Personal Training Career

By Ashley Boyce, an allied health world staff writer
Published: January 26th, 2010

How do personal trainers make quality exercise more attainable to the average person?

The gym can be a very intimidating place for people who aren’t used to going, or perhaps have never been. One of the most common reasons people give for forgoing their personal fitness goals and avoiding the gym is that they are self-conscious of their current physical Personal Trainer Careeers

condition and lack of familiarity with exercise equipment and techniques. People often envision the gym as a place where muscle bound body builders and perfectly proportioned models scoff at the average person. These reservations about visiting a gym are responsible for a cyclical perpetuation of the lack of conditioning that leads to overall poor health. Choosing to pursue a personal trainer career means learning to function as a liaison between the public and the world of health and effective exercise. Guided by a compassionate and non-judgmental personal trainer, the gym becomes a friendlier place where people feel good about themselves and their decisions to take control of their personal fitness. This is a vital component of all personal trainer careers; to work with the average person, many of which have neglected their personal fitness for years, to gently introduce them to the gym and to more effective exercise techniques. It’s a personal trainer’s job to take that person’s initial interest in preventative health, and their desire to improve their body image, and turn it into a sustained motivation to live a healthy life that involves daily exercise and a willingness to visit the gym two to five times weekly.

Learn more about the personal trainer salary.

What is the role of Strength and Conditioning Coaches and Athletic trainers?

Personal trainer careers share some similarities with that of strength and conditioning coaches. Strength and conditioning coaches are used by high school, college, and professional athletes, body-builders, and dancers to get an edge in their performance, develop specific muscles in an effort to avoid injury, and to recover from injuries sustained while playing their sport. The professional athlete’s expectation for results in the gym is not driven by vanity. It is driven by a desire to achieve everything they are physically capable of in their particular sport. They look to their strength and conditioning coaches to help them achieve peak performance and a competitive advantage. They are knowledgeable of how specific muscle groups respond to certain exercises, and how aerobic and anaerobic exercise can be used to reduce body fat and increase lean muscle-mass while improving both endurance and short interval performance. Strength and conditioning coaches help athletes who are already in exceptional physical condition fine-tune their bodies to increase strength in certain areas by targeting these muscle groups directly. Strength and conditioning coaches have been used for years by body-builders who wish to improve muscular definition, by baseball players who want increased upper body strength for more effective at-bats, by swimmers who want to shave thousandths of seconds from their lap times, by track athletes who want to put the shot further or clear the hurdles faster, by dancers who want a leaner body and more graceful movements, by basketball players who want to increase strength to avoid injury, by marathoners who wish to increase their stamina, and by football players wanting to build mass. The list is almost endless. Strength and conditioning coaches have long been a staple in the athletic community, and have in many ways been responsible for developing the uniquely defined physiques of professional athletes and Olympians. Strength and conditioning coaches have earned bachelor’s degrees in relevant subjects through schools accredited by the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA), and have been certified by passing the NSCA exam to become Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialists (CSCS).

Athletic trainers also have a vital role in the health and fitness of professional and career athletes as well as the general public. They work under the direction of physicians to train athletes with a focus on injury prevention. Athletic trainers diagnosis sports-related injuries and acute or chronic medical conditions and work with athletes through recovery. In order to become a certified athletic trainer (ATC), graduates must have a bachelor’s degree earned through an accredited school and pass an exam administered by the National Athletic Trainer’s association (NATA). Working as an ATC also requires a state-specific license.

Do all personal trainers approach their sessions with clients the same?

Most often clients express interest in changing the shape of their bodies, in which case workouts would largely include strength and resistance training to develop and define certain muscle groups. Personal trainers with a background in power lifting and bodybuilding are most successful in this capacity. If the client were more concerned with burning fat for weight loss or increasing endurance and anaerobic potential then the workout would focus more on interval training and cardiovascular exercise. In these instances a personal trainer with a background as an aerobics instructor conducting Cardio Pump or Fit classes would be most qualified. Most personal trainer careers will involve incorporating all these approaches at some point.

What’s the psychology behind keeping clients motivated?

Veteran personal trainer, Bill Linaker, recalled a time early in his personal trainer career when he provided his services in the gym he owned without charging for sessions. This was at a time when the profession was in its infancy and it wasn’t common for people to pay for the service. What he found was that many participants who seemed very excited about the prospect of working one on one with a personal trainer seemed to lose their drive after a few sessions.

In looking for a solution to this, he discovered that by charging for his services the people he was working with began to demonstrate a greater commitment to the program. Paying clients were more attentive and motivated during sessions. This veteran personal trainer told us, “My clients pay for sessions in advance; that’s what motivates them to get started. Their financial investment in the program made them committed, made them more motivated.”

Although a financial commitment to a personal trainer would be a strong motivating factor in getting started, making noticeable progress towards the goal of personal fitness is the only way to maintain that level of motivation beyond the first few sessions. To this point Bill said: “What motivates my clients is number one: Seeing results. Things happening fast enough that they start to see it, and they start to feel it.” Clients who experience increased energy, and who start to attain a trimmer, more muscular physique after the first month are much more apt to workout at home between sessions, maintain a healthy diet, and stay with the program to ultimately achieve their personal fitness goals.

Throughout his personal trainer career Bill has carried a simple philosophy imparted to him by the legendary Jack Lalanne who he worked for early in his career. His credo is to simply give the clients what they paid for: Lots of energy, lots of motivation, and above all, results.