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So I've had a really unfulfilling but low stress career the past 7 years, and after a lot of plotting and scheming I've decided to move into fitness. I'm looking to get started with a job in personal training. I'm pretty passionate about fitness and I'm still exploring my own training and what types of training are right for me that I would like to specialize in. But I do have a pretty solid base of knowledge that I'm always expanding. I'm already certified (NASM) but I'd like to hear more from any goons who've been personal trainers in the past or are currently. I fully expect my first year to be very difficult and not make much money, but I know this is what I want so I'm going for it. Any other information about what to expect would be really helpful.
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Feb 20, 2015 16:33
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How deeply have you looked into this? The vagueness and lack of direction that comes across in your post suggests a low level of familiarity with the industry and a consequent lack of awareness regarding job prospects. If you're a smooth salesman you can ignore the rest of this post and just do whatever the gently caress you want. Most people know nothing about exercise and will keep paying you money if they like you enough despite middling results. The first thing is do not think that you are qualified or prepared to be a coach because working out is your hobby and you've read a few articles on T Nation or you lurk the goon exercise threads. A "good base of knowledge" would be a bachelors degree in kinesiology/exercise physiology OR it's equivalent in self study. Reading fitness blogs and doing marathons is not the same thing as learning the foundations of exercise science as a discipline, which is what you should have before you begin a career in the field. There isn't a day for me on the job that my knowledge of biomechanics, anatomy or physiology of energy systems doesn't come into play to help me make the most prudent decision for my athletes. The follow up to that would be to get a certification from the NSCA and/or ACSM because they are the two most relevant and recognized bodies in North America. I know you mentioned the NASM cert but quite honestly the CSCS or CES are the gold standards and will be required by any organization/facility worth working at. If you're planning on going into business for yourself that opens up a can of worms but doesn't negate the worth of those certs, though you would of course not need to hold them (but you'd be an idiot not to). Following your understanding the basic scientific principles you need to actually know how to apply them and how to coach people. Don't confuse your personal experience as lifter/runner etc. with adequate experience to supervise clients professionally. Intern at a reputable facility, especially if this was not part of your collegiate education. That covers the absolute basics of what you should know before you start doing this professionally in any capacity. What capacity you want to do this in is the next major decision and that plays a large role in informing how to best prepare for a job and career. You'll have to pick between an interplay of 2 factors that will essentially decide what your job is going to be. The first is what population do you want to work with and the second is job logistics. To use the population I work with as an example, athletes: Professional organization (New England Patriots), College athletic department (UCLA), Private Franchise Performance Facility (EXOS or IMG), Private Independent Performance Facility/Coach (Andy O'Brien - Body by O'Brien, Eric Cressey - Cressey Performance) Independent Coach/Consultant (Vern Gambetta). All of these positions involve working with elite level athletes but each one has an entirely different set of job responsibilities and its own unique environment. If I want to work with multiple sports I'm not gonna pursue a career in the NFL. If I want complete autonomy I'm going to open up my own consulting business or work for an independent facility that will allow me that level of freedom. If I don't want the stress and having to be away from home frequently I'll probably look for a mid major NCAA job as opposed to opening my own facility or working with big programs. Because all you mentioned was "personal trainer" that doesn't really indicate with any clarity what you want. Do you want to work for yourself and run your own business or go work for someone else? It's hard to give specific advice until you have a firmer idea of what is is you want to do. If you want to be your own boss than aside from making sure you know what you're doing you have to take care of getting clients, having a place to train them etc. If you want to train people for someone else, not counting the big national chains who don't care about their members, most facilities looking to hire are going to want a minimum minimum of relevant bachelor's degree, CSCS and some prior experience.
