Any personal trainers?

[alluprbdy]

TweetI was wondering if any of you are full time personal trainers? Iwas thinking about a carreer change and I have allways wanted too but was afraid id make no money. Now I think happiness is more important than money, musta grew up a little, and as long as I wouldnt take a huge paycut I think I might go for it. I was wondering what kinda money can be expected to start out working at the gym lets say, what kinda cert I should get?

[Gear101]

Tweetit really depends on the gym.. i just got a job offer the other day to go back into it.. and it really depends on the gym.. some gyms don't offer training at the point of sale.. when people sign up for there membership.. the ones that do you can make a good living at..

[space mountain]

Tweetyea bro im ACSM certified. it depends on the gym ! here we dont get a cut out of what u make with a client but in return you train and give orientations to all new members

[solidground]

Tweetif your good at sales and get referals you can make money

[Sal Paradise]

TweetI'm in the same boat. I have finally decided to get a cert and go for it.
I had two job offers just last year to come on board to a very nice place that sells at the time of sign up. It sounds like that is a good way to go, all I had to do was get the cert.
My wife is even on board with it so it's just a matter of following through and taking the jump.
I do some work in sales and marketing now so the personal skills should be a help.
I just have to get the balls to go through and do it.
My ultimate goal would to be a private one on one trainer and travel to different gyms or homes and work but you have to get a good client base for that and be in an area that would support it financially. Possibly even open a small gym specifically for training clients.

All I can say is best of luck to you and if you're in a position where you can, make that leap do it before you get too locked in to something else.

Sal

[T-Man007]

TweetACSM or NSCA are the two best, IMO. The NSCA headquaters in here in my hometown, along with the US Olympic Training Center and I can tell you this....the only people training Olympic Athletes are those from NSCA. I'm not knockin ACSM, but I think NSCA dives a little more deeply into strength and conditioning, hence the name National Strength & Conditioning Association. Look through magazines and articles on line and see how many people that are referred to as 'experts' has the designation of CSCS next to their name. You can only get that through NSCA. One of my bros has it and I'm telling you, I've learned more from him personally that every other source and every other person combined. Seriously, this guy has forgotten way more than I know and I know my stuff. He also was a Physical Therapists and has all that knowledge in his head too. He's like a sponge when it comes to things about the body.

With all that said, you also have to realize few more things. It takes a while to build a client base up too. When I got into it, I was lucky, I worked for a bro of mine who owned a few gyms and he gave me a GM job at one of them. I got certified through one of the typical 2 day certs (I won't bash anyone), but it was a joke. Everything they teach you at those things is crap and is so basic it does nothing to prepare you for 'real' training. AND, to make things more difficult, I was working in Ladies Only health clubs, so it's wasn't as simple as do bench, squats, deads....it was much more difficult. I had to take everything I already knew and study up on just womens training. I read several books just on womens training, I wrote letters to some of the best women's trainers, I went online and read as much as I could and after about a year, I was decent. After about my second year, I could get results on women faster than any of the other trainers. I had a system, that took me about two years to develope. Every year I got smarter and my clients got even better results. Then, I moved here, to Colorado Springs, and realized just how little I knew. Between the guy who I moved out here to manage his gym (the former PT with his CSCS) and all his trainers who were atleast ACSM or NSCA, I realized, man, there's a ****load of stuff to learn. Which was great, because this made me learn even more. Every single trainer I had working for me had some kind of degree in the body and I would borrow their books. Whether it was Kinesiology, Applied Physiology, whatever, I got my hands on as much as I could. One dude, probably the most impressive dude, has three different degrees, was certified through NSCA and had his CSCS spent 2 1/2 years just dealing with post clinical therapy. Holy crap, that dude was a fountain of information.

Now, I tell you this because I want you to understand what seperates the good from the elite. Good trainers charge $40 to $60 per hour. Every trainer I'm referring to charged from $75 to $150 and hour. Yes, $150 an hour. That's what my bro (the former PT and CSCS) charged, and people paid it. The funny thing is he made his price that high so people wouldn't hire him because he was busy with other stuff, but they did anyways. Now, this guy had about 6+ years of college education under his belt before he even went to NSCA, so we are talking about a ton of knowledge (all towards degrees in the body), but that's what seperates the trainers. The dude who spent that time doing the post clinical therapy charged $100 per hour and usually had 5-6 appointments a day. Of course, one lucky thing for you is, since you don't live here, you don't have to compete with too many trainers from NSCA. Every gym I've been to in this town has a few of their trainers and they are usually the busiest ones.

I guess what I'm trying to tell you is this, it's a life long learning type of job. It's like being a CPA, you have to learn a ton of new stuff every year or you will get left behind before you ever even establish yourself. Or, you could be like most trainers and half ass it at some gym that really doesn't care about it.

But, don't take my word for it, just ask Space how much he knows compared to someone with a 2 day cert. ASCM is top notch. I just happen to favor NSCA but I've known a coupld ACSM trainers personally too, and they too are just full of more info than you can imagine. Pick his brain, I'm sure he wouldn't care and make sure if you are going to do it that you don't sell yourself short.

[alluprbdy]

Tweetthanks alot tman I have some thinking to do

[diggi]

TweetACE/ISSA are one of the best in the states..

[T-Man007]

Tweet^^^ Yeah bro, ACE is good too because they use outside people to grade the tests so they can't push people through to keep the numbers up. I knew a girl who said AFAA and some others would push people through who failed the test just to have more AFAA trainers out there. I can't confirm that, but any organization that uses outside people to grade the exams can't do it.

Also, you don't need a degree to sit for ACE like you do NSCA or ACSM. It may not be that way now but it was.