this might be a dum question, but are there any personal training tests where you dont have to to be 18?
haha.
I would think that with your years of wisdom and experience, you would have a few dedicated clients and that word of mouth would bring you all the clients you need. So why bother getting certified?
my gawd
Just create your own certification by creating your own logo and call it American Athletic Training Institute and you’re all set. The public has no idea the difference between certifications (NSCA, ACE, ISSA, NASM, or otherwise). They just want someone who is “certified”. So put them at ease and make one up. Just make sure you get insurance too or you’ll lose your shirt one day.
these are all good ideas, but I wouldnt do this for maybe a year or two because im only 17. The reason im asking this is because I want to work in a gym and most of them you need a certificate.
most gyms that i know of won’t allow you to be a trainer until you are 18. i know sucks…i was in your shoes and wanted a summer job as a trainer and the gym told me i needed to be 18. They had an online take home test that i looked at and anybody could pass it regardless of if they’ve ever lifted a weight or not.
They give you the book and no time limit on the test so you can literally search the answer in the book and enter it in the comp or have somebody who knows the topic take the test for u and nobody is the wiser. And the jokes about his years of experience. At 17 i knew more about lifting/diet than any trainer at my gym. I’m sure everybody agrees that there is some really bogus trainers out there. lol
this was a small in shape gym in the central valley of california for anybody who knows the area. Probably why there was some idiot trainers. lol but to answer your question…your probably out of luck until 18 :s
yea i know what you mean,I think I know mroe than anyone who trains people at my gym, iwas hoping I could just work there even if I can train anyone. I might get a job at world gym where I workout because you dont need a certificate but golds you probably do. Where do you take this online test??
its not really an online test that certifies you for every gym…the gym itself makes it for their use. So you are only certified in their gym. It’s not worth the paper it’s printed on anywhere else. Other than that google physical trainers or pick up a muscle magazine. There are several certifications you can shoot for.
-Gerdy
Just go around the system. put an ad in the local paper, do business in the parking lot, and enter the gym looking like nothing more than gym partners.
If you have in fact done your research and your clients get results, you’ll be set.
[quote]evansmi wrote:
Just go around the system. put an ad in the local paper, do business in the parking lot, and enter the gym looking like nothing more than gym partners.
If you have in fact done your research and your clients get results, you’ll be set.[/quote]
ok thats a good idea but then I would have to get a membership at all the local gyms am i right?
[quote]crod266 wrote:
evansmi wrote:
ok thats a good idea but then I would have to get a membership at all the local gyms am i right?
[/quote]
I would advise you contact the prospective gyms ahead of time, see what there policies are with regards to external trainers.
I worked out a good deal with the BIG local gym. I paid 15% of my per-hour fee to the gym, and had total, before or after-hours access to the gym. That sounds kinda bad, 15%, but if you discuss it with your clients, generally you can get a nice per-hour fee to cover that and still get what you deserve.
If you’re under 18, well . . . keep studying, train in public like a professional adult, and . . . that’s it. When you hit 18, start busting hump to get your name recognized. It’s also a good idea to have a report with the gym staff/owners/whatever applies here, as well as the gym regulars. Gyms have a way of keeping stories of doufus behavior in circulation.
[quote]crod266 wrote:
these are all good ideas, but I wouldnt do this for maybe a year or two because im only 17. The reason im asking this is because I want to work in a gym and most of them you need a certificate.[/quote]
Try the YMCA…
Chad Waterbury got his start at the Y…
[quote]Dirty Gerdy wrote:
most gyms that i know of won’t allow you to be a trainer until you are 18. i know sucks…i was in your shoes and wanted a summer job as a trainer and the gym told me i needed to be 18. They had an online take home test that i looked at and anybody could pass it regardless of if they’ve ever lifted a weight or not.
They give you the book and no time limit on the test so you can literally search the answer in the book and enter it in the comp or have somebody who knows the topic take the test for u and nobody is the wiser. And the jokes about his years of experience. At 17 i knew more about lifting/diet than any trainer at my gym. I’m sure everybody agrees that there is some really bogus trainers out there. lol
this was a small in shape gym in the central valley of california for anybody who knows the area. Probably why there was some idiot trainers. lol but to answer your question…your probably out of luck until 18 :s[/quote]
Thats what gives trainers a bad rap. It fucking pisses me off… Some of us live, eat and breathe strength and fitness, and work damn hard to ensure that their knowledge is constantly upto date and current. With relevant experience and voluntary work to boot, these so-called trainers are a simple liability and if you are experienced in gym use - you can spot them a mile off.
