How to get hired at Lifetime Fitness PRACTICAL INTERVIEW
May 25, 2024Season 1Episode 115
Chris Hitchko, CEO Show Up Fitness
Unlock the secrets to a successful career in the fitness industry with our latest podcast episode, where we dissect the art of landing a coveted personal trainer position at elite gyms like Lifetime Fitness. Learn how to ace the interview process, tailor your training in a crowded gym, and become an exercise expert who prioritizes client engagement and goal-specific workouts. We bring you insider tips on how to stand out with your ability to adapt exercises to individual needs, and why mastering manual techniques trumps an over-reliance on gym equipment. Plus, if you're a woman focusing on glute improvements, we've got key insights just for you. Get ready to play the game, know your audience, and deliver training experiences that make clients come back for more.
This episode doesn't just stop at hiring hacks; it also sheds light on the murky waters of personal training certifications. Discover why the Show Up Fitness certification is making waves, providing trainers with the education and practical skills needed to thrive in real-world scenarios. We discuss the importance of diversifying your income, the influence of appearance on job prospects, and the continuous journey of self-improvement and professional growth. Learn from the caffeine-fueled tangents how to nail your phone interview with confidence and the right attire. And, because your success is our mission, we wrap up with valuable resources to further refine your interview techniques and elevate your game in the fitness industry.
Want to ask us a question? Email email info@showupfitness.com with the subject line PODCAST QUESTION to get your question answered live on the show!
Unlock the secrets to a successful career in the fitness industry with our latest podcast episode, where we dissect the art of landing a coveted personal trainer position at elite gyms like Lifetime Fitness. Learn how to ace the interview process, tailor your training in a crowded gym, and become an exercise expert who prioritizes client engagement and goal-specific workouts. We bring you insider tips on how to stand out with your ability to adapt exercises to individual needs, and why mastering manual techniques trumps an over-reliance on gym equipment. Plus, if you're a woman focusing on glute improvements, we've got key insights just for you. Get ready to play the game, know your audience, and deliver training experiences that make clients come back for more.
This episode doesn't just stop at hiring hacks; it also sheds light on the murky waters of personal training certifications. Discover why the Show Up Fitness certification is making waves, providing trainers with the education and practical skills needed to thrive in real-world scenarios. We discuss the importance of diversifying your income, the influence of appearance on job prospects, and the continuous journey of self-improvement and professional growth. Learn from the caffeine-fueled tangents how to nail your phone interview with confidence and the right attire. And, because your success is our mission, we wrap up with valuable resources to further refine your interview techniques and elevate your game in the fitness industry.
Want to ask us a question? Email email info@showupfitness.com with the subject line PODCAST QUESTION to get your question answered live on the show!
Welcome to the Show Up Fitness Podcast, where great personal trainers are made. We are changing the fitness industry one qualified trainer at a time with our in-person and online personal training certification. If you want to become an elite personal trainer, head on over to showupfitnesscom. Also, make sure to check out my book how to Become a Successful Personal Trainer. Don't forget to subscribe, rate and review. Have a great day and keep showing up. Howdy y'all. Welcome back to the Show Up Fitness podcast.
Speaker 1:
Today we're going to help someone get hired at Lifetime. Show Up Fitness. Cpt is partnered with Lifetime. They are highly seeking qualified trainers. With our recent partnership, we're going to their locations every month. We just got back from Sacramento. We had a great time there working with their trainers, leveling them up. We will be in Red Bank next. New Jersey 8th and 9th of June. We have Dallas on the map. Boston we're going to go to Nashville, denver, seattle we're going to do one a month because they are highly attracted to what we are offering at Show Fitness. The CCA programming is changing the landscape. With that being said, today I'm going to help someone who asked a question in the NASM Women's Facebook group. Remember, we don't have any affiliation or ties with NASM we can get anyone to pass that level zero textbook certification. It's super, super easy.
