I want to be a personal trainer

[angela123]

Where would I begin? I have been going to college for nursing but haven't earned any degrees yet. I have taken some Anatomy classes, physhology, chemisrty, and biology. Would I be able to go online and get certified to work at a gym? My question is do I just need to be certified or do I need further education like a degree?
Thanks in advance

 

[TiffaLynn]

I want to be a personal trainer too! I did some research on it, and no you do not need a degree. You just need to be certified, and yes you can study for it at home. One of the most well-known companies to get certified through is ACE (American Council on Exercise) which is where I bought my study materials from. http://www.acefitness.org/

I actually ordered an ebook that a personal trainer had written, it gives you the steps you need to take in order to become a personal trainer, but it also tells all about the profession so you can decide if its truley what you want to do. I highly recommend it. After reading it, I knew that its something I definetly wanted to pursue. You can get it at http://exercise.about.com/gi/dynami...=0&bts=1&zu=http://www.fabjob.com/trainer.asp

Hope this helps!

 

[nkuangel]

Thats kinda funny you posted this thread because I literally did the exact same thing you are talking about. I have one more year of nursing school left but the previous two semester and through the summer I was working at my school as a personal trainer and an aerobics instructor. I took a class that is offered at my college that prepares you to take the ACE personal trainer exam but I never ended up taking the exam. I never really had the extra money and I wasn't sure how long I would be doing it. I liked it a lot at first but then it got to be reaaaallllyyyy draining. It is not an easy job to teach someone who knows nothing about fitness or exercise and those seemed to be my only clients. I simply didn't have the time to properly devote to training people. This semester my school gym is no longer accepting any new clients for training so I haven't been working which has been nice.

I would first make sure you really want to do this. I thought it would be really cool and fun, which it was at first but when you get someone who knows nothing and I mean NOTHING well lets just say it takes so much more effort. Not that I have a problem with teaching people about fitness because I love it so much but with the demands of nursing school and planning a wedding it was something that I just didn't have fun doing anymore.

So to answer your question yes you can get certified on line I believe. If you check out ACE, American Council on Exercise you will be able to find info there. There is also AFAA and ACSM which is by most considered the gold standard. It is expensive to take the tests so see if your school will reimburse you for part of the cost of the test.
HTH and I hope I didn't deter you from trying this. I was just literally in the same position you are in now and I know that I couldn't keep it up with my nursing classes.
nkuangel