Imti Jamir: The Challenges and Achievements in the Making of a Fitness Trainer

Are you working your dream job but still get bogged down by it sometimes? You're not alone. It is in human nature to feel overwhelmed by repetitive patterns. The concern is how to move forward from it.

Alfisha Sabri

• 4 min read
Imti talks about her the challenges that she overcame to achieve her goals.
Imti talks about her the challenges that she overcame to achieve her goals. 

Are you working your dream job but still get bogged down by it sometimes? You're not alone. It is in human nature to feel overwhelmed by repetitive patterns. The concern is how to move forward from it.

Imti Jamir, one of the top performers in the SocialBoat game discusses the challenges that she faces as a fitness trainer. She also discusses how despite these, she has been giving her 100%. Read on to learn valuable insights from her experience.

Beginning with Fitness

Imti has been a fitness trainer since the past 5-6 years.
Imti has been a fitness trainer for the past 5-6 years.

Imti has been into fitness for the last 5-6 years and despite the ups and downs, she has been enjoying it thoroughly. Her first job was as a trainer at a call center, 7 to 8 years after which she started her own business. She would go to China and bring things that she would sell at her small shop back home. During this while, she was staying at home and had a lot of free time on her hands. She had started putting on weight, and that's when she decided to join a gym.

As soon as she joined the gym, she was completely into it. Within a few months, she knew that she would love being a fitness trainer. Meanwhile, she met her current partner who was already managing a gym. Everything pointed toward a new career change and finally, she made the decision of switching to professional fitness training.

Currently, Imti takes mostly group classes and has a good number of clients.

Challenges and Overcoming Them

Although Imti’s journey has not been one without challenges, she says that she has thoroughly enjoyed it.

The challenges that Imti faced are common to many fitness trainers in all parts of the world. She overcame them with the optimistic outlook that she has toward life and lifestyle.

1. Pandemic

The pandemic proved to be challenging for most gym trainers.
The pandemic proved to be challenging for most gym trainers.

Imti had started professional training just a few months before Corona started. For Imti, it was a major setback since she prefers offline interaction with her clients.

“You can't correct postures properly offline, or pass on your energy.”

Additionally, with every new wave of COVID, gyms are the first places that shut down.

Imiti is an optimistic person and she can see that things are getting back on track. Post the pandemic, people have also started taking fitness more seriously.

“Hopefully, a couple of years down the line, this profession will flourish.”

2. Feeling Overwhelmed

Like all other professions, Imti too feels bogged down by hers sometimes.
Like all other professions, Imti too feels bogged down by hers sometimes. 

Imti’s life revolves around fitness day in and day out, Monday to Friday. She has one class in the morning, and one in the evening, and trains some personal clients during the day. Added to this is her own personal training. On the weekends, she takes no classes but works out on her own. Just like every other profession, sometimes this too gets overwhelming, Imti says. But then, she reflects back on her journey and says that there is nothing that she would rather be doing.

3. Social Media

She is trying to post regularly on social media.
She is trying to post regularly on social media.

In a world that is increasingly becoming overcome by virtual spaces, social media plays a huge part in personal as well as professional lives. Imti too realizes its importance but she says that she is camera shy and isn’t able to take out enough time to post snippets from her workout on social media. She is, however, working towards it, and can see an improvement on her Instagram page.

4. Motivation Slump

Imti's optimistic outlook helps her get through bad days.
Imti's optimistic outlook helps her get through bad days. 

There are days when Imti, just like all of us, lacks the motivation to sit on her spinning bike or spread out her mat. On days like these, she challenges herself to complete a particular set of tasks that she assigns to herself. Plus, she thinks about the satisfaction that she feels once she has worked out, aiming to achieve that. Imti’s partner too is a fitness trainer and they both become the source of each other’s motivation on bad days.

5. Injuries

Injuries are a part of the process itself.
Injuries are a part of the process itself. 

As mentioned above, Imti was the best performer in the SocialBoat game up until some weeks ago.

“The contest helped me push myself to the best of my capability. I was moving in the right direction.”

But she was down with an arm injury that forced her to break her excellent streak. Speaking of dealing with injuries as a fitness trainer, Imti says,

“As a trainer, you have to be physically fit to earn the trust of your clients. With a familiar client, there is an understanding. But with new ones, lack of performance can be a negative thing.”

However, injuries are almost inevitable, and they too are a part of the process.

“It is very important to give your body time for recovery."  
Imti is hopeful for a bright future.
Imti is hopeful for a bright future. 

Imiti’s personal fitness goal for the future is to return to her pre-pandemic fit and active self. On the professional front, she is positive that if COVID doesn’t make a comeback, she will grow as a fitness trainer. She is also hoping to maintain a healthy and positive outlook toward life.