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What's the best Personal Trainer course? I'm in Melbourne

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lizzyjean

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I'm new here, and am interested in becoming a personal trainer, have been for a while now. My only issue is that I'm a stay at home mum and not willing to put our son in childcare (oh, and I do work Saturdays from 9 - 2), so I need to find a course that has either a part time evening option or is able to be completed by correspondance.

Just wondering if anyone knows of one? I found info about the Holmesglen TAFE course (did a search here to find that out, a thread by KyleAaron). That looks pretty good, but if anyone knows of others that are also good I'd love to know.

Thanks :)
 
I cannot recommend Holmesglen TAFE - obviously you didn't read the whole thread. I did Cert III there, and in all honesty learned very little I didn't know already, and had to ignore some things I did know so I could pass.

For Cert IV, I've gone on to RMIT.

I can recommend RMIT and CAE is well-spoken of, too - the guy in charge of the RMIT one teaches the postural assessment stuff at CAE. The industry's a small one in many ways.

Don't even click links on the AIF site, once they have your details they nag you for months.

If you contact me privately, we can talk and discuss things easily.
 
Thank you so much for that! I had a look at the RMIT one, the hours really suit me so I'll look into that further. How much does that course cost?
 
$3,100 or something like that for the RMIT one. However, this doesn't include Level 2 First Aid - that was one advantage of Holmesglen, it was included in Cert III.

I did just Cert III at Holmesglen for $700 or so, and Cert IV at RMIT for $1,600. Education is like anything else, it can be good, fast or cheap, maybe two, usually only one, never all three. Holmesglen is cheap, RMIT is fast and good.

I recommend the full-time course over the part-time one. RMIT's part-time one is 12 weeks with 1x 3hr evening and 1x 6hr day each week, for 36x 3hr sessions in all. The full-time course is 6 weeks of 4x6hr days each week, for 48x 3hr sessions in all. So you get 1/3 more lesson time for the same cost. And there's a lot of material to cover.

But then you'd have to wait until November this year to get into it. If you're impatient, I recommend Cert III at some TAFE, then you can walk into Fernwood or Contours or some place like that, this gives you a bit of experience and lets you know if you want to go further.

It's important to walk into these courses with your eyes wide open, knowing what's involved in the course and the career. I repeat my suggestion of talking to me about it personally, and there are a couple of other people who won't bullsht you, too. Zap me an email.
 
I tried PMing you but I have less than 10 posts so I can't.

Anyhoo.....I will have to see if my Dad can help me with course costs if that's what it costs, but it does seem like the better course so I will pay what it takes.

I can't really do the full time option, I am a stay at home mum and we are not willing to put our son in childcare, so as much as I'd like to I just can't study full time this year (or next year).

Why would they cover less in a part time course? I would have thought they would have to include the same material regardless of whether it was the part time or full time :confused:
 
You can email me, KyleSchuant@gmail.com. I finished my course yesterday, so while I still have a lot to learn, I can at least tell you about that.

They don't cover less information in the part-time course, they just have less hours. So it's the same information in less time.

Different courses vary in the information they present. There's some standard list of what they have to present, but how much focus they put on one area vs another is up to them, and if they want to include some extra stuff they can.

For example, if you have muscular anatomy and types of joints and have 6 lessons to cover them both, do you split it 5 anatomy and 1 joints, 3 and 3, 2 and 4, or what?

As for extras, the RMIT and CAE courses have postural assessment as part of it, other TAFEs don't. Holmesglen has group fitness training like body combat, RMIT didn't.

So it's a question of emphasis. They emphasise what they think is most important.

On the other hand, going just one night and one day a week means that you have more study time, more time to talk to other people in the industry and just sort of digest the information.
 
I have heard a few ads on the radio for the Australian Institute of Fitness' course for personal training. Any idea if that's any good? They have an online option too....
 
With any service, you can have good, fast or cheap.

If you're lucky you get two out of the three, but usually only one.

TAFE is cheap.
RMIT is fast and good.
CAE is fast and good.
AIF is fast.

It depends on what you're after. I'm after a long-term career with a respected qualification people don't laugh at when I mention it. So I went for RMIT.

