Just got certified, now what’s my main priority?
Congratulations on your certification. Your main priority is knowing the WHY in what you do. Once you know exactly your intent, you want to know who you are marketing too. Know your client(s). For example, male/female, age group, body shape, experience, etc.
NEXT: Make sure you know your client(s). When you do your evaluation, take notes on what it is that they are trying to achieve. Every person will be different and it is important that you treat them as such. A cookie cutter approach to PT will be your demise. Always study. You may run into some difficult clients who may be a little outside of reality in regards to what they want to achieve. I have coached a lot of professional athletes and everyone tends to think I have pixy dust or a magic wand because I have been blessed with great success, but i cannot take a donkey to the kentucky derby (Horse track races).
Know the needs of your clients. Understand their wants but internalize and explain what you believe their and your needs will be. This is where you will have to have access to some of their medical and fitness history. Take into consideration their age, fitness level, prior history and any aides that he or she may need.
Once you have achieved this, you will be able choose your approach to the task. The equipment that will be used, how many times a week you will need to meet or the duration that you believe will achieve the goal, and any nutritional issues that they may need to address.
Make sure you do all of your sessions with a methodical approach. Don’t be that trainer that pulls at straws to find exercises for your clients. Be ok with not having all the answers.
There is a lot of ways to approach this and I can type on for ever, but in general, take into consideration these few tidbits of information. It will help you along the way. Hope it helps.
Hello Armand,
congratulations on your certification.
Aside from all the excellent points of my colleagues, I suggest that you also look at the business side of personal training. You do not have a profile here, so I cannot see where you are on that. If you are not working for a gym, the things that some to mind is setting up a business and getting liability insurance. Most certifications include some business advice and will have some suggested forms that you can use as a start.
Your question has been posted on this forum a few times before. I would browse those as well as they contain great advice.
Karin Singleton
www.meltnc.com
Hi Armand. Let me also congratulate you on becoming certified! Once certified, there are so many things/details for you to consider that it’s difficult, if not impossible, to narrow it down to a “main priority.” That being said, I think that one of the first things you should begin to do (of course once you’ve set-up all of the necessary details necessary for you to begin training – e.g. liability insurance, bank account etc) is to get yourself ‘out there’ and let people know that you are a certified trainer and are ready to take on new clients. Certifications are great, but without clients, they are just a piece of paper 🙂
Get out there, introduce yourself, be willing to ask questions and listen closely to the answers.
Good luck and welcome!
LaRue, CSCS
www.lecfitness.com
These are all great reponses. Now you need to put them all together and into a form that you can pull up and read them over again regularly. Keep them in the forefront of your mind and check off things that you have gotten accomplished and keep after the ones that you still need to get done. Good luck and don’t stop learning.