Next week I will be starting a diploma in fitness instruction and personal training. At first I was a little apprehensive and wondering if I had done the right thing in enrolling for this course at the age of 57. However, having done a little research on the Internet on the subject of older personal trainers, I’m starting to feel a lot better. Apparently, there is a growing trend towards older personal trainers worldwide, especially in the US, and the number of trainers over 50 now makes up 11% of the overall total worldwide. There is even one guy in the UK who is aged 81 and still training people!
It seems that older personal trainers are much sought after by gym owners and clients alike in view of their greater life experience and ability to relate well to the older client groups who have the disposable income to employ personal trainers. They are also more likely to understand how an older client’s body responds to exercise. In fact, I have not been able to find any negative comments anywhere on the Internet to suggest that being older is a disadvantage in personal training in any way. Indeed, it is universally considered to be a big advantage in recruiting clients of all ages. This has all made me feel a lot more confident about entering the industry and eager to learn everything I can.
The moral is that you are as old as you believe yourself to be. The limitations we put on ourselves and attribute to ‘old age’ are much more to do with a state of mind than the condition of our body. I know that there have been studies done recently that seem to suggest that physical deterioration with age is more down to lack of exercise than an inevitable, strictly biological decline. In other words, ‘use it or lose it’. The same is true of our minds, of course. Using our brain, always retaining that hunger to learn, are what keeps our brain ‘fit’ and well. I can’t ever imagine not wanting to learn about so many things. My only worry is that my time will be up long before I learn a fraction of what I desire to know.
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