To answer the second part is a little more difficult.

There is a big difference between what you need to pass your driving test and how to drive. Getting your level 3 personal trainer qualification is like passing your driving test. But learning how to become a personal trainer for real is something else.

However, unlike when you pass your driving test when getting your REPs 3 you can’t just rely on experience to teach you actually how to be a great PT. Why? You likely won’t get that experience i.e. you will struggle to differentiate yourself from other PTs and attract paying clients or you will gain the wrong experience working in a club as a basic instructor.

This is the problem with personal training. Members of the public want their trainer to be confident and highly competent to really help them achieve the results they desire. This is what is key when asking the question how to become a successful personal trainer.

The answer to this one is the same as in any profession or competitive industry -

Notice what the crowd are doing and do the opposite. We can share with you the crowd are choosing cheap PT courses en-mass and even mainstream providers are churning out 2000 personal trainers a year. So don't do that.

Instead, think more about the longer term outcome of your decision. Think, where do you want to be 2 years from now and what skills, level of confidence as well as, of course, competence do I need.

We suggest a high level of both competence and confidence is required right from the start. We suggest a practical-based course and if online, one that delivers in real time rather than just giving you access to an automated system along with thousands more hopeful trainers.

With the ability to deliver mobile as a well as gym PT, take your training outdoors, train small groups, use boxing drills, coach nutrition well, train clients with medical conditions, do business well, already with many hours of PT experience under your belt (like from our PT clinic) you will indeed stand out.

4 WEEK RESIDENTIAL

Students choosing to study full time with us live on site for 4 weeks. All accommodation is included in the course fees. Our school is exclusively for our students (i.e. not a commercial gym), so once students arrive they have 24/7 access to the gym/studio and all facilities on-site including sauna, jacuzzi, snooker room etc. and, of course, the main house where there is a large shared kitchen, dining rooms, lounge and study areas for their comfort.

The idea is that by getting away from distractions and immersing yourself in such an experience will help you focus and master your new profession. You will literally be eating, sleeping and breathing PT for 4 week, 24/7!

Mid-morning and afternoon snacks are provided Monday to Saturday otherwise it is self catering.

You will study 8.30am through to 4.30pm daily Monday to Saturday with PT clinic in the evenings 5pm -7pm with Sundays free from classes to relax and revise. Students can stay on site or venture into the beautiful countryside nearby or indeed return home for the day on Sunday.

ONLINE + 2 WEEK PRACTICAL

Our Online course follows the exact same comprehensive curriculum as the 4 week full time course. The difference is that for the first ten weeks students study in a virtual classroom from home. The virtual classroom provides 4 hours a week of live and interactive learning where students are taught the content, can ask questions in real tie and really interactive with the material and tutors. Comprehensive training manuals are sent out in the post and a further 4 hours is usually required per week of further study.

Following the 10 weeks studying from home students then attend our residential school to study with us full time for 2 weeks. During this time students master the practical aspects of being a great PT. A full curriculum is available with our course prospectus.

We do not believe it is likely that a student will graduate confident let alone competent by only completing sporadic and minimal practical training. This 2 week period is intensive but is what makes a PT and contributes to the outstanding success rate we boast as an institution when you measure success in terms of successful lasting careers in fitness as opposed to simple pass rates.

QUALIFICATIONS

Students graduate with their Master Trainer award including Active IQ Diploma in Personal Training (including REPs registration), with their Exercise Specialist and Nutrition Coach certifications as well as their ACSM endorsed Fitness & Nutrition Coach award and ILM endorsed Fitness Business certificate.

ACSM = American College of Sports Medicine and ILM = Institute of Leadership and management

Our training is approved in the UK (Active IQ) and Europe (EHFA) and in Australia and New Zealand via ICREPS indeed our graduates are able to work and can be found all over the world.

ASSESSMENTS

Students will be assessed both theoretically and practically. Full support is provided to ensure success. All assessments can be retaken again for free during your course and all students are welcome to return to resit any or all of their course again for free for life as a commitment to their continual education.

PRACTICAL

Our courses are practical based and with our own practical facilities in-house is unlimited. On-course you will in and out of the gym all day long and 70% of the training is practical-focused.

