A Drop in Pay, but a Leap in Karma

“What avid exerciser hasn’t mused — while huffing and puffing toe-to-toe with a trainer, maybe, or hitting an endorphin peak during a run — about chucking the desk job and going into fitness full time? Counting those who do is hard, if not impossible, but some indications suggest that more people are mothballing their briefcases to enter a field that the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts will grow 27 percent from 2006 to 2016, as measured by the number of ‘fitness workers’ (instructors, trainers and program directors). Downturns in other sectors will increase those ranks, predicts Paul Garbarino, director of operations for the National Council on Strength and Fitness, which certifies personal trainers. Workers in a slow economy ‘tend to branch out for additional professional training,’ he said. ‘Some people make career changes; some just develop an additional skill set to keep in their back pocket.’ Still, fitness isn’t an obvious next step for everyone, even gym buffs. Arnold Scacchi, for instance, a New Rochelle father of three, never considered any other career in his 20 years as a floor trader on the American Stock Exchange. But when his company folded in 2005, Mr. Scacchi began looking for something he could run. With a few hundred thousand dollars in savings to invest (‘no Lotto ticket, that’s for sure’), he considered a driving school and a surgical supply house, weighing factors like cash flow and return. Ultimately, though, he began focusing on what day-to-day work he would enjoy, Mr. Scacchi said, reasoning that ‘I was naturally inclined to mess around with numbers, and my other interest was always to be in shape.’ So he became a franchisee of the Personal Training Institute, a chain of storefront gyms that pair half-hour, one-on-one workouts with weekly nutrition counseling. Nationwide, pay rates for trainers vary widely by venue — in-home training costs more — and by region. In Manhattan, top personal trainers charge $300 an hour or more, but the average hourly wage nationwide for full-time trainers in health clubs was only $25.53 last year, according to the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association. (For yoga teachers, it was $31.73.) Of the 219,000 full- and part-time ‘fitness trainers and aerobics instructors’ counted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in May 2007, fewer than half earned more than $27,860 a year, and only 10 percent made more than $59,000. Group teaching can increase income, Mr. Fleshner [a footrace organizer and personal trainer] said, but only entrepreneurial ventures like his race franchise offer substantial income.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/health/nutrition/04fitness.html?_r=1