Becoming a personal trainer??

sarahDickson501

How do I go about becoming a certified personal trainer? Im not in a very good place to go to college away from home so Im looking for correspondence/online classes. Any first hand info I can get would be awesome. I am currently working on getting into shape, which for my own personal reasons a pre-req. to becoming a trainer

THANKS!!

sarahDickson501

Bump

sarahDickson501

no one?

ebr250

The National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) has a correspondence course and it is a well-respected certification. If you search for them online the website will come up. The DVDs that come with the course materials are a great help for the test!

A big thing to consider though is the available employment in your area. Check out what the gyms/studios that you would want to work at accept to make sure you are getting what the market is looking for!

Sycoholic

Caldwell college came and spoke with us (Army) about doing certification classes with them and personal trainer was one of them I considered. Only reason I didn't was that I'm currently going to school and finishing my Bachelor's degree. Most likely I'll do a program such as this when I'm done.

http://www.caldwell.edu/

ninerbuff

The National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) has a correspondence course and it is a well-respected certification. If you search for them online the website will come up. The DVDs that come with the course materials are a great help for the test!

A big thing to consider though is the available employment in your area. Check out what the gyms/studios that you would want to work at accept to make sure you are getting what the market is looking for!

THIS. Also if you aren't going to do commercial gym training, then independent contractor statis will require you pay insurance and that can be expensive depending on where you're at.
Also realize that you will have to be good at sales (clients don't usually drop in your lap) and can't let any personal business affect what you do since each client doesn't want your problems deterring them from their investment in you. I've met lots of new trainers that had personal issues that reflected on the floor while they trained their clients (scowling face, lack of enthusiasm for the client, lack of focus, etc.)

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

sarahDickson501

THANKS I need to check the local gym, we only have one in our town, and I have heard that they "hire" trainers and its base pay plus X amount per client, and Iw ould definatle go thru a gym even if I had to go one town over to find a gym needing a trainer

The National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) has a correspondence course and it is a well-respected certification. If you search for them online the website will come up. The DVDs that come with the course materials are a great help for the test!

A big thing to consider though is the available employment in your area. Check out what the gyms/studios that you would want to work at accept to make sure you are getting what the market is looking for!

THIS. Also if you aren't going to do commercial gym training, then independent contractor statis will require you pay insurance and that can be expensive depending on where you're at.
Also realize that you will have to be good at sales (clients don't usually drop in your lap) and can't let any personal business affect what you do since each client doesn't want your problems deterring them from their investment in you. I've met lots of new trainers that had personal issues that reflected on the floor while they trained their clients (scowling face, lack of enthusiasm for the client, lack of focus, etc.)

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition