About becoming a personal trainer

Naw, I prefer meeting other students and instructors, people who work in the industry, and getting that practical experience in a gym instructing/training. A chance for contacts and learning little bits and pieces you'd never learn from books.

I can visit PTC enough anyway

Mate you will learn more from ptc then any trianing course in the country.




I am going to do mine through tafe.

It only costs $50 if you are unemployed.

I already know what they are going to try and teach me is useless its only a piece of paper...

n00bs said:

Mate you will learn more from ptc then any trianing course in the country.

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Maybe so.

The only thing that puts me off PTC is the relentless promotion of it, the hard sell puts me off. I'm planning on going once a week, if you want to make sure I don't, keep telling me all book-learning is useless and Markos' instruction is all I need. That's why it took me two months to visit it for the first time - nobody would shut up about it.

When Markos can give me a Cert III & IV let me know

I want and need both book-learning and experience.

I think that is a good outlook, to get experience from both. By going to PTC you are already getting more than most PT's get anyway it would seem.

As you have said, Markos cannot give you a cert 3 or 4.

He would be an entertaining teacher, though.

Get this, a guy that I talk to a bit at the gym was there for training again last night. He is a nice guy with some decent arms on him. Anyway, Alison his PT was just about to give him another session and I said make sure he deadlifts and squats. Her response, he is not a legs guys. HAHA! What the? So he doesn't have legs?

You are shaping out to be light years ahead of these PT's.

Well, you cannot make anyone do anything... if the guy won't train legs, he won't train legs.

I just aim to be ahead of most in at least suggesting they do something other than chest & biceps or cardio... maybe even encouraging them...

Read a great article by Dan John recently.

Dont ask me about this unless you are doing that.

Can you see where I'm headed with this. Nick made a point to you that you dont need to be spreading this rubbish, suggesting and what not.

Everybody needs to squat and deadlift. Period. I showed you how a guy with sco whatever the f u c k its called can deadlift.

Dont teach them bench till they squat.

great article, would be wasted on a book taught and certified PT though.

Dan John is how I found out about Tabata Thrusters Kyle.

That's a good way. If they Squat, then you can let them Bench. If they Deadlift, then you can let them Bicep Curl.

However, I do think it is the PT's responsibility to steer them in the right direction. Can't you just give it to them plainly, ie. if you want to get bigger and stronger than these guys around here, you have to be doing that. Legs are your foundation, and by training them you will be putting on size all over your body (squats and deads). I asked my PT about it last night, he said it is because most people are soft. That is why he only trains athlete's and boxers etc. Because they want to do the stuff that will make them strong.

I am trying my hardest to get people to do them at my gym, they just shrug it off. I guess it seperates the little bitches from the strong and determined. Even a strong guy last night that was doing Leg Press, I explained to him that Squats for legs is the equivalent of Bench for Chest. Still nothing.

PTC said:

Dont ask me about this unless you are doing that.

Can you see where I'm headed with this. Nick made a point to you that you dont need to be spreading this rubbish, suggesting and what not.

Everybody needs to squat and deadlift. Period.

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Agreed. However, that's an approach which only works if you have your own place to teach, and can pick and choose your clients.

I don't expect to be doing that straight away. I can easily see this happening:

Kyle: "So mate, this is the squat."
Client: "I don't want to squat, I walk that's my leg work, what about a bicep curl."
Kyle: "Don't ask me about bicep curls until you squat. You'll get more growth squatting and curling than from curling alone."
Client: "I'll just curl more."
Kyle: "Here are some pictures of guys who squatted a lot. Big, aren't they? And in my experience -"
Client: "Naw I just wanna curl."
Kyle: "Look, you must squat."
Client: "Fuk you I'll train with someone else."
Gym manager: "Kyle you idiot we just lost another client because you won't give them the training they want. You're fired."

When you work for yourself, you can do things however you want. When you work for someone else, you have to compromise. Same in any job.

It's easy to mouth off and say, "well tell them to bugger off." But most of us have to compromise a bit in our lives.

Maybe in a few years when I'm qualified and experienced and can set up my own place, I too can be uncompromising and tell them if they don't like it they can leave. Until then...

We've been through this before, fellahs. Markos can talk - he's set up his own business. He's put it all on the line, betting the dinner on his family's table that he can make it work. I'm not willing to do that just yet, and I know few of you have done that, either.

I'll show you a better way

CLIENT: Where do we start
PTC: We build a base, without it we cant improve
CLIENT: What do you mean
PTC: Think about a Pyramid, wide base, higher peak
CLIENT: I see
PTC: Get under the squat rack and do 10 reps
CLIENT: How deep
PTC: As deep as you can go without rounding your back

If the client knows you have squatted 200kg to go with your 150kg bench, there is a fair chance he will think you know what you are talking about.

