Getting a Personal Trainer Cert.

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

I’m thinking about turning my passion into a few extra bucks. I’m quite active and read all of the articles on here, dragondoor, power by pavel, and gym jones, as well as lift regularly and very seriously. I was thinking it would be relatively easy for me to get certed as a personal trainer, but have no idea where to start.

I would be open to training any kind of person, but lifting heavy is really more my game. Any suggestions on what to get and how to go about it? I looked into PCIP but can’t afford to fly out for the week at Poliquin’s place for the complete level 1 cert.

2

Depends on what route you are choosing to go with the cert. (independent trainer or “employed” trainer)

Good popular certs. are (NSCA, NASM, ACSM …ACE)
These are the most popular certs. As far as least expensive, I believe ACE would take that cake.

Personal Training is a great deal more marketing than actual training. Keep that in mind

Goodluck

3

Going by your post I would get an ACE certification. Hopefully you have the knowledge to pass the NSCA certification and take that later on. The first thing that you are going to realize is that Americans are fat as shit and it will take a LONG time to accumulate clients that have the dedication to get into the type of shape necessary to do “real” exercises properly.

The reason I would get ACE is that it is serviceable cert, and you can see if you like training. It is not for everyone. I have thought numerous times about getting out of the business mainly because most people are so fucking lazy and just dont listen, but I do have probably 7 clients that are hard working go getters and they keep me going. If you get a business up and running and develop a stock of hard workers I would say there is not a better job to be found. But if you end up with a bunch of lazy asses it is quite the different story.

4

I actually had someone leave me yesterday because she “wasn’t getting the results I promised”.

Her training time? 3 weeks.

Dietary Modifications? None

Effort expended in training? Minimal.

She said she needed more cardio.

I told her I hope that she finds what she’s looking for and should see a nutritionist or a dietician.

She said “My diet’s fine, I just need to do cardio”.

I said “Okay, farewell”.

There were a lot of things I wanted to say, but you can’t help people if they don’t want to be helped. I’m better off without her, but unfortunately she’ll be telling all her friends that she got no results from me. Nothing I can do about that.

Get used to dealing with these people. These people seem to want personal training. They seem to think that we can make it easier or something.

5

Sxio-
That’s truly amazing. I get a lot of questions from the younger guys in my gym, and I’ve come to the conclusion that most people don’t know shit, and they don’t even know that they don’t know shit -lol

I believe that’s the reason you see so many people day in day out at the gym, and less than 5% will get any results,

-Stu

6

[quote]Sxio wrote:
She said “My diet’s fine, I just need to do cardio”.
[/quote]

LOL. What kind of person hires a PT “just to do cardio”, when they clearly know more than the PT?

7

[quote]Shadowzz4 wrote:
Going by your post I would get an ACE certification. Hopefully you have the knowledge to pass the NSCA certification and take that later on. The first thing that you are going to realize is that Americans are fat as shit and it will take a LONG time to accumulate clients that have the dedication to get into the type of shape necessary to do “real” exercises properly.

The reason I would get ACE is that it is serviceable cert, and you can see if you like training. It is not for everyone. I have thought numerous times about getting out of the business mainly because most people are so fucking lazy and just dont listen, but I do have probably 7 clients that are hard working go getters and they keep me going. If you get a business up and running and develop a stock of hard workers I would say there is not a better job to be found. But if you end up with a bunch of lazy asses it is quite the different story.[/quote]

Well said

8

[quote]Shadowzz4 wrote:
Going by your post I would get an ACE certification. Hopefully you have the knowledge to pass the NSCA certification and take that later on. The first thing that you are going to realize is that Americans are fat as shit and it will take a LONG time to accumulate clients that have the dedication to get into the type of shape necessary to do “real” exercises properly.

The reason I would get ACE is that it is serviceable cert, and you can see if you like training. It is not for everyone. I have thought numerous times about getting out of the business mainly because most people are so fucking lazy and just dont listen, but I do have probably 7 clients that are hard working go getters and they keep me going. If you get a business up and running and develop a stock of hard workers I would say there is not a better job to be found. But if you end up with a bunch of lazy asses it is quite the different story.[/quote]

I agree. I have an exercise science degree and went with NSCA certs. because that’s what I knew I wanted to do and I wanted to be as prepared as possible going in. (These things don’t guarantee that you’ll be a good trainer, but will ensure that you are as knowledgeable as possible) ACE is good for what shadowwzz4 mentioned, but just be aware that the learning process doesn’t stop after your name goes on that certificate.

