Three years a trainer
Wow, today marks three years that I have been teaching strength classes at Essential Fitness (Efit) – my first class was the first Monday of March in 2013!
The coolest thing about being a fitness instructor is seeing your students grow stronger – in their strength AND in their confidence in what they can do.
The second coolest thing about being a fitness instructor is getting paid to do something you LOVE!
And I am really lucky that I get to do it at a place with a great boss and coworkers (and students!) that feel like family.
A little history – I met Brian, my boss, at a local running club event in early 2011. He’d had his business for awhile and came to do a strength training clinic and talk to us about the benefits of strength training for runners.
There was talk of starting a strength class for the club that year if we found enough people, and a place to do it. We did! In a friend’s basement! Ha! I started taking the group class in March of 2011. The class was in that friend’s basement until his wife told us to find a new place because we were smelling it up too much (buah ha ha). So we used a park district building for awhile, and I started doing one-on-one sessions with Brian, too. Eventually, over the summer of 2011, Brian had a studio built on to his garage at his house, and it opened in October 2011! Classes have been there, since!
In January 2013, Brian asked if I wanted to be an instructor. We worked together for a month and a half before I taught my first class*. I actually taught the Monday night class, and still took the Wednesday night class, and did a few one-on-one sessions with Brian for awhile after becoming an instructor, but I cut back on that all after several months. Now I teach the Monday night class, the Friday am class and weekend classes. I’ve had a few one-on-one clients that I see at the studio, too (none currently).
When I started teaching classes, A LOT of people asked me if I was going to quit my day job and have teaching be my full time gig. My answer then was no, and it’s still no, now. The amount I teach now is perfect for keeping me passionate about it, and that’s where I want to stay! We’ll see what the future brings!
*I became ACE certified in July 2013. I definitely needed Brian’s teaching and the class experience to understand what I was learning and pass the exam. Then I wonder how people get that experience without already having their certification… it just makes me feel grateful I have such a great boss who was willing to take me under his wing and teach me!
Themocracy
Happy Anniversary!!!! I can’t believe it’s been 3 years already! Remember when Monday nights used to be our run dates? 🙂
On your first point, I remember going to one of your first classes and thinking you were already a great trainer. It’s been so cool to come back to your classes after taking some time off and see how much YOU have grown and improved! I get all the reasons that you’re not doing it full-time now, but seriously, you are really great at it!
Yes! Wow! I miss them! And El Famous. HA! I was sad to end them to teach!
Aww, thank you for thinking that to start and noticing improvement 🙂 And thanks for coming!
Haha to your friend’s wife kicking you out of her basement! It’s awesome that you’ve been teaching for three years! I’ve always wanted to get certified to be some type of fitness instructor. I bet it’s really rewarding! Fun post!
I totally laugh about it! I wouldn’t care for the smell, too!
Cool, which field?
It IS really rewarding 🙂
Oh, it changes every second: spinning, yoga, pilates, personal training.
Congratulations on 3 years! Think of how many people you made feel better about themselves in that time 🙂 your boss sounds pretty cool.
Thank you!
I hope a lot!!!!!
He is! He really takes care of me and is a super fair boss 🙂
Happy 3-year trainer anniversary! You are the perfect person to be a trainer because you are so motivating and you work so hard! I feel like you’ve been a trainer your whole life. =)
Aww, thank you! 🙂
Happy anniversary!! You’ve worked so hard at this and it’s so great that it still brings you joy.
Thanks 🙂
Happy anniversary! It’s awesome you followed your passion and got certified and now actually make some $ from teaching classes 🙂
Thank you! Yes! It’s so cool when I am there and remember to think “I get paid for this?!” I have to put a reminder in my calendar to send my hours to Brian because I honestly forget that I am getting paid to work out 🙂
Happy Anniversary!!!! It’s so cool to see people being able to have passions they love that they can share with others!
Thank you! Yes! I love hearing about people who are passionate about their work!!!
I think it’s SO awesome you do this! When I used to have a gym membership I used it almost exclusively to do group classes, and I always thought it would be so much fun to teach them.. but I didn’t have the drive to actually do anything about it 🙂 I love that you did and that you’ve been doing it for 3 whole years now!
Thank you!!! 🙂 Group classes are a blast to teach! You get so much energy from your students and teach so many different types of people you constantly get to be creative. And see people grow! You would have rocked at it 🙂
Happy anniversary! I am sure you are a great teacher and I really wish I lived closer to you so I could take your class. And I agree that one of the best things about being a fitness instructor is seeing your students/clients get stronger. Love seeing how far they can go!
Thank you! 🙂 I used to do a blogger class every now and then and people would trek all the way to Grayslake. But that seems like so much to ask! I wish I could offer classes for more people in the Chicagoland area.
Isn’t it so awesome to see your students grow?!! Love it! ANd I bet you have A LOT of students!!!
Wow time flies. 3 years already! Happy anniversary!
Thank you!!! 🙂
I’m so late getting on board here, but what a great milestone! I hope that you celebrated with a REALLY hard class. Tee hee! I’m figuring out classes here in CO (that is one of the hardest things about moving – finding all of those pieces that you had in place), and I still miss 2 instructors from CA whose classes I just *loved*! Sounds like you have so much fun with your classes – that is awesome!
I think it was pretty hard! Ha! But they had an even number of students so I didn’t get to do much. LOL.
I hope you find some awesome instructors there – I bet there are many waiting to be found! 🙂