Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Personal Trainer - to be or not to be.

Fitness is a recession-resilient industry that doesn’t seem to be affected by the current economic climate. With an increase awareness of eating 'clean' (non-processed food) and getting fit and fab, this booming industry is certainly here to stay for a very long time. This will also be an ideal career path for a lot of young people when everyone is evaluating the worth of being burdened by daunting university tuition fees and not being able to find the degree-worthy jobs the moment their mortarboards kiss the ground.

Last year when the oil prices dropped, I was paranoid and had a faint idea that I need something to fall back on if my job security fails on me. At the same time, it has to be something I enjoy doing. So far, I've always enjoyed and am keen on;
1. reading about the human body since young which nursed my ambition to be a doctor for a good decade of my life!
2. learning about fitness and workouts that I am doing to further understand in detail of why I am doing what I am doing.
3. helping friends with their workouts, getting to know their goals and what they should do to get there and giving biochemistry, physiology, body morphology and musculoskeletal-focus advice (or babbles!).

These thought processes made me contemplate on doing a personal trainer diploma as part time, with hopes to specialize in somewhere along the line of wellbeing, nutrition fitness, strength and conditioning and functional training. If time was on my side, ideally it would be nice to work on the proper fundamentals of coaching, and be certified as a weightlifting coach level 1 (£350) and also in crossfit level 1 along the way. The latter is because I need to fight my lesser preference for metcon and HIIT workouts as compared to strength, at the same time stress more the importance of injury-free forms into crossfit! I am still not sure which one I should start first, but I do know I would love to learn!

But in the meantime, I have a long way to go within the realms of functional fitness and workouts. So I will take a year or two to garner more experience in practicing more and more and more before doing this. That would mean, in specificity, to advance my weightlifting, yoga, pilates and calisthenics, build a balanced overall physically fit physique, while at the same time learning from others and myself. I will be open to be exposed to as many different sports/workout as I can to understand its pros and cons, its provenance and monitor current trend - les mills, crossfit, muay thai/kickboxing etc. Now that will have to be true discipline and diligence on my part.

Today I spoke to Hannah, who is new to the gym I frequent, is a newly qualified personal trainer. She has the same physique as me (but leaner and stronger of course!) and was at the squat rack - so I couldn't resist asking her more about squats. We talked about fitness in general for a while, and is glad to have found someone as passionate in learning as me! Then she recommended me to consider doing the course part-time when I am into the writing stage of my PhD or after I finish them.

In January I inquired City of Bristol College for the course but the fact that I have an international status on my forehead means I have to pay nearly three times more than locals did put me off a lot. Money is still quite tight for me so that is the major setback at the moment. It would be great to save some from my internship for this little project of mine! *notes down*

I am not sure about other cities/countries - but I do know for the fact that within 1 mile of where I live, these are the costs it takes for doing it here;
(I remember checking this a while back and it is slightly cheaper in Singapore and the US)

Fitness Instructing (CYQ Level 2 Intermediate)
City of Bristol College @College Green £360 for 10 weeks (Part time 3 days/week)
but ~£1000 for me (damn that international status!)
Lifetime Training @Clifton Heights £800

Personal Training (CYQ Level 3 Advanced)
City of Bristol College £1420 for 12 weeks
Lifetime Training £2400 for 10 week

Advanced Diploma in Personal Training £3000
Lifetime PTA Global Maxima 3-in-1 (PT Level 3, Advanced and Bridging) £3000

That's all from me for the day.

Peace!
- D

I am what I learnt


No comments:

Post a Comment