My STEP project consisted of participating in a ten-week program to become a certified personal trainer. Each week consisted of readings, interactive activities, discussion posts, in depth talks, and quizzes about the material given and what it takes to be a personal trainer. At the end of the ten weeks, a final exam determined if you could become certified or not.
This process of becoming a personal trainer was more eye-opening than I ever imagined. One transformation that I was very excited to see is just how much I loved learning and studying this material, it made me realize that I am on the career path that I want to be on. It has solidified that this type of thing is what I want to spend the rest of my life doing. It gives me the chance to help others and make an impact on someone’s life while also being able to enjoy every minute of it. Going into the certification process I assumed it was just going to be a review of most topics but instead they presented ideas and concepts I had never even considered to be a part of personal training.
Not only have I gained a lot of respect for personal trainers, I have also started viewing individuals differently. Every individual seeks out a personal trainer for a different reason and one thing I quickly found out is just how personalized each program should be. Everybody is going to need work on different muscle imbalances and have different goals and this certification has transformed the way I view every individual.
One thing in particular that led to my one of my transformations is the discussion groups and posts. Though a minor portion of the certification process, it was one of the few opportunities I had to see a similar topic from so many different people’s point of view and be able to discuss all of our ideas more so everybody could learn off of each other. Each post was based off of a certain topic or question, and fifty or so different people would put their own answers resulting in about fifty thoughts all about that topic. This helped form a transformation due to the interactivity and different personalities that I was able to interact and communicate with.
Another way that obtaining this certification was transformational is that it helped my solidify career path. Prior to this project I was fairly confident in my career choice, but I had no real experience to help me gage that. The material in this certification was the first chance for me to see if I really liked the material in a real world setting rather than just learning it in classroom. Being able to apply it to real life situations and scenarios is what helped me conclude that I really want to be in the field of exercise and help transform people’s lives.
The last part of the certification that I feel was the most transformational was the access I had to a peer mentor and other fitness experts. Being able to be in contact with people with not only similar interests as me but have also reached the goals I want to reach, like becoming a physical therapist, has transformed my strategy to move onward in my career. Those experts showed me there are other ways to get to where I want to go without going down the same path as everyone else and that has transformed the way I have approached graduate school. There are many different ways that acquiring this personal trainer certification has helped transform my thinking, my approach to life, and my career, all for the better.
This transformation has been valuable in numerous different ways. The biggest way I think this has positively impacted my life is it has transformed my approach to reaching my goal of becoming a physical therapist. This certification has helped me mostly with the advancement of my career as a health and exercise professional while taking a route that other applicants most likely have not taken. As a hopeful physical therapist, this certification has given me not only an edge on other applicants but has also introduced many ideas and strategies to become great in my profession. I know that all the information I learned will translate to my future career no matter what path I take.
Daniel-I’m glad to hear that this experience has helped solidify your future career goals and strengthened your passions. It sounds like you were able to engage with a wide range of perspectives that allowed you to think critically about the work of a personal trainer. Have you been able to do any work as a personal trainer since the certification? If so, how has that experience been?