breebreerocks
Member
Think this pretty much sums up most tertiary courses. I studied law. Think the stats say that five years out, under 5% of graduates will be practising lawyers. That's why stats like me lug around a massive HECS debt.
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About becoming a personal trainer
- Thread starter Kyle Aaron
- Start date
Kyle Aaron
Active member
Well, last week we had something of a hiccough where the teacher was sick and... Holmesglen has no system of replacement teachers. We were not happy. Were supposed to be there 0900 Monday, received word from someone at 0935... were supposed to be there 0900 Wednesday, got an SMS at 0852. So the habitually late and unmotivated students were still at home and not inconvenienced at all, the prompt and motivated students were there already and screwed. Kinda backwards on the incentives there.
Well, today looked like the same again... it seems they'd booked a replacement teacher, written her in the books, they just... forgot to tell her to come. So she arrived at 1030.
However, it was a productive day, we learned about warmups and stretches, and practiced various stretches in the gym. Most interesting was proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation. Lots of long latin words in our class. Anhow, PNF is when a partner stretches you for a bit, then you push back on them, ease off, they stretch again - you get more stretch out of it. I'd done that before but didn't know the theory behind it, and certainly didn't know that long name
There was some entertainment when the old Soviet boxer was asking the difference between "ballistic" (bouncing) and "dynamic" (practice the movement with a fuller range on each rep) stretching. He got up to demonstrate.
"This ballistic," he said, holding his arm parallel to the ground and kicking his hand. Turns out he's made an effort to stay flexible as well as strong.
Next he demonstrated some complex stretches, and the teacher was all, "yes, that's good, but let's focus on the basics first." She was not impressed when he demonstrated his achilles stretch by standing on the edge of the chair, bending forwards and... the chair tipped over and he fell down.
"You are not to injure yourself in my classroom!"
Well, today looked like the same again... it seems they'd booked a replacement teacher, written her in the books, they just... forgot to tell her to come. So she arrived at 1030.
However, it was a productive day, we learned about warmups and stretches, and practiced various stretches in the gym. Most interesting was proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation. Lots of long latin words in our class. Anhow, PNF is when a partner stretches you for a bit, then you push back on them, ease off, they stretch again - you get more stretch out of it. I'd done that before but didn't know the theory behind it, and certainly didn't know that long name
There was some entertainment when the old Soviet boxer was asking the difference between "ballistic" (bouncing) and "dynamic" (practice the movement with a fuller range on each rep) stretching. He got up to demonstrate.
"This ballistic," he said, holding his arm parallel to the ground and kicking his hand. Turns out he's made an effort to stay flexible as well as strong.
Next he demonstrated some complex stretches, and the teacher was all, "yes, that's good, but let's focus on the basics first." She was not impressed when he demonstrated his achilles stretch by standing on the edge of the chair, bending forwards and... the chair tipped over and he fell down.
"You are not to injure yourself in my classroom!"
Kyle Aaron
Active member
Again today a teacher was absent without notice, at 0910 I called up the course co-ordinator. "Benny old mate, do the teachers not like us or something?" At 0920 he called back saying this was the first he heard of this particular teacher's absence, and he'd sort something out. At 0925 he called again, he was going to come and teach us, would be there at 1030. Sigh, just like Monday.
He came along and brought his mate Sammy the Skeleton, showed us bits and pieces, much better than the crappy photocopied images in the manual. Learned a lot.
In the afternoon we continued fitness assessments, revising girth, bodyfat etc measurements, and doing the beep test and 1RM for bench and leg press. Most of the women opted for the leg press, I don't think they realise we're continuing it next week... everyone must do both
For those who don't know, on the beep test you run back and forth over 20m, have to reach it by the next beep. Every dozen or so it's a new level, and the beeps get closer together. So it's the equivalent of going for a light job and working up to a sprint. The minimum to get into the Army is 7.5, which almost any physically active person can manage, but a sedentary officer worker type who drives the 2km to the train station and the 1km to the shops wouldn't make it.
The results were as you might expect. The VFL and soccer player guys got 12-14. The cardio bunnies got 8-10. The guys who just lifted weights in a traditional workout got 7-9, a couple who focused on cardio, played basketball or the like got near 10.
