The Show Up Fitness Podcast

Becoming a Trainer in India: Inside the Mind of Coach Sanjay Duseja

• Chris Hitchko, CEO Show Up Fitness • Season 3 • Episode 304

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Coach Sanjay IG: yourfitnesscoach.in

Tired of hearing “the gym keeps 70%, trainers get 30%” and wondering how to break the cycle? We sat down with Sanjay Duseja, who went from a small town in Madhya Pradesh to training 2,000+ clients across 40 countries, to map a smarter path through India’s fitness industry. His story shows you don’t need a big city to win—you need competence built on four pillars: education, experience, communication, and living what you teach.

We dig into why low entry barriers and a lack of regulation depress pay and quality, and how owners and trainers often talk past each other. Sanjay explains how he funded early certifications while working in IT, moved online during lockdowns, and built trust with credentials, case studies, and simple, effective assessments. You’ll hear why a goal-first approach beats cookie-cutter routines: athletes can chase intensity and frequency because performance is their job, while general clients need sustainable programming that fits around work, family, and recovery. Assess movement, strength, and cardio, then tailor exercise selection, volume, and frequency to what the client actually wants—like playing with their grandchild for an hour without gasping.

Sanjay’s “Year of Growth” experiment adds rare empathy. By deliberately gaining significant weight and then reversing course, he experienced breathlessness, back pain, poor sleep, and mental strain firsthand, and translated those lessons into coaching that meets clients where they are. We close with career design: escape the trap of 10–12 sessions a day by building rare skills, specializing intelligently, and capturing proof of outcomes so your hours go down and your income goes up. In a market with low barriers, top 1 percent competency stands out quickly—if you commit to learning and apply it with integrity.

If this conversation sparked an idea, subscribe, share with a trainer friend, and leave a quick review. Tell us: which pillar are you doubling down on next—education, experience, communication, or walking the talk?

Want to become a SUCCESSFUL personal trainer? SUF-CPT is the FASTEST growing personal training certification in the world!

Want to ask us a question? Email info@showupfitness.com with the subject line PODCAST QUESTION to get your question answered live on the show!

Website: https://www.showupfitness.com/
Become a Successful Personal Trainer Book Vol. 2 (Amazon): https://a.co/d/1aoRnqA
NASM / ACE / ISSA study guide: https://www.showupfitness.com

SPEAKER_04:

And welcome to the Show of Fitness India Edition. Today we have guest Sanjay Djuseja is from India and we'll be talking a lot of things about trainer education and industry scenario in India right now.

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to the Show of 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 showofffitness.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. Keep it going up.

SPEAKER_04:

So if you are a personal training working in India and want to excel in your career, you don't you do not need to miss this episode. Next verse we'll be hearing is from Sanjay. Hey Sanjay, how are you?

SPEAKER_01:

I'm very good here. How are you doing, brother?

SPEAKER_04:

