Personal trainers are easy to make fun of. They’re usually wearing a collared shirt and carrying a clipboard and are overly friendly, push-up champions who love putting their clients on Bosu balls and other contraptions to give them the illusion of a difficult workout. It's also a profession that a whole lot of people want to get into because they can spend all day doing what they love and make a living doing it.

At some point, just about every person who enjoys working out has probably considered going into personal training as a profession. I can say all these things because I’ve been a trainer of sorts for some time now. I didn’t start out as a trainer. In fact, I started in the strength and conditioning field, went into the private sports development sector, and then went to a big commercial gym before eventually opening up my own full-time, “hardcore” training facility. Over that time, I’ve trained everyone from 7-year-olds to 70-year-olds. I have worked with professional athletes, people with injuries, veterans, people trying to look good, people trying to get healthy, and people trying to get stronger.

I’ve helped people lose hundreds of pounds. I’ve helped people become elite level powerlifters. I’ve helped people get college scholarship and professional contracts. And I’ve helped many people just get better in general. I’ve also had clients who I couldn’t fully reach and clients who I couldn’t help achieve their goals. I’ve had years when I was flat-out broke (minimum wage money) and other years when I made really good money (enough to open my own facility). While every training situation is different, I can at least give some insight into the profession and help anyone considering it as a career or anyone already in the field.

The Pros

Here are some reasons why many people look to personal training as a profession:

1. It's an easy profession to get into: Admittedly, this is also one of the drawbacks of personal training. However, the fact of the matter remains that this isn't a difficult field to get into. Most states don't require any form of state license or certification. While many facilities do require a certification, even the most difficult to obtain certifications are relatively easy to get if you can study and pay the fee to take the test. Many facilities hire personal trainers as independent contractors, and because personal training is a bit of a revolving door profession, many facilities are constantly hiring.

When I first started looking for personal training jobs, I applied at about five or six facilities. I had experience as a college strength coach, a degree in strength and conditioning, and a CSCS certification. Every one of the facilities offered me a position. In addition, being an independent contractor means that you can work at multiple facilities at the same time (at least that's what it means in Tennessee). In the end, most people will have a relatively easy time getting into this profession.

Envision that you are carrying a doughnut so big that it is the size of a tractor tire..."

2. You make your own hours (for the most part): Some facilities require their trainers to work floor hours. These are hours when you are paid hourly to walk the floor and help members with equipment. It really is an ideal time to sell yourself and your services.

At the facility I worked at, we didn't have floor hours. This meant that I only had to go to work when I had a client to train. The rest of my time was free. The only downside is that most people want to train before work and after work, so you'll usually be at the gym early and leave late with more free time in the middle of the day. In the period before I opened my own facility, I was putting in around 50–60 billable training hours a week. Because the facility determined our training prices, it was easy to make more money—you just had to train more people. However, if you want to take time off, run errands, or go on vacation, it's quite easy when you're in charge of your own schedule. This is an ideal job for people who compete because you can schedule stuff around your competitions.

3. You get to help people and do something that you're passionate about: The biggest draw to personal training is that you get to do something you care about while helping other people, and making a living. Isn’t that the ideal job? You don’t have to wear a suit or sit behind a desk and you get to develop friendships with your clients. So really you get paid to spend time helping your friends work out all day. And the reward from helping someone reach a goal is far greater than just the monetary gain.

Every person has their own story and you get the chance to learn a lot outside of just training. You get to learn sales techniques, psychology, business skills, and more. And you work in the gym, so if you need to get in a quick workout, some cardio, or some recovery work, it's quite easy. I’ve learned more to help my own training by training other people than I've learned in books or in school.

The Cons

Like everything, personal training has its drawbacks. Here are a few to consider:

1. Your paycheck is rarely stable: When I first left the private sports development sector to personal train at a commercial gym, I had three clients who trained in the mornings three days a week. After a few months, I had picked up about three additional clients and about eight more training hours a week for a grand total of 11 hours a week. At this time, I was also paying for school to earn my prerequisites for physical therapy school. To say I was living on breadcrumbs isn’t a lie. Finally, after a few more months, I was making enough to not have to dip into my savings.

