What's involved in becoming a personal trainer?

[candice]

Hi,
I just had this idea that since I love working out, and love reading about different workouts on this forum, maybe I should look into getting certified? I have had 2 babies and could help others lose the baby weight like I did. I am now in better shape than before I had the kids. Just a quick idea that popped into my brain, but I am interested in hearing what's involved. Thanks for any info.

Candice

 

[LabAsst]

visit the ACE website. you can enroll in their home study program to become a certified personal trainer.

www.acefitness.org

Good Luck!

 

[mari27]

Hi Candice,
I am interested in getting rid of my baby weight I just had her 8 weeks ago and could use some advice if you don't mind.
Marisol

 

[Aquajock]

Hi, Candice! I'm not a personal trainer, but I am an ACE-certified group fitness instructor and interact a lot with personal trainers both online and in the "real world". That being said . . .

Getting certified is an important step, and ACE (The American Council on Exercise) offers a basic personal trainer certification and an advanced Clinical Exercise Specialist certification for trainers with several hundred hours of client contact under their belts. NSCA (the National Strength Conditioning Association) and NASM (the National {Academy?} {Association?} of Sports Medicine also offer certification. ACE is probably your best bet if you don't have a degree in the field or have never before been certified.

You'll also want to do some interviewing of trainers and training facility owners to get a feel for the realities of being a trainer.

The Turnstep website (www.turnstep.com) has a series of discussion forums, one of which is a Personal Trainer (labeled PT) that may be interesting for you to visit. Also, IDEA (www.ideafit.com) has a lot of good information for budding trainers.

Just a word to the wise, however - the mass client base that's out there in the real world may not necessarily be like the Educated (and self-motivated) Crowd you find here! But it can be a very rewarding endeavor, whether as a sideline or a fulltime career.

Good luck!

Annette

 

[Beets]

Hi Candice,
I am an ACE certified Personal trainer as well as AFAA (Aerobics and Fitness association of America) and AIFE (American Institute of Fitness Educators). I have been certified for over 6 years now and started doing training part time then left my cancer research associate job to do training full time. In terms of getting certified, ACE has a homestudy program that you can purchase and then take the exam. A company called Exercise ETC. (www.exerciseetc.com) has a 3-day prep course as well that will help you prepare for the exam. The exam is rather difficult so you need to really study and be prepared. The thing that makes it so hard is that even though it is multiple choice, the answers all look like good choices in most cases. There are just subtle differences that you need to note in order to pick the right answer so you really need to know your stuff. Once you get certified, you will need to buy liability insurance and you need to take a certain amount of continuing education to maintain your certification. You will also need to get certified in CPR before you can even take the exam. I would also follow the suggestion from a previous post about talking to some trainers to see what a day is like. It can be very rewarding but it can also be very frustrating because people will just not follow your advice a lot of the time and then they blame you when they don't get results. I cannot babysit my clients and watch every morsel they put in their mouth or force them to go out for a walk or whatever. They are ultimately responsible for getting the results they want. As you can see, I am feeling a little frustrated with some of my clients and my venting is coming out in this post !. The great thing is being your own boss and making your own hours. The downside is that it is not always a steady paycheck. People continually cancel, travel, get sick, etc. and you have to find ways to weather the decline in income. Don't quit your day job until you have a good client base and are confident that you can keep a steady flow of clients. Good luck if you choose to go for it!