On the 1RM, the untrained guys got 1/2 to 3/4x bodyweight, the guys with some weight training mostly got around 1x bodyweight. The women managed 1/3 to 1/2 bodyweight, but none of them are regular weight trainers, being either untrained or cardio bunnies.
Some more interesting results... the old Russian mentioned above said,
"Put on 150kg."
"Is that what you normally lift?" asked the teacher.
"Is what I used to lift."
"When?"
"Twenty years ago."
"Ah yes, twenty years ago... let's try something lighter now."
Another student said, "He did 80kg the other day easily," and they tried that.
In the end he managed 92.5kg. But hey, he's 55 - so that ain't nothin' to sneeze at.
At first the strongest seemed to be MM, who carries around copies of Flex magazine and says, "my goal is to become as big as humanly possible... if I can be 150kg, I'll do it." At 99.5kg he benched 102.5kg, says he's done more, and I believe him.
The best result of the day came from a guy who does martial arts training, only goes to the gym every week or two, and just uses the Smith machine - he has very poor eyesight so he doesn't like to mess with free weights while training on his own. Anyway, he pushed up 102.5kg... at a bodyweight of 69.5kg! For a guy who does not have weight training as a focus to bench 1.47x BW is just phenomenal I reckon, amazing natural strength.
I've not done the beep test for about 9-10 years, not since the Army. I managed 7.6, I could have pushed it and managed about 8.4, I think, but we had the 1RM tests coming up so I didn't want to use all my energy - plus 7.5 was my minimum goal, motivation and all that.
However, I know from other tests that my VO2 max has gone from 36 in January to 41 in July, so my fitness is improving - doesn't matter what the numbers are so long as they're getting better!
And I did 85kg for my 1RM on bench, I'd expected to do a bit more, as my journal says I push up 80kg for 4-6 reps... but it seems to be harder with the narrower bar instead of the Olympic bar. Anyway, it's more than my bodyweight so I'm content with that at the moment, need to focus on back and legs as my gym journal describes.
Another interesting day.
He came along and brought his mate Sammy the Skeleton, showed us bits and pieces, much better than the crappy photocopied images in the manual. Learned a lot.
In the afternoon we continued fitness assessments, revising girth, bodyfat etc measurements, and doing the beep test and 1RM for bench and leg press. Most of the women opted for the leg press, I don't think they realise we're continuing it next week... everyone must do both
For those who don't know, on the beep test you run back and forth over 20m, have to reach it by the next beep. Every dozen or so it's a new level, and the beeps get closer together. So it's the equivalent of going for a light job and working up to a sprint. The minimum to get into the Army is 7.5, which almost any physically active person can manage, but a sedentary officer worker type who drives the 2km to the train station and the 1km to the shops wouldn't make it.
The results were as you might expect. The VFL and soccer player guys got 12-14. The cardio bunnies got 8-10. The guys who just lifted weights in a traditional workout got 7-9, a couple who focused on cardio, played basketball or the like got near 10.
On the 1RM, the untrained guys got 1/2 to 3/4x bodyweight, the guys with some weight training mostly got around 1x bodyweight. The women managed 1/3 to 1/2 bodyweight, but none of them are regular weight trainers, being either untrained or cardio bunnies.
Some more interesting results... the old Russian mentioned above said,
"Put on 150kg."
"Is that what you normally lift?" asked the teacher.
"Is what I used to lift."
"When?"
"Twenty years ago."
"Ah yes, twenty years ago... let's try something lighter now."
Another student said, "He did 80kg the other day easily," and they tried that.
In the end he managed 92.5kg. But hey, he's 55 - so that ain't nothin' to sneeze at.
At first the strongest seemed to be MM, who carries around copies of Flex magazine and says, "my goal is to become as big as humanly possible... if I can be 150kg, I'll do it." At 99.5kg he benched 102.5kg, says he's done more, and I believe him.
The best result of the day came from a guy who does martial arts training, only goes to the gym every week or two, and just uses the Smith machine - he has very poor eyesight so he doesn't like to mess with free weights while training on his own. Anyway, he pushed up 102.5kg... at a bodyweight of 69.5kg! For a guy who does not have weight training as a focus to bench 1.47x BW is just phenomenal I reckon, amazing natural strength.
I've not done the beep test for about 9-10 years, not since the Army. I managed 7.6, I could have pushed it and managed about 8.4, I think, but we had the 1RM tests coming up so I didn't want to use all my energy - plus 7.5 was my minimum goal, motivation and all that.
