What makes you a good Personal Trainer?
David, how are you? Let’s cut to the chase. Everyone says being a good personal trainer is Patience, Communication, Professionalism, Education and our personality. Lets be honest, education in the Personal Training world is huge question mark. I can name 10 coaches right now who have “street education” and not one minute of class time or one certification and could out train 90 percent of the so called trainers out there. What gets some of these guys over and some of the “educated” trainers over is their passion for what they do. Speaking for myself, I studied hard but was blessed to have had a fantastic sports career life. I also came from a home with people that loved to help others. My Grandparents had that old school diet and ended up with diabetes and or obese in the process. Being surrounded with unhealthy environments will either pull you towards and push you away. Well, it pushed me to the far reaches of the earth. I wanted health. However, There is some luck involved if you happen to get in a locale that likes being fit. Unfortunately, Passion can also bite you in the butt. I have found myself discounting people to help them because I want to help them achieve their goal but did not realize that the sob story was so they can save money to buy that new car or go out and party on the weekend. All in all, If I train the person, the fitness will come. Same thing with an athlete, … train the person and you will find the athlete. I am a good trainer because anything that requires study, I can accomplish, and I internalized this years ago and try to help my clients understand, the body knows two things, stress and effort. Our minds will convince us that there are a ton of other obstacles, but the bottom line is this: Obstacles are the things we see when take our eyes off the Prize. Passion what you do… as if the impossible is possible and then WORK as if it is inevitable. In short, I am good and passion what i do because I did not choose to be a trainer, being a trainer chose me!
Peace and Love
Hi David. I think that you hit on the ‘it’ factor – PASSION. It’s a passion for helping others in a way that can impact their lives for the rest of their lives! It’s a passion for knowledge, learning and staying current (which unfortunately, not all trainers do until it’s time for their annual CEU commitments). It’s a passion for teaching which I truly believe is one of the greatest roles and gifts that we as trainers can give our clients (giving them the tools to help them, help themselves).
LaRue, CSCS
www.lecfitness.com
Staying passionate about learning about my clients, their needs and personalities has helped them feel at ease with me. I also stay committed to retaining as much knowledge as I can that is related to personal training. How can I expect my clients to be comfortable with a program and me if I don’t know what I am talking about? There is always something we can learn. Personality wise; being friendly, knowledgeable, helpful, and knowing when to listen or when to comment has helped my ability to train my clients.
Yes passion, but I believe that making my training totally personal has been my key to success. Each of my clients has a workout designed just for her, and that can change in an instant depending on my what is going in in her life from day to day. I would also add education; keeping myself informed about current research, as well as controversies in the fitness field helps make me a better trainer.