Today we’d like to introduce you to Austin Pingatore.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Austin. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Starting from a young age, I was always active and I loved sports. I played competitive baseball until the age of 22. So naturally, when it became time to start college and choose a major for a career path, I knew I wanted to do something that would keep me in the sports and fitness world. So, I decided to major in Exercise Science and Health Promotion at Florida Atlantic University with the goal of becoming a personal trainer following school. I graduated with my Bachelors degree in Exercise Science in 2011 and became a Certified Personal Trainer with the American Council of Exercise (ACE). One thing I learned very quickly is that college doesn’t completely prepare you for the challenge of landing your first professional job post-graduation. After meeting with various fitness facilities in the area in hopes of landing my first job as a personal trainer with no success, I decided to take a different approach. I was told by many of the fitness facilities that I wasn’t established enough and didn’t have enough experience yet. To this day, I still find that to be crazy because we all need someone to give us that first opportunity to land our first job out of college in order to get the necessary experience we need to move along in our respective professional fields. That didn’t happen for me right away. So, I said to myself one day, “if I can’t get an opportunity in the fitness industry somewhere, I’m going to create my own opportunity” and that’s when AMP Fitness was born. I decided I would become an independent personal trainer and start my own personal training business. I started to acquire private clients through online postings, referrals from friends/family and some personal networking. From there, things started to come together and I was now finding my way into the fitness business gaining the valuable experience I needed to continue moving forward. Eventually, I did find my way into a personal training facility as a personal trainer for 3 years while still running AMP Fitness on my own scheduled time. I have been running AMP Fitness for 8 years now and look to continue to keep it going strong.
Has it been a smooth road?
Of course not. I think with anything you want to do in life, whether it be personally or professionally, you are going to encounter challenges along the way. As I stated before, the first bump in the road I encountered was simply finding a way to get my foot in the door of the fitness industry coming fresh out of college. Once I was able to do that, the next set of challenges then became all the things associated with being an entrepreneur and running your own business. Things like time management, policies and procedures, scheduling, pricing, customer service, etc. Essentially all of the things that you need to account for when running a business are a learning process when your first getting started. College can only prepare you for so much until you actually have to get out there and put things into action. Luckily, I’ve had some great people along the way whether it be family, friends, clients, or other mentors/colleagues in the fitness business to help me along the way and provide support in my professional journey that I’m incredibly thankful for.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the AMP Fitness story. Tell us more about the business.
I think my overall goal with AMP Fitness and myself as trainer is just to help people be the best physical and mental version of themselves that they can possibly be. Staying active and physically can bring people so many more advantages than just what shows on the exterior. I’ve seen it first hand and know that fitness can enhance peoples lives in a physical, mental, and emotional way. The list goes on and on of the benefits it can bring to someone. If I can help someone in any of those ways, that is a great feeling for me! It makes me passionate about what I do and makes me truly enjoy my job where a lot of days it doesn’t even feel like work. I’m a true believer that with any fitness program, or with anything that you do in life for that matter, you get out of it what you put into it. My goal for any of my clients that I work with is to try to get the most out of them and to challenge them in ways that they aren’t used to. I have a creative training style that I continually try to evolve with in order to create unique and challenging exercises that people aren’t used to engaging in. I think this helps me constantly grow as a trainer and allows my clients to grow in their fitness journeys as well. Fitness is definitely not a “one size fits all” process. What may work for “Person A” may be completely wrong for “Person B”. I think it is important for all trainers to understand that when creating an exercise program for various clients. I think my ability to take traditional exercise practices and create my own unique versions/variations of them for my clients is what sets me apart from others. I specialize in, but am not limited to, strength training, cardiovascular endurance, muscle building and toning, weight loss, sports performance training, balance, flexibility, and stretching. What I am most proud of myself and AMP Fitness as a company for I think has been the ability to simply make lasting relationships with clients to put their trust in me to help them with their fitness journeys. At the end of the day that’s why I got into the fitness industry and that’s what it’s all about for me. I’ve had to the privilege to help and work with some great people through the years while making great friends in the process and to me that’s priceless.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I think the fitness and health industry is definitely on the upward trend, which is great for myself and all others in the industry. I think more and more people are starting to take that first step into the world of fitness that never have before and that bodes well for the fitness industry as a whole. With all of the new technology that is out there now and social media that is making health and fitness easily accessible to millions of people I think we are going to see a steady increase of people becoming more proactive about their health over the next 5-10 years. Whether it be signing up for gyms, hiring a personal trainer, eating healthier, attending health seminars, or anything else related to wellness, I think the positive trend toward a healthier lifestyle will be there. In terms of big shifts or changes, something that I have personally always wanted to see ever since I entered into the fitness industry is a change in the requirements to become a trainer. I know this may not make everyone happy that I’m saying this, but I would like to see the requirements become stricter. I believe it would add value to the personal training industry as a whole. Instead of being able to get certified as a personal trainer under the current system through study books and taking a test with a nationally accredited organization, which can be done in a matter of a few weeks. I would like to see the requirements shift to individuals needing to have at least 1 year of a fitness institute/school completion or 4-year fitness related college degree before being able to take the certification exam. I feel that most gyms have always valued the personal training certification over the fitness school degree, viewing the degree as a bonus, where I feel the degree should be more valued first and the personal training certification should be the bonus. Just a personal preference that I think right now is a bit backwards and I would like to see some change in.
Contact Info:
- Address: In-gym (Operating out of Trainerspace fitness facility): 990 S Rogers Circle, Suite 7, Boca Raton, FL 33487
Various Private Locations (Residences, Communities, Parks, Beaches, etc.): Boca Raton and Delray Beach area - Phone: 561-926-2455
- Email: Ampbaseball17@aol.com
- Facebook: @AMPFitnessfla
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