Most fitness general manager resume submissions fail because they read like duty lists and bury measurable results. That format gets rejected by applicant tracking system filters and lost in fast recruiter scans, especially when competition is high.
A strong resume shows what you improved and how you led. Knowing how to make your resume stand out means highlighting revenue growth, membership retention gains, personal training sales increases, class fill rates, payroll control, staff turnover reduction, and multi-site performance. Quantify budgets managed, headcount led, and audit or safety outcomes.
Key takeaways
- Quantify every achievement with revenue, retention, or efficiency metrics to pass ATS and recruiter scans.
- Use reverse-chronological format to showcase leadership progression and expanding operational scope.
- Tailor each resume to the job posting by mirroring its specific KPIs, tools, and terminology.
- Demonstrate skills through outcome-driven experience bullets, not standalone keyword lists.
- Pair your resume with a cover letter when it adds leadership context or explains career transitions.
- Use AI to sharpen phrasing and alignment, but stop before it inflates or invents experience.
- Build your resume faster with Enhancv to keep every section focused, scannable, and results-driven.
How to format a fitness general manager resume
Recruiters evaluating fitness general manager candidates prioritize evidence of P&L ownership, multi-location or facility-wide oversight, membership growth strategy, and team leadership progression. A reverse-chronological format surfaces these signals immediately, letting hiring managers trace your expanding scope and accountability from one role to the next.
I have significant experience in this role—which format should I use?
Use a reverse-chronological format—it's the strongest choice for a fitness general manager with a proven track record of facility leadership and business results. Do:
- Lead with your most recent role and clearly define scope: number of locations managed, team size, and budget or revenue responsibility.
- Highlight domain-specific expertise such as membership retention systems, personal training revenue optimization, facility operations, CRM platforms (e.g., Club OS, ABC Fitness Solutions), and compliance with health and safety standards.
- Quantify business impact in every role, tying your decisions directly to revenue, retention, cost savings, or membership growth.
Why hybrid and functional resumes don't work for senior roles
Hybrid formats push leadership experience below a skills summary, obscuring the progression from club manager to general manager and diluting the accountability context that hiring executives need to see at a glance. Functional formats are even more problematic—they strip away timelines entirely, making it impossible for recruiters to evaluate how your decision-making authority, P&L ownership, and team scope expanded over time. Avoid both formats entirely when applying for general manager positions or any role where demonstrating sustained leadership progression and measurable business impact is a core hiring criterion. For more guidance on choosing the right structure, review this overview of resume format options.
- Edge-case exception: A functional format may be acceptable only if you're transitioning into fitness general management from a related senior operations role in another industry (e.g., hospitality or retail management) and have limited direct fitness industry tenure—but even then, every skill listed must be tied to specific projects, operational outcomes, or revenue results rather than presented as standalone competencies.
Once your layout and formatting choices are in place, the next step is deciding which sections to include so each one reinforces your qualifications.
What sections should go on a fitness general manager resume
Recruiters expect a fitness general manager resume to highlight leadership, revenue performance, operational control, and member experience outcomes. Understanding which resume sections to include ensures you present a complete picture of your qualifications.
Use this structure for maximum clarity:
- Header
- Summary
- Experience
- Skills
- Projects
- Education
- Certifications
- Optional sections: Awards, Leadership, Languages
Your experience bullets should emphasize measurable results across revenue growth, retention, team performance, operational efficiency, and facility scope.
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Once you’ve organized your resume with the right structure and categories, the next step is to write your fitness general manager resume experience so your impact is clear and easy to evaluate.
How to write your fitness general manager resume experience
The experience section of your fitness general manager resume should highlight work you've delivered—operational improvements, membership growth initiatives, team leadership, and facility management outcomes achieved through role-relevant tools, systems, and methods. Building a targeted resume ensures hiring managers see demonstrated impact over descriptive task lists, so every bullet should connect what you did to a measurable result that moved the business forward.
Each entry should include:
- Job title
- Company and location (or remote)
- Dates of employment (month and year)
Three to five concise bullet points showing what you owned, how you executed, and what outcomes you delivered:
- Ownership scope: the facilities, revenue streams, membership programs, staff teams, or operational budgets you were directly accountable for as a fitness general manager.
