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About becoming a personal trainer

Definitely have a couple of sessions. I went and saw Markos and also a PT that runs out of where I did MMA
Another good idea is to offer other PTs free session on the condition they give you some pretty thorough feedback
 
Thanks for your replies guys.

I know the thing I need to learn most is structuring an effective program. When I go to the gym personally I do a range of exercises and weights but I don't know what muscle groups I'm missing etc. I hope the course will cover this? Or at least give me a good base knowledge which I can then expand upon.

Out of all the course I have read up on FIA seems to be the best in Sydney. So we will see how I go.

Next I am going to research potential future jobs because I don't want to have to pay rent, yet the majority of gyms in my area are fitness first.
 
The course won't give you exercise technique. For that, you need a competent trainer or strength and conditioning coach - just look for a powerlifting gym and an athletics club.

It's easiest to think of exercises in terms of movements, not muscles. Once you do that, all the zillions of exercises possible become much clearer.

Community gyms - council or YMCA-run - offer you actual pay rather than charging rent. Typically you'll get 1-3x 4hr shifts where you do just general gym work (initial consultations, writing up and showing through and reviewing routines, etc) at $18-$25/hr, and you build your PT on that, receiving $30-$40/hr for the hours when you're doing PT.

In a Fitness First or Genesis you pay $200-$400/week rent, but receive about 90% of the clients' session fees. Usually there's a range you're allowed to charge, from $20-$40 per half-hour. So basically you need 5 clients doing 2 sessions a week each, or some other combination giving you 5 hours' PT work, just to pay the rent. Works well if you're a real gun of a PT, otherwise you're in trouble.

Community/YMCA gyms are easiest starting out unless you're a natural salesman or have something which will give you a head start, like being a former famous athlete, or someone who'll let you use a place for free, etc.
 
Aaron (Austy) was kind enough to enquire after my own training. Since it's relevant to the lifestyle of a PT, I thought I'd answer it here. Some trainers do better than this, most do worse. We only have so much time and willpower to use in one day.

austy said:
How's your training going? You were having quite a few troubles with your knee when we met.
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Ordinary. With all the 0500 wakeups, shifts scattered from arsehole to breakfast-time and so on, it's hard to get decent nutrition happening to support the training - and training hard's not easy when you've had less than six hours' sleep the last three nights.

I was doing a heavy workout twice a week and worked up to some not embarrassing lifts. But with that, you miss one workout and you're stuffed. So I changed to having a light workout every day. My minimum is bodyweight exercise, being squats 4x25, pushups 4x25, and chinups a total of 25. Each day one or two of the three is a proper resistance exercise instead, for example yesterday I did barbell squats 60kg 1x20.

I have a good level of strength for everyday life and health, that's got to be enough for the moment. I don't expect training to improve in the near future, got a little one arriving in June, who will no doubt take a lot of my time and energy for a while. A better-organised man than me could still do well in training, plenty of others have. I use the resources I have. And I put my focus first on my family, secondly on my clients, what I need comes after that.

I get plenty of muscular endurance work and cardio in PT sessions. I'm often giving a workout where we get the kettlebells and do some swings, then run 50 metres, some rows, run 50, squats, run 50, and presses and run 50; sometimes a 200m run instead, depends on the client. Some need me to be doing the bells with them for them to get the technique right, at least for the first few sets, and if I run with them they tend to run faster. Adds up to about 10-30 swings, rows, squats and presses and 1km each half-hour session. Doing that for 10 of the 20 or so sessions a week, it adds up.

I have tested myself on a few things, and I still have what I consider to be adequate fitness for military life. Not just the official tests which are mostly just cardio fitness, but what I know is actually required in the job. That's my personal standard.

Knee twinges, back twinges, ITB flares up, so what, that's life.
 
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I'm a personal trainer at FF in brisbane and pay approx $580 a fortnight rent. I found that as a junior trainer there I was REALLY well supported by being fed clients and helpful training info from a lot of experienced guys. I was also told a lot of crap and have seen people give clients exercises I would dream of putting myself through.

over the first 3 months you are on 'floor hours' which is basically you clean the gym and talk to the members and help out instead of paying rent. Each 4 weeks your floor hours go down and your rent goes up.

eg 1-4 20 floor hours $0 rent
5-8 15 floor hours $100 rent (i couldn't tell you the exact amount)

you do sign a 12 month contract when you start up which involves a hefty franchise fee but if you have your head screwed on and are willing to listen and put in the work there is no reason you can't be successful there.
 

If you have your head screwed on right you would never agree to such one sided terms, imo.
 
I had a couple of friends looking to sign up with one of the big franchises and managed to talk them out of it. They're already thanking me after a couple of their friends started going backwards $$$ wise almost immediately and still havent turned the graph around
They're smart though, the big franchises. There will always be kids that like FF would be an awsome place to work, they get charged a fortune to sign, quit after 2-3 months but still have to pay for the 12 months they signed for
 
paxton999 said:
I'm a personal trainer at FF in brisbane [...]if you have your head screwed on and are willing to listen and put in the work there is no reason you can't be successful there.
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Thanks for your openness, paxton.

