Listen to the post, How We Started Our Fitness Journey As Personal Trainers, on our Live Lean TV Podcast. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast!
On today’s episode of Live Lean TV, we’re answering a viewer question who asked how we started our fitness journey as personal trainers?
This was a question from #AskLiveLeanTV Ep. 013.
@LilianaSuriel1 on Twitter asks: how did you and Jess become experts in fitness? How did you start your fitness journey as personal trainers? What resources did you use? Thanks.
Before officially starting to train clients, Jessica and I studied towards getting our personal trainer and nutrition certifications.
However, having certifications doesn’t necessarily make you an expert.
In the beginning, the driving factor for me was I realized I needed to make a change in my own life.
I cover all of this in my book Think And Live Lean.
In the book, I talk about how I didn’t have a strong feeling of self-confidence as kid, or even as a young adult, growing up.
Then through some soul searching, I eventually decided that I couldn’t continue living my life like this.
It was a long process, but I eventually made the decision that I needed to make a change.
That’s when the first lightbulb went off.
I knew that if I worked at changing on the outside, it would then help me change on the inside.
In the beginning, I did a lot of research on fitness, and like most people, I tried to do it alone.
This quickly led me to become overwhelmed with all of the conflicting fitness and nutrition information.
Rather than following a proven and structured program designed by a fitness expert, I kept trying all kinds of different workouts and recipes found in fitness magazines.
This lack of structure in my workouts and nutrition led to mediocre results.
It was the epitome of working hard, but not working smart.
That’s when lightbulb number two went off.
After experiencing a lot of frustration from trying to do it all on my own, I decided to hire a fitness coach to design my workouts and nutrition plan.
Having a structured program to follow, that was designed for my goals, was exactly what I needed.
After sticking to my workout and nutrition plan, I achieved amazing results with my before and after transformation.
This transformation was not only my physique, but also my self-confidence.
This was when I truly fell in love with fitness and started my Live Lean journey.
To fuel my passion, I continued reading, applying, and executing on everything I was learning in fitness and nutrition.
Based on my before and after transformation, a lot of people at the gym started to take notice.
My transformation was so good, a supplement company stole my before and after photos.
I was repeatedly asked the following questions:
I told them how to do it, and it just snowballed from there.
As I continued to get the same questions, the third lightbulb went off in my head.
Of course, getting in shape was an issue, but once you do get in shape, being able to sustain it forever, was the real problem.
During my fitness journey, I first hired a coach, I did all the work on myself, then I decided to get certified in fitness and nutrition.
Once I became certified, I then started taking online and one-on-one personal training clients.
Jessica took the opposite approach.
She got certified before she even knew or did anything.
Looking back at it, Jessica has mentioned that she doesn’t recommend doing it the way she did it.
When people ask if and when they should get certified, she always encourages them to work on themselves first.
In other words, put in the work, become a transformation success story, then get certified.
The certification is more valuable to you once you know things from real life experience.
I get a lot of questions from other personal trainers on what they should do next, after they get their certification.
The next thing you should do is apply everything you’ve learned to change yourself first.
That way, you can be an example for your clients.
I see people hiring personal trainers all the time who don’t apply what they’ve learned to themselves.
Or maybe they’ve applied it once, but then they let themselves go.
To me, that’s a clear disconnect, and there are a lot of examples of this in the personal training industry.
As a client, I would be thinking to myself, “what’s going on here?”.
So work on yourself to first find out what works on you.
Then use those learnings to turn your clients into a success story.
Ultimately applying your education to create real life experiences is your best resource.
To find the best workout and nutrition program for you, go take our Live Lean Body Quiz.
Answer four simple questions and we’ll get you on the best program, based on your goals.
Every training program includes warm ups, workouts, cool downs, and nutrition plans.
We have it all.
Go take the Live Lean Body Quiz here.
Now I want you to go check out this video post where I share my journey to a healthy diet routine.
Start by taking our FREE Live Lean Body Quiz to get access to the best program specific to your goals, current fitness level, and access to equipment.
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Brad Gouthro is the founder of Live Lean TV, a media company focused on helping men and women “Live Lean” 365 days a year. Brad’s programs and content have helped millions of people all over the world learn how to get in shape, and more importantly, sustain it for life.