Personal Trainer

[geoalehay]

Is anyone here a Personal Trainer or know of one? How difficult is it to become a "sole trader" PT? I am studying at the moment to beocme qualified, but I want to do it on own, not through a gym or an agency. How difficult is this?

[swanso5]

your options:

1 - have your own business and buy your own studio
2 - have your own business and work out of someone else's studio paying rent
3 - work for someone else

you'll rarely come straight from a qual and set up your own thing with no existing client base or reputation and if you do, you're putting a lot of your cash at risk...a real lot

it's great you want to do it on your own but unless you have a garage set up or your prepared to do park/home visits where you'll only have a limited equipment then you'll struggle

what type of training are you looking to do and what type of clinets are you looking to train?

[ldematto]

Swanso - if someone wanted to offer private 1 on 1 training at thier home, and they had the space to renovate/convert to a small gym - what equipment do you think would be the minimum you would need? 1 treadmill - 2? Elliptical? Cable Machine? Full Set Dumb Bells - Smith Machine and/or Squat Rack? Benches, Bar Bells? Mats , Balls etc.. ....do you think all listed would be required? Anything else that I've missed? Any idea how much any of that stuff costs?

[swanso5]

list would be:

power rack - rack, adjustable bench, bb, plates etc)
adjustable db's
medicine ball
swissball
cable set up of soem description - corner or cable
some mats
foam roller / tennis ball
skipping ropes
steps/different sized boxes etc
wt vest

cost will depend...seconhand could probably get it all for $5000 easily i'd think, not that i've looked into it

the money is made with semi private training too...small groups...you can charge 70 bucks an hr for 1 person or $35 bucks an hr for 3...which is best?

http://www.uponlinetraining.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[ldematto]

Yeah - insurance is defintely something I'd need to consider. I guess semi private or private depends on how much space you have too.

I have benchs (2), a cable machine, stationary bike, XL Glider, adjustable DB's (I don't like them though), and bar bells, mats, balls, skipping ropes, and hula hoops
What's a power rack - rack? Do you mean what I refer to as a squat rack? I'd like to get a treadmill and an elliptical if possible and maybe some newer stuff of what I already have. Geesh! I look at what I have and wonder why I go to the gym everyday! Actually most stuff is in basement - while it is a huge basement, I don't like going downstairs. I have another space that I am thinking of - it's an 874 sq ft bonus room above the garage that currently looks like FAO Scwartz or Toys R Us(Grandsons love it!)

Anyway - just in the thinking stages - I need to get fit and certified first!

Katie! Haven't seen you around! Good to see you and hope all is well!

[oscarmadison]

a few things I pondered lately about : starting a new bidness venture ala personal trainers

A hindrance to a person remotely motivated to a fitness program might be going out in public and letting your fat shine.

There are plenty of gyms all around most moderate sized towns, all motivated to take your money as the auto pay feature would suggest.

A start up biddness should entail some type of easy "hidable" access to a work out area. At least until the results start to materialize then its Katy bar the door...

Not every one can afford equipment or gym memberships. Making ppl pay to get fit could motivate a person into a regime but its not from a good place in opinion. You got to want to believe, losing a few hundred bucks for not going to a gym is a weak motivator, I know I've paid for a few gym memberships in day that weren't used.

Working out alone requires intense motivation that most programed sheeple in the states couldn't muster if their lifeboat was sinking and on fire. what can you motivate a person into? is your fitness a easily recognizable selling point? Is your program easy to tailor to anyone's needs?

Next to pissing money away on pets and pet supplies, the richest fattest countries on earth prolly piss away an equal amount of money on "fat loss" miracles.

How can you capture a share of that market? do you want to?

I'll work on more fitness musing as they strike me...

Regards,
Oscar

[cassiegose]

This is an interesting subject and one I've been pondering myself for a while as I've always wanted to get certfied to become a personal trainer (in fact I've had study materials for over 7 years now... just haven't had the time or ambition to study and take the test). A couple of things that I've seen work....

Option 1: previous trainer has her gym set up in a small garage/shop type building. She has a squat rack, bench press, bench that inclines/declines.. plus a bunch of dumbells, a few exercise balls, a few bars for different lifts, exercise bands, a nice treadmill (like one you'd find in a gym, not a cheap one made for home workouts), a nice elliptical (Id say a good one of these costs about $3000-$4000... probably same with treadmill). She has rubber mats on the floor and mirrors along every wall. She said the total cost to get the gym set up was $17000 (if I remember correctly). She is leasing the shop from her brother and pays $500 per month rent... this cost could be cut if a person actually had the shop built on their property instead of on somebody elses land, but then you'd of course have to have the proper location.

