Personal Training Studios» personal training courses

Advanced personal training tips

admin — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 12:47:58 +0000

This time of year is a very popular time of year for personal trainers to do personal training courses. If you are a personal trainer thinking of doing a course at the moment to further your knowledge then these are a few courses you should think of.

When it comes to qualifications most people want to see you have YMCA personal trainer, Premier personal trainer or a Sports science degree. A sports science degree certainly puts you above a lot of people but doesn’t get you anywhere near where it used to get you or where people think it gets you today in personal training. Below are a few short courses that can make a huge difference to the amount of clients you get so are good to get under your belt.

Powerplate instructor- powerplate is very popular, lots of people have them in their homes and need training, there is a shortage of qualified instructors so it’s a good course to do.
Paul Chek courses – regarded highly in the industry, teaches you a lot of advanced personal training tips
Poliquin – advanced strength training tips for personal trainers, very few trainers have this, well worth getting. I am a big Charles Poliquin fan and regard his knowledge above 99.9% of people.
Pre natal post natal – in Notting Hill aspecially there are tons of young mums looking to get back in shape after having a baby or keep in shape during early pregnancy so they can easily get back in shape after the baby. This is a market where there are still limited specialist trainers.

Instead of going out the same as the masses with a general personal training qualification, go for these niches, with personal training becoming a saturated business niches are the key to success.

Check out our personal training forum to chat with the top PT’s and share tips on the industry

Best personal trainers in the world

admin — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 14:42:02 +0000

The personal trainers below are who I consider to be the best personal trainers in the world today. These personal trainers heavily influenced me since I started in the personal training industry, they have been involved in personal training for decades and I would imagine will be personal training for decades to come.

Charles Glass is the most famous bodybuilding personal trainer I can think of. Charles Glass was a competitive bodybuilder himself and now trains many of the worlds professional bodybuilders including Flex Wheeler, Chris Cormier, Dennis James and Gunter Schlierkamp. Bodybuilding knowledge is something that takes decades to perfect and Charles Glass has been around for many of those decades of bodybuilding. I couldn’t think of anyone who could give more accurate bodybuilding advice than him. Charles Glass works out of Venice Beach the mecca of bodybuilding and spends most of his days standing side by side the pros guiding them with every detail to success at the Olympia competition. Charles Glass does a lot of work for Bodybuilding.com where you can see him in video workouts demonstrating his personal training knowledge. Charles Glass is also a regular writer for the bodybuilding magazine Muscular Development which he writes a monthly column.

Charles Poliquin is a Candian strength training coach who has trained many athletes including Donovan Bailey, the gold medal sprinter. Charles Poliquin has a B.S.C in Kinesiology and a M.S.C in exercise physiology. Charles Poliquin regularly writes for T Nation online. Charles has published several books that have been translated into many different languages. Charles created his own courses for personal training that are now highly regarded by personal trainers around the world. Charles spends most of his time traveling around the world giving fitness seminars, personal training athletes and running his fitness business.

Victor Costa I only recently found out about Victor Costa when browsing Youtube workouts. I saw Victor Costa on youtube and his bodily condition and workout principles shocked me, this is a man who performs each rep to as close to 100% perfection as you can get, isolating each muscle to the fullest. Victor Costa has hugely influenced my own training and displays the way weight training should really be performed which sadly 90% of people who are involved in bodybuilding don’t do. Victor Costa is now highly regarded by people around the world as one of best personal trainers in the world. Victor received the Honorary lifetime certification by the International sports science association for his long standing contributions to the sport of bodybuilding.

Personal training courses section of the forum

admin — Fri, 01 May 2009 12:30:53 +0000

If you are finding it confusing picking the right personal training course to learn to become a personal trainer or are looking to do an additional course to improve your personal training knowledge then check out our personal training course section in the forum, it is very helpful. In this section of the forum you can speak to experienced freelance personal trainers about what courses they advise and talk to people who have just finished personal training courses for their view on the course.

