Congratulations! You’ve take the first step to becoming a world-class personal trainer by deciding that you want to study personal training. Making the decision that you want to pursue fitness as your career, and ditch the nine-to-five slog of being cooped up in an office and behind the desk, is an incredibly rewarding, challenging and exciting decision to make.
With the difficult part out of the way, now you need to decide on which personal training course that you’re going to study in order to make your dream, of becoming a personal trainer a reality. Here are some hints and suggestions on how you can choose the personal training course that is right for you.
Backed by a recognised fitness institution
The first, and most important, thing that you’ve got to keep in mind when choosing the fitness college that you want to study your personal training diploma through is that it needs to be backed by recognised fitness institutions. If it has this type of backing, it shows that fitness industry experts have deemed this particular qualification as providing the best possible information, to wanna-be personal trainers. These industry experts are of the opinion that the fitness qualification that they back will make people, who attain this qualification, into the best possible personal trainers that they can be.
In South Africa, examples of these types of bodies are:
- The Register of Exercise Professionals South Africa (REPSA), and
- The Culture, Arts, Tourism, Hospitality and Sport Sector Education and Training Authority (CATHSSETA).
Satisfied past students
The fitness college that you decide to do your personal training qualification through should also have past students who are happy with the quality and professionalism that the learning institution and coursework provide. They must be willing to go on record and clearly state how happy they are with the way that the instructors taught them how to become a personal trainer.
The best place to look for testimonials such as these is on the fitness college’s website. The college should be proud of them and be willing to show them to the public.
Work experience
After you’ve learned the theory that goes into becoming a personal trainer, you need to practise your new-found knowledge under the guidance and supervision of a skilled personal trainer. This must not be a “If I feel like it decision”. It must be a requirement of the personal training qualification that you decide to go for.
Work experience is not an opportunity for personal trainers to get free labour from a student. It’s an opportunity for newbie personal trainers to practise their skills that they learned in a classroom under the watchful eye of a more experienced professional. They can help you to correct your mistakes and learn from them so that you don’t end up repeating them when you start offering personal training services on your own.
Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy
When choosing a fitness college to study personal training through, look no further than Trifocus Fitness Academy. We are backed by CATHSSETA as well as REPSA. In addition, all of our students have gone on to become incredibly successful fitness professionals. For more information, please visit our website.