Any gym instructors/personal trainers here?

IwantanewPC

IwantanewPC

IwantanewPC

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I've never had any clue what I want do with my life. I'm 24, have no special qualifications, average GSCE grades and since I left school I've been working in warehouses, factories and right now, a call centre.

I've always been in to my fitness and have been using the gym on and off since I was 18. I don't claim to be an expert but from reading up on stuff over the years I'd like to think I know a fair bit. In recent months I've helped a few people with weight loss/muscle building plans and I've really enjoyed doing that and I've had positive feedback from those people about the results they are getting.

I think I've realised I'd absolutely love to do something like this for a living. I know it'll be hard work but I really want this. The only problem is I'm not really sure where to start and what kind of training I should be looking at getting in to. I was hoping I could get some help and advice from anyone here who has a similar interest and is pursuing a career in a similar area?
 
I'm qualified to do it, but i've never pursued my qualification as it was darn hard to get a job in that realm of work. I think Benny is your best bet, as he has experience and is in this line of work iirc?
 
A friend of mine spent a year at college (he was 24 at the time I think) getting some NVQ's or equivalent certificates, then went to work in a local gym.

The pay was shocking (£13k I think) with long hours, but he built up enough experience and a decent enough client base to become a PT, and now does quite nicely for himself at a gym in Henley-On-Thames training all the rich girls for their skiing trips.
 
Hello matey,

Gym Instructors / Fit Pro
If you can get a job in one of the bigger, decent clubs then there's quite a lot on offer. These days a Fit Pro (gym instructor) can expect about £15k, with classes paying around £15 on top of that.

The job has long hours, early starts or late evenings, and requires you to be very active. On the flip side, it's an awesome job, and if you find you're suited to the industry, is a perfect stepping stone towards PT, Fitness Management, Group Ex Management or Service leading towards General Manager.

There's loads to do (with Virgin Active) from fast classes, how tos, inductions, gym classes and interaction. You get trained constantly (and paid for it) you learn loads and have a great laugh with little responsibility. It's a brill job but the pay isn't fabulous. I'd really recommend avoiding working for a pokey little club, regardless of how desperate the job situation looks, as it's horrible, stick to the big clubs. a lot of people say it's been really tough to get work. I went to a massive group interview (30+ people) and really had to work hard to stand out. Personality is everything in this industry.

Personal Training
I used Fit Pro as a stepping stone, to build profile on the gym floor and trust in my knowledge. I moved to PT pretty quickly (6 months before full time) and never looked back. I LOVED fit pro, but PT is where the money's at, it's incredibly rewarding and very diverse. On the flip side, the hours can be brutal, the workload high and if you aren't very good at chatting to people and making sales you may struggle. Make no mistake, PT is all about the sale, once you have the clients, then the fact that you love the job can really shine through.

As a full time PT with someone like Virgin Active (who I'm with) expect to earn £35-£50k depending on how succesful you are or how many clients you can handle. I deliver around 35-40 sessions a week a do pretty well from it, that's the most I can handle or I'm too fubared and have no social life. Expect around 10 hours admin on top.

Qualifications
I'd recommend the more respected people in the industry. Many people choose Premier, which is very much the standard, YMCA are very respected and very comprehensive. I went with Future Fit and would not recommend them for the PT side of things. Their Nutrition cover is absolutely excellent, but I wasn't particularly impressed with the PT, I found I learnt little and had to extend my knowledge a great deal to deliver top notch service.


I absolutely adore working in the industry, I've learnt so much about myself, about interacting and sales, about fitness, lifestyle management, managing my own time and a plethora of other skills. The social circle can be awesome and the job is incredibly rewarding. Thoroughly recommended; but brace yourself for some serious hard graft if you want to make it. The hours are long and the pay doesn't reflect this as much as the awesome working envireonment.

Ant
 
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'Wes said:
I'm qualified to do it, but i've never pursued my qualification as it was darn hard to get a job in that realm of work. I think Benny is your best bet, as he has experience and is in this line of work iirc?
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I'm qualified (bar the business module which is downstairs in a pile of filing I haven't got round to even looking at yet!).

I did my Level 2 gym instructor along side my degree in my second year of Uni. I did my Level 3 advanced gym instructor in my third year and the rest of the modules (Training in diff. environments, Client lifestyle & fitness assesment, Client Retention, Exercise Nutrition, can't remember if there were any others other than the business one!)

I did my Level 2 & 3 through Envisage which were basically half price through the Uni and the rest with YMCA in London. My degree was not at all related to fitness/exercise/nutrition it was a passion which developed in my spare time and ultimately led to what I thought was going to be a career change.

I've since fallen in to work near by for a civil engineering company in Payroll (my degree is in Furniture, to mix it up a bit!, which I got via some temping work). I am still passionate about PT'ing it's just near me quite difficult to get going. My plan was to do it part time and build up a client base and then eventually go freelance.

