Advise on next steps for a newly qualifed PT

[Morganator1990]

Hi all, I've been on and off bodybuilding.com for some years now and found everyone is really helpful and have wealth of experience and knowledge within the fitness industry.

I have just recently qualified to level 3 and needing advise on my next steps. Firstly a brief history about me.

I have and still currently work in retail and qualifying as a PT was my chosen career change. I am Type 1 diabetic and have been well controlled since the age of 9 (19 years) no complications. I regularly train in the gym to maintain my good health and over the year briefly helped close friend and family with things there were struggling with in the gym or training in general. This was my main reason for retraining as a gym instructor / PT.

My qualifications were obtained within 2 years, first year in my local gym and 2nd with a company running fitness courses governed by Active IQ. What disappointed me about my training is it was meant to be a split of theory and practical. My first year was mainly theory with very little practical and half the time tutors that were unorganised or not helpful. The level 3 (with the fitness company) were more helpful and had more practical work but still not a lot. I also found that both courses were rushed and topics were crammed not giving you much time to understand and digest in.


Now qualified I really don't feel like I'm ready to take on clients yet as I don't feel my knowledge or experience is at that stage yet. Fell like I'm left to defend myself

My current status is that I applied to loads of gyms to ask for voluntary experience. Willing to come and observe and help out were I can on my days off. Thankfully this has paid off and a lovely woman that owns a functional gym, which ideally is behind my current retail job haha! She has agreed to take me in for voluntary work and so far I've observed a couple of boot camp sessions and women's strength and conditioning sessions.

I feel like I want to get involved more like taking a small group from her boot camp sessions and coach and correct techniques were needed, but I fear that I will mess up or not know the answers to questions clients throw at you.


Sorry if this seems long winded but it would be lovely to hear from people who may have been in a similar situation to me and how the overcome their issues getting into the industry. Or professional advise on what I should do next.


Many Thanks for reading

Dan.

[KyleAaron]

Go work - not volunteer - as a gym instructor in a big gym, preferably a community gym. I understand the lack of confidence, but bear in mind that even the dumbest trainer knows more than 90% of gym members, so you certainly have something to offer. Your lack of confidence is actually a positive sign - the ones we worry about are those who walk out of PT school confident they know everything.

So, go work as a gym instructor in a big community gym like a YMCA. While there,

1. talk to someone new every day
2. and teach someone new a movement every day - plank, squat, leg press, whatever you think is useful, but always the same one
3. and thus in 2 years you'd have talked and taught a movement to at least 500 people, and will have learned something about people and teaching movements

You will then have learned some things.

[Morganator1990]

That's sound advise thanks. Reason I volunteered is to get my name in the door so to speak. Never worked for a gym before so wanted to gain practical experience before stepping into employment.

[Savanimal912]

Go work - not volunteer - as a gym instructor in a big gym, preferably a community gym. I understand the lack of confidence, but bear in mind that even the dumbest trainer knows more than 90% of gym members, so you certainly have something to offer. Your lack of confidence is actually a positive sign - the ones we worry about are those who walk out of PT school confident they know everything.

So, go work as a gym instructor in a big community gym like a YMCA. While there,

1. talk to someone new every day
2. and teach someone new a movement every day - plank, squat, leg press, whatever you think is useful, but always the same one
3. and thus in 2 years you'd have talked and taught a movement to at least 500 people, and will have learned something about people and teaching movements

You will then have learned some things.

Second this.
In nearly every profession, no matter how much knowledge you may have retained studying and learning; you simply need on the job training and repetitions to solidify your skillsets. You're going to make it OP