Take what you’ve “learned” during the cert. process and throw it away; get on this site and read and grow. Also, it might behoove you to find another knowledgeable trainer who can mentor you.

Also, attend clinics, conferences, and the like to increase your knowledge. Do these things early in your career, especially the mentor part; I let my ego get in the way of this one (thought I was already one of the better ones out there) and wasted almost five years before I finally opened myself up to learning more.

One thing that has impressd me more than anything is that the top guys in the business, for the most part, are open and eager to learning more. Johnny Long, the strength coach at Univ. of Tenn. taught me that one.

9

Having been certified by NASM and worked in various gyms, including Gold’s, I can go ahead and tell you it is a huge waste of time and extremely frustrating. Here is why. First off, the NASM cert costs about 600 bucks including the book. You have to study to pass the test which consists of questions that will in no way gauge your training techniques, which is why there are a ton of PT’s that don’t know shit.

Second of all, depending on where you live and where you are thinking about starting this career, you have to take into account the people that will be attending this gym.

Unless you live in some crazy town where everyone is all about some squat thrusts with huge triangular weights (family guy reference). you will be pissed to see the amount of old people that want to get into shape, or fat middle aged men trying to look better for their wife but are unwilling to put in any real time or effort to it.

Finally, you pretty much have an open schedule from 6am til about 10 at night since people train at different times and base it off their schedule, not yours. Now im not saying you will be working from 6am til 10pm, but the chances of you waking your ass up at 4am to go train some jackass ceo on how not to break his spine while squating are high.

Also, you will have a low client base at the beginning which means you start off spending a lot of money for the cert, and then make it back slowly since no one will know who the hell you are.

After hearing you say you are into lifting heavy and you want to train people to do so, your best bet is to get an inexpensive cert (since they don’t mean shit anyway, you can learn more reading this forum) and getting a job at a high school working with the football team or becoming the football team’s strength coach.

It has been my experience that those are the people that are excited about lifting and will actually listen to what they tell you. Plus you can make money.

10

[quote]AlexH wrote:
Shadowzz4 wrote:
Going by your post I would get an ACE certification. Hopefully you have the knowledge to pass the NSCA certification and take that later on. The first thing that you are going to realize is that Americans are fat as shit and it will take a LONG time to accumulate clients that have the dedication to get into the type of shape necessary to do “real” exercises properly.

The reason I would get ACE is that it is serviceable cert, and you can see if you like training. It is not for everyone. I have thought numerous times about getting out of the business mainly because most people are so fucking lazy and just dont listen, but I do have probably 7 clients that are hard working go getters and they keep me going. If you get a business up and running and develop a stock of hard workers I would say there is not a better job to be found. But if you end up with a bunch of lazy asses it is quite the different story.

I agree. I have an exercise science degree and went with NSCA certs. because that’s what I knew I wanted to do and I wanted to be as prepared as possible going in. (These things don’t guarantee that you’ll be a good trainer, but will ensure that you are as knowledgeable as possible) ACE is good for what shadowwzz4 mentioned, but just be aware that the learning process doesn’t stop after your name goes on that certificate.

Take what you’ve “learned” during the cert. process and throw it away; get on this site and read and grow. Also, it might behoove you to find another knowledgeable trainer who can mentor you.

Also, attend clinics, conferences, and the like to increase your knowledge. Do these things early in your career, especially the mentor part; I let my ego get in the way of this one (thought I was already one of the better ones out there) and wasted almost five years before I finally opened myself up to learning more.

One thing that has impressd me more than anything is that the top guys in the business, for the most part, are open and eager to learning more. Johnny Long, the strength coach at Univ. of Tenn. taught me that one.[/quote]

I totally agree, you definitely want to keep learning, if you arent constantly searching for new information and reading constantly it is probably not the job for you. That being said, I stand by my point above.

Personal training, in my experience is not about training excellent athletes with the new and best techniques. In my opinion this is much easier than training someone that is eating bags of snickers day after day, which is like banging your head up against a stone wall.

If you ever get to the point where you can use most of the knowledge you have accumulated with the majority of your clients, you will be in the personal training minority, because the fact of the matter is most people arent even going to abide by the basics of clean eating and cardiovascular exercise consistently.

