If you happened upon this site it’s likely because you’re considering a career as a strength and conditioning coach, known colloquially as a personal trainer. Talk to professionals and they’re clear about two things-

-There’s a very regimented path you can follow if you want to join the strength coach workforce. It’s not rocket science.

-There’s a difference between a personal trainer and a good personal trainer, and that difference is a passion for living healthy and a lifelong obsession with human optimization. Becoming a good trainer takes experience, dedication, and a willingness to learn. On this site, we’ll tell you how to become a good trainer.

Below, I’ll outline the steps experts recommend to get yourself into the job, with a few tweaks.

1. Do You Love It?

Are you reading fitness material in your free time? Do you own a copy of Good Calories Bad Calories, The Paleo Solution, or Why We Get Fat?

Are you a student of exercise science? Do you not only work hard and admire yourself in the mirror, but run experiments on yourself using metrics to test different training methods and dietary tweaks?

Are you a natural teacher? Do you love to help people learn? Do you live for the challenge of finding a way to teach a difficult-to-teach person?

Finally, are you a people person? Do you naturally fall into conversations with people about your shared interests, and are you comfortable asking people to become your clients? Are you entrepreneurially-minded? Are you comfortable building a client base and finding investors?

Most articles advising people with “trainer dreams” stop at “can you live a healthy lifestyle and do you look like an athlete”. That’s important, but talk to a few real coaches, and they’re unanimous that if you have passion for strength and conditioning, little else (certification, geography, the type of exercise you specialize in, etc) matters, and if you don’t, little will help.

2. Do You Need Certification?

I’ll answer this question in greater depth in a subsequent article, where I’ll also touch on types of certification, but for a fledgling trainer, work backwards and ask yourself these two questions.

1) Where do I want to work and what type of certification do they require? If you’re starting out at NYSC or another corporate chain, they’re likely to require certification. (NYSC does.) As you’re becoming better-acquainted with the profession, narrow down the entry-doors. If you’re working for Crossfit, for instance, they do their own certifications.

2) Will going through the certification process give you a good working knowledge of anatomy? Even if a third-party certification isn’t required to begin training at a gym, it may be useful to read through the books required for the certification exams, because they contain a lot of basic information about anatomy/chemistry/biology/etc. Which muscles connect to which joints? What are the mechanisms through which they move the body? What are the chemical and cellular processes occurring when you perform a motion or do an exercise. A basic theoretical framework is necessary to be a good trainer, but if you’re cut out for it, you’re probably reading about this stuff already.

Experts are clear – once you’re experienced and have your own independent client base – let alone your own gym – people rarely ask about certifications.

3. Where Do You Want to Work?

Corporate gyms like NYSC will give you a place to train, but you’ll be required to recruit your own clients, and you’ll be judged by your “sign-ups” as well as by the quality of your training. Many fledgling trainers will “freelance”, doing shifts at different gyms around a city, depending on the availability of work.

Crossfit “boxes” are more of a self-contained unit, and “coaches” are usually hired only after first completing a high level of Crossfit’s own certification process, and depending on their relationships with the existing coaches and the need for additional “hands-on-deck.” Assuming you qualify, you’re slotted into an already-functioning apparatus, teaching classes and training clients under the umbrella of the Crossfit brand and in accordance with the policies of the specific “box”. Sometimes coaches can “branch” from one Crossfit franchise and apply to open their own.

For trainers with the experience and client base to “go solo”, it doesn’t much matter which route you took coming up.

4. How Far Do You Want to Take It?

By the time you’ve put in a few years going through steps 1-3, you’ll likely know the best options for yourself. Do you command a large enough client base to warrant opening your own private space, or is the greater convenience and lower risk worth forfeiting a certain percentage of your fees?

Another area some coaches try to break into is high school or college sports teams, which increasingly have a strength and conditioning specialist on hand to train athletes.

In subsequent articles we’ll speak with a number of different fitness professionals at various stages along various paths, and dissect issues like entrepreneurship, certifications, and lifelong learning.