PT CLINIC

Unique to the European Institute of Fitness we offer an opportunity for every student to gain at least 10 and as much as 20 hours of real life PT experience with paying members of the public in our PT clinic. We deliver more than 200 sessions per month of personal training to local members of the public. During your stay with us you will deliver these sessions to develop the experience and therefore confidence you need before you leave. This way ALL our students move straight into personal training when they leave us as opposed to enduring a gym instructor role first.

MASTER COACH AND BUSINESS MASTERY

We cover lots of coaching during our Master Trainer program. Graduates can advance their skills and training over 12 months following their study with us to ensure they continue to grow and develop, and thrive - not just survive.

Our course start dates and full pricing are in our eBrochure. We recommend a chat with our team to make sure our course is the right course for you. We can also talk through your initial ideas and the industry and opportunities in general.

When we look at annual industry reports from the US and Australia we see the industry moving into small group PT with group PT studios opening around the world and, with the advent of nutrition and lifestyle coaching, it is clear such an approach offers a more cost-effective solution for clients. Therefore, trends support the emerging role of the Personal Trainer outside of their traditional gym environment, but also within it - in a freelance capacity. Online services too are becoming more recognised and when combined with face-to-face delivery can offer longer term solutions for clients with a focused 10 week challenge-style approach for example accumulating in an online membership and maintenance program to support them thereafter. Therefore, when asking how to become a Personal Trainer today, this is certainly more than it has been in the past!

The modern-day Personal Trainer must be a motivation and lifestyle coach. Your role is to influence behaviour when you are not around. Your role is as an exercise specialist and nutrition coach and the modern-day PT is a health professional. The job is much more than just supervising gym exercises, but is about facilitating lasting change, training clients in a range of environments, using a range of delivery formats (one-on-one, small group, consultation, online, telephone-based). A good personal training course, therefore, delivers to this end and teaches more than the basics of qualifying as a personal trainer but how to become a personal trainer and stand out as one.

Increasingly members of the public are aware of how to work out, what to eat but can become overwhelmed with the amount of information available to them online. Therefore, increasingly fitter people do not need the services of a Personal Trainer, certainly not for ideas about how to train. Instead, Personal Trainers are reaching out to less fit clients offering increasingly more cost-effective and time-efficient solutions and, therefore, are becoming paramount in the fight against type 2 diabetes and obesity. Central to this fight is their capability in lifestyle change - this is the focus of our training at the European Institute of Fitness.

Basic Level 3 training is gym-based, does not focus on this lifestyle role, is limited to one-on-one training formats only, and is little more than an extension of the gym instructor role. The focus is on theoretical knowledge only, with multiple choice assessment and course work replacing real-life and applied experiences. Many Personal Training courses add a little training to their gym instructor training assuming a personal trainer is an upgrade to a gym instructor, and this is a problem. Personal Trainers are not advanced gym instructors. Their role is much more involved and therefore the training to qualify as a personal trainer must be more comprehensive and indeed specific.

We deliver a tailored curriculum above and beyond the national standard (level 3) but, of course, still providing exactly what you need to register and practise as a Personal Trainer. Where we differ from all other training providers is that our Master Trainer course goes way above this standard enabling those qualifying to stand out and feel much more competent and, of course, confident than other trainers. Our graduates gain their Active IQ Diploma in Personal Training (Level 3) as well as being awarded our EIF Master Trainer and ACSM endorsed Fitness & Nutrition Coach certifications and unique Exercise Specialist, Nutrition Coach and ILM endorsed Business qualifications all wrapped up in our Master Trainer, Master Coach and Business Mastery awards.

Our courses are truly international and we have graduates in all of the following countries; Bahrain, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, China, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Brazil, USA, Canada, Italy, France, Monaco, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, Finland, Portugal, Sweden, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Australia and of course all cross the UK. We are both REPs UK and eREPs (Europe) approved and with the introduction of ICREPS (International Confederation of Registered Exercise Professionals) offer access to other registers around the world such as REPS NZ (New Zealand) and Fitness Australia, for example. When you become a personal trainer with EIF you open up a whole host of opportunities.

