Optimizing Client Home Environments to Support Health and Fitness Goals

As a personal trainer, you know that fitness success isn’t just about what happens in the gym or during a session—it’s about the client’s entire lifestyle. One overlooked factor that can dramatically impact adherence, motivation, and results is the home environment. If a client’s space is cluttered, disorganized, or not set up to support their health goals, it creates barriers that make consistency harder.

By guiding clients in optimizing their home environments, you can set them up for success beyond your training sessions. In this article, we’ll explore how you can educate and assist clients in structuring their homes to reinforce healthy habits.


Why Home Organization Matters for Fitness Success

A well-organized home removes obstacles to exercise, nutrition, and recovery. It also reduces decision fatigue, making it easier for clients to stay consistent with their goals.

How Home Organization Impacts Client Success:
  • Encourages consistency – A dedicated workout space removes the mental barrier of “where should I train?”
  • Supports healthier eating – A well-organized kitchen makes meal prep easier and reduces reliance on processed foods.
  • Promotes recovery – An optimized sleep environment improves rest, which is essential for progress.

By addressing these areas, you can help clients create an environment that works for them, not against them.


Step 1: Assess Your Client’s Home Setup

Before recommending changes, take the time to understand how your client’s living space affects their fitness routine. You can ask:

  • Do you have a dedicated workout space, or do you have to clear a spot every time you train?
  • Is your kitchen set up to make healthy eating easy, or do you struggle with meal prep?
  • Do you have an environment that promotes good sleep and recovery?

Encouraging clients to assess their space helps them recognize problem areas and creates an opportunity for you to provide targeted solutions.


Step 2: Helping Clients Set Up a Workout Space

One of the biggest reasons clients struggle with home workouts is a lack of space or accessibility. If they have to move furniture or search for equipment before every session, they’re less likely to stay consistent.

How to Guide Clients in Creating a Home Workout Area:

  • Find a dedicated space – It doesn’t need to be an entire room; a small corner with a yoga mat and dumbbells can be enough.
  • Organize equipment efficiently – Encourage clients to use shelves, bins, or wall mounts to keep gear accessible but out of the way.
  • Create a visual trigger – Keeping equipment in sight (but neatly stored) serves as a reminder to stay active.

By removing friction, clients are more likely to follow through with their training plans.


Step 3: Optimizing the Kitchen for Nutrition Success

Nutrition plays a crucial role in fitness outcomes, and the kitchen setup can either make meal prep easy or frustrating. As a trainer, you can guide clients in making simple adjustments to support healthy eating.

Key Strategies for Kitchen Optimization:

  • Declutter and remove unhealthy temptations – Encourage clients to clean out processed foods and replace them with whole, nutrient-dense options.
  • Set up a meal prep station – Having a designated area for chopping, measuring, and storing prepped meals makes cooking more efficient.
  • Organize food for visibility – Placing healthy snacks at eye level in the fridge or pantry increases the likelihood of making better choices.

A streamlined kitchen setup reduces the temptation to default to convenience foods and helps reinforce long-term dietary changes.


Step 4: Creating a Recovery-Friendly Home Environment

Recovery is just as important as training and nutrition, yet many clients struggle with proper rest and stress management. Their home should support recovery, not hinder it.

Guidance for Enhancing Rest and Recovery at Home:

  • Optimize sleep quality – Suggest blackout curtains, a consistent bedtime routine, and removing electronics from the bedroom.
  • Designate a relaxation space – Whether it’s a quiet corner for meditation, stretching, or foam rolling, having a place for active recovery improves adherence.
  • Minimize clutter – A clean, organized space reduces mental stress, leading to better recovery and focus.

If a client isn’t sleeping well or managing stress, their progress will suffer. Addressing these factors will improve overall performance and results.


Step 5: Encourage Sustainable Organization Habits

A well-structured home is only effective if clients maintain it. Teaching them small, consistent habits ensures long-term success.

Simple Organizational Habits for Clients:

Weekly home reset – Encourage setting aside 10–15 minutes per week to tidy up fitness spaces and meal prep areas.

“One-touch” rule – Teach clients to put items back immediately after use to maintain organization effortlessly.

Fitness-friendly routines – Suggest preparing workout clothes and water bottles the night before to eliminate excuses.

By integrating organization into their lifestyle, clients will reinforce their fitness habits naturally.


Step 6: Maximizing Storage for a Clutter-Free, Fitness-Ready Home

One of the biggest obstacles clients face when maintaining a fitness-friendly home is a lack of organized storage. If their workout gear, meal prep tools, or recovery equipment are scattered and hard to find, it creates unnecessary friction that makes consistency harder. Helping clients implement smart storage solutions ensures they have easy access to everything they need to support their fitness journey.

Best Practices for Storage Optimization:

  • Use vertical space –  From built-in cabinets to modular shelving, these solutions cater to diverse needs while maintaining visual appeal.
  • Designate specific storage zones – A well-organized home gym area, meal prep station, and recovery corner prevent clutter from spreading throughout the house. When storage is used effectively, it creates a harmonious living environment.
  • Implement folding and organizing techniques – Guide clients on how to store workout clothes efficiently to save space and reduce decision fatigue. 
  • Invest in high-quality storage solutions or even hire a professional – Professionals bring a wealth of experience in designing storage systems that accommodate various needs and preferences.
  • Consider design and functionality – Storage solutions should be both practical and visually appealing to enhance a client’s home environment. 

Encouraging clients to improve their storage setup eliminates excuses, keeps their fitness goals top of mind, and creates an environment where healthy habits are easy to maintain. When their workout gear, nutrition essentials, and recovery tools are well-organized, fitness seamlessly integrates into their daily lives.


Final Thoughts

As personal trainers, our role isn’t just about writing workout programs—it’s about setting clients up for success in all aspects of their fitness journey. Helping them optimize their home environment removes unnecessary barriers and makes healthy choices the default.

By guiding clients in structuring their workout space, kitchen, and recovery areas, you can significantly improve adherence, motivation, and overall results. These small changes lead to long-term success and help clients integrate fitness seamlessly into their daily lives.

Encourage your clients to take action, and watch their consistency—and their results—transform.

From the Gym to the Web: How an Online Portfolio Drives Client Engagement for Personal Trainers

The gym is great for a number of things. Aside from getting in shape, it also serves as a means of livelihood for personal trainers. Being a trainer means you get to help people sculpt their dream bodies and build up their fitness and endurance. 

Trainers are very important, especially for bodybuilders looking to compete, but unfortunately, many personal trainers struggle to land and retain clients. 

Beyond having a strong in-gym presence, it’s important that a personal trainer has an online presence as well. Having a website that showcases a trainer’s portfolio is a well-known insider tip that every successful trainer has used to reel in clients.

 If you’re a trainer looking for more clientele we’ll show you just how powerful an online portfolio is in driving client engagement and fueling business growth.

 

Why is an Online Portfolio Important for a Personal Trainer?

Picture this, you’re planning to get your home renovated and you have two choices: a contractor that you’ve only had a word-of-mouth referral for and one who has an impressive portfolio showing how skilled he is in handling your task efficiently. Who would you pick for the job?

The choice is glaringly evident, and it’s the same for personal trainers. Having an online portfolio is basically the same as owning a digital shop. It enables you to flaunt your abilities, expertise, and achievements to prospective clients. 

It not only helps in building trust but also acts as an effective marketing strategy that operates round the clock to draw in prospective clients. Let’s take a closer look and give you a better understanding of how game-changing an online portfolio is for a personal trainer.

 

Building Credibility and Trust with Potential Clients

A trainer doesn’t come cheap. The average rate of a personal gym instructor is almost ten times the minimum wage in the U.S. So if a person is ready to invest their hard-earned cash, they need the assurance that the trainer they’re spending it on is very knowledgeable, trustworthy and can help them achieve their goals.

In addition to building a portfolio website, establishing a strong social media presence is essential for gaining the trust of potential clients. Many trainers leverage influencer marketing platform to showcase their daily activities and connect with their audience.

As a trainer, your personal website should highlight key elements like certifications, testimonials, before-and-after transformations, and workout demos. When these features attract views and engagement, it’s the perfect opportunity to share your expertise across various social platforms.

Here’s how to get started:

First, create business accounts on Facebook and Instagram – Set up professional profiles to showcase targeted content, including videos, posts, and client testimonials. These accounts help you reach a highly relevant audience in an organized and impactful way.  For more useful tips, check our Fitness Mentors Facebook Success Course.

Second, launch a YouTube channel –  Use YouTube to share fitness tips, workout classes, and live discussions about health topics like nutrition and supplements. This platform allows you to build deeper connections by providing valuable content to your followers.

By optimizing your digital presence, you can establish credibility, expand your reach, and grow your fitness business effectively.

keep in mind – the level of transparency helps clients feel more confident in choosing you as their trainer. When they see real results and authentic feedback, they’re more likely to trust your process and commit to their fitness journey with you.