But I said this already, both here and in my long thread about becoming a personal trainer. Apparently you didn't read what I wrote, and are not interested in researching or understanding things. In that case, AIF will be perfect for you.
 
Look, buddy, I followed you here from bodybuilding.com, after your invitation (read: poaching), and thought this might be a place where I could come for advice. I have read this thread (not hard, it's not long), but as a mother of a 3 year old I simply do not have time to trawl through some long thread to find out what you just told me here.

I had already decided on RMIT, as it is pretty obvious to me that it is the best course, I was just asking for anybody's opinion or knowledge on the AIF course (not just your view, hence why I posted in the thread for EVERYONE to read and hopefully respond to, not just you). A simple answer would do, without rude assumptions about what is best for me or not. Rude :mad:
 
Does looking after one 3 year old really take up that much time? Maybe you need better time management skills. Dunno, but my sister looks after 2 kids (6 & 4 y/o), works 4-5 days per week and still has time for the gym. Just an observation.
 
Poaching? I'm not sure you realise, but when a person joins Forum X, they don't have to give up their membership of Forum Y. I can't say I'm sorry I pointed you to a place where we'd answer all your questions and offer you support in your physical and mental training, but at the same time expect some effort from you towards your own stated goals.

It's been a month since your original posts here. You've had a month to research these things - just to read the information I've pointed you to, give you links to. In five minutes a day you would have had a total of two and a half hours over that time. I think that ought to have been enough.

I offered you my personal email and assistance to answer any questions you had. It doesn't take long on these forums to see that I give very detailed and thorough answers to questions. So it's not like you had to go hunting obscure texts in a library and find page references and make connections and so on. All you had to do was ask me questions.

Because I'm such a heartless bastard, the lengthy answers I'd already typed up I didn't want to type out again. So I pointed you to thread. I gave you a link. You just had to click and read. Demanding of me, I know.

I'm not going to tell you how much time you have, your commitments and the like. I don't pretend to know. Maybe you don't have five minutes a day. You have to decide what you have time for, and what you can make time for. That's up to you. I can't say.

But I can say that if you don't have time to research before a course, you won't have time to study during the course, either. Time is not going to magically appear just because you got a student card.

If you have not the time to study, or will not make the time to study, then the AIF is best for you. Because they don't require that you do any study.

Whether you don't have the time, or have the time but won't set it aside for research and understanding - I can't say. But I can say that to do a course of any value in education and employment prospects, you need time. Given your attitude and time constraints, I think you would have great difficulty at RMIT, and I don't recommend it for you.

Others here don't have an opinion on which place to go to, because most here are not personal trainers, nor do they or would they hire one. They've met too many useless ones.

In the end you have three choices:
  • give up on the idea of becoming a personal trainer
  • go to AIF
  • make time somehow, and go to TAFE, RMIT, etc.
It's up to you.
 
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AIPT is a bit pricey, its a 10 week course. but the teachers seem fairly informative and very helpfull. they put in extra hours to help outside of the normal class hours... im currently doing my pt course through them.

btw not 100% sure what happened earlier in this thread but i dont think kyle was trying to be rude, he can sometimes come across strong with his opinions but he always means best. he does put time into his responses to try and help those asking questions so dont take things too personally but i dont find his responses rude.
 
Shrek said:
Does looking after one 3 year old really take up that much time? Maybe you need better time management skills. Dunno, but my sister looks after 2 kids (6 & 4 y/o), works 4-5 days per week and still has time for the gym. Just an observation.
Click to expand...

I'm guessing you don't have kids, right? That sort of comment could only come from a childless person. Don't worry, you'll know what I mean when you have your own, and parents are very used to childless people judging us so I don't take it personally ;)

My son has just turned 3, he is not in childcare, our choice, I am a full time stay at home mum. He son has dropped his day nap most days, maybe has one about once a week. If he does sleep I usually cook, fold washing, tidy toys, do our household filing, vacuum, mop, take rubbish out, etc etc. I choose not to get on the computer while he is awake, so from about 7am to 7pm he is awake and I either do housework (see above), take him on a walk, do grocery shopping, go to mothers group, play with him, cook meals (no packaged food in this house, all made from scratch ;)).

I do get some time to do my own thing in the evening, but I also have a husband, so the evenings are the only time we get to actually talk (it is just not possible to have a deep conversation with a 3 year old needing attention, especially my son who is what you would call a 'spirited child').