11

[quote]Shadowzz4 wrote:
AlexH wrote:
Shadowzz4 wrote:
Going by your post I would get an ACE certification. Hopefully you have the knowledge to pass the NSCA certification and take that later on. The first thing that you are going to realize is that Americans are fat as shit and it will take a LONG time to accumulate clients that have the dedication to get into the type of shape necessary to do “real” exercises properly.

The reason I would get ACE is that it is serviceable cert, and you can see if you like training. It is not for everyone. I have thought numerous times about getting out of the business mainly because most people are so fucking lazy and just dont listen, but I do have probably 7 clients that are hard working go getters and they keep me going. If you get a business up and running and develop a stock of hard workers I would say there is not a better job to be found. But if you end up with a bunch of lazy asses it is quite the different story.

I agree. I have an exercise science degree and went with NSCA certs. because that’s what I knew I wanted to do and I wanted to be as prepared as possible going in. (These things don’t guarantee that you’ll be a good trainer, but will ensure that you are as knowledgeable as possible) ACE is good for what shadowwzz4 mentioned, but just be aware that the learning process doesn’t stop after your name goes on that certificate.

Take what you’ve “learned” during the cert. process and throw it away; get on this site and read and grow. Also, it might behoove you to find another knowledgeable trainer who can mentor you.

Also, attend clinics, conferences, and the like to increase your knowledge. Do these things early in your career, especially the mentor part; I let my ego get in the way of this one (thought I was already one of the better ones out there) and wasted almost five years before I finally opened myself up to learning more.

One thing that has impressd me more than anything is that the top guys in the business, for the most part, are open and eager to learning more. Johnny Long, the strength coach at Univ. of Tenn. taught me that one.

I totally agree, you definitely want to keep learning, if you arent constantly searching for new information and reading constantly it is probably not the job for you. That being said, I stand by my point above.

Personal training, in my experience is not about training excellent athletes with the new and best techniques. In my opinion this is much easier than training someone that is eating bags of snickers day after day, which is like banging your head up against a stone wall.

If you ever get to the point where you can use most of the knowledge you have accumulated with the majority of your clients, you will be in the personal training minority, because the fact of the matter is most people arent even going to abide by the basics of clean eating and cardiovascular exercise consistently.[/quote]

Absolutely true. We are on the same page, shadow.

12

Lots of good info, thanks for the advice and encouragement. My plans thus far are to get the ACE cert and start working at a local High School, most likely my old one. This is probably the best job for me since I go to university full time and will only be working at the starts of Football and Basketball season (i’m guessing around the time when they could use extra help).

I can actually deal with Soccer Moms and middle aged lazy people quite well as I tend to be very personable, but I totally agree with it getting annoying. It’s funny how nowadays everyone is the most knowledgeable person in the world when it comes to exercise. It’s almost insulting for some people to get advice.

edit: oh and with the ace cert, should i get the regular study package or the deluxe w/ dvd’s and stuff? it’s a 100 dollar difference.

13

[quote]rsg wrote:
Sxio wrote:
She said “My diet’s fine, I just need to do cardio”.

LOL. What kind of person hires a PT “just to do cardio”, when they clearly know more than the PT?[/quote]

Lots of people, unfortunately. Most think you’re either genetically gifted or have a secret you’re not willing to share for being in shape. That’s when they actually believe you’re not on gear.

But to answer the original question, practice! No amount of theory is gonna replace that. And I’m more than half way through a M.Sc degree. NSCA have a little something on the others: they are recognized everywhere. But for reading both books, I think you have a better bang for your training buck with ISSA.

14

Well see, I’m in no way related to fitness in my schooling. I’m a Mechanical Engineer. I don’t know why I picked it, I don’t like the job even working down here for the space program. Just seemed like a good idea at the time.

15

I don’t think most people realize what types of clients they’ll be dealing with as personal trainers.

Usually it’s overweight middle-aged people. Or bored house wives. (If you’re into that sort of thing, have lax morals and live in the right area - say, San Diego where the wives are freaking hot - you can clean house here.) The hardest working people in the gym are usually usually train themselves and seek out knowledge on their own.

Look around your gym. How many really muscular guys do you see with a personal trainer? How many out of shape people do you see? Those out of shape people will be your clients.

Most trainers won’t admit this, as it makes them look less “elite.” Very few people want to admit that their life’s work consistent of working with overweight desperate house wives.

