Hi, I am 19 years old and I am strongly considering getting a certification in personal training and working for a gym and or a health club I have been weight training since I was 15 years old and I cannot picture my life without it. I just have a few questions and if anyone is able to answer them it will be a ton of help.
1. What is the average yearly salary? I know it depends on how many clients I get but what am I most likely looking at the first two or three years? Also are you paid directly from the client or does the gym pay you?
2. How does a gym assign clients to the trainer?
3. Since I will be getting a certification instead of a degree how hard will it be to get a job at a gym and or a health club as a trainer?
4. How long does it take to get the certification, I heard about 6 months is that correct?
5. What is the best way to keep track of your clients (interms of exercises they have completed and how they have progressed physically.)
6. How many hours a day would I work of course again it depends on how many clients but on average how much time will I spend with each client?
and thats about it unless you guys have any extra advice so if anyone can help me out here I will very much appreciate it.
1. What is the average yearly salary? I know it depends on how many clients I get but what am I most likely looking at the first two or three years? Also are you paid directly from the client or does the gym pay you?
I'm not a trainer, but finding the answer to your first question is pretty easy. Try telling Google.com to look for: "personal trainer" salary
nothing is easier in this world and same is the case with personal trainers job .
I take issue with this statement. If it were so "easy" I wouldn't have turn-over. From the outside it looks easy, but it has a higher burn-out rate than almost any profession I have seen. A good trainer also spends a lot of time and money outside the gym improving themselves with continuing education, not to mention all the time to design training programs (assuming it's a good trainer who actually plans their clients' workouts ahead of time).
Possibly. It's up to the writer to express what they mean though, and this poster (besides possibly being a spammer) seriously needs some work in that area.
Jean-Paul is right.....it is not easy to become a good trainer. It really does involve a lot of learning to become a good trainer. While it's great for a trainer to love exercising, it's more important that the trainer knows how to exercise and program workouts properly. A lot of people seem to think that all there is to training are 3x10 body part split routines, which is far from the case.
If you want to become a good trainer, search the forum for good certification suggestions (I have the NSCA-CSCS) and more importantly find a good environment to learn from instead of only focusing on sales.
Never stop learning - read, attend seminars and go do some certifications (the good ones).
Never think you know it all.... or even enough.... the learning never stops.
I usually read 1 to 2 books a week.... and I'm not talking small fitness books either. I try to watch 3-4 or more DVD's per month (some of these are 3-4 DVD sets) and I try to attend most of the seminars and conferences around the country.
I've been doing this for 20 years and the learning never stops. I think that is one of the biggest mistakes some trainers make - they do a few certification and think the know enough.
Another mistake is getting caught up in the one method - CHEK or Poliquin, Crossfit, Functional Training, HIT, etc.... they all may have some merit but never should be exclusive.
Never stop learning - read, attend seminars and go do some certifications (the good ones).
Never think you know it all.... or even enough.... the learning never stops.
I usually read 1 to 2 books a week.... and I'm not talking small fitness books either. I try to watch 3-4 or more DVD's per month (some of these are 3-4 DVD sets) and I try to attend most of the seminars and conferences around the country.
I've been doing this for 20 years and the learning never stops. I think that is one of the biggest mistakes some trainers make - they do a few certification and think the know enough.
Another mistake is getting caught up in the one method - CHEK or Poliquin, Crossfit, Functional Training, HIT, etc.... they all may have some merit but never should be exclusive.
you make it kind of scary to want to become one geesh!
really, you could just have someone jumprope a lot and if all they did was sit on the couch before, your motivation is worth a lot
but yea for me to appeal to all customers, i will need a lot more, but 1 or 2 books a week? you prob know most of the material, and it just brushes up on everything
usually we can figure out what the person likes to do right? and combine that with exercises for what they want, idk, it just seems easier than ur makin me scared it might be lol... like.. planning out someones workout, probably takes 10 minutes right?
Do you want to be a mediocre trainer or a great trainer? You have to keep up with the science and know what you're talking about. Being a great trainer is not about being a good cheerleader. I just became a personal trainer a year ago and I'm very much still a newbie. I can't absorb enough information fast enough. I have a day job and I literally spend every available free moment (and many paid moments) doing fitness and nutrition related reading. I still have so much to learn and there will always be new information. I want to know everything I can know on the subject and use it to turn myself into an awesome trainer. I want to share the knowledge, which is hard to do if I don't have the knowledge to share. I learn new stuff everday and incorporate what makes sense to me. I have a long way to go, but I want to be a great trainer and I want that to be my life. I feel myself growing as a trainer everyday but I also know there is so much I don't know.
If you really want to be a trainer, and you're truly passionate about it, then the idea of reading 1 or 2 books a week, going to seminars, getting certifications and whatever else it takes to educate yourself in this field won't scare you--it will excite you. And if you're not passionate, why bother.