However having a comfortable guaranteed salary and to throw it away to make a go of something which may very well take quite some time to pick up and give a similar income doesn't seem too appealing to me at the moment. I have given out CV's to several gyms and am more than happy to do part time work in house though they will take a fair whack out of each session you do £££ wise. That or pay them an extortionate rent that I wouldn't even break even on due to being part time. Not to mention getting the clients to begin with.

It very much depends if there's much business for it near you! I don't have any large gyms near me that make it easier to get going. For me any that I do for friends or friends of friends is to supplement my income and is something I enjoy.

I found the basic salary most gyms offer quite frankly insulting considering my level of experience with training and small amount of experience I've had coaching. The difficult is any Joe Bloggs can get the qualifications if you have a brain but being a good PT is another matter. We had a huge american chap on one of our modules who was heavily obese and looked like he hadn't done any exercise ever. Yet he is no doubt now a qualified personal trainer without any actual experience of exercise or coaching. No doubt you can do very well if you are driven, fortunate and work hard.

I see a lot of Level 2 instructors at my gym prancing about in 'personal trainer' tops. When a) they're not qualified b) they don't even do the exercises they try to coach c) they generally are clueless and barely train themselves. Apologies if I sound like a pessimistic ****. It's a hard enough industry to get going in without having it flooded by idiots.

Any further questions and I'll be happy to help :)
 
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BennyC said:
We had a huge american chap on one of our modules who was heavily obese and looked like he hadn't done any exercise ever. Yet he is no doubt now a qualified personal trainer without any actual experience of exercise or coaching. No doubt you can do very well if you are driven, fortunate and work hard.

I see a lot of Level 2 instructors at my gym prancing about in 'personal trainer' tops. When a) they're not qualified b) they don't even do the exercises they try to coach c) they generally are clueless and barely train themselves. Apologies if I sound like a pessimistic ****. It's a hard enough industry to get going in without having it flooded by idiots.
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This is unfortunately, too bloody true. It's much better in big gyms, but if you arent local it can be a nightmare.

Ant
 
wandoN

Just been reading through this thread and noticed that wantoN you went to a group interview for a job at virgin active.

I have one of these interview days coming up and it would be so helpfull if you could tell me what the day involved and what to expect? As you said you had to work hard to stand out, so any tips would be greatly apprecited.

Thanks
 
Any specific questions I can ask my brother.

Qualified last month and working as a PT at fitness first. He's really into it and has already built up a bit of a client base in 2 weeks that is already looking like paying his starting fee and weekly membership.

He did an intensive 6 weeks course down in Hatfield to become qualified and it wasn't that easy tbh. Plenty to learn regarding the body and muscle groups, not just going to the gym and lifting/sorting diet out.
 
Hey wantoN, any advice about that 30 people + group interview you had?
I have one with virgin active tommorow and urgently need advice from anyone that has been to or has experienced one of this interviews?
 
IwantanewPC said:
I've never had any clue what I want do with my life. I'm 24, have no special qualifications, average GSCE grades and since I left school I've been working in warehouses, factories and right now, a call centre.

I've always been in to my fitness and have been using the gym on and off since I was 18. I don't claim to be an expert but from reading up on stuff over the years I'd like to think I know a fair bit. In recent months I've helped a few people with weight loss/muscle building plans and I've really enjoyed doing that and I've had positive feedback from those people about the results they are getting.

I think I've realised I'd absolutely love to do something like this for a living. I know it'll be hard work but I really want this. The only problem is I'm not really sure where to start and what kind of training I should be looking at getting in to. I was hoping I could get some help and advice from anyone here who has a similar interest and is pursuing a career in a similar area?
Click to expand...

Hi,

I have been qualified as a PT and a PT tutor for 10 years. I would recommend doing a PT course via Origym Centre of Excellence. They are a very cost effective way of getting qualified with good service. Always do a career in something you enjoy, otherwise you simply won't do it!
 
A couple of friends of mine are Strength and Conditioning coaches which are a bit different to PTs... harder work and a much harder industry to get into but depending on your perspective it is worth considering as a future development pathway...

Morba: bexoming a sports pysio requires doing a physiotherapy degree. You can transfer off relevant degrees but you will always need the degree for registration. Sports Physio-ness may involve modules in the degree but this won't nexessarily make a difference to the end degree. The real trick comes where you focus on sports treatment and learb how to work on the varied nature of sports injury.

In other words: got three years and £27k? :(

Other practical options are:

1) sports massage therapist (can be like sports physiotherapy but without the "treatment" aspect - massage is not recognised as "treatment" from a medical standpoint): this is medium option (18-24 months of night school) and around £3-5k.

2) osteopath (similar story as sports massage therapist)...

These options all depend - really - on what you want to call yourself after you qualify. Practically there isn't much difference as you can be a physiotherapist without a clue or a brilliant osteopath who is actually better than a physio at fixing sports issues. If I remember correctly, icecold's Wizard is an osteopath and knows what he is doing, but we have all had physios who were worse than useless...

So go figure...
 
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