Speaker 1:
Now the hard part comes next, when you're going through that interview process. Who is interviewing you? So you got to do a little bit of research because this is a NASM head, someone has their NASM, ces, pes, wls and they just love this stuff. Then you got to play that game and for the most part, if you're a qualified trainer you can sniff out the shitty ones who are doing BOSU balls and stability balls. But there still are some trainers who train that way. So you don't want to go in there and say, nassim's a bunch of fucking idiots. Nope, that's not smart. You have to play the game and you play the game by understanding your environment. For example, when a client comes in, I have a guy coming in here in about 30 minutes in Santa Monica and if he liked doing stability stuff on a boasty ball stability ball I would train him that way. I've never in my career 20 plus years doing this had someone ever asked that. But if he were, I would play the game. So in an interview style, more than likely you're going to get a case example very similar to this style. More than likely you're going to get a case example very similar to this.
Speaker 1:
Here's a member profile 35 years old, wants to lose 20 pounds, wants to be a good example for their children. Wants to wear clothes from the wedding eight years ago, desk job. They have tight hips, low back, no significant injuries or medications. Has not been following a consistent program. So your mind should be going through okay, beginner higher reps, strengthen ligaments and tendons, focus on movement competency. What they're really going to analyze is can you administer basic exercises and cue them properly? Can you give them a regression? Can you give them a progression? How are you going to be able to adapt in a packed environment? Lifetime at five o'clock on a Monday is going to be crowded as hell. So how are you going to adjust to that environment? So your mind needs to be thinking all right.
Speaker 1:
So with this case example tight hips, low back they would probably want you to foam roll. We are big into manual manipulations, so I'd highly suggest looking at our YouTubes getting into the calf muscles with your hands. That's so much more value add than doing a foam roller. I've seen trainers foam roll for 20, 30 minutes straight and that person's going to be thinking why would I pay someone 150 bucks just to fucking foam roll? That's stupid. So add value, get involved. The trainer engagement is what's going to really separate you. This manager wants someone with a great personality. The people skills Can you relate to them? But are you competent? And if you were to take them through a stability ball squat, curl press, a stability ball press, a stability ball row, single leg scaption, leg press, rest with a four to one, one tempo, as NASM has you do in their programming? 99.9% chance to be like this was a terrible workout. So play the game and understand that they want to see that you are competent. You would be a good fit for that environment.
Speaker 1:
So just do a CCA. If it's a guy, you're going to start more with pushing and pulling. If it's a girl, you're going to start with leg. So in this scenario that we highlighted earlier 35 year old you would take that goal Stereotypically. As it says here. It didn't say she wanted a big butt or she wanted a flat tummy, but just assume that girls want big glutes, tiny waist. So you're going to be doing a leg exercise first, followed by a push or a pull you choose, followed by an accessory, an ab exercise, whatever their goal is.
Speaker 1:
So I would ask the manager in this scenario what are your goals? If a genie were to pop out of a lamp right now and give you one magical body part keep PC. Now what would it be? So they say glutes. Then I'll do a squat followed by a pushup into a band walk. Rest for 30 seconds to a minute round to add weight for the squat. It would be a goblet. So if you did 10 pounds first for 15 reps, go up to 20, and then I'm going to do pushups, make it more challenging. Maybe lift the leg up and then do another band walk Round three. Make those squats more challenging, go to 30 pounds. Make sure to add some tactile cueing. Push their knees into valgus, so then they have to externally rotate and have optimal form. And then I'm going to make the pushups more challenging, maybe add a pause and then do the band walks again. More than likely they're just going to have you do one CCA. How confident am I in the CCA?
Speaker 1:
Listen to the podcast. I did the hundredth episode with Joe. Joe got hired at Lifetime. The manager, nick, who just did a post about show up fitness really, really great guy, big old hunk with a beautiful beard. He said that Joe's practical interview and that's exactly what Nicky's asking right here was one of the best he's ever seen, and he's been a trainer for 15 years. He was like it's almost like you knew exactly how DPTs are supposed to train, and so he hired him on the spot. Within three months, became the number one trainer at that gym. Now he's a manager and that's why we had our seminar there. So you have to look at the background of your hiring manager.
