About becoming a personal trainer

[Kyle Aaron]

The way I understand it you don`t even need qualifications at all.There is no
government standard and the industry itself is largely self regulating.
Have you covered this area Kyle?Am I right in saying this?

In short, anyone can set themselves up to do it, they just have to hope no-one notices them, and most are never noticed.

Longer version...

As I've said before, "trainer" or "coach" are titles anyone can give themselves, hang up a sign and charge for clients - just like "counsellor" and the like.

Zarkov]If this is the case anyone could open a gym and provided you meet certain OHS ,public liability etc. standards you could freely operate.You may not get support and /or insurance from the industry`s bodies but could you do it?

To get complete insurance there must be someone qualified on the premises, it doesn't have to be every staff member, just one somewhere around at any time. The qualified staff member must also be a member of a recognised professional association, such as Fitness Australia. And someone has to have Level 2 First Aid. Nowadays that's part of both Cert III and IV, not because it's needed to be a trainer, but because all the gyms doing the hiring demand it - much easier to do rosters if everyone has it, if only a few have it you have to shuffle people around, a real headache.

Most state laws require only public liability insurance, so if say Jim drops a weight and it rolls over and breaks Bob's foot, you're covered.

But each council or shire has its own bylaws on operating businesses. Permits, OHS issues, etc.

There are all sorts of OHS issues with any business, a gym has a lot since like (for example) a warehouse, there are lots of heavy objects which can fall on people. But OHS laws are not well-enforced. Lots of businesses just open up and operate and don't worry about all the permits and insurance required. Most fly under the radar and get away with it, a very few get taken to court and basically destroyed.

It's much easier just to be a mobile trainer, have some equipment in your car and drive to meet clients.

Aside from all that there's the GST which businesses have to register to collect, and quarterly Business Activity Statements. Oodles of paperwork. Again, many small businesses never register for it, and hope just not to be noticed by the ATO. This works until you piss off a client or neighbour who then dobs you in out of spite and you face lots of back taxes and fines, and even more paperwork.

Not doubting his ability at all but it seems quals. aren`t essential.

They're not essential if you want to start your own business, no. But as I said at the start of all this - I already have my own business. To make your own business successful you have to be good at self-marketing. I can do it alright (not great, just alright) but I hate it. If I have to market myself heavily then I may as well just keep cooking.

I also can't stand all the paperwork associated with having your own business, the letters back and forth with the ATO, inspections by snooty council officers, all that crap.

So I want to be employed by someone else, let them do the marketing and I can just do the real work of the job. And to be employed by someone else, you do need qualifications. Markos' mate may be hiring unqualified lifters from Markos' gym, but this is not common.

Whatever some people here think of the worth of the qualifications, they can secure you employment. Obviously with so many qualified people around, you need to offer something else, too - communication skills, empathy, and so on.

Lastly, I'd like it if this thread could be more about the course and my experiences, and less about whether it's all just a waste of time and what a big ripoff con-job the whole industry is, "except of course PTC". It'd be good if it could offer information and entertainment to other people thinking of getting into the industry.

 

[CaT_SPeW]

maybe you should start a blog somewhere else then and not start a thread on a public forum

 

[Kyle Aaron]

Just expressing what I'd like. There's a whole forum waiting for people to start threads on whatever topic they like. Others may respect what I'd like or ignore it if they wish.

However, if it just continues as a discussion of how messed-up the industry is, there'll be no point in my posting about my experiences, I try not to post things nobody will read. If you don't want to read it, just don't. Others may want to, or not, I don't know. We'll see.

 

[Kyle Aaron]

Today we learned about the muscles of the shoulder. A complex thing, the shoulder.

The pectoralis major, anterior deltoid, medial deltoid, posterior deltoid, supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor, subscapularis and lattimus dorsi all insert on the humerus (upper arm bone). That's nine muscles just to make the upper arm move around. But they also help the shoulder move up, down, back and forth.

Then the upper trapezius, pectoralis minor and rhomboids major and minor insert on the scapula (shoulderblade) to pull it forward, back and around.

