The main question about the Fitness Profession should be: why do the Educated and Experienced accept competing with those that don’t have the correct credentials, ethics, and professionalism to work in the Fitness Industry? Why are Employers looking for cheap Personal Trainers who might not even have Personal Training Certification, whose main responsibility is sales rather than hire qualified professionals that can really maintain the personal training client database, by renewing for long term contracts for sessions, or even keeping members by giving them the correct orientation?
It has been discussed before by this HARDCORE PEEVES that a qualified professional should be consulted before engaging in physical activity, so that there is the correct indication of individual program, meal plan and detailed orientation for each person. But that doesn’t happen because the professionals that ARE qualified accept competing with unqualified Personal Trainers with certification completed in one weekend that keep wages low.
Yes, as said before, since physical activity is dealing with the human body, and its functions, why is it that there is no actual demand for knowledge of the human anatomy or specific numbers of hours for practical training or a residency to deal with prescribing exercise for healthy people, when there is a need for it when treating the sick, the injured or in rehabilitation? There are some certification courses better than others of longer duration, that offer many hours of theory and practical training, but some people might not learn enough from books and slides to actually understand the anatomy and how the body works without visual and practical examples of the human body. What a Personal Training Certification from a college course could offer is continuing education to an undergraduate program with Human Anatomy, such as Kinesiology, Physical Education, or even Nutrition.
Why should someone with a Bachelor’s of Science Degree with a Fitness background, and two day Personal Training course be compared and acknowledged equally in the work force? In some countries such as Brazil, for you to work with any related area to Physical Activity, you need a BaS in Physical Education, and it is a regulated profession controlled by the Government and specific laws, where every gym employs full time with a salary instead of payment per client. Those who did not complete a University Degree were given a time period to complete a course to specifically be able to continue working in the area that they were already in, such as a Personal Training or Weight Lifting Instructing habilitated to work with resistance training, but if this person chose to conduct group classes, a University Course would then need to be completed. In Germany, it is also a recognized profession.
Canada and the U.S are classified as First World Countries, but how come there is so much ignorance related to exercise and its correct prescription and orientation especially with the growing number of the sedentary and obesity epidemic? In these countries where services are meant to be 5 stars, Gyms are only interested in revenue, and if their professionals have liability insurance, when they should be really concerned with keeping members and Personal Training clients by giving them the best service possible, and avoiding short term employee turn around. This is where the really qualified Professionals, who have the proper Education, Training and Experience should Speak-up and Stand up for making Physical Activity related work more dependable and of better quality, so that it can be viewed better by North American and Canadian Society, and become a recognized as a profession.
So you out there, whether Fitness Entrepreneur, Employer, Personal Trainer, Kinesiologist, Physical Education Professional, think about it and speak up for your rights and better wages to bring up the status for the growing fitness market.
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