I'm doing good, man.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you so much. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. Can you tell us uh little introduction about yourself?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So my name is Sanjay Duseja, as uh Devang already told you. I am uh from Satna, a very small town in Madhya Pradesh. So I did my engineering from Endore. Again, I I am going to extend it a little bit because you can understand that anybody from a small town can become a successful fitness coach, right? Because a lot of people uh think that uh they they have to be in a bigger city, they have to train particular kinds of clients to do well. So that's why I'm starting from here. So I did my engineering from Indore, it is the second higher city in Madhya Pradesh. And uh after my engineering, I actually was looking forward to doing something in fitness. The reason for that specifically is that I was always interested in sports, and eventually I fell in love with Jim, and then I liked helping people. I had a roommate who I helped lose weight, and I thought that this is something that I can uh add to in the society as well, and at the same time, I can choose that as a career, right? But as uh it happens with all of us, unfortunately, this field initially, if you're not an expert or if you do not have a lot of qualification, it does not provide a lot of um a lot of money, right? So that's why initially for the first two years, I had to uh join an IT company. So what I did is I was earning money, I was accumulating money, I was using that money to say uh to do my certifications, right? So I did my first certification uh in nutrition foundation, it is from ESA Mumbai. If you might have heard about Exercise Science Academy, because I used to live in uh Pune, it was easier for me to do a certification from there. Then, secondly, I did uh specialization in weight management. So I had the basis of basic of uh nutrition knowledge, but now I wanted to dive deep into it. Still, mind you, I was working in IT at the same time doing certification, doing classes. After that, I uh did my ACE certification because I thought that this is one of the leading certifications in the world. Because in India, if I say eight years back, people did not know a lot about uh certification, all these things. Even if you go to the gym, you'll rarely find an individual who is internationally certified by any fitness certification. So after that, I used to dream that uh when I was working in IT, I used to think that now I'll uh leave IT and I wanted to go some someplace, maybe so. I had this thing in mind that I will be going to Himachal Pradesh, right? And how did that come to my mind? I don't know. But I thought that it's a beautiful place and I'll work in Gold's gym there. So I searched that at which place uh that goals gym is there, and I think I found uh some cities there which had had gold gym. I thought that I'll go there, I'll give the interview and get selected and then start working as a trainer. But uh again, life had different plans for me. So COVID came, right? So 2019 was a was a hard year for me, and uh that's where I would say in 2018-19, I basically started my online career as a coach. Right. And so far, uh, it has been seven years, eight years now that I've been working in this field. I have trained over 2,000 clients over 40 plus countries around the world. I have very good image among the people uh that I work with. I have very good people among the colleagues that I have right now, and I have given my, I would say, that blood and sweat towards this profession because I loved it. Again, things did not turn out to be how I wanted it to when I was in IT, but they turned out to be much better, I would say.

SPEAKER_04:

Eventually things go away that they let it should go.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. All right, so as you mentioned, you are working as an online boat site now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And do you still do IT or you completely fixed food?

SPEAKER_01:

So I uh so how did I decide? A lot of people that might be hearing to this podcast that might be thinking that they are uh they might have a dream, right? They might be working in IT for money and they want to shift to because this is a trend that I've seen in a lot of individuals. So I made made up a I made up my mind that I will be working in IT till the time I'm making uh till the time I'm not making the same money from fitness. So it took me somewhere around six months or I would say eight months. I worked hard in this specific field. So I used to work till seven in IT, and after that, I used to work, and whenever I used to get a break for lunch or in the morning, I used to work for my fitness career that is making content, uh, accepting inquiries, uh, helping people. And once I made enough money that is equivalent to what I was earning through IT, I left IT because again, I am an opportunist. Whenever I I see an opportunity, I I take it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Alright. So uh basically, most of the cleaners who enter the industry, yeah, they are like uh they started going to the gym when they were in college, they fell in love with exercise and everything, and then they decided to enter the industry.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_04:

At least in the world where I am living right now, that that is the trend. So the entry barrier is very low in quitment.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

What is the scenario that you are living right now?

SPEAKER_01:

Currently, how is the entry barrier in India, or you are asking me specifically, how is the entry barrier where I'm living in right now?

SPEAKER_04:

Uh let's focus on India.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, okay. So in India, specifically things do not work like how they work in Western countries. The reason for that is that there is no regulatory body that regulates trainers, right? So in India, uh, for dietitians, there is Indian Dietic Association, but for personal trainers, that there is no specific body that actually allows somebody to train or not to train. In India, still people do not look for doing certifications. Still, people what they do is that they work out, as Devang already told you, they go to the gym and ask ask their gym owner that I would want to be a trainer, and they allow them to be a trainer because they will not have to pay them much, right? As you know, that there is a huge difference, there is a huge pay gap between the trainers in India and trainers in the US and Canada and other countries. And there is the major reason for that is that there is no regulatory body which basically allows somebody to train or not, so there are no specific qualifications required or education required for this field. And as Devang said, entry barrier is too low, which is not good at all.

SPEAKER_04:

So when I started to work for show fitness last year, uh all I had to do is all day meet new trainers and talk to them and understand what the problem they are going through and how can we help them. So the major issue they were mentioning nine out of ten trainers told me that they are underway.

SPEAKER_02:

Right. Very true. Very true.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. So most of the trainers are working 10 hours or 12 hours a day, and their basic salaries are 12,000 or 10,000.