And as experienced lifters know, where your shoulders are during this or that exercise involving arms makes a big difference to how much strength you can put out there, whether it strains other muscles and so on. So we're learning the anatomical reasons behind that. Which will make it easier to remember what is good form for each exercise, and what to recommend to clients if they're having trouble with this or that exercise, and so on.

 

[The Hulk]

I'm supporting you Kyle.
It seems like the industy can only improve with someone like you involved, tru bro, not being sarcastic.

 

[Kyle Aaron]

Thanks mate, I hope I'll live up to it. If I fail it won't be from lack of effort, mate I hate all those stupid latin names. "With your front shoulder -"
"No, you have to say anterior deltoid," yeah okay.

 

[PTC]

Zarkov, an advantage I had before I started PTC was I was already in business. I have had my own business for years. Very easy to start a new business with all the infastructure in place. I had a good rep with my insurer, so the fact I had been doing this job BEFORE there were qualifications made getting insurance piss easy, same as all the tax stuff. My wife has had her first aid certificates etc.

The council have been round and discussed parking etc. They explained billboards, of which I have none. No parking on neighbours nature strips. Most of my neighbours train at PTC, no issue there anyway.

Everybody has been super supportive and helpful. This has been super easy compared to starting a business without ever having done it before.

its not for everyone though. When people ask me if going into PT is a good career choice, I laugh at them.

Kyle has expressed the numbers being churned out by these institutions, what a joke.

A PT that trained at PTC worked at Core earning $18 an hour. In 2009, with qualifications. Great career choice.

Another worked at FF, he quit after 7 months because he was going broke. They still kept deducting his "rent" from his bank account till his 12 months were up. He has gone into the armed forces now. Still, he's a qualified PT.

 

[Kyle Aaron]

I mentioned it in another thread, but it's a story of my days at PTI school so I repost it here but of course written more storyish.

The other day at lunchtime the boys discussed supplements. It was all creatine this and glutamine that and arginine the other, what about water retention and don't we need to cycle this supplement and how about nitrous man? Wonderful broscience.

A couple of them had bags with several bottles of pills, it was $46 for this bottle and $20 for that, I didn't ask how much they spent in all but it must add up quick...

Noodles was in this conversation, who as you'll remember is the strongest guy in the class, but he was also the fittest of the guys sitting there (got around 9 on the beep test).

But they were lecturing him about supplements, when really they should have been asking him about his training and diet. This never occurred to them, of course. So I said,

"Noodles is the strongest and fittest guy here, why don't you ask him about supplements?"
"Hey Noodles, what supplements do you take?"
"None, I don't really know anything about them."
"How about protein powder?"
"You mean like Milo?"
"See? Why should we ask him about them?"
"Because he's the fittest and strongest one here."
"Yeah but he doesn't know anything about supplements."

 

[lucku]

Lol @ the supplements conversation

 

[Kyle Aaron]

Yesterday I did 2x 2.4km runs. I was meeting a friend in the city for lunch, so I ran to the train station, then after lunch ran home. I wasn't pushing it, it was just a light jog. The first run was 13'30 and the second was 14'30", but of course I had a burger and fries in my guts to slow me down. Maybe knock 30' off to account for waiting for traffic. Still slow, but faster than I used to be.

Lol @ the supplements conversation

I posted it on another board, someone said, "oh maybe he just has good genetics."

Yeah, a legally blind albino with a bad back has great genes. I should ditch my woman and marry an albino woman and at least half my children will be supermen.

"It's their genetics" just means, "that person is really good so I'll point to something no-one can measure, prove or disprove so I have an excuse not to be like them."

Eat well, work your muscles hard, sleep well. The simple formula nobody likes to follow.

****, I am starting to sound like Markos!

If I go to PTC I will try to get Noodles to come along. If that's where he's starting, imagine where he could end up?!

 

[Kyle Aaron]

Today we went to the gym to train one another, we were supposed to treat the other as a complete newbie, run them through warmup, stretching, and 2-3 exercises. It's supposed to be very light stuff, really we're there to practice teaching rather than work out.

I got the Soviet boxer as my partner. "Okay, teacher give Australian method, I make Eastern bloc method!" This was a warmup that got me sweating, ballistic stretches, with lots of deep breathing. "Purpose of pushup is to help big breaths, good for lungs."

