Category: Jay’s Corner

Hear from W.I.T.S. CEO Jay DelVecchio as he shares important and helpful information for those working in the personal training industry.

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Stackable Skills & You!

By Jay DelVecchio

What are stackable credentials?

The U.S. Department of Labor defines a stackable credential as being “part of a sequence of credentials that can be accumulated over time to build up an individual’s qualifications and help them to move along a career pathway or up a career ladder to different and potentially higher-paying jobs.” More plainly, stackable credentials can be viewed as building blocks where each short-term credential that a person earns builds into a higher-level credential.

Where do you stand in your fitness career?

Many of us joined the W.I.T.S. educational approach because they wanted to do it right when working with people in changing lifestyles. Now what? Do I need to do more or stay in my lane and just work super hard to get to full time and maybe even management or run my own business? The answer is to work smart. Climb the ladder of what is a very substantial sophisticated industry. We deal with people’s lives. Doing the bare minimum will not get it done for our goal or the special populations that we work with along the way. The cream does rise above and goes to the top. Be the cream even though it can be fattening, LOL.

If you are wondering why your treading water then start swimming and start swimming with a purpose. Get certified in senior fitness, youth fitness, injury rehabilitation, group fitness, wellness coaching and administration management. Drill down even further for specialty topics in pregnancy fitness, cardiovascular, arthritis, cancer and dietary considerations. These areas, especially the certification stackable skills, will open up new markets that will help you climb that ladder of sustainable success in a brick or virtual platform. W.I.T.S. has added an alumni membership to allow you an affordable career pathway to earn our ultimate ADVANCED HEALTH & WELLNESS Certificate. This certificate is the combination of all 5 certifications which is the only one of its kind in the fitness industry.

Here is the link to get started.

Additional Topical Resource

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Nutritional / Dietary Certifications

Recently I had a club owner ask for assistance as he reviewed all of the Nutrition and/or Diet Certifications out there. He is looking to qualify his 100 plus trainers to provide nutritional counseling to clients. Here is my response to him, which is what I have always believed. I hope this helps clarify the limits of your true scope of practice as a Certified Personal Trainer.

 

“Thank you for reaching out to us. We do not have a dietary certification, nor do we intend to go down that path. I realize there is a lot of money in it for both of us, and it is tempting to offer a Dietary Certification like a lot of other groups. The reality is that Dietary Counseling is not truly in our industry’s wheelhouse. We do have all kinds of nutritional workshops available with respected authors, to help educate trainers to work with all age groups.

“My reasoning is based simply on staying in our respected professional lanes. Dietary Certifications from other groups are treading into illegal waters with weight loss credentialing, in my opinion. There is huge liability in acknowledging trainers as credible prescribers of diets. A Nutritional Certification is really out of the realm of a personal trainer’s scope of practice. It gives trainers false hopes of knowing exactly what to do with a client in this area.

“What we all should do is to network with Registered Dietitians who have the depth of knowledge and official license to be safe and effective. Teaching trainers superficially to know just enough to prescribe a diet is dangerous. I would respectfully share that it can get them/you sued. There are so many variables to consider when prescribing a diet which include medications, medical issues, herb use by the clients and much more. That is why a Registered Dietician is the safer business choice. At that point you can network with many of them and send clients back and forth for the best results for the client.

“Bottom line is that Registered Dietitians are not fitness professionals and they need you as much as you need them for clients’ results and business growth.

“I hope we can network and talk soon on many levels.

Jay”

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80% Personal Trainer Turnover Means 100% Opportunity For You

History

Over the past two decades, Personal Training has grown to be the #1 internal revenue generator in the fitness industry. This same fitness industry has accepted the majority of certifications without much thought about the vast discrepancy in qualifications among various certifying bodies. In many cases, if a job applicant holds the same certification as the fitness director, it is accepted. In other club groups, acceptance of a particular certification is based “self-regulation” and propaganda.

Some highly professional fitness facilities have done their homework. They pay attention to the numbers, and these businesses know that a true education-based certification like W.I.T.S., with complete comprehensive testing in written knowledge and practical skills, will produce long term success. Our direction has always been to align our standards with health occupations like EMT. A true educational approach with research-based testing and internship requirements provides a qualified pool of job applicants from which employers can select the best of the best!

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Effective Efficient Recruiting For Long Term Success!

Over the last 25 years of helping fitness leaders and employers, recruiting stands out as the biggest business issue. If 10 trainers are hired today, 8 are leaving the profession within a year due to poor performance. Employers are then chasing to recruit some more trainers. The majority of other certifications only qualify their students with a written exam. This bad standard or cycle expands and makes your business plan worse by doing the same thing over and over. You are W.I.T.S. alumni and you are best of the best when you came out with your certification. If you have been training for a while then you have seen this scenario play out at your employers or maybe even your business. Here are some things you can do. (more…)

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Jay’s Corner of the Industry – Time to Cast a Large Shadow.

Jay’s Corner of the Industry – Time to Cast a Large Shadow.

By Jay Del Vecchio W.I.T.S. President & CEO

 

Next month we will share even more to help you share all of this valuable info with your local media, clients and employers. It is time to engage and increase your value so you are appreciated even more!!

 

You are a superior fitness professional by all accounts do to your collegiate training, education and NCCA Accredited testing in knowledge and practical skills. Your fitness service will reflect it in an industry of minimalized certifications. What do I mean by minimalized? Unfortunately or fortunately for you as a W.I.T.S. CPT, the other certifications have not built out the infrastructure like other legitimate health occupations. The other certifications only have prospective fitness professional candidate’s complete written exams. There is no direct responsibility to perfecting the hands on skills nor testing it. Why do other certifications groups that have been around twice as long as W.I.T.S. not do more for the public and the trainer’s success? You can attend an internship with senior trainers to extend employment opportunities. Your reward is an additional Level 2 Certified Personal Trainer certification. So what are you going to do about it? How are you going to increase your value in the market with clients, employers and educate the media?

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Jay’s Corner of the Industry – How We Stepped Out Of The Shadows

By Jay Del Vecchio W.I.T.S. President & CEO

A little bit of history:

25 years ago at the urging of CEO’s at a Club Industry Conference we went national. This came about after I revealed in a roundtable that we had a regional certification with these very same titans in the industry. The problem was simple to these CEO’s. The other certification groups were not bringing them good overall solid employees to build their businesses. In 1993 we set up our first site with the Virginia Beach Adult Learning Center in Virginia, we then added Mercer County Community College in New Jersey. Our national certification was launched and we were ready to improve the industry. I knew we could do better than just having candidates for this profession read a book or take a weekend review course followed by a written exam to be a “qualified” Certified Personal Trainer.

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