What’s It Like Being An Austin Personal Trainer?
When you’ve been a successful personal trainer in Austin for a long time, naturally, you will meet a great many people. When you interact with so many people, it’s always interesting to learn what they do for work, hobbies, etc. I have trained professionals in seemingly a million fields. For example, the professional athletes I’ve worked with have come from all kinds of different backgrounds, and play different positions as well as different sports oftentimes. There’s the business professionals, the actors and actresses, the experts in silage, the scientists, the airline pilots, the ballerinas, the teachers, and so on. I always find it interesting to ask people what they like about their jobs, as you’ll get greatly varied responses depending upon whom you ask, even within the same field. The other day, however, one of my clients turned the tables on me, and asked me what I like about being a personal trainer.
When asked why I like being an Austin personal trainer, I responded that it was better than having to get a job! While I obviously was being somewhat of a goofball, it was an honest response. I’ve always figured that if you truly love what you do for a living, you aren’t in the same boat as the person who drags him or herself into the job they find tedious and bland, punch the clock, and then live for the weekends. I wake up each morning at 4 or 5, depending upon when I start training that day, and look forward to meeting my clients and helping them progress towards their goals. I genuinely enjoy the people I work with and the challenges that are before me with their individual needs, goals, and histories.
No job, however, is without it’s faults. There are times, no matter what you do for a living, that you are ready to just sit back in your own space, on your own time, and relax. Being a personal trainer is no different in that respect. Since I deal with the general public, every once in a while, you will come across a certain personality that doesn’t gel with yours. It’s not a matter of that person being rude, crass, brash, etc, but it’s just a simple matter of personalities not jiving. It’s really a no blame and no shame scenario which usually resolves itself with both sides meeting in the middle. If it’s a serious case of someone who is rude, etc, then I simply inform them, in a polite way, that I no longer wish to work with them. Thankfully, those situations are extraordinarily few and far between. In fact, I can count them on 1 hand in the 21 years of being a personal trainer.
Besides getting to meet interesting people, one of the other things I really like about being an Austin personal trainer, is that I get to help people. I’m not the kind of personal trainer that is thrilled to hear a client tell me their goal is to drop 5 pounds so they can look better in their bathing suit. That to me is uninteresting and honestly, not overly mentally stimulating. What I do find interesting, is when people tell me they want to change their lifestyles by embracing better eating, as well as by embarking on an exercise regimen, just so they can become more able to do things with their families, as well as for themselves. Self empowerment and betterment is always more interesting than vanity.
Another aspect of what I like about being an Austin personal trainer, is when I work with people who have illnesses and injuries. I find it wonderfully satisfying to help people circumnavigate, and oftentimes, overcome whatever ails them. For example, there’s a 70 year old grandmother that I have worked with for a little while now. She’s a very sweet and intelligent person, so being in her company is always a pleasure. We like to joke around a lot too, so keeping things light and positive while we work is a great bonus as well. She came to me because as an avid runner and cyclist, she had tripped and broken her hip while on a run a year or so ago. Her pelvis was screwed back together, but the ensuing physical therapy was done incorrectly and therefore, she was still suffering from pain, tightness, and the inability to even go for long walks, much less run marathons and cycle for hours on end. I was able to recognize what needed to be done, and immediately, set about correcting the problems. Now, she is able to ride her bike 50 miles or more, at a time, run a few miles at a time, without any discomfort, and we are currently gearing up for a 10k race in a few months. That to me is as rewarding as it gets.
There’s truly a lot of things I like about being an Austin personal trainer. After all these years, I don’t even mind waking up before dawn anymore! Being a personal trainer certainly isn’t for everyone, especially those who embody the cliche, and think a decent physique, coupled with some pressured sales, will yield clients. To truly be successful, sales pitches, posing, and other ultra annoying practices don’t do anything more than annoy people. To truly succeed in being a personal trainer, anywhere, you must have an in depth knowledge of anatomy, physiology, kinisiology, and nutrition. You also have to be able to think on your feet and recognize imbalances and tightness’ before they become problematic and potentially dangerous to the client. This also means you must stay fully updated and well read in all of the aforementioned fields, as science has a way of changing it’s mind as it progresses. Lastly, you must be able to take all of that knowledge, and apply it to the individual in front of you, recognizing that it is going to be vastly different client to client, even when they have the same illness, injury, imbalance, or tightness. If you like these sorts of things, then you well may like being a personal trainer. I myself couldn’t imagine doing anything else for a living, or doing it anywhere else. As I said, it sure beats working!
Ready to Get Started?