 

Showcasing your Expertise

In the gym, seeing is believing. Engaging visual content in a trainer’s portfolio speaks of their expertise more than words can. Media like high-quality photos showing other clients’ muscle definition and workout demonstration videos can catch the attention of your page visitors. An image enhancer can further refine these visuals, making them sharper and more appealing to potential clients.

Adding a bit of bait to your page by offering videos showing useful exercise techniques or a free customized workout plan that clients can try out themselves to see how effective your training style is.

A big chunk of bodybuilding lies in nutrition and diet. Including infographics on nutrition tips, fitness myths, or progress tracking can really motivate your portfolio visitors and provide valuable insights as to what they should expect on their fitness journey with you.

Simplify your workflow with free training program templates and scripts designed to help you create captivating, professional materials effortlessly.

 

Improving Client Interaction with Communication Tools

Not all clients can have a face-to-face meet-up with their trainer. One great thing about a portfolio website is that it’s easily customizable. A trainer can use their website to be better positioned to connect with clients, answer questions and even accept booking sessions easily.

Your website can have features like contact forms and live chat options, and it can integrate your social media links so clients can check out your pages. Doing this allows visitors to interact and get a better understanding of who they’re dealing with, and it can even help with clients who are anxious about face-to-face meetings. 

Also, for trainers who offer virtual coaching or online programs, adding features like email newsletters, downloadable resources, or even a members-only content section can keep clients engaged and motivated.

 

Attracting More Clients Through SEO

Understanding the power of Search Engine Optimization can help you give your portfolio the boost it needs to beat your competitors and capture the attention of clients. 

When your website is filled with targeted keywords, location tags, and high-quality content, you increase the chances of showing up when potential clients search for personal trainers in your area.

Implementing simple SEO strategies such as backlinking, optimizing images with alt texts, and adding relevant keywords to your bio, services, and blog posts can drive organic traffic to your website, helping you reach a broader audience.

 

Conclusion

An online portfolio is the perfect platform to showcase your expertise, build trust with potential clients, and interact with visitors in meaningful ways. It can help you not only attract new clients but also keep them motivated and connected. So don’t let your skills and passion stay confined to the gym—bring them to the web and watch your client base grow.

How Pilates Can Help Personal Trainers Expand Their Client Base

If you’re a personal trainer, then it goes without saying that one of your goals is to extend your service to a broader client base. The more clients you can attract, the more your business will likely grow and the higher the chances of making more profit.

Now, as a personal trainer, one of the best strategies to attract more clients and retain the ones you already have is incorporating Pilates into the range of fitness services you offer.

Pilates is a fitness trend drawing fanship from a wide range of individuals, making it a potent tool for attracting a broad category of people into your business. But then, just how will Pilates help you expand your client base?

That’s precisely what this blog post is all about. Herein, we examine what Pilates is, its origin, and how it can become a secret success weapon for you as a personal trainer, so keep reading to the end.


What Exactly Is Pilates?

Pilates is a low-impact exercise encompassing repeated controlled movements designed to enhance mobility, core strength, balance, posture, flexibility, and even mood. 

These exercises are usually performed on a mat or other readily available equipment, making them a favorite for fitness enthusiasts who want to improve their overall body health without the necessity to invest in expensive gym equipment.

Developed by Joseph Pilates,  this exercise approach was initially used by injured dancers to help in their recovery. 

However, due to its immense benefits, Pilates adoption extended beyond the dance community. Today, it’s one of the most popular fitness practices, loved by individuals from all walks of life.

The exercises usually follow a particular order, one right after the other, and come with monikers like “the Elephant,” “Criss-Cross,” and “The Swan,” among other exciting names.  The moves usually look simple, but they require a lot of control and precision to leverage their benefits.  

How Pilates Can Help Expand Your Client Base

Pilates is a powerful tool that you can use to gain a competitive edge over your competitors and expand your clientele.

Let’s look at some of the reasons that make it potent for this purpose:

1. Pilates Is Increasingly Becoming Popular

One of the reasons that, as a personal trainer, you need to incorporate Pilates into your service offerings is its increasing popularity. Pilates has been growing over the years, and the rate at which this is happening has increased in recent years.

In the United States alone, for instance, Pilates participants in 2023 were 11.86 million. That was a steep 15% increment from the 10.31 million recorded in 2022, signifying the increasing adoption of this fitness practice. 

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This means for you to attract more clients, you have to offer what’s currently trending in the fitness industry. Otherwise, your potential future clients will seek the service from your competitors.

2. Pilates Suits All Demographic Cohorts

One advantage of the Pilates exercise program is that it is not meant for a specific group of people. It works for all; young and old, male and female, because the exercises are mild yet highly effective in promoting physical and mental health.

Let’s see how these exercises suit different categories of people:

Seniors & Rehab Clients: Pilates has low-intensity exercises, making it ideal for seniors and those facing issues like physical injuries.

Athletes: Pilates can help athletes achieve the flexibility and core strength they need to succeed in athletes. The exercises are also gentle and well-controlled, minimizing the chances of developing much-dreaded injuries. 

Pregnant Women and PostPartum Mums: Pilates focuses on a wide range of exercises that can deliver health benefits to pregnant women and new moms by helping them get the fitness they need.

General Fitness Enthusiasts: Pilates offers all-rounded bodily benefits, making it ideal for anyone seeking general body fitness. For beginners, you can make the exercises more lenient by adopting WallPilates, a version of Pilates that uses the wall for resistance. 

3. Incorporating Pilates Diversifies Your Service Offerings

While traditional training offers a variety of exercises, adding Pilates to your services can diversify your fitness packages even further. That can help draw more clients, considering that not every potential client is interested in the traditional one-on-one training sessions or group fitness classes.

Plus, due to the nature of the movements, Pilates can serve as complementary exercises for traditional training, ensuring that you use a more holistic approach to offering fitness services.

For instance, you can combine Pilates-based workouts with regular strength-building exercises and cardio. This combination forms a well-rounded fitness solution that best addresses the evolving needs of clients.

4. Adding Pilates Can Build Client Relationship

Another reason Pilates can help you expand your client base is its ability to strengthen your relationship with clients. Pilates exercises call for controlled, mindful movements requiring individualized attention and personalized workouts.

The more you get closer to your clients, the higher the level of trust between you, enhancing clients’ loyalty to you. When loyal, clients are unlikely to leave for a competitor, giving you ample opportunity to grow your client base.

Plus, loyal customers won’t just return; they’ll go further to become good brand ambassadors, creating more awareness for your services and recommending them to their close friends.

5. Pilates Can Give You Unique Selling Proposition

As much as Pilates is growing in popularity, not all personal trainers have incorporated it into their fitness packages. That means adopting it into your fitness programs can create a distinction between you and your competitors, making you an ideal target for clients who want uniqueness in fitness programs and those who value exercises that promote the body-mind connection.

 

Professional Development for Personal Trainers

Of course, you just don’t want to incorporate this new fitness program into your existing packages without deep knowledge of how these exercises work. Pilates needs precision, and it’s good to get formal training on the correct way to do these exercises before you begin to offer them to clients. 

So, as a trainer,  acquire the requisite certification. It will enhance your credibility and make it easier for your clients to trust you. Also, don’t stop at the personal trainer certification for Pilates. Stay connected to professional organizations and communities focused on Pilates to stay updated on industry trends and developments.

Marketing Strategies for Pilates Integration

Even with the knowledge of Pilates, you need to invest in creating awareness for your business. In the current world, social media serves as a powerful tool for reaching out to a wider audience. Use it to showcase your Pilates expertise by sharing videos of Pilates workouts, clients’ success stories, and testimonials. Doing this can increase visibility and enhance engagement. 

You can also consider collaborating with health practitioners such as physical therapists to cross-promote Pilates classes. Of course, hosting webinars, workshops, and other Pilates-based fitness challenges can be a great way to reach a more expansive audience and attract new clients.

Using referral programs can also motivate existing clients to bring in new people. You can consider offering free introductory sessions or discounts for referrals who sign up for classes, as this can motivate more people to try this practice.

Incorporating Pilates into your personal trainer’s services can significantly expand your client base. Due to the all-rounded nature of Pilates, these exercises attract a diverse range of clients, from those recovering from injuries to athletes seeking cross-training options. 

By diversifying services and building a unique brand identity around Pilates, you’ll get the distinction you need in the modern competitive market and foster long-term client relationships. With its increasing popularity and broad appeal, Pilates offers personal trainers a powerful tool to grow their business and meet the evolving needs of their clients

 

Understanding Metabolism: Why Your Weight Loss Stalls and How to Fix It

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Metabolism is essentially the process through which our body converts food into energy. Metabolism’s role in weight management is very crucial, impacting everything from calorie burning to energy levels. A well-functioning metabolism means your body can efficiently use calories for energy.

