Any Fitness Trainers here?

Laydee

I am thinking of studying health & fitness but I am not fit myself.
I have had 2 pregnancies that had a very little gap in between & I am far from fit or toned now.
I will be applying as a mature student which includes an interview.
I am afraid that an interviewer will take one look at me & think that I'm wasting their time.

Do you need to be toned & fit to study to be a fitness trainer?

And, where did you study?

I am based in Dublin & as I am a mature student I will be paying all the private fees unless theres somewhere reasonably priced that I can't seem to find online.

I have a BMI of 26 right now & honestly if I put my mind to it I know I could be back to a BMI of 23 by September, so I could be toned enough to go for an interview for a course starting in January I suppose.

flywheel

check out this Search result [link] from the forum it will pull up some threads about the various general fitness instructor courses: NCEHS, NCEF, ITEC etc...

or are you looking to go back to college full time and do a degree?

Laydee

I am looking to go back & do a degree but part time would suit me more.
Also, that link didn't work for me.

I know Crumlin & Inchicore do degrees that aren't too costly.
Do you know of anywhere else that does them?

itsallaboutheL

Laydee wrote: »

I am looking to go back & do a degree but part time would suit me more.
Also, that link didn't work for me.

I know Crumlin & Inchicore do degrees that aren't too costly.
Do you know of anywhere else that does them?

Have you links to those degree's by any chance??

Degree's aren't a requirement to work in the fitness industry, just so ya know!

Laydee

I didn't know that. What are the requirements to work in the fitness industry?

I saw that Crumlin & Inchicore corses in the Dublin VEC course handbook.
It was free in my local library.

StormWarrior

I trained as a fitness instructor (in the UK with Wabba) and 2 of the people on the course were morbidly obese. You shouldn't have problems getting onto a training course, but if you actually want to work as a fitness instructor I think you'd need to be fairly fit, if you're totally out of shape the gym manager might think it won't look good to the clients.

Btw no-one I know in the fitness industry has a degree. You can do 1 week courses, get qualified and get hired! I don't recommend fitness instructing as a job though, it is mind-numbingly boring. On every 6-hour shift I spent maybe half an hour showing people how to use the equiptment and the rest of the time sitting there bored out of my brain just swiping people's gym cards. It is not a very mind-stretching job.

itsallaboutheL

StormWarrior wrote: »

Btw no-one I know in the fitness industry has a degree. You can do 1 week courses, get qualified and get hired! .

Not a recommendation!!:D

Laydee

On every 6-hour shift I spent maybe half an hour showing people how to use the equiptment and the rest of the time sitting there bored out of my brain just swiping people's gym cards. It is not a very mind-stretching job.

So as a fitness instructor you are not stimulated or busy?

What about a class instructor?
How would I go about that?
On jobs.ie for any fitness job it does ask about qualificaltions.

Laydee

ITEC do a distance learning course for Exercise & Fitness Instructor.
Is this a course that would need to be classroom based?
It sounds ideal as it's only 695 which is cheap compared to a few others that I've seen.

Laydee

The Exercise & Fitness Instructor is only 350 if I enroll before July.


Here's a bit of a nosy question.....What is the salary of a fitness instructor?
I don't want to change career for less money.

MagicMarker

Well what exactly do you want to do?

If you want to work in a commercial gym then you'll be on little more than minimum wage.

If you want to be a personal trainer then the money can be great, but it will take you a LONG time (imo) to get to a decent standard, and will take more than just a short part time course.

RacoonQueen

Crumlin do two courses. Exercise, Fitness and Nutrition where you do a FETAC diploma, Pilates - OCR and Gym Instruction - ITEC Diploma (the real ITEC) there was talk of adding a second year onto this course which would have Aerobics Teaching and Personal Training included as a lot of students from this course usually go onto Sports Therapy and have to enter in first year just to do those subjects in second year of Sports Therapy. Sports Therapy students study in first year gym instruction and holistic massage - ITEC and stress management - CIBTAC plus a FETAC Diploma, in second year Aromatherapy/Reflexology, Sports Massage, Sports Therapy Equipment, Aerobics and Personal Training - All ITEC. They sometimes organise other courses as well such as swiss ball, spinning etc which you have to pay for seperately. The support you'd receive in Crumlin for the gym based subjects is NOT good, you will be all on your own but once you go to the gym regularly, work out and read some good exercise books you should be fine. It's not as cheap as you think though as ITEC exams are quite pricey even though the Government pay for most of the course, the chunk you pay is still quite high.

