Are there any personal trainers around here?

[jasonb]

My buddy and I are what you might classify as gym rats, and with the shitty financial situation our county is in, we may be laid off in December. He threw out the idea of becoming personal trainers. It's probably not a new career as much as a nice little side job.

The confusing part so far is picking the program. There are internet based certifications and one at our local college that actually has lecture, practicals and a required number of intern hours. It's also accredited by the US Dept of education.

Is any one certification better, or honored in more places? Any other thoughts? What's a realistic amount of money that can be made?

And yes, I belong to bodybuilding.com, anabolicminds, and prohormoneforum, but I like you guys more, so I figured I would start here.

[Arik]

Check craigslist in tour area to get an idea of what people are charging. Some have their own gyms others will train you at home, your gym or the gym they belong to.

For the last year I was paying $300 a week for 4 one hour sessions. Not sure if I was overpaying a lot or not but this guy was the only local guy who had his own personal gym. I stopped going after about a year because by that time I had figured out the whole routine and food thing. Now I can just do it on my own. Besides it saves me some money.

[tuffo]

MILITARYATHLETE.COM

a great cert. and the workouts are real -
I work with one of the founders.

[Belloc]

In a former life, I was a strength and conditioning specialist (personal trainer) for 17 years or so, and worked with some of the most well known names in the NBA. There are many well respected certifications out there, but nothing really substitutes for a degree (in kinesiology, sports medicine, etc). But if you are only looking to earn a little side income, and are going to go the certification root, then THE gold standards, by far, are the American College of Sports Medicine and National Strength and Conditioning Association.
http://www.acsm.org/

http://www.nsca-lift.org/

Hope that helps.

[Billy Mays]

I'm pretty sure with the right clients you could easily make some good money. Though as everyone agreed, a good solid college degree always looks better, but if also in this type of work if you got the clients and body (no homo) to prove your a good professional then I don't see why you'd need a degree.

You post on the "Misc"?