Exercise Science/ Parents?

Off Topic
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Thanks for the responses.
I should have given more information.
I want to be a strength coach. But I think that’s a vague term so I really don’t know what to call it. And personal trainer has a bad ring to it, at least for me.

I want to get paid (well!) for coaching/training an athlete to improve his physical ability. And not necessarily just athletes, but I definitely want to have a job where I help people with their physical ability.

I understand that one has to look at the employment opportunities but also that one has to have at least some kind of interest in his profession. I don’t enjoy a subject like chemistry, but if it helps me with my goal, then I’ll study it. For me, It’s not about enjoying what I study, as much as enjoying my profession. School can’t be all fun, but if it prepares me to do a job I love, I’m all for it.

I don’t live in the States so I’m kind of having a hard time with all the terms. Same thing with my parents, I think one of the reasons they don’t want me to become what I want to is that they don’t know that much about the profession. Yeah so actually, my parents are against me wanting to be a strength coach, more than me wanting to study exercise science.

I actually plan on getting my master’s as well, so I wouldn’t be settling for a Bachelors. I also recognize the fact that I need to develop business skills, so I’ve considered having something like marketing, management, or business in general as a minor. I’ve also thought about getting a certification, like from the NSCA.

Correct me if I’m wrong but aren’t Ex. Science, Ex. Physiology, Kinesiology and Health/Physical Fitness kind of similar? One school I’m considering (a CC) has Kinesiology listed as a university transfer program, it was previously called Physical Education, and at CollegeBoard.com, it’s named Health/Physical Fitness. So that’s three different terms for the same apprarently same program. I don’t want to limit myself with my major options, these are just the one’s I know of. I’m glad y’all have given me other, possibly even better options.

Now, some questions I’d like to ask because the terms are a little unclear…
Pre-Med, Biochemistry, Biology, Biomechanics, they’re all majors right?
What other does one do with Pre-Med other than prepare oneself for Med School? I mean, can one get a degree in Pre-Med?

How would Physiology be as a major? Would it be a good choice?

What are pre-req’s?

Why major in engineering? Isn’t it completely different? Belligerent mentioned that a lot of university faculty member have academic credential in (mechanical) engineering, but why is that?

What’s a physicians assistant? Isn’t physician a doctor?
English is not my first language so please bare with me.

Bauer, what do you do for a living? Are you in the exercise business? If yes, could you tell me about it? Everyone else too…

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[quote]L-Dizzle wrote:
Now, some questions I’d like to ask because the terms are a little unclear…
Pre-Med, Biochemistry, Biology, Biomechanics, they’re all majors right?
What other does one do with Pre-Med other than prepare oneself for Med School? I mean, can one get a degree in Pre-Med?

How would Physiology be as a major? Would it be a good choice?

What are pre-req’s?

Why major in engineering? Isn’t it completely different? Belligerent mentioned that a lot of university faculty member have academic credential in (mechanical) engineering, but why is that?

What’s a physicians assistant? Isn’t physician a doctor?
English is not my first language so please bare with me.

Bauer, what do you do for a living? Are you in the exercise business? If yes, could you tell me about it? Everyone else too…[/quote]

Not all colleges have the same majors available. My major was “Biology” but it was considered a “premed” course because it seemed geared towards preparing the students who were biology majors for grad school/professional school whether that be medical, dental, optometry or vet school.

I don’t believe “physiology” is a major anywhere. You learn “anatomy and physiology” in a Biology major. It is included just like Chemistry and Biochemistry.

Engineering is a completely different major preparing you to be an Engineer, whether that be Civil Engineering, Electrical Eng, Or Chemical Eng.

A “Physician’s Assistant” is someone who works next to a doctor as their assistant, just like a “Dental Assistant”. It requires decent knowledge in biology such that my assistant currently can probably explain things fairly well to a patient, however, they can not do any invasive procedures themselves.

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[quote]Professor X wrote:

Not all colleges have the same majors available. My major was “Biology” but it was considered a “premed” course because it seemed geared towards preparing the students who were biology majors for grad school/professional school whether that be medical, dental, optometry or vet school.

I don’t believe “physiology” is a major anywhere. You learn “anatomy and physiology” in a Biology major. It is included just like Chemistry and Biochemistry.