SPEAKER_02:

Right, right.

SPEAKER_04:

And then they have to run through personal training commissions only.

SPEAKER_02:

Right, right.

SPEAKER_04:

And from personal training commissions, 70% cut is for gym and 30%. Right, right, right, right, right.

SPEAKER_01:

That's very unfair. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

So that's why uh so there is this excuse that they don't want to invest in education because they don't have enough money to spend.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Alright. So I was facing this problem a lot. Then I thought every coin has two sides. Let's flip the trunk.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

And I started meeting gym owners. So I I used to go to them and ask them why do they pay so less to the trainers?

SPEAKER_02:

Right.

SPEAKER_04:

The trainers are thinking they are underpaid. And uh then there is a second part of the story that came out. Uh most of the gym owners told me just one thing they are not underpaid, they are just not at levels where we can pay them more. They were like, uh, I'll bring any of my trainers inside the cabin. You ask them about human energy or exercise science or biometrics anything. If you are able to answer five out of ten questions, they will get a raise. He was confident because he knew that his job is not that is a true sign that trainers are not able to spend that much amount of money because they are not getting that much amount of salary. But at the same time, at the same time, gymnals are thinking that uh they are not what should I say, at a at a level where they should get paid hard. So this is the conflict, and uh, this is the gap that we are trying to bridge through show. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, because education is important.

SPEAKER_02:

Very important.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, being a trainer, you are dealing with human bodies every day. You need to be updated about uh current trends and everything. You need to understand human anatomy, how to run, how to design uh uh uh weeks of uh cycles of exercise and everything.

SPEAKER_02:

Right, right, right, right.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, this is the trend.

SPEAKER_01:

So on the on this note, I I would want to add something. So this is something that I know a lot because I, whenever I go to a gym, I have this habit of speaking to the trainers in the gym. And of course, uh a lot of them know me through social media, they come to know or either they come up to me. And this is what uh I realize personally that they also want to do something, but they have this uh mental barrier, right? Either they are not too confident if the certification is going to make some difference in their career, either, as you said, that money is comes into picture. But to be honest, as I told you that uh if you want something, you'll have to invest in it. Either it can be money or either it can be time, right? If you want to achieve a goal, you'll have to invest two things. And personally, what I feel is that when I was into IT, I told you I was earning 28,000, out of which uh, you know, if you're living in a city like Pune, you have expenses, right? After that, also, if I was able to save money and uh these days, certifications do provide EMI options. So if you really have uh a will to change yourself or uh become the leader in this industry, first of all, as as the Jim Owners said, right? That those people will not be even able to answer five out of ten questions. The major reason for that is that they are not educated, they are not trying to improve themselves in the in this field, and you cannot expect to grow in terms of uh money or in terms of popularity or in terms of wealth uh in a particular career without putting in time and effort into it, and that's where that they are lacking, they should have uh this constant urge to learn. Currently, also I am uh a part of two mentorship programs. If I think that an individual can add something to my my journey, they can teach me something which can help me to train my clients better, 101% I'll pay them without thinking. Because I know that the money that I'm investing is nothing in front of what I'm going to get after I'm skilled enough. So, this is where people have to start being a little more open towards spending money towards fitness education, because as I said, there there is no proper regulatory body in India, and that's why the entry barrier is too low. But I would say that the competition is too low as well. If you are the top one person in this field, you know a lot about this. You are going to find people who are going to recognize your tail talent and pay you what you're worth. But again, you'll have to do uh you'll have to educate yourself, you will have to gain enough amount of experience, you will have to learn from the industry leaders, you have to meet people like Devank so that you can learn more. That is what I would say.

SPEAKER_04:

Uh, the point you just mentioned that trainers think that certification is not uh mandatory. Uh I used to be one of that trainer when I entered the university back in 2018. I was the same person, I was the person who you used to say this that our certification is just a piece of paper. And that is true. Then there is a specific incident happened with me, which completely changed my mind. So I was training a client. It was not personal training client, I was training it. He was doing just basic LAD pull down. Then there was a new trainer who just joined the gym. He approached us and he was like, You are doing it wrong. I'm like, man, I'm in the middle of my session. Why are you interrupting? It was like you are doing it wrong. All right, you just demonstrate us. So he showed us another technique which was completely false. I mean, I was just looking at that. I have thank you, but it is wrong. But I have like a theoretical explanation of it.