That's great that your sister can manage more working 4/5 days a week with 2 kids....lucky her to get such a huge break from the kids 5 days a week! I don't get such a break, I've got my little fella with me, needing me, 24/7.

And another thing, which I probably should have mentioned, is that there is no urgency in me actually becoming a personal trainer. I would like to at least do the course this year or next year. My son is not starting kinder until next year, so for the next 2 years I'm limited to doing RMIT's part time course which runs on Wed evenings and all day Saturday. My husband is gone from 8am to 8pm weekdays so he will have to finish work early on Wednesdays once I start.

It's not that I don't have hours in the day to potentially do stuff, but I make a conscious choice to not sit on the computer while he's awake, unless absolutely necessary to pay a bill online or something like that. I just refuse to neglect him like that.

You people without kids just don't know what it's like (time management wise), so you may as well stop making assumptions on how we manage our time or choose to raise our children. I will be a personal trainer, but there's no urgency. So what if there's been a month between the initial post?? Who cares? I've got 2 years or more to sort it out, which is how long it is until my son goes to school, and therefor giving me time to pursue a career for myself. But for now, I'm very happy to be a stay at home mum, and enjoying looking into doing something for myself.

Oh, and re the poaching thing. Yes it is a threat to bodybuilding.com to poach members. You see, if I need bodybuilding advice, I now have 2 choices. If I come here, I'm not at bodybuilding.com, therefore not reading their ads, so it is indeed called poaching, even if I don't have to cancel membership there. I am a member of a parenting forum, and we're not allowed to even post links to another parenting related forum, because it is competition for their advertising. You should be so lucky that I don't report you to bodybuilding.com
 
Shrek said:
Does looking after one 3 year old really take up that much time? Maybe you need better time management skills. Dunno, but my sister looks after 2 kids (6 & 4 y/o), works 4-5 days per week and still has time for the gym. Just an observation.
Click to expand...

oh, and I forgot to say, yes I do go to the gym, 3 days a week. But again, my son has to come with me because he doesn't go to kinder. I'm just lucky that the gym I go to is in our apartment building so there's no problem taking a child in there. And no, it's not possible to go in the evenings after my son's bed time, he often wakes after he goes to bed and I'm the only one he will resettle for, plus I usually have housework to do at that time and I prefer morning workouts anyway, that's when I have the most energy.
 
Sounds like you should be posting time management solutions on your parenting forum and once that's sorted head to RMIT
 
Dear bb.com,

I am writing to report that Kyle Aaron suggested I come to ausbb.com where I could get help and advice.

I log in once a month to ask some questions and abuse people who offer help.

I only have time for one forum, so because of his invitation I can no longer spend time at bb.com.

Sincerely,
lizziejean​

They'll be shattered, I'm sure. Report me, I'll be interested to hear their response. I anticipate a deafening silence of indifference.

I don't doubt that you lack time for research and study. I simply point out that if you lack time for research and study before a course, you'll lack time for research and study during it, too. And so will perform badly. I found RMIT difficult and I had done half the material before, and studied for an hour or two every day, as well as practicing coaching at lunchtimes and with my forces prep guys. Others spent less time studying and practicing, and failed.

Thus you must find time somehow, give up the course, or go to AIF.
 
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Thanks for all your advice. I will probably look into enrolling at RMIT next year when my son starts 4 year old kindergarten, so that I will have some more time to fit it into my life. I chose to raise my child myself, I refuse to let daycare workers do my job so I'll just have to put my plans on hold.

Believe it or not, parents can't have it all. You can certainly try to fit it all in, but in the end something's got to give. So rather than try to cram in study and have no time for running my household, I will put MY plans on hold this year and just do it next year. And by then I'll have all year to continue my bodybuilding journey at the gym, and be in a better position to be able to focus properly on my study.

I'm not the first parent to feel like there's not enough time in the day to do everything, and it's got nothing to do with 'bad time management', and it's an insult to be told that I should 'manage my time better'. Shall I leave my 3 year old at your house, and see how long you last? Kids don't exactly just sit there reading a book.....the only time they stop moving and messing the place up (yes, all kids make mess, trust me) is when they're asleep.
 
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