Engineering is a completely different major preparing you to be an Engineer, whether that be Civil Engineering, Electrical Eng, Or Chemical Eng.

A “Physician’s Assistant” is someone who works next to a doctor as their assistant, just like a “Dental Assistant”. It requires decent knowledge in biology such that my assistant currently can probably explain things fairly well to a patient, however, they can not do any invasive procedures themselves.[/quote]

Thanks X.
You cleared some things up, though I might be a little more confused right now.

How broad is biology as a major? Varies from school to school? How was it for you? Is there a lot of general stuff, like about nature, ozmosis, diffusion, plants, animals…? Or can one sort of pick his direction?

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First off WHAT do you plan to do w/ your degree in terms of employment after college???

I went to school for 2 years and majored in Ex Science until I realized that I wouldn’t be able to pay for a damn thing w/ that degree.

I’m a Union Laborer in the State of CT. If I’m lucky enought to work year round and get a little OT, I can make in the 50’s-60’s. No OT = high 40’s. if i only work 7-8 months out of the year and collect unemployment high 30’s.

I figured out that I wouldn’t even break into the 30’s using my Ex Science degree unless I became a VERY successful personal trainer. Personal trainers don’t need degrees…so why waste more money.

just my 2c. hope it helps

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[quote]L-Dizzle wrote:
Correct me if I’m wrong but aren’t Ex. Science, Ex. Physiology, Kinesiology and Health/Physical Fitness kind of similar?
[/quote]

Yes: exercise physiology, kinesiology, exercise science, etc. are all virtually interchangeable with regard to academic degrees. They don’t all have the same literal meanings, but a degree in kinesiology is the same as a degree in exercise physiology.

Biology and Biochemistry are majors. Pre-med is not usually a major, but rather a course of study that covers the science prerequisites for medical school. I’ve never seen a school that offered a degree in “biomechanics”, but to the extent that that is synonymous with kinesiology, then it is a major too.

There are different types of “physiology” majors. There’s exercise physiology of course, and then there are programs that are more biology-oriented involving everything from cellular to organism physiology rather than pertaining specifically to exercise.

One of the biggest problems in the strength and conditioning world is that a lot of coaches don’t know Newton’s laws from Fig Newtons. It’s extremely important, in my opinion, to have a good understanding of the mechanical physics that underlie all movement, keeping in mind that bioMECHANICS is the principles of mechanics applied to the body. I think the reason that a lot of people with engineering backgrounds are in exercise science is because they are superior at mechanical analysis and also know more about the tools used in research.

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Sicilian has it right.

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It all depends on what you eventually want to do. If you know you want to be a strength coach, i dont really see there being a need for a masters degree…of course it looks better someone with a masters will always look better than someone with one.

But look at many on the T-Nation staff, I dont know exactly how many have masters degrees but I guarantee they are much more knowledgable than most MS CSCS coaches. I have a friend at Northeastern who is taking Clinical exercise phys, he gets better grades than almost everyone in his classes, most of which are graduate level. What I’m trying to get to here is, if you want to be a strength coach, are you hungry for information or do you expect whatever school you attend for your masters to tell you everything you need to know?

I think you can have more knowledge than someone with a Phd in exercise science and you have a bachelors if you have the right work ethic. Or you could be like Cressey and be hungry for info and have the MS. I’ll leave you with something (fellow Springfield alum) Mike Boyle said to us in class one day. If you read for an hour each day of the year on something related to your profession/hobby, whatever, at the end of that year, you will be one of the top 10 most knowledgable people in your profession. This includes doctors, lawyers, anything… Know that is not a scientifically proven statement, but I’m willing to bet its pretty close to the truth.

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I totally disagree, The fact that personal trainers dont need degrees is one of the worst problems in the industry now. Even most exercise science degrees dont address personal training enough, most prepare you for cardiovascular rehab type work. If you have an ACSM certification it is quite possible you have no idea how to perform a proper lunge.

Is there a better chance you kill someone underestimating their heart rate because they are on a beta blocker or cause 1000 meniscal tears, because of lack of experience/knowledge…

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[quote]Shadowzz4 wrote:
I’ll leave you with something (fellow Springfield alum) Mike Boyle said to us in class one day. If you read for an hour each day of the year on something related to your profession/hobby, whatever, at the end of that year, you will be one of the top 10 most knowledgable people in your profession. This includes doctors, lawyers, anything… Know that is not a scientifically proven statement, but I’m willing to bet its pretty close to the truth.[/quote]

I think that’s pretty good advice that Mike Boyle said to your class.

