Dallas – Followed an Unexpected Path and Found His Calling

From pirouettes to pixels to teaching, Dallas embraced change and discovered a fulfilling career in massage therapy and personal training.

After an injury put an end to his ballet career in his late 20s, Dallas worked in visual effects for 10 years. He missed being active, and visual effects was a sedentary job. He needed a change.

“A friend of mine was attending MaKami College in 2020,” Dallas says. “I reached out to him and asked him a whole slew of questions, and he told me all about the program he was attending during the pandemic.”

He had always considered massage therapy as a possible career choice for when his dance career ended. Dancing often led to injuries, and massage therapy always helped him recover.

“I was always interested in muscles and how the body works,” he says. “I always thought it would be nice to help people.”

Because he knew it was important for massage therapists to have a strong foundation in anatomy and physiology, he wanted to make sure he was picking the right program. Dallas was living in BC at the time, and after researching MaKami and other colleges in that province, he discovered MaKami was a great fit.

“I knew I wanted to come to Calgary,” Dallas says. “I heard MaKami’s Massage Therapy program was phenomenal, one of the biggest in the Calgary area, so it seemed like a good choice.”

After touring the campus, Dallas enrolled in the Massage Therapy program and moved to Calgary within a month. Although he loved the experience, being an adult learner came with its challenges.

“It had been well over 15 years since I had been at high school or done any learning other than dancing,” Dallas admits. “I often struggled with some of the course load, but I used MaKami’s tutoring services and they helped keep me on track, and gave me a study schedule that fit my schedule regularly.”

The program’s available technology helped him learn.

“I used quiz apps to test myself and used other visual interactive apps to rotate an image of a body, peel off layers, and change the view to connective tissue, muscles, nerves, blood vessels or lymphatic systems,” says Dallas.

His instructors were also helpful in giving him information and study skills. “They taught me how to write flashcards and different ways to learn, and that’s how I found out I’m more of a hands-on learner.”

With their help, school became easier for Dallas. “Being an adult learner can be challenging, but we all have the capability. It may take a little more effort, that’s all.”

Dallas says students shouldn’t be afraid to ask for help if they need it. “There is an entire wealth of knowledge and information available. All you need to do is reach out and be willing to ask the questions.”

Dallas started to enjoy school so much that he decided to take another program at MaKami – the Personal Trainer certificate program. Stay tuned to learn more about Dallas’ progression into the Personal Trainer program, and how the combination of those two programs has helped him excel and fast track his career.

Part 2, PT program

After graduating from MaKami’s Massage Therapy program and working in the field, Dallas wanted to help his clients improve their long-term health.

At the time, MaKami had just introduced its Personal Trainer pilot program, which Dallas realized was a way for him to gain those complementary skills.

“I wanted to see how far I could push my anatomy knowledge and help my clients progress to get better, faster. Personal training was a good way to do that, because I could give my clients something they could use while I wasn’t with them in a treatment room.”

Dallas was also interested in the program to improve his own health. Since he wanted a long career as a massage therapist, he knew he needed to get in better shape. So, when MaKami offered the Personal Trainer pilot program, he leapt at the chance to enroll.

He loved the experience, saying, “Our program head, Noel, taught me so much about movement, how to exercise properly, set up exercises in the most beneficial way.”

Initially, he wanted to learn how to create exercise programs, exercise properly and develop the skills needed to help his clients improve their long-term health. Yet he learned so much more, building on existing knowledge and adding new knowledge in areas such as health, nutrition, injuries and injury prevention.

An unexpected bonus was the program’s focus on communicating, since being able to talk to clients is crucial.

“That is something that I didn’t really think I would ever be focusing on, but learning how to communicate has given me way more confidence.”

The Personal Trainer program offered many technical skills, but Dallas emphasized the importance of motivation. During the program, he was on his own fitness journey and motivating himself was his way of achieving his goals.

“Personal training really helped me in learning how to manage that motivation, how to maintain that, how to push harder, how to drive myself to keep going even when it’s difficult.”

As he hoped, being a personal trainer has made him a better massage therapist.

“I have another set of skills that I can use to try and help my clients in the long term,” he says. “I can find muscle imbalances way easier and see different things that may be causing problems. It gave me that capability to narrow in, find the issue and correct it significantly faster.”

Since he graduated, his career has taken off.

“I thought I would go to a gym and train people. Instead, I got hired by MaKami College to first be a tutor for the school, eventually moving into being a lead instructor. I teach second-year massage therapy students as well as a cohort in the Personal Trainer program.”

Although he never expected to teach, he loves it. “There’s always something new, and for me, variation has always been key.” He adds, “I think that’s actually what MaKami has taught me the most: how to be flexible and versatile in what I do.”

While Dallas wishes he had started his career in massage therapy and personal training sooner, he loves where he’s ended up.

“It’s never too late to start something new. MaKami is a great place to learn and an amazing place to be.”