Fucking cunts piss me off. Go stack some shelves with your art history degree.
AHEM… Rant over…
Joe
Supposing I was clueless enough to go to a gym and get a trainer if I saw a 17 year old was going to be training me I would just leave.
P.S
Isn`t this a bodybuilding forum?
[quote]DanErickson wrote:
Supposing I was clueless enough to go to a gym and get a trainer if I saw a 17 year old was going to be training me I would just leave.
P.S
Isn`t this a bodybuilding forum?[/quote]
well i would not say im 17 and I dont really look 17 eithr, but also if its a jacked 17 year old then they might see it diffrent
This is a rare sighting indeed, the elusive personal trainer prodigy. Go forth my young friend and Gold’s will see in you the future!
Dude someone your age can barely get a membership at a gym usually you have to be 16 you are 17, it would be unwise to say the least to hire someone your age on principle alone. I would think there would be some kind of age limit to be certified by ACE or ISSA or NASM but I dont know for sure…
I can relate. Strength training has been my passion since I was 14 years old. By the time I was 16 I was deadlifting over 500 lbs and full squatting close to that weight. When I was 17 I was 230 lbs, not in good condition, but always one of the ‘‘big guys’’ in most gyms I trained at, bigger than a lot of the older trainees and trainers.
At 17-18 I believed that I knew more than anybody in regard to training. I would get into arguments with personal trainers because I felt that they were idiots. Even got kicked out of a gym because of my ‘‘bad attitude’’.
Then I started to be trained by a real strength coach and realized how idiotic it was of me to think that I actually knew anything about training!
By the time I was 19 I felt humbled by how little I actually knew and felt like touring the trainers I argued with to present my apologies.
When I was 21 I started to assist a local strength coach with his athletes… by then I had learned from my mistakes and really pilled on the knowledge, reading all the best books on strength training, physiology and biomechanics available to me; got a college degree in exercise science… plus I was competing as an olympic lifter. I honestly felt well prepared for real work in the trenches.
Well, after a few months in those trenches I felt humbled once again … all the theory in the world cannot prepare you for the real life problems that athletes may face and how much tailoring each program needs. At that point I even considered abandoning my dream of becoming a strength coach.
It took me about two years of constantly working with athletes and clients to actually feel confident about what I was doing. But even as I got better and better as a coach, accumulating some success, I never stopped learning and questioning myself. That’s why over the years my writings have changed a lot.
The day you actually begin to believe that you are ‘‘better than everybody’’ is the day you stop progressing.
Trust me, at 17 you are NOT ready to be a competent trainer, regardless of how many articles and books you have read or how ‘‘jacked’’ you are.
The problem is that a lot of wannabe coaches assume that knowing about training theory, advanced techniques, etc. is what makes you a good trainer. The best trainers are those who are able to:
- Gain their client’s complete an unconditional trust. A client who believes in you and your program 100% will get better results from a basic routine than a client who doesn’t fully trust you even if he is on the most ‘‘cutting edge’’ program ever.
Like it or not, most clients will NOT trust a 17 years old trainer entirely. Even if he is built like Jay Cutler. Appearance is not everything.
-
Have a great rapport with his clients as well as with all the other peoples in his milieu. The friendlier a trainer is, the more success he’ll have… THIS IS TRUE FOR A TRAINER WORKING IN A COMMERCIAL GYM. With athletes it’s another story though. From the tone of your message, you already seem to have a negative rapport with the other trainers.
-
Downsize rather than upgrade… I’m all for the use of ‘‘cutting edge methods’’ WHEN THEY ARE NEEDED. As a personal trainer working in a commercial gym, 90% of your clientele is not advanced enough to warrant the use of such methods. Wannabee coaches will still use a plethora of advanced methods with their clients … these guys train clients to show them how much THEY know not to give their clients results.