However, I know from other tests that my VO2 max has gone from 36 in January to 41 in July, so my fitness is improving - doesn't matter what the numbers are so long as they're getting better!
And I did 85kg for my 1RM on bench, I'd expected to do a bit more, as my journal says I push up 80kg for 4-6 reps... but it seems to be harder with the narrower bar instead of the Olympic bar. Anyway, it's more than my bodyweight so I'm content with that at the moment, need to focus on back and legs as my gym journal describes.
Another interesting day.
Last edited:
breebreerocks
Member
Are you sure he realises that a PT is meant to observe clients?
Kyle Aaron
Active member
At this stage we're just doing the gym instructor's course, and he is not intending to actually become a gym instructor; the Cert III is just to support his martial arts, in which he'd like to become an instructor.
Now that I think back on it, what he said was that while his eyesight was an issue, mostly it's just that he weight trains on his own and lacks confidence in his lifting ability, doesn't want to be squashed or have an accident. Many beginners lack confidence, after all.
Kyle Aaron
Active member
I forgot to mention Kyle's Comedy Moment #324.
After I failed on a 90kg attempt, the instructor said, "Bench works better if you keep your feet on the ground." I explained, "Yes, I know, but that's hard when you're failing on a rep with a dozy spotter."
Wolverine and Noodles were spotting, with MM in back in charge as I attempted 90kg on bench. I dropped out, my right side failing, Noodles' attention was elsewhere so while the left side was supported, the right dropped and dropped and my left leg went into the air in a wild attempt to balance, Soviet Boxer spectating slapped it down... then Noodles went to work and MM stepped in at the back, and nothing was harmed except my dignity.
For a moment I almost went acrobatic with the bar
After I failed on a 90kg attempt, the instructor said, "Bench works better if you keep your feet on the ground." I explained, "Yes, I know, but that's hard when you're failing on a rep with a dozy spotter."
Wolverine and Noodles were spotting, with MM in back in charge as I attempted 90kg on bench. I dropped out, my right side failing, Noodles' attention was elsewhere so while the left side was supported, the right dropped and dropped and my left leg went into the air in a wild attempt to balance, Soviet Boxer spectating slapped it down... then Noodles went to work and MM stepped in at the back, and nothing was harmed except my dignity.
For a moment I almost went acrobatic with the bar
J
Josh_GTiR
Guest
I have only just read this last page and will have to read through this tomorrow morning. Man you had me laughing though.
beertank23
New member
I want to put up a picture of zangrief from street fighter, as I imagine that's how this fella looks, but I can post urls!
Kyle Aaron
Active member
Thanks guys. I was actually discussing this last week, someone had said, "you seem to meet more interesting people than me," and our mates around us all agreed. I mentioned that to my woman, she said, "it's not that you meet more interesting people, it's just you turn it into a story. Other people say, oh this Russian guy lifted more than me today, and this pale guy was really strong, you tell it as a story."
I said, "I hope I don't go on too much."
"No! Keep going! We're getting married, we need some conversation every day."
I just describe what happened, and cut out the boring bits
Way I see it, the storytelling can help being a PT, it can help put people at their ease when coming up against this frightening new thing called "not sitting on your arse eating Doritos all day."
I partnered up with Noodles and he deadlifted today. I got Wolverine to show him the technique, I know the theory but it's different when you do it regularly, he was a good coach for that. Wolverine's squat was more like a hack squat/good morning medley, so I showed Noodles the squat instead. Noodles deadlifted 120kg for reps, again at a bodyweight of 69.5kg. Remember his bench of 102.5kg yesterday? The guy is a natural strength monster.
"Try not to break him," the instructor said to me.
"Nonsense. He's unbreakable! Like Bruce Willis in that movie."
"Everyone has their breaking point."
"Yeah but his is a fair way off here."
We were the cause of the teacher saying to the class afterwards, "On your own workouts you try to push it, but with a client you have to start them off easy until you find their limits, it's a new way of thinking of things for you, try it."
That's fair enough, but it's hard when it's your mates who you know do train a bit (even if not in a gym), you want to encourage your mates to go as hard as they can. I'm confident I can wind it back for clients - you don't want a client to go every set to failure since then they'll leave remembering... failure.
