certified trainer

G

ginahctsun

Member
Hello Cathe,

I have been researching what would be the best school for taking a certified personal trainer course. So mainy schools have online or at home classes. Finally I found something that is hands on and that is in my area Long Island NY ( a technical school - BOCES the class for certified personal trainer) at the end of the course students will be ISSA certified.
I was wondering if you knew if this is worth it. I am not sure how well recognized the ISSA is in the fitness world.

I see that you are ACE certified and bodypump certified. Ace is one of the schools most people I have talked to tell me to start with. But I feel better with a hands on training. I need something pretty close to home because of my current financial situation. But I definetly want a career change.

My goal is a youth fitness trainer. I have 2 teenage boys of my own and they are so not into fitness or sports at all and I am trying to get them motivated, I got my older son to walk into a gym the other day and a sign up for a free 14 day pass, but when I ask him and his girlfriend if they want to go workout they wont they are nervous.
I myself am into healthy food and a healthy way of life, and I go to the gym and work out at home at least 5 days every week.

I don't know if you could give me any advice but I would appreciate anything at this point.
In your opinion do you think a career change into the fitness world at 43 years seems a bit old?

Thank you very much,
Gina
 
Hi Gina,

Not Cathe, but I read and wanted to just throw in my 2 cents. I am almost 28 and have been in the fitness world for about 10 years now, started teaching step aerobics when I was 18. I have an ACE, AFAA, Powerflex (Bally's BodyPump) and many other certifications and I can say in my home state the ACE cert is one of the best certs to get. It is a very hard test and you do have to study a lot, to be honest I failed it the first time I took it because I did not study enough. It is well worth all the studying and a really great cert to have.
I think the only cert that would be considered better would be the ACSM in which you have to have a college degree in fitness to even take the exam. You will learn so much about the human body, you will be amazed.
As for a bit of career advice, So many women are now seeing how important it is to be active and if you look around your local gyms you will see women any where from mid 20's to upper 40's. 43 is not old at all and you would probably do quite well if you could relate to your clients. If you do Cathe's workouts you will notice all the positive energy that comes from Cathe and her staff. It's the positive energy that will motivate people to want to work with you.
Good Luck!
 
hey MarleysMom,

thank you so much for the advice I really appreciate it.
I have been looking at ACE's website and I can only find online or home study courses. Is that what you did? I cannot find any seminars or workshops in my area.

I am just so worried that by doing the online course or home course with ACE I will not be knowledgable enough because I won't have the hands on experience. I may be worring for nothing.

I have to call ACE to find out if it's possible for me to just take an exam review course and then the exam, after I take the course at the tech school BOCES- If I decided to go in that direction.

I really appreciate your help, It is also cheeper for me to go with ACE.
 
Hello again,

I have checked out AFAA website and I see they have workshops in my area, three days seems so short, I am somewhat nervous that 3 days will not be long enough for me to learn everything. And for some reason I cannot find bally's bodypump, do you have any idea if they have a website for this?

Thanks again I appreciate it.
 
I did the AFAA three day program, and the instructor prepares you very well for the exams. I would be lying if I didn't admit that the three days were not on the grueling side, but it is quite possible to pass the first time. ACE and AFAA are two highly regarded certifications; I believe that the ACSM is also. The manager of my gym told me that AFAA was third on the list.
 
Thank you so much cdpotier, I appreciate your advice.


I will have to think about this and figure out what is the best for me to do.
 
Hey again,

I have the AFAA also and it is actually a fun 3 days if you have a good trainer. I took the test in a small town about 1 hour from my city and I was able to get in class with about 8 other people so I really had hands on training. The ACE is really a better choice, it really is much harder, however the AFAA you will get to do more "hands on". You could start with the AFAA which is what I did and the start to study for the ACE they only give the test 2x's per year I think. Another good idea is to check out your local gyms and ask if you can work with the group-ex manager to teach group-ex. Again, that is how I got my start when I was really just a pup! If you are in a good gym with a good group-ex manager you can really learn a lot.

If you would like to talk more feel free to email me directly at: [email protected].

Good luck again and you are making a great career change!
 
You are all so wonderfull for helping me out here.
I'm off to work but I will email you marleysmom later on tonight.

thanks
 
Hi - I know this post is pretty old, but I wanted to add: I am taking the AFAA PT exam this weekend. My first of the three days starts tomorrow -- I read above they prepare you pretty well during the first two days. I am also hoping that the study guide is pretty accurate in what you need to study/know/absorb.

So, I'll try to update here if anyone would like me to do so. And, if you've taken the AFAA PT exam recently, do you mind putting forth more opinions? Thanks so much!!

;)
 
My apologies -- this should be on Open Discussion.

I just did a "search" and replied to this one not realizing it was under Ask Cathe. I'll make a new post over there.
 
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