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Every grade 10 has to do a job shadow. If they are in PLP or not. Most people will take what is easy though, people their parents know, maybe a close family friend who has a job that they find kind of interesting. I didn’t do that. I got in contact with my boss/training partner/family friend/coach Mike to get in contact with trainers that he knows. After a couple times talking to him and looking at various websites we found one.
Mike has a strong connection with the brand Muscle Mlk, and the local representative for that brand he know quite well. He also knows that her husband is Chris Rothafelder, a personal trainer and owner of elevate fitness. His bio is below.
http://elevatehealth.ca/certified-personal-trainers/chris-rothfelder/
Chris is the founder and Co-owner of Elevate Training, Health and Wellness. Elevate is a personal training facility that is completely results driven. It is home to Chris and 5 other trainers, and they all train clients in this space, but all in their own way. Chris has 7 years experience as a personal trainer, he is a BCRPA certified personal trainer, and a BCRPA Certified Fitness Leader in Weight Training. He specializes in advanced TRX, BOSU, Twist SMART training, and advanced Swissball
So, once I had his contact we arranged a day where I could go to his facility and learn what happens in there. So, in early May, I went to Elevate Fitness for my job shadow. When I got there, I was welcomed, introduced to Chris and all of the other trainers there. Then immediately I got the rundown of the layout, the format and hat I would be doing. I have some photos that I will put in throughout the post, but this video shows everything.
After my quick tour I explained what I wanted to gain. I needed to learn what different kinds of schooling are paths being a personal trainer, and I needed some media to make this post. I couldn’t take any photos of the actual training that happened, because these people are paying $90/hour to be trained by a professional, not filmed by a 16 year old.
I took a few photos of what I saw as soon as I walked into the main training area though.
So, then I started my day. I was in the main room that I showed above and I was watching all of the trainers. It wasn’t just Chris, there was two other triainers working with clients at the same time, so I got to see how trainers can work differently. I could also alternate talking to and interviewing them. This helped me understand in depth what it takes to become a trainer and what you do once you are one.
So, to become a certified personal trainer you don’t have to have a post secondary education in anything, but I plan to have one in Human Kinetics or Kinesiology, when I mentioned that idea Chris liked it. He said that if you get a degree in something like that it instantly helps you jump up to the top of the ladder and immediately start training high end, high paying clients. You don’t have to climb to the top.
When I was in the gym I was told not to record, which makes sense. If someone is paying anywhere from $75-120 to get trained by a professional, they don’t want to have some 16 year old kid constantly interrupting to ‘make a podcast,’ so I over time took notes amd created an iBook about what I learned from these notes.
In the end I was very happy with my job shadow. Every trainer that I met was very similar to myself, I got along well with them, we all had similar goals, and I could see myself working with them. So, in the future this IS a career I plan to pursue,
