Personal Training Blog

Hello and welcome to the Personal Training Blog section.  Here you will be able to read a bit about where I've come from and how things are going as regards personal training.

 

I qualified in 2004 as a Personal Trainer through Premier International.

The course itself was very good.  It taught you everything you needed to know about how to train a Personal Training client effectively and safely. The course was intense, every day 9-5 for 3 months solid. Tests every week both written and practical.  The course was broken up into different parts.  The first week was the basic Fitness Instructor part, then the advanced Fitness Instructor, then it was Circuit Training , Nutrition,  Body Massage and finally Sports Massage.

Sports Massage was the most intense part of the course.  Luckily for me I had done GCSE PE and A level PE, so learning about all the muscles wasn't so hard.  Some people found it difficult.  In the first week they couldn’t get their heads around the topics and had to leave and come back when the course started again.

In my opinion, the Sports Massage part of the course was the most valuable.  Throughout the course, right from the Fitness Instructor part we were learning techniques; how the body works, what exercises to do for each body part.  Sports Massage just gave me that extra understanding that makes me a more competent a trainer.  Sports Massage taught you about postural problems, how to look out for them, how to treat and correct them.  This understanding enabled me to incorporate my knowledge into Personal Training techniques. So, if someone has an anterior tilt or a kyphotic posture then I could identify this and concentrate on doing more work on the muscles that need it, in order to correct the posture, as well as give the client stretches to help with postural correction.  My point being that without completing the sports massage part of the course I would never have acquired this kind of knowledge which has enabled me to become a proficient Personal Trainer.

So, in conclusion, the course for teaching you how to be a brilliant Personal Trainer was awesome.  There was one major flaw though ... to be continued later today or tomorrow:) James

Below is the follow on blog...:

As I was saying Premier International, the company from where I qualifiied to become a Personal Trainer, was brilliant at teaching you how to train clients.  There was, however, a major downfall to the course.  This was the marketing aspect!  I'd say 90% of the people on the Personal Trainer course, never actually worked as a personal trainers!  We all spent about £4,000 each on the course, yet probably the most important aspect was never covered -  how to actually raise interest in what we do and actually make a living from it?  All who qualified were very good Personal Trainers yet very, very few knew how to market effectively!

At the time, I was convinced that once I qualified as a Personal Trainer, Sports and Body Masseur, Nutrionist and Circuit Training Class Instructor that I was going to earn loads and have a fantastic career doing something I loved.  At the start of my fitness career this was far from the truth!  Once I qualified as a Personal Trainer I started to look for work.   I soon found out that a Personal Training Company was setting up a one to one studio in the Five Ways area in Birmingham.  So I went along, met the owner and he convinced me that his idea was going to work.  His idea was simply to offer one to one personal training but also sell fitness equipment to the public/clients.  At the time he convinced me that all this would work, the location, the services, everything.  To an extent it did.  I managed to get a few personal training clients, sell some fitness equipment and even do a sports massage or two.  It took a while though to get a few personal training clients and sell some fitness gear!  There were other trainers who were working with me who never got any business and had to leave.  So in the end it was just me.  I opened and closed the studio and promoted the place but gradually I became more and more disillusioned.  The business wasn't doing so well, the clients I had couldn't afford the personal training anymore.  All this helped me to lose confidence and ulitmately, I left.   In hindsight, the location was terrible!  Hidden away from view.  Selling fitness equipment to clients? The idea is they come to you to be trained because they lack the motivation to train themselves not to buy gear so they can train at home for a day and then give up!  Anyway, after leaving, I was unemployed for about 9 months which affected my confidence.  I applied for loads of jobs not just in fitness, anything!  Every job I went for I was over-qualified.  Eventually I managed to get a job working as a fitness instructor at the local leisure centre.

 

It was here that I managed to regain some belief and eventually realised that to make anything of myself I would have to go it alone. This part of my story I have mentioned in earlier blogs so I'll skip this bit.  At the time I thought the Birmingham venture was a complete waste.  This was not the case.    It was a valuable learning curve and It also made me stronger and more resilient which are qualities necessary when you have to carry on when things aren't g oing so well.  Also It helped me understand to an extent how to use marketing and how to deal with people. Marketing is something that 'Im learning all the time.  This was never covered on my personal training course.  So as I say, my fitness career didn't start as well as I had hoped, though it's doing ok now I'm pleased to say.  I guess a lot of the time when things aren't going so well you either give up or try harder.  I gave up originally but found the courage to give it another go.

Hope you enjoyed reading this.