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Feb 21, 2015 14:10
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Well my assumption is most people associate the title of personal trainer to the trainers that work at larger gyms and typically work with normal non-athlete types. Would you really consider yourself a personal trainer? What you do is awesome, but I don't think most people would associate "personal trainer" with the trainers that work with pro athletes. It's nitpicky I know but just saying. I think your perspective might be a bit skewed though. You know there's a whole industry of people with NASM/ACE certs that work with non-athletes right? You seem to dismiss that part of the fitness industry, although you do acknowledge it exists. Your credentials are obviously way more substantial but my impression is that most non-athletes just seek out trainers at the big gyms or independent trainers who are way less qualified than you and don't have the certifications you recommend pursuing. Anyway I was a little vague because I was assuming people would also have that same perspective of personal trainer = trainer at any of the number of big gyms out there. Crunch is a good example. If I want to be more specific I would say tell me about your experience being as an independent trainer, or a trainer at a gym, etc. I was also hoping to hear about what people do in addition to personal training, as I know many personal trainers do other jobs as well. For example yoga classes, pilates, group exercise classes, or working admin jobs at the gym they train at, etc. I have looked into this a bit more than I've revealed. I have a few friends that have worked in the industry for the years who've given me some guidance. They all started with NASM or ACE certifications, worked at some gym for a period of time, then branched off into another path in the fitness industry. One friend started with a small gym, acquired clients and then went independent. She thrives off a small number of clients who aren't very fitness minded and who's training really just involves getting them to to do a mild workout without judgment because they really wouldn't exercise otherwise. She also has an online coaching/workout program that's doing very well. Another friend started out at one of the bigger gyms and went independent. In addition to having personal training clients, she also teaches yoga classes and some other fitness classes. She also strives to be a "fitness personality", and wants to be a celebrity and such. I think that's a bit lame but whatever if it makes her happy. And finally I have another friend who worked at Crunch for years and was very successful as he was very focused on sales and closing the deal. After saving a lot of money from personal training he opened up his own gym which is already very successful less than a year in. He's an impressive salesman and peddles all sorts of bullshit so I respect his success but not some of his ridiculous ideas. My goal in the short term is to do a mix of personal training, group exercise, and dance instruction (I already do the last one). n4 fucked around with this message at 02:45 on Feb 23, 2015 |
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Feb 23, 2015 02:41
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It's mostly semantics but the term "personal trainers" was primarily developed for marketing and sales purposes when national chain health clubs and gyms started to promote 1 on 1 or small group training services to clients. It has since caught on to the point of being a general term in the public lexicon for anyone who does anything related to exercise but I think its's more appropriate and accurate to refer to anyone who primarily works to teach, promote and supervise exercise as a coach. It's also helpful because Athletic Trainers are frequently referred to as "trainers" so it avoids the confusion of conflating two separate occupations into the same shorthand. Ultimately, the body responds and adapts the same way to a given stimulus whether it's a professional athlete or middle aged office worker, so we all should be following the same framework. And we should be after the same goal, which is helping people get better through physical activity. So if you accept that, generally speaking, we have similar goals, and since human physiology is uniform we have to accomplish those goals using similar methodology than I don't see much reason to distinguish because job titles are different. You'll notice a lot of people working at (higher quality) independent facilities refer to themselves as coaches and work with a mixture of gen pop and mostly amateur athletes. Of course I acknowledge the segment of the fitness industry that deals with general population or non-elite athletes. Some of the best coaches in the field probably see anywhere from 5 to 10 general population clients for every elite athlete who works with them. You are right that I am dismissive, but not towards working with the general population. I have worked with numerous people who would fall into this category and highly encourage everyone of all abilities to be physically active, and thus understand the need for qualified coaches. My problem, simply put, is that this segment of the industry has an extremely low barrier to entry and a lot of people working in it are well meaning idiots at best or con artists at worst. It's so easy for someone with no background to take one of the less rigorous certs like NASM or ACE and get a job with little else for qualifications. On a positive note a lot of gyms, at least independent/regional/local, are realizing the importance of having coaches who are actually trained in the subject matter and have the expertise to properly implement a comprehensive fitness program for clients. If you search jobs for personal trainers or strength coaches you will see most non national chains are posting jobs in which the minimum requirements are a CSCS and a bachelors degree in the field of exercise science. The reason the CSCS is such a standard for anywhere that matters is because it ensures you have a basic understanding of the scientific fundamentals paired with the practical applications. This is backed by a professional/academic organization who publishes a respected, peer-reviewed journal and literally wrote the definitive textbook on the principles of applied exercise science. Most of these gyms are working with gen pop, and if they have athletes they will be adult recreation athletes or high school athletes. Even the big guys like Boyle, Robertson, DeFranco, Cressey and Barwis work with a ton of gen pop people who want to be trained by someone utilizing evidenced based practices and scientifically sound principles. I don't have first hand experience on being independent or working in a big chain gym so can't tell you stories about what that's like, but I can offer my insights into the industry and advice on things that are critical for being a good coach, which I think is the most important part. I've already sort of given a basic outline of what I think is important but I can give sopecific details if you want to know what will help you be technically proficient. I do know a lot of fitness coaches/personal trainers and the truly good ones are the guys who have a similar background to me and just prefer to work with a different population in a different setting. Just don't be that loving guy who gets people hurt or wastes their time and money because you have no idea how to program and periodize but you think squatting on a bosu looks cool. There's already a million of those fuckers and they're useless. PM me if you want to get more into this. I'm glad to be a resource for anyone who wants to learn.
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Feb 26, 2015 00:54
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