How to Become a Lifeguard

Co-authored by Meredith Walters, MBA

Last Updated: February 22, 2024 References

Lifeguards are responsible for the safety and well-being of people at pools, water parks, and beaches around the world. Some become lifeguards as after school jobs, while others make careers out of being a lifeguard. Regardless of why you want to be a lifeguard, you need to train your body, learn necessary life-saving skills, and then find a lifeguarding job.

Part 1

Part 1 of 3:

Training Your Body

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Being a good lifeguard is physically challenging. You will want to be in good shape. Lifeguards follow the 10/20 rule. Once a lifeguard notices a potential problem, they must respond in 10 seconds and be able to reach the person in 20 seconds, so it is absolutely necessary to be in shape and to be a strong swimmer.
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Practice swimming. You must be a strong swimmer before becoming a lifeguard. Swim and use a kick board to build leg muscles. All certification programs will require that you pass a timed swim test before going forward.
- Take a swimming class with a professional to make sure that your technique is right.
- Practice different swimming techniques like freestyle, breaststroke, or backstroke. Swimming in different ways will work out different muscles and make you a stronger swimmer.^{[1]
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Run to improve cardiovascular fitness. This is necessary for long swims.
- Jog on the beach if you can. Running on sand is more difficult than running on pavement or grass and therefore more productive. Some say that it is also good for your joints.^{[2]
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  Research source} Running on sand will further prepare you for a lifeguard position at the beach.
- Run up stairs or stadiums to build your lower body strength. In order to swim as fast as you can, you must have strong legs to help propel yourself through the water.
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Strengthen your core and upper body. Sometimes, a couple of seconds can mean the difference between life and death. Have strong arms to save people faster.
- Do pull-ups, dips, bench presses, and curls to build upper body and arm strength. Upper body strength is absolutely necessary in order to carry victims back to safety.
- Try sit-ups to strengthen your abdominals. It is important for your entire body to be fit. A slimmer and stronger torso will help you go through the water faster.
Practice holding your breath to build lung capacity. In some cases, the person you are trying to save might be deep below the surface, trapped by something, or difficult to bring to the surface. In this case, you will need to be able to hold your breath for long periods of time.
This is important for your training, but is also needed as you enter into a profession spent in the sun. Sweating means that your body will lose vital nutrients quickly. Always keep a bottle of water nearby.
Wear sunscreen with a higher SPF in order to protect from sunburn or skin cancer. It will be harder to perform your duties as a lifeguard if it hurts to move your limbs because of a burn or if you are in the hospital because of a serious skin disease.

Part 2

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Obtaining Your Certification

