Don't become a personal trainer, it's a scam

[casualbb]

This whole certification thing is total scam, with everybody making money except the personal trainers.

Here's how it works.

You know some fitness stuff and think, "hey I could teach fitness stuff for money... personal training! alright!"

Except, the gyms require certification, ostensibly to have some kind of quality control on the people they hire, but mostly just so they can tell clients, "all our trainers are nationally certified!"

So you are forced to pay at least $300 (can range up to $600) for certification. I took what I consider to be a very good cert (NASM), but still knew very little about how to actually interact with clients other than "do this."

For 2 years you're A-O-K (except when you consider that you only keep 1/3 of what the gym charges per session, and they usually also force you to do some X number of new evaluations a week, for which you make about half the rate), then suddently, "You must renew your cert!"

Somewhere along the line the certifying companies realized that they could milk their trainers for more money by making them take more classes every two years. There are some options on what you can do, but by far the easiest options are always $200 packages by the same company. Of course this is under the guise of "we want our trainers to stay cutting edge."

There are personal trainers who make it; usually those are the ones who get pretty good and jump ship at some point, going private. Then you can make the big bucks. But it takes years to get there, during which you'll get dicked around by both gyms and cert. agencies. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if they were kicking money back and forth, especially given the way certain gyms overwhelmingly endorse certain certs and the potential for mutual profit.

 

[IronJunkey]

exactly, but the thing about personal training is all of which after you are a level 2...you drift into body building ...which is more then "loose 20lb deal" which all your client wants...thus you can even enjoy sculpting a client into a lean body. So much of the time your your clients personal therapist and a motavator...really sad job. I like you say it takes a while to make good money. and people only pay when there serious...most people that come 2 you only devot in the gym...sad sad people...they like when a seriously fit person will say...wow you look better..even though there 5lbs under there potential loss..

anyway cool post-Casual ...I C your point!=---Karma

 

[Snypr]

Been looking into ISSA certs. Now I'm starting to wonder if it's worth it. I went on employment sites to try to see what PT pay was, but only a few would mention, and every other one required a different cert. It doesn't seem like having paper from one organization will get you acceptance most everywhere.
On the other hand, my former roommate took plenty of AS, moved back to his home state, advertised, and made a lot of money(with no cert) training pencil-necks who thought they were going to look like him when they were done. I'm not sure how he handled disappointed clients, though.

 

[casualbb]

It's worth it if you're in personal training for the long haul. If you're not, I wouldn't advise it.

 

[dixieman154]

To the fella that started the thread:

You've got things mixed up. You said the cert you took didn't prepare you to interact with clients. It wasn't supposed to. The purposes of becoming certified are to learn the information you need to set up workout programs for all types of clients, to learn to recognize health problems a client, or prospective client, may be having, and to give you a legal out if anything were to ever go wrong when training a client. If you want to learn how to interact with clients, you just have to get out there and get experience working with the public.

There is no kickback scheme between gyms and certification bodies. If you want to be sure your cert will be accepted, there are two "powerhouses," the ACSM and NSCA. Those two will get you in any door in the gym industry. ACE and ISSA are also two very good certs.

Snypr, go to monster.com and do a search for gym jobs. Most large chain gyms (such as Gold's and Bally's) pay a starting salary of about 35,000 - 45,000. They also offer benefit packages, and most offer their trainers percentages of training fees and bonuses for recruiting new members.

 

[ghettostudmuffin]

I agree with casualbb. It's a scam for the most part.

I've been training off and on for over 10 years and read 1000's of hours worth of material on training either from books, the internet or forums like this. Aslo from gym experience and interaction with other lifters.

The "gym" pt's, not provate pt's or whatever, generally think they are hot shit and know alot.

I went through a 2 week Apex certification and training course to become a PT at a local gym. A popular gym. A "family" oriented gym with childcare, BLAH.

The course cost 200 bucks. Ok.

The whole time they are pumping me up adn telling me after 3 months I'm gonna be making 3-4,000 a month before taxes. Sounds great!

Soon as I get to the gym I found out how it really works. This gym cycles through new trainers every 1-3 months basically. You are given new members to take them through their "free" 1st and 2nd workout. You gotta try to sell them as many supplements as you can at the end of the first workout, and try HARD to sell them personal training after the second. Then you have to get reprograms going. Bascially with reprograms, members are given a free workout with a trainer once a month. Problem is, members don't want to get workouts with you! It's fucking BIZARRE. But, then you realize they've been on several reprograms already probably and the PT's tried to sell them on personal training or supplements each time. Geez, no wonder gym members eye me suspiciously every time I approach them!

But, that doesn;t sound to bad or harsh right? WRONG. The nyou get your quota that's actually ALOT harder to fulfill than it looks, even though when you first see it you're like "you gotta be fuckin kidding me. You expect me to pull these numbers. You're outta your fuckin mind." Then you calm down and try to do it and say it's no big deal when it turns out it is and you find everyone is constantly struggling to reach their quota for the month.