Most of our graduates go on to run their own mobile or home-based PT business, training clients either outdoors or in their own homes. Many go on to open their own small PT studio with others combining the two. Some certainly work in a gym or health club chain and many travel with their qualifications. Some graduates work in a spa or hotel, others have travelled the world on a cruise ship. Some graduates have developed their own online PT business with others working in corporate wellness. Some graduates set up and run their own BootCamps, others combine this with their Yoga or Massage backgrounds, and still others create their own unique fitness and wellbeing centres or retreats. There are lots of opportunities and the industry is growing.

Whilst it is important to practice what you preach and therefore live an active and healthy lifestyle being muscle bound or having the perfect bikini body is NOT required. Far from it. Today many members of the public turning to Personal Trainers and Lifestyle Coaches can feel intimidated by fitness and can warm to trainers and coaches who are perhaps more “real” and approachable and preach wellness and happiness through fitness rather than body perfection with a no pain no gain mentality.

We do NOT require any formal background in fitness or science. Our courses are designed to provide all the training and support our students’ need without prior qualification or related background. Of course if you have got a sport science background or already possess fitness qualifications this will hold you in good stead and enable you to really refine your knowledge and capability as a trainer. But for those who do not  -we offer pre-learning that can be accessed prior to the course to begin to bring you up to speed with basic anatomy and physiology for example and always offer additional tutorials and support during the course for those who need it.  We provide a non-intimidating and supportive environment conducive to learning and are able to offer due to our set up as a small but supportive organisation the help our students need to change their careers and indeed their lives.  Whatever your background if you are passionate about fitness and want to become a personal trainer our personal trainer qualifications are focused on a practical-based approach to ensure your success.

Our students come in all shapes and sizes and of a variety of different ages. Our youngest students are 18 (minimum age) and our oldest students have been in their sixties. Our online course attracts a slightly older student with many in their twenties/thirties and forties but often with one or two in their fifties and our residential courses have a slightly younger average age with many in their twenties and thirties but nearly always with students in their forties and again sometimes fifties.

Our home study programme is like no other. Firstly, you are NOT just left to your own devices to struggle through a great big manual or library of DVDs. Our experience with home study courses before we launched our own home study programme more than 10 years ago was that most people just never reached the end, and when they did were either lacking in confidence to actually use their new qualification (and certainly inferior to those who studied full time). However, many potentially great personal trainers just can’t study full time. This is why we created a fully tutor-led format to actually teach home study students how to become a great PT.

Our online format enables people to log into our Virtual Classroom each week and receive 4 hours of real-time tuition to properly engage with the material. Every live session is recorded in case people miss so they can easily catch up but when students are indeed able to attend live they can interact and ask questions in real time and so learn in a much more engaging way than on their own.

Our online programme also offers the structure people need to stick with the pace and therefore gain their qualification quicker and so start training clients for money sooner.

Our belief is also that one can’t truly qualify as a Personal Trainer without significant practical training. At the end of the day Personal Training is a practical-based discipline and therefore we require all home study students to attend an 14-day practical with us to really learn these skills.

The residential nature of this intensive practical enables us to deliver a substantial amount of training offering a real life PT experience with members of the public and helps our home study students therefore qualify just as confident and competent as our full time students and therefore equally enjoy the benefits of being a sought after and reputable trainer.

We couldn’t achieve this by replacing our intensive practical into weekends or evenings only, and feel our duty as a training provider is to absolutely ensure all students can be successful in their new chosen career once they graduate.

All you need is an internet connected PC or Mac or mobile device (iPad or Android) to watch the live sessions. Recorded sessions require a computer not a mobile device to replay i.e. a PC or Mac unless using the Puffin browser available as a free download from your app store.

Again, not a problem. You can sit any of the practical intensives we run throughout the year.

Firstly, our course is sufficiently inclusive and extensive that our students do NOT need to add on extra training or qualifications in the first instance. Far from it they are properly prepared to start earning and changing peoples’ lives immediately after they graduate. That said we do run two additional advanced courses in business and in coaching (lifestyle). We provide ongoing support in the form of resources available to all graduates, a regular webinar program, email and phone-call support when you need it and a dedicated closed Facebook group so you can interact and find support from other EiF trained professionals.

