Can I become a personal traner without being certified?

[Lopez27]

It seems to me like the majority of the commentors in this thread are somehow coming to a consensus about how I will not be successful, how I have no knowledge, how I have no experience, how I am lazy, how I am cheap, how I am a know-it-all, all based on me asking if I could legally become a trainer without being certifed. First off, whether the above consensus was true or not (it isn't) it has nothing to do with my question in the OP. Regardless if I became a successful or unsuccessful trainer the answer to the question of becoming a trainer is the same. The answer to the OP is basically no, while it is possible it would put myself at a major risk to be sued if an injury was recieved by a client due to the fact that insurance is unattainable or if the facility in which I was training at found out I was using their gym as my workplace, and that was all that needed to be said. No need to assume that because I am young and believe a cert is educationally unnecessary that I don't know what the **** I'm doing or that I think I know everything. The reason I feel that a cert is educationally irrelavent is because in this day and age anyone can get certified and become a personal trainer (a successful or unsuccessful one). It sickens me when I see all these out of shape, weak, uneducated, and foolish "certified" trainers in commercial gyms who do not know what the **** they are doing and passing around **** advice. People listen to these guys because they are "certified" and they "know what they are doing" because they have four certifications. Well I'm here to tell you that is absolute bull**** and that you can take your piece of **** paper with its shiny seal and cool stamp and shove it up your ass. I know who I am, and I know what I can do.

/thread

[AtomicVeggie]

Because I already have people who want me to train them and I know that people will be interested in my services once word gets around. I have my own results, experience, and knowledge to back it up. Never said I would try to sign you up bro...

Dude, I have people that want me to train them, too. It doesn't mean I'm qualified. I know that I can get myself in great shape because I have, and I know a **** ton about nutrition and fitness, but that still doesn't mean that I'm qualified to train athletes. The difference is that I realize that and you've shown yourself to be extremely arrogant and dismissive towards others, which is why you don't realize that you aren't ready.

You've already shown in this thread that you don't really know what you're doing. You had a great plan that would get you kicked out of 24 hour fitness, and you had no idea you'd need insurance to avoid getting your ass sued off. Besides, forget about not having certification and insurance. What are you going to do when the IRS comes down hard on you for not reporting income? Have you even thought about opening business accounts? Are you going to be a sole proprietor? C corp? S Corp? LLC? Do you know the differences? It's been brought up, but you have to realize that high school and college athletes don't have money to pay for training, and their parents aren't going to pay a 19 year old kid with no real qualifications money to train their son or daughter. If you want money, you gotta go after pro athletes, and they want people with actual resumes and experience. So if you want try it, go ahead. But you're going to get swallowed.

[WoofieNugget]

Because I already have people who want me to train them and I know that people will be interested in my services once word gets around. I have my own results, experience, and knowledge to back it up. Never said I would try to sign you up bro...

Just interested at the age of 19 what these results, experience and knowledge are? This actually isn't meant as a flame.

If you are a member of a Div 1 team or a high rank nationally in a sport, have competed as a bodybuilder successfully as a teen and are in university with good grades then these things would all lend credibility to what you are saying. Are you doing any post secondary education? Do you play a sport at a high level or have success on a competitive level as a bodybuilder or fitness model?

However, if you are just a guy who "knows how to work out" and basically are going on the fact you have a six pack and some education from reading Men's Health and some internet forums then please don't get into the profession because you are no better than the "foolish trainers" you criticize in your previous post.

[KyleAaron]

Really? I'm surprised you don't get more clients like I mentioned due to the cost of Medicare replacement

See location. We have different medical systems here.

As well, here we have a different education and certification system - that is, we do have an actual system, rather than the free-for-all-clusterfck of the US. I outline it here, but basically there's a certificate level course which most PTs do, and they just train "apparently healthy, low-risk clients", while people with degrees deal with those with medical issues, like the examples someone gave earlier in the thread. If someone's got stents or something I'm not training them, I refer them to the person with the degree.

Not worth paying a few hundred for a cert and a few hundred for insurance yearly for me.