Even people who say they train “elite athletes” are really training high school kids. (Many are outright lying; but that’s a conversation for another day.) Which is a fine enough way to make a living - but hardly as prestigious or elite as it’s made to sound.

It’s a rather thankless job that doesn’t that much. The guys making money in the business own their own gyms and leverage their employees’ time. They aren’t getting rich working with individual clients.

Now, people get all idealistic and say, “I like helping people.” But that can lead to disillusionment, as most of your clients won’t want your help. You’ll “save” the rare person. But most of your clients won’t appreciate what you do for them. And they won’t work hard.

There are worse ways to make a living. But you need to realize that the job isn’t nearly as interesting or inspiring as everyone seems to think it is.

16

This would be just a side job for me, not a full time one. I’ll definitely do engineering for the salary and lack of dealing with stupid people, regardless of my liking it or not. Same with personal training. If I can do that 3 or 4 times a week, great.

I realize I’ll be training people around the intelligence level of “functionally retarded” but it’s also a good reason for me to stay up on new methods and routines, as well as spend more time in the gym and see what works on different people.

I’m actually interested in doing PT stuff for myself, just helping the random person in the process is a bonus.

17

[quote]Zero_Z wrote:
This would be just a side job for me, not a full time one. I’ll definitely do engineering for the salary and lack of dealing with stupid people, regardless of my liking it or not. Same with personal training. If I can do that 3 or 4 times a week, great.

I realize I’ll be training people around the intelligence level of “functionally retarded” but it’s also a good reason for me to stay up on new methods and routines, as well as spend more time in the gym and see what works on different people.

I’m actually interested in doing PT stuff for myself, just helping the random person in the process is a bonus.[/quote]

Good luck, zero. Hopefully, no matter what route you choose, you’ll find that extra fullfillment you’re looking for.

18

I actually am in the process of reading my NASM Textbook. I have to say, they definitely cover quite a bit. I now feel as though I’m prepared to go into an anatomy & physiology class and fit right in. Though, I really get bored with the heart rate monitoring and postural assessments, I can see where they could help me construct a functional program and would allow for another form of goal assessment. Athletes in particular could use it. I used to wrestle.
I really got into training, not because I like to work out So much, even though I do. I just want to be able to specialize into any other venue of athletic training. It’s just a nice introduction to your body, on the physical level. I also used to rock climb, and both wrestling and rock climbing have shown me the need for a physically knowledgeable person.

I really liked that apprentice idea, and it’s good to hear the Truth of Training from those inside the industry. I admire you guys, and have become a source of motivation for my goals. Keep up the good work.

19

[quote]CaliforniaLaw wrote:

Now, people get all idealistic and say, “I like helping people.” But that can lead to disillusionment, as most of your clients won’t want your help. You’ll “save” the rare person. But most of your clients won’t appreciate what you do for them. And they won’t work hard.

There are worse ways to make a living. But you need to realize that the job isn’t nearly as interesting or inspiring as everyone seems to think it is.[/quote]

Great points CL. You had another post telling a newbie asking for a program to eat shit and die as a program. Excellent post, I have shared that with quite a few of my friends, some funny ass shit man!!

But the man is right. People are lazy as fucking shit. I think you should take a few hundred million dollars and get the fattest people in America plane tickets to Cape Horn and make them trek home through the amazon rainforest and central america back to the US. Those that dont get eaten by jaguars, piranhas and dont die of malaria get their citizenship back. The world would be a better place. And the country would save money on the health care for those lazy asses.

20

Zero_Z,

I got a Personal Trainer cert. under CAN-FIT-PRO. It is largely recognized in Canada and if you currently reside there I suggest you take a look at it. Recently I have thrown out some resumes with it (just it really aside from CPR and Basic First Aid) and have gotten some good response.

I also have spoken to many hiring managers at their respective gyms about different certs. as well and they have told me the following are the most helpful…

ACE
CPTN
&
CFP

The facts your looking at…

  1. The cost is around 500 - 600 bucks for a cert.
  2. They are fairly easy to obtain.
  3. They basically are there so gyms can insure you on the floor.
  4. You will probably learn something of value that you didn’t already know (no matter what your experience) but still it is a general overview of what you do know.

And that’s about it. Other then that, I would suggest that everything else that people have posted has some truth to it but remember what you in this for. Continue to learn about something that you’re passionate about and be involved in the environment that you love. Who cares if you train ‘soccer moms’ most of the time. They just pay the bills.