However, several factors, such as age, genetics, and physical activity level, can influence metabolic rates. Understanding these factors can shed light on why you might hit a standstill in your weight loss journey. Moreover, recognizing how metabolism works can empower you to make informed choices. For instance, nutrient-dense foods can give your metabolism the boost it needs to function optimally.

Interestingly, there are now variety of tools that can assist in overcoming common hurdles linked to metabolic challenges. The products aim to support metabolic health, enabling individuals to tackle those frustrating stalls in weight loss. By grasping the science behind metabolism, you can take proactive steps to enhance your weight management efforts effectively.

The Science of Metabolism: How It Affects Weight Loss

Understanding the science of metabolism is key for personal trainers aiming to help clients achieve their weight loss goals. Below is an overview of key metabolic factors and their impact on weight loss, along with actionable insights to guide client programs:

Factor

Impact on Weight Loss

Trainer Tips

Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)

Higher BMR burns more calories at rest, aiding weight loss. Lower BMR makes it harder to lose weight.

Encourage strength training to build muscle mass and boost BMR. Educate clients on balanced nutrition to support their resting energy needs.

Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR)

Higher muscle mass increases RMR, burning more calories even when inactive.

Incorporate resistance training to increase muscle mass. Highlight the importance of recovery for maintaining RMR.

Physical Activity

Increased activity raises overall calorie expenditure, helping create a calorie deficit.

Design workout plans that combine cardio and strength training. Encourage active daily habits like walking or taking stairs.

Genetics

Some individuals have a naturally faster metabolism, making weight loss easier.

Personalize training programs to match each client’s metabolic capabilities. Focus on consistency and celebrate progress.

Age

Metabolism slows with age due to muscle loss, making weight loss harder without strength training.

Emphasize strength training to counteract muscle loss. Help older clients focus on functional fitness and overall health.

Gut Health

A healthy gut microbiome aids digestion and weight management; imbalances hinder weight loss.

Suggest fiber-rich foods, fermented foods (e.g., yogurt, kimchi), and probiotics. Encourage hydration and reducing processed food consumption.

 

1. Calorie Deficit Plateaus

The body adapts to prolonged calorie deficits by slowing metabolism, which reduces the rate of weight loss.

Your Role: Reassess your client’s caloric intake and adjust their meal plan to create a slight deficit again. Incorporate strategies like calorie cycling to keep the metabolism engaged.

2. Muscle Gain Masking Fat Loss

Increased muscle mass from resistance training can offset fat loss, leading to little or no change on the scale.

Your Role: Shift the focus to body composition rather than weight. Use tools like body fat percentage measurements, photos, or clothing fit to track progress beyond the scale.

3. Inaccurate Tracking

Clients may unknowingly underestimate calorie intake or overestimate energy expenditure.

Your Role: Teach clients how to log meals accurately, measure portion sizes, and identify hidden calories (e.g., sauces, oils, or snacks). Recommend using reliable tracking apps or journals.

4. Hormonal Imbalances

Conditions such as hypothyroidism, insulin resistance, or elevated cortisol can hinder weight loss.

Your Role: Be aware of these possibilities and suggest they consult a healthcare professional if weight loss remains stalled despite consistent efforts.

5. Stress and Sleep Issues

Chronic stress and poor sleep increase cortisol levels, promoting fat storage and making weight loss more challenging.

Your Role: Emphasize the importance of stress management and sleep hygiene. Encourage techniques like mindfulness, yoga, or establishing a consistent sleep routine.

6. Metabolic Adaptation

As clients lose weight, their bodies require fewer calories to maintain basic functions, reducing the effectiveness of the initial calorie deficit.

Your Role: Periodically reevaluate their caloric needs. Consider adding high-intensity interval training (HIIT) or strength training to increase energy expenditure and promote muscle retention.

7. Overtraining or Insufficient Recovery

Excessive exercise without adequate recovery can elevate stress hormones, potentially slowing weight loss.

Your Role: Balance their training plan by including rest days and active recovery sessions. Educate clients about the importance of rest for both physical and mental health.

Strategies to Rev Up Metabolism

According to weight loss research studies, boosting metabolism is a key focus to help clients achieve their health goals more efficiently. A well-functioning metabolism not only supports weight management but also enhances energy levels and overall well-being. By incorporating strategies like strength training, balanced nutrition, and proper hydration, fitness professionals can guide clients in maximizing their calorie-burning potential. Understanding the nuances of metabolic health allows mentors to create tailored programs that deliver sustainable results and empower clients to lead healthier lives.

  • Increase Protein Intake: Consuming protein-rich foods increases the thermic effect of food (TEF), requiring more energy to digest and metabolize.
  • Strength Training: Building muscle through weightlifting or resistance exercises increases your resting metabolic rate (RMR), as muscle burns more calories at rest than fat.
  • High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT): Incorporating HIIT workouts boosts calorie burn and enhances metabolic rate even after exercise.
  • Stay Hydrated: Drinking enough water can temporarily increase metabolism, especially when consumed cold, as the body uses energy to warm it.
  • Get Enough Sleep: Poor sleep can slow down metabolism and increase hunger hormones, leading to overeating. Ensure 7-9 hours of sleep per night.
  • Eat Small, Frequent Meals: Eating small meals throughout the day helps keep your metabolism active and prevents large fluctuations in blood sugar levels.
  • Increase Daily Movement: Incorporating more physical activity throughout the day (e.g., walking, taking stairs) helps burn extra calories and keeps your metabolism active.

 

Advanced Interventions for Stubborn Plateaus

If clients continue to struggle, encourage them to explore advanced solutions with medical guidance:

Doctor-led weight loss programs: These programs provide tailored interventions based on individual needs.

Medications or supplements: When appropriate, medications can address hormonal imbalances or metabolic resistance.

Bariatric surgery: For clients with significant weight to lose, surgical options may be a last resort.

How is Elevate Now different?

  • Diagnosis: Elevate Now offers comprehensive blood tests developed by our medical board, assessing over 80 weight-loss-specific parameters, including hormonal profiles, inflammation markers, and metabolic health indicators. These tests are conducted by NABL-accredited labs with the added convenience of at-home sample collection.
  • Expert Medical Guidance: The program includes consultations with M.D. doctors specializing in endocrinology and diabetes management. Led by Dr. Neeta Deshpande, India’s leading obesity expert, our team focuses on ensuring holistic metabolic improvements and safe weight loss.
  • Medical Protocols for Weight Loss Medications: They provide personalized GLP-1 protocols tailored to the Indian population’s unique dietary needs. This includes appetite suppressants, fat blockers, and diabetes-specific medications like SGLT-2 inhibitors.
  • Certified Human Coaches: The certified coaches offer customized guidance in nutrition, fitness, sleep, and stress management, all adapted to local dietary preferences, regional cuisines, and major languages.
  • Affordable, Result-Oriented Solutions: The aim is to deliver results while ensuring clients only pay for necessary interventions. The focus is on providing exceptional consumer experiences at accessible price points.

Supporting Clients Beyond the Physical

A plateau can feel defeating for clients, but trainer’s encouragement can make a significant difference. Help them stay positive by celebrating non-scale victories like increased strength, endurance, or improved mood. With your guidance, they’ll be equipped to push past plateaus and continue progressing toward their goals.

By staying informed and offering personalized strategies, you can be a critical partner in your clients’ weight loss journeys.

Embracing a Sustainable Weight Loss Journey

It’s clear that understanding the science behind metabolic processes is crucial. We explored how metabolism functions and its significant role in achieving weight management goals. Recognizing your basal metabolic rate and how your body converts food into energy can illuminate why weight loss efforts sometimes hit a standstill.

The common reasons for weight loss stalls—hormonal changes, muscle loss, and metabolic adaptation—become more manageable once you have the right knowledge. This is where Elevate Now comes into play. As a supportive tool, it offers practical solutions tailored to address these very challenges. By integrating its benefits into your weight loss journey, you can navigate these hurdles effectively.

Embracing these strategies—whether through diet adjustments, exercise routines, medical assistance with compounded semaglutide, or utilizing helpful supplements—paves the way for a sustainable weight loss journey. Remember, the journey is yours to own, and with the right understanding and tools, success is within reach.

 

How Mental Health Therapy Helps Personal Trainers Overcome Career Burnout

Benefits of a USA Weightlifting Certification

As a personal trainer, you’re passionate about helping others achieve their health and wellness goals. However, the demands of this profession can take a toll on your own mental health. Long hours, high client expectations, and the pressure to maintain a perfect physique can lead to career burnout. 

If you’re feeling exhausted, demotivated, and unsure of how to continue in your role, you’re not alone. Mental health therapy can provide the support and guidance you need to overcome career burnout and reignite your passion for personal training.