It isn't difficult to get a job as a trainer--places like 24 Hour hire uneducated 'trainers' all the time. To be become a real trainer takes passion, education and more education.
thanks for the advice, it seems that perhaps i could do average people with mediocre goals, but it would will take continnual learning to be able to help people in all walks of life, reach their ultimate goals
I've been an ACE-certified Personal Trainer for four years. It took me about 4 months to study for and take the ACE exam, but 6 months is probably a bit more realistic. How hard was it (for me) to prep and take the exam? Not hard. You just have to be good at test-taking. But that's just the beginning. It's like getting your driver's license. Just because you have it doesn't make you a great driver. That only comes with experience. The certification tests are just a way to ensure that "certified" means you know the basics. As everyone else has said, the rest is up to you.
In terms of income, I have to say that I don't know many personal trainers who make a lot of money doing what we do. There are some, I'm sure. But even the owner of my gym isn't exactly getting rich. I get paid $15 an hour, and I only do it part-time. (We charge $30 for a half-hour session).
By definition, personal training is labor-intensive, especially if you do it one-on-one, and the hours can be gruelling, since you will typically be working when your clients aren't (e.g. early morning, evenings, and weekends).
It might work well for you to do personal training part-time, in addition to pursuing your college degree. (It would certainly help with the expenses). If you DON'T get a college degree and ONLY get the certification, it WILL limit your career options down the line.
One VERY lucrative avenue to pursue, if you have an interest at all in it, would be Physical Therapy. I only mention it here because PTs command BIG salaries, and with our aging population, they will continue to be in demand. (Check out the Occupational Outlook Handbook, published by the U.S. Department of Labor). If you are looking to combine your interest in exercise with something that can earn you a living, it might be worth looking into....
Whatever you decide, good luck. Do what you love, and you WILL succeed.
I've been an ACE-certified Personal Trainer for four years. It took me about 4 months to study for and take the ACE exam, but 6 months is probably a bit more realistic. How hard was it (for me) to prep and take the exam? Not hard. You just have to be good at test-taking. But that's just the beginning. It's like getting your driver's license. Just because you have it doesn't make you a great driver. That only comes with experience. The certification tests are just a way to ensure that "certified" means you know the basics. As everyone else has said, the rest is up to you.
In terms of income, I have to say that I don't know many personal trainers who make a lot of money doing what we do. There are some, I'm sure. But even the owner of my gym isn't exactly getting rich. I get paid $15 an hour, and I only do it part-time. (We charge $30 for a half-hour session).
By definition, personal training is labor-intensive, especially if you do it one-on-one, and the hours can be gruelling, since you will typically be working when your clients aren't (e.g. early morning, evenings, and weekends).
It might work well for you to do personal training part-time, in addition to pursuing your college degree. (It would certainly help with the expenses). If you DON'T get a college degree and ONLY get the certification, it WILL limit your career options down the line.
One VERY lucrative avenue to pursue, if you have an interest at all in it, would be Physical Therapy. I only mention it here because PTs command BIG salaries, and with our aging population, they will continue to be in demand. (Check out the Occupational Outlook Handbook, published by the U.S. Department of Labor). If you are looking to combine your interest in exercise with something that can earn you a living, it might be worth looking into....
Whatever you decide, good luck. Do what you love, and you WILL succeed.
- J
Physical Therapy is lucrative, but it has it's downsides as well. While we do get paid more than CPT's (depending on the situation), we're usually juggling 3-4 patients an hour in a typical outpatient facility....so one on one time can be tricky (along with dealing with HMO's from what I heard). I'm glad that I pursued PT, but the journey was not easy at all (especially with programs requiring a BS,BA, or BBA to apply for a 3 year program...that's 7 years). The 3 years in PT school is very demanding as well. It's a rewarding road, but it's a hard road.
If you really want to be a trainer, and you're truly passionate about it, then the idea of reading 1 or 2 books a week, going to seminars, getting certifications and whatever else it takes to educate yourself in this field won't scare you--it will excite you. And if you're not passionate, why bother.
It isn't difficult to get a job as a trainer--places like 24 Hour hire uneducated 'trainers' all the time. To be become a real trainer takes passion, education and more education.
I think you're on the right track with this thinking, Kathy - While education is definitely important, I would also add that you should also be spending time, energy, and sometimes money on working on the business and marketing aspects or personal training.
Its easy to get a job, the hard part is becoming certified. I already have a college degree - failed to find a good job, and now feel like im going back to school with this PT cert. extensive stuff. another skill you will need is sales, you will have to sell yourself to these people. They are spending a great deal of money for training and you gotta have the cert., attitude, and passion to make the sale.
If you are certified then u can get job in any good health club or gym but some health clubs and gyms doesnt consider to ur certification but they will put more pressure on your experience so its better to gain experience also in the mean time,,,,
but for your else questions i would recommend you to search more as different people give different suggestions to you !
REGARDS !
Thinking about becoming a Personal Trainer
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