And then supersetted 45 degree leg press and curl, and decline situps and hyperextensions... with no rest between sets except the time to walk from one machine to another.

It was truly full range of motion stuff, on the down phase of the leg press I was stretched out like a woman giving birth.

He was pretty switched-on and obviously knew his stuff, as we squatted down for warmup he said, "something wrong with leg? no? back?" and I told him. Thus leg press instead of squats.
"My physio said -"
"Is doctor's opinion. This my opinion. Leg press!"
Erring on the side of caution, sensible

In class, we discussed various aerobic training, with people mentioning Boxercise, Body Combat, and so on. Soviet said, "ice water," and then explained that in Russia it was common to carve a hole in the lake's ice and jump in, treading water for ten or fifteen minutes, this was supposed to encourage deep breathing (!), promote circulation and recovery.

Pretty hard-core stuff. I think with Eastern Bloc Method you would either die or get stronger

 

[Josh_GTiR]

HAHA, well you must have got stronger today Kyle if you are here to tell us about it.

Something tells me he is possibly going to have a hard time keeping clients.

 

[Kyle Aaron]

Oh, he'll be alright, he is a friendly and amusing guy. And every trainer can find their niche, attract clients who like their particular style.

Anyway he's not looking for clients, he's doing the course to help him in coaching his son's soccer team.

I can think of several people in the class who are not likely to find employment or properly start self-employment, or if they find or start it, to keep it. However, I've tried not to mention them. That's because I prefer to mention only people who are interesting or remarkable in some way, and unless someone is outright rude like the one who was sensitive about her stats, I don't think it fair to speak negatively of them, except in generalities, "some people in the class," etc.

What I will say is what I was discussing with the teacher today. The subject of people failing came up. I said I thought no-one failed, unless they just didn't hand things in? She said that in fact some did.

On Cert III, people fail the anatomy exam. They get a second try, if they fail then that's that. This is an open book exam, but as it's time-limited, if you don't basically know the material then you'll have trouble. If you just can't remember how to spell "latissimus dorsi" you'll be alright. So you do have to make some effort to learn it. About 10% end up failing.

On Cert IV, people fail in two areas. The first is the business aspect - there's some figures, some budgeting. The younger people who still live at home sometimes have trouble with that. They've just not had the practice, not got the mindset.

The second area, which affects both Cert III and IV, is communication. There are practical exams where the teacher watches you introduce someone to the gym, give them the medical checklist, find out their goals and design a workout for them, and after that show them through it. These are fairly basic communication skills, and younger people, or people unemployed for 5+ years will often have difficulty with it.

The numbers and communication aspects together knock out about 25% of the students in Cert IV, she told us.

Given all that, I can immediately see who's likely to fail the course, and who if they go on to Cert IV will probably fail that, and who even if they pass will have trouble with employment. You have to talk to people, be interested in them as individuals and have a bit of empathy.

 

[breebreerocks]

Would love to see how the Soviet guy coaches a kid's soccer team...

The Eastern Bloc is responsible for the toughest exercises. Hate hearing the term 'Romanian', 'Russian' or 'Bulgarian' involved in any training move.

 

[Kyle Aaron]

I showed the PTC advert to one of my teachers yesterday, and am embarrassed to say that they did not know what the bands or chains on the bars were for.

The teacher also expressed surprise when I said, "I think lack of clear instruction for newbies is a major cause of their quitting in the first month or two - they don't know what they're doing, so they don't get results, so they give up."

"You're right, I never thought of that, and I'm involved in management, so it's good for me to think of that."

Sigh.

The teacher thought PTC looked great, "good basic lifts, if only everyone did that". But not for everyone. Or rather, it's good for everyone, but not what everyone wants. I mean, show the average middle-aged fat woman the overhead press, deadlift and squat, if you're lucky she'll do them once as you're teaching her, but then she'll leave the gym and never come back. So let her do what she wants, tricep kickbacks and endless sets of crunches. That was the philosophy, which I mention not to pick on the teacher, but just because it's how most gym managers think.

I say:- Get her doing what she wants, but then slowly introduce her to new things. Maybe if you give her three different ab exercises she'll accept the few sets of deadlifts. Because her mind is closed, it'll take time to open it. Or maybe her mind'll never open.

