APPRENTICESHIPS WITH ATP PERSONAL TRAINING

There are many online and in-person personal training courses available. In-person courses are typically 2-3 days long, while the online courses usually span several weeks, involving studying pre-written modules that cover the absolute basics of required knowledge.

Personal training is not a regulated field. Anybody can claim to be a personal trainer without the need to hold any certifications. The business of online personal training certification has become a multi-million-dollar business. New courses are created every week, and no regulatory body is expected to maintain a high-quality standard.

Some are high-quality courses out there. However, due to the short length of most courses and the fact that most of the courses are done online, none of these courses can prepare you to become a long-term successful career personal trainer like the ATP course can.

Theory is important, and we cover it in-depth. However, our main goal is to make sure that everything you learn during the course can immediately transfer to high-quality coaching experience for the client. “Coaching experience” translates to how satisfied the client is with your services as coach and translates to your client reaching their goals and you maintaining satisfied clients who keep training with you year after year with you.

During our 12-week course, we emphasize theory but believe that what makes a successful career coach are the soft skills that are not taught during a 2-day personal training certification course or an online course. Those soft skills include the ability to motivate clients, how to conduct a successful session by managing time well and being organized before the session. How to set up ambitious, specific yet successful and realistic goals. In order for your clients to “buy in” to what you are asking them to do, they have to have noticed some positive changes within 2 weeks. Being able to address specific “barriers” that you will come across when training different clients. How to deal with clients who are not compliant, how to work around pain and injuries but still achieve results with certain clients. How to conduct a perfect session by knowing how to set up exercise, how to progress people from simple to more complex exercises, how to coach more complicated movements without overwhelming the client or overcoaching them. How to use long-term planning for strength training and nutrition. How to spot safely, where to stand, what cues to use, how to keep detailed records for all clients. How to assess client’s mobility, movement quality, strength, stability and therefore determine what their weak areas are and how to address them.

We believe that a successful trainer thinks long term, has a vision for their clients and is able to explain that vision in a clear and concise way. We will teach you those skills.

Our mentoring team is composed of experienced and successful trainers who have at least 3 years of experience working with us and have achieved a high number of successful “transformations” published on our website.

Our education managers have a combined 50 years of experience in the personal training and strength and conditioning industries. We have developed the ATP system based on our shared experience from combining: Bodybuilding, Physical therapy, Gymnastics, Olympic Weight Lifting, Powerlifting, Functional medicine, Nutritional Science

During the course, you will spend between 1-3 hours per day directly working with your mentor or our managers.

Our course is 12 weeks long, covering the following:

Comprehensive Curriculum (Theory): 

• Biomechanics (The science of human movements) 
• Exercise physiology and energy systems (How different systems work together to create energy depending on the type, duration and intensity of specific efforts) 
• Anatomy and physiology (The science of muscle contractions and how it creates movement) Theory of strength training (The science behind muscle growth and development, improvement in strength and performance and how to optimize recovery 
• Strength Training program design (How to design strength training programs for different clientele according to their goals, experience, gender, age) 
• Nutrition (How to create customized nutrition program according to the clients food preferences, lifestyle, time frame for reaching their goals 
• Strength training periodization. Knowing how to vary programs from phase to phase of a long period of time to achieve long term success. Too little or too much variety leads to staleness. Strength training periodization can be learned in a book but applying from client to client is an art and requires years of experience. We will teach it to you in 3 months.

Hands-On Learning (Practical knowledge): 

• How to onboard a new client 
• How to measure a client’s body composition using skinfold calipers, BMI and accurately take girth measurements. 
• How to assess a client’s current lifestyle and write a detailed plan in order to address any lifestyle issues. 
• How to conduct our ATP Gym floor assessment. This assessment takes 60 min. We can assess a client’s strength, mobility, flexibility in all the major joints. We have based it around basic human body movements. Clients are given a score for each movement. An improvement in their score will lead to direct improvements in the ability to move, improved performance, injury prevention making day to day activities easier 
• How to conduct highly efficient PT sessions. Clients pay us for our time. We have limited time with them and they must improve on a weekly basis so every second counts. Time management is crucial. 
• Load selection. Our clients must improve from session to session. Developing the skills to load the client appropriately in order for them to improve rapidly without getting injured takes years of experience. We will teach you those skills in 3 months. 
• How to set up exercises, and coach complex movements using less cues, not more. When learning a new skill, the brain has limited capacity to use cues. Inexperienced coaches tend to use too many cues. The client becomes frustrated and it can lead to a poor experience. Coaching is an art. We will teach effective coaching techniques.