Career choices can be tricky. For the athletically minded people who love fitness, Personal training can be an excellent choice. Following your passion, teaching others and changing their lives, as well as learning more about fitness yourself through the experience of those you teach, is an excellent way to expand your knowledge base. But what’s really involved?

Getting started

First thing’s first, you need to be qualified. You can find qualifications easily online through any reputable college or personal training certification agency. You can go all the way and get a degree, but most personal trainers don’t have a college degree, and it’s the experience that counts at the end of the day. Getting educated is about learning the basics, the real education starts when you’re out teaching and training others. There are definitely things to understand before you start training these people, as it’s a not all about the fitness.

Working with the Customer

If you take on a client, and simply through them into a rigorous routine, train them hard and send them home without communicating properly with them, chances are they’ll leave frustrated. You might love the hardcore training, but it’s not all about your lifestyle, its about the customers. Find out what their fitness level is, and more importantly listen to what they want. Keeping the understanding at a level the client can handle. Talking about their deltoids and latissimus dorsimus is just going to confuse them – keep it simple.

An unexpected part of training may be that perhaps the client doesn’t care about fitness but just needs a physical outlet. Training sessions can often become a session for them to vent and your job is simply listen, and train them so they get that release. Conversation can become a massive part of the job, so prepare to have a good chat with some clients.

Above all be professional. Dress and present clean, smart and look healthy. Be polite and watch your language, keep neutral on certain topics. Things like religion, politics and other topics can be a massive passion for you or the client, and a disagreement can cause troubles. Remember, you want to train the client physically, not get into a debate, although a friendly debate could be a good icebreaker or keep them coming back if they enjoy your company. Keep things friendly.

It all comes with experience…

Over time you’ll find how you fit into your job, what works best for and as it all becomes second nature, you can really focus on the fitness. Always keep learning and experimenting, and you could find yourself becoming very successful as a personal trainer.