Personal Training
 

:)I was wondering if anyone knew anything about getting into Personal Training. I was thinking of getting certified in the summer but didn't know where to start. I'm in college for kinesiology and tryin to get in top notch shape now to pursue a great career later. I'm creating before/after portfolios for future jobs and wanted to know if this is what I should be doing? I feel I know what to do and want to take charge of my destiny. Any thoughts and advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hi

"Personal Trainer" is quite a loose job title and essentially means nothing until there's evidence of good solid knowledge slapped on the table.

You can go freelance or you can be under the wing of a large commerical gym. If you choose to work within a commercial gym, you can have all the knowledge in the world but it won't make any difference. The information you pass onto the client will be dictated by your boss.

The end result is not passing on information which is best for the client, but rather best for the gym. Gym employees are told to encourage clients to use equipment; to make them think that the equipment within the gym is critical to their success.

There's a huge difference between a freelance personal trainer and one who is employed by a commerical gym....

One preaches cold hard principles through strict education and hands on experience whilst the other merely a salesman promoting the use of machines... Their pay is reflective of this.

Now, having said this, those who take the freelance route to become remotely successful need to do a hell of a lot of learning covering many areas of physiology. It's you and your knowledge only. There's no crutch to hold you up and no second man to blame. You need to understand the function of the human body, how to prevent and deal with imbalances / posture correction and / or injury, articulation of limbs / joints to name a few.... It's not just a case of throwing a routine at some young person who "wants to get big".

I think generally people need to take pride in what they do, doing things properly. The "proper way" however will differ according to opinion...

If you know better but you feel obliged to teach otherwise (in the case of employment by a commerical gym) you'll have less job satisfaction.

You can become certified through ACE.

ok sounds good, thanks for the info

One small word of advice, Personal Training as a profession has the highest rate of passing std's. So be careful which milf's you decided to smash :biglaugh:

On a serious note, if your already in school for kinesiology there prob isnt much that an ACE certification will teach you, but it will look good on a resume. I believe the course is 600 bucks, and you get to take the test once, if you fail its another 100 or so to take it again. Its not a bad idea, but make sure you read all the materials, as some of the info for ACE will be contradictory to what you know an practice.

If your in college for kinesiology, which can mean a lot of different things to different people, then I would think that a part of that would be to prepare you for a certain career track. That is a part of what any college department should do. This is not the first time I've seen this kind of question from someone who says they are studying kinesiology, or exercise science, or something like that. Frankly, you should be more aware than a lot of us what you need to do so if that kind of preparation is not a part of your course something is wrong, imo. If all a college does is hand you a piece of paper, which is often the case, they are doing you a disservice.

hmm yea i know..std's what? lol yea certification is expensive which is really stupid..i'll think about it for now, but i'm in the field of kinesiology because i was possibly thinking about getting into physical therapy..i really enjoy helping people and i thought that would fit me because it's a lot of dough and i'd be good at it because i understand it..or i would like to be a fitness instructor or mentor/ nutritionist..idk why but something about the body amazes me..like what we eat and how it shows on our body and the intensity of our workouts make us big and lean..just really cool..idk what the hell to do!! haha i'm working at home depot right now and going to school but i'd like to get a job that has to deal with my background..i was thinking about maybe a YMCA and getting involved with helping others..maybe volunteer programs and such to show that i want to help others idk any suggestions would be nice

Probably one of the best possible things you could do right now would be to "apprentice" yourself out to someone highly qualified. A lot of times big name therapists or coaches will put out feelers for people to volunteer for an apprenticeship/mentorship kind of thing. I would think also that your school has "field work" programs in place...which is one of the number on ways to get you foot in various doors.