Any personal trainers here?

[awhites1]

So I've been over the last few months been trying to get serious about doing something with my life. I dabbled in a few other ideas, and even took some classes on them before about 2 months ago I decided to go for my PT Certificate.

I love fitness and reading about it, I used to actually use this site for learning about weightlifting, suppliments and other things . I watch video's on Youtube a lot when I'm bored at work of UFC fighters training. So I think "ok do something you like."

So I'm doing Penn Fosters program. Mother of god this is so much harder than I thought it was going to be. Just making it past the first real unit Medical Terminology is a b! I've flipped ahead and looked at the other lessons and even a sample quiz for Personal Trainer Certification and Health Fitness Continuing Education who certifies Penn Fosters program. This is some very deep very medical information.

I've went to school with a couple of guys that are personal fitness trainers at LA Fitness by my house and they're pothead morons. A few other's I've talked to don't seem like they would know this much information. What gives?

 

[awhites1]

sorry I know that's long. but I tried to make sure to put all the pertinent information one would need to offer some clear guidance or tips.

Freakin hate long ass posts

 

[Gena Marie]

The owners of Total Package are Mods on this sight. Islandgirl and Paradisecup. They are fricken amazing. All their work is down to a science from training, eating and prep. The transformations they do for people are unreal. Islandgirl got her IFBB card this past year, so that says something....... I hope this helps.

There is also a ton of other very educated people here, look around and ask questions. People love to advise.

 

[awhites1]

Do most of them actually study and remember stuff like the 4 different layers/types of tissue in the GI tract and their function? Or all the prefixes and suffixes of medical terms?

Do they just study it long enough to remember to pass a test and forget most of it?

 

[Gena Marie]

I think if you are passionate about health and fitness and work in it daily, like everything else, it just comes second nature. No need to memorize, you just know and you stay up to date on new trends. It is the nature of the business.

 

[returnofthdragon]

Learning about it is fun, so it's easy.

 

[dgp]

I used to be a personal trainer. My best advice, don’t teach your clients too much. If they don’t have a reason to pay you they won’t. Most people don’t give a fuck about learning anything. They just want someone to hold their hand and push them. Learn what your client likes to do in his or her spare time, because this will help you with killing an hour of bull shit conversation back and forth, as your counting sets and reps for them.

 

[Dark Geared God]

 

[vancouver]

I used to be a personal trainer. My best advice, don???t teach your clients too much. If they don???t have a reason to pay you they won???t. Most people don???t give a fuck about learning anything. They just want someone to hold their hand and push them. Learn what your client likes to do in his or her spare time, because this will help you with killing an hour of bull shit conversation back and forth, as your counting sets and reps for them.

In other words, try not to reach any specific goals with your clients so that they never refer you...

I can tell you that I've tought my investment clients enough over the last 14 years that many can manage their portfolios on their own. They stick with me because most don't have the discipline to manage it themselves (among other reasons, better potential return, access to information that would be difficult to source themselves, etc, etc). Most important, they don't internalize what I teach them, they know it from a macro prospective.

Fitness, Finance, it's no different. Teach your heart out, they'll keep coming back for the answers. If any of them leave you because you taught them too much, make sure they let people know who taught them!

I was a fitness trainer in my early 20's before I got into the money business and before there was any real fitness accreditation. Ove the years I've found myself counseling clients on diet and exercise...LOL, nothing serious, but I guess it stayed with me. I had more fun in the Gym than I do in a suit and tie.

Good Luck!

 

[exphys88]

I used to be a personal trainer. I've always been interested in the clinical side though, so, for the last 4 years I've been an exercise physiologist and rehabbing cardiac and pulmonary patients.
2 good organizations to certify with are ACSM and NSCA. There are some crappy organizations that will certify those w very little education and knowledge, but professionals know the difference when you're looking for a job.

 

[awhites1]

They just want someone to hold their hand and push them. Learn what your client likes to do in his or her spare time, because this will help you with killing an hour of bull shit conversation back and forth, as your counting sets and reps for them.

THIS^

That's been the experience I've had with of seem most of the time... Which is why I'm so surprised at how hard the course work is. Bc most of the time you just bs with clients. All though I'd rather not waste my time doing that.

Anyways just trying to gauge if I'm doing something wrong or not. These test are pretty effin hard. It's gonna takes awhile to finish this. A lot longer than I anticipated if I do it right

 

[Noheawaiian]

I worked as a part time personal trainer for a good while, and once you're certified, you're like a snowball rolling downhill collecting more and more knowledge. My advice would be to take the easiest route to get your certificate, and self-study kinesiology/the glycemic index/sports nutrition/etc. rigorously. Then, apply everything you've learned (and are still learning) into your own routine, and keep a journal to log EVERYTHING; switch your nutrition sources/training regime up every now and then to log your body's response to the change/how the change helped or didn't help you achieve your goal/how you can tweak things to move more towards your goal/etc. After busting your ass to learn alot of your body's ins-outs for 7-12 months, then you'll have picked up an EXCELLENT baseline of experience. Heres why: While everyone's body is different, you would have first hand experience in formulating the best possible nutrition/training/sleep program by using a very thought out scientific approach to tweak your schedule, using the techniques/knowledge that you picked up in your studies. Then, now that you have the experience and knowledge of fixing a routine based on one's goals, you can apply your theories to a client, and use your experience as a stencel to create a weight training/diet program together for any type of athlete. And i you want to bump it up a notch, you can intensively study the use of peptides, biguanides, anabolics, etc. and offer training services for serious competitive bodybuilders.

And the best part of this is, the more training/counseling you have, the better and more well-rounded you get.

 

[Dale Mabry]

I'm a trainer/strengh coach and love it. I would concern myself primarily with diet as that is 80% of anyone's results. I work with athletes, fat loss people, and quite a few corrective exercise clients. A few of them are doctors and once I got them feeling and moving better they started referring. It takes a while to build, but if yo spend your free time learning you get better fast.