 

What are The Signs of Career Burnout in Fitness Mentors

Career burnout is a state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion caused by prolonged stress and overwork. For personal trainers, burnout can manifest as fatigue, decreased motivation, and a sense of detachment from their work. Factors contributing to burnout in this field include long working hours, high client demands, and the pressure to maintain personal fitness standards. Career burnout can manifest in different ways, but common signs include:

  • Chronic fatigue and exhaustion
  • Cynicism and detachment from clients and colleagues
  • Reduced productivity and performance
  • Lack of motivation and interest in work-related activities
  • Increased irritability and mood swings

Research indicates that fitness professionals experience significant levels of burnout. A study found that 32.8% reported personal burnout, 28.5% work-related burnout, and 18.0% client-related burnout. If you’re experiencing several of these symptoms, it’s essential to seek help. Ignoring career burnout can lead to more severe mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety.

 

What is The Role of Mental Health Therapy in Addressing Burnout

Mental health therapy provides personal trainers with the tools and support they need to manage and overcome burnout. Here’s how it works:

Identifying the Root Causes

The first step in mental health therapy is identifying the root causes of burnout. Therapists work with personal trainers to understand the specific stressors contributing to their burnout. This could include work-related pressures, personal issues, or a combination of both.

Developing Coping Strategies

Once the root causes are identified, therapists help personal trainers develop coping strategies to manage stress. These strategies can include mindfulness techniques, relaxation exercises, and time management skills. By learning how to cope with stress effectively, personal trainers can reduce the impact of burnout on their lives.

Building Resilience

Mental health therapy also focuses on building resilience. This means helping personal trainers develop the inner strength to bounce back from challenges. Therapists teach techniques for maintaining a positive mindset, setting healthy boundaries, and prioritizing self-care.

Providing Emotional Support

Having a safe space to talk about their feelings is important for personal trainers dealing with burnout. Therapists provide non-judgmental emotional support, allowing individuals to express their thoughts and feelings openly. This support can be incredibly healing and validating.

 

How Mental Health Therapy Can Help

Mental health therapy can provide a safe and supportive environment for personal trainers to explore the underlying causes of their career burnout. A trained therapist can help you:

  • Identify and challenge negative thought patterns and behaviors
  • Develop coping strategies and stress management techniques
  • Improve communication skills and boundary setting
  • Enhance self-care and prioritize your own mental health needs

A mental health treatment center like Delray Brain Science can provide specialized support for personal trainers dealing with burnout. These centers offer comprehensive therapy programs customized to individual needs, ensuring that personal trainers receive the best possible care.

 

Benefits of Mental Health Therapy for Personal Trainers

Mental health therapy offers numerous benefits for personal trainers struggling with career burnout, including improved mental health by addressing anxiety, depression, and other emotional issues, thereby helping them regain their sense of purpose and motivation. It also enhances job performance by effectively managing burnout, allowing personal trainers to rekindle their enthusiasm for work and achieve better outcomes for their clients. 

Also, mental health therapy promotes a healthier work-life balance, which is crucial for long-term career success and overall well-being.

 

What are The Steps to Take if You’re Experiencing Burnout

The personal training industry faces high attrition rates, with approximately 80% of personal trainers leaving the profession within their first year. If you’re a personal trainer experiencing burnout, recognize the signs such as feeling exhausted, disengaged, or unmotivated, and acknowledge these feelings to seek help. Consider seeking help from a mental health therapist who can provide the support and tools needed to manage burnout effectively. 

Practice self-care by prioritizing regular exercise, healthy eating, adequate sleep, and activities that bring joy and relaxation. Establish healthy boundaries at work to prevent overworking, which might involve setting specific work hours and learning to say no when necessary.

 

Conclusion

Career burnout is a common experience for many personal trainers, but it doesn’t have to be a permanent state. By seeking mental health therapy and implementing practical strategies for managing burnout, you can overcome this challenge and maintain a fulfilling and successful career. 

Remember, prioritizing your mental health is essential to achieving your goals and living a happy, healthy life.

 

Boost Your Metabolism with Strength Training at Home

Benefits of a USA Weightlifting Certification

Metabolism is your body’s engine, converting food into energy to fuel essential functions like breathing, digestion, and movement. It’s not just about burning calories, it’s about keeping your body running efficiently. A well-functioning metabolism plays a big role in how energized and healthy you feel daily. The great news is that your fitness routine can significantly influence it.

Strength training is a powerhouse when it comes to boosting metabolism. Lifting weights or doing resistance exercises doesn’t just help you build muscle, it keeps your body burning calories long after your workout. This happens because your body works hard to repair and grow muscle tissue, which requires energy. Over time, this process can even increase your resting metabolic rate, meaning you’ll burn more calories even while binge-watching your favorite show. Strength training at home offers a versatile and effective way to build muscle, improve endurance, and enhance overall fitness without the need for a gym membership. 

Cardio is another crucial player. While strength training builds muscle, cardio improves endurance and burns calories during the workout itself. Whether it’s a brisk walk, a spin class, or a dance session, cardio keeps your heart healthy and adds variety to your routine.

 

Understanding Metabolic Workouts

Metabolic workouts are an excellent tool for personal trainers to incorporate into client routines. These high-intensity sessions combine strength and cardio into quick, circuit-style workouts, helping clients maximize calorie burn, build strength, and improve overall fitness in less time. Here’s how to use metabolic workouts effectively to help clients reach their fitness goals:

 

What Are Metabolic Workouts?

Metabolic workouts focus on speed, intensity, and functional, compound movements like squats, lunges, or kettlebell swings. Unlike traditional strength training, which prioritizes lifting heavier weights with longer rest periods, these sessions emphasize:

Quick Circuits: Alternating exercises in a seamless flow to challenge multiple muscle groups.

Short Rest Intervals: Keeping rest periods brief to maintain an elevated heart rate.

High-Intensity Effort: Pushing clients to work at or near their maximum effort level.

The result is a high-calorie burn during the workout and an afterburn effect (EPOC), which keeps their metabolism elevated for hours post-workout.

 

Key Benefits of Metabolic Workouts for Your Clients

1. Boosts Metabolism

How It Helps: The afterburn effect allows clients to burn more calories even after their session ends.

Trainer Tip: Focus on high-intensity intervals and compound movements to maximize this effect.

2. Builds Strength and Stamina

How It Helps: Combines muscle-building resistance exercises with cardio endurance for a complete workout.

Trainer Tip: Select exercises that challenge multiple muscle groups simultaneously, such as burpees or push-up rows.

3. Supports Fat Loss

How It Helps: High-intensity efforts torch fat while building lean muscle mass, improving body composition.

Trainer Tip: Periodically track body fat percentage to measure progress beyond the scale.

4. Minimal Equipment Required

How It Helps: These workouts can be done with just dumbbells, kettlebells, resistance bands, or even body weight.

Trainer Tip: Offer home-friendly routines for clients who can’t make it to the gym.

5. Keeps Workouts Fun and Engaging

How It Helps: Circuit-style routines mix things up to prevent boredom and keep clients motivated.

Trainer Tip: Regularly switch up the exercises and formats to keep sessions fresh and exciting.

 

How to Design an Effective Metabolic Workout for Your Clients

1. Select Compound Movements

Choose exercises that work multiple muscle groups, like squats, deadlifts, kettlebell swings, or mountain climbers.

2. Incorporate Time-Based Intervals

Structure workouts around intervals, such as 30 seconds of work followed by 15–20 seconds of rest.

3. Maintain High Intensity

Encourage clients to give their maximum effort during each work interval to elevate their heart rate and challenge their muscles.

4. Adjust for Fitness Levels

Offer modifications for beginners (e.g., bodyweight squats instead of jump squats) and progressions for advanced clients (e.g., adding weights or plyometrics).

5. Monitor Form and Safety

Ensure clients maintain proper form throughout the workout, especially as they fatigue.

6. Plan for Recovery

Balance metabolic workouts with lower-intensity sessions or rest days to prevent overtraining and promote recovery.

 

Practical Examples of Strength Training at Home

Exercise

How to Do It

Beginner Modification

Progression Options

Bodyweight Squats

Stand with feet shoulder-width apart, and lower your body as if sitting in a chair.

Wall squats for added support.

Add weights or try jump squats.

Push-Ups

Lower your body with arms bent, keeping a straight line from head to toe.

Knee push-ups or incline push-ups on a wall.

Standard push-ups or decline push-ups.

Lunges

Step forward, bending both knees to form 90-degree angles.

Stationary lunges for better stability.

Walking lunges or add weights.

Planks

Hold a straight body position on your forearms and toes.

Plank on knees or using an elevated surface.

Longer holds or try side planks.

Dumbbell Rows

Bend at your hips, and pull dumbbells or weights towards your body.

Use water bottles instead of dumbbells.

Use heavier weights or resistance bands.

 

 

Integrating Cardio for Optimal Results with Aroleap

Home gym system is designed to help you combine cardio and strength training effortlessly, making your workouts more effective and boosting your metabolism. Its features are perfect for creating balanced routines that get results.

