How to pick the correct course in the fitness industry in Ireland

Zamboni

This question comes up endlessly on this forum.

So, you want to become an aerobics instructor or a gym floor instructor.
I thought I'd offer you some tips.


1. There is no barrier to entry to setting up a business that provides fitness courses.
Seriously - outside of normal business, taxation and legislative requirements, ANYBODY can open up a company and offer Fitness Instruction courses.
You would be surprised how lucrative it is to sell bog standard courses to eager people (who will mostly never work in the fitness/sport industry anyway).

2. Accreditation - Is all bullsh*t.
All accreditation in this area is based upon relationships, commercial relationships, first movers, and political relationships.
If you think any accreditation is objective and based on legitimate educations markers, you would be very naive about the world in general.

3. Opinions from previous graduates
Bizarrely enough, the majority of past graduates from a course have an inherent need to "big up" the course that they graduated from.
The have invested time and money in their qualification - to devalue it publicly, devalues their own self worth.
There are some that have the ability to think and assess critically but as with any sample of the human population this is a small percentage.

4. Opinions from anybody with a remote connection or financial interest in the provider.
Conflict of interest. Period.
Regardless of their expertise in the area, their interest is not in line with yours.

5. There is no objective body to offer legitimate course comparisons.
None. De nada. Zilch. Not f*cking ILAM,Reps or the EHFA , IFA, IFPA.
See 2.


6. Pick your course based on four things - Cost / Location / Insurance / Course Content

1. Cost - No brainer
2. Location - Convenience
3. Insurance - Check with insurance companies if they will accept XYZ Ltd course
4. Course Content - If you want to teach Yoga don't do an S&C course

The truth is the generic courses are generic - surprise surprise.
They have to be to capture a large market and ensure maximal sales.
There is actually very little to differentiate them.


Disclaimer
I have attended a number of the "usual" courses mentioned on this forum.
I've no affiliations with any supplier.
I've studied this area in the past and have documented and compared service offerings in a previous academic life.

Will Heffernan

I wanted to say thank you in words rather than just clicking thank you. Glad I am not alone.

Will Heffernan

Maybe people could actually post what what the cheapest, fastest way too get accredited and to get insured in Ireland?

That aside...one of the things that annoys me about these threads is the fact that if you are looking for a course to teach you what you need to know and how to be a gym instructor or lord help us all a personal trainer then you need to choose another job because you are certainly not up to being a gym instructor let alone a personal trainer.

If you are getting taught anything technical or specific at these courses then you have absolutely no right at all to be teaching anyone anything at all the day after you are qualified when the day before you were clueless.

ALL the courses for accreditation should be about ensuring everyone has at a minimum the same basic standard NOT about getting people to a minimum standard.

Hanley

Will Heffernan wrote: »

Maybe people could actually post what what the cheapest, fastest way too get accredited and to get insured in Ireland?

That aside...one of the things that annoys me about these threads is the fact that if you are looking for a course to teach you what you need to know and how to be a gym instructor or lord help us all a personal trainer then you need to choose another job because you are certainly not up to being a gym instructor let alone a personal trainer.

If you are getting taught anything technical or specific at these courses then you have absolutely no right at all to be teaching anyone anything at all the day after you are qualified when the day before you were clueless.

ALL the courses for accreditation should be about ensuring everyone has at a minimum the same basic standard NOT about getting people to a minimum standard.

One of the main things looked at in the exams is "did this person do any dumb or dangerous ****". And if the answer is no, they're probably "ok".

The more you know, the more you'll get out of any course.

The first step in any incoming FitPro's education must be to open their eyes to how much dumb **** they have been doing, and how little they actually know.

Will Heffernan

Hanley wrote: »

One of the main things looked at in the exams is "did this person do any dumb or dangerous ****". And if the answer is no, they're probably "ok".

The more you know, the more you'll get out of any course.

The first step in any incoming FitPro's education must be to open their eyes to how much dumb **** they have been doing, and how little they actually know.

Agree with that 100%.

Glowing

Will Heffernan wrote: »

That aside...one of the things that annoys me about these threads is the fact that if you are looking for a course to teach you what you need to know and how to be a gym instructor or lord help us all a personal trainer then you need to choose another job because you are certainly not up to being a gym instructor let alone a personal trainer.

What do you mean here Will? Are you referring to all PT/Gym Instructor courses or just the 'short sharp get in and get qualified' courses?

