So in my last post I had passed my PT course, since then Ive set up my new website (small changes still need doing). This site obviously advertises me as a Personal Trainer in Essex and my services. Hopefully this can bring in some interest, however i believe the best way to generate clients will be getting out there, setting up classes (which i still haven’t done, despite my previous post saying that I am) and distributing lots and lots of flyer’s.

As well as targeting my local area, I have since gained a position in Fitness First Covent Garden as a self employed Personal Trainer. This works by me paying them a weekly rent, and in return i get access to there members and the use of there facilities. I’ll be doing this whilst doing my current 9-5, so its going to be a little busy for a while, but totatlly worth it, im sure.

Having spoke to members of various Fitness First gyms, there does seem to be a need of Personal Trainers and they are becoming very popular to use amongst Fitness First members, which of course, is good for me.

I start in a couple of weeks, so will really need to work my ass of to generate enough interest in my services and start to obtain some Personal Training clients. I think that’s going to be the toughest part of the job, which after a while  I hope will become easier as word of mouth will spread.

As always, thanks for reading. I will keep you posted on how i get on with Fitness First and training people locally.

Ciao

Like my nutrition case study, I needed 80% or more to pass. I got 86%, which means I passed with a “credit”, which is better than passing with a “pass” but not as good as a “distinction”, but who cares…? I Passed??

So what now? well I’m going on holiday today for a week, so I’ll have a think about what I want to do, i.e. work in a gym? set up my own business or a bit of both.

I have my Brother working hard on my new website: www.trainerchrisspring.comwhich advertises my services, so that’s a start.

Am well chuffed. Now its time I take a well earned rest for a week and get a nice tan to show some definition

Thanks for reading.

Due to the Volcanic Ash in Europe I was stranded in New York for 3 days… but that doesn’t really account for my absence over the last 4 months. I guess Ive been lazy busy.

So any news on my Personal Training? Well for the last 3 months i’ve been doing my Nutritional adviser course and case study and my Personal Trainer Course.

First, the Nutritional Advisor. For this I had 8 weeks to learn the material via Future Fits online learning system, which is great and also annoying. Then after the 8 weeks I had to get a real life client and begin a 8 week Nutrition course with them. This involved collecting Diet diaries, educating them on Nutrition and physical activity, making changes to there diet etc.

The course as a whole, I found, was pretty interesting and of great benefit to anyone wanting to become a Personal Trainer or Fitness advisor, as we all no that making changes to your body is 30% training and 70% diet. As they say, muscles are built in the Kitchen, not the gym. Whilst this course doesn’t teach you specific sport Nutrition (Future Fit has a separate course for that, which I will start in August) it does teach you the importance of Proteins, Carbs and Fats and what they all do to your body. You also learn about the Macronutrients (Vitamins and Minerals) and also how food is broken down by the body.

You then have to take this information and apply to it a client (family member of friend) and record your results and submit a case study at the end. The actual case study was pretty easy, even if you are unable to complete the course with your client (mine got lazy and hard to work with). The questions on the case study practically require text book answers, and that’s what I mostly gave.

The pass mark for this course was 80%. I received my score last week and passed with 83%. The great thing about the marking is that they provide you with comments on how things could be improved, so it serves for future purposes. Also, if you receive under 80% you can re-submit the case study and just amend certain questions you scored low on, so with the help of the markers comments, you should pass on the second attempt.

The second course im doing is my Personal Trainer course, this involved a 5 day work shop which I attended in January, followed by a 12 week case study with a client. Now if you’re an idiot like me and do both courses at the same time, id suggest using 2 different people for each case study, otherwise it gets confusing.

Im going to start writing my case study next week for this course, so will write about it here in my next post… which wont be as long as 4 months, I promise.

Thanks for reading.

Today I was pointed to the following article: “10 Reasons Why A Trainer Might Be Right For You“.

The article gives 10 reasons why a person looking to get fit should invest in a Personal Trainer to achieve their goals. Just quickly, they are:

Motivation

Lose Weight

Read the article, as this goes into more detail on the above points.

Whilst this article is good for people wanting to employ a Personal Trainer in researching their objectives, it is also a good list to look at for potential Personal Trainers. As we need to know, what clients are looking for when taking up the services of a Personal Trainer. We need to provide Motivation to them and help them Break through Plateaus etc. Therefore it’s a good idea to prepare yourself for these.

Obviously gaining your qualifications will help you achieve a number of skills to help train your clients. But its important not to forget why it is your clients are coming to you for help.

The article then progresses and advises people seeking Personal Trainers to ask the following questions:

• What are your qualifications and certification?

  A qualified personal trainer has an education in physiology, health promotion, athletic training, kinesiology or a similar field. They should have first aid and CPR certification as well as certification from a reputable organization such as ACSM, ACE, IDEA, YMCA, NSCA or similar.

• Do you have liability insurance?

  They should answer yes.

• What are your policies and procedures?

  A personal trainer should have a documented policy explaining their services, costs, cancellations, length of contract, and emergency procedures. They should also require a medical clearance form to be completed before they work with you.

• Finally, you should feel comfortable with the trainer, his/her style of communication and the expectations of your time together.

Therefore its important to be able to to answer yes to all these questions. Will I have the right qualifications? Yes, thanks to Future Fit, I will gain REPs level 3 and be able to be a Personal Trainer. As for the CPR certification, I will defiantly be gaining this, as it is a useful skill to have in life.

