Hi, i really am interested to become a personal trainer. Does anyone here know where to start and how to do it? I would really appreciate your share. Thanks in advance!
What should I do, HELP!
- Thread starter healthbuff
- Start date
1) Learn to train yourself. You may need the help of an experienced fitness coach. I highly recommend reading some books on the different fields of fitness. If you want to be a personal trainer, you're going to need to know exercise technique ("Starting Strength 2nd Edition" by Rippetoe and Kilgore is a great source for this, having a chapter each devoted to the squat, bench press, deadlift, press and power clean, plus a chapter on various assistance exercises; while the 1st edition of the book is also a great tool for teaching others the basic 5 lifts, but doesn't have the assistance exercises), exercise programming (I hear good things about "Practical Programming" by the same author, as well as "The New Rules of Lifting" by Lou Schuler and Alwyn Cosgrove, but haven't read these books myself), fitness testing, goal setting, and exercise instruction.
2) Learn to eat for specific goals. It's in your best interests to know how to put together a meal guide that is healthy, nutritious and something you yourself could easily enjoy. It's a lot easier to teach what you've experienced.
3) LEARN YOUR ANATOMY. I can't stress this one enough. While you probably won't need to know the specific muscles in every finger, you would be wise to pick up a copy of "Kinesiolgy" by Oatis, which goes through the muscles of the body describing their orgins and insertions, thus explaining their actions (the action of a muscle is to shorten its length, thus changing the position of the bones it's attached to).
4) Research local fitness courses. These may be certificate, diploma or bachelor level. The above issues and more should all be covered in a quality educational course -- but there are a LOT of providers who don't offer quality education. A lot of PT's don't know really what they're doing, which is no surprise because a lot of them became qualified by doing an online test, or by doing a 2-12 week course. If you just opened up one good book at a time and read it, you'd learn a lot of what you need to know in 2-12 weeks - but you won't be doing that in a 2-12 week fitness course, I can guarantee it. Since I don't know you're location, I can't make very specific (or even, necessarily, informed) recommendations, but if you're in Australia, the TAFE system is probably the best for becoming a PT. Private Colleges usually offer the short courses which are really just fancy business courses with a push up here and there (they teach you sell PT, but not to BE a PT), and Bachelor degrees at University teach you exercise physiology, but often without much practical application. TAFEs usually teach business skills, exercise physiology and practical application. A good course should take a year or more to complete. If it doesn't take that long, it's probably because they aren't teaching you anything.
No course on its own is going to be enough. That's why I suggested doing a course last - there is always so much that you will miss out on even in a decent course. It's very important that you do your reading and make an effort to ongoing learning. You will have to become qualified to get a fitness licence, which you will need in order to work within most gyms and to get insurance. Most Cert III and IV courses will address the following issues:
- Fitness Testing
- Goal Setting
- Exercise Programming
- Exercise Instruction
- Gym/Equipment Maintenance
- Customer Service
- Business Skills
- One-on-one training
- Group training
- "Advanced" training techniques (generally overrated "ph33l tha burNnn!!1" stuff, with little information on training clients who actually are advanced trainees)
- Strength and Conditioning
- Special Populations
- Children
- Older Adults
2) Learn to eat for specific goals. It's in your best interests to know how to put together a meal guide that is healthy, nutritious and something you yourself could easily enjoy. It's a lot easier to teach what you've experienced.
3) LEARN YOUR ANATOMY. I can't stress this one enough. While you probably won't need to know the specific muscles in every finger, you would be wise to pick up a copy of "Kinesiolgy" by Oatis, which goes through the muscles of the body describing their orgins and insertions, thus explaining their actions (the action of a muscle is to shorten its length, thus changing the position of the bones it's attached to).
4) Research local fitness courses. These may be certificate, diploma or bachelor level. The above issues and more should all be covered in a quality educational course -- but there are a LOT of providers who don't offer quality education. A lot of PT's don't know really what they're doing, which is no surprise because a lot of them became qualified by doing an online test, or by doing a 2-12 week course. If you just opened up one good book at a time and read it, you'd learn a lot of what you need to know in 2-12 weeks - but you won't be doing that in a 2-12 week fitness course, I can guarantee it. Since I don't know you're location, I can't make very specific (or even, necessarily, informed) recommendations, but if you're in Australia, the TAFE system is probably the best for becoming a PT. Private Colleges usually offer the short courses which are really just fancy business courses with a push up here and there (they teach you sell PT, but not to BE a PT), and Bachelor degrees at University teach you exercise physiology, but often without much practical application. TAFEs usually teach business skills, exercise physiology and practical application. A good course should take a year or more to complete. If it doesn't take that long, it's probably because they aren't teaching you anything.
No course on its own is going to be enough. That's why I suggested doing a course last - there is always so much that you will miss out on even in a decent course. It's very important that you do your reading and make an effort to ongoing learning. You will have to become qualified to get a fitness licence, which you will need in order to work within most gyms and to get insurance. Most Cert III and IV courses will address the following issues:
- Fitness Testing
- Goal Setting
- Exercise Programming
- Exercise Instruction
- Gym/Equipment Maintenance
- Customer Service
- Business Skills
- One-on-one training
- Group training
- "Advanced" training techniques (generally overrated "ph33l tha burNnn!!1" stuff, with little information on training clients who actually are advanced trainees)
- Strength and Conditioning
- Special Populations
- Children
- Older Adults
This is such a great help Goldfish! Thank you for sharing your valuable advice and tips. Although I've already done some of them, I can't believe i still need to do a lot more things to be able to reach my goal. I appreciate all the help, really!
Well, technically, you can become a PT on a lot less (as I said, a 2-12 week course will get you your "qualification"), but we PT's have a craptacular reputation for being semi-retarded, which doesn't help any of us. The more PT's we can spur on to be GOOD PT's, the better it'll be for all of us.
allcdnboy1
New member
yea, there are definitely too many retarded PT's. I think the schooling should require at least a couple years, but i'm sure the gyms wouldn't be able to hire them at minimum wage anymore.