Careers in Health and Fitness

General Discussion
1

Hello All,

I have been considering a career change into the Health and Fitness world. I apologize in advance for the lengthy post.

A little background on me. I am 44 years old with a Bachelor’s in Film/Video from 2004. Since 8th grade-Film School I thought I was going to be the next Alfred Hitchcock. And by the time I graduated I actually got burnt out on my pursuit in Film. I have basically work retail and Inside Sales mostly in the Trucking and Equipment Industry.

Probably going on 10 years ago I made a lifestyle change from 309lb obese and lazy to about 200lbs healthy eating and exercise enthusiast. I started with Stronglifts 5 x 5 and watching Alan Thrall’s youtube videos to learn how to do the movements. It was Alan that pointed me in the direction of BBM (maybe 8 years ago now)

Since then my ambition is to find a career in something I am passionate about like Diet and Exercise.

Now my grandiose choices are Registered Dietician, DPT or PTA. I say these are grandiose because they all require going back to school which I don’t really think is going to be feasible for me being 44 and working full time with a wife and home.

I also thought about becoming a Personal Trainer/Coach. But I feel I want to be more of an expert in something than just getting some weekend certificate and calling myself a professional. I also have never worked with a Coach personally.

So I am just looking for some advice on where I should begin or focus my attention.
Should I take a Cert class?
Should I work with a Coach to have that experience personally? - I am actually already planning on this in the next few weeks signing up for BBM coaching.
Is this just a pipe dream pursuit that many people who went through a lifestyle change and suddenly think they can Coach others?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

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I went from being a Chief Financial Officer for a chain of restaurants, to opening my own personal training studio. So, I have some experience in this field.

I would recommend a few steps

  1. Work with a coach to understand the dynamics of the coach client relationship.
  2. Invest in education that will codify a framework for you to use. I highly recommend the BBM seminar for this. I attended my first seminar 10 years ago, and it provided me with a strong foundation.
  3. Get a cert and work part-time as a personal trainer. This will expose you to the general population and bears the lowest financial risk to you. This step is important because it’ll help you figure out if you actually enjoy working with people. The RD, DPT, PTA titles will simply define the population you’ll work with. However, I think you’ll be better equiped to handle those populations after you’ve spent some time working with people who have no idea what they are doing.
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