Personal Trainer Courses

[justdoingit]

Hi

I want to do a personal trainer course, mainly for my own interest but I'm keeping the possibility open that maybe I'd like to train people as well.

I'm not sure what course to do and would appreciate any advice please. I read that the ACSM - American College of Sports Medicine - is one of the best. My concern is that most of the courses are on-line so how do you get practical hands on experience? I suppose I could go to my gym but their trainers are mostly 18 year olds that are only interested in what the latest gossip is on Britney Spears...apologies to any 18 year old trainers that take their profession seriously but the ones at my gym certainly don't.

Thanks
Sharyn

[John Izzo]

Question for ya:
If you seek a personal trainer course for your own self interest, why go after ACSM? Why not an ACE, NESTA, or ISSA, or WITS? If its for your won personal growth and knowledge, the curriculum in those aforementioned may be just fine.
If you want to keep the door open to training others, then experience is the best teacher, and you can attain that by getting a decent cert just to get your foot in the door. We, as a society, have this notion that the better certification we get, the smarter we will become and we forget that application is the main ingredient to success in this field.
No worries, I am not picking on you...but I deal with this on an almost monthly basis. Its just that it is not the car that makes you a better driver...its the person behind the wheel.

[justdoingit]

Hi John

I really appreciate your reply and what you said makes a lot of sense. I knew a personal trainer that got fantastic results for her clients but she 'only' had a qualification from CanFitPro (a Canadian course). She said the same thing as you, that just because someone has the 'best' qualifications there are, it doesn't necessarily make them the best trainers.

Cheers

[Lisa~]

There is a whole subforum devoted to Fitness as a Business which includes several threads (like this one: Which certifiication?) that discuss the differences between certifications. You might find some of those threads interesting and informative.