How do I write a good fitness resume?

C

CypKitty

0
I have just gotten my Certificate III in Fitness and studying Certificate IV. It's been done through the FIA vis distance/online.

I would like to start working in a gym over the weekends hopefully and I have no idea what to write in my resume, considering it is all childcare stuff!

So I obviously need to make a fitness resume. I've been going to the gym for 2 and a half years, decided to do the course because it is an interest, I do fun runs etc. How do I make that sound good? It is nothing pretty much :( Any help would be appreciated
 
Hey, I saw your reply to my post in another thread about a job interview, so I came right over here.

This is actually something that baffles me, as well. The standard resume that you'd write for most other industries just doesn't fit well with the fitness industry, somehow. In the two years I spent studying fitness, I couldn't bring myself to write a resume that didn't reak of lameness right up until the very end of my course when, after going into a couple big fancy gyms, I decided to follow what their PT's have written on their public profile thing.

The headings they have usually amount to: Qualifications; Experience; Achievements; and/or Specialities. Really, this is the same information that most employers would want to find out, it just presents it in a more direct approach.

In your case, Qualifications would be Cert III and hopefully senior first aid (most gyms will require that ALL their staff have a current first aid licence including advanced first aid). Experience would be 2 years gym experience, plus anything else you might have done (eg marathons, martial arts, gymnastics, work experience). Achievements could be any competitions you've been involved, any personal fitness results you've made or any significant help you've brought others in fitness. If you can't think of any noteworthy achievements, just don't mention achievements on your resume - it always looks better to simply focus on what you have done than what you haven't. Finally, Specialties takes your qualification into more detail. Depending on what you've studied, it may include things like Group Training, Aqua Instruction or Circuit Training, as examples. I've seen a lot of people put "Hypertrophy and Fat Loss" down as specialties (which I think is cheap and lame of them, given that these are basics of knowledge required of a fitness instructor, but at Cert III level, if I were hiring you I'd want to know that you can do the basics, so this may be appropriate). At your level, and considering the types of jobs available to Cert III graduates (reception, exercise programming for low risk clients, group instructor), it may be in your best interests to write down things such as customer service, exercise instruction, nutrition and so on, even though these are the basics. You may even replace the heading of "Specialties" with "Skills" or something to that effect.

Reference contacts are always good. Also, details such as ABN, TFN, Blue Card #, Fitness Australia Reg # and especially your phone number are good (understandably, you may not have all of these things, but any long-digit number with some meaning to it tends to make you look more serious. And perhaps a brief statement of what sort of job/s you're interested in might come in handy.

Right now, my own resume is under revision, but it currently looks something like this. Hope this helps.

Ryan Ferguson
Fitness Specialist / Personal Trainer / Gym Instructor

Australian Business Number ----------------
Tax File Number -----------
Blue Card Registration Number ------------/-
Fitness Australia Registration Number -----------------
Contact (mobile) -------------

Qualifications:
- Diploma of Fitness
- Certificate IV in Fitness
- Certificate III in Fitness
- Current First Aid
Experience:
- 2 years fulltime study at Southbank Institute of Technology (SBIT) acquiring Fitness Diploma and Certificates.
- 200 hours work experience through SBIT Health and Fitness Centre, Albany Creek Leisure Centre, Move Ya Body, Mt Gravatt Special School, Red Hill Special School, and Maximise Health.
- 6 years gym experience.
- Martial arts background during high school.
Achievements:
- One of only three SBIT students to graduate with Diploma of Fitness 2009.
- SBIT Health and Fitness Centre Iron Person Competition 2009.
- Prima Spada School of Fence Grading and Prize Fight Award 2003.
Specialisations:
- Strength and Conditioning
- Posture, Gait and Functional Movement
- Musculoskeletal Rehab
- Injury Prevention
- Moderate Risk Cardiovascular, Pulmonary and Metabolic Conditions
- Moderate Risk Neurological Conditions
- Children and Adolescents
- Body Composition Management
 
Thank you for that :) Yes I have my Senior First Aid - I work in childcare and it is a must for there as it is in fitness. Currently my PT has my Certificate III work as he wanted to see the comments the FIA made. I got in the 75-100% mark and the only thing I pretty much got wrong was the resistance training in the concurrent training client, I split up the workout and got her to do upper body one day, lower body the next. Because it is for a novice client, they want an overall body workout each day.

I am enjoying the course and actually saw a thing on the Biggest Loser the other night about injuries and training so I hope that gets covered in Certificate IV because it is nothing I know about and would sure like to know.

