Why is Becoming a Trainer Easier than Getting a Driver’s License

I remember spending time in the Shaler Area athletic training room before baseball practice my senior year of high school. Spring 2006.

I had strained my quad and I had so many questions about the recovery process; what could I be doing to ease this pain and get back to feeling like myself again?

During this training room time, I got to learn a lot about the profession. So much so that I decided to enroll in the Athletic Training program at Ohio University. I was prepared to study for 4 years including hands-on time spent before and after practices, games, and matches. 

Now, I ended up transferring to the University of Pittsburgh and switching majors to Exercise Science. And in my Ex Sci education I took several courses and spent many hundreds of hours learning about movement science, human anatomy and physiology specific to exercise, behavior change and sport psychology, nutrition, and programming. 

I felt as if I had learned so much, and yet so little, when I started my first job as a personal trainer at Urban Active in 2011. 

I legitimately loved that job. I loved getting to meet all kinds of people who were focused on improving their health and wellness. I loved that I had the freedom to set my own hours, choose how I trained my clients, experiment with different training styles and approaches, and really explore what being a trainer meant. 

I always thought I was going to be a physical therapist - personal training was a relatively foreign career path to me.

I quickly learned by meeting some of my then peers that you did not need to go to school for Exercise Science to be a great personal trainer. And I mean great - in fact, most of the greatest trainers I know did not go to college for Exercise Science. 

These trainers were great despite not being formally educated in this field. They were great because they had committed to their learning and continuously exposed themselves to educational experiences. 

These are the success stories and the types of coaches we celebrate and gravitate towards. They have a thirst and a hunger to be the best they can be. 

Unfortunately, many trainers also take advantage of lack of professional regulation in the personal training industry. 

Most major certifications like NASM, ACE, and ACSM can be completed in as little as 10-40 hours worth of studying. Some can be completed in a weekend. 

None of these certifications have hands-on requirements.

Let me say that again - none of the professional certifications for personal trainers or strength coaches have any physical requirements. We are certifying people to assess movement patterns who have never had their own movements assessed nor have their assessments been observed.

There are no training requirements in physical literacy nor communication and social interaction competencies.

And yet, within a month of my first job as a personal trainer, I was given complete autonomy during 30-60 minute personal training sessions with general population clients almost all of whom had some type of medical, physical, or psychological complexities to them. 

Human beings, our habits, fears, anxieties, hesitations, aches, pains, and ability to coordinate movements while simultaneously hearing our trainer’s cues and communicating our experiences back to the coach are extremely complex and varied. 

It’s no wonder the personal training industry gets such a bad rap when well-intentioned individuals who are looking to insert themselves into an industry that is based off a hook and bait educational system. 

What I mean by this is that you start by getting an entry level CPT that provides you with the bare minimum necessary knowledge. With this one qualification, you can enter the world of training any and everyone. And yet, you likely will not feel truly ready to train all of the special populations within our world: corrective exercise, performance enhancement, injury prevention, fat-loss, cancer patients, youth, and elderly to name a few.

There is no uniformly required certification in the personal training industry, and even the most well known like NASM do not require any type of physical or interactional competencies. 

Unfortunately this type of knowledge gap often makes or breaks young trainers. Without proper support and knowledge of how to handle these complexities, coaches often leave the industry early.

Position turnover rates are extremely high - about 70-80% annually. And most personal trainers stay in entry-level positions for less than 2 years.

It’s a vicious cycle. Easy to get in but just as easy to be spit back out.

It truly is easier to get your CPT than your driver’s license. 

I remember I took an in-person driver’s education course that was 2 full days in the classroom with a written exam. I spent months practicing my driving with my parents and finally had to pass both the written and driving portions of the test.

You don’t even need to leave your own home to get a CPT.

I am hopeful this can be addressed and improved in the future. I am committed to doing my part to bring awareness and be an advocate in the arena. 

Please continue to follow along and learn with me.