Smart Resistance for Strength: The eccentric mode adds controlled resistance during the lowering phase of exercises like squats or rows. This means your muscles work harder, helping you build strength and burn more calories even at rest.

Built-In Safety: Aroleap’s spotter mode lets you push your limits safely. Whether you’re lifting heavy or transitioning between strength and cardio moves, it’s there to support you, reducing the chance of injury.

Guided Workouts with Virtual Trainers: Not sure how to mix cardio and strength? Aroleap’s virtual trainers guide you through routines tailored to your fitness level and goals. They keep things interesting and ensure you’re doing exercises correctly for the best results.

AI Tracks Your Progress: The built-in AI tracks key metrics like calories burned, heart rate, and muscle engagement. It gives you real-time feedback and helps you adjust your workouts to keep improving.

Versatile and Dynamic: Switch easily between strength exercises and quick cardio bursts using Aroleap’s resistance settings. It’s perfect for circuit training or creating your combo routines that keep your heart rate up and your muscles working.

With Aroleap, you can make the most of your home workouts, blending cardio and strength training in a way that’s effective, efficient and fun.

 

Your Path to a Boosted Metabolism

Boosting your metabolism is an achievable goal, especially through strength training. Not only does this type of training increase your muscle mass, but it also elevates your resting metabolic rate, which means you burn more calories even while at rest.

Moreover, we explored the benefits of metabolic workouts and their distinction from traditional strength training. Incorporating exercises that combine strength with high-intensity movements can amplify your metabolic response. Additionally, integrating cardiovascular exercises will further enhance your results, creating a well-rounded fitness regimen.

For those looking to embark on this journey from the comfort of their home, practical examples of strength training exercises were shared. These can be easily modified to align with different fitness levels, making them accessible for everyone. The beginning of your fitness path doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Start small, be consistent, and gradually build upon your progress. With commitment and the right balance of strength training and cardio, you are well on your way to improved health and fitness. 

 
 

The Best Apps for Personal Trainers to Stay Connected with Clients

Benefits of a USA Weightlifting Certification


Staying connected with clients has become essential for personal trainers in 2024. With fitness technology booming, apps make it easier than ever to communicate, track progress, and customize workout plans.

From at-home workouts to on-demand classes, the right fitness app can help trainers maintain strong client relationships while enhancing their services.

As the fitness industry continues to evolve post-COVID-19 pandemic, leveraging the best fitness apps is no longer optional—it’s a must. This guide will explore top apps for personal trainers and show how they can improve client engagement and streamline routines. #shareasale


Why Personal Trainers Need the Best Fitness Apps

Personal trainers have always been the cornerstone of health and fitness, but technology now plays a crucial role in delivering results.

Fitness apps allow trainers to connect with clients outside of the gym, making it possible to track progress, personalize routines, and even share on-demand classes.

For trainers aiming to elevate their offerings, pairing a fitness app with additional qualifications—such as a nutrition certification—can deliver a comprehensive approach to wellness.

Apps also help trainers adapt to the shift in workout habits, offering tools like heart rate monitors, exercise trackers, and live-streamed workouts to meet diverse client needs.


Best Fitness Apps for Personal Trainers in 2024


1. Hoola

Hoola is a versatile app designed for personal trainers and clients alike. It offers access to personalized workout plans and on-demand classes, making it easy for trainers to customize routines based on their clients’ goals.

With a user-friendly interface and tools to sync progress across devices, Hoola is ideal for fostering strong trainer-client relationships.

2. Nike Training Club

Nike Training Club is a favorite for many fitness professionals. This app offers both free and paid versions, featuring workout routines for strength training, HIIT, yoga, and more.

Trainers can recommend this app to clients looking for a completely free option while still providing high-quality routines.

3. Peloton App

Although known for cycling, the Peloton app offers much more, including yoga, Pilates, and meditation classes.

Personal trainers can use it to suggest live or on-demand sessions for clients, providing flexibility for at-home or on-the-go workouts. Plus, the app’s free trial lets clients explore its features before committing.

4. Apple Fitness +

Apple Fitness+ is Apple’s exclusive training app designed to work seamlessly with the Apple Watch. It provides access to low-impact exercises, at-home workouts, and yoga workouts, making it perfect for trainers who want to engage tech-savvy clients.

This app also offers on-demand classes led by certified instructors and workout routines that can be customized based on goals.

5. Strava

Strava is a top pick for outdoor enthusiasts, offering tools for tracking routes, heart rate, and outdoor running or cycling progress.

With its ability to sync with Garmin devices, it’s ideal for trainers working with runners or cyclists. Strava’s community features also allow clients to share achievements, adding a motivational edge to any routine.

6. JEFIT

JEFIT is a fitness planner app designed for trainers and clients who focus on strength training and building muscle. It features certified trainers’ routines, weight tracking, and a motivational interface.

This app is perfect for trainers who want to help clients track their progress while sticking to highly structured workout plans.


How to Choose the Best Workout App Based on Your Goals

Selecting the best workout app depends on your needs as a personal trainer and the clients you serve. For trainers focusing on strength training or building muscle, apps like JEFIT are excellent, offering certified trainers’ routines and advanced progress tracking.

Meanwhile, for yoga instructors or those emphasizing low-impact exercises, apps like Peloton and Nike Training Club provide yoga classes and pilates sessions.

For trainers working with outdoor enthusiasts, Strava is a standout option. This app tracks outdoor running and cycling routes, syncs with Garmin devices, and allows trainers to monitor progress in real-time.

Apps designed to be easy to use and adaptable, such as Hoola, are also excellent for trainers working with clients who prefer a mix of at-home workouts and gym routines.

The key is finding an app that matches your training style and gives clients access to features that enhance their routines. With options like live classes, on-demand workouts, and tools to personalize plans, trainers can provide value while streamlining their own workload.


Tips for Getting Started with Fitness Apps

Getting started with fitness apps as a personal trainer is easier than you think. Here are a few practical tips to help you integrate them into your training routine effectively:

Test the App Yourself

Before recommending an app to clients, use it yourself. Familiarizing yourself with the interface, features, and functionality ensures the app meets your professional needs and aligns with your training approach.

Take Advantage of Free Trials

Many fitness apps, like Peloton and Apple Fitness+, offer free trials. This gives you time to evaluate their features, like on-demand classes, progress tracking, or live sessions, before committing to a subscription.

Sync with Fitness Devices

Maximize the functionality of apps by syncing them with devices like Apple Watch or Garmin. This allows you to monitor heart rate, analyze workout data, and provide clients with insights to enhance their progress.

Use Apps to Personalize Routines

Create workout routines tailored to each client’s goals using the app’s tools. Whether they want to build muscle, improve cardio, or practice yoga, apps like Hoola and Nike Training Club make it easy to offer customized and engaging plans.


Why Personal Trainers Should Embrace Fitness Apps in 2024

Fitness apps have revolutionized how personal trainers manage their clients’ workout routines, making it easier to track progress, create personalized plans, and boost motivation.

Whether you’re using a free fitness app like Nike Training Club or investing in the best workout app for advanced features, these tools are invaluable for trainers aiming to enhance their services.

Apps like Hoola, Apple Fitness+, and Strava offer diverse features that cater to different training styles and client needs. By finding the right fitness app in 2024, trainers can not only streamline their business but also build stronger, more engaging relationships with their clients.

As more trainers embrace technology, learning from a fitness trainer who’s thriving in the digital age can provide valuable insight. The future of personal training is here, and it’s powered by apps.

Start exploring the best workout apps today and take your personal training career to new heights!

Best Online Personal Trainer Certification

BEST-ONLINE-PERSONAL-TRAINER-CERTIFICATION

Best Online Personal Trainer Certification

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What Cert is Best for You?

We designed this quiz to help you choose the perfect certification based on your learning style and goals.

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There has never been a better time to invest in a certification as an online personal trainer. 

Not only is the industry as a whole earmarked for expansion — the BLS forecasts a 13% growth rate through 2028 — but the success of brands like Peloton, Mirror, and other online fitness options showcase America’s desire for convenient and at-home training. 

Couple this with the closure and uncertain future of many gyms due to coronavirus and you have a cocktail of opportunity for those trainers who are able to adapt to the times.

That said, it may seem like a no-brainer to get an Online Personal Trainer Certification but therein lies the question: what is the best online personal trainer certification and which is right for me?

Luckily for you, Fitness Mentors has done the heavy lifting for you and compiled this list of the best personal training certifications based on the following objective criteria:

  • Accreditation: third-party certifying bodies who ensure the health, safety, and standards for the industry.
  • Price: the costs associated with the online CPT cert.
  • Mentorship Structure: the interaction you can expect with mentors.
  • Primary Focus of Education: the primary educational focus you can expect from a particular certification.
  • Program Duration: how long the program takes to complete.
  • Location of Certification: the country the certification derives from.
  • Sign-up Process: what can you expect from the sales and onboarding process.

