Personal Training: Good Career Switch?

Have fun working with all the suburban, overweight, stay at home moms who want to lose weight without actually doing anything.

CSCS wrote:

Have fun working with all the suburban, overweight, stay at home moms who want to lose weight without actually doing anything.

Right, but it ain't all like this...

I was a trainer for five years. There are a lot of variables here: how big is the city you live in? What is the market saturation like? Can you find enough runners to make a living in that niche market?

I would definitely recommend taking some instruction. Despite how easy the job looks, there is a LOT you need to know. ACE is an okay certification.

The NBFE or NASM would better. I started out with AFAA, which is bare bones. If you're working with runners specifically, I would look at some of the USATF stuff.

If you're willing to work hard and build your client base, you could do quite well. I will caution you though: be ready to get up VERY EARLY to meet clients before work, and to stay up late to meet clients well into the evening after work; you could be twiddling your thumbs during the day, or training geriatrics at noon. In short, there are possibly going to be big gaps in your schedule; it's not a profession I would recommend if you have a lot of family/significant other obligations.

Just my $.02.

if you want to work with collegiate or developmental athletes taking an exam and calling yourself a trainer will not be enough. Besides the NASM certification (the direction which I went) you might consider NSCA. NSCA is the certification to get if you intend to focus on Olympic lifts and collegiate training. Consider internships as well.

look up the following, learn and read their material, they are the big shots in the industry.

Mike Boyle, Eric Cressey,Dan John, Mike Robertson, Joe Kenn, nick winkelman, dos remedies, mark verstegan, alwyn cosgrove, Patrick ward.

I'm in SF. It sounds like NASM or NSCA is the way to go over ACE....I have USATF Level 1 (waste of time) and USTFCCCA Endurance Specialist Cert (much better) but still don't feel like I could build a top-notch runner from the ground up with either of those.

I would say it is less about the knowledge the certs give you than the credentials, re: training distance runners. I assume you already *know* how to train distance runners? If you are going to be doing any resistance training, I would definitely recommend a course. Have you had any success as a runner (All-American, placed well at big races, records, etc.)? Sometimes these are a big selling point. I won a few fairly big regional races around here and it helped my business more than just about anything else. To the general public, winning a small to medium sized marathon makes you elite.

Being in a larger metropolitan area will surely help. Just find your niche and starting building your client base. In my experience, the best advertising I had was existing clients; do a good job, get them results, and word of mouth will bring in business.

Ustfccca has a strength training course for runners now, perhaps you should look into that. The experts talk of finding your niche in the training industry. After retiring from teaching mine will be in training the elderly during the day and coaching during the late afternoons.

You want to work with very good athletes, not as easy as it seems unless you do an internship and network from there.

I'd look into an Nasm or Nsca certification and get the Ustfccca credential in strength training and go from there.

If you want to train distance runners get your Ex.Sci or Kines. Degree, and your NSCA-CSCS then go work as a strength and conditioning coach.

NSCS-CSCS and the ACSM-HFS are the gold standard. Both require a bachelors. NASM is the lead in the next tier. Lots of good certs (more $ for NASM). If no degree, get the NASM and NASM-PES. ACE is garbage. AFAA is garbage.

In a personal training setting you will likely never work with serious runners.

I worked in personal training and corporate wellness. If you want benefits like vacation days, health insurance, or 401k work in corporate wellness.

It's a fun job, but you will work mostly from 5-7am and then from 4-8 pm.

Unless you own your own studio you will not make more than 30-50k and that's a stretch. Well, unless you live in a high cost of living area, which 100k = 50k anywhere else.

90% of your clients will be well to do 30-50 year olds, mostly women.

Alan

icy mike wrote:

Thinking of becoming a full-time personal trainer focussed on working with developmental and collegiate runners, but probably will have to take anyone I can get starting out. Anyone gone this route? Did you pay for the certificate program or just take the ACE exam?