Could you tell us more? Like, are you past the first 12 months or still in it? And how many clients and/or weekly half-hour sessions do you need to break even, and how many to start earning a decent wage - eg at least full-time minimum wage equivalent? Is there a big turnover of clients? Stuff like that.
 

I'd say its almost 6 months now since i started.

before i signed (although i admit i was very rushed into it and didn't really get a chance to look around at options first) i was given a copy of the contract and urged to read it all, obtain legal advice and ask any questions i had.

my franchise fee was approx 1700 which includes uniforms and the week long induction course that covered most of the business aspects that i was absolutely clueless about (things like tax accounts, business tracking and planning etc). I've done inductions to plenty of things and was actually very impressed with this one, very thorough. Also had to pay 600 bond i think it was, just to make sure I'm not going to go breaking shit

my rent is 580 a fortnight, my current price list (which i was informed was WAY undercharging and could get away with a lot higher) is
1 session per week - 60
2 per week - 55
3 per week 50
students are flat 50 and half hours are 40.

approx 10 sessions a fortnight and I've covered my rent. By the time i was on full rent (see prev post) I was easily doing 40ish sessions a fortnight.

There is the downsides of fluctuations of income as everything you make from training is yours to keep (you are technically subcontracted to FF)

I've noticed from the start of training to now my turnover of clients has decreased a lot, my guess is due to my progress as a trainer.

I wouldn't recommend signing up straight out of your certs like i did unless you like loooong days and not a lot of reward for a good 8-12 weeks. But it is definately a place to make a good income as a trainer and you can develop your business the way you see fit. Any other questions I'm happy to answer
 
Remember income tax - which will be taken out of the gross income, not the gross income minus the rent. And of course GST. So -

Weekly at FF
20x 1hr @ $60/session = $1,200
- $253 income tax
- $290 rent
= $657 net

Now compare with my work,

Weekly at community gym
20 x1hr @$35/session = $700 [in fact I do 10hr, this is a comparison only]
- $87 income tax
- $0 rent
= $613 net

So if I did the same 20 PT hours as a guy from FF, we'd be the same, pretty much. (He might be worse off, I'm not sure about his GST.) Remember that at a community gym I get gym shifts - I'm paid to wander around cleaning, talking to gym members, introducing people to the gym, etc - all time when I can also be recruiting new clients. This will be at least one more 4hr shift at $22-$30/hr, so the community gym money is better (though at the price of an extra 4hr/week).

The FF guy has some control over his income, though - they can choose session fees from within a FF-set range. Naturally a new PT will be inclined to set fees lower to attract a base of clients. Whereas the community gym PT, the fee is the fee, and that's that.

The Hamburgler said:
So basically you're saying get experience elsewhere then, if you wanna swing that way, jump on board one of the bigger franchises?
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This is what I've said before: if you're a real gun of a PT, able to pick up new clients quickly and keep them, then financially-speaking a commercial gym would be the way to go.

But you don't know if you're a gun until you've been in it for a while. And a few aspects of it are simply the skills you get from doing the job for a while. So you'd want to work at a community gym as a startup.

As well, there are other things to consider. At a community gym you'll have more job security and a base income - even if you're a real slug of a PT or are working in Dookie or somewhere dead like that and get only 0-3 clients, or you started in winter or before Christmas when people rarely sign up for PT, you'll still get a few gym shifts to put food on the table.

And a community gym will do more community-oriented things. If you're the sort of person who likes to work with disabled people, or give your time to athletes and low-income people, well you won't be expected to and even can't do that at a commercial gym. This may be good or bad in your eyes, depends on you.
 
Yeah I was basically just reinforcing what you'd said haha . . .

I completely agree with what you're saying about needing experience before hitting up the big commercials
 
Rent will be a cost of doing business so it comes out pre-tax. Registering for GST is also optional depending on annual turnover. The outcome depends if you're paid as an employee or a contractor, as employees will most likely have the tax taken out automatically and then have to claim the rent back at tax time (though it would be strange for an employee to be paying rent to the employer).
 
See if I have to deal with all that stupid company tax shit, I may as well just have my own place and not have to clean anyone's treadmills.

Point is, you have to be doing very very well as a trainer for you to make more money at a commercial gym than a community gym, given the same PT hours worked. Likewise with setting up your own training/coaching business. There's a reason Markos didn't move out of his garage until he could get a place rent-free.
 
There's advantages and disadvantages for both setups but PT seems to be one of a few industries (I assume there is others I haven't thought of) where people will become their own business with overheads before doing the same or similar job as an employee first.
 
Cafes and restaurants are another. You wouldn't believe how many clueless yuppies start up thinking they'll spend their lives sitting around drinking wine with customers who are all their bestest friends.

Clothing and "craft" and homeware retail's another. Check out Toorak in Melbourne or Bondi Junction in Sydney, heaps of rich blokes' wives with little shops.

Happens in every industry. The main difference with fitness, I suppose, is that we have 18-25 year olds doing it, usually it's older people. They're all convinced they'll have six figure incomes in the first year. "$60-$100 an hour times 40 hours times 52 weeks..."

If you're really really good, start your own business, you'll make more money and have more freedom that way. If you're just good or okay or crap, work for someone else. Of course, everyone thinks they're really really good, especially the ones who aren't. Oh well.
 
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