- Execution approach: the management systems, CRM platforms, scheduling tools, sales frameworks, or performance-tracking methods you used to run daily operations and make strategic decisions.
- Value improved: changes to member retention, staff productivity, facility safety, service quality, operational efficiency, or revenue performance that resulted from your leadership.
- Collaboration context: how you worked with personal trainers, group fitness instructors, sales teams, corporate ownership, vendors, or community partners to achieve shared goals across the club or fitness organization.
- Impact delivered: outcomes expressed through membership growth, revenue gains, cost reductions, retention improvements, team development milestones, or Net Promoter Score increases rather than routine activities or responsibilities.
Experience bullet formula
A fitness general manager experience example
✅ Right example - modern, quantified, specific.
General Manager, Fitness Club
PulseFit Athletic Club | Austin, TX
2022–Present
High-volume, multi-service fitness club with two hundred fifty daily check-ins, personal training, group classes, and retail.
- Led a thirty-two person team across front desk, coaching, personal training, and facilities using Deputy scheduling and BambooHR (human resources) workflows, cutting overtime costs by eighteen percent while improving shift coverage to ninety-eight percent.
- Increased monthly recurring revenue by twenty-four percent by rebuilding the sales funnel in Salesforce, standardizing lead follow-up in HubSpot, and partnering with marketing on offer testing that lifted tour-to-member conversion from twenty-two percent to thirty-one percent.
- Improved member retention by nine points by launching Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys in SurveyMonkey, creating a weekly churn dashboard in Looker Studio, and aligning coaches and front desk on a forty-eight hour service recovery playbook.
- Grew personal training revenue by nineteen percent by implementing Trainerize programming standards, introducing tiered packages, and coaching six trainers through weekly performance reviews tied to utilization, client outcomes, and session adherence.
- Reduced equipment downtime by thirty-five percent by deploying a preventive maintenance plan in MaintainX, negotiating service-level agreements with vendors, and coordinating after-hours repairs to protect peak class schedules.
Now that you've seen what a strong experience section looks like in practice, let's break down how to customize yours for each specific job posting.
How to tailor your fitness general manager resume experience
Recruiters evaluate your fitness general manager resume through both human review and applicant tracking systems. Tailoring your resume to the job description increases your chances of passing both screenings.
Ways to tailor your fitness general manager experience:
- Match facility management software and CRM platforms named in the posting.
- Mirror the exact membership growth or retention KPIs listed.
- Use the same terminology for revenue targets and budget oversight processes.
- Highlight staff training and team leadership frameworks the employer references.
- Include relevant health and safety compliance standards from the description.
- Emphasize member experience or Net Promoter Score metrics when requested.
- Reference personal training or group fitness program oversight if specified.
- Align your language with brand standards or franchise operations mentioned.
Tailoring means aligning your real accomplishments with what the employer asks for, not forcing keywords where they don't belong.
Resume tailoring examples for fitness general manager
| Job description excerpt | Untailored | Tailored |
|---|---|---|
| Oversee daily club operations, including staff scheduling, facility maintenance, and member experience across a 30,000 sq. ft. facility with 5,000+ members | Managed gym operations and handled day-to-day tasks for the facility. | Directed daily operations of a 30,000 sq. ft. fitness club serving 5,000+ members, managing staff scheduling for 45 employees, facility maintenance protocols, and member experience initiatives that improved retention by 18%. |
| Drive membership sales and revenue growth by developing promotional campaigns, managing a sales team of 8–10, and hitting monthly targets using Club OS CRM | Helped increase sales and worked with the sales team to meet goals. | Led a 10-person sales team to exceed monthly membership targets by 22% through promotional campaigns and pipeline management tracked in Club OS CRM, generating $1.2M in annual revenue. |
| Manage P&L responsibility, control labor costs, and ensure compliance with OSHA safety standards and local health regulations | Responsible for budgets and making sure the facility followed safety rules. | Owned full P&L for a $3.5M annual budget, reduced labor costs by 12% through optimized shift planning, and maintained 100% compliance with OSHA safety standards and local health department regulations across quarterly audits. |
Once your experience aligns with the role’s priorities, quantify your fitness general manager achievements to show the measurable impact behind that fit.
