ARTICLE: The Secrets of Success as a Personal Trainer

[Citruscide]

I originally posted this ORIGINAL article (by me. ) at ChemicalMuscle.com
The Secrets of Success as a Personal Trainer

A Personal Trainer. It sounds so mysterious, doesn’t it? When mentioned to the lay person, you picture a Tony Little look-a-like who is excited about everything from Ab-Rollers to the bench press. However, there is more to being a personal trainer than having a good attitude toward your client (and not sounding like an infomercial). There are many sound techniques a trainer can use to insure a good reputation, gaining clients, and making sure that his/her clients are happy. Being a personal trainer is also more than just running a client on a treadmill and spotting them on a bench; if that were the case, there wouldn’t be a need for personal trainers in the first place. Diet, Cardio, Supplementation, Weight Training and lifestyle are all aspects to being a personal trainer. Liability and ethics also play a role. A personal trainer must take the effort to protect himself/herself from liability at all times as well as providing a safe environment for their client. At all times, a personal trainer must be ethical, this includes the promotion of supplements and even the avocation of anabolic steroids.

Phase 1: Becoming a Personal Trainer

How do I become a personal trainer? Well, the obvious answer would be to “get certified”. However, I would suggest going to talk with a personal trainer, preferably one who is successful and has an established business already. I had the awesome pleasure of talking with a trainer who has established his own corporation and had been training for over 10 years. He keyed me in to many aspects of the industry and how to effectively get your name out there, without sounding like you are pimping Don LaPre’s products. It really gave me a clear guideline of expectations.
As for the certifications, I am NESTA and ISSA certified as a personal trainer. In my opinion, ISSA would be the more nationally recognized of the two, as NESTA is more of a localized, yet nationally accepted, certification. As this goes, it depends on WHERE you plan on training. Most corporate gyms require their own certification, such as 24 Hour Fitness (FitPro), LA Fitness, and Bally’s all require their own certifications as well as a nationally recognized one. These training facilities have lists of their accepted certifications available. The more certifications you have at these facilities, the higher pay per hour you will receive. Do not hold your breath however, at last check, 24 Hour Fitness pays between $15 to $21 dollars an hour depending on the number of certifications you possess.
Now, if you plan on renting space from a gym, this can also be beneficial. While a corporate position will more than likely guarantee you some clients, in a rental position, you will be responsible for soliciting and finding your OWN clients. At my gym in Chicago, the rent is $200 per month and you can charge what you like. Typically, the charge isn’t higher than $60/hour. At Milos Sarcev’s Gold’s Gym in Fullerton, you pay $350 a month, and get the first two months free in order to establish a clientele. In that area, you can charge roughly up to $75+ an hour. So, depending on where you live, you can make more, or less… I will say that in the rental situation, the more “certs” you have, the more impressive you will look. A good physique is also a turn-on for clients. I carry before/after photos as well… so that clients can see what I have done for others. There will be more on this in the Marketing section of this article.
So you have a choice in where to work as a trainer… and on the MANY types of certifications that you can possess.

Phase 2: You got your Certification, now what? – How to develop your personal training business.

Whether you work for a corporate gym, or rent per month from a gym, there is one thing you are going to have to remember, most of your clients, YOU’LL have to get!!! The process of gaining clients, in any profession, is a long and drawn out process. There is one thing that you as personal trainer posses; you are armed with knowledge of training, nutrition, and exercise techniques. You must use this knowledge to convince a potential client that they NEED a personal trainer.
One of the most popular ways of promoting yourself, is through the media… but, it as popular as it is, it is also the most impractical. The sheer cost of this medium will put the beginning trainer either in the ranks of the homeless or at the very best, in severe financial straights.

