Becoming a Personal Trainer

Many people have asked me over the years about if I think they could become a personal trainer and how they could go about it so just for everyone’s reference, this is how you go about becoming a personal trainer. In the following entries in my blog I am going to look at some of the traits a Personal Trainer needs and also the benefits of having a PT.

Personal training is a self regulated industry, we have an organisation called the Register of Exercise Professionals. This organisation sets the standards for fitness professionals at different levels, ranging from level one (assistant) to level three (advanced instructor/PT). The standards are set in conjunction with Skills Active, which is the sector skills council for the liesure industry.

In terms of qualifications there are two main awarding bodies YMCA and Active IQ, the bodies develop the courses and ensure consistency in the testing procedure. These courses are then delivered by a number of training providers such as Premier Training International , Focus Training, YMCA Fit and Future Fit.

So to become a qualified personal trainer you need to do a course that is recognised at REP's level 3, such as the Premier Diploma in Personal Training or the YMCA Personal Trainer Award.

Most personal trainers courses cover the following modules:-
- Client Lifestyle and Assessment
- Gym Instruction
- Advanced Gym Instruction
- Sports Nutrition
- Circuit Training
- First Aid at Work
- Business Skills

Some courses like the Premier Diploma also include a Sports Massage Therapy module. Which is a very useful addition to your PT based skills.

So now you are qualified can you go out and set up as a Personal Trainer? Well technically you can, you are qualified and have the know how. However when I speak to people who are newly qualified, they think they can go out and get clients from the Cheshire set who will be willing to pay upwards of £50 a hour for their time. This I feel is unrealistic for most, I think that you need to gain the valuable training time before you can put such a high price on your skills. The best way to do this I feel is to do a period of time where you work in a gym under the guidance of more experienced trainers, this period would allow you to put your newly found practical and theoretical skills into practice.

There is always more to learn, a there are a wide variety of courses out there that allow a PT to develop more advanced training knowledge. REP’s have also recently implemented a Level 4, this would allow trainers to be recognised for higher level qualifications. These are generally based on GP referral and the training of special populations, the level also however has a requirement for number of training contact hours.

If anyone out there is thinking of taking a Personal training course or would like advise on becoming a Personal Trainer, please do contact me and I will do my very best to help advise you.

TOM

Achieving those New Years Resolutions

Now you know all about who I am and what I have done so far in my life I suppose I better get onto something that is relevant to everyone else!

I know it is a little late, but I only started this blog in mid Jan, so I thought I would talk about some of the things that people should consider when thinking up the dreaded and often overlooked by now, New Years Resolutions. If yours have gone down the pan already lets look at some of the ways that you might be able to bring them back to life and make them work for you.

Setting New Years resolutions is just a form of goal setting, goals are a vital part of life and also a great tool to get yourself motivated. However people often set themselves un-realistic and un-achievable goals, these will be doomed to failure and thus become a great de-motivator.

So what is a goal? The definition of a goal is ‘the desire to attain a specific standard of proficiency on a stated task within a given time’. This definition shows us that goals are clearly defined in terms of the task and the standard that you are looking to gain and also they are over a set time.

To make your goals work, they need to be SMARTER!!

Specific - goals need to be relevant to the situation and described in detail. The more specific that your goal is then the more useful as a motivation tool it will be.

Measurable - goals need to have some measurable part, such as an amount of weight to loose. This ensures that you know when your goal has been achieved, by merely saying you want to loose weight, how will you know when you have achieved your goal?

Agreed - agreed between all parties involved, e.g. you and your trainer. A goal forced upon you will never be as effective as a motivator as a goal that you have agreed to and excites you.

Realistic – your goal need to be achievable, if a goal is seen as or is impossible to achieve it will de-motivate you. Goals need to be achievable but challenging, this is the hard bit, and requires you to be totally honest with yourself as to if it is achievable but provides some sort of challenge.

Time Framed - goals need to be set over a defined period of time. Such as by a certain date of over a given time frame. This again makes the goal have some form of urgency, by not putting a date on the completion you can constantly put off starting.

Exciting - any goal you set must be exciting or again it will de-motivate you. Try and build in a fun part or a fun reward for boring tasks.

Recorded - a written record of what your goals are is vital to ensure that the goal stays constant and is not changed mentally or debated on a later date. A record of your route to achieving your goal can also be a great motivator, this will allow you to randomly look at how far you have come.

If your goal is a long term one, i.e. it will take more than a say six months to a year to complete, it may be worth having sub goals. For example, if your goal is to ‘Run in the next Manchester 10K, and shave 10 seconds off my time for last year’. A sub goal at month three of training might be to ‘Run 5k on the mid point to the race saving 5 seconds off my best 5k run time’.

As part of you goal setting system it might be useful to think of rewards that you would give yourself if you achieve what you have set out to. For example it you achieve the sub-goal above you might say your reward will be a sports massage.

Hope this helps you set goals that you are much more likely to achieve!

Until next time, don’t just train hard, train intelligently!

Tom

Tom Godwin – Personal Trainer – Foresight Fitness Services (Personal Training + Corporate Wellbeing) - Manchester and Cheshire, UK

trainer@foresight-fitness.co.uk

www.foresight-fitness.co.uk

So who am I (Part 2)?

So a little bit more about me and my experience, promise I will keep it short.

