Shades & Rachelle — I’ve contacted both of you.

Great read as always. I’m going to start working on getting my first PT certification (still researching which one to go for first), but I also have an opportunity to get a master’s degree in something related to physical fitness. My bachelor’s degree is in idigital design, but I love training, I now “train” some friends I met at the gym pro-bono, and I want to pursue the fitness field professionally. Right now my goal is personal training. Are there any particular masters degrees you recommend? Certifications may be enough to get started, but it may be worth it to get a masters? Also, I’m sure something related to nutrition would help? My friends whom I “train” do ask me nutritional questions and I give them advice, but it’s based on personal experience and just somethings I read here and there.

I remember all your contributions on the bb message boards; you’ve definitely answered a lot of my own questions there and some of the advice I now dish out is thanks to you.

Thanks in advance, feel free to email me if you wish

I’m considering a career change into fitness and looking for some guidance. Here is what I would like to do on a daily basis: provide a tailored nutrition and exercise plan for people who’s goals are to improver their body composition by either losing fat or building muscle (self employed). I am not interested in being in the gym showing people how to do the exercises I recommend, counting reps, etc. I’d like to leave that up to someone else. What would you call that occupation?

Currently, I have a BS in Mechanical Engineering and am employed, but it is not my passion. What’s the best route to take to get started from here? Would a BS in Nutrition or Exercise Science suffice? How about some hybrid of the two? I appreciate any advice you can give.

Thanks.

There’s always next year’s Summit!

Regarding the PN certification, since it doesn’t carry the recognition that something like the ISSN’s cert does, I’d just buy the study material if you’re that interested. If I’m not mistaken, the PN certification is more expensive than the ISSN certification…without the same prestige or marketability. Let me also add that while any certification is bound to have some questionable or outdated material (it’s unavoidable), I’m hoping Berardi has fixed some of his previous nutritional recommendations that were not based in science (ie, avoid carbs + fat, and other such nonsense). This is not a malicious knock on the guy, he does have some good material. I’m just not convinced his cert would be a better bet than the ISSN.

Berardi just announced PN certification and with the growing popularity and visibility of PN I wonder if this is actually not a bad idea….

My current status is no certifications, no degrees, just a crap load of research and some college physiology & nutrition courses, and personal experience.

Thanks so much, and I’m hugely disappointed I can’t make the summit this year to see all of you guys again….

Jason — Appearance only matters as much as your personality (this includes intelligence, communication skills, wit, sense of humor, etc) can compensate. If you have the personality of a piece of driftwood, but you look great, then you still have a chance, because employers realize that looks are very marketable; they draw you in, while getting the client results is what keeps the client. On the other hand, if you look like a piece of chewed bubble gum, but you have an amazingly charming personality, then you can still make a good impression on the employer. Those are 2 extremes, where you fall along that continuum is something only you can know. Of course, the goal is to be right in the middle by looking great & coming across well in conversation. But my point is that you can compensate for your weaknesses with your strengths.