Quote (3atsarr0ws @ Nov 2 2010 10:23am)
how many years of college would i need to be a personal trainer qualified in nutrition and exercise. and do you know annual income?
Technically you don't need ANY college to be a personal trainer. All you need is a personal training certification. In order to achieve this without any prior knowledge would take approximately 1-2 months of studying followed up by taking an exam.
However, if you want to major in exercise science or kinesthesiology (4 year college bachelor's degree) you technically do NOT need a personal training certificate to practice as a trainer - although most places would still prefer that you get one as well.
The preferred method would be getting the 4 yr degree AND getting the personal training cert if you are planning to go work for an existing business. If you plan to free lance, it doesn't really matter so long as that you are good at what you do.
Lastly, the pay - this GREATLY varies across the country and depends on the place you work, if you free lance, how many hours you work, the clients you have, how good you are, etc. If you work for L.A. Fitness as a trainer, for example, you can expect to make around $40,000 a year if you are working the full 40 hour week and have been there at least a year to establish clientele.
If you work for a boutique gym that has high dollar clients who want constant training, you could make 60-80K / year by working 40-50 hrs per week.
If you work for a private gym or fitness club and have no clients and are just starting off, you can expect to make minimum wage + about $15 per hourly client when you actually have clients (most of the time you sit around the gym trying to get clients).
If you work for yourself and have your own freelance training service, you stand to make either nothing, a ton of money, or anything in between. It all depends on how good you are at getting business for yourself. Some things to consider would be, how do you look?? Are you an adonis? Are you moderately in shape? Do you serve as a role model for people you are going to train? Other things to consider would be your degree/training and level of knowledge, your available hours, if you are willing to make house calls, if you are insured and/or bonded, if you are backed by a physician, if you guarentee results, if you have competitive pricing, if you have a niche that no one else has, if you advertise properly, etc.
So in essence the pay rate for personal trainers in total goes from MINIMUM WAGE all the way up to several MILLION a year (dedicated celebrity trainers). The most common salary expected is between 30-40K / year.