Premier personal training course review

admin — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 20:25:30 +0000

The premier personal training course is very similar to the YMCA personal training course, most good personal trainers in London have either done the YMCA or Premier course. The premier personal trainer course is around 12 weeks long and can be done partly at home following an instructional DVD. The course qualified you up to level 3 of REPS. Like the YMCA the course can also be done part time so if you are working full time or have a family to look after you will be able to fit that around your course. I personally think the YMCA course is better but I am a bit biased as that was the one I did. However the general feedback I have had from personal trainers over the years is that the YMCA is a more detailed course.

Please read our Personal trainer courses section of our forum for more reviews of personal trainer courses.

Steps to becoming a good personal trainer

admin — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 14:29:51 +0000

This article is attended both for people thinking of becoming a good personal trainer and for people looking to find a good personal trainer. When you have completed a reputable personal training course such as the YMCA personal trainer award your next step is finding work. Of say 20 people who do a YMCA personal trainer course 1-3 will probably never finish it and around 12 will not get into personal training. The reasons so little people actually become personal trainers after finishing their course is for the following reasons.

Can’t find a personal training job
Salary too low initially to consider working as a personal trainer
Freelance personal training becomes too difficult and they give up in a few months

The people who do actually become personal trainers either work at a health club or go freelance. Freelance straight away is very hard and I would say the success rate would be around 10%. Most people start at a health club. Starting salary would be around £18,000 a year and there are quite a few jobs but competitive. Once you are working at a health club depending on your contract you can build up clients here. After a year or so I would say around 40% of these personal trainers go freelance, there chance of success now would be alot higher I would guess around 40%. Most freelance personal trainers though at this stage have another secure job to ensure they pay the bills. From looking at this step by step process of becoming a successful personal trainer you can see how much more difficult it is than it initially seems when you step through the doors of your course the first day. I don’t think it is necessarily difficult just more difficult than people imagined. The overall amount of successful freelance personal trainers from the group that initially attended the course is very low indeed. If you are looking for a personal trainer and reading this article you can see how the personal trainers vary in quality at the different stages of the process. A personal trainer working in a gym who has been there for 6 months is usually inexperienced and most of his knowledge is from the text book of the course. By picking freelance personal trainers with years of experience you are getting a much better quality personal trainer. The personal trainers however with lower experience will be cheaper.

Online personal training courses are they any good?

admin — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 14:13:52 +0000

I am not a big fan of online personal training courses. I think to really learn about personal training it needs to be demonstrated in front of you. By all means don’t neglect using the Internet to boost your knowledge of personal training but online courses I don’t really recommend. On TV you often see courses that can be done from home at low cost and online, these are cheap courses that employers don’t think think very highly of. These kinds of course are good if you want to become a gym instructor but for personal trainers I don’t advise it. Thousands of people love the idea of being a personal trainer and do these courses every year how many actually succeed as a personal trainer and have job satisfaction very little. Even on courses like the YMCA there is a very low proportion of the overall people who attending the course who actually go on to become personal trainers, I would say it is around 20% but I am not certain. If you want to do well as a personal trainer do a YMCA personal trainer course but that is only the beginning, you need to do lots of Internet research into marketing yourself and how you can differentiate yourself from other personal trainers. Keep away from online courses unless like I said you want to just be a gym instructor.

YMCA personal training course review

admin — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 18:05:07 +0000

The YMCA personal trainer award is one of the most reputable personal training qualifications and one that introduced me to the business. The YMCA personal trainer award is a course that takes approximately 3 months and can be done in modules allowing you to fit it around work or any other fixed arrangements you have. The course is taken in classes of around 10-20 people ranging from 18 to 60 year olds. The average age is around 25. The lessons are partly class room based and exercise based in the gym and outside. The exams are the same half and half. Most people do the course in the way the YMCA have set it where you do one week on one week off which allows you to study for one week and then revise the following week for the test. The YMCA personal trainer is made up of the following separate modules

YMCA Gym instructor

YMCA Advance gym instructor

YMCA Personal training business and Personal training marketing

YMCA Client retention

YMCA Client lifestyle and fitness assesment

YMCA Excercise nutrition

YMCA Training in different environments

Overall a great course and a great introduction to the industry. If you want to be a personal fitness trainer do this course don’t just do the Gym instructor course this won’t provide you with enough information.

