S&Per's can make $ as fat personal trainers

I don't have a client portfolio, a website, a biz card(although i'm working on that), not even a cell phone.

The upside to working in a closed system like a co-op is word will spread fast. I totally transformed this one 33yo housewife...she now has a perfect butt and lost 20lbs as well as being stronger and more athletic...the morning biz i built up by working at a nautilus place for $10-$12/hr and making some converts there. Once your certifed and insured alot of these McPersonal Training places need people to fill in. The trainers there are so horribly awful that i knew right away i was miles ahead of them jusst from hanging in S&P for 2005 and smoking up for a few hours late at night. I don't believe i'm that great a trainer. But seeing the amount of ones that are out there that suck so bad is what gave me my confidence. Also i'm not afraid to communicate with people and alot of the really good trainers have major attitudes/are a-holes and can't understand why people don't stick with them.

Good to hear that. At the end of the days its the results that count. Among all of us at the gym where I work in, its sad that so far only two of us have produced clients who could pull 315 off the floor. I've managed to produce clients results, and just like you, hanging out here and spending time in the trenches has taught me a lot more than any certification can.

Keep up the good work, I'll be glad to hear that maybe in a year or two, you could already have the rights to charge 200$/hr
 
good work Pariah!! I am also a Personal Trainer and I'm pretty sure we have similar training styles. I'm not making that much money yet though. keep it up!
 
I've toyed with the idea of getting certified and trying to do some personal training to supplement my income.

Do you pretty much tell prospective clients up front "I've got my way of doing things, here's what it is, if that's not what you're looking for then I'm not the trainer for you?"

Reason I ask is, it seems like it'd be a heck of a lot less time-consuming if you applied the same basic training method to all your clients, and only accepted clients who were okay with that.
 
I've toyed with the idea of getting certified and trying to do some personal training to supplement my income.

Do you pretty much tell prospective clients up front "I've got my way of doing things, here's what it is, if that's not what you're looking for then I'm not the trainer for you?"

Reason I ask is, it seems like it'd be a heck of a lot less time-consuming if you applied the same basic training method to all your clients, and only accepted clients who were okay with that.

Getting certified is the hard part. The trainers at my university gym are absolute dolts who wouldn't know a squat from a pancake.

Trouble is even these buffoons had to get certified and it's not cheap. The test for even one cert costs 200+ dollars. This doesn't include the proprietary study materials for each individual organization without which you wont know the answers they want from you on the test.

I have no idea how hard the tests are but investing 5-600 dollars is a tall order.
 
A better idea is to actually do internship in good facilities since in reality, there is not internationally governing body for certifications. In the end, the gym and the clients are the one who would determine whether or not the would recognize the certification.
 
I ahve also been considering this fora while now as I 'plan' my career. (or future career.) here becoming a recognised and qualified personal trainer requires a course and bout
 
Good to hear that. At the end of the days its the results that count. Among all of us at the gym where I work in, its sad that so far only two of us have produced clients who could pull 315 off the floor. I've managed to produce clients results, and just like you, hanging out here and spending time in the trenches has taught me a lot more than any certification can.

Keep up the good work, I'll be glad to hear that maybe in a year or two, you could already have the rights to charge 200$/hr
Thanks BP. I've definitly learned from you at S&P and your postive attitude is always a good voice to hear. I've learned alot from just being out in the business, watching others, listening to my clients feedback.
 
good work Pariah!! I am also a Personal Trainer and I'm pretty sure we have similar training styles. I'm not making that much money yet though. keep it up!
Thanks. For me it just started with 2 clients a husband and wife and SLOWLY built up from there. It took about 1 year for me to get up to 20 clients.
 
I've toyed with the idea of getting certified and trying to do some personal training to supplement my income.

Do you pretty much tell prospective clients up front "I've got my way of doing things, here's what it is, if that's not what you're looking for then I'm not the trainer for you?"