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1
Find a lifeguard class in your area. Some lifeguard training classes are offered through the YMCA or the local Red Cross district chapter. Other nationally recognized certifications come from Starfish Aquatics Institute, and NASCO. If you are Canadian, check out the Lifesaving Society. Some high schools offer swimming programs in gym class with CPR certification included.
- Choose training based on where you want to be a lifeguard. There are usually separate courses for lifeguarding at an indoor pool, lake, beach, and water park.
- Classes are usually six weeks long. For Ellis and Associates, there is a crash course that only lasts 3 days.
For most of these programs, you'll need to complete CPR and first aid training. It is good to study CPR procedures before you enroll in a program. Get experience ahead of time so that the program will be a review for you.
3
Learn to identify warning signs. In many cases, lifeguards recognize signs that someone will need their help long before an emergency occurs. Well-trained lifeguards can either choose to remain vigilant or take precautionary actions. Some of the most common warning signs are:
- Clearly poor swimmers bob their head in and out of the water frequently, always have their hands on the edge of the pool and pull themselves around, or cling onto flotation devices and are scared to swim away from them.
- The most obvious warning signs are from swimmers who constantly ask for help from others, who wave their arms around frantically, and are the quickest to show signs of panic.
- Often times, drowning begins with absolutely no signs or struggle. Watch for people who slip under the water and do not come back up.
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Memorize common safety protocols. Every pool, waterpark, or beach has its own safety procedures, but there are basic ones that apply in many places such as:
- Only swim when a lifeguard is on duty.
- No running or rough-housing near the water's edge.
- Take hygienic precautions like using waterproof diapers on babies.
- Do not go swimming with open wounds.
- Do not drink from glass containers in or near the water.
- Do not drink large quantities of alcohol or do drugs before swimming.
- Get out of the water during thunderstorms.
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Practice using life-saving equipment. Lifeguards have a bevy of tools that they use other than their bodies to help save struggling swimmers.
- Lifeguards use flotation devices like rescue tubes, rescue buoys, and ring buoys to help people stay afloat. Lifeguards also have access to medical equipment normally seen in ambulances and hospitals like resuscitation and defibrillator equipment. Lifeguards also have spinal boards to help move people that may have injured their spines, as well as basic first aid kits, capable of bandaging scrapes and cuts.
- Lifeguards use barrier devices called face shields or pocket masks. These are placed over the victim's mouth during CPR to prevent the transmission of communicable diseases via bodily fluids.
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Learn about tides, water conditions, and wildlife. This is only important if you plan on being a lifeguard at a beach.
- Riptide is one of the most dangerous situations for inexperienced swimmers. Riptides, also known as rip currents, pull swimmers away from shore at speeds too high even for experienced Olympic swimmers. The trick is to swim parallel to the shore, until you escape the riptide.^{[3]
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- Shore breaks are a serious threat at the beach as well. When waves break too close to the shore, they can be unpredictable, can knock people down, and can cause serious neck and spinal injury. Even the most experienced beach-goers can still be caught off guard.
- Red tide can seriously effect the safety of swimming conditions too. Every year, certain colonies of algae, often referred to as blooms, produce too many toxins. These toxins accumulate and cause red tide. Red tide can kill marine life and cause serious illness in human beings.^{[4]
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- The ocean is home to millions of different life forms, but some visit shorelines and beaches more commonly than others. Be aware of threats presented by jelly-fish, sharks, crabs, and the myriad other swimming and crawling creatures that live along the coast.
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Pass certification tests. At the end of training, you will be given several exams that test both your written knowledge of the above topics, but also your physical ability to perform the job of a lifeguard.
- You will be tested on patron surveillance, victim assessment, care for neck, spine, and head injuries, CPR techniques, and on general swimming safety protocol.^{[5]
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- Physical tests differ based on where you take the certification exams. Some require you to swim 300 yards, tread water in one place for 2 minutes without support, swim using various techniques, surface dive to a depth of 7 to 10 feet (2.1 to 3.0 m), and hold your breath for 1 to 2 minutes.
- Make sure all of your certifications stay up to date. Most certifications only last one to five years. If your certification expires, it will be hard to find a job as a lifeguard.

Part 3

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Finding a Job

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1
Find out who is hiring. Lifeguards are usually in high demand. You can call your local pools, water parks, and county parks departments and ask if they are hiring. Most places will begin hiring lifeguards a month or so before summer in order to provide other, location-specific training.
- On occasion, local pools will pay for your lifeguard certification. In most cases, they will want you to have your certification before they will hire you.
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Consult websites that advertise open lifeguarding jobs like: aquaticscareers.com and lifeguardingjobs.com. These websites will have further information on the types of certifications needed for employment. They will also inform you as to whether they will pay for training or not.
- Talk to friends and colleagues in your area to see if there are any pools that are hiring.
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Prepare for the interview. Lifeguarding is fun, but you must take it seriously if you want to get hired. Dress professionally when you go for the interview and then dress in swimwear that aids your performance as a lifeguard. People won't hire you unless you put your job first.
- Be friendly. People are more likely to want to hire you, if you are nice to them. This tip is important for actually being a lifeguard too. The public is more likely to follow your rules, if you are nice to them. Some will purposefully not follow safety guidelines to spite you, if you were mean to them. Employers want pleasant lifeguards around that will make people feel safe.
- Stress your vigilance, excellent swimming skills, knowledge acquired through your lifeguard training , along with your people skills. Employers want pleasant lifeguards around that will make people feel safe.

Expert Interview

Thanks for reading our article! If you’d like to learn more about becoming a lifeguard, check out our in-depth interview with Meredith Walters, MBA.

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Question

Is it possible for a lifeguard to wear glasses or do I have to wear contacts?

Community Answer

Some lifeguards wear glasses and some wear contacts. It all depends on where you are working. It is recommended that you wear contacts, that way you don't have to worry about your glasses breaking if you have to perform a rescue.

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Question

Do I need to be certified before the interview?

Community Answer

No, although you're much more likely to land the job if you're already certified. If you're going to apply without having your certifications, at least make sure that you're in the process of getting your certifications or that you're signed up to take a lifeguarding course soon after the interview. If you get the job without having the credentials, and you don't pass the lifeguarding course, you still won't be legally allowed to lifeguard and the employer should refuse to let you work as a lifeguard.

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If I am already an AEMT, do I need to take the full course, or can I just do the swimming abilities to pass?

Connor

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Yes, you will need to take the whole course to get your Lifeguard Certification.

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