Do I have liability insurance? Not at the moment, but if working in a gym you don’t need it, however if working on your own, then it is essential and will be the first thing I get.

What are my polices and procedures? Well I have thought of a few different payment plans that I could offer and will have a fully operational website up and running where my clients could view my policies and procedures at any time.

Will people feel comfortable with me? Well I’m pretty awesome, I should think so.

Base most of your meals on these 12 groups of foods. Every meal should have at least two foods from the list.

• Almonds and other nuts

Includes: Almonds, Brazil Nuts, Cashew, Walnuts.

Don’t have: Salted or flavoured peanuts

• Beans and pulses

Includes: Soya beans, pinto beans, chickpeas, haricot beans, black beans, cannelloni beans, kidney beans, lima (butter) beans, green beans, lentils, peas, hummus, edamame (green Soya beans). There packed with protein, iron and fibre, which helps you both build muscle and lose weight.

Don’t have: Refried beans high in saturated fat or baked beans high in sugar.

• Spinach and other green vegetables

Includes: Spinach, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, asparagus, peppers, lettuces. Green vegetables, particularly spinach, have the power to protect you against heart disease and stroke. broccoli is loaded with calcium and vitamin c.

Don’t have: Iceberg lettuce (which contain no vitamins minerals  and little fibre unlike other kinds of lettuce, such as romaine or rocket)

• Dairy skimmed or semi-skimmed milk, low-fat or none-fat yogurt and cheese)

Includes: Milk, yogurt, cheese, cottage cheeses
Calcium has shown to be a key ingredient in weight loss. Used as a base for smoothies, semi-skimmed low-fat milk helps give smoothies volume to keep your stomach full and you satisfied.

Don’t have: Whole milk (high in fat) frozen yogurt (high in sugar).

• Instant hot oats cereal (unsweetened, unflavoured)

Includes: high fibre cereals: Oats contain soluble fibre, which helps lower your cholesterol. oats has shown to sustain your blood sugar levels longer than many other foods. That ensures you won’t be ravenous for several hours afterwards and you’ll keep your metabolism fast.

Don’t have: Cereals with added sugar or high-fructose corn syrup.

• Eggs

Includes: eggs and egg whites. The protein found in eggs is more effective for building muscle than protein from other sources. Remember the whites are the good part and the yellow is the fatty part.

• Turkey and other lean meats

Includes: Turkey, chicken, fish (especially salmon and tuna) shellfish, extra lean steak, ground beef, rump, fillet.
since your body uses more energy to digest protein than it does to digest carbohydrates or fat you’re burning more calories simply by eating protein but protein also helps build muscle and keep you replete. the best tactic is to split your primary meat choices between fish and poultry with occasional portions of red meat. fish is loaded with polyunsaturated fats and chicken and turkey have the lean protein to build muscle.

Don’t have: Sausage, bacon, cured meats, ham, fatty cuts of steak.

• Peanut butter

Almond butter all natural and sugar-free or peanut butter:
it contains monounsaturated fats which have been shown to help keep you full, and its also one of those sinful-tasting foods that help add variety and taste to your diet

Don’t eat: Sugary brands or trans fatty peanut butters. 2 table spoons a day only.

• Olive oil

Olive oil: olive oil rebreed (canola) oil peanut oil sesame oil.

• Wholegrain breads and cereals

Wholegrain bread, wholegrain cereal, brown rice, whole wheat pasta:
whole wheat means that the unrefined parts of the product that contains important nutrients and fibre remain. all-white breads and pasta don’t contain those fibre-rich elements that help your digestive system. wholegrain foods keep your insulin levels low so you’re less likely to store fat.

Don’t have: White breads ,bagels, doughnuts breads labelled as ‘wheat’  or ‘brown’ instead of ‘wholegrain’ or ‘whole-wheat.

• Raspberries and other berries

Includes: raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, cranberries and other fruits like apples.
Berries are a powerful sources of cancer-fighting antioxidants, and they also contain fibre to keep you fuller longer.
The most powerful berries are blueberries they are the daddy in antioxidants and they are loaded with soluble fibre.

• Other

Extra-Protein (whey) powder
Whey protein is high-quality protein that contains amino acids, which build muscle and burn fat, it has the highest amount of protein for the fewest number of calories.

This got my wondering how much money is actually in the Personal Training business. Since its something I want to get into, its something that I should really look into.

A quick Google Search “is there money in personal training” returned this article (it also showed this site as number two in the search results – touch!!)

The article is based in the US, so the figures mentioned aren’t really correct for me, as I’m in the UK, although there are things that I can take from this.

Working in a main, wealthy City, will mean a higher premium can be charged – lucky for me, I aim to work in London, the biggest, wealthiest City in England.

Obviously experience is a key factor, the more experience, knowledge and history you have in the job, the more money you can charge a client. So starting out will mean having to charge less than an experience PT. But this will also likely to lead to younger, newer gym goers being more keen in your services as they haven’t got the big bucks to pay out for the big boys of the Personal Training World.

Who to work for? Being self employed and working for yourself we mean you get set your charges and keep the money you make. This isn’t the case if you work in a gym, where you may get paid a set salary, or a % of the charge they charge a client for an hours Personal Trainer work. But as a beginner, working in a gym will be key to getting your client base up.

To summarise, perhaps the earning potential as a novice in the Industry isn’t fantastic, but as the years go on and the experience and client base rises, the money will rise with it, perhaps even as a high as a 6 figure sum.