Salaries seem to be all over the place--from the poverty level to 6 figures. If anyone has any info on this they want to share that would be awesome.

Go NSCA or NASM. I like the corrective exercise focus of NASM, but I think philosophically I line up more with NSCA CSCS (if you have a college degree). Although I think credentials matter less (as long as you have something) than results do.

The field is a tough one. Can be very long hours and while you might want to focus on developmental and collegians consider that that is a pretty small clientele. College athletes are going to have access to free strength and conditioning through the college most likely. Is a developmental athlete going to be able to pay you?

I know a fellow in my town making 6 figures as a personal trainer. He has been at it for about 10 years and is fantastic and meeting people and then selling them. He has had great results, but it took him a lot of years working crappy hours to build a client base.

At first you are going to need to pay the bills and be willing to take overweight clients wanting to lose fat. (Actually they can be a great population to work with).

icy mike wrote:

Thinking of becoming a full-time personal trainer focussed on working with developmental and collegiate runners, but probably will have to take anyone I can get starting out. Anyone gone this route? Did you pay for the certificate program or just take the ACE exam?

Salaries seem to be all over the place--from the poverty level to 6 figures. If anyone has any info on this they want to share that would be awesome.

Being someone with a Bachelors in Exercise Science, NASM certification and that has worked as both a collegiate track coach and a personal trainer. It is in my experience that your search to "train" college runners as a personal trainer would be limited. What you could do is apply for the personal training gig and say you are only able to work part time, the first half of the day. There is large turn over in the industry so don't be scared to do so because they usually need a lot of people, especially during "break" seasons. What this does is squeezes all your time to client time. Most gyms if you aren't working clients but on the clock you are only getting paid minimum wage. I know a TON of trainers that do that. Or could just work the 4am- 1230pm/1pm.

To gain a significant experience from working with runners you could do then volunteer at a community college t&f / cc program and build up rapport with the athletes and coaches and start to help train in the weight room or train some of the athletes at your gym (after they trust you). Most community colleges don't have strength and conditioning coordinators because there just isn't enough money.

Hopefully some of this helps. None of this matters though if you don't get those national certifications!!

Thinking of becoming a full-time massage therapist focussed on working with actresses and bikini models, but probably have to take anyolefatti I can get starting out. Anyone gone this route?

Also, anyone else had trouble blocking Kate Upton from texting all the time?

How many collegiate runners have money to spend? Not much. College-age runners are getting an education first, and running second. Running is not ball sports, students don't get a free pass.

How many colleges would budget for a running coach? I don't know the answer to this question.

If the goal is to run a business that makes money, unless you have an automatic in for a gig at a college, it's going to be tough to make anything from college-age runners.

It's going to be even less likely you would develop national-level talent given the way USATF operates.

From a business perspective, execs who want to run faster are your best market.

OP,

What is your career now?

How old are you?

Part-time xc and track coach with a team that does well, part-time mulch spreader.

30 years old.

I have a BA and MA in worthless areas (English and German). Ok, not worthless, but not what I want to do. Don't want to teach high school.

Want to train runners in whatever way I can privately and keep my coaching gig.

You should be able to convince the average joe and sally sue that you know what you are doing if you simply use the proper lingo. Use phrases like:

"Build a strong aerobic base"

"Open up with some srides at 80-90%"

"Run easy to flush the lactic acid"

"Eat a balanced diet"

"Train hard, rest harder"

"plyometrics strengthen muscle imbalances"

"Tempo run"

"Vo2max interval"

"Maximum oxygen uptake"

"Running economy"

"Lactate threshold/buffering"

"Hill bounding"

"Rest/stretch/ice injuries"

"Fartlek running" (try not to crack up with this one otherwise that might undermine your percieved authority)

"Glygogen depletion"

"Long slow distance"

... Etc.

In fact maybe i should start charging people for this advice as well...

Dude, 90% of coaches say all of that already. 5% actually know what it means.