As has been said, working as a fitness instructor can be mind numbingly boring, you have few assessments but in the bigger gyms you'll be teaching a couple of classes a day. There is a lot of sitting around though but you always have time to work out while you're in work. Gym instructors tend to be lazy fecks, although we've said it's boring there's nothing stopping you being one of the few who helps people on the gym floor when you see them doing things wrong, lifting the wrong weight, checking that the people who you made out programmes for are reaching their goals etc.. there's very few instructors that do this and it would really set you apart from the rest. I always liked to check on the members I'd worked with every couple of weeks to see how they were doing, great learning curve for you too to see what different things work for different people.

flywheel

Laydee wrote: »

Also, that link didn't work for me.

sorry the search facility on boards isn't saving results for very long anymore

if you go to the search this forum link towards the top right of the page and type in: NTC* or NCEF or NCEHS or ITEC they will come back with previous threads / discussions on the various Fitness Instructor qualifications on this Forum

you can also check the course info directly:
http://www.ntc.ie
http://www.ncefinfo.com

not sure of the ITEC link... maybe someone can post it up

metamorphosis

there is the ncef - but that will cost you the bones of over 2,500e.

In london, scotland there are courses with YMCA fitness that are on going year round and can be completed within 2 weeks or so or done on weekends so you can be home on weekdays. the courses will set you back a few hundred but with accomadation costs, etc you would prob be looking at the same price as the ntc or ncef.

When i did my schwinn indoor cycling certification there were one or two who were quite big and even refused to do the ride with the instructer and still came out with a cert :eek:

There are generally no pre requisites about size for anyone who wants to do these courses from what iv seen so if it is something you want to really invest in go for it

edited to say reiterate what dubfit said about not been sure about the itec one. stay away imo. dodgey

RacoonQueen

Can we also point out that there are two ITEC's the 'real' one is based in the UK International Therapy Examinations Council and the Irish ITEC Linkage who are distance based and I'm guessing are more based around just using for yourself than using to apply for jobs, I'm not sure employers would accept them?

You can also do courses with the ACSM, ACE , ISSA and NASM I think IDEA do courses too. I'm not sure whether many gyms would hire you just on these qualifications though, but they'd be more accredited than the Irish ITEC course and can all be done at home. Maybe contact some gyms and see what qualifications they'd accept. The American ones all require you to do continuing education in order to still hold your cert which is something the real ITEC don't do.

metamorphosis

and also http://www.nestacertified.com/

Transform

StormWarrior wrote: »

I trained as a fitness instructor (in the UK with Wabba) and 2 of the people on the course were morbidly obese. You shouldn't have problems getting onto a training course, but if you actually want to work as a fitness instructor I think you'd need to be fairly fit, if you're totally out of shape the gym manager might think it won't look good to the clients.

Btw no-one I know in the fitness industry has a degree. You can do 1 week courses, get qualified and get hired! I don't recommend fitness instructing as a job though, it is mind-numbingly boring. On every 6-hour shift I spent maybe half an hour showing people how to use the equiptment and the rest of the time sitting there bored out of my brain just swiping people's gym cards. It is not a very mind-stretching job.

well i feckin have and i certainly did not spend my time working in gyms before working for myself farting about!

Transform

Just a short note

I work and have worked as a trainer for over 10 years now and is seems for people in this current climate that being a trainer is the 'cool' or 'interesting' thing to do so lets be very very clear.

1. Its going to take a long time to get to the point where your earning 50,000 euro+ a year UNLESS you go work for a trainer and pick up the info and skills quicker

2. Its a business - you have to know how to market yourself (you are NEVER going to be a respected and even good trainer unless your in good shape IMO), sell sell sell, build a client base, care for the customer, build a brand etc etc

3. Its NOT easy - if your working in a commercial gym its going to be soul sapping (teach lots of classes that you should be paid more to do). If your working for yourself every day offers you the possibiliity that you are not going to have ANY work and you need to keep generating business by learning more and getting results with clients.

