Are Fitness Certifications Worth It? - #417

Beast over Burden powered by Barbell Logic

Barbell Logic

Nutrition, Fitness, Health & Fitness

4.7 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 19 July 2022

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Are fitness certifications worth it, worthless, or does it depend? Niki & CJ walk you through how to consider the value of a fitness certifications as a barbell coach or personal trainer.

Are Fitness Certifications Worth It?

Personal trainers and barbell coaches have proliferated as the health and fitness industry grows. Fitness certifications also abound, and you can probably find a personal training certification for any niche or skill you would want to learn. Are they worth it?

It depends. Thinking about certifications practically and personally, ask yourself "Do I need this certification?" This shifts the focus to YOU, your needs, and your situation.

This question also tends to relate to two other questions that new coaches tend to think (even in subconsciously). Am I ready to coach, and do I have permission to coach?

If you can provide value to a lifter, you can coach, and we've talked and written about coaching spouses and friends first, what that might look like, and how to not suck as a coach.

Regarding permission, the personal training industry does not require a legal certification. You may coach our of your garage. If you're looking to coach at a gym, you may need a certain certification.

Many fall into the trap of trying to collect certifications but failing to coach. We love and encourage academic study and are not anti-certification, but if you want to coach you must coach.

Furthermore, your appreciate and the value of the certification becomes clear when you begin to coach (do I need to know this? does this help me)? As you learn the academic side, you have more to bring to the platform.

Which Personal Training Certification Should I Get?

We return to "Do I need this certification," with stress on the word need.

Will this certification get you clients? Will this certification improve your coaching? Is an employer or potential employers requiring this certification?

You might not know the answers to this. Consider getting one of the study guides or books meant to help prepare you for one of the more common certifications. Start reading it as you coach people. Does the information provide you useful information? Examine what type of information you're finding valuable - maybe there is a certification that focuses more on those areas.

Are Fitness Certifications Worthless?

The incentive of a credential can help motivate one to study and learn. Furthermore, a certification can provide a standard from which employers - gyms and online coaching companies - can evaluate coaches.

Similar to the personal training industry in general, you have to sort through much chafe to get to the wheat. Fitness certifications signal to employers and potential clients you have a baseline level of knowledge. They may be required to get personal training insurance.

Lastly, some may get you clients (or prevent you from getting clients). This is rare in either case, but if a certain brand is well-known and that certification is considered valuable and hard-to-get, you may get clients looking for a coach with that certification.

Oppositely, if a brand gets associated with something such as getting clients injured, you may find yourself having to defend that brand or dealing with similar questions about the brand's approach.

Are fitness certifications worth it? It depends, and this episode helps you weigh the costs and value of certifications to decide which fitness certification is right for you.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Barbell Logic.
0:04.4	The podcast where we talk about what it means to experience strength.
0:07.8	And how you can use simple, hard, and effective strategies in training and nutrition to improve
0:13.7	your life.
0:14.7	It starts with meeting you where you are right now in finding lasting solutions.
0:19.8	Welcome to the show.
0:30.0	Hello, everybody.
0:34.4	Welcome to the Barbell Logic podcast.
0:35.8	I'm Nikki with CJ.
0:38.2	And CJ, you just wrapped up a call with the coaching academy group.
0:42.0	Yes.
0:43.0	Yeah.
0:44.0	What are those like?
0:45.0	That was a lot of fun.
0:46.0	So originally, we had like the coaching academy was these calls, you know, small group
0:49.9	calls, six to 10 people going through a curriculum for about six months now.
0:54.4	This one was created by our students.
0:57.0	They wanted to do this again, you know, previous grads or principals course students.
1:01.2	So being in, you know, they reached out to me.
1:03.4	We coordinated the schedule and we've been working through the last four months now on sort
1:08.6	of a custom class based on their needs and interests.
1:11.8	So where they are as coaches, because, you know, I kind of know that in advance.
	...

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