Good trainers know about all these cutting edge techniques BUT are able to refrain themselves from using them because they understand that their clients do not need them. This might be one of the reasons why you think that the other trainers are idiots… they are only doing basic boring stuff with their clients. But in reality, that’s all they should be doing.
- Understand that most commercial gym clients train more for the social aspect of it, or to feel good about themselves rather than to actually perform hardcore workouts.
[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
I can relate. Strength training has been my passion since I was 14 years old. By the time I was 16 I was deadlifting over 500 lbs and full squatting close to that weight. When I was 17 I was 230 lbs, not in good condition, but always one of the ‘‘big guys’’ in most gyms I trained at, bigger than a lot of the older trainees and trainers.
At 17-18 I believed that I knew more than anybody in regard to training. I would get into arguments with personal trainers because I felt that they were idiots. Even got kicked out of a gym because of my ‘‘bad attitude’’.
Then I started to be trained by a real strength coach and realized how idiotic it was of me to think that I actually knew anything about training!
By the time I was 19 I felt humbled by how little I actually knew and felt like touring the trainers I argued with to present my apologies.
When I was 21 I started to assist a local strength coach with his athletes… by then I had learned from my mistakes and really pilled on the knowledge, reading all the best books on strength training, physiology and biomechanics available to me; got a college degree in exercise science… plus I was competing as an olympic lifter. I honestly felt well prepared for real work in the trenches.
Well, after a few months in those trenches I felt humbled once again … all the theory in the world cannot prepare you for the real life problems that athletes may face and how much tailoring each program needs. At that point I even considered abandoning my dream of becoming a strength coach.
It took me about two years of constantly working with athletes and clients to actually feel confident about what I was doing. But even as I got better and better as a coach, accumulating some success, I never stopped learning and questioning myself. That’s why over the years my writings have changed a lot.
The day you actually begin to believe that you are ‘‘better than everybody’’ is the day you stop progressing.
Trust me, at 17 you are NOT ready to be a competent trainer, regardless of how many articles and books you have read or how ‘‘jacked’’ you are.
The problem is that a lot of wannabe coaches assume that knowing about training theory, advanced techniques, etc. is what makes you a good trainer. The best trainers are those who are able to:
- Gain their client’s complete an unconditional trust. A client who believes in you and your program 100% will get better results from a basic routine than a client who doesn’t fully trust you even if he is on the most ‘‘cutting edge’’ program ever.
Like it or not, most clients will NOT trust a 17 years old trainer entirely. Even if he is built like Jay Cutler. Appearance is not everything.
-
Have a great rapport with his clients as well as with all the other peoples in his milieu. The friendlier a trainer is, the more success he’ll have… THIS IS TRUE FOR A TRAINER WORKING IN A COMMERCIAL GYM. With athletes it’s another story though. From the tone of your message, you already seem to have a negative rapport with the other trainers.
-
Downsize rather than upgrade… I’m all for the use of ‘‘cutting edge methods’’ WHEN THEY ARE NEEDED. As a personal trainer working in a commercial gym, 90% of your clientele is not advanced enough to warrant the use of such methods. Wannabee coaches will still use a plethora of advanced methods with their clients … these guys train clients to show them how much THEY know not to give their clients results.
Good trainers know about all these cutting edge techniques BUT are able to refrain themselves from using them because they understand that their clients do not need them. This might be one of the reasons why you think that the other trainers are idiots… they are only doing basic boring stuff with their clients. But in reality, that’s all they should be doing.
- Understand that most commercial gym clients train more for the social aspect of it, or to feel good about themselves rather than to actually perform hardcore workouts. [/quote]
Thank you; well said, indeed.
Spot on Thibs. Really spot on.
We should never stop learning, from 1 year in to 30 years in.
I had the opportunity to work with a great local area trainer in the States last year, and she taught me so much… not much about exercise, fitness or health… simply because she respected i had my own path to gain knowledge and my own areas i specialize… But she taught me so much about being a trainer and a coach… she helped me to refine my own confidence and skills thus increasing my clients confidence, and she showed me how to be with my clients in order to get the best from them which is in both parties interest obviously.
I always had a personality of going above and beyond, especially when it comes to “customer service” but she helped me to refine my coaching skills and showed me that is something we never stop learning either. To always be open to new ways - because our industry is about that to the core.
Joe