Speaker 1:
Now, if this exercise was for a male, you do a push exercise first, either like an incline dumbbell or bench press, followed by a pull-up or a row, and then followed by an ab exercise, because most guys will probably want a six pack. You do the same thing there Bench press into challenge, the row into ab exercise. We like bicycle kicks or planks. Get involved as a trainer. We have a ton of trainer engagement. Can you own that practical? Are you confident? Are you looking around thinking where do I go next? What do I do? Or you ask the questions that are specific to the individual. You want to get a bigger bench? All right, what do we warm up with? 135, great, throw a 135 on there. See how their form is great. Now we're going to do some chin-ups. Hold at the top, nicely done. Maybe you'd pull them down a little bit to get that trainer engagement. Now let's do a plank. One of the things that Nick complimented Joe on was your planks were so position. He didn't take out his phone and count for 30 seconds. People can go and get that through AI.
Speaker 1:
Add value as the trainer, make them laugh, have fun with the accessory. Lift a leg up, push it against me. What's the capital of California? What's the capital of Texas? Get them engaged. They will do typically one round. That's it. That's a circuit right there. These practicals are just hypotheticals. They're going to do like a 15 or 20 minute portion.
Speaker 1:
Now, if this was a real hour workout, after that first circuit you'd go into the second circuit. So if it was a girl, we would do another leg exercise, a hinge, because we did a squat, followed by the opposite of whatever you chose first. So if you did a push, you do a pull. If you did a pull, you do a push, and then you do another accessory. You could add in cardio on the second circuit if you would like. Most of your clients in this case she hasn't been following a consistent program, so her cardio and respiratory would lack and it would smoke them. So don't add a cardio until the end. Do that for three rounds, a second CCA and then move into the third one. We did a squat, we did a hinge, Now you do a unilateral. So a step up, we hit back, we hit chest. Now do shoulders.
Speaker 1:
I love the trainer engaged split stance, military press with your opposite arm out. So if I'm pressing with my right arm, my left arm is out. I'm pushing against that left arm as the trainer for that engagement. Switch it on over. That's a killer exercise and management will see that as wow, that's creative. I've never seen that done before and it's super involved. We are personal trainers, so get involved. Do manual things. We want to see less fucking foam rollers in the gym and more trainers getting involved. Find those hypersensitive areas, use your thumb, Use your elbow. That's going to give you the value add of charging 150 to 200 per hour.
Speaker 1:
It's easy to get hired at a gym To be there one year later. That's a qualified trainer and if you take someone through a stability ball workout, they're not going to hire you Now, unfortunately. Here's what will happen most of the time. I'm not saying this is you, nikki, but I'm saying here's what happens. Most of the time People would take that manager through an unstable surface workout. The manager's like, gosh, this fucking sucked. But they're not going to tell you that They'll get fired, so they go. You should probably gain some more experience. So then you go to LA Fitness or 24, one of the lower tier gyms Nothing wrong with those, but that's where you're going to end up going, because it's so much easier to get hired there. You start training people that way and they don't sign back up. Your retention is extremely low. Then you meet a trainer who gives you a little advice and they go. You know what? Go check out Show Up Fitness or check out Renaissance Periodization.
Speaker 1:
People actually understand programming. You got to remember the people who developed the OPT model, dr Clark. He was a physical therapist. Physical therapists don't know shit when it comes to programming. Ask a legitimate physical therapist. They will laugh because they never went through any type of programming. When they're getting their DPT, they're learning everything about injuries. Just like how doctors don't know jack about nutrition, therapists don't know jack about programming. Are there therapists out there who do? Yeah, they get their CSCS. They work with athletes.
Speaker 1:
If you take an unstable workout that's meant for an injured individual and you put it on a population who's overweight, it's not going to fit. That's trying to get a square peg to go into a circle and that's what this programming from NASM and ACE, that's what they have, so it's not going to be efficient. So then this trainer who gives you advice, you go let me look up some stuff. You start implementing the CCA and guess what happens? Your clients love it, they get results, your confidence goes up. So what do you do? You go back to lifetime and you fucking crush it and they hire you. But how did they hire you? Because of that NASM cert.