I've been looking into doing a course recently and it's been a nightmare trying to wade through the various options (and acronyms!) - it's an absolute minefield and very frustrating! But I understand that it will be just the first step on a very high ladder. Surely one has to get 'qualified' and insured to work in the industry where I presume 95% of the actual learning will take place?

Will Heffernan

Glowing wrote: »

What do you mean here Will? Are you referring to all PT/Gym Instructor courses or just the 'short sharp get in and get qualified' courses?

I've been looking into doing a course recently and it's been a nightmare trying to wade through the various options (and acronyms!) - it's an absolute minefield and very frustrating! But I understand that it will be just the first step on a very high ladder. Surely one has to get 'qualified' and insured to work in the industry where I presume 95% of the actual learning will take place?

Great question. I have some time this morning so I will try to answer it in detail.

If you want to be a gym instructor or a personal trainer this is what I think you should do.

1. You should train. Not only train but you should understand how training works for you and on you. If you don't have the power to change your physique and to make alterations then you should probably give it a miss. That is not to say that you have to be ripped or anything like that (although it is probably in reality more important than anything else...at least when you are starting out) but you should know how to lose fat, put on some muscle, make yourself faster or make yourself fitter.

2. Read. You need to read more than boards and more than what is on the internet. You need to get an anatomy and physiology text book...any one will do. You see people arguing about this like they argue about course...it's pointless as they are 95% the same. Get a text book and learn the bones...all the ones you can see and touch. Learn all the muscles...learn where the originate and insert and what they do....again....all the ones you can see and touch. Then read about energy production in the human body. You need to be able to know enough to be able to explain to your Dad what energy systems are being used in different sports....you don't need to know one hydrogenase from another but you do need to be able to explain in simple terms what is going on in the different energy pathways and if you can make your Dad understand it then you know plenty. You need to understand how the nervous system works and how it works particularly in relation to muscle tissue. You need to understand the physiology of muscle...what it is and how and why it works. Once you have all of the above in your head....now you are ready to be able to read about training and actually understand it. The biggest problem whether it is in the gym or on the interwebz is that people read all about training...they read about 5x5 and 5/3/1 and Starting Strength but they don't actually have any of the 'background' to reeeeeeeeally understand it. Saying that I am not sure that everyone reading this will understand what I am getting at but once you understand all of the above background then you'll get it.

3. Learn. Once you've read about all the background basics with regard anatomy and physiology then you can start learning about training and the very first thing I'd learn about is testing and assessment because when you start trying new things and putting the things you are learning into practice you need to be able to measure them. We all know people who've started training and they look better and better but their scale weight stays the same or goes up and you should know that's because they are losing fat and gaining lean muscle mass etc etc. You need to be able to measure their performance and body composition changes...you need to learn how to do skin folds (which is hard because I didn't see many people who did it well in Ireland) and girth measurements. You need to be able to do some simple strength and muscular endurance tests. You need to be able to do some fitness tests etc etc. These are the things you should learn first. Then you need to start reading and learning about training. Again...there are heaps of good books. Start with any of them you like. Read, learn and then put it into practice on yourself and your friends. Measure where you are when you start. Measure where you finish in 8 weeks. Then grab another book. Read, learn and then put it into practice. Measure where you are when you start. Measure where you finish in 8 weeks. Then sit down and look at all the results from the first program and all the results from the second program and work out what worked well and what didn't. Work out how long it took and were the results worth it. Then talk to and annoy other trainers and coaches. This week I've had programs from people that were all about rope climbing, someone else who was preparing for a police fitness test, someone else who is doing a downhill running event and is trying to work out how to prepare themselves for the doms as they live in the city and don't have hills to run down...I get emails from coaches and athletes all the time and always try to help if I can especially if people look like they are trying to help themselves. There are heaps of coaches and trainers in Ireland and I doubt there's one of them that would't be interested to hear what you have to say about your comparison of programs. Then you can get another book and do it again or start changing the variables that you think will alter performance and asses again in another 8 weeks.

If you did nothing more than what I listed above you'd already be miles ahead of most of the gym instructors out there that have picked up the certificate and gone to work.

4. Get accredited and insured. As I've said multiple times...find the fastest and cheapest way to get accredited and get insurance because you are going to go to do the course and already know more than some of the instructors at some of these places.

5. Get experience. I have had and still do have heaps of people ask if they can help me or come to training and observe and I've never said no. I have always been happy to have the help of have someone else use the stopwatch or record times. You need experience and and you need to have confidence working with athletes and clients. Being comfortable in a coaching/training environment is probably the most important attribute you can have if you want to be a gym instructor or personal trainer.

