The Show Up Fitness Podcast

Africa CPT Guemra_ How to become a Personal Trainer Morocco

• Chris Hitchko, CEO Show Up Fitness • Season 3 • Episode 272

Share episode

Send us a text if you want to be on the Podcast & explain why!

What if your training career wasn’t limited by a sales quota or a noisy gym floor? We sit down with Moroccan coach Abdul Jalil Guemra to map his leap into a five-star medical spa where fitness coaches work alongside doctors, physical therapists, and dietitians to design true longevity programs.

Abdul pulls back the curtain on a model that starts with comprehensive consults and flows into personalized plans built on five pillars: metabolic function, nutrition and diet, sleep and recovery, physical fitness, and stress management. You’ll hear how each guest gets a tailored path—whether that means more structured recovery and performance work for athletes or deeper focus on sleep, stress, and nutrition for high-burnout executives. The result is a collaborative system where coaches stay within scope, clinicians lead diagnosis and treatment, and clients see measurable, life-changing progress.

We also dig into the career skills that actually win elite roles. Abdul credits mentorship and internship-style training for giving him the confidence to communicate with clinicians and the judgment to know when to refer. He makes a strong case that soft skills—presence, listening, hospitality—separate great coaches from the pack, especially in luxury wellness environments. And he breaks down how the resort’s business model removes sales pressure, allowing coaches to focus on delivery, service quality, and outcomes that go beyond PRs to include better sleep, lower stress, and stronger daily function.

If you’re a trainer aiming for a high-end or clinical setting, you’ll leave with a clear playbook: invest in real mentorship, master scope, and treat communication as a core skill. Enjoy the conversation, share it with a coach who needs a nudge, and don’t forget to subscribe and leave a quick review so we can keep bringing you practical, career-changing insights.

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!

Our Instagram: Show Up Fitness CPT

TikTok: Show Up Fitness CPT

Website: https://www.showupfitness.com/
Become a Personal Trainer Book (Amazon): https://www.amazon.com/How-Become-Personal-Trainer-Successful/dp/B08WS992F8
NASM / ACE / ISSA study guide: https://www.showupfitness.com/collections/nasm

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome to the Show Up Fitness podcast. 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 showuffitness.com. 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. Haday y'all. Welcome back to the Show Up Fitness Podcast. Today we have SUFCPT 100 from Africa, Morocco. Mr. Gurma, how are we doing, sir?

SPEAKER_00:

I'm good. I'm good. Thank you for having me on the podcast. It's an amazing day to be here with you. What a pleasure.

SPEAKER_01:

You got a cool story. I want you to tell us how you started out, how you came across Show Up, what you're doing now in the hospitality world, and how you're kicking major booty, man. I'm really proud of you.

SPEAKER_00:

So my name is uh Abdul Jalil Gamrah. I'm a trainer and coach from Morocco. I've been working uh in the fitness industry for more than uh six years. Uh joined the Show Up Fitness Family back in 2013. I did the internship for four or five months, then I became a CPT. Also did the the nutrition program. Later on joined the Royal Mansour Casablanca, which is a luxury hotel located in the biggest city of uh Morocco. Then two years later, I recently moved uh to Royal Mansour Chamouda Bay, which is a luxury resort that emphasizes on wellness and uh recreation. And now I'm a wellness coach in there. So I work in a medical spa as a fitness and wellness uh professional.

SPEAKER_01:

I think it's just so cool how you can be literally thousands of miles away, and you're able to connect with us probably through YouTube, and something resonated, and we were able to help you level up your skills, and then you're able to implement that into your career as a trainer. So let's talk a little bit about what that is like at this very luxurious hotel and and what you like, and and just help the the listeners hear about other opportunities within the fitness industry.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so I remember joining uh when I was looking for a study guide to pass the NASAM CPT. Back in the day, uh I had NASAM, I had ISSA, what else? I think precision attrition and those didn't give me really like the confidence to go out there and do what I do. I remember after passing uh the internship, I had really the confidence to go and apply for jobs and like feeling comfortable during the interviews to show my value. Like I mentioned before, worked uh in the Royal Masur Casaplanca for two years, and then I moved here. It's a totally new concept. Uh, like I said, here they focus on the wellness and recreation. They have a medical spa, a huge one, by far the biggest in Africa. And in the wellness center in Royal Masur Tamu de Bay, there is a luxurious medical spa that has uh health and medical professionals such as doctors, physical therapists, dietitians, massage therapists, and obviously fitness coaches, we work in harmony to create a personalized wellness program. And essentially, the the concept of the the wellness programs, they're called longevity programs. They are based on five pillars. So you do your consultations, and then based on the five pillars that are metabolic functions, nutrition and diet, uh, sleep and recovery, physical fitness, stress management. After doing the consultation, they see they determine which area needs uh more focus. So, for example, uh, if they they're an athlete and they work to they want to improve their performance and their physical fitness, they're gonna spend a lot of time in the recovery and the physical uh physical activity pillar.

SPEAKER_01:

I love that. So you literally are working with a medical team, and it's really progressive because a lot of trainers in the states at least they go to a high-end gym and they're kind of by themselves. And one of the things that we profess a lot is having that team with you, and you are part of that culture already. And so, how do you find those conversations? What are your interactions like? Because you're talking to doctors and RDs, and so you have to be competent. And I'm sure you've come across not in your environment now, but I'm sure you've come across a lot of trainers who probably didn't have that competency to be where you're at.

