Don’t be boring, Enjoy Yourself!!

Don’t be boring, Enjoy Yourself!!” is what people that are serious about their training and nutrition often get told at work, social functions and from family members.

It happens all year round, on birthdays and other functions, but is especially worse at this time of the year, when the ubiquitous mince pies and jumbo sized tin of quality street come out for christmas.

pie eatingSince when is it so important to gorge yourself on sugar- laden confectionary to conform and “enjoy yourself”?… Its a real sign of the times, that so many people equate eating this type of food with enjoyment. What about enjoying a healthy body all the year round.. Isn’t that a better way to enjoy your life? surely more than the brief indulgence that a plate of mince pies and cake bring, followed by feeling bad afterwards?

Top 4 Strength and Conditioning Courses Requirements

Unfortunately many athletics (either professionals or amateurs) and their trainers don’t always have access to the right training resources. That are known to be invaluable in increasing their strength and conditioning, and more to the point enhancing their performance in them most effective manner. As would be expected there is a multitude of strength and conditioning courses in the fitness world, but it is only a very select few that can comprehensively address such concerns.

This sadly leaves most of these individuals to settle for less and in effect become mediocre athletes and personal trainers or coaches. If you might fall under this category, there is no need to despair, help is on the way.

This article is geared to review some of the top 4 attributes of strength and conditioning courses and resources. Which can naturally go a long way in heightening an athlete’s performance in ways they could never have thought possible. Or in the case of trainers, gain the mandatory knowledge to enable them to craft effective strength and conditioning programming for their clients. So without further ado let us go right into the mix of things.

Top 4 Strength and Conditioning Courses Requirements

Finding Fitness Instructor Jobs & Personal Training Apprenticeships

If you want to become a personal trainer, then you need to start thinking of possible fitness instructor jobs even before you obtain your certification. Otherwise, you will find yourself without a personal training job once you obtain your levels 2, 3 & 4 fitness instructor qualifications, which can be quite frustrating.

You need to know where to look if you are to find the right gym instructor career opportunities. This will enable you to have a good reference point from where to start. Outline below are some of the places you can find a fitness trainer job.

1. Your Local Gym/Fitness Club

Your local gym or fitness club is the best place to start when you are on the search for a personal trainer job. This is also a good place to go to if you want to become an apprentice in that career field.

Claiming for GET QUALIFIED grant in Malta 🇲🇹

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 This is a quick blog for our Malta-based graduates 🇲🇹 to help them with the process of applying for Malta Enterprise’s Get Qualified scheme. 
 
What is the Get Qualified Scheme?
 
GET QUALIFIED is an initiative in Malta that supports the personal development of individuals for the achievement of qualifications and certifications required by industry. 
 
All European Personal Training Institute PT Diploma course packages, as well as the Gym Instructor course, are approved for this funding.
 
Upon successful completion of the course, students will benefit from a tax credit enabling them to recover 70% of the course fee.
 
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Who is eligible to claim?
 
Anyone paying tax in Malta (or has a parent paying tax in Malta).
 
How to claim? 
Follow the 5 steps below:
 
    1. Once you have successfully completed the Personal Trainer practical course assessments and have received your Focus Award Personal Training course certificate by email from us, navigate to the Get Qualified website: https://www.servizz.gov.mt/en/Pages/Education_-Science-and-Technology/Education-Services/Scholarships/WEB2016/default.asp
 
You can register for an account here: https://getqualified.maltaenterprise.com/Account/Login
   
    2.  Choose the appropriate Personal Trainer Diploma course package that you completed (copy and paste the exact name of the course from below) :


   
    • Focus Awards Level 3 Diploma Practitioner in Personal Training (Basic) 
    • Focus Awards Level 3 Diploma Practitioner in Personal Training (Advanced)
    • Focus Awards Level 3 Diploma Practitioner in Personal Training (Master)
 
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or, if you did not complete a Personal Training Diploma, but the Gym Instructor course only:
 
    • Focus Awards Level 2 Certificate in Planning and Delivering Gym Based exercise
 
NB: If you completed a Personal Trainer Diploma course, you do not need to choose the Gym Instructor course - this course is already covered in the appropriate Diploma course package. 
 