How to quantify your fitness general manager achievements
Quantifying your achievements proves you drove results, not just activity. Focus on revenue, retention, membership growth, compliance, and operational efficiency—plus service quality metrics like satisfaction scores and incident reductions.
Quantifying examples for fitness general manager
| Metric | Example |
|---|---|
| Revenue growth | "Increased monthly membership revenue 18% in six months by launching a tiered pricing model and tracking conversions in Mindbody." |
| Member retention | "Reduced monthly churn from 6.2% to 4.7% by implementing 30-60-90 day check-ins and a reactivation campaign for frozen accounts." |
| Sales conversion | "Improved tour-to-join conversion from 28% to 41% by standardizing the sales script, adding follow-up cadences, and coaching five advisors weekly." |
| Compliance risk | "Achieved 100% pass rate on two corporate safety audits by tightening pool chemical logs, equipment inspections, and staff CPR certification tracking." |
| Labor efficiency | "Cut overtime hours 22% while maintaining class coverage by rebuilding schedules in When I Work and cross-training eight trainers for peak shifts." |
Turn your everyday tasks into measurable, recruiter-ready resume bullets in seconds with Enhancv's Bullet Point Generator.
With strong, results-driven bullet points in place, the next step is ensuring your skills section highlights the right mix of hard and soft skills that fitness employers prioritize.
How to list your hard and soft skills on a fitness general manager resume
Your skills section shows you can grow membership revenue, retain clients, and run safe, efficient club operations, and recruiters and ATS scan this section to confirm role fit quickly—aim for a balance of hard skills (systems and operations) and soft skills (leadership and execution).
fitness general manager roles require a blend of:
- Product strategy and discovery skills.
- Data, analytics, and experimentation skills.
- Delivery, execution, and go-to-market discipline.
- Soft skills.
Your skills section should be:
- Scannable (bullet-style grouping).
- Relevant to the job post.
- Backed by proof in experience bullets.
- Updated with current tools.
Place your skills section:
- Above experience if you're junior or switching careers.
- Below experience if you're mid/senior with strong achievements.
Hard skills
- Membership sales funnels
- Lead management, CRM
- Club management software (ABC Glofox)
- Class scheduling and capacity planning
- Personal training revenue management
- Retail and supplement merchandising
- Budgeting, forecasting, P&L management
- Payroll, labor scheduling, timekeeping
- KPI dashboards, Excel, Google Sheets
- Health and safety compliance, OSHA
- Vendor management and contract negotiation
- Incident reporting and risk management
Soft skills
- Coach and develop team leads
- Hold staff accountable to KPIs
- Run daily floor operations
- De-escalate member complaints
- Communicate policy changes clearly
- Prioritize high-impact work
- Make fast, data-informed decisions
- Collaborate across sales and training
- Lead by example on service standards
- Own results and follow through
- Give direct, actionable feedback
- Manage change during peak seasons
How to show your fitness general manager skills in context
Skills shouldn't live only in a dedicated skills list. Browse examples of resume skills to see how top candidates weave competencies into every section.
They should be demonstrated in:
- Your summary (high-level professional identity)
- Your experience (proof through outcomes)
Here's what that looks like in practice.
Summary example
Results-driven fitness general manager with 12 years overseeing multi-location gym operations. Skilled in P&L management, member retention strategy, and team development using Club OS and ABC Fitness. Grew annual revenue 28% while reducing staff turnover by 35%.
- Reflects senior-level experience clearly
- Names role-relevant tools directly
- Leads with measurable revenue growth
- Highlights people leadership skills
Experience example
Fitness General Manager
Peak Performance Fitness | Denver, CO
March 2018–August 2024
- Directed operations across three locations using ABC Fitness, boosting net member retention 22% over two years through data-driven engagement campaigns.
- Collaborated with regional marketing and personal training teams to launch a corporate wellness program, generating $340K in new annual revenue.
- Redesigned staff onboarding with Club OS tracking, cutting average new-hire ramp-up time by 40% and improving trainer satisfaction scores.
- Every bullet includes measurable proof.
- Skills appear naturally within achievements.
Once you’ve demonstrated your strengths through relevant examples and outcomes, the next step is learning how to structure a fitness general manager resume with no experience so those same strengths still come through clearly.
