Gaines is a trainer at Gold's Gyms throughout Las Vegas and Nevada
and offers in-home training as well.  She has been a trainer for four years
and is certified (I.F.T.A.) and insured.

Q & A with Sharon

Q: How did you get started as a personal trainer?

A: I absolutely love training other people. Although I have only been doing it as a “job” for two years I have had many more years prior to that helping friends and family. In college I ran track and cross-country and I learned a lot about sports specific training from the trainers and coaches I had. When I was in the training room I was like a sponge, soaking up all I could and watching the athletes from different sports to see how their training varied. 

After college I worked for a couple of different gyms before being offered a job to manage a dental office.  It paid well and had good “perks,” but when I was laid off in Sept of 2002 I just couldn’t see myself going to another office and settling in.  I had already started amateur boxing and, while in Kansas City for the annual Ringside Tournament, I met some coaches who encouraged me to get into personal training and it really struck a chord with me.  That little seed was planted in my mind and when I went back to Seattle and fielded some office manager jobs I just knew my heart wasn’t in it.

Q: Why do you personal train when you love to box so much? Why not make boxing your full time job?

A: HA! I wish. This is a question I get asked A LOT.  Unfortunately boxing would not pay the bills.  Most female fighters start out making somewhere around $200 per round for a 4-round fight.  The pay does increase, but not enough for most fighters to support themselves on fight money alone.  Even with 8-12 fights a year, a beginning fighter would not make enough income to support herself.  The better a fighter gets the more rounds she fights, which means more money per fight. The pay will also increase depending on name recognition, higher rankings, if the fighter has a belt, etc. However, the better a fighter gets the less they usually fight. This is because the fights are more rounds so training and recovery are both more time consuming. And match-ups are also harder to find. 

Although boxing is my passion I do love personal training.  A lot of my clients learn to box and even just holding pads for them is good work for me.  Training clients combined with fitting in my own workout does turn out to be a lot of hours and time each week, but I always say, my “office” is a gym…..how bad is that?