    3. You then only need to upload the digital Personal Trainer course certificate (PT Diploma course graduates), or the digital Gym Instructor course certificate, if you completed the Gym Instructor course only.

    4. You will then need to request a letter of course payment declaration from us. You can contact us by email,  please enclose your Malta ID number in the email as we require this information for the letter.



    5. Get Qualified will require you to upload a letter of course acceptance. This was sent to you following your application form being reviewed and accepted by us. Once you have located this email (title “PT Diploma Application Successful” sent from This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) save it to your computer. You can do this by:

    1. Clicking the 3 dots at top right of the email

    2. Select “Print” from the drop down menu

    3. Make sure Destination is “Save as PDF” and then click the “Save” button.
 
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Malta Graduate spotlight #1

Carlin Polidano 
(EPTI Advanced PT Diploma graduate, November 2017)

Carlin was originally enrolled on EPTI’s very first Malta-based PT Diploma practical course, back in June 2017. However, he was unable to attend due to rupturing his achilles tendon whilst training for a Spartan race.

I still remember him making a visit to the practical course hobbling into the gym on crutches to say “Hi!” to our teaching team.

Fortunately he made a full recovery in time to attend our next practical course in November 2017. At this time he was employed as a full time firefighter at Malta International Airport.  

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Conversations with him during the course revealed a strong and driven desire to advance the quality of personal training in Malta.

After graduating with the EPTI Advanced Personal Training Diploma, he set up his own 75m2 PT studio in a garage unit in Luqa in January 2018, naming it Fit Stop Fitness Centre. He then set about putting the lessons learnt during his EPTI Personal Training course into practice, working full time hours with personal training clients in addition to, and around his full time shift work at the airport.

Over the course of the next couple of years, he continued to invest in his business while still working as a full time firefighter, and growing the client base up to 60 members. During this time he established a team of fitness professionals to service this growing membership base. A number of EPTI PT graduates have worked with Carlin at Fit Stop.

When the first Covid lockdown occurred in early 2020, Carlin was already working on developing his own fitness app and was able to keep his members active through online training via the app. When gyms re-opened, he welcomed back his previous clients that were also joined by many new members attracted to Fit Stop by the accumulating positive reviews online. 

Carlin subsequently invested in a second, larger premises in Paola, in the second Covid lockdown. During this difficult time, whilst gyms were forced again to close, renovation work was done and a 210m2 gym was installed and equipped with quality equipment and open to the public in November 2021. 

Now that Carlin’s business had now grown to such an extent that it required his full focus, he left the fire brigade to concentrate on managing the personal training systems across both Fit Stop Fitness Centre gyms.

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Carlin and Fit Stop have since gone from strength to strength. He now employs a team of 12 personal trainers across both locations and has a membership base of over 230 clients, which includes government ministers, and prominent journalists and TV hosts from the Maltese media.

As well as face to face personal training at both locations, clients are also able to tap into the Fit Stop Fitness Centre app to access online and hybrid personal training programmes. At the Paola gym members are also able to purchase healthily prepared food from the fuel bar.

In April 2022 Fit Stop’s achievements and contribution to the fitness industry were recognised in winning the ‘Rising Star’ category at the Malta Healthcare awards.

Carlin is certainly delivering on his promise that he made back in 2017, to raise the bar for personal training  in Malta!
https://www.fitstopmalta.com

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If you would like to follow a rewarding career that inspires and motivates you to enrich peoples’ lives, then get in touch with us to receive more information about our Personal Training Diploma and Gym Instructor courses in Malta.
https://www.europeanpti.com/contact

EPTI is Licensed as a Further Education Institution by the Malta Further & Higher Education Authority (MFHEA) (#2021-012).

Furthermore, all EPTI Personal Training Diploma course packages are approved for Get Qualified funding in Malta.

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