Face to Face Sales:

So how do you do it then? The most cost-effective strategy of gaining clients is through face-to-face sales. Just about every American is looking for a way to improve their physique, diet, or exercise program, they just lack the knowledge to do this. All you have to do as a trainer is convince them that their goals ARE reachable AND that you can help them achieve their goals. Always carry business cards, if you overhear people talking about needing help with training, give them a card, and take a second to talk with them. I hear about 20 conversations a day on this topic. I’m even approached because I have a physique that basically LOOKS like I’m a trainer… which is probably one of my best selling points. If you LOOK the part, people will be more apt to want to train with you.
A great conversation starter is to see what you and your potential client have in common. Find out what their profession is, and if they are currently working out or looking to change their physique. The absolute worst thing you can do at this time is solicit yourself at this time. Instead, exchange business cards and offer a free consultation where you will sit down with them, and go over their fitness goals. There is no price that can be placed on the value of a business card. It will act as a constant reminder to your potential client of your services, and down the road, they just might call you. A few days after you have exchanged business cards, call the potential client and remind them of your meeting and the free consultation, however, do not get in to prices or sales just yet.

Referrals:

Referrals work wonders for obtaining clients. The proverbial “word of mouth” is probably one of the best tools a personal trainer can use. Ask your clients if they know of anyone who is interested in changing their physique or losing weight. Offer your current client a free session for every client he/she refers to you. Also, offer any new client a free consultation along with one free training session. One of the most important things for a trainer is to never give up on a lead. Keep these names on file and from time to time in the future, give them a call.

Phone (cold) Calls
This is quite possibly the most difficult means of obtaining a client is through phone calls. In order to be successful at this means of sales, you need a script. You need an introduction and a reason for calling the person. If the person was referred to you, you should mention this first. You should also have a number of questions to ask the potential client, such as “Are you interested in losing weight” or “Are you trying to gain muscle?” The questions should be open ended, and tend not to give a “yes” or “no” answer. Do not give up on the client and also, don’t hit them up for a sale. Instead, offer them a free consultation to go over their possible fitness goals. Always be proactive with your questioning, rather than reactive.

Phase 3: First Evaluation of a Client

A first evaluation of a client, by a trainer, is important to assess strengths, weaknesses, limitations, personal goals, safety concerns and health risks of the client. The first evaluation should be done in a professional like manner. The personal trainer must try to understand the client’s wants and needs, especially when it comes to the physical health of the client.
During the first evaluation you (the trainer) should have the client fill out a form called a PAR-Q (Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire). This basically will ask questions about the client’s previous medical history. This is the first major part of the evaluation that will tell if the client has any serious health risks which may be put in jeopardy through training. If serious health risks exist, you should instruct the client to consult their physician. If the client has already consulted their physician, you should talk to the physician as well in order to better understand the risks involved or limits that should be set.
You should also ask about the client’s personal goals, training history and availability to be trained. This helps you to develop a training program around the schedule of your client. Moreover, it will allow you to know how much gym experience the client has and which exercises the client may feel comfortable or uncomfortable performing. Furthermore, you will be able to understand exactly which goal (losing weight, building muscle, or both) the client is really interested in. The most important aspect is to take into concern the client’s needs and wants, be encouraging about those goals, and to make sure your client sets realistic goals.
You should also have your client sign an informed consent form. This will help the trainer to avoid personal liability. The gym typically makes clients sign this as well (especially if you are a corporate trainer, rather than a rental trainer).
During the first meeting, you should take the resting blood pressure, resting heart rate, body composition, submaximal cardiovascular test, testing of muscular strength and endurance, flexibility testing and should establish reasonable goals for the client. These tests will allow you to see how the client may perform or will even be able to perform certain exercises. They will also be able to tell you the overall flexibility of your client.
When it comes to your demeanor, it should be comfortable, yet serious. The client should feel comfortable around the trainer, yet not Monday Night Football comfortable. Remember, as a trainer, you are a professional, you should maintain this demeanor throughout the first evaluation and future training sessions. Not only is the client paying for services, but their health and safety are on the line. This is why a correct degree of seriousness, as well as comfort, should be established.