Reason I ask is, it seems like it'd be a heck of a lot less time-consuming if you applied the same basic training method to all your clients, and only accepted clients who were okay with that.
Yes this is basically waht i do.90% of the clients are just there for body composition purposes and to be in better shape. They want you to have a system in place and not have to think about what/why they are doing it. They just want those results. I am constantly reinforcing though S&P doctrine;posterior chain,progressive resistance core, prehab, train standing up...etc... $35 a session is cheap enough so a working person can train 2x/week and the 1/2 hour circuit is more than enough for most. This way i line the clients up back to back and can still make good $/hr.Of course i tweak it for individual concerns. But waht i've described so far is my basic business model.

I have 2 clients that i train pull-push-squat (3x/week). They pay for double sessions on pull day and squat day cause i don't like to rush these sessions especially for rank beginners.

The co-op i work in is on a big hill in Forrest Hills, Queens. So i have a few younger clients do hill sprints for relatively short distances.

I throw in small mobility drills, plyometrc stuff etc...if they are playing tennis or some other sport.

People have told me "I played the best tennis/softball/bowling of my life." afterr training with me. You don't have to be Coach D to improve regular peoples athletic ability or have them do 1 rep maxs or some type of complicated periodization.

If the client wants to work on balance i throw these drills in, if they have rotator cuff issues we do some pre-hab.

I train one high school basketball player and i used to think i wasn't qualified but seeing how he was doing superslow nautilus training 2x/week, getting injured, and regressing as a player, i stepped up and converted him.

Gotta run. Hulk, I'll get to your PM soon!
 
I'm not injured at the moment, Bro. Wow, it's been a long time since I've said that :D

I wish I could.....:icon_cry2

I've been coaching a friend of mine for like 8 or 9 months now and he went from a total gym noob to squatting over 300 and pulling 415 @ around 170 BW. I would definitely get certed to make some extra $ but I don't have that kind of capital to spend on it.
 
You are welcome flak.

You guys that are balking for paying for the certification bullshit are being silly. A couple of hundred bucks for certification and insurance and you are in biz. I still have plenty of slots open in the mornings and plan on keep building up unitl i'm up around 70k. And thats working 4 days a week. If you were to go back to grad school or start any other biz you know how much start-up money is?

Any S&Pers need help, I do whatever I can cause you guyz were there/put up with me in my early days here.

I
 
I've thought about tryin' to do somethin' like this to bring in some extra cash, but I wouldn't really know how to start or where. I mean, I'm actually workin' with a friend right now, tryin' to teach him to lift right, and have been since about October. I'm runnin' outa ideas on how to help him be more aware of his form tho, among other things...
 
I actually want to end up opening a gym later on in life that does Powerlifting/Oly Lifting/Crossfit type stuff. I definitely think in the next couple years people will start realizing how beneficial this type of exercising is. Even a regular person can make awesome gains from just sticking to compound lifts, hence how crossfit has become so popular.
 
Thanks Lust and Ghostwipe. Its cause of guys like you and the rest of S&P i'm earning $ today.

Just curious, are you certified at all, or just going from personal knowledge/experience?
 
Thanks BP. I've definitly learned from you at S&P and your postive attitude is always a good voice to hear. I've learned alot from just being out in the business, watching others, listening to my clients feedback.

Glad to be of help. It would also be good that we exchange notes/ideas at times since there are soe cases that you might have handled that I rarely handle and vice versa. Adding weapons to your arsenal is never a bad thing :)
 
I gave some some serious thought to starting a full time training business-there is definitely some money to be made. I know a lot of idiot metrosexual trainers in my town, that even though they are idiots, are willing to "hustle" ( meaning work hard, not run scams) and they make very good money. I also know that most of them neglect the 50+ crowd, which is an absolute gold mine
 
I gave some some serious thought to starting a full time training business-there is definitely some money to be made. I know a lot of idiot metrosexual trainers in my town, that even though they are idiots, are willing to "hustle" ( meaning work hard, not run scams) and they make very good money. I also know that most of them neglect the 50+ crowd, which is an absolute gold mine

Good to know.

If I ever get myself certified and try to become a personal trainer, I'm gonna aim for the 40-and-up crowd. It's my peer group, and I'll probably have more credibility with them than I would with the youngsters.


(pictures self at age 50 wearing Motorhead T-shirt and getting paid to make pampered housewives do deadlifts)
 
Did I mention how much I despise the popular and trendy "boot camp" classes offered by metrosexuals?
 
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