Now I must have a shave so that when I go to the gym in a bit, if the team leader is there I can ask again about a practical placement. With that I may have to save the stories until after the placement lest someone find them and it affects their report on me!
I said, "I hope I don't go on too much."
"No! Keep going! We're getting married, we need some conversation every day."
I just describe what happened, and cut out the boring bits
Way I see it, the storytelling can help being a PT, it can help put people at their ease when coming up against this frightening new thing called "not sitting on your arse eating Doritos all day."
I partnered up with Noodles and he deadlifted today. I got Wolverine to show him the technique, I know the theory but it's different when you do it regularly, he was a good coach for that. Wolverine's squat was more like a hack squat/good morning medley, so I showed Noodles the squat instead. Noodles deadlifted 120kg for reps, again at a bodyweight of 69.5kg. Remember his bench of 102.5kg yesterday? The guy is a natural strength monster.
"Try not to break him," the instructor said to me.
"Nonsense. He's unbreakable! Like Bruce Willis in that movie."
"Everyone has their breaking point."
"Yeah but his is a fair way off here."
We were the cause of the teacher saying to the class afterwards, "On your own workouts you try to push it, but with a client you have to start them off easy until you find their limits, it's a new way of thinking of things for you, try it."
That's fair enough, but it's hard when it's your mates who you know do train a bit (even if not in a gym), you want to encourage your mates to go as hard as they can. I'm confident I can wind it back for clients - you don't want a client to go every set to failure since then they'll leave remembering... failure.
Now I must have a shave so that when I go to the gym in a bit, if the team leader is there I can ask again about a practical placement. With that I may have to save the stories until after the placement lest someone find them and it affects their report on me!
T
Tekkerz
Guest
I'd go for the TAFE option. I did the AIF course and have had pretty average success as a PT but ended up working as a manager in a gym.
The AIF course is too rushed and while they do teach the basics I really got the feeling that they weren't interested in creating great PT's so much as they were interested in creating a great big pile of cash.
The AIF course is too rushed and while they do teach the basics I really got the feeling that they weren't interested in creating great PT's so much as they were interested in creating a great big pile of cash.
I've heard mixed reports about lots of places.
FIA was where I did my PT studies and I found that a lot of the content was really elementary having come from a uni background in biological science. The nutrition section was especially bad...particularly when you were asked to study the food pyramid and suggest how your diet could be improved by using the food pyramid as a guide........
However, the staff there were quite helpful and really well educated.
I really think that no matter who you get your PT quals through, you really need to take the initiative and read the latest scientific literature and read good text books. Go to seminars and courses and stay up to date with it all.
FIA was where I did my PT studies and I found that a lot of the content was really elementary having come from a uni background in biological science. The nutrition section was especially bad...particularly when you were asked to study the food pyramid and suggest how your diet could be improved by using the food pyramid as a guide........
However, the staff there were quite helpful and really well educated.
I really think that no matter who you get your PT quals through, you really need to take the initiative and read the latest scientific literature and read good text books. Go to seminars and courses and stay up to date with it all.
Z
Zarkov
Guest
Spot on.I went through FIA (not to be confused with AIF) by correspondence and found the staff to be brilliant but the lesson content to be a bit basic.The biology,nutrition etc. was all pretty scant and stuff I had already learned.Not being in the classroom hurt me a lot as I couldn`t ask questions on the spot and verify certain things.
I`d recommend them as they do offer a lot of other courses at a higher level but as the above says,take the initiative yourself in order to develop and improve your own methods.
Plus they,and I would imagine TAFE, would be recognized by unis if you plan to go further.
Kyle Aaron
Active member
As I said, I didn't expect to learn many new facts in the course - and looking over the course manual, that seems to be so. But knowing a bunch of facts and putting them together into a profession, those are two different things: theory and practice!
The teacher contact is key, yes. All sorts of little tips come up in it, like how if when a person does this exercise and does it wrongly in that way, muscle X is probably weak or tight. And while some teachers have finished classes early, every one has been available for us to talk to and ask questions of up until the official finish time. And I've found them very responsive to enthusiasm and interest.
Contact with other students has been useful, too. Some are knowledgeable or experienced and so can also teach me things. Some are not but know it, so I can practice my own teaching on them! And some are not very smart or interested in things or have difficult personalities, and this is good practice for me, too, as part of any people-oriented job is dealing with people you don't naturally get along with and aren't comfortable with.