How do I write a fitness general manager resume with no experience
Even without full-time experience, you can demonstrate readiness through:
- Front desk or member services
- Shift lead in retail
- Club operations volunteer coordination
- Group fitness class scheduling
- Membership sales commission experience
- Budget tracking for student org
- Facility maintenance and safety checks
- Event planning for wellness programs
If you're starting out, learn how to build a strong resume without work experience by focusing on transferable accomplishments.
Focus on:
- Revenue, membership, and retention metrics
- Scheduling, staffing, and coverage plans
- Compliance, safety, and incident logs
- Systems use: POS, CRM
Resume format tip for entry-level fitness general manager
Use a combination resume format because it highlights transferable skills and measurable projects before limited work history. Do:
- Put metrics first in bullets.
- List tools: POS, CRM, Excel.
- Add projects that show operations.
- Include scheduling and coverage examples.
- Quantify sales, retention, or costs.
- Built a weekly class schedule in Excel, balancing instructor availability and room capacity, which increased average class fill rate by 18% in six weeks.
Even without direct experience, your educational background can demonstrate the knowledge and credentials that qualify you for a fitness general manager role.
How to list your education on a fitness general manager resume
Your education section helps hiring teams confirm you have the foundational business and fitness knowledge needed. It validates your qualifications quickly for a fitness general manager role.
Include:
- Degree name
- Institution
- Location
- Graduation year
- Relevant coursework (for juniors or entry-level candidates)
- Honors & GPA (if 3.5 or higher)
Skip month and day details—list the graduation year only.
Here's a strong education entry tailored for a fitness general manager resume:
Example education entry
Bachelor of Science in Exercise Science
University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL
Graduated 2019
GPA: 3.7/4.0
- Relevant Coursework: Business Management, Sports Marketing, Exercise Physiology, Financial Planning for Health Organizations
- Honors: Magna Cum Laude, Dean's List (six semesters)
How to list your certifications on a fitness general manager resume
Certifications on your resume show a fitness general manager's commitment to learning, proficiency with safety and operations tools, and alignment with current industry standards.
Include:
- Certificate name
- Issuing organization
- Year
- Optional: credential ID or URL
- List certifications below education when your degree is recent and more relevant than older certifications.
- List certifications above education when they're recent, role-critical, or required for the fitness general manager position.
Best certifications for your fitness general manager resume
- Certified Fitness Manager (CFM)
- Certified Club Manager (CCM)
- Certified Personal Trainer (CPT) — NASM
- CPR/AED for Professional Rescuers
- First Aid Certification
- ServSafe Food Protection Manager Certification
- OSHA Safety Certificate
Once you’ve positioned your credentials so they’re easy to verify and relevant to the role, use that foundation to write your fitness general manager resume summary that quickly ties them to your leadership impact.
How to write your fitness general manager resume summary
Your resume summary is the first thing a recruiter reads. A strong one instantly signals you're qualified to lead an entire fitness operation.
Keep it to three to four lines, with:
- Your title and total years of fitness industry management experience.
- The type of facility you've managed, such as boutique studios, big-box gyms, or multi-location operations.
- Core competencies like P&L oversight, membership sales strategy, and staff development.
- One or two measurable wins, such as revenue growth or member retention improvements.
- Leadership soft skills tied to real results, like team coaching that reduced turnover.
PRO TIP
At this level, lead with operational scope and business outcomes you directly influenced. Highlight revenue responsibility, team size, and facility-level decisions you owned. Avoid vague phrases like "passionate leader" or "results-driven professional." Recruiters want proof of impact, not self-assessment.
Example summary for a fitness general manager
Fitness general manager with eight years overseeing high-volume gym operations. Grew annual revenue 22% while managing a 35-member staff. Skilled in P&L management, member retention strategy, and team development.
Optimize your resume summary and objective for ATS
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Now that your summary captures your leadership strengths and fitness industry expertise, make sure your header presents the essential contact and professional details recruiters need to reach you.
What to include in a fitness general manager resume header
A resume header lists your key identifiers and contact details, which boosts visibility, builds credibility, and helps recruiters screen your fitness general manager application fast.
Essential resume header elements
- Full name
- Tailored job title and headline
- Location
- Phone number
- Professional email
- GitHub link
- Portfolio link
A LinkedIn link helps recruiters verify experience quickly and supports screening.