In any business, you have to spend money to be able to make money; if you do it wisely, you will earn more money than you spent. I spent $3,000 on my education, I earned $34,000 in the first year of being employed, 900% return on investment in 12 months is not bad - and I am hardly the most successful trainer out there. But even the dismal failures earn $10-$15,000.

We're talking about you spending maybe $600. That's 10hr of PT. 10 to 20 sessions - do you think you will not even get 10-20 sessions? If you think you cannot make $600 from PT then you are viewing your prospects even worse than we are.

[jeffsmith2]

This guy gets good advice and completely disregards it and tells everyone to F off. Good luck in your life, Lopez. Hopefully you don't injure someone with your know-it-all arrogant 19 year old attitude. But if you do, and you will, I hope they sue the **** out of you and you learn a valuable life lesson.

[Lopez27]

Dude, I have people that want me to train them, too. It doesn't mean I'm qualified. I know that I can get myself in great shape because I have, and I know a **** ton about nutrition and fitness, but that still doesn't mean that I'm qualified to train athletes. The difference is that I realize that and you've shown yourself to be extremely arrogant and dismissive towards others, which is why you don't realize that you aren't ready.

You've already shown in this thread that you don't really know what you're doing. You had a great plan that would get you kicked out of 24 hour fitness, and you had no idea you'd need insurance to avoid getting your ass sued off. Besides, forget about not having certification and insurance. What are you going to do when the IRS comes down hard on you for not reporting income? Have you even thought about opening business accounts? Are you going to be a sole proprietor? C corp? S Corp? LLC? Do you know the differences? It's been brought up, but you have to realize that high school and college athletes don't have money to pay for training, and their parents aren't going to pay a 19 year old kid with no real qualifications money to train their son or daughter. If you want money, you gotta go after pro athletes, and they want people with actual resumes and experience. So if you want try it, go ahead. But you're going to get swallowed.

I'm not saying I'm a world class athletic coach training athletes for the Olympics bro. I'm training young guys who just want to get bigger, stronger, and faster for high school or college football. Plus, whether I was qualified for the task or not, people do not have to hire me or do not have to keep me as a trainer their is no contract and my question posted in the OP had nothing to do with me being successful or not in this field.

Shown that I don't know what I'm doing how? Because I didn't know the legal specifics about becoming a PT that means I don't know how to train people? Pretty fallacious argument if you ask me, don't be so quick to make an appeal to extremes.

Just interested at the age of 19 what these results, experience and knowledge are? This actually isn't meant as a flame.

If you are a member of a Div 1 team or a high rank nationally in a sport, have competed as a bodybuilder successfully as a teen and are in university with good grades then these things would all lend credibility to what you are saying. Are you doing any post secondary education? Do you play a sport at a high level or have success on a competitive level as a bodybuilder or fitness model?

However, if you are just a guy who "knows how to work out" and basically are going on the fact you have a six pack and some education from reading Men's Health and some internet forums then please don't get into the profession because you are no better than the "foolish trainers" you criticize in your previous post.

I have personally taken myself from a small, skinny, weak, and slow athlete to a bigger, stronger, and faster one through the sole method of weight lifting. Specifically I started at 15 years old, 5'8", 128 lbs, a 5.2 forty time, and a raw total of less than 300 lbs (squat, bench, deadlift) to 19 years old, still 5'8", 180 lbs, a 4.6 forty time, and a raw total of over 1,200 lbs. I have been reading and learning everyday about athletic training for 4 years now and there is not a day that goes by where I don't read to learn something new to better my knowledge. Some of the authors I read are Joe DeFranco, Zach Even-Esh, Bill Starr, Mark Rippetoe, Louie Simmons, Dave Tate, Andy Bolton, Jim Wendler, Medhi Hadim, Matt Wiggins, Tony Montgomery and Nic Peterson.