Today we’ll be looking at these popular online personal trainer certification options:

But before we begin, let’s distinguish some very important characteristics of online personal training certifications and personal trainer certifications you can get online. 

Online Personal Trainer Certification VS Personal Trainer Certification Online 

Our focus today is on online personal trainer certifications, or certifications that help you learn how to train clients online. Personal trainer certifications online refer to the standard in-person personal training certifications with online study options. An example of the latter would be the Fitness Mentors Certified Personal Trainer course, a class dedicated to certify trainers with the needed credential to train in-person clients.

Now that we are all clear on the differences between the two, let’s learn more about the best online personal training certifications. 

Related: How to Become an Online Personal Trainer

Accreditation

Accreditation is one of the most important aspects for personal trainer certifications as it sets the stage for trust and authority. Without an accreditation, trainers (and clients) won’t really know if any professional organization has reviewed the certification curriculum to determine its efficacy. 

For consumers, this also ensures their online trainer has gone through the required education to ensure their success and safety. There are certain limitations that exist with an online training environment and a certification helps trainers safely deal with those challenges through additional perspective and understanding of variables — such as form, injury prevention, and communication — that don’t exist as clearly via online mediums.

As it stands today, Fitness Mentors is the only company nationally recognized by the National Board of Fitness Examiners (NBFE), or any other esteemed certification body, to offer an online personal training certification.

Unfortunately, all other online training programs are not third-party reviewed or certified. This is partly due to the fact that online personal training is so new and likely due to the fact that a third-party accreditation is not free for a certification body. Thirdly, most online personal trainer courses are not steeped in science backed information but rather marketability, which makes them unlikely candidates for a third-party accreditation.

Personal Trainer Takeaway: A online personal trainer certification is not a requirement to coach online, however, it does showcase the quality and credibility of a certification as it relates to the trainers and the emphasis on science, business/marketing skills and a college-level curriculum. If this is important to you, the Fitness Mentors Certified Online Personal Trainer is an ideal choice.

Price

The Price includes the cheapest study option and final exam, where relevant. Keep in mind, however, that each of these products is not a formal certification, some are geared to be marketing tools above all else. They are noted accordingly.

Fitness Mentors: $699. Option to add a weekly mentorship program for $199/month.

TribeFit: $3,500 (3 month coaching program). Not a certification.

Online Trainer Academy: $799 for shortened course and $1,999 for complete course. Also offer level 2 Mentorship for a Monthly fee (Estimated at $400-$1000 per month)

Online Trainers Federation: Their bare bones intro course (not a certification), OC 101, is $199. It only runs twice per year, with the goal to upgrade you to the Elite which is estimated to run $300 – $600 per month.

PT Distinction University: Various courses with a la carte pricing. $1,100 for complete course package. Not a Certification.

Personal Trainer Takeaway: There are a lot of options for courses and the depth of the educational options are reflected in the costs. If you are just looking for one-off courses on very specific knowledge, the PT Distinction University has the lowest barrier to entry in terms of cost. You’ll sacrifice depth of knowledge here, however. If you are looking for in-depth knowledge from the ground up on how to become an online trainer, create a business, and market it, the most comprehensive courses are the Fitness Mentors COPT and Online Trainer Academy.

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What Cert is Best for You?

We designed this quiz to help you choose the perfect certification based on your learning style and goals.

Mentorship Structure

Today’s trainers may feel a bit overwhelmed when trying to take in all the components of online training. In addition to knowledge in program design, physiology, injury prevention, and client achievement, certain aspects of online training can be particularly challenging.

For example, learning how to set up your business for online training, taking your business online if you have existing in-person clients, learning how to generate online leads, and caring for clients via online mediums can be a struggle for many trainers unaccustomed to these challenges. 

Each program may have different approaches in terms of access to mentors versus having students solely rely on the digital assets they are provided. 

The Fitness Mentors Certified Online Personal Trainer has roots in college-level curriculum creation and has established real trainers as mentors into its program. In addition to access to instructors via phone or email, students can also leverage Facebook support groups to ask questions and help them gain real-world understanding of course contents.

TribeFit is thought to provide email access to a competitor. It was difficult to find any info on the site. 

The Online Trainer Academy also provides direct access to fitness business mentors via online chat and phone, as well as engagement with Facebook. Their Level 2 appears to have a weekly mentorship call, but exact information is not posted on their site.

Online Trainers Federation: Students have access to a Facebook group with non-paying students and paid students as well as the option for a weekly call that is only included in the Elite Program. Difficult to find any info on the site.

PT Distinction University has little to no mentor interaction as it seems the entire suite of coursework is built into their bundles or modules.

Personal Trainer Takeaway: The concept of online personal training can be daunting for some and access to real mentors invaluable in determining success. For trainers who are interested in a legit point of contact that is dedicated to your understanding of important concepts, opt for a certification with access to mentorship. 

Primary Focus of Education

As you can imagine, there is a lot of overlap in terms of some of the education you’ll take away from each course. Rather than focusing on the similarities, below is an overview of what makes each program unique: Fitness Mentors Certified Online Personal Trainer: Fitness Mentors’ COPT goes in-depth on business structure and learning how to build and sell an online business based on one of the six business models online trainers use (or the combination of the six). Additionally, they provide info and all templates on nutrition programs, online assessments, structuring memberships, affiliate programs, and other monetization models. Also included are brandable program design templates so you can start training immediately online. TribeFit: TribeFit’s focus is on marketing your business and building out your online training sales funnel. Difficult to find any further info on the site. Online Trainer Academy: OTA provides access to a physical textbook (digital as well) that some students really like. Their course also includes sales scripts, social media scripts and other documents that you can use to operate your business. Online Trainers Federation: OTF is geared towards health and fitness professionals that have experience with in-person clients but want to help scale their business to service online clients. They admittedly mention that if you are not a coach already, the program probably is not for you. PT Distinction University: PTDU provides students access to modules they can leverage as they see fit. A particularly unique option is the course with access to previously recorded webinars from fitness gurus. Personal Trainer Takeaway: Each trainer is unique in their approach and goal with online personal training. Those that want a ground-up baseline for building and scaling their business should go for one of the programs that focus on all aspects of online training such as FM COPT or the OTA. If you are a trainer that is more concerned with marketing an existing online business then TribeFit, OTF, or PTDU may be a better fit.

Program Duration

Program duration refers to how much time it takes to complete the course or the investment of learning you can expect from each course.

  • Fitness Mentors: 60-80 hours or one to two months, self-paced.
  • TribeFit: 3 months
  • Online Trainer Academy: 32 hours of content, self-paced.
  • Online Trainers Federation: 2 weeks for OC 101 introductory course. Elite course is continuous weekly meetings.
  • PT Distinction University: A la carte courses with varying lengths, self-paced.

Personal Trainer Takeaway: Consider the length of the course into your final decision as it relates to how quickly you may be able to monetize online training. However, consider that the more knowledge-rich courses will obviously demand a greater time investment for good reason.

Location of Certification

The Location of Certification refers to the country where the certifying company is located.

Fitness Mentors: USA

TribeFit: AUS

Online Trainer Academy: Canada

Online Trainers Federation: Canada

PT Distinction University: UK

Sign-up Process

We found that many courses have a considerable amount of salemenship involved in the sign-up process. Some students interviewed did not like that they were pressured to purchase a course via a sales call and preferred the straightforward approach of an easy checkout process. In the Online Training Education industry sales calls are used for very high ticket products to try and build the most value. 

  • Fitness Mentors: Open enrollment, start when ready, proceed at your own pace. No pushy sales calls.
  • TribeFit: Introductory call and then a sales call.
  • Online Trainer Academy: Open enrollment, start when ready, proceed at your own pace. No pushy sales calls.
  • Online Trainers Federation: Enrollment once every six months for intro course. Sales call required for the Elite program.
  • PT Distinction University: Open enrollment, start when ready, proceed at your own pace. No pushy sales calls.

Personal Trainer Takeaway: When it comes to the online world, many of us like it because it is convenient. Numerous students we spoke to strongly disliked having any sort of sales calls involved to get started with a course and preferred options where they could checkout online and interact with mentors on an as-needed basis.

Online Personal Trainer Certification FAQ

How do I become an online personal trainer?

To become an online personal trainer it is advisable to first have a certification in personal training. Then, it is up to you to choose the type of online training you want to offer clients and how to market your services.

How much should I charge for online personal training?

The amount you charge for online personal training greatly depends on the service you offer, your experience as a trainer, competitor rates, the economy, the target population of your services, and your cost to train a client.

How big is the online personal training and coaching space?

There are 330,000 personal training jobs forecast in the US by 2026. The exact number practicing online training is unknown.

What is the most effective approach to starting an online personal training business?

The best approach to starting an online personal training business is to transition your existing in-person clients over to online clients. This allows you to get better at online training and expand your existing services to further monetize existing clients rather than starting from scratch.