Don't include a photo on a fitness general manager resume unless the role is explicitly front-facing or appearance-dependent.
Keep your header in one consistent format, match your fitness general manager title to the posting, and use contact details you check daily.
Example
Fitness general manager resume header
Jordan Taylor
Fitness general manager | Multi-site operations, membership growth, and team leadership
Austin, TX
(512) 555-01XX
your.name@enhancv.com
github.com/yourname
yourwebsite.com
linkedin.com/in/yourname
Once your contact details and role branding are set at the top, add additional sections to reinforce the qualifications and credentials that support your candidacy.
Additional sections for fitness general manager resumes
When your core qualifications match other candidates, additional sections can set you apart by showcasing role-specific credibility and well-rounded expertise. For example, listing language skills on your resume can demonstrate your ability to serve diverse member populations.
- Languages
- Certifications and licenses
- Industry conferences and continuing education
- Professional affiliations and memberships
- Volunteer experience in health and wellness
- Awards and recognition
- Hobbies and interests
Once you've strengthened your resume with relevant additional sections, it's worth pairing it with a cover letter to give hiring managers even more context about your qualifications.
Do fitness general manager resumes need a cover letter
A cover letter isn't required for a fitness general manager, but it often helps in competitive searches or when hiring managers expect context. If you're unsure where to start, understanding what a cover letter is and how it complements your resume can clarify when one adds real value. It can make a difference when your resume doesn't fully show leadership style, business impact, or why you fit the club.
Use a cover letter to add clarity your resume can't:
- Explain role and team fit: Connect your management approach to the club's culture, staffing model, and member experience priorities.
- Highlight one or two outcomes: Pick results like retention gains, personal training revenue growth, or improved class utilization, and name what you changed.
- Show business context understanding: Reference the club's target members, pricing model, and key drivers like churn, referrals, and ancillary sales.
- Address transitions or non-obvious experience: Clarify moves between industries, gaps, or lateral shifts, and link transferable wins to fitness general manager work.
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Even if you decide a cover letter won’t add much to your application, using AI to improve your fitness general manager resume helps you sharpen your content and tailor it faster.
Using AI to improve your fitness general manager resume
AI can sharpen your resume's clarity, structure, and overall impact. It helps you find stronger phrasing and tighter formatting. But overuse strips authenticity fast. Once your content reads clearly and aligns with the role, step away from AI. If you want specific guidance, explore these ChatGPT resume writing prompts designed to improve each section.
Here are 10 practical prompts you can copy, paste, and use right now:
- Strengthen your summary. "Rewrite my resume summary to highlight leadership, revenue growth, and operational expertise as a fitness general manager."
- Quantify experience bullets. "Add specific metrics like membership growth percentages and retention rates to my fitness general manager experience bullets."
- Sharpen skills relevance. "Review my skills section and remove anything not directly relevant to a fitness general manager role."
- Improve action verbs. "Replace weak or repeated verbs in my fitness general manager experience section with strong, varied action verbs."
- Align with job postings. "Compare my fitness general manager resume bullets against this job description and flag missing keywords."
- Tighten project descriptions. "Rewrite my project entries to clearly show outcomes and leadership impact as a fitness general manager."
- Refine certification entries. "Format my certifications section so the most relevant credentials for a fitness general manager appear first."
- Cut redundant phrasing. "Identify and remove filler words or redundant phrases throughout my fitness general manager resume."
- Clarify education details. "Rewrite my education section to emphasize coursework and achievements relevant to a fitness general manager career."
- Focus on measurable impact. "Revise each bullet in my fitness general manager resume to lead with a measurable result or outcome."
Stop using AI once your resume sounds accurate, specific, and aligned with real experience. AI should never invent experience or inflate claims—if it didn't happen, it doesn't belong here.
Conclusion
A strong fitness general manager resume proves impact with measurable outcomes, role-specific skills, and a clear structure. Lead with results like revenue growth, member retention, and personal training sales. Show strength in operations, team leadership, budgeting, and member experience.
Keep each section focused, scannable, and tied to the role. This approach shows you can run a club today and adapt as hiring expectations shift. It positions you as a fitness general manager ready to deliver results.
