and endurance training, high-intensity exercise principles, resistance exercise (including deadlift, squat, free weight, bodyweight, machine, and kettlebell work), sprinting and jumping, programming, and recovery topics like overreaching, sleep, and burnout.

The coaching half develops scope of practice, coaching foundations, the art and science of health coaching, and advanced coaching layers, with four coaching practicums covering scope, imposter syndrome, role-play, and case studies. The final section builds business skills: defining who you serve, building a one-page plan, creating coaching products, liability and legal protection, marketing, and sales and enrollment. Students complete five business development projects and a final exam. The program emphasizes functional movement, injury prevention, and helping even the most sedentary client move more.

The course is led by Brad Kearns, a New York Times bestselling author and former US national champion triathlete who hosts the program. Mark Sisson, co-founder of Primal Health Coach Institute and a leading figure in ancestral health, instructs alongside Erin Power, the school’s Coaching and Course Director, and Chloe Maleski, an Associate Instructor and mental performance coach who is a former Division I scholarship runner at Duke University.

The format is fully self-paced and delivered online through 23 chapters of multimedia educational resources — videos, audio files, text lessons, PDF downloads, webinars, and supplemental eBooks. Students learn on their own schedule from any device and get lifetime access to the program as well as the school’s Career Resource Center. Support comes from a private Primal Health Coach Institute Facebook community of faculty, fellow students, and graduates.

The curriculum is delivered across 23 chapters covering exercise science, coaching, and business. The fitness portion includes everyday movement, human posture and movement fundamentals, breathing, stretching and mobility, cardiovascular fitness and endurance training, high-intensity exercise principles, resistance exercise (including deadlift, squat, free weight, bodyweight, machine, and kettlebell work), sprinting and jumping, programming, and recovery topics like overreaching, sleep, and burnout.

The coaching half develops scope of practice, coaching foundations, the art and science of health coaching, and advanced coaching layers, with four coaching practicums covering scope, imposter syndrome, role-play, and case studies. The final section builds business skills: defining who you serve, building a one-page plan, creating coaching products, liability and legal protection, marketing, and sales and enrollment. Students complete five business development projects and a final exam. The program emphasizes functional movement, injury prevention, and helping even the most sedentary client move more.