Personal trainers certification

[flagadajones]

again, you have no idea what you are talking about.  although i don't train people anymore, very few of my clients even wanted to look like me.  not everyone has the same goals, ever think about that einstein?  take for example the 50 year old golfer that wanted to put yards on his drive, or the 30 year old new mom that wanted someone to motivate her to lose the baby fat or the 45 year old diabetic woman that wanted to get reduce her dependency on meds.  sure i have trained a handful of competitive bb'ers, but very few.  so stick to what you know--playing video games on your computer and shut the fuck up.

Ok, lets rephrase it; did this 30 yo mom , this 50 yo golfer and the 45 yo diabetic woman achieve their goal?

Did you really help them in the long term?

[emn1964]

Ok, lets rephrase it; did this 30 yo mom , this 50 yo golfer and the 45 yo diabetic woman achieve their goal?

Did you really help them in the long term?

actually i did.  i had plenty of clients that did.

[peroni]

I rarely even try to bother trying to say this anymore Joe, but once more I go lol..

I started as trainer, eventually bought both my house and gym off that money - and did it single so there was no 'spouse' to live off.

If you are some half ass rep counter with 'regular people' as clients, well then you make cheesy money. If you build up to getting the upper echelon of clients, who will pay obscene sums of money, you can make a very good living. Not referring to the local pimply face 22 year trainer at the YMCA, but those that moved up the ladder, which granted are a tiny %.

Well said. I started off independent and have stayed that way. I kept learning as I went (and still do) and now I own a nice gym, have a nice home with my wife and son, and live a good life. There's always the stereotypical trainer to point to but remember that not all of us fit that mold. Same as any profession for that matter. Being a gym patron and observing a few trainers whether they're lousy or brilliant, does not begin to qualify someone as knowledgeable in the field or as someone who can accurately assess why a client would use a trainer. The whole "keep them company" argument is false. The majority of the people I train are looking to be strong and healthy. The others are professional athletes in figure skating, body building, football, and basketball. The non athletes want a lifestyle change. They want me to educate them on nutrition as well as proper techniques amongst many other things related to health. Certainly there are those looking to hang out and have themselves validated by a trainer that they had a good workout etc etc. Those people are few and far between. I usually suggest that they find a workout partner instead. The athletes are looking to maximize their potential and through the tweaking of not just major things, but tiny nuances, we achieve their goals.

 I think I'm going to start a thread about young know nothing office workers who work at major corporations or are interns. Obviously they make no money, live off others, and could use an education from me since I've been in an office before. I've walked into several over my 39 years of life as a matter of fact. Upon further reflection, based upon that conclusion, it makes perfect sense to me that anyone working in that setting is a incompetent fool...

[The Coach]

I have an ACE certification, and I thought the test was a complete joke.

Questions like:

'What is a concentric action?'
'What is a lacto-ovo vegetarian?'
'You see someone bench pressing in the gym and they are bouncing the bar off their chest, what do you do?
'One of your female clients mentions to you that she thinks another personal trainer at the club is good looking and is interested in dating him, what do you do?'

Knowing what a lacto-ovo vegetarian or concentric actions are has nothing at all to do w/ personal training.  And the other questions for their ethics part that are opinionated and have no right or wrong answer but are scored quantitatively sure are ethical 

The test was designed basically so that someone 5 foot tall and 400lbs who has never set foot inside a gym could study a bunch of terms and pass the test and be a CPT, despite not having a clue what a military press is, or what happens when you move your hands close together when doing a flat bench press.

Granted these are some basic questions, some are difficult some are easy, BUT i want you to answer WHY these questions are not relavant to personal training. Is it because you studied the answer and concluded they were easy answers to remember OR is it because you don't know the "when, why or whats" of the questions themselves?

Did you get your cert just to become a "rep counter" or to actually help people? If you got it just for some extra money and just to be rep counter, then you don't need to know much more than just the test answer it self, but if you are doing as a business to make a living from then I suggest you find out WHY you need to know this stuff.

If people on this site bothered to do some research on the PT business, they would find that it goes faaaaaaaaaaar beyond than what they make it out to be. Professional organizations, case study research journals, workshops, conventions, I can go on forever. I have 4 certs that I constantly have to keep up on because most if not all certs require you to do a certain amount of CEU's (continuing education units) each year.

[The Coach]

Ok, lets rephrase it; did this 30 yo mom , this 50 yo golfer and the 45 yo diabetic woman achieve their goal?

Did you really help them in the long term?

In my case...yes. I have had the majority of my clientel for at least 5 years.

[Thin Lizzy]

Is that a fact?? I support my family, wife works with me (mostly accounting stuff). My son goes to private school, we have a home 30 yards from the beach and one in Palm Springs, we have nice cars, money in the bank and a reletively stress free life. Define a REAL job for me will ya!

C'mon, Joe. Does this really count?

But, seriously, when evaluating a profession you have to see how it compares to other professions. I think it's safe to say that you're in the top 5% of what you do. The real question is how does the median trainer compare to the median professionals in other fields with regard to income and benefits.

[The Coach]

C'mon, Joe. Does this really count?

But, seriously, when evaluating a profession you have to see how it compares to other professions. I think it's safe to say that you're in the top 5% of what you do. The real question is how does the median trainer compare to the median professionals in other fields with regard to income and benefits.

It really depends on the motivation of the person. My advice has always been don't work for anyone but yourself. That being said a person who is an independant contractor can easily make $60k here in So.Cal just by working 4-5 hrs per day 5 days per week that's roughly 5 clients per day, maybe 2 in the morning and 2-3 in the evening. I would say thats about the average for an independant contractor. Of course it would be quite a bit less for an employee type trainer.