SPEAKER_02:

Right, right, right, right, right, right.

SPEAKER_04:

Right. I just knew that it is wrong, but I don't know what is wrong exactly. After the session, I went to my manager, I told him the entire scene, and I was like, and I told him that I knew I was right, but I couldn't defend myself because I don't know the basics. It was like exactly that's why you need basic certification. You will learn the basic term very true is about very true, very true.

SPEAKER_02:

Very true, very true.

SPEAKER_04:

So I reached out the gym owner. I offered him, I'll work for you for five months free without anything. You just pay for my certification right now. It was$35,000 free, and my salary was$14,000. I was ready to pay off my five months' salary in the return of$25,000 for my uh feature certification. And that owner was humble enough to pay for my certification. And uh he gave me he gave me it as a loan. He didn't cut off my five months' salary.

SPEAKER_01:

Amazing, amazing.

SPEAKER_04:

And uh life came full circle when I opened my studio. That same gym owner is my top client right now.

SPEAKER_01:

Amazing, man, amazing. Love that, love that. And this this is what people need to understand, man. If you take that risk, if you take that next step, right? It can be into any kind of if you are into fitness, there are different fields in which we can work upon, right? And if you take if you are confident enough or if you are courageous enough to take that next step, uh things are going to change for you as as they change for you, right? Now that guy is your client who paid you a loan, man. How happy you might be uh feeling, how proud you might be feeling that how far you have come, isn't it? Right?

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, so yeah. Uh so that's why the people say where there is a will, there is a will.

SPEAKER_01:

100%, 100%. I 100% believe on it. And if you are on my social media, I always say this thing, right? When there is a will, there is a way. You find a way if you want to do something.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, yes, yeah. By the way, uh, tell us something about that uh growth here you started last year. What was it?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. Okay, okay. I'm going to tell you that. So, see, uh, as a coach, there are few things that you that you need, right? This is what I have. I am personally somebody who wants to expertise in what whatever I do, and what I've realized is that to become a fitness coach, there are a few things that you require. First of all, you should be qualified enough, right? Because especially in India, we say that uh India does not have a regulatory body, but people value degree and qualifications in India. If you don't know yet, I don't know where you're living right now. Second, uh you should have experience. Now, experience can be gained through you training people, of course. The education that you will be getting after that you teach people, and that takes time, right? You cannot uh buy experience, you have to do it. Third thing, which is very important, is communication, right? How you speak to people is very important in our field. This is also a service industry at the end of the day, right? How you do it matters more than what you do, and this is something that a lot of people don't know. And the fourth thing, whatever you preach, you must be you should be able to do that, right? So I'm a firm believer in these things, and that's why what I do is I started that this back in 2022 that I started implementing the things that I that I have learned on myself. First of all, I did my photo shoot prep. Again, it was a basic photo shoot prep because again, I was in that learning phase till in 2020. Uh 3 December, I started my contest prep. I participated in ICN, I participated in three shows. Uh, it is a natural bodybuilding show. If anybody outside India is watching it or haven't heard about it, it is a natural bodybuilding show. Again, I don't train bodybuilders, but I wanted to learn, I wanted to have that practical knowledge knowledge regarding bodybuilding. And I also won two gold medals in my categories in Delhi. After that, I had this thought, right? A lot of times we have these thoughts, but we do not implement it. But I am a kind of person, if a thought pops into my mind, I do it. So we started this year of growth in 2025, in which I was basically leading a normal person's life, today's normal person life, not taking care of what they are eating, not taking care of their health. And uh in 2025, I gained over 20, I would say 25 Kries approximately. Right. And now we are we are basically turning the tables, and in 2026, I will show people that how I can reach the same place where I started from by improving my lifestyle. So the concept here is I am showing people that even if you are a coach, even if you are somebody who was spit in past, if your lifestyle is not good, you are going to ruin it. But that doesn't mean that you can you cannot work upon it again and change yourself. So this is my concept. Out of this, I also made a video on it that Mayra Swart kyahes me. Uh, I would say that I also want to learn that uh how my clients feel. So I felt a lot of issues, man. I would be honest with you when I was I I'm heavier. My uh whenever I used to climb three floors, I am out of breath. I'm out of breath, man. This is the first time this has happened to me in so I'm 30 now. This is the first time that happened to me in 30 years because I have always been into sports. And uh other than that, a lot of problems, sleep issues, a lot of laziness. Because if you are an obese individual, your body wants to stay at rest, you would want to sit. All the time. Again, because I was eating junk food, it impacted my eating habits drastically. I faced a lot of digestive issues. It even affected my mental health. Right? I have uh because I am obese right now, I have never been uh so uncomfortable in my body. I would say that. But again, I I knew that this is something that I have to go through, which people go through and not realize. All my clothes are tight, the past clothes, I cannot wear any of them. If I'm wearing t-shirts, my stomach comes out in the t-shirt, which is a major issue. Even uh if I'm sitting for a long period of time, my back is aching. All of this is because of the extra weight. And this is something that I wanted to observe myself, and it is eventually going to help me uh to teach my clients as well that if you are facing all these issues, this can be the reason, and you can overcome this. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

