Founders

Joe Antouri Built PROPTA on One Idea: Let Athletes Teach the Trainers

Joe Antouri started the Professional Personal Trainers Association in 1980, as a teenager. Forty-six years later, the founding idea is still the business model.

By Vianka PetinesNovember 14, 20264 min read

Joe Antouri greeting bodybuilding publisher Joe Weider with a kiss on the cheek in 2008
Joe Antouri with Joe Weider, co-founder of the International Federation of Bodybuilding, in 2008. Photo courtesy of Joe Antouri / PROPTA.

Joe Antouri was still a teenager when he started a business to teach other people how to train. He had not yet won a major title. What he had was a conviction, formed in a gym a few years earlier, about who should be doing the teaching. Forty-six years later, that conviction is still the business model.

Quick answer

Joe Antouri is the founder and CEO of the Professional Personal Trainers Association (PROPTA), a Los Angeles certification organization he started in 1980. He built it on one idea: trainers should learn from professional athletes. The company now offers courses in several formats and languages, including to people in prison.

Key takeaways

  • Antouri founded PROPTA in 1980, ten years before he won the AAU Mr. USA title in 1990.
  • The company is built around one rule: professional athletes teach the trainers.
  • PROPTA sells the same certifications several ways: classroom, one-on-one, online, home study and correspondence.
  • Antouri wrote the textbooks himself, which keeps the curriculum in one voice.

Where did Joe Antouri get the idea for PROPTA?

Antouri was born in Lebanon in 1961, and his family left for the United States during the turmoil there. He took up weight training at 17. “When I started at the age of 17, I weighed 105 pounds at 5’6″,” he writes on PROPTA’s website.

The person who finally helped him add muscle was a professional bodybuilder. “He knew exactly what to do,” Antouri writes. That experience became the founding premise of his company. In his view, athletes who have competed for years “know how to work with anyone and everyone,” whatever a client’s size, age or fitness level.

He kept competing while the business grew. His competition record lists wins at Mr. Los Angeles, Mr. Southern California and Mr. California, and the AAU Mr. USA title in 1990.

Instructors demonstrating a leg machine to students during a PROPTA academy session in a gym
A hands-on session at a PROPTA academy in 2009. Photo courtesy of Joe Antouri / PROPTA.

How is PROPTA’s business built?

PROPTA sells certification. A student can train to become a personal trainer, a nutrition consultant, a sports performance nutrition specialist or a coach, and the courses come in several formats: a classroom academy, one-on-one sessions in person or over video, online courses and home study by mail. A Spanish-language personal trainer course runs alongside the English one.

Antouri wrote the textbooks his students use, which keeps the curriculum in one voice. He says they are published in eight languages.

The company has also taken its academy abroad. Its website lists affiliate pages for countries including Japan, India, Canada, Kuwait and Norway, and its event gallery shows academies held in Japan and Mexico.

One format stands apart: correspondence courses for people in federal and state prisons, with online study during reentry. Antouri says PROPTA has offered them for nearly two decades.

Large group of PROPTA academy students in matching shirts posing in a gym in Mexico
A PROPTA academy class in Mexico. Photo courtesy of Joe Antouri / PROPTA.

Why does the founder still answer the phone?

A company that has run for 46 years could easily have become impersonal. Students’ reviews on PROPTA’s site describe the opposite. Several mention Antouri answering their calls and emails himself and following their progress through a course. PROPTA says its office takes calls seven days a week.

For a founder, that is a choice about where to spend time. Antouri has spent his on the students, and the reviews suggest they notice.

What can other founders learn from Joe Antouri?

  • Build on one belief you can defend. PROPTA’s premise fits in a sentence, and every course follows from it.
  • Sell the same thing several ways. One curriculum reaches students in a classroom, at home, online, in Spanish and in prison.
  • Own the core material. Writing the textbooks gave Antouri control over quality and a product that travels.
  • Stay close to customers. Even at this age, the founder is the one on the phone.

Antouri sums up the mission in a line he repeats often: “Education gives you freedom and a future.”

Frequently asked questions

Who founded PROPTA?

Joe Antouri founded the Professional Personal Trainers Association (PROPTA) in Los Angeles in 1980. He still runs it as chief executive.

What does PROPTA sell?

Certification courses for personal trainers, nutrition consultants, sports performance nutrition specialists and coaches, taught in classrooms, one-on-one, online and by home study.

Who teaches PROPTA courses?

Antouri says PROPTA uses professional athletes as instructors, on the view that people who have competed for years know how to train every kind of client.

Related reading on Booked Impact

Sources

Competition results, career history and program details are as stated by Joe Antouri and PROPTA. Photos are courtesy of Joe Antouri / PROPTA, from propta.com.

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Written by

Vianka Petines

Vianka Petines is a contributing writer at Booked Impact with a gift for creative flair and the colorful details that make a story come alive. She also covers music and entertainment for The LA Note, where she is one of the most prolific contributors. Away from the keyboard, she's happiest helping her family and playing with her pets.

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