I am the head adaptive fitness coach at Ocean Rehab and Fitness and a fitness educator at North American Council of Inclusive Fitness (NACIF).

My Typical Day

My day starts at 6:30am where I meet clients downtown Vancouver to train at a studio. Then at 7:30am I will use the gym to complete my own workout, then I head home and have online client sessions on and off until about 3pm. In the breaks from clients, I have meditation, lunch, and team building meetings with the current contractors for Ocean Rehab and Fitness.

A few days a week I spend my afternoons at the Blusson Spinal Cord Center in their Physical Activity Research Center where I train clients using their facilities.

Every couple of months, I will spend Saturdays teaching the course titled Breaking Barriers: Fundamentals of Training clients with Physical disabilities to other fitness specialists.

Pros

Different every day, I get to create my own schedule, work with people.

Cons

Can be long days with using my voice, I find that if I have a lot of classes to teach within a short amount, I need to rest my throat. Especially after teaching 6 hours in a row for a course.

Advice to aspiring Fitness Coaches

For students wishing to be a coach one day, they should definitely consider having some experience working in customer service. Whether it’s serving tables or being a front desk receptionist. These skills directly translate to building relationships with your clientele base and communicating with people.

I also think that exposure to physiology and anatomy are highly beneficial coming into any training certification. Taking some of these classes in school prior to signing up for a training certification course can be a great way to prepare.

The other thing to think about from a business standpoint is recognizing the different options in terms of running a PT business. You can work at a big box gym under a brand name, which is a great way to feel a part of a community and learn from your peers and other highly skilled trainers. The downside to this is that you typically don’t get to choose your schedule and you end up paying quite a bit of money back to the club. The other option is to open your own business, which can be quite lonely and requires a lot of hustle. However you typically have more freedom with your schedule and have a lot of potential for future growth of your brand, situation depending.