So basically, you wanted to put yourself in your client's feet.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I can I I can say that now a lot of people can say that you cannot completely put yourself in the feet of your clients because they have led that lifestyle from decades. But I would say that I will not completely feel that, but somewhat I'll feel it, right? At least I was there. I can say that I was there where you were, and I came back out of it, right?

SPEAKER_04:

Amazing.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

That that was courageous step. I would never do that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, I can understand. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

So yesterday I was attending this uh event, it is called Fit Bharat Fest. Okay, and uh Sonu Sudhu was there, and he was there uh promoting fitness as he has already done. And he said these two important things. When the host asked him how he approaches fitness, he said this one thing which was very impressive. He said, I don't have 24 hours day. I have only 22 hours day. Those two hours are for myself, for my health, and for my fitness.

SPEAKER_02:

Right, right.

SPEAKER_04:

Whatever I'm doing, wherever I'm in the world, I make sure I go to the gym, I do my workouts, I record better. I do two hours for that.

SPEAKER_02:

Right.

SPEAKER_04:

And then there was another line. He said, other at work calculate time.

SPEAKER_01:

Right, right, very true, very true. I think both the both the lines make sense. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Right, uh let's get back to the trainers.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Please, please, please. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

So, what would what do you think from trainer's perspective? What is the difference when you train an athlete or let's say bodybuilder, and what is the difference in training general population who are just there for fitness?

SPEAKER_01:

So, training training an athlete and training a general population is very different because an athlete's lifestyle is their sport. Whatever you are training them in, that's their life, right? Because that's their career, that's what they want to excel in. With general population, uh, fitness is a part of their life and not their life, right? Because they have other aspects of their life they need to give time in. That's not their primary career, they have to give time to other aspects of their life as well. From the training point of view, what I have seen is that an athlete can go or pass their limits uh when they are told to, and uh they can take that extra step to improve their athletic performance. From the general point of view, you general client point of view, you always have to keep this in mind that you have to uh keep in mind other aspects of their life and make them follow something which they can sustain while maintaining their existing lifestyle. And excelling in fitness and excelling in personal life is something that you will have to look into. With athlete, that is not something that we look into. We because their primary profession is athletic performance. We they we have to push them to do uh to take that extra step, and it can be uh from the exercise point of view, uh, giving them higher intensive exercises, adding training sessions to their routine from the nutrition point of view, making them follow restrictive dieting, understanding that what will be best from for them from the body composition and recovery point of view.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

All right. So when we talk about general population, yeah, so most of the trainers who are who might be listening to us are an gym or freelance work or something like that, they are dealing with general population most of the time.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

So what do you think should be the approach about programming for general population, not athletes?