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[quote]TheSicilian wrote:
First off WHAT do you plan to do w/ your degree in terms of employment after college???

I went to school for 2 years and majored in Ex Science until I realized that I wouldn’t be able to pay for a damn thing w/ that degree.

I’m a Union Laborer in the State of CT. If I’m lucky enought to work year round and get a little OT, I can make in the 50’s-60’s. No OT = high 40’s. if i only work 7-8 months out of the year and collect unemployment high 30’s.

I figured out that I wouldn’t even break into the 30’s using my Ex Science degree unless I became a VERY successful personal trainer. Personal trainers don’t need degrees…so why waste more money.

just my 2c. hope it helps[/quote]

Sicilian, read my post above, it’ll tell you what I want to do for a living.

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[quote]Shadowzz4 wrote:
It all depends on what you eventually want to do. If you know you want to be a strength coach, i dont really see there being a need for a masters degree…of course it looks better someone with a masters will always look better than someone with one.

But look at many on the T-Nation staff, I dont know exactly how many have masters degrees but I guarantee they are much more knowledgable than most MS CSCS coaches. I have a friend at Northeastern who is taking Clinical exercise phys, he gets better grades than almost everyone in his classes, most of which are graduate level. What I’m trying to get to here is, if you want to be a strength coach, are you hungry for information or do you expect whatever school you attend for your masters to tell you everything you need to know?

I think you can have more knowledge than someone with a Phd in exercise science and you have a bachelors if you have the right work ethic. Or you could be like Cressey and be hungry for info and have the MS. I’ll leave you with something (fellow Springfield alum) Mike Boyle said to us in class one day. If you read for an hour each day of the year on something related to your profession/hobby, whatever, at the end of that year, you will be one of the top 10 most knowledgable people in your profession. This includes doctors, lawyers, anything… Know that is not a scientifically proven statement, but I’m willing to bet its pretty close to the truth.[/quote]

See this is what I was talking about… I’m willing to do extra work because I’m really interested in the subject. So to answer your question, I am hungry for information. I’m pretty much obsessed with this subject.
All of this being said, what do you (everyone) think would be the best/most feasible way to become a strength coach?

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[quote]belligerent wrote:

Yes: exercise physiology, kinesiology, exercise science, etc. are all virtually interchangeable with regard to academic degrees. They don’t all have the same literal meanings, but a degree in kinesiology is the same as a degree in exercise physiology.

[/quote]

This isn’t always the case, there are various ways of teaching each of these degree programs, and to lump them all together is wrong. Some kinesiology majors are jokes, the same thing as taking PE for 4 years. Others though are taught as true science majors.
At my school for example the Kinesiology major requires gen chem, o-chem, bio, physics (basically the whole pre-med line up) in addition to the anatomy and physiology classes that are actually taught in the department. This makes kines a full on science major, and in fact for several years the kines department here beat the bio department for number of seniors admitted to med school (it is in third now, just tough to beat the bio and chem departments at churning out med school students)
To sum up, not all kinesiology/ exercise science/ etc degrees are created equal, and what really matters is that you take some challenging courses at a good school and leave college with a knowledge base that allows you to achieve your future goals.

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[quote]L-Dizzle wrote:
My parents are really against me wanting to study Exercise Science or similar as a major, they don’t believe I can get a good job with that degree, and believe it’s just some kind of a nonsense degree. Anybody have any ideas, how to convince them better? Do you know of any statistics of employment or salaries (my father is obsessed with stats) ?
[/quote]

I got an undergrad in Exercise Physiology too. Just tell them that you are considering studying Physical Therapy in grad school. I read on a yahoo web page a couple of days ago (couldn’t find it again) that Physical Therapy is one of the top 10 growing professions with a median income of $61,560. This is the path I am taking. With the baby boomers getting older, there is going to be a large percentage of the population needing help getting over injuries, old age ailments, etc. Also, consider all the kids growing up on computers and the injuries they are going to have from repetitive mouse clicking.

