Being in the fitness industry and being a personal trainer was NEVER on my radar of things I thought I would be “when I grow up.” Working out and eating healthy were never adjectives that would describe me. When I was living in West Virginia, I got a personal trainer. I loved working out with her and learned so much from her. She would think of exercises, have me do them, and ask me where I was feeling it and how it felt. In a weird way, it felt like a partnership. I loved working out at this gym and quickly became friends with people.
My trainer suggested I get my certification to train at the gym. For a long time, I brushed it off because who would want to train with me. Mentally I felt like, I do not look like a typical trainer, and I certainly don’t eat or drink like a typical trainer. I love my wings and beer too much! Finally I looked into getting a certification, and I can’t believe how many are out there. I narrowed it down between 2 – ACE and NASM. In the end, I decided to get my ACE Personal Training Certification.
When I received my training material, it was so overwhelming and exciting all at the same time. This was a new passion of mine, and I was ready to make a change in my life. I started reading the textbook and doing the quizzes. I felt good with most of the content, but the muscles were the toughest to learn. During the time I was studying to become a trainer, I moved a few times, and each time my studies were put on the back burner. I finally became a personal trainer.
My first training job was at Planet Fitness. I loved my job at PF. I loved the class that they offered and met some amazing people there. If you didn’t know before covid PF had personal trainers and offered classes for their members. I will say the classes weren’t at the most convenient times, but the class types were great! Some classes were muscle-specific and some were total body. My favorite class was when I got to sit down with people one on one and create a specific workout for their goals. I loved writing workouts for people, and then showing them around the gym.
While my time at Planet Fitness wasn’t all rainbows and sunshine, I learned so much both good and bad. I learned about myself and what I wanted for my life. I learned a lot about the fitness industry and some of the people in it. There are some amazing people who will always be there to help you out and have the mentally there is enough room at the table. Then there still are some who have the old-school frame of mind.
My Philosophy
For the most part, I love being a trainer. I loved being in the fitness industry. While I was living in Washington, I feel like I really came into my own. It didn’t take long to figure out what kind of trainer I wanted to be. I want to work out because I liked the way it felt and the way I felt afterward. It never crossed my mind to workout in order to be able to eat certain foods. I always felt gross when I heard trainers say, “Earn your dessert.”
I was all about moderation and you can have both. You can eat your donut and still work out. For me, I love fountain pops. But my workouts didn’t evolve around making sure I worked out “hard enough” to justify having it. If I wanted it, I was going to drink it. I would monitor how much I was drinking, and still make sure I was drinking water. When have seen it over and over again, when you deprive yourself of something that’s the only thing your body wants. Then you’ll overindulge, rather than have a little bit now.
I also focused on everyone could reach their fitness goals. For example, I had a client I was training see someone do a burpee. She said to me, she wanted to be able to do that. I told her she just did one, but it was slightly different. Instead of jumping back, she did one foot at a time. Instead of the jump at the end, she did a heel raise. I told her, “YOU just did a burpee. It was just a different version.” I could see the glow she had.
Everyone is different, and their bodies are too. For me, it hurts to be HIIT-style training. My knees just can’t handle that type of movement. So I know what modifications I need to do to still get a good workout. There was a time I felt my workouts weren’t as good as others, but then I stopped paying attention to other people at the gym. My body wasn’t made to do certain things at a certain level, and that’s ok. That doesn’t mean I should give up on my goals. I will also never finish 1st in a marathon, but that shouldn’t stop me from trying to train.
Turning Point
Covid changed our lives for sure, but living in California during it didn’t help. This is when I started to change my mind about being a trainer. The gyms in CA weren’t considered “essential.” Also, it was all county based on the numbers. Sometimes gyms would be open, and then the next day they were closed. Also, some of the rules were insane. One county had a rule if you traveled more than 100 miles you had to quarantine for 14 days. I was also working in 3 different counties.
California definitely changed my perspective on training. I was working for a studio where I absolutely LOVE the workout. When I got hired and went through training, it was a DREAM JOB. It was my favorite cardio equipment with breaks for strength training. It had a warmup, workout, and cool down. I love the training and the type of class it was. BUT the management was horrible. I worked at several different studios because they were all franchised. But the managers at my original studio sabotaged my working relationships with the studios AND even my other gyms outside this studio. It was seriously the worst thing I have ever seen in 2 people.
During this time, I took a step back to reevaluate what I really wanted. Over the past few years, I have had a very tough experience in the fitness and gym industry. It really did a lot on my mental health and honestly my self worth as a trainer. It was really sad because I had always tried to be the trainer and employee about including everyone and always coming from a good place. Not everyone is like that.
The Decision
Every 2 years a trainer needs to update their certification. I got my personal training through ACE (American Council of Exercise), and they require 2.0 CEC (continuing education credits). There are a variety of different ways you can renew your certification. (If you are a trainer and reading this, feel free to message me because I have a list that I can share with you.) My certification time frame is coming up. I have all my continuing education credits because I finish my nutrition certification through Precision Nutrition. All I needed to do was pay the $150 fee.
Over the past few weeks and months, I have been debating on if I wanted to renew or not. I thought if I do renew I need to sit down and have some goals and things to justify keeping my certification active. Even spend a day visualizing my life as a trainer and want services I wanted to offer. I wrote down goals that I wanted, and if I didn’t reach those goals by the next certification I wouldn’t renew.
Journaling as been something that I have been doing a lot more lately. I was journaling what I wanted out of my life and myself. I have felt very stuck recently, and thought if I just write I might feel better. When I was writing, I started talking about training and all of these thoughts were pouring out. Then I visualized my life 5 years from now, and training wasn’t a part of it. So that’s how I came to the decision to not renew my certification.
I will still write about fitness things here because it is something that I am interested in. There are just other things that are taking more of a priority right now like writing and photography.