I graduated top 5 of my class and I am pursing higher education at a top California State University, I was accepted with priority and offered to join the Honors program. My main sport is high school was football and I started both ways at Fullback and Linebacker for the varsity team my junior and senior years. At a height of 5'8" a person shouldn't be playing linebacker, however I was literally the strongest and one of the biggest players on the team so I was obligated to play at these positions. I was very successful on the football field and I did get offers from many community colleges to play ball but education was my priority and I didn't get any offers from D1 or D2 schools because even if you're a damn all star if you're less than 6'2" they don't even look at your file. I truly believe that if I was at least 6'2", preferably bigger, I would have went to a D1 school. Since I did not get a football scholarship and my school does not have a team, I do plan on playing D2 rugby at my school next year.

Why do people assume? While I agree MOST 19 year olds are like that, I am certainly not. Do not be so quick to judge. I do not read Men's Health, Men's Fitness, Muscle & Fitness, or any other BS supplement catalog (muscle magazines).

In any business, you have to spend money to be able to make money; if you do it wisely, you will earn more money than you spent. I spent $3,000 on my education, I earned $34,000 in the first year of being employed, 900% return on investment in 12 months is not bad - and I am hardly the most successful trainer out there. But even the dismal failures earn $10-$15,000.

We're talking about you spending maybe $600. That's 10hr of PT. 10 to 20 sessions - do you think you will not even get 10-20 sessions? If you think you cannot make $600 from PT then you are viewing your prospects even worse than we are.

I do agree you must spend money to earn money. However, I do not plan on training many people and do not plan on charging too much. I would not charge anywhere near $60 per session, I have not thought of exact prices but definitely no where near $60 per session. So for me the cost to benefit ratio is not very good.

This guy gets good advice and completely disregards it and tells everyone to F off. Good luck in your life, Lopez. Hopefully you don't injure someone with your know-it-all arrogant 19 year old attitude. But if you do, and you will, I hope they sue the **** out of you and you learn a valuable life lesson.

I'm beginning to think you are a troll. However, I will play to your foolishness. I did not disregard any advice (regarding my question in the OP, as that is what I was asking advice on) and did not tell everyone to F off. Thank you for the good luck but I do not need it, I know I will be successful one way or another. If I were to train a client and they got injured I promise you it would be due to their own negligence not mine.

[racejunkie]

See location. We have different medical systems here.

As well, here we have a different education and certification system - that is, we do have an actual system, rather than the free-for-all-clusterfck of the US. I outline it here, but basically there's a certificate level course which most PTs do, and they just train "apparently healthy, low-risk clients", while people with degrees deal with those with medical issues, like the examples someone gave earlier in the thread. If someone's got stents or something I'm not training them, I refer them to the person with the degree.

Sounds reasonable to me. Some places here, mostly hospitals, also require their physical trainers to have a 4 yr bachelor's degree with multiple PT ***** too. It goes from one extreme to another. Crazy! I'm thinking about going back to school for either radiology or physical therapy assistant. We'll see.

[Keltron]

Are we still talking about this schit? lol

[NYkarate]

Are we still talking about this schit? lol

Yeah, stupid thread!

[Lopez27]

Where's all the refutation to my last post?

[KyleAaron]

Results count.

Our success and experience refutes what you've said. We don't need to go into excruciating detail. If you'd said that you planned to get swole on a stick of celery and 10,000 jumping jacks a day, an in-detail point-by-point refutation would not be needed from us.

Only your success could refute what we've said.

Go, be successful, report back and tell us we're wrong. Until we hear back, based on our own success and experience we have to assume you have achieved only embarrassing failure.

Results count. Go get some results.

[BC02]

Go for it. Show them how to squat bench and clean correctly and you are way ahead of the game

[Lopez27]

Results count.

Our success and experience refutes what you've said. We don't need to go into excruciating detail. If you'd said that you planned to get swole on a stick of celery and 10,000 jumping jacks a day, an in-detail point-by-point refutation would not be needed from us.

Only your success could refute what we've said.

Go, be successful, report back and tell us we're wrong. Until we hear back, based on our own success and experience we have to assume you have achieved only embarrassing failure.