6. Now go and do the courses you want to do. If you want an Oly lifting cert...go and learn and practice. If you want to have some big black bells swinging between your legs...go do a KB cert. Go do a GAA coaching cert. Go do the IRFU conditioning coaches course or whatever they call it now. Now is the time you should be doing courses because now you have a framework to build upon.

I think the mistake that is made is that people go straight to step 6. They go do a course and get a certificate but if you pulled them aside a week later they'd have a grand total of about 8 minutes of knowledge they could share with you and none of it would hold together.

Glowing

Thanks for that detailed reply! Will absorb it for now ... :-)

Will Heffernan

Glowing wrote: »

Thanks for that detailed reply! Will absorb it for now ... :-)

As per usual it was actually me trying to give a brief detailed reply

I re read it again this arvo and I think it pretty much cover all the bases.

cmyk

Some excellent advice in this thread so far, should be a sticky for this time of year when all these threads seem to come up.

I'd add one more point to Will's list.

The 'personal' end of things. Will touched on it but it's a huge part of the job when dealing with the general public.

You've ultimately got to motivate someone who may have had negative issues with gyms and/or exercise and/or nutrition in the past. You've got to look and assess your clients psychologically aswell. It's easy in this forum to give advice as most of the posters are pretty active people who enjoy training, this is not reflective of the general public.

For some people they may be better tracking their daily food in a diary or online, for others you might simply need to swap out the 4 mars bars they usually have for breakfast, it will be your job to assess what you think may work for that client.

The same is applicable for training. Cueing technique, learning re-gressions and progressions...and even swapping movements that they hate doing for something they'll enjoy more.

I will also add, we were actively looking for a trainer to help us out recently, and we had people come from all the courses mentioned...however none we deemed had the 'personality' we were looking for. Some were overly arrogant considering lack of experience in some cases.

Ironically the best guy we found was a Polish guy who hadn't even finished his course and had the ambition to come in (twice); before we let anyone know we were looking; and ask for some experience, shadowing and ultimately whatever that might lead to. He was polite, well turned out, eager to learn with plenty of humility...and I actually couldn't care less which course he was doing.

doccy

As a complete aside, I think people would be surprised how many lucrative industries the OP could relate to. You could substitute the "fitness industry" to a hell of a lot of other industries on this green isle.

Zamboni

cmyk wrote: »

Some excellent advice in this thread so far, should be a sticky for this time of year when all these threads seem to come up.

I'd add one more point to Will's list.

The 'personal' end of things. Will touched on it but it's a huge part of the job when dealing with the general public.

Completely agree and it is why I left the "industry" early on.
I loved the area. Still do. But I don't like people :pac:

Henry9

doccy wrote: »

As a complete aside, I think people would be surprised how many lucrative industries the OP could relate to. You could substitute the "fitness industry" to a hell of a lot of other industries on this green isle.

As long as the Irish attitude persists of "I want to be X, I have to do a course", it will always be this way.
FFS you wouldn't hire a guy with no experience as a bar man because he 'did a course', you'd grab the guy who's been washing glasses and taking orders, who knows how the place works.
That's how people used to learn their trade, start at the bottom, keep your eyes and ears open and your mouth shut.
Trying to get around this by sitting in a classroom and regurgitating enough to pass an exam is the easy way out.

Zamboni

This thread was supposed to give potential students a no bullsh*t basic guide on course comparison and did not intend on making any statement on any individual or course provider.

Ah well.

Hanley

Zamboni wrote: »

This thread was supposed to give potential students a no bullsh*t basic guide on course comparison and did not intend on making any statement on any individual or course provider.

Ah well.

Welcome to the Internet.

Zamboni

Hanley wrote: »

Welcome to the Internet.

Optimism gets me nowhere.

Alf Veedersane

Zamboni wrote: »

Optimism gets me nowhere.

Optimism? That one a dem yokes you get out foreign?

Oryx

Closing thread till I sort out a few things.

Oryx

Okay. Like it or not, I've removed all posts in this thread that brought up a particular poster, and turned the thread into something about them and not the orignal query. It was off topic and did not belong here. I'm happy to discuss by pm anyone's thoughts on this.

Will Heffernan

Oryx wrote: »

Okay. Like it or not, I've removed all posts in this thread that brought up a particular poster, and turned the thread into something about them and not the orignal query. It was off topic and did not belong here. I'm happy to discuss by pm anyone's thoughts on this.

You can go ahead and delete the rest of my posts in this thread as well as they were also 'off topic'. Thanks.