You will be more prepared for this area of study then someone coming from…let’s say a business major. Common requirements for entrance to a P.T. program are physics, chemistry, and biology 1’s and 2’s with labs, precalculus, and some psych courses. But with an exercise science degree and some well chosen electives, you will have completed a couple of exercise physiology courses, kinesiology, biomechanics, and some advanced science courses.

Unfortunately, it is going to be difficult to convince people that studying Physical Education isn’t as easy as it may seem. The solution that has been done for programs is to require more science courses to “legitimize” the area of study. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. You may want to take this path with your parents. Good luck and if you go to grad school to study anything else, your undergrad degree won’t matter as much anyway.

34

[quote]conorh wrote:
If you go exercise science don’t take straight exercise science classes. It can be a really dumb major if you want it to be.

Declare a pre-med emphasis or something that will ensure you take hard science classes like organic chemistry, biochemistry and calculus. Depending on your course catalog, you might be able to pick up something like neuroscience, biochemistry or molecular biology as a minor without a lot of trouble for your time.[/quote]

Good advice.

35

What is with everyone bagging on an exercise science degree being near useless for making money?

Ever consider starting your own business? Last time I checked, you don’t need ANY degree for that. Your income potential is only limited by how savvy you are and how hard you work.

[quote]L-Dizzle wrote:

All of this being said, what do you (everyone) think would be the best/most feasible way to become a strength coach? [/quote]

36

[quote]Natural Nate wrote:
What is with everyone bagging on an exercise science degree being near useless for making money?

Ever consider starting your own business? Last time I checked, you don’t need ANY degree for that. Your income potential is only limited by how savvy you are and how hard you work.

[/quote]

Career choices come down to more than just “how savvy you are”. There are many majors out there that won’t lead to much in the way of a paycheck if that is all you get credited for. Jumping into majors half informed about the potential for success isn’t a smart way to do things. You mentioned going into business for himself. As a personal trainer? Using what facility? Most gyms won’t allow outside personal trainers to train other people there.

I have been approached by staff at gyms in the past when I was training WITH other people because they thought I was training them. Your credentials do a lot of speaking for you in terms of how far you can actually go.

Besides, I listed the job opportunities directly from that major as a BS degree.

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I was referring to self-employment only.

[quote]Professor X wrote:

Career choices come down to more than just “how savvy you are”. There are many majors out there that won’t lead to much in the way of a paycheck if that is all you get credited for. [/quote]

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If you want to be a self-employed trainer then I see next to no reason to pursue a degree in exercise science. The only thing it will be good for is bragging about.

39

J-Dizzle,
I would suggest you just start getting some books and get a cert if you dont have one, this will allow you to actively apply what you are reading about. I just started doing this pretty recently. Check Cressey’s locker room threads he lists a shitload of books, I have some of them and they are excellent I bet the entire list is great.

Make sure you learn the basics and have them down cold, know your set, rep schemes for hypertrophy, power, endurance; power exercises first in a workout and why, dont stretch between sets etc… The basics. Then build off that, if you get into this hard and look back three years from now you will be astonished at the fact that you will probably be one of the best trainers at whatever gym you work at, coupled with the fact that deep down you know there is still so much more!

You wouldnt believe how many trainers are considered excellent by their clients and overlook very simple concepts. And reading T-Nation everyday cant hurt. Every time you read something that you do not understand, go look it up. And again. And again. That is the way to go.

40

So almost everyone is saying that a BS Ex. Science science is mostly worthless, right?

Based on your replies, I would be best off taking something like biology as a major, or at least have a high emphasis on science on my course selection, and take business courses as well, maybe have business as a minor. Then read as much as I can about exercise in my off time. Am I on the right track?

Or, could I take business as a major, biology as a minor (or at least study science classes), and still read a whole lot about exercise?

As far as self-employment, I do consider that a possibility, to have my own training facility, or at least have a company that offers services.

Education is actually one half of my motivation to go to the States, the other one is to play college basketball… Would having an athletic background (college basketball in this case) be a positive thing as far as my credibility as strength coach?
Playing basketball as a profession would be my career choice if I could choose anything I wanted, but I realize there’s quite a slim chance of that ever happening. I still love performance enhancement as a subject as much as I love ball, though.