Results count. Go get some results.

You are foolish to believe that just because someone has not done something that they are incapable of doing it. I am not going to attempt it, not worth it for me at this point.

Go for it. Show them how to squat bench and clean correctly and you are way ahead of the game

The risk to reward ratio isn't worth it to me. I can show them how to squat and bench correctly but I wouldn't have them clean. The clean is a very technical lift and it takes years to master. I wouldn't put my clients at risk for injuries by giving them such a technical lift.

[KyleAaron]

You are foolish to believe that just because someone has not done something that they are incapable of doing it.

I don't believe that someone who has never done something can't do it. I believe that they can't do it well the first time they do it. The second and subsequent times may be better - if they have an open mind and are willing to learn. This is no different to resistance training, nobody presses 100kg overhead their first attempt, they start crap, and if they try to get better they'll get better. If they give up, then not.

You haven't coached people, so your first coaching attempts will be not very good. As for whether you're willing to learn, your responses in this thread indicate: probably not. So you'll remain not very good.

The fitness industry has quite a lot of people who are not very good and who are unwilling to become better. None of them are successful.

Again, you can prove us wrong simply by being successful. Report back. I'm guessing you won't report back.

[Da_Beast619]

hey OP, you say how your so experienced.. ok so lets see some pics..? easy to tell if you have that needed experience..

if you are 200lbs strait shredded a few kids probably will confide their money in you...but if you a hardly in-shape 170lb pound kid no ones gunna be messing with you. period.

[Lopez27]

I don't believe that someone who has never done something can't do it. I believe that they can't do it well the first time they do it. The second and subsequent times may be better - if they have an open mind and are willing to learn. This is no different to resistance training, nobody presses 100kg overhead their first attempt, they start crap, and if they try to get better they'll get better. If they give up, then not.

You haven't coached people, so your first coaching attempts will be not very good. As for whether you're willing to learn, your responses in this thread indicate: probably not. So you'll remain not very good.

The fitness industry has quite a lot of people who are not very good and who are unwilling to become better. None of them are successful.

Again, you can prove us wrong simply by being successful. Report back. I'm guessing you won't report back.

LMAO. You can't be serious.

No need to guess, I'm telling you I won't report back. Not worth attempting for me.

hey OP, you say how your so experienced.. ok so lets see some pics..? easy to tell if you have that needed experience..

if you are 200lbs strait shredded a few kids probably will confide their money in you...but if you a hardly in-shape 170lb pound kid no ones gunna be messing with you. period.

What does a picture have to do with anything? I train to perform well on the field, not to have ripped abs and biceps.

[KyleAaron]

I'm glad to hear you've given up on this foolish course of action.

[Lopez27]

I'm glad to hear you've given up on this foolish course of action.

Yeah, if I decide later on I want to make this into a career I'll get a cert so I can get the insurance.

[BC02]

The fitness industry has quite a lot of people who are not very good and who are unwilling to become better. None of them are successful.

WRONG.The fitness industry is full of these people. there are plenty of trainers who make good money, yet cant train for ****. it all comes down to the sale.

[carl.c]

Lopez27: I think the problem is
1. Your original question was answered long ago. Yes you can be a trainer with out a cert. Yet you want to aguee with use about why you should be certified.
2. You come to a sight where the vast majority of people are certified and get pissed when we say get certified. I think this show a very intelecualy imuture person.
3. You show a inability to do research since the question of being insurable is easy there are companies that will insure you with out a cert, a simple google search reveals them yet you have not do so.
3. You talk like your a master trainer, yet it's only about you and how you changed your self not others. This leads one to believe you have never trainer another person. There are many people out there with great athletic ability and built like a brick **** house but they could never train another because what works for one dosn't work for eveybody and they dont know how to make the proper changes in a workout to acommidate for this.

[WoofieNugget]

WRONG.The fitness industry is full of these people. there are plenty of trainers who make good money, yet cant train for ****. it all comes down to the sale.