But, still it sounds doable right? Can't be that hard? WRONG. Then you find out at that point how it all "really works". You see, they've got probably 3-4 "top" trainers(whatever that bullshit means) that they don't talk about, but that are given most of the new 1st and 2nd workouts. All the crap leftover's are given to you, which basically means people that don't got money so your chance of success in selling them supplements or PT to meet your quota is less than ZILCH.

Then you get talked to about not being prodcutive enough and talking to enough members and blah blah blah, which is all really a cover for the fact that they aren't giving you anything to work with so you can't succeed or meet your quota, but of course they'll never admit that.

I was fired after 1 month working there. The hilarious part of it, was that the GM called me to his office and had a nice little sweet sit down talk with me haha. Bascially he said I wasn't right for the job and didn't care about the people I was training and this and that, even though in the middle of this whole GINORMOUS BULLSHIT SPEAL he say's "nevermind that couple that said you were awesome and would have you and only you be their PT if they could afford it". Nevermind the fact that every broke ass person I trained said they would have me and only me train them if they had the funds.

What a fucking crock of shit the whole PT and gym business is HAHA.

Well that was my experience.

 

[casualbb]

Seriously. If being a personal trainer is so lucrative, why are the big gyms always hiring?

 

[dixieman154]

Because, being a PT isn't as easy as most believe.

You can have all the technical knowledge and skill in the world and still fail. You have to be able to sell your own ability, and to motivate all the lazy people that are going to use your services. So many people think "I'm in good shape, and I know how to work out. I'll become a PT." They get a ISSA or ACE cert and get a job at Bally's. When they get there they realize the only way they're really going to make any cash is to get out there and REALLY work. They have to sell themselves, and be a poor man's psychologist. They don't want that, so they quit, and Bally's has to hire more.

As long as you're willing to really work at it, and you're a good people person, a PT can make plenty of cash.

 

[Bikini Mod]

Both arguements are right... But the bottom line is this as Dixieman said: "As long as you're willing to really work at it, and you're a good people person, a PT can make plenty of cash."

If you are good at motivating people and your clients get results - MEMBERS WILL SEEK YOU OUT.

I was badgered into getting recertified to PT at my gym (where I had been a member since it opened) when I came to work the front desk there. I took that job because of the free onsite childcare and because everybody new me and my personal situation so I had tremendous flexibility. If I could work fulltime hours (which I cant because I want to spend the rest of my time with my kids and doing the other things that I want to eventually support us with) I could pulldown a fairly decent buck.

Every single one of my clients gets results, and they are thrilled that I was able to sell them my services. You must learn to establish VALUE for what you offer.

The fact that corporate takes most of that money makes me want to vomit but for the ammenities listed above (which to me are invaluable) it is well worth it in the end.

 

[northfloridatrainer]

I love a conversation like this, because it shows how CONFUSED the industry is right now, but also it gives people who are "in the know" an opportunity to tell it like it is!

The truth is that Personal Training is NOT as easy as people think it is, which is why there is such a high turnover in the industry. When trainers realize that they have to work there *ss off for their paychecks, they stop trying so hard, and their client base goes away.

However, that being said, I will agree that gyms usually make more money than they should off of the trainer's work. The trainers are the ones doing the work - why should the gym make most of the money??? Phil Kaplan said it best when he talked about the history of personal trainers in gyms:

He said that when gyms realized that personal trainers would make their memberships grow, the gyms gathered up a bunch of trainers and said, "If you train people and make the gym a bunch of money, we'll let you keep some of it." HUH?!?

There ARE gyms out there that realize the value of their trainers, as well as the value of their clients, but most gyms are just in it for the bottom line.

Personally, I have worked for several gyms, including one nationally known chain, and inside of 1 year I had run for the hills. Since then, I have been working in the private sector running my own training business out of my clients homes, and I have never been happier - or made more money, for that matter!

So, to sum it up, Personal Training is NOT a scam! However, it is also NOT a get rich quick scheme! If you want to make some good money by working hard and helping people get in shape, then become a personal trainer, and take a course on how to make it in the industry.

Otherwise, I hear botany is very stimulating...

Aaron M. Potts
[No unauthorized advertising. Talk to the admins. -casualbb]
Fitness Journal: [email protected]

Both arguements are right... But the bottom line is this as Dixieman said: "As long as you're willing to really work at it, and you're a good people person, a PT can make plenty of cash."

If you are good at motivating people and your clients get results - MEMBERS WILL SEEK YOU OUT.

I was badgered into getting recertified to PT at my gym (where I had been a member since it opened) when I came to work the front desk there. I took that job because of the free onsite childcare and because everybody new me and my personal situation so I had tremendous flexibility. If I could work fulltime hours (which I cant because I want to spend the rest of my time with my kids and doing the other things that I want to eventually support us with) I could pulldown a fairly decent buck.

Every single one of my clients gets results, and they are thrilled that I was able to sell them my services. You must learn to establish VALUE for what you offer.

The fact that corporate takes most of that money makes me want to vomit but for the ammenities listed above (which to me are invaluable) it is well worth it in the end.