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Fitness Instructors: I need your advice about getting certified?
I’m interested in getting certified as a fitness instructor (yoga, pilates, personal trainer, etc.) but I want to hear from people who have been through it before. What certification did you get? What advice do you have for people who are considering starting the certification. What things did you wish you knew before you started? What mistakes have you made? Did the certification help you get a better job? Was it worth the effort? What were the most helpful tools to help get certified (products, training, books…please be specific). How much money did you spend to get certified, how much time? Thank you.
There are many certifications out there, but you want to get one that is recognized by most fitness industry professionals. Each certification has it’s focus of interest such as sports specific training, aerobic training, lifestyle modification and so on. Another factor is that just because you have a respected certification does not mean that you may be good at training others. There are some great trainers without any certification, but I do recommend finding one who is certified, listens to you first, understands how to be specific with your needs and respects the professional standards of our industry. Anyone who is ACE, AFFA, ACSM, CSCS, CHEK, ISSA or the like should be a good start. Most certifications will require personal home study and a weekend course and test. This will cost you approximately $500 or more depending on the organization. If you are serious about this profession you do need to get a quality certification. It is a very competitive field so the better you look on paper and the more professional you appear in person the higher your chances of getting a position. Most jobs are purely commision based so if you may need as much as a year to build up a good client base to support yourself. You absolutely have to be a good listener and an inspirational communicater. Once you do well with a few people asking for refferals and pursuing them will do more than any amount of business cards or flyers (give these out like theres no tommorow, but they are inferior to someone who has a big mouth and likes your work.) Finally avoid studying the trendy fad articles that you typically find in mags. Instead find accomplished professionals in your chosen niche and study them. Paul Chek has great info, but is a little dry in presentation, Juan Carlos Casteneda is also a great functional trainer.
For Yoga I would recommend researching styles and teachers on YogaAlliance.com. Actually some of the best yoga teachers and of course the founding fathers and mothers of Yoga were never certified. The purpose is to clarify an accepted standard of learning and practice so that teachers are qualified enough to teach others without harm.
How to Become a Personal Trainer – Part 1 – IFPA Presents
