This study presents a mapping of theoretical references for the professional education of personal trainers in electronic databases. Besides revealing this subject's low scientific production, literature also demonstrated the personal trainer's reliance on books employing current business-world language. These findings led us to question the business/physical health discourse, specially marketing for the forming of this professional occupation. Jeremy Rifkin, Zygmunt Bauman, Paula Sibilia and Denise Sant'Anna help to understand that marketing targeted to personal trainers has as a task to reinvent, to resignify and "to repaginate" this type of service in name of survival in the competitive market of active life.
Personal trainer; marketing; professional education; Physical Education