for the personal trainers out there, how is it as a career? I know the economy is down right now making it a less than ideal time to get into the field, but i graduating in the spring and thinking about getting certified over the summer. do you like it? pay well? good schedule? which certification? any info would be helpful 
I am not a personal trainer, but am majoring in kinesiology and have talked a little about certifications as of late. ACE is one of the certs that you can get. It will get the job done, but it is on the lower end of certifications. ACSM is another and is leaning more towards the top dog. It encompasses a lot of stuff and is really good. It covers a good amount of exercise testing, ie: VO2max, body fat assessment, etc. I think it’s around $300US for a “packet” of test materials/information that you need to purchase before taking the test. I’m not sure on $$ for the actual test, though.
Hopefully someone else can chime in who knows this for sure.
Also, do a search in the Lav Room and the Tri Forum, there has been discussion on this in the not too distant past that would be exactly what you are looking for.
I worked as a personal trainer for a couple of years while I was taking a break from the math world which is what I normally live in. I live in a very wealthy area. I did not make very much money at all (less than $20k) working for a high end gym that charged high prices (up to $85 an hour) for my training sessions. The most I ever was paid for a training session was $26. Sometimes only $8 because it was on a salary base and then commision after you get past a certain number of sessions per pay period. Since my husband made a good amount of money, it wasn’t financially a big deal, but it got to be frustrating, because I knew I deserved to be paid more. I did get small raises here and there, but not what I deserved, so I eventually left and went back to the world of math which I was missing anyway.
I enjoyed working with many of my clients, but some of them could be frustrating. For the most part, they were great and that is the best part of the job. It is very hard to make much money doing personal training, especially early on. You probably need to work for yourself and even then, it takes time to build up a client base and reputation.
Also, while I liked my coworkers a lot, there were some serious issues going on there which I’ve heard is not uncommon with personal trainers. The owner was having an affair with one of the female personal trainers. 2 of the personal trainers had DUI’s. There were several issues with sexual harrassment, leading to employees leaving and getting fired. While I enjoyed personal training, it was not the healthiest work environment.
There are many types of personal trainers and a lot of it depends on how you want to approach it.
There are a couple types of trainers. I’ll throw a disclaimer out here that first off, I am not one, secondly I hope I don’t offend anyone who is. Now that is out of the way…
The large corporate gym trainer…
Money isn’t all that great at all. Usualy a cracker jack box certification with little/no educational experience. Makes me cringe just watching these people train someone. Usually done as a second job.
Full time professional trainer…
Physiology/Kneisiolgy (Sp?) degree or two. Started out in exercise rehab in a PT clinic. Took the risk to branch out realizing clients were being charged $100+ an hour and only getting paid $15/hr. Works in a private gym (one only for trainers) or clients homes. Finds a niche (rehab, sports specific performance), attends NATA conferences, keeps up reading journals… charges $85-$150+ per hour. Sees 30 clients per week (you do the math), and runs as sole prop business.
when i opted out of going to law school, i didn’t know what to do with myself. i was young and got a job as a personal trainer at a gym.
it was really demanding–12 hour days, 6 days a week. over a period of 6 months, this led to some real burn out. my clients loved me; i kicked their asses and most made significant life changes and turned their lives around for the better. but at some point, the hours, lack of money, and the endless drivel about “fat thighs” got to me. i deserved better and wanted more.
so i went to management recruiters to have them help me find a job; they hired me and that’s how i got my start in the recruiting business, that i’m still in today (own my own biz now).
in looking back, what i can tell you is that it’s probably better to avoid the “big gym” atmosphere and go with a smaller trainer focused center. one where people come and pay a good chunk of money to work out with you specifically, then they leave. iknow trainers making 35 or more an hour with this formula. it’s not “bad”. but the hours can be extensive. so i think you have to “love it” to do it. and take lots of vacations because people will suck the life out of you.
lastly, another formula is to start your own business, so you are making the 65+ an hour that’s being charged. yes, you’d have to find clients, but this might be true in any venue.
since you are fresh out of school, i would research training facilities that are not “gyms” per say. places like this might have a staff, and each trainer with a client base. it is not uncommon for one client to spend a minimum of 500.00 monthly on personal training sessions. this is the type of place to seek out; you will get loyal clients, learn alot, make some decent money, and have a platform to eventually start your own business.
the big healthclubs do not lead to much; it’s a burn out game and not the right path to start a career, IMO.
The place where I worked was primarily a personal training gym where most clients worked out 2-4x/week with a trainer. And they still did not pay well. You are right that you need to do your research.
Another thing that I didn’t mention was that I found it really hard to keep my own workouts going the way I wanted I was tired from demostrating exersises and being on my feet all day. Any my schedule was not the same every day. Some days I would open up at 6 am others I would close up at 8pm. Others I would do a split shift and go home for a few hours in the middle of the day. Sometimes I would plan to do a workout and things would get busy and I would get asked to take a client at the last minute. I ended up skipping workouts a lot. When I started a job with regular hours at a desk my performance improved since I was much more consistant with my workouts and not so tired from work.
A lot of the personal training gyms that I know of charge on a sliding scale by the number of clients a month that you see at the gym. It can be anywhere from $10, if you see a lot, to $25, if you see only a few a month, a client. That rate is built into the amount that you charge the client.
How do you find trainers in that second category? What is NATA – do they have a membership roster that folks can use as a resource?
Amy,
NATA is the National Athletic Trainer Association. Yep… the same peeps that run out on the field when someone breaks during a game. A lot of the research/papers etc that are done are derived from real world case studies and the like.
The best personal training recs come from word of mouth, but it’s good to check credentials, insurance, that kind of thing.
I did personal training as a side job about 15 years ago and let me tell you it was more demanding than my full time job. I got several certifications because I thought I would transition to it full time once I got my client base built up but it was taking up so much of my time that I had to make a choice between it and my full time job. I worked as an independent trainer at Bally’s and I paid a monthly fee(rent) to use their facilities to train as many clients as I could handle. I also had to get liability insurance to the tune of around $300k but the premiums were cheap. The going rate for trainers back then was anywhere from $35 to $55 a session and I was doing well training part time but Bally’s eventually changed their policy and prohibited independent trainers. I loved training and helping people achieve their goals but there were a few that expected miracles. A lot of my clients worked hard and were very dedicated but there were others who complained incessantly. I still have friends who do personal training full time but its’ really tough right now with the downturn in the economy.
right. so personal training sounds like a terrible career idea 
There’s a big chain up here in Canada that is constantly recruiting for trainers. I spoke to a girl once who worked for them, and she explained the process to me. You get hired, paid on commission,and have a certain number of clients you need to have by the end of week 2. By the end of Month 1 that needs to be at a higher number. By Month 3 there is a number that needs to be reached which is higher again. Of course, they will gladly give you the opportunity to find new employmentif you don’t reach those numbers. Bottom line: your ability to sell is far more important than your ability to train. Is that where you want to work? It works for some people but I know that if I ever want to hire a trainer, it won’t be someone who work there.
If you really want a career in the health field you should look into Physical or Occupational Therapy maybe even Nursing. These jobs are in great demand and pay pretty well. My mother was an RN for over 30 years but retired in 1995 and she still gets calls from headhunters offering six figures…funny thing about this is that I don’t think she ever made more than $55k when she was working.
Joe