Group: General Fitness & Exercise

Created: 2011/12/31, Members: 383, Messages: 54581

Various general exercise related discussions. Find out what it takes to reach your fitness goals through daily effective exercise. With so many options we try to find out what works best.

Join group

Training the willing

jrocyou23
jrocyou23
Posts: 49
Joined: 2004/03/02
United States
2004/03/26, 10:01 AM
I'd like to know what it takes to become a personal trainer. I love working out and living an active lifestyle and I like surrounding myself with people that have the same goals. I don't have what you would call a fulfilling job and I think personal training could be my niche. Does anyone have any advice on how I could get started. I live in a town with three colleges so clientele would be great but I don't know what kind of certifications to get or how, and I don't know any of the steps after...Any thoughts?

--------------
Jay
asimmer
asimmer
Posts: 8,201
Joined: 2003/01/07
United States
2004/03/26, 10:25 AM
Start by doing some research on ACE, NASM, ISSA and similar certifying orgs.

College may not be the best for clientele - they may not have the expendible income for it. But, you never know, some people do prioritize it .

ACE also offers practical training throughout the country. This is a good opportunity to hone your skills, check your form and learn the latest in training techniques.

There have been many similar questions to yours in the past - check it out in fit buddy.
Being a trainer can be very rewarding and also very frustrating - you are their trainer one to three hours out of the week, the rest of the time they are left to their own devices and that can be hard with people who think they only have to put in effort at the gym.

I took a two year associate degree in Health Sciences, it was good because we covered nutrition, injury and rehab, training, program design, most aspects of the industry. I still want to go back to school for more knowledge, though.

Start reading all of the current info you can get your hands on and decide if there is a certain population you want to specialize in, that can help you decide what certifications to pursue.

Some gyms will hire you without certification, I would still recommend getting certified just to learn the basic physiology and anatomy and program design, legal issues, etc.

Good luck!

--------------
If you fall down seven times, get up eight.
jrocyou23
jrocyou23
Posts: 49
Joined: 2004/03/02
United States
2004/03/26, 10:35 AM
How much are the certifications and books. I'm still 30000 in debt from my BA/MS degrees.

--------------
Jay