Speaker 1:
And that's the confusion within the industry. People think I got to get my NASM, I got to get my ACE. Ask yourself, long-term, where do you want to be in the industry? And in my opinion, as a trainer for 20 years teaching trainers, these programs aren't optimal. They're textbooks. That's why they're level zero, level one. You gain hands-on experience, you have an internship, you're networking with therapists, chiropractors, doctors, registered dietitians, and then you continue your education with hands-on learning. You test in front of a panel. That verbal confidence is what's going to set you up for success.
Speaker 1:
We have our show up in a CPT accepted at Lifetime, and my goal is to get more managers aware of this at Lifetime to understand the quality of our trainers so that as we get more recognition, you're not going to see stupid fucking member profiles like these case example they have tight hips and weak glutes. Come on, that's 30 years ago. You ask the right questions to your clients, you discover during that assessment and you give them a great fucking workout and you wow them and guess what? Then they sign up with you and then you're able to turn your passion for fitness into a career. I spend most of my weeks reaching out to management, having calls, working on our partnerships to help them better understand what we do at Show Up Fitness Right now.
Speaker 1:
The problem with the industry is you ask 10 trainers how to become a personal trainer and they say now some ISSA, second tier, nsca, acsm, which is so ironic because the latter two are actually quality certifications. The former are just marketing machines and they get in front of people. My goal is to change that whole entire conversation. How do I become a personal trainer? You get yourself in a CPT Right now. It's accepted at all 170 lifetime gyms. We've worked with about 37 equinoxes. I'm continually working with equinox to get it accepted at all 109. It just takes time. There's resistance, that's normal. I love that.
Speaker 1:
Show-up fitness is challenging the status quo. I want you to become a successful personal trainer. That's why I wrote the book and at our seminars we will have the book volume two, workbook style, so you can implement the right programming strategies to get hired at elite gyms, to start your own gym, to build your online portfolio, have three streams of revenue, make money while you sleep. I'm not selling you on some bullshit business coaching, but look at me in front of my Ferrari and it can be $2,000 a month and I can help you crush it and make six figures. I am confident that you can make $120,000 per year as a trainer with three streams of revenue. You're making about 80 to 90 in stream one, 15 to 20 in stream two, five to 10 in stream three, and that allows for you to work 15 to 20 hours per week and you have the other streams working for you, so you don't have to work 200 sessions per month and then burn out in two years. We can do this, but it takes the community, it takes a team to help one another. If you want to get hired at lifetime, implement the CCA and they're going to see that it's a quality programming. The rest is up to you and I can't guarantee you're going to get hired there.
Speaker 1:
You may not look like a trainer. You may not be able to bench 135. You may be overweight, and that's okay. I'm not calling people out who are not strong, they can't bench, or people who are overweight, but the looks component is so huge. When I was at the Lifetime in Sacramento I saw a bunch of fucking jacked trainers girls who were strong as hell. I was so fucking impressed by the presentation of those trainers. I went to the mayor and said, dude, you got a rockstar team.
Speaker 1:
People look like trainers, but then you look at the clientele they're in great shape. So, if anything, that's a wake-up call for you as a trainer to push yourself to get a trainer. Go through the show up standards, focus on your pull-ups, your bench press overload. If you don't have a trainer helping you. That's like the blind leading the blind. We have programs that we offer to students to level up your programming so you can look the part of a trainer. We all should be improving daily.
Speaker 1:
I have a trainer, I get trained by a trainer. I have a trainer, I get trained by a trainer. I go to therapists. I work with RDs. That's what you should be doing as well. We got to level up the industry. I'd love to go on tangents when the coffee kicks in on Saturday morning. Nikki, I apologize for that. Reach out with any further questions. Let us know how the interview goes. We have a lot of other podcasts, as well as YouTube's, reviewing the interview process. Here we went through part one. So how do you ace that phone interview? To acing the practical Confidence is key Looking the part, smiling, getting there on time and, most importantly, keep showing up. Have a great day, y'all.