As my business grew, so did my income. I was able to save up enough to open my own facility. And just like before, my income dropped significantly until I once again built my business back up. There is something to be said for knowing exactly how much you're going to get paid each paycheck. It takes the stress off of worrying about your business all the time. Clients will come and go, and each time they leave, that's money out of your pocket. This was difficult to deal with when owning my own gym the first year.

NBS Fitness is a facility that every person who follows elitefts™ would love to train at. It’s bad ass no doubt about it. On top of that, I'm a good trainer. I’m not saying that to feed my ego. I know that I don’t suck and I've helped many people reach their goals. It would really get to me when I would put all this time and effort into a client, watch him improve, and then have him just walk away. I would stress and wonder what I could do differently. Running a facility, now I deal with that on an even bigger scale. It's a bit disheartening when people come in the door and are so excited to have a gym like this to train in only to cancel their membership a few months later. I used to take this personally, but luckily, I’ve adjusted a bit to this constant change. I just accept that people will come and go and that’s the way it is. I provide the best product and service that I can and people will purchase it depending on their wants and needs. When running your own business, you have to be OK with this, and being a personal trainer is just that—the ultimate small business.

2. Clients can expect you to deliver the impossible: Most people hire personal trainers because they can’t reach whatever goal they have on their own, and sometimes clients can have misinformed ideas of what you're capable of. They've usually seen every bullshit training program, diet, and fitness product there is on television and the internet. On top of this, they almost always have some bad habits in place that can be hard to break.

I had a weight loss client who ate bologna and mayonnaise sandwiches all day and wouldn’t give them up. I had a client who wouldn’t drink water because it made her weigh more (although vodka tonics were a nightly indulgence). I had a high school basketball player who tore her ACL, wanted to play her senior year without surgery, and re-injured her knee the first day of basketball “training” when her coach had her do a depth jump from a 36-inch box (seriously). The mother proceeded to chew me out and ask what all her money went toward. Luckily, I was able to talk some sense into the daughter, mother, and coach and she played her senior season injury-free without an ACL.

Most people think they’re going to be a trainer to the elite and only work with top level bodybuilders and athletes, but it takes a long time to build that up. In the meantime, you have to feed yourself and train those willing to pay you. The funny thing is many times the “average” clients are some of the most fun to train. I have a 67-year-old client who is awesome to train because she’s literally excited about everything we do. (She says “WHHHEEEEEEE!!!!” while pushing the Prowler®).

It's important to have good communication and trust between you and your clients. They need to know what you're capable of and what their responsibilities are.

3. You have to compete against other trainers: My gym has to compete against other gyms, and as a trainer, you'll have to compete against the Planet Fitness equivalent of other trainers. This competition occurs on a city-wide basis, a gym-wide basis, and an online basis (if you do that). What trainers may lack in knowledge and training skill they make up many times in sales skills. I can’t tell you how many trainers I know who make a killing feeding people complete bullshit. They don't get their clients any results, but they have a hell of a personality and sales pitch.

At the commercial gym I worked at, there was a trainer named Joe who would have his clients stand on a Bosu ball and joust each other with foam rollers American Gladiator style. No joke. He literally would time their work and rest periods while doing this. New members at the gym would see this and think, “Hey, that looks fun” and sign up with him. He didn't have a degree or any certifications and he didn't have any experience outside of teaching a spin class. He was fat and never worked out, yet he still made money training.

They are out there, people. Unfortunately, you have to compete against this guy to gain clients who have no basis for judging trainers against each other. It can make you want to pull your hair out.

I love my job and I'm thankful for the lessons that I've learned along the way. It hasn’t always been sunshine and rainbows, but even the tough times have beat having to wear a tie every day. I’m passionate about my profession and I hope to improve it while I’m still around to do so. I encourage anyone serious about becoming a trainer to look into it but only for the right reasons. Don’t do it because you think you’ll make a bunch of money (you probably won’t) and don’t do it as a stepping stone to something else. Please take the profession seriously. Educate yourself, educate others, and grow your business by training people the way they should be trained…even if you have to carry a clipboard.

 

Editor's Note: elitefts™ does not endorse the use of foam rollers for American Gladiator-style pugil-stick battles, nor do we assume liability for injuries that occur when using them in this manner.