Ignite the Fire -: The Secrets to Building a Successful Personal Training Career

I received my personal training certification in April of this year. Up to the day of my test, I had it in my head that once I was certified I would be ready for a career in personal training. To my surprise though, once I had completed the test, got the grade, and received my certification in the mail, I was still left thinking, "Well now what?" I had put all this time and effort into passing this test, but I was still left feeling unprepared. Did I have a basic understanding of anatomy, nutrition, and biomechanics? Yeah. But I still didn't have that feeling of preparedness. So I started doing more research and really digging, trying to find my way, and I came across Ignite The Fire via a "shameless plug" on a personal trainer forum. I bought into said "shameless plug" and ended up going straight from that forum to this site and purchasing ITF.The beauty of ITF is it provides an unreal amount of valuable information in an easy to understand format. What I really loved about this book was a moment never came where I found myself thinking I was reading some sort of "filler info" between what the author's main points were. Every page of every chapter offered some sort of applicable data that was clear and concise. There is something to be said about the value of a two hundred page book that contains no BS or fluff; it's unheard of. So don't bother with a highlighter, otherwise your entire copy will be neon colored. Just be prepared to read it, and read it, and read it again; because there is not a handful of strong points hidden among a sea of words in this book. You are given a straightforward approach to what can be the outline for your successful career in personal training.Though I can't personally vouch for the "successful career" part quite yet, I can vouch that ITF helped me get my foot in the door. I was just hired on as a personal trainer at a local gym a few days ago, and I truly believe I owe a lot of that to Jon Goodman and his generous contribution of Ignite The Fire.If you're looking for a focused approach to developing your craft as a personal trainer or know of someone who is, Ignite The Fire will be your career's best friend.

My name is Adam Davis. I've owned a personal training company for about 2 and a half years. This was one of the first books I read. And I later reviewed it as my business expanded.I started training out of my truck with a stability ball and a pair of vinyl dumbbells 3 years ago.Now I'm partnering with a Physical Therapist to open and manage his Athletic Performance branch.This book helped put a lot in perspective. It's why I seek out the smartest and most practical people to follow. It's why I constantly seek to self educate and read the newest articles.If somebody posts something. And I don't understand it. I want to look it up.It made me realize doing something like teaming with a sports medicine physical therapist was one of the best moves I could make to ensure I had a chance at carving a niché. I have a mentor now who has taught me more than any textbook ever has. And something to make me different than the $35 a session trainers at fabulous fitness across the street.This isn't to tout my own success story.Be something else. That people continue to talk about you for. And you'll continue to grow.This book is easy to read and really is essential no matter what you may think you want to do with training.I was a powerlifter who used to be a really fat kid. I never thought I'd be doing FMS certifications and working along side a Physical Therapist. You have many ways to go. If you recognize how to make the paths.Don't be another 3 sets of 10 trainer.

I have been following Jon's writing since autumn of 2011 and it had a huge impact on my life and some of the choices I have made. Because Jon is a very nice guy who likes to keep in touch with his readers and interact with everybody, not letting anyone feeling ignored, he managed to make that difference for me that others didn't and made me support him and his work and share it with everybody I knew.I was eagerly waiting for this book since he kept talking about it so passionately. I was a bit annoyed by the fact that I'd have to wait for the paper copy more than others because I live far, far away. But then I realised there was a Kindle version and that fact just made my day better. I read half of the book in one day. In the meantime, I have just finished reading the entire book and I can say it's very nicely written. You can easily see that Jon put a lot of heart into it and that he's talking from his own experience. Whether he's right or wrong, that remains to be seen, by us and by Jon himself. He's young and eager to succeed in this business and to teach others what he knows. What I know is that if the time proves him wrong on some of the opinions in the book, he will not be afraid to recognise he was wrong and to share with us, his readers, what he will have learnt. Don't expect to find Polichinelle's secret in the book. There's no secret, just common sense. I will continue to support Jon's work because of the change it made in my life and I appreciate that a lot. Moreover, he needs all the encouragement he can get.You want to know what you can improve as a trainer? Then you have to buy this book!

I've recently changed direction in what I want to do with my life and aside from doing the usual fitness "education" that is required here in the UK, there is a huge black-hole in regards to getting to grips with how vast the fitness industry is and just which door exactly you may want to wedge your foot into before it closes on you. This book doesn't give you a step by step hold-you-by-the-hand guided tour of the world of fitness. No, it does something much better.Whilst the book is tailored towards the US/Canadian audience, if you're smart enough you can pick out a vast majority of what Jon writes about and apply it to wherever you are. The pros and cons of various gym setups (from your own freelance getup, through boutique gyms and our much adored contract corporate gyms) will either have you nodding in agreement with that place being something you're interested in, or tilting your head to one side reading something you didn't really think about before. All good things!For me, I read this book in a couple of hours initially then proceeded to write the best fitness CV and cover letter I knew how and sent it out to specific clubs I felt fit in with what _I_ wanted out of them. Through my own stubbornness I got an interview and re-read this book again to remind me why I'm doing this and the specific things I should be looking for in finding that perfect fit between myself and the place I'll be doing a lot of learning within for the next few months/years!The great thing about this book is that there's no one-thing-works-for-everyone setup. You take what you want from it and turn it into your thing. I'm not a fan of gyms, but I'm less of a fan of making mistakes and eating Ramen noodles for a month when going through that initial freelance setup (this might be a bit over dramatic).Needless to say this book is regularly flicked through now, more so as a reminder and not to be swayed by other irrelevant things. And, indeed to ignite that fire when I haven't had a chance to have my coffee in the morning on the way into the gym!

I have been visiting, reading and learning from [...] for a while now, so as soon as I saw the book was available I had to get it. Although I am not new to the world of coaching I still found this book to be extremely helpful and at one point had to put it down to act on some advice straight away before inspiration left me. I will keep it readily available to refer back to often and will most definitely be recommending it to people I know in the industry.For me the book should be included as part of the Personal Training qualification in the Uk as the advice is invaluable and would improve the careers of many people starting out.Advice like this shouldn't be this cheap!!Great read, well written.Keep it up.

Fast delivery, really happy with it.The book is great, very insightful picked up some good tips. Look it's always good to keep researching and reading especially in an industry that changes every day! But Johnathan Goodman is an exceptional player in this field, he is an inspiration.

Should have read it years ago! Very good content and things I can see I would have done differently at the start of my fitness career!

Good buy