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, okay. So, see, from the point of view of programming, first of all, of course, whenever you do a certification, you'd know that there are certain uh initially you have to assess them on certain parameters, right? On their endurance, on their movements. That is something that we'll have to do. And you will re you'll realize that most of these individuals are pretty bad, right? Uh, because of the kind of lifestyle that they are leading. So, whenever I'm programming and work a workout for an individual, a general population, the first thing they should look into, of course, where they are currently in terms of their movements, in terms of their strength and endurance. Uh, secondly, you also have to consider lifestyle factors. So, this is something that uh we forget. A lot of people have past injuries, a lot of people have current problems, and a lot of things can be worked upon by a personal trainer, but a lot of uh things also do need medical assistance. So that is also something that you will have to take care of. And then while programming their workout, yeah. Is there a specific question that you would want to ask regarding programming? I can understand where you are coming from. After I assess them, I would say that I will program their workout, not like an athlete, but like a general individual who is looking forward to a particular goal. Now, an individual can come up to me and tell me that my goal is that I can play for an hour with my child, which I cannot right now. My focus will be shifted to improving their endurance. Of course, with that, I am going to add strength from my side because if they are in their older age, I want them to retain their muscle mass and promote longevity in their life. Right.

SPEAKER_04:

Alright, so this question is coming from this. Uh, I often do this, I go to gyms, not studio, but I go to different gyms for and I observe what trainers are doing in the plans. So most of the time, what workout I'm looking at it, like if they are doing bag by circle, chest price, single muscle power, or push pull leg, all right. I mean, if you are training a bodybuilder, I can understand. But yeah, if your client's goal is to just to play with their grandson or granddaughter, or just want to play golf at weekends so that without hand they want to move paint tree. Why do you want to push them so hard?

SPEAKER_02:

Very true.

SPEAKER_04:

Why there's uh high volume workouts?

SPEAKER_01:

Very true. So that's this is yeah, this is what they know, right? So most most of the trainers and even most of the certifications do not actually train you how to program workouts. This is the reality, and I have I have good research on it because I am also connected with people. There are people who work for me as well. This is what I've realized that first of all, understanding a person's goal is very important. We are actually failing at the first step. We have to first of all understand what that particular individual wants, what their training history has been. So, as you said, that somebody is doing started training and we are pushing them with uh pushful leg high volume routines. That is not something that they require, and they they are neither going to get extra progress with it. Uh, there are high chances they might there might be an injury and they might drop the program, or because you push them too hard, they might think that this is not for them. And this is majorly because of lack of knowledge. So you you are you are on the right track. First of all, understanding their history, understanding their goal, understanding their schedule. We program routines for them and suggest them exercises that specifically work for them. Everybody does not have to do bench press deadlift squats, right? So I see individuals in the gym. Uh, whenever a trainer trains their clients, they start training them, they uh make them do these specific exercises. If I go and ask them that why are you specifically, if they are powerlifters, that's fine. That's their goal to improve in these particular movements. But if this is a person who has come to you for a particular goal, you have to respect their goal and select exercises, select the volume, uh, set the frequency, adjust their endurance and strength training according to their specific goal. And you have to, over a period of time, test that how they have improved in these specific parameters, right? So we if even if you do not have the equipment that are available outside India for these tests, there are a lot of tests. You can do a simple talk test to understand a person's uh cardiovascular fitness, right? That where they are right now, and then test it again. There are a lot of things that you can do if you really want to help an individual, and if you want to go in the same route as most of the trainers do, they just copy routines online and they make people do the same thing, then again, you're not going to go far.

SPEAKER_04:

Exactly. Even things are very scary nowadays here. Yeah, because uh again, we are not bitching about anyone right now. Yeah, this is the observation that I'm trying to put up.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, so uh back I was working with a studio, and uh that that was that even today is the biggest studio of the city. I was working for them, so I and I was on the management side, so I used to hire trainers and manage them. So there was a specific area called MX where they used to do group workouts with very minimal equipment. Only gambles, cattle cars, strapper, and TRS and resistance. These are the projects that are available, and we need to design a workout, full body workout for people.

SPEAKER_01:

Got it, got it.