After qualifying I did the usual and worked part time for a number of gyms in Manchester and Cheshire. At this time I also decided that it was probably a good move to go to uni too, as I loved PT so much I was sure it could not last as a career, who ever has a job they love? I decided as a back up to do a BA (Hons) Business Enterprise at Manchester Metropolitan University Business School, the course was aimed at those who wished to start and run their own businesses. This course seemed an idea complement to my PT training. The course was great fun, and once again I landed on my feet and had some great tutors who never minded me moulding questions to make them more relevant to the fitness industry. The course helped me to realise exactly how much business knowledge and skill you need to run a successful company.While studying I continued working at a gym and also started seeing a few private clients, this helped me to keep my hand in with all the fitness stuff. I found that my degree actually helped me a great deal in how I dealt with and managed the relationships with my PT clients. With me covering areas such as marketing, accountancy, operations, etc… I was able to build up a great business plan for how to take my business to the next level, and then more to the point make it work!

Slowly over the years the business grew and I gained more and more clients, within a year of leaving uni freelance personal training was my full time job. I was able to then use the business skill gained at university, coupled with my practical skills to launch the business, and gain a number of clients very quickly.


I established Foresight Fitness Services formally and looked at ways that I could make my services open to a wider segment of the community. I set out with the goal that Foresight should look to offer a leading range and quality of personal wellbeing services at an affordable price. But will leave it there before this turns into a sales pitch!

Since qualifying from the Premier Diploma I have ensured that I continue with improving my knowledge base and I have added qualifications to my list from NCF, Premier, and YMCA. I feel that this is vital to being a successful personal trainer, in this industry ideas, theories and methods of best practice are constantly changing, and it is vital that you stay ahead of the game. Also it would be impossible to know it all so by constantly adding to your knowledge base you can become the best possible trainer you can be!

That it that really,

Tom

To look at my full CV, click here.

Tom Godwin – Personal Trainer – Foresight Fitness Services (Personal Training + Corporate Wellbeing) - Manchester and Cheshire, UK

trainer@foresight-fitness.co.uk

www.foresight-fitness.co.uk

So who am I?

Hi All,

I thought I would start off with a little ramble about myself, who I am and what I do.

I started off in the fitness industry working at the Galleon Leisure Club in Didsbury, at the young age of 17. I had only had a very low level gym qualification, but it gave me the basics. I started off as a gym junior, basically doing all the cleaning jobs/keeping the place ticking over and helping out with members questions. This experience made me really appreciate what a great place a gym is, I really enjoyed the atmosphere and had the opportunity to work with some great people.


After a month I knew this was what I wanted to do with my life, I decided to attend the BAWLA Instructors course, and once I had passed this I was made a Fitness Instructor. I loved it, I got to do so much more than wiping down the machines and filling the water cooler!! I was finally let loose on the members, designing very basic programs, doing inductions and still my share of the cleaning! Again working more closely with the members allowed me to meet some great people and help them in my small way to achieve their personal wellbeing goals. I think this is where I got my first exposure to what great personal rewards being a personal trainer can give you.

Even though looking back I now see how little I actually knew, but it gave me that grounding in knowing how gyms worked and how to work as part of the fitness team. After a six months or so, and a shock to myself in that I had found a job that actually enjoyed, I got into a conversation with one of the personal trainers about what it took to become a PT. He recommended that I look at the Premier Diploma in Personal Training and Sports Therapy as a good course to aim towards, and after a bit of research I did just that. These course was not cheap and cost in the region of £3,000 for the full time course, so I had my goal, I just had to raise the money. So I just worked and worked, I took all the shifts I could and saved up for the course and a bit extra to see me though. As soon as I had the money I booked on the course, and I was on my way to my dream of becoming a personal trainer!

The diploma was again another of my great experiences in this industry, I was with a great group of people and I could not have asked for a better tutor. The course was gruelling, early starts and late finishes (two busses and a hour walk each way!) and most nights I got home and felt like my head was going to explode from all the information Doug had crammed into my brain. But again after a lot of hard work I managed to graduate, I had finally achieved what I wanted so badly. To be a qualified Personal Trainer! In a later blog I am planning to cover how to become a personal trainer, as I am often asked. So I will look at what is covered on a PT course in more detail then!

Well going to leave it there for today, will move on to part two of my ramble about me tomorrow!

TOM

Tom Godwin – Personal Trainer – Foresight Fitness Services (Personal Training + Corporate Wellbeing) - Manchester and Cheshire, UK

trainer@foresight-fitness.co.uk

www.foresight-fitness.co.uk

A New Project

Hi All

A new year and a new project for me, I have for some time considered starting a blog covering varying areas of wellbeing. There are two main things that have put me off doing so, firstly if I would be any good at it and secondly if anyone would be interested in a word I had to say!

So as it is a new year I decided that I would just jump in at the deep end and give it a go, and if nobody out there reads this or I stop writing we will know my fears were right!

The blog title aims to describe exactly what I will be doing, it really will be a collection of ramblings of mine, a personal trainer! I had a load of trouble trying to narrow down a specific area of wellbeing that I would like to concentrate on. So what I have decided is not to limit myself, I will be covering the main areas which make up wellbeing, those being physical activity, nutrition and lifestyle factors.

The blog itself will be made up of my own personal opinions on a given topic or a collection of topics, articles (clearly marked in title) by myself on a given topic, and if anyone out there has any questions I will try and answer them.

Well until tomorrow, when I aim to write my first ramble, goodnight.

Feel free to contact me on info@foresight-fitness.co.uk, or via the website.

TOM

Tom Godwin – Personal Trainer – Foresight Fitness Services (Personal Training + Corporate Wellbeing) - Manchester and Cheshire, UK

trainer@foresight-fitness.co.uk

www.foresight-fitness.co.uk