Equinox Personal Trainer Diary — Day 3: How to Say “Hello,” Be Decent
Since I’m a Provisional Tier 3 Personal Trainer at Equinox, I am counting down to when I officially become a Tier 3 Personal Trainer. If you want to get caught up on my first two days, feel free to read about day 1 and day 2!
Okay, so I decided to take the exam three days early…
… And I passed.
Thank goodness.
I went over all of the quizzes once more before diving head first into the exam. It‘s been years since I formally took a multiple choice exam, and it’s so easy to gaslight yourself into thinking two choices are somehow equally viable for one question. If anything, multiple choice exams can act as a reminder that you are truly your own worst enemy.
Anyways, I technically have my EFTI (Equinox Fitness Training Institute) certification and am a certified PT (Personal Trainer).
Technically… but I have to wait to electronically receive the certification. And — well — it seems like there’s still more to learn.
What? You can’t tell me there’s more learning to do!
Well I can and I will!
While I definitely need to do some work to make sure I remember my anatomical planes, nutrition facts, and behavior psychology (sounds real fancy when I put it like that), I need a little breather from the EFTI x Lionel University collab.
So, one of the other resources EQX (Equinox; always abbreviate!) has is “the SPACE.” SPACE stands for Shared Performance Academy + Center of Excellence.
If the super specific and totally not buzzwordy acronym didn’t give you any indication, it’s a place for more EQX-specific education.
And it seems like EQX wants to make sure people know how to interact with others.
Which, while humorous in some ways, makes a lot of sense. They need to teach PTs how to sell and so it’s natural to provide some social cues and education for people.
… But I couldn’t help finding it funny that they need to teach people how to say “hello.”
Again, again, it’s good to provide this structure to ensure a cohesive and unified culture and structure across all of the EQX locations…
Anyways, anyways, it was interesting to be able to get a sense of the EQX ethos. The EFTI certification was filled with information any aspiring PT could use, but the PT onboarding that I started to go through really felt like it was specific to EQX, which was cool to start seeing behind the curtain for.
I was pretty impressed with the fact that the UI (user interface) for an internal learning course would fit with EQX’s online presence and general aesthetics of the brand, although it was pretty weird that some of the UI elements changed from module to module, as if they wanted to let every UX Researcher and Web Designer get a participation trophy in creating the training.
Beyond the aesthetics, selling is a major point of the onboarding.
And this isn’t surprising. A major component of my in-person interview (as well as any review about being an EQX PT) was sales. While a PT individually wants to help gymgoers achieve their goals and feel empowered, their manager and the company that keeps the lights on have to focus on improving their bottom line.
And that means getting sales, baby!!
I barely had an idea of the variety of session package offerings that EQX provides, and while I appreciate the variety in structures, I don’t know how the sheer variance in bundles and payment frequencies doesn’t tend to provide too many options and send prospective clients into analysis paralysis.
But what do I know?
Anywho, I think that’ll be all for today.
Please tune in tomorrow for another installment of my journal about my ~blossoming~ NYC Personal Trainer career at Equinox!
I think I’ll end up talking a bit about some of the free training offered to members, EQX grooming and attire, and whatever else I forsee learning about in the SPACE.
And I hope to see you at the East 92nd Street NYC Equinox!
Note: I am a personal trainer at Equinox. My opinions are my own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Equinox.