This I agree with. In my current city the biggest meathead idiot is also the best marketer and salesperson, and therefore very successful financially. I normally get his clients after they are already hurt, disappointed and have spent a lot of money to become in worse shape than they were before.

I've also seen time and again at commercial gyms that the best salesman is regarded as the best trainer just because they are seen with the most people.

[FroodStrength]

Cool. How much would the insurance be without certification?
As for getting certified, I might in the future if I plan on making a career out of it only to attract more clients. But I honestly believe most certifications are a joke, I've seen plenty of PTs who have many certifications and don't know what the hell they're doing. I know I won't have a hard time finding clients being uncertified and I only plan on training a small amount. Thanks alot for the responses!

If you find the right certification it won't be a joke, I never considered pt or instructing anyone before I got my ***** and insurance I did not have enough knowledge.

[Ramoneb87]

Yea there's a guy at my gym who does it, you just have to look like you know what your doing and make your clients sign waivers

[Environ]

Why are people so reluctant to do a bit of study and get certified? It's not that difficult. In fact, you can get certified (i.e. basically ticking the box) VERY easily if you want.

[Al Shades]

Is it legal for me to train clients without having any sort of certification? Of course I will tell them I am not certified, but is there anything illegal about it?

Yes, no.

[KyleAaron]

This I agree with. In my current city the biggest meathead idiot is also the best marketer and salesperson, and therefore very successful financially. I normally get his clients after they are already hurt, disappointed and have spent a lot of money to become in worse shape than they were before.

Certainly this does work. But it leads to a lot of headaches.

If you are a good marketer and a poor trainer, you can be doing lots of sessions - but with a different bunch of people every few months as they wander off. So you have to keep being a good marketer to keep new ones coming in.

If you're a poor marketer and a good trainer, you'll have a slow start, but the clients you get will tend to stay for a long time. Word of mouth will get you some new clients, too. So you won't have to keep doing marketing and can focus on training people.

It's about what you enjoy. If you enjoy marketing, then do that - what you're selling is really irrelevant, you could be a PT or a car salesman or work in a hifi shop, doesn't matter. If you enjoy training people, do that.

If it's just cars or hifis that people are getting, it doesn't really matter if the thing they get isn't that good. With PT though, you're dealing with people's health and wellbeing, confidence and so on. So I'd prefer it if the people who just enjoy selling would go and sell some other stuff, and leave the training to people who actually enjoy training others.

[WoofieNugget]

I didn't say I liked it or supported it - in fact, I chose to do the exact opposite. I get clients through referrals and through word of mouth pretty much only. However, my clients are good, consistent and last for months if not years.

My issue is with the industry as a whole, something I am trying to change from the inside but it takes a long time.

[martino17]

I didn't say I liked it or supported it - in fact, I chose to do the exact opposite. I get clients through referrals and through word of mouth pretty much only. However, my clients are good, consistent and last for months if not years.

My issue is with the industry as a whole, something I am trying to change from the inside but it takes a long time.

#

This thread is silly!

Just get the certificate?

I have just got 50% of my level 3, I got a refer on the final 50%.

I am going to study more and more and go for a resit, Not train people without the knowledge or certificate!

What would the meerkat cat say?

Just get the certificate SIMPLES!

[sllymofo]

People like you guys are the reason that college and certifications cost so damn much. Similar to putting pussy on a pedestal you put paper on a pedestal. Although the op comes across as arrogant, he asked a simple question.

THose of you that are certified:
Did you have interest before attaining your cert? most good trainers did, probably all
Did you train people before attaining your cert? most did shoot i recall training kids in highschool for protein powder as a payment.
Did you know everything about PT after you attained your cert? if you say yes to this your are full of ****.


Seems like you guys are getting your feelings hurt over a simple question.

[KyleAaron]

Certifications don't cost much, compared to the income you can get. Even in Australia the most ridiculously-priced places are $3,000 for the lot. That's 100 half-hour sessions - one client doing 2 sessions a week for a year.

If you think you won't get even one client in your first year, thus making back your money, you're definitely choosing the wrong profession.