Before you judge the title, please hear me out.
Over
the past 10 years I have mentored, coached, taught, and trained a ton of
personal trainers, strength coaches, and athletic trainers. When I first meet
anyone who is interested in this field I always ask the same question, “Why do you want to be a trainer?”. Most
times the answer I get is, “I really like to workout and people in the gym
always ask me for advice, so I thought it would be a good idea.”. In all fairness this was the same reason I
got into this industry, however I quickly learned that being a personal trainer
has very little to do with working out.
Here are some reasons why:
1)
Do you actually want to help others? Personal
training has nothing to do with YOUR love of fitness, it has to do with you
getting someone else, who normally hates exercise, to enjoy it. You have to be the type of person who likes
pouring into other people. You also have to want to give of yourself and know
that you will be drained of your energy at the end of the day.
2)
No time to train the trainer. As your schedule gets busier and busier you
will have less and less time to train yourself.
That love you had for working out now turns into a job, and that’s never fun. The ironic part is that when you do find time
to workout, the last thing you want to do is spend another hour in the gym
after you have spent the last 5 hours there.
Even if you do find the energy to train, you can never get into a good rhythm
because someone will come up to you and ask you 1,000 questions about your
training. You will tell them to set up an appointment but they just want the
free advice.
3)
Your results may vary. Often times when you begin training you will
think that everyone wants to train just like you. The fact is most people will
WANT to LOOK like you but they are not willing to put the work in that you do. The
other truth is GENETICS. You may be really good at training and genetically
blessed to have a certain physic. This does
not mean your training program will work for them. You will need to find out
their needs to getting the results they want.
4)
Can you SELL?!!!! I personally HATE being a sales guy but the
ugly truth of fitness is that if you can’t sell sessions you will make no
money. You can be the best trainer in the world but if you can’t get any
clients it will not matter. Selling is a
huge part of training. I highly suggest you go out and purchase a few books on
sales.
5)
Do you want to work the most outrageous hours
ever? I always hear people say, “You get to make your own hours.” . False!! When you first start out you
will need to train when clients want to train. I use do sessions at 5am until
about 7. Then I’d come back at 4pm and work until 11. Most times you end up
working while everyone else is off and being off while everyone else is working.
Once you establish yourself, you will be
able to set some things up and make up better hours.
6)
You are certified, now it’s time to learn. Your NASM, ACE, or any other cert means
NOTHING. You must continue to learn at all times. There is so much information
out here that it is impossible to think you will learn it all in 6 months or
less. Once a month I take a new cert or learn something different. You must read, read, read. It’s the only way
to get better and compete in this industry.
This blog is not about stopping people from joining this
industry. My goal is always to tell the truth. Just because you are good at something, does
NOT mean you should start a business doing it. If you enjoy working out for yourself
I strongly recommend you keep doing it. Personal training is really about other
people and helping them. I have fallen in love with helping others and that’s why
I stay doing it. So be sure you follow
your passion and be sure you know what you are getting into. If you have any questions be sure to email me
at flofitness@gmail.com
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