Thanks :)
 
I know that when I did Cert IV, risks relative to various activities were discussed, but there was no class specifically on injury prevention. There's a Diploma subject on injury prevention, which for some reason you have to have studied advanced anatomy before you can enter into the subject (seems silly to go about it that way to me, although the better you know your anatomy, the more you'll get out of studying injury prevention). That subject went into the anatomy and physiology of every major type of tissue and from there how to minimise risk of injury. I won't go into those details here, but practical information that you can definitely benefit from immediately is exercise strategies to reduce risk of injury:

- Start light, gradually increase intensity/volume.
- Start simple/single-planar, gradually increase complexity/planes of movement.
- Start on stable surfaces, gradually decrease stability.
- Focus on technique before increasing intensity. Make sure technique is correct at one level before increasing to the next level.
- Always warm up with exercises appropriate to the training exercises to prepare the body for the tasks ahead.
- ROM training for APPROPRIATE flexibility during expected tasks. It is unwise to train for extreme flexibility unless you have a use for it, as increasing flexibility decreases stability.
- Dynamic stretches, not static stretches, before exercise. Stretching squeezes blood out of the stretched tissue, which means that muscles (and nerves) that have been stretched are less efficient for about 15min.
- Do not train under fatigue unless it is required for the sport and the skill has been mastered without fatigue first.

And, some first aid principles if an injury occurs:
- RICER: Rest (minimise or avoid loading of the injured part), Ice (cool the area for 20min every 2hrs to reduce excessive inflammation), Compress (to reduce excessive bleeding into the area), Elevate (this increases lymphatic return), Refer (if injury needs diagnosis/further treatment after 72 hours, refer to doctor/physiotherapist).
- Avoid HARM for 72 hrs: Heating, Alcohol, Running (or any exercise), Massage. After 72 hours, heat and massage therapy can be very remedial, but in the first couple days after an injury, they can result in worsening the injury.
 
Why do you need a resume to work in a fitness facility/gym? Fill out the application, attach copies of certifications, and do the interview.
 
Most gyms don't have a job application form. The closest thing most of them have to a job application form is a franchise contract. Not quite the same thing.
 
Goldfish said:
Most gyms don't have a job application form. The closest thing most of them have to a job application form is a franchise contract. Not quite the same thing.
Click to expand...

This is the strangest thing I've ever heard. Having trained in nearly every corporate gym (Gold's, Flex, All American, Southern Athletic, YMCA, etc) in Texas and Oklahoma, I have yet to see a gym that doesn't have an application you fill out for employment. It doesn't matter if you're the front desk person, the smoothie bar person, or the personal trainer, they're all paid hourly employees. The PTs sometimes have contracts if they get paid for training clients as in they are contracted to get a percentage of the money and the gym gets a portion.
 
evolution said:
This is the strangest thing I've ever heard. Having trained in nearly every corporate gym (Gold's, Flex, All American, Southern Athletic, YMCA, etc) in Texas and Oklahoma, I have yet to see a gym that doesn't have an application you fill out for employment. It doesn't matter if you're the front desk person, the smoothie bar person, or the personal trainer, they're all paid hourly employees. The PTs sometimes have contracts if they get paid for training clients as in they are contracted to get a percentage of the money and the gym gets a portion.
Click to expand...

Herein would lie the problem - these are American gyms, where, by the sound of it, the fitness industry isn't a corrupt crooked business. CypKitty and myself are both Australians, operating within the realms of the Australian fitness industry which is corrupt and crooked. Australian gyms that pay their trainers are few and far between. Generally speaking, these are gyms that have a modest client base, and are in no position to demand a franchise fee from their trainers. The big chains, however, will charge a personal trainer around $1-2,000 to START working there, and will continue to charge an average of $2-300 a week to continue working there, whilst locking you into a 12 month contract that, if you want out of, you'll have to pay off the remainder of the franchise fee within the contract.
 
So you either find a small gym chain who isn't cutting your throat, because, they simply can't or work for a corrupt gym chain who takes away huge amounts of money from you that isn't justified?

I grew up believing Australia was cool.

Please tell me other business sectors are better than this?

How is the lifestyle over there in general?

The fact that you are persisting in becoming trainers given the fact it is hell for you to get a job indicates the level of dedication you have, I'm impressed.

But, please tell me Australia is a cool place to live in...to safeguard my childhood beliefs.
 
Australia's usually a good place to live. The fitness industry's more corrupt than America's apparently, but from what I understand most of our businesses aren't like that.
 
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