Option 2: Prior to moving I was working at a small, privately owned gym. The gym owner and i were very good friends and he pretty much ran the whole gym by himself and I worked for him teaching classes. We discussed me getting certified as a personal trainer so i could help a bit more. He was going to let me name price to clients and he was going to charge me 30% of what I made from clients. Soooo if I charged $50 per hour, I would take home $35 and he got $15. He would also obviously benefit because those clients coming to let me train them would have to have gym memberships.. which he got the money for. The benfit of having a studio type gym is that clients don't have to pay for a membership.. they simply pay a set fee per session... however most people will still need/want a gym membership so they can exercise on their own outside of our training sessions.

As for "selling" to clients and getting them to hire YOU as your trainer... I honestly think the number one marketing tool that personal trainers have is their own body. Probably one of the most important things (in opinion) that a person can do to keep people flowing through their door is to keep their body in tip top shape. One of the big reasons that I decided to compete in the upcoming figure competition that i've been training for is because after graduating college I decided to get serious about getting certified as a personal trainer and I really wanted to get body to the next level of fitness before doing the personal trainer thing. (Although now that i'm training for this show i have absolutely no time or energy to study... so the personal trainer thing has taken a back seat to the figure competition). A few things that I've noticed since I started training for this show 1) spinning class has GROWN... Now I'm not sure if this is a coincidence or if people think that I've actually lost all this weight because of killer spin class but class has grown (I hope people don't think this... spinnning is great but its definitely NOT the best way to get a tight bod) 2) I've had more people approach me at the gym asking me what I'm doing to get in such great shape... If I was a certified personal trainer, these encounters would be great opportunities to offer to train people to get them into great shape as well.

Of course, I think things like honesty, integrity, and a bubbly/professional personality also help to draw clients.. However I think one of the major things is having potential clients see you and think "damn, I want a body like YOU! Train me and show me how I can get into such great shape!".

Just thoughts.

Cassie

[Boss Man]

1. Physical appearance.

2. Certification. Know who they trained with, and check the organisation. They might have a phoney certificate, or they might train with people who use poor educational methods, or laccadaisical testing methods, allowing a proportion of weak students to pass.

3. Know your price. Do they seem reasonable for price?

4. Personality. You don't give money to people who treat you like a Cashcow.

5. Don't waste time on boasters. People who tell you they can train you for competitions, marathons etc etc, are fine. People who claim they've trained a Miss Texas competitor, or a star and two lower league baseball players, is trying to look good. You really going to ring a stars agent, to get the facts? I doubt it.

A persons abilities will speak for themselves. They might admit to training a Taekwondo trophy winner for example, but you'd expect something like that, to be either something not deemed neccessary to disclose to you, (fair enough), or something to disclose later on, not at first, when they are telling you about themselves.

Boasters might be good, but then again, they could be all talk.

6. Make sure you know the arrangements properly, so you don't miss appointments, or go to thw wrong location.

These would be some primary considerations.

[swanso5]

it's all about communication

you can know everything in the world but if you can't explain it to someone it's uselss

you don't have to look super, god knows i don't but i know shit inside and out and there are sessions where i probably don't shut mouth for 5mins out of the hr

http://www.uponlinetraining.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[personaltrainer]

I would REALLY recommend starting at a larger health club, learn learn and more learning. You will learn better training, so you will be a better personal trainer, increase your communication skills, since you will be talking to many people. And a surprising learning tool I discovered was the business side of it. I trained at Ballys for 5 years before really going out on own and most of what I learned was the business side!

Kevin Kohout, B.S.E. Biomedical Engineer
ACE Certified Personal Trainer
Personal Trainer Los Angeles

[Packard]

In opinion the only thing a personal trainer really has to show is his/her credibility. There are several ways to present this:

1. Affliated or working at a gym
2. Certification
3. Appearance of excellent fitness (paramount, in opinion)

I noticed a couple of vans driving around with large graphics representing the driver as a "in home personal fitness trainer". I think it is part of a franchise. It seems like the low cost way to enter this field.

[cassiegose]

In opinion the only thing a personal trainer really has to show is his/her credibility. There are several ways to present this:

1. Affliated or working at a gym
2. Certification
3. Appearance of excellent fitness (paramount, in opinion)

I noticed a couple of vans driving around with large graphics representing the driver as a "in home personal fitness trainer". I think it is part of a franchise. It seems like the low cost way to enter this field.

I totally 100% agree that appearance makes a HUGE HUGE HUGE difference in showing credibility. You may be the best personal trainer in the world, however if you're walking around with your gut hanging over your pants you are most likely going to have a hard time attracting clients (IMO).

[Packard]

If you cannot design a health and wellness plan for yourself that works and that you can stick with, why would any one trust you to help them with theirs.

I feel the same way about dietitians. I do not trust a dietitian that is not fit, well and healthy.

I'm the same way: I can't trust a skinny baker, chef or confectioner.

[Boss Man]

There are however exceptions to the rule, like a Doctor with a sore throat or a mild cough for example, as even good Doctors can get unwell too

However that doesn't entitle you to prescribe them meds .