SPEAKER_00:

That's true 100%. Because, like I mentioned, what gave me really the confidence is the internship, literally, because I remember the uh having conversations with uh doctors and uh uh physical therapists from the pre-hab guys, and that really gave me the confidence to know my scope of practice and show my value as a trainer and and and and do what I do best that and that is help helping people. And to regard to the to your question about trainers uh stepping over their scope of practice, I see that uh here a lot, especially with the NASIM be being popular here. It's there is a school that teaches NASIM, and most of the trainers they act as if they are a physical therapist, and that that that triggers me a lot here.

SPEAKER_01:

You can confidently say NASIM probably didn't get you that job where you're at right now.

SPEAKER_00:

Not at all, not at all. It's just it's just a letter that I put next to my name when I'm when I want to like uh look for a job. Apart from that, nothing really.

SPEAKER_01:

That's you're you're a smart cat because you you didn't just stop after one. As you were saying, you're hungry for more, and you came across the Czech Institute, and you did other mentorships, and you're always leveling yourself up. What would be some courses that you've taken that you found really valuable to level up your skills in the environment you're at right now?

SPEAKER_00:

Obviously, uh the best one by far. It's not me promoting you or anything, it's just my my experience. It's uh the show up fitness. Uh he's an MMA strength and conditioning coach. He shares a lot of his methods uh in his mentorship. The Czech Institute stuff is good, it's it's decent. Uh, but like I said, nothing close to nothing comes close to the show up fitness internship, especially uh for doing what I do now, and that is being around the medical team.

SPEAKER_01:

I think that's huge, and I appreciate the the positive words. And why don't you talk a little bit more about how there's a lot more that's needed than just the technical or the theory side? Because now you're in a high-end spot, and those soft skills, those people skills are really important because you have to communicate with very wealthy individuals, and there's this expectation that you need to be very professional and speak that language.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah, 100%. I remember after passing the interview, the general manager came to us and uh he said, Do you know why we picked you and not the other candidates? Basically, anyone thought he would he would bring us something about qualifications or something about like your background, but he said the way you presented yourself, your soft skills, and the way you look. And I think that that is huge because as trainers we tend to focus more on the technical stuff, you know, anatomy, biomechanics, physiology. But we forget that is a it's called personal training. 50% personal, and the other 50 50 is training. So I think what what what what separated me from the others is my my ability to uh communicate, to deliver uh a high-end service, and obviously deliver real-world results.

SPEAKER_01:

It's really important. And so, how do you get clients at your facility? What does that process look like? Take me through the process from someone who's interested in one of these pillars and how they get in front of you, what you have to say to them, what you have to perform, is there sales involved? Take me through that process.

SPEAKER_00:

So uh it's it's it's quite different because I have worked in gyms before. In the gym culture, you have to sell your own training and they take 50% of what you make. Here it's quite different. It's a corporate environment. You don't have to do any sales. You're basically an employee, you have a monthly salary, you have bonuses, but they will they will do the the the majority of the work for you. They will bring your clients, they will train you, they will uh take care of everything. So you have the clients right in front of you. All you have to do is deliver that service and do what you do best.

SPEAKER_01:

And I love that because if you're listening to this, a lot of people would probably want to work at your facility and they think that they just need to pad the resume by getting, like you're saying, your NASA, your ACE or ISSA, but those don't prepare you for that interview process where you need to showcase your technical skills within reason. Are you competent enough? And a lot of trainers aren't, but you're able to go to that other realm, which is the people skills, and showcase that I can provide a service because they don't want some meat head who's yelling and screaming at the clients, like you are a medical professional alongside your staff, and they probably look at you in the same regard because you're on that team.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah, 100%. Because, like I said, the the the technical stuff, it's 50% of the equation, the other 50% is your percent, your personality, uh, your soft skills, all the other stuff that is it isn't related to uh personal training or like training people, and that is what really what separates people here from from others because there are some other good hotels and uh wellness facilities, but what separates this one really is the the the sur the quality of the service that we provide here.

SPEAKER_01:

I love that. And so are you working with clients on a daily basis? Is it like you're assigned five clients and you work with them for a month? What does your book of business look like and what does a typical day look like?

SPEAKER_00:

Here in this current location, we have members because we sell memberships, we have like gym members right now. We have almost 10 because we want to prioritize the guests that come to the wholesale. So those are uh external clients, but we also do, like I mentioned, uh wellness programs. So guests come to uh to experience a longevity program. So the longevity program, you come in, you do your consultations with the doctors, physical therapists, the dietitians, and me, of course. And based on your needs, we develop a fully personalized program.

SPEAKER_01:

Love that. I love that. And so you are safe to say, pretty happy in your current position. You're enjoying helping trainers, and more importantly, you've beaten that statistic 90% quit within the first year. That's definitely not you. What would be some piece of advice for maybe some trainers in your area who want to level up their career, maybe go from that mid or low-tier box gym to get to somewhere like where you are at? What would that piece of advice be?

SPEAKER_00:

The biggest piece of advice is to get your mentorship, get get get coached by someone because you don't know what you don't know, and you can't see things that you can't see. So for me, it was like getting a supervised experience, learning from someone who has done what I want to do. And the second the second uh thing is is to really focus on your soft skills, your communication, uh, and being someone likable because you can be the most knowledgeable trainer if people or the clients or the manager for that matter don't like you, you're not gonna get that opportunity.

SPEAKER_01:

I love it, my man. Well, hey, I'm proud of you, and I can't wait to our next time that we have a conversation. It was 2023 when you went through two years, you're doing some big stuff, and the next two years it's getting even bigger. So, thank you for your time today. Where can people find you on social media?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, just Gemra, and they will find me on LinkedIn. It's Abdul Jalil Gemra.

SPEAKER_01:

All right, my man. Well, thank you for your time and have a great rest of the day. Keep showing up.

SPEAKER_00:

Have a blessed day. Thank you.