What is a better career to get into, massage therapy or personal training?

[Click ?]

Honestly you can do almost anything with an Associates in massage therapy degrees You can open your business, work in a spa, work in a gym. If you specialized in something like sports massage you can try and find work with professional athletics. Basically your options are open. I have been a massage therapist for the past three years and just this past January I started renting a space from an acupuncturist and things are slowly building up
I then would start with a comparable rate. Just remember if you do go into massage it is an awesome job. I have so much fun every time I go to work. Good luck..hope this helped out some!

 

[Fictional Queen]

I am neither massage therapist or personal trainer (even though I had some training in massage) but I would like to give a more general answer to the question - and that is: do whatever you are drawn towards.

What makes your heart sing?

What excites you and makes you get up in the morning?

Following your interests and passion would make a better and satisfying career.

Masha

 

[John Dong]

Maybe you could get some college prospectuses and see what training you would need to do to become either a massage therapist or personal trainer. I'm a massage therapist and charge my customers £35 per hour. My friend is a personal trainer at a big gym near me and he earns £17 per hour.....the gym charge customers £37 per hour for a personal fitness trainer. As you can guess he feels quite disheartned that the gym make a lot of money out of him and don't pass a larger amount on to him (and the other personal trainers). He is building up his client base and will soon become freelance.

Hope this is helpful to you. Whatever you decide to do, good luck for the future!

Kerrie-Joanna

 

[Shafagh H]

You can do well at both, but it depends how good you are....

 

[Freddy H]

I do both, as a sports massage therapist and PT. I charge the equivalent of 45 pounds a session/treatment (about an hour).
I also hold seminars for companies on preventative heath care, for between 200 and 400 pounds per hour depending on how much prep work there is and how many staff they have.
I live in Sweden so these are industry standard prices for here, I expect they are similar in the UK.
It also depends on what kind of massage therapist you mean, as there are many different types and levels.
My advice is do both if you can as they go very well together.

All the best, I hope this helps.

 

[Kds]

There is no reason why you can't do both therapies, they do work well together

 

[royalmeddy]

I would definately do both! I do sports massage at the moment and am seriously considering doing a PT qualification, I think they fit perfectly together.

 

[Seltannosse]

As both a Massage Therapist and Tai Chi Instructor (which could be discribed* as a form of personal training), I would say do both because they are interrelated and the skills are transferrable. Also clients may be interested in different services at different times, therefore creating a more viable business.

RP

*Bad spellig nday

 

[bcjkhwwr]

If you have the opportunity try both and see if you enjoy either of it.

Depending on the style of massage (and your current health) you may become physically exhausted. Also some clients may just sap energy from you.

Also ask yourself where would you develop your clientele?

Who you be your clientele?

What type of atmosphere would you like to work in?

How many hours do you prefer to work?

If you have the resources a good way to discover the different types of massage is to experience it.

 

[mbrcatz]

There have been a lot of great replies so far. Massage is a great way to enjoy working with others, but I've noticed that the wear and tear on the body seems to limit how long people remain doing it for. Many therapists that I've met seem to have moved into teaching or some other type of work as they have picked up injuries (mostly to thumbs/wrists etc). Take a look round a lot of spas, and you'll see mainly young women working- there a fewer older ones possibly because massage can be so physically demanding. Of course, I'm sure that there are plenty of folk that have no problem-maybe it's down to correct training/luck!

 

[Lily Lily]

That's probably more to do with the spa's hiring policy than injuries. Most spas tend to pay fairly low wages because they traditionaly employ beauty therapists rather than massage therapists, and pay a low hourly rate. Add back to back appointments, low wages, wear and tear on the body and most spas wanting to hire people with the right 'image', you get a staff of mainly young women.

Go out into private practice and sports clinics, you get less young women, (wider age range including males!) and generally more therapists with more training on how to protect their hands and wrist earning more money with a longer working life, though less would be considered having the 'right' image for a spa.

These are all generalities, some spas do pay well and some people make less money in private practice. If they do make little money, they usually end up shifting careers because they can't make enough money to live on. A lot of the cases of burnout are more finances related than mechanics related.

As for the original question, personal trainer or massage therapist, if you can do both, they are a good combination. Even if you end up eventually deciding on one, the experience in the other will help enormously.