Phase 4: Legal Concerns for the Personal Trainer

With the recent fitness surge of the 1990’s and 2000’s, more and more people are getting into “getting in shape”. With this new breed of fit American (or Canadian) they are seeking knowledge from personal trainers to achieve these goals. There are healthy, unhealthy and post-rehabilitative clients. Higher standards of care must be implemented for those clients with injuries, for they have medical problems and often do train.
Negligence, as interpreted by the courts has several elements. First, there must be a duty (in a personal trainers case, he would have a duty to his client to give advice in a reasonable and safe manner). There must be a breach of that duty (Failure to act reasonably as a personal trainer), their must be an injury and damages that result from the breach of the duty (physical or otherwise). Finally, the injury must be the proximate and actual cause of the injury (by proximate, their must be no other intervening factors that caused the injury and actual is just what it means, the act of the personal trainer, or lack of action, caused the injury).
If a construction company uses the wrong type of concrete in building a building and it collapses, they are negligent. The same is true with a personal trainer. The courts have held that a waiver signed by a client will be enough to absolve the club and the trainer from personal liability. The waiver, however, will not be enough to protect a trainer who is giving a medical diagnosis or advice to a client who is in a special need.
A professional trainer is defined as one that has a higher education that relates to the field of personal training, physical therapy or medical rehabilitation. A personal certification from a nationally accredited organization will suffice to be deemed a professional under the eyes of the court. Several instances of personal trainers being held liable for negligence have been handed down by the courts. Such cases include but are not limited too: prescription of dietary supplements involving death of the client, failing to provide proper instruction on exercise equipment, poorly administering or failing to administer CPR, and questionable signings of release from liability and waivers.
The best way to avoid the liability is with a properly signed waiver. Also, good communication with the health care provider of the client to insure that the strenuous activity is something the client can or can not do. Without this consultation, you as the personal trainer might be making a medical evaluation that you are not qualified for (unless you possess a medical or scientific degree in that area).
If you are planning on having your own business, a way to avoid personal liability would be to incorporate as a limited liability corporation (LLC) and to have enough insurance to cover any sort of accident that may occur during your training of clients. However, the best way to avoid liability is to have the proper knowledge and consultation from a medical professional who has consulted your client.

Phase 5: Teen Fitness Concerns

The number one priority in training teens is safety. Proper stretching is not only a good idea for adults, but also in teens. Stretching helps to raise the core body temperature to avoid injury during a workout. Teens are more susceptible to injury because their bones lack the hardness and thickness that adults have. Because of this, it is important to do exercises with a non-maximal weight to avoid the breaking of bones and damaging of cartilage, which can result in growth stunting, especially in the longer bones of the body.
Many teens set unrealistic goals. To look like Brittney Spears or Brad Pitt isn’t a goal a teen (or anyone for that matter should set). It is important that you as a trainer can help a teen set reasonable expectation of goals for the teen to attain.
A very important aspect of a teen working out and keeping in good shape is to get the teen in a positive self-image of him/her. Working out, building strength and making their physique better will definitely help with this. Engaging in this type of training will help the teen set a foundation of health and fitness for years to come. It has been shown that teens who engage in physical activity, such as working out, are less likely to engage in the use of recreational drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, and even tobacco smoking. This also leads to issues of anabolic steroids, which might be something a teen would want to try to increase their already “new” dynamic physique. A teen might think this is a short-cut to a better physique. As a trainer, you must be able to explain to a teen the possible ramifications of anabolic use at such a young age. Also, you can further explain that in the teen years, anabolics are not necessary because the levels of testosterone are already at an elevated status. In any event, anabolic steroids should never be recommended to a teen.
Moreover, eating disorders are prevalent in many teens. Common eating disorders are: Anorexia Nervosa (extreme weight loss through self-starvation), Bulimia Nervosa (binging and purging of foods), and Binge and compulsive eating. Various symptoms exist for each of these disorders such as extreme weight loss, eating beyond the point of fullness, and the teen always feeling “fat”. Proper spotting of these symptoms for the various disorders could help in quicker treatment for these teens through the suggestion of counseling or by informing the parents of the condition.
Finally, many teens engage in sports in high school. As a trainer, you should develop sports specific training so as to benefit the teen in their particular sport (basketball, football, etc.). It is important that the trainer address the special needs of the teen athlete with regards to their specific sport, so that the teen will be able to make positive gains and returns correlative from his training to his sport.

