Success as a Fitness Professional
In an interview with La Crescenta and Los Angeles personal trainer and exercise physiologist, Rudi Marashlian who has over 30 years professional experience in the fitness field, I discover how he got started, why, and some of his successful actions as a fitness professional.
Tracey: How long have you been a fitness professional and what motivated you to work in the fitness industry?
Rudi Marashlian: Okay, how long have I been a fitness pro?
Tracey: Yeah, how many years?
Rudi Marashlian: So, I started working in fitness back, it was 1983. So it’s a long time ago. You could say it’s an easy 30 years of working mostly full-time in fitness.
New Personal Trainers – Do You Really Know it All?
Rudi Marashlian: I have a degree in exercise science. That was one of the best things I ever did, because it was a state-of-the art course. It was the first time exercise science was offered as a university-level course, and just about anyone in the fitness industry in Sydney at the time who was either a gym owner or a gym manager of some kind jumped onto that. It was an amazing experience.
When you start working in fitness, you start off and you think, “Oh, I know a lot.” Once you’ve done a few basic courses. And then, after a little while, if you’re really passionate about your work, you start to realize that you really don’t know much, and then you have to search out more information and the right information. So I was very lucky, very happy that the University of New South Wales came out with this course, which I got onto very fast.
So where were we? So looking at starting back off in 1983, doing multiple courses, doing a degree in exercise science, continuing education, that’s all part of it. And then what was the second question, ’cause you asked me two questions.
Why Become a Fitness Professional?
Tracey: Yeah, and my second question was, what motivated you to work in fitness? Why fitness? Why not some other field?
Rudi Marashlian: Well, I was playing rugby league at a professional level. I was just getting in at a professional level, and was there for a little while and decided that it didn’t quite go the way I wanted it to go. There was some politics and I didn’t want to get into the politics of working my way up to First Grade
I was wrapping up a career in electronics and was at a point where I had to decide, am I gonna stay in that field or do I do something else? And basically, having been an athlete of a high caliber I wanted to work in an area that I actually enjoyed.
I wanted work not to be work, I wanted work to be more like a hobby, because then it doesn’t become “work”. You hear stories about how people get enslaved in their work, or they just work for money, and there’s nothing wrong with that if that’s what you’re passionate about, but I wanted to work in a hobby area.
So then I thought, “What am I good at? What do I really enjoy?” There was art. I could draw quite well. And then also, I was a good sportsman, a good athlete. I thought, “Well, how do I get work in both areas?” I got work in both areas, but then what really took off was the fitness. Then I had to go, “Well how do I monetize? How do I earn a living with sport?” I wasn’t being a professional rugby league player anymore.
So then I looked, well what else is out there? What came up very fast was a gym instructor, personal trainer. And I was like, “Well, okay.” Within six months I was assistant manager of a fitness club. It just took off really easily and fast. And that’s basically the beginning of my health and fitness career. That was 1983, I’ve been able to earn a living doing one of my favorite things, loving it and enjoying it.
Tracey: Okay, cool. So that gives us a pretty good idea of how you got started and why and so on. Now, you’ve been doing it for a really long time, about 35 years.
We’ve been in the United States for probably 17 years. And we’ve had a personal training business in the Foothills of Los Angeles, in the La Crescenta area for the last 13 years.
Still going strong.
Interested in a Fitness Career?
If you are interested in reaching out to Rudi or myself, you can contact us here. We want to help up-coming American fitness professionals and make this industry a stellar one to work in and a way to help many people improve their lives for the better through fitness and exercise.
