By: Kyle Hunt
Can the market really handle any more online fitness coaches? Don’t we have enough already?
It seems like there are new online “coaches” popping up nearly everyday. If you go on social media everyone now days is an online fitness coach of some sort. With an abundance of options, the question surely arises, how do you decide who to go with?
I may be slightly biased because I am a coach and quite frankly I think I’m the best. However, I wrote this article in the context of what I would look for in hiring a coach for myself and this is what I came up with.
Education – Coming from someone with a Bachelor’s degree in exercise science I realize how significant and insignificant it can be.
Why is it significant? For one, if someone has a degree in an exercise related field, if nothing else, it tells me they are committed to their business and industry. Taking four years to get a degree shows me a lot more than a couple online or weekend certifications. Also, the amount of overall knowledge gained in a degree is hard to match. Think about it. A degree will require multiple exercise related courses a semester that will all individually provide more information than a certification. Courses in anatomy, physiology, nutrition, kinesiology, biomechanics, program design, etc.
With that being said, a degree is not everything. I know a lot of people with degrees that don’t know shit about coaching or even how to implement “fitness” for that matter. Having a degree does not make you a great coach. It’s just a nice resume builder and one thing I look for.
The biggest reason education is insignificant is the fact that it doesn’t provide much “real world” application. That is something the coach must go out and get on their own.
Up to Date with Current Research – This is a big one for me. Please note I am not talking about reading articles in Muscle and Fitness, T-Nation or Bodybuilding.com. I’m not even talking about reading Alan Aragon’s Facebook posts, I’m talking about actual research.
A lot of people claim to follow an “evidence-based approach” to fitness but in reality, they don’t.
Everyone values evidence as long as it supports what THEY already believe to be true. — Tweet that shit
In order to follow an evidence-based approach, you not only have to read current research but you must also base your recommendations on current research…I know crazy right? A lot of coaches still recommend practices with little to no scientific support and in some cases have even been shown in literature to be ineffective.
A coach should be able to explain the reasoning behind everything they have you doing. If your coach answers a question with “because it works” or “I have been doing this for x amount of years” find a new coach, those are not quality answers!
Certifications – They are too easy to get not to have at least one. When people contact me about how to break into the industry I often list getting a certification at the top. To me, if you are trying to be an online coach/trainer you should at least, bare minimum, have a personal training certification. If you have a degree in an exercise related field a certification is not as necessary in my opinion but I would still get one.
When it comes to which one I value more, I really don’t have a preference. I went with ISSA, which I liked, but there are a ton of others that are probably just as good – ACSM, ACE, NCSM, etc.
Of course like anything, some are better than others and the prices will vary. The top certs cost well over 500 dollars while some will only run you 50 bucks. Don’t expect anyone to learn much from a basic $50 online certification though. It is what it is – most likely just a multiple choice test to pass.
Another option coaches have would be to attend a weekend certification like my friend Smitty and Joe D run – CPPS. With something like this, you would get A LOT more hands-on experience and overall knowledge.
Practicing What They Preach – You gotta at least look like you lift! A good physique does not always indicate knowledge but who wants a coach/trainer who is overweight? Your coach should not look like he/she needs a coach themselves. I say this NOT because I think people need to be in shape to know anything about fitness – that’s not true at all. I say a good coach must be in decent shape because you want a coach that is actually going through the same stuff you are. If a coach looks like crap, most likely they are eating and training like crap as well. This can make it hard for them to relate to you as a hard working dedicated client. As a side note, I want a coach/trainer who is passionate and fired up about this lifestyle – that equates to being in shape.
With that being said, the majority of online “Instagram” coaches get most of their clients based off of how they look and not what they know. This, unfortunately, has lead to a lot of unhappy clients.
It is hard to really comment on this topic because it really varies from person to person. I know people with great physiques who are very knowledgeable and vice versa. Before you hire anyone make sure they know what they are talking about, that goes for anyone, regardless of what they look like.
The bottom line don’t base your decision solely on how the person looks. Just because a person looks great doesn’t mean they are fitness experts. On the flip side, someone doesn’t have to be a bodybuilder to know how to get into excellent shape.
Philosophy – This is really important. You need a coach that you will be on the same page with. There are a lot of different philosophies on how to get in shape – some work, some don’t.
Before you hire a coach make sure you find out what their philosophy is. Chances are if it is vastly different than yours it will make for a shitty relationship. Sometimes this can be harder to find out than you would think.
For example, even though people claim to follow a certain approach in the public eye, their actual practices reflect something different. You see this a lot with flexible dieting. It seems to be a buzz word for everyone to be a “flexible dieting coach”.
A true flexible dieting advocate will NOT provide you with a list of approved foods, give you “cheat meals” or have you place any other unneeded dietary restrictions on your plan.
In the contest prep game you see coaches post about not having clients on starvation diets with endless cardio but then come to find out all their clients end up on an 800 calorie keto diet with two hours of cardio a day.
To go along with philosophy, you want to make sure your personality is a good fit with your coach as well. If a potential coach writes articles or makes YouTube videos try to use that to gauge the type of person you are getting. As you probably know, not all personalities work well together.
Experience – Last but not least. I have learned more about coaching by actually coaching other people than anything else. Nothing substitutes experience. Someone can have A TON of knowledge but if they haven’t worked with many people their idea of what is practical can sometimes be off track.
Like everything else though experience is NOT all that matters. If a coach uses “experience” to justify everything they do there is a problem. A lot of things work but just because something works doesn’t mean it is the best way. You see this a lot in the physique competition prep scene. Coaches who are “old school” think they can still use out dated practices because “I have been doing this for ten years, if it has worked this long why change”.
Part of using experience to your advantage is actually adjusting your recommendations based on things you learn along the way. As a coach your recommendations should be modified as you learn more. If someone is recommending the SAME things they were five or ten years earlier it shows me they haven’t learned anything or are too stubborn to change their ways.
Conclusion
To answer my questions, in the beginning, I truly believe this market can sustain all of us online coaches. Business has a way of weeding out those who are not doing a good job.
The fact is there are a ton of online coaches but that is a GOOD thing. That means there is the right coach out there for everyone.
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