Is online training as good as in-person training?

Online training has many advantages over in-person training including: time-savings, flexibility, recording options, cheaper training sessions for clients, sharing of digital assets (meal plans, DIY workout programs, etc). They are different but can be equally effective in terms of client  results.

So What is the Best Online Personal Trainer Certification?

The best online personal trainer certification is the one that is best for you. Each course has its own unique product position as well as educational focus. Some focus on the full stack of knowledge you’d want to know about understanding the industry, focusing on a niche, and building a business from scratch. Others assume you already have training experience and are just adding another element to your offerings in the digital space. Other certs focus extensively on marketing and bypass business development fundamentals altogether.

At the end of the day the choice is a subjective one. You have to ask yourself what you want to get out of an online personal training certification and then find the course that works best for your specific goals.

If you have any questions about any of the courses we covered or want to provide some suggestions based on your experiences with the course, please leave them in the comments below.

Instructor

CEO of fitnessmentors.com – Teaching 30,000+ students how to become CPT’s


BS Kinesiology, NASM-CPT, CES, PES FNS, MMAS, WLS, FM-CPT, ACE-CPT, Master Personal Trainer

Eddie Lester is the founder and CEO of Fitness Mentors. With more that 17 years experience in the health, fitness and athletics field, he has helped tens of thousands of personal trainers transform their careers and reach their business goals. With a background in Kinesiology and Exercise Physiology Eddie has assisted in research that is spearheading the exercise science field.

His in-depth knowledge of the Health, Wellness and Fitness industry has earned him a place as a regular contributor on high profile sites such as the Personal Trainer Development Center, (Dan to list top sites) online where he writes about nutrition and personal training.

His contributions to help personal trainers include a weekly blog, podcast, youtube channel and multiple books including: Business and Sales: the Guide to Success as a Personal Trainer.

Eddie’s Philosophy often times includes focusing on the bigger picture in which daily positive contributions lead to a major impact on himself, his family, his community and the world.

Eddie is commonly found at the beaches of Southern California with his wife Courtney and five kids.

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Top 5 Exercise Science Careers and The Best Education Paths

Exercise Science Careers
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Watch Our Video: Best Exercise Science Careers – Are you considering an Exercise Science degree?

Are you considering an Exercise Science degree or asking yourself “what can you do with an exercise science degree?” to help plan for your future?

Whatever your stage in life — consideration, current Exercise Science student, or recent grad — this post is for you. 

Be sure to take our quiz too!

As a previous Exercise Science graduate, I can give you a little taste of the college route (as well as other education paths) and provide insight into the options for Exercise Science careers.

But first, let’s define what Exercise Science is.

What is Exercise Science?

Exercise Science describes the study of the body under the stress of exercise including acute and chronic adaptations like the effects on overall health parameters, pathologies, and its potential to reduce, or reverse, disease progression.

Some other areas of study within Exercise Science vertical that you might see at various educational institutes are:

  • Kinesiology
  • Fitness & Health
  • Exercise Physiology
  • Biomechanics
  • Exercise Nutrition

You can also expect a strong educational emphasis in the areas of anatomy, physiology, chemistry, biology, and oftentimes, physics.

What can You Do with an Exercise Science Degree?

If there is one thing I want to emphasize about studying Exercise Science is that the majority of careers in the field require additional graduate school coursework. Yes, that is worth repeating.

Exercise Science is a common prerequisite for graduate level programs in careers such as:

  • Doctor (MD)
  • Exercise Physiologist
  • Registered Dietician
  • Occupational Therapist
  • Physical Therapist
  • Physician Assistant

The important takeaway here is that for most, the bachelor’s degree in and of itself does not get them to the career that they want. Additionally, and as I will get into more below, the career you want might not require a four year college degree in Exercise Science.

However, if you are interested in some of the above careers that require education beyond a B.S. degree, by all means continue on the path that makes the most sense for you.

I emphasize this point because I have met many people who studied Exercise Science in college only to find that they either did not realize they needed additional education to get the career they wanted, or realized there were quicker, more affordable ways to get into the career they wanted.

That said, listed below are some careers that you can get without additional education after your Bachelor’s in Exercise Science degree, including:

  • Athletic Director
  • Community Program Director
  • Massage Therapist
  • Recreation and Sports Director
  • Sports Coach
  • Sports Facility Manager
  • Strength and Conditioning Coach

Provided below are the most popular career paths in Exercise Science, which may or may not include a college education, are below.

Top 5 Exercise Science Careers

Personal Trainer

By far, the most common career path chosen by people looking to have an Exercise Science career, as well as who are currently studying Exercise Science, is personal training.

The benefits of a career in personal training are numerous and can even be aligned with that of any of the other careers on this list.

For starters, you don’t need to get a bachelor’s degree to become a personal trainer. In fact, there are five separate ways you can become a personal trainer, ranging from certification from accredited companies, to vocational college, to university programs, to online options, and internal gym programs.

If your heart is set on becoming a personal trainer it certainly would be helpful for you to understand your options for certification beforehand.

Now, I am certainly not knocking university or college-based personal training certification options — I got my B.S. at a university and was a college instructor afterward — but I do understand that it may not be an option for everyone.

But what if you want a career that requires a college degree? Would it still be beneficial to consider a personal training certification?

Let’s say you choose any of the aforementioned education routes for your career in Exercise Science: college degree or not.

Either way, you can benefit from a personal training certification no matter what route you take. If you are wanting to have a career as a personal trainer, you can get certified in as little as two to five months and start making money right away.

If you are in college and are studying Exercise Science, it is still a good idea to get a personal training certification because you can begin gaining experience within your career immediately and can even pay for your education, through your personal training income.

For example, while I was in college I used my personal training certification to my advantage. I was able to train clients around my school schedule given the flexibility of the career. This provided me industry experience, but also allowed me to pay my way through college.

I also became certified as an Online Personal Trainer and trained clients through the internet, which gave me even more freedom to complete my studies and enjoy the college experience. 

Top 5 Reasons Personal Training is a Popular Exercise Science Career

So, no matter what your long-term goals are, getting a personal training certification can help in the following ways:

  1. Puts money in your pocket
  2. Allows you to gain experience in the Exercise Science field
  3. Helps pay for college (if you are shooting for a B.S., or advanced degree)
  4. Provides a strong foundation to further your exercise science studies

Top 3 Personal Training Certifications

Below are the best certification options to choose from:

  1. NASM
  2. Fitness Mentors
  3. ACE

Physical Therapist

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), a career in Physical Therapy has some very promising advantages.

For starters, the median pay approaches $90,000 per year, is expected to grow 28% by 2016 (which is much faster than average), and consistently ranks as one of the best jobs in healthcare for work-life balance.

Physical therapy jobs tend to require a DPT degree, although some may accept a master’s degree. CostHelper.com says that doctoral physical therapy degrees can cost $35,000 (such as the doctorate in physical therapy at the University of Illinois at Chicago), or much more for out-of-state students, such as The University of Delaware’s doctoral program which costs over $75,000. That is on top of the money you spend for your bachelors degree.

Athletic Trainer

Athletic trainers also rank high on this list as the profession is similar in scope to that of personal trainers, yet requires a formal bachelor’s degree in a specialized program and the passing of a state licensure exam. Athletic trainers have a median income of $46,630 per year according to the BLS, and have a rapid rate of employment at 23% when looking out to 2016.

One of the coolest things I find about athletic trainer careers is that they often work alongside athletes within educational settings such as colleges of universities.This often means these professionals are the ones who work hand-in-hand with some of the best up-and-coming athletic talent in the country.

They can also work with younger students, within hospitals, or even for professional sports teams.

Exercise Physiologist

With a median pay of just under $50,000 per year, and a faster than average job outlook, a career in exercise physiology is a popular choice for many looking to put their Exercise Science degree to work.

This type of career typically requires a Masters in Exercise Physiology, which on average takes 6 years of total college time as well as requires board certification through the American Society of Exercise Physiologists.

Another interesting aspect of this career is that about half of all exercise physiologists are self-employed. So if you have an entrepreneurial spirit and enjoy the freedom of owning your own business, you may be able to do well in this career.

PE Teacher

According to ZipRecruiter, PE teachers make about $42,500 per year. While this is the lowest salary on this list, you have to remember that these teachers tend to have summers off and benefit from all school holidays as well as teacher pensions.

Typical education requirements for this career include a bachelor’s degree in exercise science as well as a teaching credential or a masters in education. Often times a personal training certification will enhance the likelihood of employment as well.

We also can’t forget that PE teachers get to hang out in gym clothes all day, coach fun sports like kickball and dodgeball, and even be physical fitness role models for many of their students.

Granted there is some give and take for each of the professions on this list in terms of knocking off all the boxes of the most ideal career, but the daily life of the PE coach can be very rewarding.