Please read our Personal trainer courses section for more reviews of personal trainer courses

What makes a certified personal trainer a certified personal trainer

admin — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 15:01:32 +0000

Certified personal trainers are generally regarded as the personal trainers who have done the necessary official course to be a personal trainer and passed. Alot of personal trainers call themselves certified personal trainers when they have actually only done a basic online course that can be done from home. What you need to know when you get a personal trainer is what the qualifications mean. I am not going to give you an in depth look at the courses as this will probably bore you instead I am going to give you a brief run down on the courses.

YMCA Personal trainer- A complete personal training course that if you pass you can call your self a certified personal trainer. This course is made up of lost of modules and is what you want your personal trainer to have, Premier offer another course very similar to this which is equally as good. The modules can be completed separately as gym instructor level 1,2,3 but if you only have one or two of these although good qualifications to have I don’t think you can really call yourself a certified personal trainer.

Chek- these are the personal training courses started by Paul Chek the majority of people who take these are personal trainers who want to become more advanced. Personal trainers with these as well as the YMCA are quite highly qualified trainers.

Exercise to music, Body-balance etc- these are basic courses run by the YMCA and other course providers. some of these courses can be completed in 2 days and if a personal trainer has only this qualification I would avoid them.

The other most important thing is experience and something I regard very highly. As I am talking here about certifications I wont go into the experience needed. As a rule of thumb look out for YMCA when picking a trainer or Premier or ACE the american course this way you know you are getting a certified personal trainer. There are alot of rogue personal trainers out there these days after some easy money be careful of them. Some personal trainers put up the qualifications in the module form to make it look like they have lots of qualifications ask them about their qualifications as you will find alot don’t have what they say they have. Personal trainers with YMCA personal trainer, a few Chek courses and possibly some Poliquins as well as maybe specialist training in an area such as sports conditioning for golf you can regard as a highly qualified personal trainer. When you are spending money on a personal trainer and it’s your body your investing in make sure you have got a trainer who has the knowledge to create a great body for you.

Become a personal trainer tips

admin — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 15:04:20 +0000

There is more to become a personal trainer than attending personal training courses such as the YMCA personal trainer, yes this will qualify you as a personal trainer but there is alot more to it than this. Anyone can call themselves a personal trainer, guys who have trained for the last two years in gyms call themselves a personal trainer and train people in their local gym without telling the gym and taking cash payments. These guys are probably the worst personal trainers you could ever use as they think they know it all but actually don’t. To become a personal trainer, a good one you want to follow the following steps

Do a good personal training course like the YMCA personal trainer award
Go to the gym regularly your self and watch everything that is going on
Personal train friends for free to get practice at being a personal trainer
Get a personal trainer yourself and watch how they train you, I still regularly do this myself to brush up on my personal training
Read Personal trainers websites and keep up to date with the latest fitness news related to personal training

Above are just a few tips that will really help you on your journey to become a personal trainer.

Personal training courses to help you become a personal trainer

admin — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 04:39:59 +0000

There are lots of different personal training courses and only a few that are worth really considering. Most London personal trainers do the YMCA personal training course this is the course I did the YMCA personal trainer award and so have most of the personal trainers working out of personal training studios. The YMCA personal trainer award covers most things you need to become a personal trainer. Each module of this award can also be done separately so if you are on a tighter financial or time budget this would suit you. The other popular personal training course amongst London personal trainers is the Premier personal training course which is very similar to the YMCA personal trainer award. The American similar version to these is ACE which you see a couple of London personal trainers have who have come over from the USA. The more advanced courses are CHEK and Charles Poliquin highly respected courses by industry professionals. If you want to become a personal trainer then I suggest you look into any of the above courses.