SPEAKER_04:

So, whenever we are conducting interviews, we have uh we we just show them the area and we ask them to design a full body workout that uh that is divided in seven days a week. Right, and you would be surprised how many out of ten trainers are able to do that without our equipment, the number is as low as two or three.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I completely understand, man. I completely understand because as I said, that our understanding, first of all, we know that basic education we most people don't have. Even if somebody is educated, the problem is that they don't know how to apply that education, and if you're not able to apply what you have learned, it's of no use, right?

SPEAKER_04:

But yeah, things are getting slowly good, like the new generation of the city. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

It is they are getting better. Yeah, you and me, I think we started at the same period of time, and I have I have seen things change, of course. Currently, if I go to some good gyms, I do find educated people, I do find people who are actually trying to help their clients, and I do actually go to them and praise them that you're doing pretty well, man. Right, because at least we should support people uh who are like us, right? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

All right, let me ask you let's say a kid is listening to you right now and he wants to become a trainer in India. Yeah, as you mentioned earlier, that uh there is uh not no social acceptance for this whole person training in the color.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

What do you suggest them? What would be your advice? Should they do it or not?

SPEAKER_01:

They should do it 200%. 200%.

SPEAKER_04:

What would be the way?

SPEAKER_01:

What would be the way? I already told you my perspective of it in this podcast. I've already added you have to be the best, you have to be the best, you have to be the best, and I have made my four pillars. I have already told you. If you work on these four pillars, I guarantee you that you are going to be successful. Not no nobody is going to stop you. Even if even if everybody wants to do that, they'll not be able to do it. So, again, education first. Education first. You should know what you are doing, first of all, right? For that, you will have to educate yourself. Second, again, I'm repeating experience that comes with time. You will have to give time to it. You cannot buy it from somebody. Third, I told you it's very important in our field that is communication. How you are speaking and conveying your thoughts and how you are able to help an individual with your words or uh by being there with them is very important. And communication is not just talking, right? It's also your personality, how when you speak with them, how how much authority you create, if they are actually listening to what you are saying. By listening, I mean active listening. And fourth, as I said, that you should preach what you uh tell people, you should actually apply what you preach, right? You should be able to do it, right? I see a lot of now. This is also something this is I know that you specifically here we are talking about education, but how many times have you seen gym trainers who are overweight?

SPEAKER_04:

A lot, many times.

SPEAKER_01:

How would somebody trust you with their fitness if you're not fit yourself? If you're not able to apply your education on yourself, how would somebody trust you? That is a very, very, very, very important part of fitness. If you do not, if you do not work on it, I don't know what you're doing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

So I have this theory and I call it social cycle of being a trainer.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

So the biggest mistake trainers make nowadays is that they try to fill up their slots. Anyhow, they are just looking for more and more clients because they more clients are coming, I'm getting more money, and I'll be successful. But what happens is after a certain week, your body is not able to support you that much. So let's say after 30, 35, or 40 years, you won't be able to do 10 sessions a day. So then eventually your plan will drop down and your income will again drop down.

SPEAKER_01:

For sure.

SPEAKER_04:

So what you are thinking is success is not success, it is keeping you at the same place that you are right now. They are just trying to fill up 12 slots a day. And after training 12 people in a day, I don't think anyone is able to work out on their own.

SPEAKER_01:

Right, right.

SPEAKER_04:

So eventually they go out and see it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, very true. And I have been a part of this. I'll be honest with you that I have been one of those people uh a few years back. Uh, I also thought that yeah, I should get more and more clients. And with that, of course, see money, who doesn't like money? Everybody does, yeah, but you have to basically plan things a little long term, just like you said, that after a person gets over 35 or 40, again, I have seen people who are doing well at 40 as well, but they have uh planned their career trajectory in a very, very smart way. Now, see, whenever you start your career, you do not have much amount of options when it comes to selecting whom you want to work with. Neither people are going to pay you a lot. If you're not educated, though, you are not going to pay anything close to what uh you think. But I would say that you have to plan your career trajectory in a way that you have to educate them, educate yourself over a period of time that the hours that you are selling they reduce, and the income that you are making that increases until and unless you do not plan your trajectory like that. And this trajectory, as I told you, it comes with a lot of things. As I've told you, that you have to do a lot of things, and for that you need time. If you are working 12 hours in the gym, and you if you eat, bath, sleep, I don't think you even have a couple of hours for yourself, right? So you will have to keep your time with you at least a couple of hours every day, should go towards working on that trajectory, as I told you. Selling your selling lesser hours or making more income should be your goal, which a lot of people do in our career, in our uh this uh field that we are working on very well. People are making so much you can't even imagine. Uh, again, I am also in that uh career trajectory planning line with you guys. You might be at an earlier stage, I might be in it in between, but you will have to plan it, otherwise, this career is not going to go long for you.