Phase 6: Professional Ethics in Personal Training

Ethical concerns in the fitness industry are really no different than those in other fields of professional practice. Attorneys are held to a high degree of ethical behavior in that they can not speak poorly of other attorneys; they have a duty to represent their client with the utmost zeal, and can not bill the client for work they can not produce. Much is the same with the personal trainer.

In personal training, the bulk of the professional standard is based on how the trainer provides service for their clients. How a trainer represents themselves will be how the public perceives the entire industry. There are various areas that the personal trainer should be aware of and should conduct himself with professionalism when they arise.

First, while misrepresentation happens in almost every profession, it is something that can be horrible in the personal training field. As a trainer, you do not want to fraud your client or others. You can fraud a client by misrepresenting any results they may gain, about knowledge you have (but do not), or various supplemental products that may or may not work.

Bally’s Total Fitness is a good example of misrepresentation of what they can do for a client. Their commercials present beautiful women, with less than eight percent body fat, dancing around in an aerobics class. “Get the body you’ve always wanted”. This implies that you can have the “Carmen Electra” body, when in fact, it may be near impossible. Rather, the personal trainer should tell the client “I can help you reach your top potential and help you achieve your best potential”. Heaven forbid that personal trainers start using fine-print as a disclaimer on their training sessions such as “results may vary”. Word of mouth is the best reference tool for a personal trainer, but it can also be the worse if the client was mislead.

As for representing the correct knowledge, it is important to keep educating yourself as a trainer. You can do this by picking up further certifications, reading on new training techniques, further studying the body and the effects of various workout programs on it.

Promoting or selling of supplemental products by personal trainers must be watched carefully. Pushing a product because a member of management wants you to, or for your own gain, when the product is unsatisfactory is something a trainer should never do. Clients put a great deal of faith in a trainer, and this faith should not be taken lightly.

Also, you should behave appropriately in the gym setting while training. First, they should dress professional and correctly. A trainer should not wear their workout clothes to train a client, but rather should change into more casual attire (polo shirt, logo shirt, etc.). This will help the client realize the trainer is there for them, and not to train in the gym. It also will help keep the client from comparing themselves to the trainer, thus alleviating comparisons and giving a more positive self-image. Secondly, personal relationships should be kept with a professional demeanor. There is no doubt that the trainer and client will develop a friendship, but a degree of professionalism should be kept at all times. Male trainers should be especially careful when training female clients so as not to make them feel uncomfortable with misdirected comments.


All in all, the road of a personal trainer is much more difficult than simply taking a client through the “circuit”. As a personal trainer, you are responsible for not only the client’s training, but their well-being, safety, advisement of the setting of realistic goals, proper diet and nutrition, and basically educating the client of what he/she needs to do in order to reach his/her goal. So much more goes into training than the movement of weights. Proper form, intensity, and planning all go into making a decent personal trainer and a great personal trainer be distinguished.

So, when you go out and get certified, or if you already are certified, remember that you are there for the client. Give them the same zeal you would give yourself. Let them experience the training that you do on a daily basis. Correct their form where need be, push them when they are ready, and guide them on the road to being not only physically fit, but mentally and emotionally fit as well.

Thanks to the following for contributions made to this article.
Gregory L. Welch M.S., A.T.C – Professional Ethics
Rommy Abdallah and Jeff Tesar – Personal trainers
Carrie Morrow – Author of “LEGAL ISSUES FACING THE FITNESS PROFESSIONAL”
Don Lemmon – Author of “Personal Trainer Business Guide”

[This message was edited by Citruscide on 05-30-03 at 11:45 AM.]

I'll make this a sticky for a while. A lot of folks should find this informative.

www.killdevill.com

"...the ability to destroy a planet is insignificant compared to the power of the force".