4. 99% of all fitness trainer never last - the vast majority do not continue to work in the industry as its tough and the top trainers are where they are because they stuck at it and worked their asses off 24/7

I started doing personal training as i cycled my bike from client to client all over dublin over 6 years ago to where i am today so please please please think about it and best of luck

RacoonQueen

Transform wrote: »

I started doing personal training as i cycled my bike from client to client all over dublin over 6 years ago to where i am today so please please please think about it and best of luck

That ruins my excuse of not doing any personal training on the side because I don't drive. :rolleyes:

Transform

Well i had some very tough weather days at the beginning but hey you do what you have to in the beginning!

Zamboni

Transform wrote: »

Just a short note

I work and have worked as a trainer for over 10 years now and is seems for people in this current climate that being a trainer is the 'cool' or 'interesting' thing to do so lets be very very clear.

1. Its going to take a long time to get to the point where your earning 50,000 euro+ a year UNLESS you go work for a trainer and pick up the info and skills quicker

2. Its a business - you have to know how to market yourself (you are NEVER going to be a respected and even good trainer unless your in good shape IMO), sell sell sell, build a client base, care for the customer, build a brand etc etc

3. Its NOT easy - if your working in a commercial gym its going to be soul sapping (teach lots of classes that you should be paid more to do). If your working for yourself every day offers you the possibiliity that you are not going to have ANY work and you need to keep generating business by learning more and getting results with clients.

4. 99% of all fitness trainer never last - the vast majority do not continue to work in the industry as its tough and the top trainers are where they are because they stuck at it and worked their asses off 24/7

I started doing personal training as i cycled my bike from client to client all over dublin over 6 years ago to where i am today so please please please think about it and best of luck

An excellent post.
People seem to think they can do a 12 week course and train celebrities as soon as they finish and be loaded. The reality is it takes a serious business perspective to build a career in PT.

Transform

serious business accumen and lots and lots of hours of work!!

Gotta put in your 10,000 hours of training and working with clients to be top of the game

RacoonQueen

Transform wrote: »

Well i had some very tough weather days at the beginning but hey you do what you have to in the beginning!

Well I'd best get to it, I've just been told I might lose my job in three weeks. What a way to give me a right kick up the arse and actually go out and do work I want to do.

lovetoshop

Hi there, I was in the fitness industry for 7 years and was never exactly what you would call slim but i was good at what I did.I studied with the ncef partime it was an excellent course, it is not physically demanding when you are training to become an instuctor. Not everyone in my course at the time where fit they where all different shapes, sizes and ages.My advice to you is too start building up your fitness slowly if you can join a gym it will also help you understand what you are studing while your doing the course, and go to the classes it will help. So relax and go for it.!!!!! Cause its when you are working that you will need your fitness.

StormWarrior

RacoonQueen wrote: »

you always have time to work out while you're in work.

Are you being serious? I don't know any gym where they let the instructors work out whilst on duty.


As far as teaching classes, like aerobics, I have some friends who do that and they say you cannot make enough money to live on that way. They all have rich husbands or day jobs and the aerobics instructing is just their thing on the side.

I personally do not recommend getting into the fitness industry. It's boring and badly paid. I quit after less than 2 years because it got to the stage where I was crying every day at the thought of going into work because I knew I would be bored senseless. Also, whoever was on duty had to put the weights away at the end of the day. Some of those weights weighed more than I did and I had permanent backache that got so severe I couldn't even sleep at night. Being a fitness instructor was the only job I actually trained for, but it was the worst job I've ever had. I'd never do it again.

Magic Eight Ball

I don’t mean to offend anyone, but what I really don’t understand is why people who seemingly don’t have an interest in fitness in general suddenly decide they want to become professional trainers?

I’ve seen this a few times now, It’s a strange Phenomenon.

Do people actually think it’s an easy job or something?

itsallaboutheL

StormWarrior wrote: »

Are you being serious? I don't know any gym where they let the instructors work out whilst on duty.


As far as teaching classes, like aerobics, I have some friends who do that and they say you cannot make enough money to live on that way. They all have rich husbands or day jobs and the aerobics instructing is just their thing on the side.

I personally do not recommend getting into the fitness industry. It's boring and badly paid. I quit after less than 2 years because it got to the stage where I was crying every day at the thought of going into work because I knew I would be bored senseless. Also, whoever was on duty had to put the weights away at the end of the day. Some of those weights weighed more than I did and I had permanent backache that got so severe I couldn't even sleep at night. Being a fitness instructor was the only job I actually trained for, but it was the worst job I've ever had. I'd never do it again.