SPEAKER_04:

Burnout is very close.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Burnout is very close, and at the end of the day, see, passion fades away very soon, right? And once you are working for years for 12 hours, your passion is going to go away. Then you are going to say, what I don't know what I was thinking. It is very difficult.

SPEAKER_04:

Eventually, you need return in hand.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So this is this is what I would say that we do not realize the mistakes while we are making them. Right?

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, I can totally with it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. All right. Uh, anything you want to add further before we okay, okay, for sure.

SPEAKER_01:

So, uh, first of all, I would want to thank you for uh inviting me to this podcast. Again, we have been discussing it for a long time, and again, eventually, I would also want to get into helping trainers, and I think this is a good platform for me to connect individuals like me, like how I was seven, eight years back. I would be directly speaking to those guys. First of all, you might be very doubtful that if this career is actually good. I would say that 100% it is very good. You can make it's not about money, the self-satisfaction that you get out of it is cannot be compared. While you're working in a corporate job, you will not be getting this much amount of respect, neither the self-satisfaction. That is a secondary, very important. Of course, you'll be making money as well. That is primary. So, of course, there is a very good career in this. If you are doubtful, that there is very, very good. People are doing 10 times better than where I am right now. And you can even go 100 times, right? I would say uh when the 10-second record of 100 beaters were not broken, 10 seconds used to be impossible. But multiple people have broken, multiple thousand people have broke, might have broken it by now. Similar it with fitness as well. Uh there is no end. How you basically efficiently design your career, I would say determine your career plans is what is going to decide. Secondly, do not uh Do not uh restrict yourself from educating yourself. I would say that this is something that a lot of people do. They think about money. I have been there here. I'll not I'll not lie to you because I didn't I come from a middle class family. I told you that I'm from a small city, Satana. If most of you might not be knowing it, so you can search about it. So I also had this mindset that yeah, I this is not going to add anything to my life. But educating yourself gives you a lot of things. First of all, confidence in what you are doing, right? So an uneducated person, as Devang shared his experience, he was not able to convey that what was wrong in the exercise that guy was doing. That might have actually affected his confidence then, right? That's how that's why he decided to uh decided to do that certification. Similar to that, it gives you confidence on what you are sharing is actually right and going to help you your client. And secondly, I already told you that in India qualifications matter. Whenever I speak to a client or I am onboarding my client, if I tell them that my name is Sanjay, I am an ESA, ACE, INFS, UC UCA certified coach, it creates an impact, right? It creates an impact. Now I have added a lot to that as well. I have hundreds of transformations, feedbacks, live sessions to showcase my art. But when there was no art, when there was no proof of my knowledge, but there was my education to support me. So that is something that you will have to work upon. And again, don't be fearful of starting into this career and work on the four pillars that I told you: your education, your experience implementation, your communication, and fourth, applying what you know on yourself, whatever you preach, you have to apply. So this will be my major suggestion for anybody who's thinking of starting out their career in fitness.

SPEAKER_04:

That was a gold of advice. And coming from someone like you who has done it, not just preaching it, but you have lived through it. So it is really inspiring. And so many of the trainers who are listening to it will get inspired and uh start working on self right now.

SPEAKER_01:

For sure, man. For sure.

SPEAKER_04:

Thank you so much for giving us.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you so much. Thank you so much. I appreciate it again. Yeah, yeah. We we should do it sometime again. If you have any specific top topic that you would want to talk uh to me about, we can discuss and we'll try to help the upcoming trainers and nutritionists who want to make a career in this. I would love to help you guys. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

For sure, for sure. We'll reach out soon for that.

SPEAKER_01:

For sure, man. For sure. Thank you so much. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, thank you so much.