I was talking to a fellow student today who wanted six-pack abs - but wasn't interested in any other muscles. I tried to explain that this was mostly diet, and was best achieved not by endless sets of crunches but by developing the body as a whole - but another student interrupted me to tell me I was entirely wrong. I tried to point to the one guy in the class with six-pack abs, the guy's who an Olympic-style weightlifter who does no crunches - but they weren't listening, so I gave up. Closed minds, and anyway not my clients, just fellow students.

But you have to try. There was a film once about two Italian restaurants, one guy had the perfect Italian food, no compromises - but his business wasn't very successful. The guy up the street had steak and chips, bolognese sauce and the rest. The second guy said to the first, "You are a brilliant chef. But this is not what people want, it's what you want. First, get them in - give them what they want. Once you've got them, then you can give them what you want."

There must be over hundreds of gyms in Melbourne. There could not be hundreds of PTCs, unfortunately. Maybe half a dozen, tops. The rest, the best we can hope is that first we give them what they want - their treadmills and fitballs and endless sets of dumbell bicep curls - and then once we've got them, we can give them what we want, and what they actually need.

In this I differ from the teacher, who said we should always just give them what they want. I also differ from Markos, who says we should just give them what they need, if they don't like it, tough, bye-bye. I think there's a middle ground between those, and a learning process for clients. As they shed fat they can shed their preconceptions, too. Maybe. But you have to try, neither giving up nor telling them they're cocksuckers.

 

[lucku]

great thoughts !
thumbs up

 

[katie]

Actually I've been thinking about the chains on the barbell too (before I read Kyle's post). Is it so that it provides a progressive weight increase as the chains go off the floor? But why is this important?

 

[CaT_SPeW]

Is it so that it provides a progressive weight increase as the chains go off the floor?

yes

But why is this important?

it helps build strength at the top of the lift, very helpful when your having trouble "locking it out"

 

[Kyle Aaron]

I wouldn't expect trainees like you or I to know about it, Katie. Or even every gym instructor. But I would expect someone like a personal trainer to know about it, and certainly a gym manager or a fitness teacher.

The chains are useful for that progressive weight resistance as it goes up, yes - so that the press is more of a strain on the second part of the motion than the first part.

In the first part as it comes off your chest, it uses mostly pectoralis major in your chest; in the second part, it uses mostly triceps in your arms. So adding chains will put more stress on the triceps.

Often when doing compound lifts, people who've stalled in the reps/weight they can use will have stalled because one part is weaker than the other. If for example you can get it off your chest but can't lock out, then often (though not always) it's because your triceps are weak relative to your pecs. So this kind of exercise builds up the triceps' strength while still working the pecs - as opposed to just doing skullcrushers to build up tris, for example.

A description of the use of chains is here, though they express it in different terms, talking of speed - if you don't have good speed in your lift you won't get through that sticking point as you come to lockout, you need a bit of momentum behind you.

Of course you can also just lift a chain on its own, for example in a sort of clean-and-press; this will provide more resistance in the upper part of the motion, emphasising the shoulder more than the arms.

It's also psychologically helpful, since lifting chains feel even more hardcore than lifting plates. And the mind makes a big difference, especially when getting past our plateaus, even if the mind only adds 1%, well that could make a personal best!

It's just another tool in the shed of lifting

edit - posted at the same time as hyjak, don't mean to jump ahead of someone with more experience in it! Thanks mate.

 

[breebreerocks]

I say:- Get her doing what she wants, but then slowly introduce her to new things. Maybe if you give her three different ab exercises she'll accept the few sets of deadlifts. Because her mind is closed, it'll take time to open it. Or maybe her mind'll never open.

This is exactly what my mum's trainer did. Mum had done some light weight, but never too much because of the 'bulk' factor. Also used to watch me doing plyometrics and say she would never do that because she felt silly jumping.

Bit by bit, the trainer has introduced her to heavier weights and now she looks amazing! I was shocked because it is a woman trainer at a Fernwood. Having been to Mum's gym, the two of them must get some strange looks. Or maybe not... That would actually require other women to be in the weights room!