Personal Trainers College Loans

Just finished a whole section of AskTheTrainer.com devoted to the career of personal trainer. It was the career which I sort of fell into. Going into college I was aiming to become a chiropractor. I had a job shadow in high school of the local chiropractor and I was amazed with it.

He showed all the x-ray tools and devices then proceeded to crack the back, hip and neck of about 20 people in the 2 hour period I was in there. When he told me his patients / clients ? or their insurance company paid $80 / session I was sold.

I looked into numerous colleges which all had programs which I could use to get into chiropractic college. I chose Oregon State University because it was close to home. When in college I started as a chemistry major believe it or not.

After my 3rd advanced chemistry class as a freshman it became apparent that I was not going to be able to master the organic chemistry which was required by all chiropractor colleges as a prerequisite.

I switched my major to general science without an idea of what I really wanted to do for a living.

I had been living off of college loans at the time, no job, racking up credit card debt from all the advertisements in the student schedule of classes.

This was one of the major turning points in my life I guess. I was a sophomore in college and needed something to do rather than spend the money I didn’t have. I started lifting weights with my high school friends, one who now is an engineer and the other who is a personal trainer / fitness manager at a Scottsdale, AZ 24 Hour Fitness.

I soon became addicted to lifting weights which I did 2x a day. McDonalds monopoly had me going there 2x a day with my friend Greg to win the free fast food, and Little Ceasar’s Pizza $2 tuesdays had me eating a horrible diet, even for a 20 year old lifting weights all the time.

I was in college barely surviving. I almost had to drop out, because I failed poetry and my GPA was too low to qualify for financial aid. I lost my scholarship and came within 2 inches of dropping out.

I gained probably 30 pounds some muscle and some fat, a high school friend said my neck was missing! I started doing cardio, 45 minute hill profiles on the stationary recumbent bike every morning before class.

I was lucky that the stationary bike was right behind the elliptical machines jam packed with sorority girls. This is what kept me on that bike. I lost the fat I gained and was in great shape. This is what caused me to switch majors (again) this time to exercise science, fitness program management.

I graduated, and to make a long story short, here I am now.  I created a bunch of pages on the website all about being a personal trainer and all the things that a personal trainer should worry about at least once.

A big mistake I made was letting my college loans go into default which I had to rehabilitate which took a year.  I got a college loan consolidation which I’m paying now and will take 20 years and thousands of dollars extra to pay if I keep paying the minimum.

It is important for anybody who is becoming a personal trainer to know that there are many things to think about with regards to education and funding the education.

I even did a page about Phoenix Colleges whose online college degree programs are very, very widepsread.  I would not recommend anybody interested in personal training to get an online degree for their Bachelors unless it was absolutely necessary.

I would definitely recommend the NASM backed Online Masters Degree which I obtained and gained a great deal of knowledge from.  I would only recommend it to a current personal trainer who can use the techniques immediately with their clients.  With clients to work with, an online masters is perfect for any personal trainer who wants to better their knowledge of kinesiology.