There is no better way to introduce this blog than to explain how my career as a fitness professional a personal trainer and the owner of the mobile fitness company has changed me forever.
After 9 years of working as a fitness professional here are the biggest eye openers I faced as a personal trainer.
1.Personal Trainers cheat too: When I first began in the fitness industry I was riddled with guilt. I ate healthy and I worked out at least 6 times a week. But on weekends I’d have my cheat days and enjoy sinful food. I thought all fitness professionals were clean one hundred percent of the time. I felt afraid. I didn’t want my clients to think I couldn’t follow my own advice. I felt inferior to other trainers because I lacked discipline.
Over the years I worked closely with Personal Trainers and I realized that all trainers cheated ( some more than others).
I learned that being an amazing trainer meant listening to your body, enjoying life and finding balance between hard work and play more than it meant taking it to the extreme and being too strict.
2. . The job of being a personal trainer is so much more than giving a few exercises and leaving:
Great personal trainers don’t just give exercises, they analyze your every move…. SERIOUSLY and not in a creapy way.
A million questions about my clients pass through my mind in a fraction of a second. Do I see imbalances? Are they masking a pain I need to know about? Are they working hard enough?Do they work too hard?
As a personal trainer 100% of your undivided attention is given to a client at all times.
While this is one of the elements I love about my job, it takes a lot of energy, concentration and attention to minute details. It is one of the main reasons you cannot be an amazing personal trainer if you see 8 clients a day everyday. Your attention weans and your level of work declines.
I’ve learned that amazing personal trainers see no more than 4-6 clients a day.
3. Personal Trainers don’t earn that much: I remember when I first thought about leaving the gym and taking on clients on my own. I saw the potential to earn $50 an hour. I thought Wow! If I work 8 hours a day I can earn $2,000 a week ! Not bad!
Well guess what, It’s completely untrue…
As an example, if your charging $50 or under as a personal trainer, your really earning less than $15 an hour:
Unless you’ve found an amazing way to double your home as a fitness studio, you’re traveling to your client’s homes. When taking into account your travel expenses, plus travel time (during which you can’t book another client) and then add the costs to advertise… well, your barely earning enough to survive.
The point being…
I learned exceptional trainers charge higher amounts, not because they’re trying to get rich. It’s because they’re just trying to survive doing with they love.
Trainers that charge too little wont stick around long in this industry.
4. Personal Trainers feel fat sometimes too…but it’s never validated: I don’t care what you do for a living. If you’re human, you’ve felt out of your skin at least once in your life. Personal trainers are no different. I feel “fluffy” sometimes too.
There’s one difference between clients who feel fluffy and trainers. The client’s can justify their feelings, but if a trainer feels overweight, well, we’re told we’re being ridiculous.
From a professional standpoint I completely understand. I mean, after all how can a weight loss professional feel overweight? It would appear completely out of context.
So somehow our emotions aren’t validated. We’re not allowed to feel fat.
Truth being told I know physically I may appear lean, but sometimes internally I don’t feel that way.
This has taught me so much about perception of others and how illegitimate our perceptions can be. it’s given me the ability to listen clearly to others without imposing my views. It has helped me to grow both professionally personally.
5. Being a personal trainer is one of the most intimate experiences I have ever known: I have the absolute privilege to step into other people’s homes, into their lives and to get to know them in a way that many jobs would never let you do.
Something happens when you ask someone how they are feeling… they tell you.
Through training I have heard other’s dreams and experienced the trials and tribulations that my clients go through. They have given me permission to look into their lives and I feel truly honoured.
For the most part, the client/trainer relationship takes on a whole new meaning where the fine lines of friendship and professional intermingle and (at least for me) with every new client it’s a life changing experience.
I wanted to share these 5 eye opening experiences with you in order to help everyone understand how both truly amazing and at times tough this profession of fitness can be.
What did you think?
Did this article change your views of the Personal Trainers?
What has been your experience of the fitness industry?