Hello guys,its the guy whos always in a dilemma. Anyways im going to college on october to study nutrition,and I was planning on doing a complete powerlifting and bulking program and also become a personal trainer to get some money during my studies and also become a bit well known since i intend my future to be related to personal training be it in training or nutrition. So everything was planned out but now i was just informed that there is the olympic weightlifting team of my country right in the city where im going to study,and I talked to them and they were really excited and insisted on me joining the olympic team.
Im a powerlifter (a fairly good one imo,not amazing tho) but idk much about weightlifting and my technique is shit. Joining them means spending several hours there every day which will probably interrupt my powerlifting training and will give me less time to be a personal trainer. But on the other hand I feel its a great opportunity for me and i should go for it,but then again im 18 now so i dont think i can achieve much in weightlifting. A lot of older guys in here so id appreciate any advice here. Thanks in advance for anyone who takes the time to reply.
The Olympic team just asked you to join up with them and start training? What country are you from?
Putting that aside, if this is a legitimate opportunity: you are very strong for your size, but if you’re already 18 & have no real background in the lifts, I think you are fighting a very uphill battle to become a bona fide contender on the world stage. The balance here, I suppose, lies in what would have to come of this to be worth giving up whatever time and energy you have to put into it. Training with the Olympic team sounds cool, but if it’s at the expense of completing your education and starting your career, I think you need to ask yourself how far you’d have to go in WL ago make that a winning exchange.
If I were at your age, I would study hard, preferably a subject that will set you up for a lucrative career, and waste as little time on lifting as possible.
Dude while education is about learning, it is also about resume building and getting connections that you can use in your upcoming career. Now tell me, what does being on the Olympic team look like on a trainer’s resume? Let me help, it might look more impressive than your degree will. And the connections you will make will only help
If you train and ultimately compete with the Olympic team it will do more for your reputation than trying to build yourself up as a personal trainer the hard way.
I think training in that environment and improving your self admittedly bad technique will be very useful to you in the future. PTs don’t just write cool programs. You have to be able to fix people and teach them how to do things properly.
Why would I hire you if your technique is bad? If you can’t fix yourself then how can you help me?
But if you can teach people to do the Olympic lifts then you’re leaps and bounds ahead of most PTs.
Studying something like business with a focus on marketing while getting relevant certifications and a bit of experience in personal training would be a better plan. I would argue you will have more success as a PT and still have something to fall back on should the personal training not work out.
You’re probably never going to have an opportunity to train with an Olympic Weightlifting team again and it’ll be helpful when you inevitably work at a Crossfit box. Seems like a no-brainer to me.
It’s true!