A "fitness instructor" giving out because they had to pick up heavy stuff!! is that not THE oxymoron!!

StormWarrior

There's a bit of a difference between a petite 5ft 5ins girl lifting 5kg weights as a workout, than having to spend half an hour every evening putting away weights that are so heavy she has to drag them across the floor giving herself back damage. Really, the things they made us do in that gym that shouldn't even have been part of our job description, like for example, for some reason the fitness instructors, not the lifeguards, were in charge of keeping the pool in order. We had to do chemical testing on the pool which involved scooping out handfuls of chemicals from a bucket. It very clearly stated on the bucket "Goggles and gloves must be worn when handling," but we were not provided with goggles or gloves. We had to scoop the chemicals out with our bare hands. I got some horrible excema-type stuff from that. God only knows what was in that stuff. Oh god I hated that job.

MagicMarker

StormWarrior wrote: »

There's a bit of a difference between a petite 5ft 5ins girl lifting 5kg weights as a workout, than having to spend half an hour every evening putting away weights that are so heavy she has to drag them across the floor giving herself back damage. Really, the things they made us do in that gym that shouldn't even have been part of our job description, like for example, for some reason the fitness instructors, not the lifeguards, were in charge of keeping the pool in order. We had to do chemical testing on the pool which involved scooping out handfuls of chemicals from a bucket. It very clearly stated on the bucket "Goggles and gloves must be worn when handling," but we were not provided with goggles or gloves. We had to scoop the chemicals out with our bare hands. I got some horrible excema-type stuff from that. God only knows what was in that stuff. Oh god I hated that job.

No offence, but I wouldn't handle chemicals with my bare hands when I clearly shouldn't.

There comes a time when you have to stand up for yourself.

StormWarrior

I did. By quitting.

Zamboni

StormWarrior wrote: »

There's a bit of a difference between a petite 5ft 5ins girl lifting 5kg weights as a workout, than having to spend half an hour every evening putting away weights that are so heavy she has to drag them across the floor giving herself back damage. Really, the things they made us do in that gym that shouldn't even have been part of our job description, like for example, for some reason the fitness instructors, not the lifeguards, were in charge of keeping the pool in order. We had to do chemical testing on the pool which involved scooping out handfuls of chemicals from a bucket. It very clearly stated on the bucket "Goggles and gloves must be worn when handling," but we were not provided with goggles or gloves. We had to scoop the chemicals out with our bare hands. I got some horrible excema-type stuff from that. God only knows what was in that stuff. Oh god I hated that job.

To be fair if they were making a 5ft 5ins girl lift 40Kg dumbbells back to racks and dipping hands in chemicals that place really deserves a visit from the HSA.

Transform

totally agree.

However her experience is not the only one but an experience almost every single trainer has had to endure to get to where they want to be.

metamorphosis

Also OP, could you clarify what you are more interested in?

For example are you interested in going down the PT route or are you interested in fitness instruction route like for example just teaching classes on the side a few hours a week? Or just to work in a gym?

StormWarrior

Also (I don't know how it works in Ireland as I was a fitness instructor in the UK) but in my gym, which is one of the biggest, most famous gyms in the southwest of England, they also screwed us over by not giving us contracts. They classed us a "casual" staff, even those of us who had been working there for years and did the same full-time shifts every week. Because of this no-one dared to complain officially about the way we were treated because when one of the workers did complain, they were just fired. The fitness industry can be hard to get into as well. It's a bit like archeaology, there are loads of people qualified to do the job but not enough jobs to go round. And you'll probably be on minimum wage. At least that's how it is in the UK. And from what I've read on boards before, in Ireland you can earn even less than in th UK. It is seriously not a job to be gotten into unless you are so lifelong-dedicated to it that you are willing to put up with all this for years until you can work your way to the top.

StormWarrior

Zamboni wrote: »

To be fair if they were making a 5ft 5ins girl lift 40Kg dumbbells back to racks and dipping hands in chemicals that place really deserves a visit from the HSA.

I'm going to look into this, I've always wanted to report them.

Zamboni

StormWarrior wrote: »

I'm going to look into this, I've always wanted to report them.

You said it was in the UK?
So start here.
http://www.hse.gov.uk/contact/complaintsandconcerns.htm

StormWarrior

Thanks! Do you think you can report them anonymously?