[Citruscide]

Sweet... I didn't want to make it a sticky... it'd be kind of pretentious of me.

C-ditty

============================
Fell Deeds awake

Moderator at Chemicalmuscle.com, Elitefitness.com, and Anabolex.com

[Mr.X]

I love it....

Mr.X

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
- Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

www.killdevill.com

[MightyMouse1]

Just what i needed!!! Thanks Citruscide, you rock!

great article...

STK BLOODLINE
www.killdevill.com

quote:

---

Face to Face Sales:

So how do you do it then? The most cost-effective strategy of gaining clients is through face-to-face sales. Just about every American is looking for a way to improve their physique, diet, or exercise program, they just lack the knowledge to do this. All you have to do as a trainer is convince them that their goals ARE reachable AND that you can help them achieve their goals. Always carry business cards, if you overhear people talking about needing help with training, give them a card, and take a second to talk with them. I hear about 20 conversations a day on this topic. I’m even approached because I have a physique that basically LOOKS like I’m a trainer… which is probably one of my best selling points. If you LOOK the part, people will be more apt to want to train with you.
A great conversation starter is to see what you and your potential client have in common. Find out what their profession is, and if they are currently working out or looking to change their physique. The absolute worst thing you can do at this time is solicit yourself at this time. Instead, exchange business cards and offer a free consultation where you will sit down with them, and go over their fitness goals. There is no price that can be placed on the value of a business card. It will act as a constant reminder to your potential client of your services, and down the road, they just might call you. A few days after you have exchanged business cards, call the potential client and remind them of your meeting and the free consultation, however, do not get in to prices or sales just yet.

Referrals:

Referrals work wonders for obtaining clients. The proverbial “word of mouth” is probably one of the best tools a personal trainer can use. Ask your clients if they know of anyone who is interested in changing their physique or losing weight. Offer your current client a free session for every client he/she refers to you. Also, offer any new client a free consultation along with one free training session. One of the most important things for a trainer is to never give up on a lead. Keep these names on file and from time to time in the future, give them a call.
[/quote]

This should be known and known well if you want to be successful at it.

Next week I start training the Police Department just to get them acquainted with the equipment that has been installed. Cut a deal for $25/1hr session. Me and my buddy are splitting the work load of about 100 officers. They all are only required to be certified on all the equipment in one, one hour session in 3 weeks.

Now I have a great situation where my gym owner is loaded and doesn't charge me a damn thing to use the facility. Average about $40-50/session here in Orlando, depending on the package.

Also, the gym that I work at has professional athletes in all the time. Tracy McGrady and Mike Miller are working out right now about 10 feet away from me. So you bet your ass I'm making good friends with their trainer, who is a cool ass guy.

And I get free internet service here... gotta love it.

[bricker]

what more can I say?

[musclecat]

I applaude your post, You sound very professional
how long have you been a PT?. Being a pesonal trainer is not just about counting reps, YOU! must give a part of your self to each client. For that 1 hour, YOU!!! "work for them" and this becomes hard, when one trains 5-8 clients per day, then theres paperwork,followup calls.

I'm trying to start my own personal training studio this is a hard thing to do but your right citruscide people need this (OVER 60% OF THE POPULATION IS "OVERFAT" They need our help.

RJ420 your so right!!! Referrals are so important! it's the best complement a trainer can receive.

[Citruscide]

I've been TRAINING for quite some time... probably close to 8 years... I was a collegic athlete at Indiana University.. .so I had some good trainers there.

I have been training since around November of 2002 -- so not professional too long -- my biggest problem is TIME -- I am also an attorney -- so I have to split my time... I am seriously considering going into training full time -- as it is a great passion of mine.

I would love to rent out at a gym... somewhere in the Chicagoland area... I don't like doing corporate work -- as I get underpaid and have to follow their narrowminded guidelines.

So... anyone know a good gym to train out of in Chicago?

C-ditty

============================
Fell Deeds awake

Moderator at Chemicalmuscle.com, Elitefitness.com, and Anabolex.com