If your a weak runt, he will question everything you tell him.

Human nature.

Yet another reason I am trying to improve my strength

Still, you can't get through to everyone, and you know that. At least not straight away. In your conversation, the client was open-minded and asking questions. Not all are like this, unfortunately, as you've told us many times in your newsletters and stories.

If I have my own place, great, I can shrug and wave them good-bye. If I'm employed by someone else, then I have to compromise.

It's like the training partner I'm supposed to have. I ran him through some decent training, he didn't come back, made excuses, went back to his bicep curls and tricep pushdowns and forearm curls.

He's just my training partner so that doesn't matter, I'll get another one or keep training on my own. But if he were a paying client of a gym I'm employed by, then that would be a problem - for me.

I'll lift heavy and work hard and try to be a good example of what can be achieved, but... you can't reach everyone. Unless you're independent, you can't be independent.

The point is Kyle, that the client comes to you for advice. You dont ever allow him to dictate. Its like a work place. An apprentice chef wont tell you what to do. Think of a client as an apprentice.

If he knows more than you, whats he paying you for?

I feel you need to be stronger towards them, you'll get more respect. The first time they get out of doing something you asked them to do, they'll sense your not real sure about what your doing.

Its all downhill from there unfortunately.

An apprentice comes (usually) to an artisan master admitting they know nothing, and expecting to learn so that they can then go on to be a journeyman or master and have their own apprentices.

A good customer comes to the artisan wanting a certain product, admitting they know nothing about how to make it, and trusts in the artisan's instructions.

A bad customer comes to get a certain product, often believing they know more than the artisan about making the product, may or may not accept the results, and then leaves.

In the case of physical training, some clients behave as apprentices, and some behave as customers, both good and bad. Some of the bad ones can become good given time, and given as Fadi and Markos say, communication skills, knowing your stuff, and looking and acting the part. As Markos says, you can be strong towards them; some time in uniform taught me a bit (not a lot, but a bit) about projecting authority.

Now, in the kitchen it is rare for the customer to be so bad that they'll actually walk into the kitchen to tell the chef what to do - but it does happen. More commonly, the bad customer will be very precise in their instructions as to how their food must be cooked, and when it's made, will argue that it wasn't really produced the "right" way.

With physical training, we get more bad customers than in restaurants because the "dish" is the person's own body. They have a greater interest in how it's prepared. With cooking, in the end it's the chef sweating making the dish; with physical training, it's the client who does the sweating. So we get more customers telling the trainer their job.

Naturally a physical trainer will be happiest if their clients have the attitude of apprentices. But some will only be customers, and some of those customers will be bad ones. A self-employed physical trainer will - when successful - be able to dismiss the bad customers; one employed by others won't.

I've said before, I don't expect to be successful with everyone. But I will give it a bloody good go.

I guess I'm just lucky then Kyle, I've never had a client that wont do what I ask or tells me what they want to do.

I'm obviously oblivious to this type of client as I didnt think they existed.

I suppose they go elsewhere

PTC said:

I guess I'm just lucky then Kyle, I've never had a client that wont do what I ask or tells me what they want to do.

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Well, you have had people come and then not come back... I believe you once mentioned to me going to restaurants and being unhappy with the food, and said you didn't send the food back or complain, you just paid, left, and didn't go back to the restaurant.

The other thing is that your website and newsletters will put off a lot of bad customers. We know they've put off some good customers, too... a few have been put off and then eventually come and enjoyed themselves anyway, so there must be some who were put off and didn't come.

PTC website said:

I won't tolerate lifters not trying to better themselves. A poor attitude goes through a gym like cancer. All I ask of the lifters there is that they try their hardest to improve. [...]

When you first come to PTC, it's best advised that you check your ego at the door. A poor attitude will not be tolerated.

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So it's not luck, it's that you told the bad customers not to come. It's obvious from that, your newsletters and forum posts that you just wouldn't tolerate a client telling you how it should be done. In this way, you screen out the troublesome ones before they even arrive.

Again, a trainer employed by someone else couldn't do that. Having some choice in the clients you have makes a big difference in any job.

True that Kyle

PTC said:

True that Kyle

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Mmmm, : "true that"; where did you get that expression Markos? My 16 year old says it and I thought it may be one of the latest "lingo" these days. Did you get it from your kids, or am I way behind the times here?

You guys are having a very fruitful discussion here; very impressive, informative, and different. This was a sideline (and very enjoyable I might add) observation. Thank you both.


Fadi.