Kyle Aaron
Active member
Kyle is lost
As most know, at the moment I'm a chef, and years ago was infantry in the army, some years regular, some years reserves. I love cooking, but when you hit your 30s you find that there are hardly any chefs of your age or older in commercial kitchens. People burn out, decide they want more sane hours for their families, and so on.
I have my own small business doing office catering, but lately it's been more marketing than cooking, which I don't like. So I'm thinking of a career change. I thought to myself, what's a profession in which age helps you? Well, teaching. But I wouldn't want to deal with hundreds of whiny teenagers. One-on-one, or small groups would suit me better.
Where do I want to go?
Now, what do I enjoy in work life? Well, in chef work I like to look out at the dining area and see people drinking, eating, laughing and having fun - and know that I helped make that happen. And in both the Army and kitchen, I've always enjoyed teaching people simple skills, seeing them go from incompetent to masters of it, and taking people who are really not confident, and getting them to do things they thought they could never do, seeing them come out feeling two metres tall and bulletproof.
So I was wondering what profession could I do these things in, and I was thinking this one day while lifting iron. Thus: personal trainer. Okay, that's the destination: how do we get there?
Education
Education, first up. I know a fair bit about exercise and nutrition from Army, cheffing, and my own research to help my workouts. But it's one thing to have a bunch of facts, and another to bring them together into a profession. Plus you need bits of paper to do anything these days.
There are few key things to think of. One is that there are two Certificates to becoming a PTI. The first is Certificate III (gym instructor). That just lets you hang out at the gym, show people how to bench press and that sort of thing.
The second is Certificate IV, and there you specialise in either Group Trainer or Personal Trainer. The group one is for aerobics classes, that sort of thing. The personal one is what most of us here are interested in, it's one trainer with one to a few people. This lets you take people in at the gym or on your own somewhere, assess their fitness and strength, discover their goals and tailor a workout to suit.
The thing about TAFE courses generally is that they vary a lot from one institution to another. There are a few core subjects they have to cover, like anatomy and basic exercise physiology (eg "the pectoralis major inserts on the humerus") then a whole swag of optional ones - it's up to them which they present you with, so two people going to two different institutions, one might know about (for example) aquatic training, and the other doesn't.
It seems that Cert III and IV each have around 100 contact hours, that is hours in classes. Supposedly it's an hour or two outside the class for each hour in class, for reading and study. You can do these hours full-time and get each Cert in 3-4 weeks, or do them part-time an evening or two a week and it'll take 10-16 weeks.
A few institutions offer Cert III/IV as a package, you do them both together in one course.
In addition, you need a practical placement of around 20-40 hours - that is, putting into practice what you learned in class and study. Some institutions offer this practical placement in-house, others expect you to go and ask your local gym or something. In-house is better, since some gyms will say "okay" and then just get you to do photocopying and making coffees for the day, doesn't teach you much.
Lastly, you need Level 2 First Aid. That's CPR, recognising signs of a stroke, stopping bleeding, recognising and treating shock, basic binding of sprains, that sort of thing. Some institutions just slot it in as part of Cert III/IV, others expect you to do it separately.
Prices vary widly, from about $1,000 per Cert to $5,000. Level 2 First Aid is $200-$500 on its own. I'm visiting the places which interest me. I think you have to balance cost with travelling distance, the facilities offered, whether the practical and first aid are part of it, how you like the instructors, and so on.
That's all I know so far.
Standards in institutions obviously do vary - just look at gyms you've been to, and how different PTIs are. Some are great, some useless, some could be great but seem burned out and don't care, etc.
I think some people enter the profession imagining they'll be cruising along with Ian Thorpe counting his reps on his bench press or something. They're not really prepared for the fact that 99% of clients are going to be ordinary overweight and unfit people with terrible diets who want a big change without any change, if you know what I mean
Any questions, anything you can tell me?
As most know, at the moment I'm a chef, and years ago was infantry in the army, some years regular, some years reserves. I love cooking, but when you hit your 30s you find that there are hardly any chefs of your age or older in commercial kitchens. People burn out, decide they want more sane hours for their families, and so on.
I have my own small business doing office catering, but lately it's been more marketing than cooking, which I don't like. So I'm thinking of a career change. I thought to myself, what's a profession in which age helps you? Well, teaching. But I wouldn't want to deal with hundreds of whiny teenagers. One-on-one, or small groups would suit me better.
Where do I want to go?
Now, what do I enjoy in work life? Well, in chef work I like to look out at the dining area and see people drinking, eating, laughing and having fun - and know that I helped make that happen. And in both the Army and kitchen, I've always enjoyed teaching people simple skills, seeing them go from incompetent to masters of it, and taking people who are really not confident, and getting them to do things they thought they could never do, seeing them come out feeling two metres tall and bulletproof.
So I was wondering what profession could I do these things in, and I was thinking this one day while lifting iron. Thus: personal trainer. Okay, that's the destination: how do we get there?
Education
Education, first up. I know a fair bit about exercise and nutrition from Army, cheffing, and my own research to help my workouts. But it's one thing to have a bunch of facts, and another to bring them together into a profession. Plus you need bits of paper to do anything these days.
There are few key things to think of. One is that there are two Certificates to becoming a PTI. The first is Certificate III (gym instructor). That just lets you hang out at the gym, show people how to bench press and that sort of thing.
The second is Certificate IV, and there you specialise in either Group Trainer or Personal Trainer. The group one is for aerobics classes, that sort of thing. The personal one is what most of us here are interested in, it's one trainer with one to a few people. This lets you take people in at the gym or on your own somewhere, assess their fitness and strength, discover their goals and tailor a workout to suit.
The thing about TAFE courses generally is that they vary a lot from one institution to another. There are a few core subjects they have to cover, like anatomy and basic exercise physiology (eg "the pectoralis major inserts on the humerus") then a whole swag of optional ones - it's up to them which they present you with, so two people going to two different institutions, one might know about (for example) aquatic training, and the other doesn't.
It seems that Cert III and IV each have around 100 contact hours, that is hours in classes. Supposedly it's an hour or two outside the class for each hour in class, for reading and study. You can do these hours full-time and get each Cert in 3-4 weeks, or do them part-time an evening or two a week and it'll take 10-16 weeks.
A few institutions offer Cert III/IV as a package, you do them both together in one course.
In addition, you need a practical placement of around 20-40 hours - that is, putting into practice what you learned in class and study. Some institutions offer this practical placement in-house, others expect you to go and ask your local gym or something. In-house is better, since some gyms will say "okay" and then just get you to do photocopying and making coffees for the day, doesn't teach you much.
Lastly, you need Level 2 First Aid. That's CPR, recognising signs of a stroke, stopping bleeding, recognising and treating shock, basic binding of sprains, that sort of thing. Some institutions just slot it in as part of Cert III/IV, others expect you to do it separately.
Prices vary widly, from about $1,000 per Cert to $5,000. Level 2 First Aid is $200-$500 on its own. I'm visiting the places which interest me. I think you have to balance cost with travelling distance, the facilities offered, whether the practical and first aid are part of it, how you like the instructors, and so on.
That's all I know so far.
Standards in institutions obviously do vary - just look at gyms you've been to, and how different PTIs are. Some are great, some useless, some could be great but seem burned out and don't care, etc.
I think some people enter the profession imagining they'll be cruising along with Ian Thorpe counting his reps on his bench press or something. They're not really prepared for the fact that 99% of clients are going to be ordinary overweight and unfit people with terrible diets who want a big change without any change, if you know what I mean
Any questions, anything you can tell me?
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