Of course, I have had my share of disapproval (to put it mildly).  I’ve had more than a few emails and blog posts that say more or less, “Shame on you!  How can you claim to train and certify someone in one day?  Phony!”

So for the record, I want to say – unequivocally – that I agree with that sentiment.

Of course you can’t train someone to develop any meaningful degree of skill or knowledge in a single day – any more than you could develop a muscular body or a strong cardiovascular system in a single workout!  But just as physical fitness has to start with the first day you walk into the gym, a career in fitness starts with a training class like mine.  And this is an important point: I tell the students in every one of my seminars that this course is not the END of their education – it is the BEGINNING. As a 30+ year student of the martial arts, I share with my students the tradition that says once you have achieved your Black Belt, now your training really begins.

It’s actually a mis-representation to say that our programs are one-day certifications.  In fact, we provide study materials and textbooks and strongly suggest that people who want to certify with us spend weeks or even months studying before they come to the seminar and take the test.  Our programs were designed to model a University seminar – which is essentially an intensive review of materials already learned in previous study.  The day-long review is to clarify points that may be a little fuzzy, or to strengthen one weak aspect in your education.  By the end of the day, the feeling among the students should be, “Ahhh yes – it’s all so much clearer now!”

And then we take the test – no stress, no anxiety.

Of course, that’s the best of all possible scenarios, and I know that many times a third of my classes are filled with people needing to make a career change.  Frankly, some of my students just decided a few days before the course that being a personal trainer might be the best option once unemployment benefits run out.  I let them in the course because that is their choice, and the test is tough enough to weed out the ones who really have no business being there. Moreover, the fact is that I’ve met hundreds of trainers who started out this way and who turned out to be amazing.

Believe it or not, I also get questioned about the price of our courses.  It is true that in the marketplace sometimes the lowest priced goods and services are viewed as substandard or poor quality. But nothing could be farther from the truth.  The men and women I work with on the faculty of AAAI, and especially those on my team at Full Circle, are some of the most brilliant and competent professionals I’ve ever met.  They deliver a quality educational product in each and every class.  If you take one of our courses, it’s well worth every penny. Moreover, our courses offer something that few of the higher priced certification organizations do – live instruction.  This is a critical difference, because learning always begins with a QUESTION.  If you are studying online or from a textbook, how are you able to ask any questions?  And if you aren’t able to ask questions, you’re not really learning anything.

And by the way, have you seen the price of the other courses out there?  They range in the hundreds if not thousands of dollars!  I’m not trying to compare the quality of their program to ours, by the way.  I actually have some of those other certifications myself.  But here’s the thing: for many personal trainers just getting into the industry it’s going to take quite a while to recoup the money they shell out for the basic certification they need just to start working.  The average personal trainer in our industry makes $10-15/hour to start.  That’s not their fault – nor the fault of the other certification organizations either.  It’s just the law of supply and demand in our industry.  I’m delighted to be a lower-cost alternative that will allow a passionate individual to get started in the greatest career one could ever have.

That leads me to my final thought.  I do believe that the fitness/wellness profession is the greatest job in the world.  There is no other job I know of in which you get to SAVE LIVES every single day you come to work.  Because (as I tell my classes) make no mistake: if you are not moving towards health, you are moving towards death. We live in a society in which the diseases that cut short our lives most frequently and that cause us the most pain and suffering –  like heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, obesity and many cancers – are all diseases of lifestyle. It’s as if the lifestyle of our society has waged a war on our health – and we’re losing the battle!  We’re going to need a lot of soldiers in the Wellness Army if we’re going to restore balance to the health and wellness of our world.  Every class I teach is like working in a recruitment center.  So come on down and sign up for our fitness certification courses.  It’s only $99, and just takes a day.

And hey – who wouldn’t want to spend a day hanging out with me?

At Full Circle, I have three rules that I’m always repeating during workouts. My students can tell you that I’m the biggest nag about these three – Number One: Abs are always on; Number Two: Breathe; and Number Three: Nothing less than perfect form is acceptable.  It’s meant in good fun, but these rules help to insure that my clients’ workouts are safe, that they will get better results – and  that they will develop good fitness habits that will last a lifetime.

But it has occured to me that I could look at these same rules in a more Spiritual way, and see them as rules for life.  For example, the abs are obviously associated with the body’s core – and the rule is that they should always be engaged in the gym.  Well, I asked myself, what is my Spiritual core?  What is the center of my being, so to speak?  I would say it is my authentic self, which is expressed by my personal values.  Your personal values support and stabilize you (just like your abs) and they should always be “on.”  So this is rule Number One: Always be true to your authentic self, and keep your values engaged in every choice you make.

Studio rule Number Two is “Breath.”  All the mind/body traditions – like T’ai Chi, for example – teach us that breath is a metaphor for “being in the moment.”  We might say that while having rules gives us structure and consistency, we must also be flexible. Every moment in life brings us a new experience – which we will miss if we are too fixated on a past experience or anticipated future.  You gotta “be here now!”  Life rule Number Two: Pay attention to the beauty of this moment, and flow with what is actually happening in the present.

Finally, studio rule Number Three is “Nothing less than perfect form is acceptable.”  Here’s the thing – if you use less than perfect form, then by definition you are compensating – using an inefficient movement pattern.  All compensation patterns eventually lead to wear and tear.  Carlos Casteneda once wrote that his teacher Don Juan told him that his Spiritual path was called the path of impeccability – to treat every moment as if it were his last, most precious moment.  Don’t waste any moment.  Make choices, not decisions.  Be courageous, not timid. Love many and much, and avoid judgment. This is life rule Number Three: Be Impeccable with your life – don’t waste even a moment.