The teacher contact is key, yes. All sorts of little tips come up in it, like how if when a person does this exercise and does it wrongly in that way, muscle X is probably weak or tight. And while some teachers have finished classes early, every one has been available for us to talk to and ask questions of up until the official finish time. And I've found them very responsive to enthusiasm and interest.
Contact with other students has been useful, too. Some are knowledgeable or experienced and so can also teach me things. Some are not but know it, so I can practice my own teaching on them! And some are not very smart or interested in things or have difficult personalities, and this is good practice for me, too, as part of any people-oriented job is dealing with people you don't naturally get along with and aren't comfortable with.
That's a really good point Kyle. In this industry there are so many different personality types. You'll get clients of all levels of experience - ones where you have to explain the fundamentals of weight loss and others where you will have to go through a few of the latest studies just to get the right answer.
I worked at an exercise physiology place for a while and that experience was quite good in getting along with people you wouldn't normally interact with. I had clients of all ages, sizes, levels of motivation, education, goals etc. Having that interaction is a really good way to develop your sense of empathy which is vital in the PT industry.
Kyle Aaron
Active member
Of course I would rather just slap them across the back of the head*, but I am told that is unprofessional.
* Except for that one greasy one in the class, I would kick him instead.
* Except for that one greasy one in the class, I would kick him instead.
Z
Zarkov
Guest
Or across the arse if they are good looking enough
F
fitnation
Guest
I did personal training through Fitnation, I passed everything and still need to do a client assessment to get fully registered. I found them very good and also got Ultrafit Magazine when I was a Fitnation member, which was good. Some of the people that call themselves PTs know buggerall about fitness. I was in the gym a week ago and it was full of TAFE students, who were studying fitness. The vast majority were only learning how to train in the gym themselves. Fitlink used to be popular not sure what happened to them. AIF advertise a lot, haven't seen them around for a while thank god.
Kyle Aaron
Active member
You probably saw Certificate III students. They're learning to be gym instructors, and you need Certificate IV to be a personal trainer.
It's a bit unfair to criticise the people of a profession based on people just learning that profession. It's like going into a first year accounting degree class and saying "hey look these idiots can't balance their chequebooks, some people who call themselves accountants know bugger all about finance."
In my experience, most PTs do know about fitness, but they tend to be vaguer on strength and agility. Even so, where they fall down isn't knowledge, usually, but the Care Factor. Most people in most jobs just do the minimum work to avoid getting fired and don't really like their co-workers, and have some contempt for or at best indifference to their customers.
Part of this is a natural response to customer behaviour. When 75% of people signing up to a gym will bail in the first month, and 90% in the first three months, well it's easy for the instructor/trainer to get bitter and cynical, and the 10-25% of customers who are dedicated are going to cop that bad attitude... which probably contributes to their quitting.
You get the same with teachers and students, doctors and patients, tram conductors and travellers, all sorts of service jobs. The day-to-day grind of dealing with people who are just a little bit crappy to you makes you turn aggro or indifferent, and then your being aggro and indifferent makes those people keep being crappy.
So it's a bit of a vicious circle, really. The people who last in a job and are happy about it are those who can let the day-to-day crap in that job slide off them like water off a duck's back, and who remain open to positive people and experiences.
Unfortunately, those people are a minority. The majority get bitter and cynical or indifferent about things. They flare up or they turn off. But that's life.
I think I'll be okay. I started my adult working life with someone standing three inches from my face shouting abuse at me while I was really cold or really hot and uncomfortable and tired, and followed it up with working in hot place with unappreciative people demanding perfection now... and I learned to deal with that - it's not being tough and manly or any nonsense like that, it's just letting it slide off you.
T
Tekkerz
Guest
Thats unfortunate because that 10-25% of dedicated customers should be getting the opposite (good attitude and a great training session) because if they come out of those sessions satisfied with the experience then they are the clients who are most likely to generate repeat business.
The same could be said for the actual gym business too, I've found that some PT's/Gym's are so focused on constantly getting new clients in the door that the neglect to pay attention to their existing customers and so those customers who may have been enthusiastic at first slowly become jaded about the gym experience, especially if they arent achieving the goals they set out to achieve.