We have been delivering Personal Trainer courses since 2005 with our founder and still tutor on our courses today, Darren Tebbenham, for a further 5 years prior to this. We were the very first "fast-track" provider offering accelerated learning courses in fitness. We were previously based in Spain and at Lilleshall National Sports Centre, although please note we no longer run any courses in Spain at all. We were also the very first European (EHFA) approved provider.

Our assessments are ongoing and combine both written and practical assessments. There are 2 sets of multiple choice assessments and related portfolios (coursework) to gain your Active IQ qualification and then there is our EIF Master Trainer theory assessment (short answer and case study-based) with practical assessments to pick up your full EIF Master Trainer award. If you stumble at all during the course, you can re-take the assessment again with out charge and gain personal tutor support prior to ensure you pass all assessments on time.

Full payment is required on enrolment. Unfortunately, places are limited and we can not accept a small deposit only to reserve a place. When enrolling in advance of a course start date we may be able to spread 50% of your fees over several months.

Although the course is intense, the applied nature of the delivery helps students digest the material quickly. There are plenty of tutorials and the environment facilitates group revision and plenty of opportunity to relax and digest all information provided. A range of teaching and learning techniques are used to ensure no student is left behind with all delivery being practical-based.

Student PT clinic is the European Institute of Fitness’ unique facility to provide every student ample opportunity to refine their skills with paying members of the public helping build the confidence they will need once they graduate.

Cheaper options simply won’t prepare you with any experience with members of the public, don’t have a strong lifestyle coaching element running throughout the course, don’t always offer PT box or TRX and Swiss ball training, certainly don’t have small group PT and specific populations included as standard and don’t have the business training we do - not only during the course but during your first 12 months after graduation. We can only provide all of this because of the residential nature of our training.

To run a residential school requires a great deal more effort, expertise and commitment than running courses from a local health club with a nearby classroom. That’s not to say all such courses are poor, they just don’t offer what we can offer by bringing people away from distractions, immersing them in an experience as we do.

With many providers delivering training from between 10 and 30 centres and therefore graduating more than 2000 students a year each - the risk is also that you become just another REPs 3 trainer with the exact same qualification as every other student graduating from such organisations.

Our own specialised course curriculum has developed over many years and veered away from the traditional instructor-orientated courses commonplace across the UK and, instead, we offer a unique and PT-specific curriculum that includes REPs 3 but reaches out way above this level. We are able to accomplish this by running just a single PT school in the UK and optimising students learning by being residential.

Again, if one’s focus is on training the masses then creating something like PT clinic, that takes a lot of administration, organisation and therefore effort, just doesn’t become a viable option for other organisations.

Our business training ensures students know exactly what to do in relation getting registered and insured and then busy with clients. We cover marketing and website development, sales, client management and business growth. We look at how to get the most out of social media, auto-email campaigns, product development and packaging and work with you to create your mini-business plan before you leave however large or small.

All graduates gain access to our private Facebook group to network and get support from other EIF Master Trainer graduates (hundreds of practising graduates). You get access to a range of materials such as health appraisal forms, programme cards, food diaries and 64 pre-prepared recipes hand-outs for your clients. Graduates can attend our complimentary online business seminar programme, gain access to previously recorded webinars and can call in and ask for help at any point.

Although we may be able to help to spread payment if booking in advance, we do not offer any finance packages. Most students taking flexible finance options with other providers to fund their training or even government initiatives providing "free" training often find themselves studying with far too many other students and then get qualified with the exact qualification as everyone else, unable to find work. Instead, we suggest taking a personal loan and then ensuring you pick a course that qualifies you quickly, thoroughly and one that focuses on your ability to earn not just learn so that your investment pays dividends in the end. Going for the “easy” options rarely works out.

If you have further questions, and you probably do, we advise making an appointment with one of our team to get that all-important straight-talking guidance you probably need to make a truly informed decision about your future.