This is all about why I loved working as a personal trainer at three different big box gyms over the span of my relatively short-lived four-year personal training “career.”
About ten years ago, maybe a little further back, I worked as a personal trainer and loved every minute of it. Here’s why.
1. It’s A Highly Rewarding Job
You get to help clients lose weight, build muscle, and change their lives for the better. What could be more rewarding than that?
I remember this one kid I used to train who was so insecure about his body that he had nervous ticks because of it. He told me he would get made fun of for having “toothpick arms.”
I trained him for six months and by the end of it, he put on a lot of muscle, gained tons of confidence, and even started walking differently, this time with his head held high!
I was his introduction to working out, he trusted me, and being able to help him out felt really good.
There are dozens more stories just like that and whenever I stop to think about some of my old clients, it brings a big ol’ smile to my face.
2. You Get To Workout For Free
In the beginning, before your schedule is filled up, you can work out on breaks between training clients and, technically, be getting paid to work out, which is cool.
But, even after that, when you’re no longer getting hourly pay, you still get to work out for free! It’s one of the best perks of the job.
And, since your income, as well as the gym’s cut of what you make, is largely dependent on you staying in phenomenal shape, from the gym’s perspective, the best way to encourage their trainers to do this is to extend you a free membership.
3. You Get To Know The Regulars
As a member, you don’t really get to see the whole spectrum of who goes to the gym on a regular basis. You only see your little window of who goes to the gym at the time you normally go.
But, as a trainer, you see it all. You get to see all the different personalities who go to the gym at all different times and some of them are real characters.
I remember this older guy with knee replacements who’d be on one of those stair stepper machines every day at 5:00 PM like clockwork. You know, those machines that force you to keep your legs pumping up and down, just so the pedals won’t sink back down to the ground.
He’d be on there trying to make conversation with everyone within 6 feet of him. His mouth would be going just as fast his legs were pumping on the machine and he always made a spectacle of himself. I’d go over there and talk to him from time to time and he was always full of colorful stories.
There were lots of characters at the gym who were consistently fun to talk to and genuinely interesting people.
4. The Job Pushes You To Come Out Of Your Shell More
If all you are is a fit body, you won’t be a very successful personal trainer because the job also relies on your personality and ability to connect with people.
If you’re not willing to approach strangers at the gym to talk to them and make chit-chat, then you’re going to have a hard time getting and retaining clients.
This is why the job actually pushes you, out of necessity, to come out of your shell and be more social.
Yes, gyms sometimes feed you clients too, but a lot of times, if you only rely on those kind of leads, you may not be able to fill up your schedule and move up the ranks, or get paid at a higher rate for a while.
But, at the end of the day, there’s no need to stress it because, assuming the economy is decent and a good number of people have disposable income, getting clients isn’t that hard.
5. Training With Other Trainers
One of the best parts of working as a personal trainer is training with other trainers.
So, what you do is hook up with another trainer and make time to train together, but be forewarned, these sessions can often be some of the most hardcore, harrowing training sessions in your life!
However, training with another trainer is probably the best way to blast through plateaus and shock your body into new muscle growth because you both push each other to do so much more!
I once worked out with a trainer at my gym named Jason who was training with bodybuilder, King Kamali, at the time. To this day, I still remember how painful, but awesome that leg day was!
6. You Become A Recognizable Face And Quasi-Celebrity
You know how people sometimes joke, so-and-so is, “like the mayor” because they know everybody in their town, community, or place of business?
Well, a good trainer that’s doing his job is “like the mayor” (or at least one of the elected officials) of his local gym community.
When trainers aren’t training clients, or working out, they’re smiling, shaking hands, making small talk and kissing babies like a politician.
At a certain point, trainers become the face of the gym, or at least one of them. You become like a quasi-celebrity, or hometown hero, if you will.
Pretty soon, people come up to you and introduce themselves to you! And, that’s when you know you’re about to be hitting big numbers that will make your manager proud.
7. Selling Training Packages Is A Low-Pressure Sale
There’s no need to harass or hard-close people in order to get clients. Sure, your closing skills are important, but overall, in a gym environment, using too many sales tactics is a bad thing and tends to rub people the wrong way.
All you have to do is take an interest in who’s at the gym, introduce yourself to members, ask how their day is going, and slowly get to know them. From time to time, you can offer some pointers, or even a free training session. Sooner or later, the right clients will naturally flow to you.
It’s kind of like fraternity rush. Every semester, fraternities have social events to attract new members. Certain ‘rushees,’ or prospective members are naturally attracted to certain fraternities based on different perceptions each fraternity has, so the sorting process tends to follow a fairly predictable pattern each time.
It’s the same with personal training. You will attract your own unique type of client that other trainers won’t be able to attract. This is because clients will naturally click with some trainers and not others. You can think of it as a personality thing, or even an energy thing, but the bottom line is that it’s a natural process that just happens and there’s really no other way to explain it.
8. You Build Confidence Talking To The Opposite Sex
Your job as a trainer is to talk to and get to know every member of the gym to see if they might be in need of your services. Not in an obnoxious or pushy kind of way, but in a “just being friendly” kind of way.
So, when you go over to that cute girl on the treadmill, you’re just doing your job. No harm, no foul.
If she’s a regular, which most gym-goers are, there’s plenty of time for you two to talk, get to know each other, train together etc. before asking her out.
All guys go through a socially awkward phase where it’s hard to talk to girls, but forcing yourself to overcome this sticking point puts you in the position to build confidence and feel more at ease around the opposite sex.
9. People Come To You For Advice
When all you do is eat, breathe, and sleep fitness and bodybuilding, you quickly become a walking encyclopedia of expert-level knowledge.
This knowledge only grows the more clients you train and the more opportunities you have to put theory into practice.
Gym members will start to come up to you and ask you questions about this or that. You may even be able to convert some of these members into clients.
It’s nice to feel wanted and for your opinions to be valued, am I right? Feels good, man.
10. More Reason To Compete, Or Improve Your Physique
This is a big reason why I decided to start personal training. I had a good enough physique to present myself as a personal trainer when I first started, but I wanted to surpass that and build an even more awe-inspiring body.
I suspected that being a trainer might push me to work even harder and, as it turned out, I was right. Knowing that I represented the gym, my clients, and the very notion of fitness itself, I had a duty and obligation to be yoked.
I gained a lot of muscle in the four years I worked as a trainer. I never competed, but knowing that my gym community and clients were counting on me to be a veritable fitness role model motivated me to want to be in the best shape I can be.
This Last Reason Was The Inspiration For Yoked
Now that I’m older and no longer have that built-in motivation to improve my physique that I had working as a trainer, it’s you guys who are helping me to get back in shape!
You’re my accountability partners. I’m talking about the readers of this blog and listeners of this podcast!
I have to get yoked because I’ve already put myself out there as having started this fat to fit journey. I need to follow through and succeed. My entire being demands it.
How We Can Help Each Other To Get Yoked!
If you want accountability for getting into phenomenal, yoked shape, send me a picture of you doing a front double biceps pose from your social media account with the tag #Timetogetyoked. You can also send them to me on Gab.
I’ll post them to my next video podcast, so others can see you call your shot, just like Babe Ruth during the 1932 World Series, and declare to the world that you too will be yoked and that the journey starts now!
Let’s do it!
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