Rant Time!

Okay kids, put your seatbelts on, it's Rant Time.



As you may or may not know, my wife and I make our living by teaching people how to train. We own a pair of gyms, we work in them full time and we are 2 of the 3 trainers that work in our clubs. Basically what I'm trying to say here is that my paycheck or lack thereof comes from me knowing about strength and fitness training (especially fat loss) and being able to help others achieve there physical goals.



I don't really have a good term or title to describe exactly what I do, but to the average Joe, I'm a personal trainer. BUT, I am not certified (like thats some glorious, godly thing) by any personal training company or organization. And let me tell you why.

When I first got into the business I had already been training myself for about 10 years. I had already competed in bodybuilding and powerlifting and was a pretty good student to the ways of the iron. I even had a client that I was training privately in his home 3 days per week for 6 months. Needless to say I knew a bit about training and nutrition and how to achieve success.

I looked into a few of the different companies that offered personal training certs and was horrified by what they had to offer. I did find one company that seemed to have it's shit together but they seemed to be out of business or not interested in new members because I never got a reply to any calls or emails.

One point that I want to make here before moving on is that personal training companies that offer certifications are just that, independant companies that offer certification courses on what they feel are the important skills and knowledge to be a personal trainer.

Just because you have a nice website and charge $400.oo for a weekend long certification course doesn't neccesarily mean you offer the best product.

I'll get the point here. I've come across a few individuals, that feel it neccesary to stop by my gyms or meet me in the street and want to look down there nose at our business because we are not certified. These people are often certified by one company in particular (rhymes with fan-bit) and are usually mortified that we answer their questions about certification with "I'm not certified by anyone".

This rant was fueled by one person in particular that recently came into our gym and inquired about some of our rates and training programs. The person then proceeded to tell us they were a 15 year veteran of personal training and were certified by a company that rhymes with fan-bit. The person then (as usual) inquired about our certs and had little to say about our answer.

Here's the question I have all you fuck tards with a fancy piece of paper with gold foil and your name on it from fan-bit. How many people have you trained? How many of them achieved their goals? If you are such an awesome personal trainer then why in hell aren't you making a living teaching others how to get fit?
If you want to feel high and mighty about your paper certification from the 2 day course you took about personal training, don't try me. From now on, I will be asking the hard questions.

My wife and I have been training clients for over 4 years. We started with nothing and built our business into something I'm very proud of. We did it without paying some companies bullshit fees to have a piece of paper on the wall. We did it with a lot of trial and error, a lot of reading, a lot of travelling to seminars, a lot of phone calls and emails to people who already had great success in the business. I've spent thousands of hours reading and studying training methods. I've logged thousands of hours in the gym trying shit out on myself. I've logged hundreds of hours in the gyms training others to reach there goals. And guess what? I've never bragged about how awesome I am (or used to be) to another trainer. I've never looked down my nose at another trainer with less experience. I'm willing to pay it forward and share what I've learned, and most important of all....I never stop learning, studying, trying hard to stay on top of what works.

That's all.

Have a great day.