Why Your Personal Training Course Could Let You Down

Why Your Personal Training Course Course Let You Down
 
Whether you’re transitioning your career, or just starting off in the fitness industry, here is what you can expect when enrolling onto your Level Three Personal Training Course and how it could let you down if you’re not on the ball from the start.
 
Picture the scene, you’re fed up of your existing job and have decided to follow your passion; to create a new and exciting career path for yourself. You’ve done all your research and have found the perfect course, one which is recognised as the industry leading qualification.
 
You’ve enrolled onto a “blended learning” course as this allows you to both study from home and continue with your current job at the same time. The course lasts for three months and includes one study weekend with an expert tutor plus an assessment weekend, including a multiple choice exam and a practical assessment (which your feeling apprehensive about at this point!). Pretty soon you receive your course material in the post and are excited to get started!
 
The weeks go by and you’ve been swatting away for 1-2 hours per evening on a variety of modules. They’re a lot more detailed than what you were expecting, you start to think, do I really need to know all of this?? will my clients need to know it?
 
Soon enough your study weekend approaches and you arrive amongst another 12 peers, looking round the room you begin to rank other members of the course in order of “how much experience they have” of course using how defined they are to do so.
 
As the weekend passes, you’re introduced to a vast amount of terminology and techniques, all of which are foreign but are reassured by your tutor that in time it will “sink in”. Across the weekend you’re giving 1-2 hours or so to practice these techniques with your peers and are set numerous tasks that you need to complete at home to prepare for your assessment weekend.
 
As quick as a flash the weekend has finished and your back studying at home. No need to panic though, as you’ve got another 5 weeks till your assessment weekend and plenty of time to complete all the paperwork and revise for your assessments.
 
Naturally you get your head down and begin to complete your “things to do” list that you made at the end of your study weekend. The next few weeks you spend completing practice papers and filling in coursework ready to hand in on the assessment weekend.
 
The fear then begins to set in, soon enough I'll be on my own. I not sure I have enough experience for this, have I made the right decision??
 
This is a far too common occurrence with Personal Training courses…
 
FEAR NOT
 
If you allow it, your PT course could let you down, but here are some actionable steps to take once you’re on your PT course.

To pass the personal training qualification, although not to be sniffed at, isn’t too taxing if you have a real passion for the field or if you are good at retaining information in a short space of time. However very rarely will you be given a decent chance to apply what you learn, simply because there isn’t enough time to do so on a course timetable. This often being the reason why the first two years after qualification is so tough.
 
The Dilemma:
 
The practical side of the course will include some basic coaching strategies of how to teach gym-based exercises as well as how to plan a programme which is designed for common fitness aims such as: increasing muscle tone, increasing muscle strength & increasing muscular endurance. There is a lot to consider here and often not enough hours in the day to appreciate how to best construct it all.
 
The Action:

• Find some guinea pigs which you can work with alongside your course, design some basic training sessions and programmes which you can deliver to them in person. This will allow you to practice some of the coaching strategies you pick up on the course.

 

• Spend time working/voluntarily in a gym - for a few hours a week in a gym. Get used to saying hello to strangers, being kind, being interested and aim to meet one person per day at least. Ask them about their training, show a thirst to learn from them - allow them to be interested in your passion to help.

 

• Find the best trainer in your area and ask to either intern or book them as your PT. Get used to what a Client-Trainer relationship looks like before you qualify.

 
Depending on the course provider that you choose, some will offer you some additional extras, these range from; Spinning, Pre & Post Natal, Circuits, First Aid, Pad work/Boxing...the list goes on.
 
These can all add some extra skills to your armoury, however, won’t make you any better as a PT.  Focus on the things that will help you get you and your new career up and running. Skills such as; how to set up a business, how to generate leads, how best shape and deliver client consultations and designing effective training sessions.
 
Your PT course will range anywhere from 6 weeks - 6 months and will depend on the style of delivery (more on this on a later blog post). A lot had been talked about when it comes to the speed and time of delivery, so you will certainly want to consider LOTS more education in order to bridge the gap from the qualification and then actually being a successful coach in the industry.
 
With all this in mind, we here at LTB Training have added in a 6 Applied Modules to help you on your journey into the Personal Training Industry.
 
Our Modules covering; Behaviour Change, Consultations, Programme Design, Nutrition, Coaching and Business, cover the latest evidence based theoretical approaches, coupled with 5 live weekends to enable you to apply the science amongst like-minded individuals and our industry based tutors, all of whom are current working Personal Trainers who serve a range of clients.
 
We at LTB-T believe this is the best blend not only to give you confidence to serve your clientele in the field, but also survive the scarily statistics of a 90% drop out rate within your first two years of being in the Industry. Having prime skills such as, building relationships, creating a business structure and designing effective programmes to name but a few, will support any new Personal Trainer in the early years of servicing clients.

​Luke.
 
Want to Learn More About Lift The Bar Training?

If you’re thinking about becoming a personal trainer who doesn’t become part of the statistic of not lasting longer than 18 months in the industry and you want to give yourself the best learning platform for becoming a trainer, our course is for you.
 
The Lift The Bar Training qualification is the industries first personal training course that merges both online and offline learning while also having an extended Applied phase that supports you in the early stages of your new career. Rather than just receiving your qualification and throwing you out into the world (like Sarah experienced above), we guide you so that you get a fantastic platform to build from in one the most challenging stages of your career.
 
Having worked with 1000’s of personal trainers, the education team at LTB Training have created a 12-month long industry leading personal training course that includes a foundation level 2 and entry level 3 qualification, which allows you to become a fully certified personal trainer. This has been created with practical application at the core and with cutting edge research in mind so that you’re left with no stone unturned for starting off your career as a personal trainer. You’ll then complete our qualification by going through a 6-month applied phase, which teaches you the essentials of how to work with personal training clients and arm you with the knowledge on how to build a business that lasts and helps as many people as possible.

Our next course launches on the 4th of February 2019. You can find out more about what it includes by clicking on the "certification" tab at the top of this page