Boot Camp Instructor

Boot camp instructors are personal trainers who lead group fitness classes that are usually based on military-style training methods. However, in some cases, instructors may unintentionally display behaviors related to relational aggression, such as belittling or excluding participants to create a sense of competition or control. These actions can negatively impact group dynamics and participants’ overall fitness experience.

Exercise Science Degrees and Educational Considerations

As we have learned above, not all careers within Exercise Science require a full-fledged bachelor’s degree. Similarly, we’ve learned that many sought after degrees within Exercise Science require advanced degrees such as master’s or doctoral degrees.

With that in mind below is a comprehensive list of the many careers and their educational obligations. Note that some of these careers may overlap in multiple categories.

Exercise Science Careers that don’t require Degrees

  • Personal Training
  • Aerobics Instructor
  • Fitness Coach
  • Gym Manager
  • Massage Therapist
  • Physical Therapy Assistant

Exercise Science Careers that require Bachelor’s Degrees

  • Athletic Director
  • Community Program Director
  • Kinesiologist
  • Massage Therapist
  • Athletic Trainer (ATC)
  • Physical Education Teacher
  • Recreation and Sports Director
  • Registered Nurse
  • Sports Coach
  • Sports Facility Manager
  • Strength and Conditioning Coach

Exercise Science Careers that require Master’s or Doctoral Degrees

  • Doctor (MD)
  • Exercise Physiologist
  • Chiropractor (DC)
  • Registered Dietician
  • Occupational Therapist
  • Physical Therapist (DPT)
  • Physician Assistant
  • Exercise Physiologist
  • Physical Rehabilitation

FAQs for Exercise Science Careers and The Best Education Paths

The most common way to make money with an Exercise Science career path is personal training. While personal training doesn’t require a degree, those who get certified are able to put money into their pockets quickly and build a strong foundation for further career advancement.

Exercise Science generally offers courses in Anatomy, Physiology, Kinesiology, and Nutrition. Jobs can range from personal trainers and strength and conditioning coaches to physical therapists and physician assistants – so Exercise Science can be lucrative.

Not quite. Kinesiology is a more broad study that focuses on human movement and its effects on an individual’s health. Exercise Science is a sub-field more fine-tuned into learning and influencing human responses to exercise.

Bachelor’s degrees will open you up to mid-level jobs in the fitness industry. Examples of these degrees include Bachelor’s in Sports Management, Health Sciences, Nutrition Science, or Health and Wellness. Graduate degrees, like master’s and doctorate, qualify for higher-level positions. These programs might include a master’s in Exercise Science and Wellness or Human Performance, an MBA in Health Care Management, a Ph.D. in Education for Sports Management, or a medical degree in Sports & Athletic Management. While personal training only requires a certification, you can also get an associate’s degree in Exercise Science, giving you a solid foundation to start personal training.

 

Closing Thoughts on Exercise Science Careers

You should now have a better idea of what you can do in the exciting field that is Exercise Science. For many, a bachelor’s degree at a college or university is the path that they will take to become educated in the many areas of movement and exercise. For others, the bachelor’s is just a stepping stone for a more advanced degree as in the case of physical therapy, physician’s assistant, or doctoral paths. Others may be surprised to learn there are many rewarding careers in Exercise Science that do not require a college degree, and the most popular career in this field, a certified personal trainer, demonstrates that.

When considering your education and career path, keep in mind the following:

  • The education required
  • The financial commitment
  • The time investment
  • The typical salary
  • Your passion for the career

With these considerations in mind, you should be able to paint a great picture of where you want your career to take you.

What is your experience with jobs and education in the Exercise Science niche? Is there any tip you wish you knew before you started your studies or career? Let us know in the comments.

Personal Trainer Salary: Which Gyms Pay the Most?

Personal Trainer Salary  Which Gyms Pay the Most

There are numerous ways to make money as a personal trainer, but unquestionably the most common way is to start working at a gym.

If you are looking to get certified as a personal trainer, check out our blog on the best personal training certification.

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What Cert is Best for You?

We designed this quiz to help you choose the perfect certification based on your learning style and goals.

If the most common question I get asked about personal training is what certification to get, the second most common question has to be “how much can I make as a personal trainer?”

There are numerous ways to make money as a personal trainer, but unquestionably the most common way is to start working at a gym. I started my career as a personal trainer by working at Equinox and 24-Hour Fitness. 

Also be sure to join the conversation with hundreds of fitness pro’s, six-figure personal trainers, fitness mentors and coaches on our discord here:

When people first consider becoming a trainer they begin to think about the major gyms and how much they pay. And as much as certification bodies like NASM want to tell you that their average trainers make $42k a year, the reality of a personal trainer salary ultimately lies in what the gyms will pay as this is the most common career route.

However, the gym route is not the only one and many existing or aspiring trainers want to venture into the more entrepreneurial routes of private, or online personal training, as higher income levels are more easily achieved.

So, to help trainers understand what popular gyms pay their trainers and to showcase some insider knowledge on what private and online trainers can make, I’ve put together this post that outlines personal trainer salaries as well as what trainers at the most recognizable gym brands around the country get paid, and how they set up their payment structure. Overall this blog answers the question, “how much can I make as a personal trainer?”.

I’ll also discuss the three pay structures that are common to trainers and provide you with next steps from a seasoned personal trainer who has gone through the experience of getting a gym job first-hand as well as utilized the private and online routes.

Before You Get Paid, You Have to Get Certified

First things first, if you want to work in personal training or at a big box gym like 24-Hour Fitness, Equinox, LA Fitness, or the like, you’ll need a personal training certification from a credentialed fitness organization.

Gyms want their trainers to get, or have, certifications, because they provide a baseline for credibility.

We have written a very comprehensive blog on the best personal trainer certifications where you can take a look at our side-by-side analysis of 10 different, popular personal training certification organizations. If you are unsure the exact steps to become a trainer and the prerequisites — education, age requirements, CPR/AED certifications — then check out this post on the topic.

Keep in mind that many gyms may hire you before you get a certification, and some will even have you go through their internal certification, so if you have a gym in mind for your place of employment it doesn’t hurt to ask what their requirements are first. Note that a true personal training certification will allow for a job at a much wider range of locations than just that one gym, something you’ll want to consider as your career evolves.

But before you enter the personal training employee marketplace, it pays to know some of the various pay structures that are common within the personal training industry so you know what to expect going in.

3 Types of Gym Pay Structures Common to Personal Trainers

When you begin your search for gyms that will provide you gainful employment, you can expect the pay structures to fall into one of these three categories:

1. Commercial gym
2. Independent personal trainer
3. 1099 personal trainer

1. Commercial Gym Pay Structure

In the gym world, the gyms who make you get clients and don’t feed them to you will generally pay the most. The opposite is true too; the gyms that feed you clients will generally pay you the least.

Commercial gyms will typically pay you minimum wage to “work the floor” and try to drum up new clients. Once you are actually training clients, you’ll get a bit more per hour as you are increasing the gyms revenue by performing a training session. If you sell a large personal training package, commercial gyms will often give you a commission.

2. Independent Personal Trainer Gym Pay Structure

Independent pay structures, or those that pertain to the self-employed personal trainer, are much more favorable to the trainer, but the negative is that they are obviously not as exposed to as many potential clients as they would be on the floor of a major gym, and are only getting paid when they train.

When you are self-employed, or an independent personal trainer not on a gym’s payroll, you may be able to develop relationships with smaller, privately-owned gyms that will allow you to bring in your own clients.

The catch is that you have to pay the gym a fee when you use their gym to train your client. For example, I used to pay a privately-owned, non-chain gym $15 a session to bring my client in and train them.

I could ultimately charge my client whatever I wanted, and had no pressure from any boss to sell more training sessions as it was entirely up to me.

Keep in mind that with this independent structure, you are running your own business, which means you are responsible for additional tasks like accounting, taxes, marketing, advertising, sales and lead generation.

Related: How to Set a Pricing Structure for Your Personal Training Business

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3. 1099 by a Gym Pay Structure

The 1099 model is similar to the self-employed trainer model except the gym has a relationship with the clients. A 1099 is a tax form given to an independent contractor as opposed to a W2 which is given to employees.

In this pay structure, the gym does not actually employ you as a personal trainer, but they contract with you so that they can make money on personal training and alleviate themselves from the costs of having an employee.

The 1099 model is like when you hire a plumber to come fix your broken toilet; they are getting paid for their service but they are not your employee.

In the contractor payment style, the personal trainer and the gym typically get a split, like 50/50, on whatever the gym charges. So, if the gym charges $60 for an hour long session, they’d keep $30 and you’d get paid $30. The gym collects the money from the client and then will pay you, the trainer, for the session performed.

With this type of structure the personal trainer will be responsible for claiming taxes on the money they make, as the gym does not set aside any income since the trainer is not an employee.

Now, you may be asking yourself, “how do I know what kind of payment structure the gym I want to work at has?” Excellent question, let’s address that below.

How Popular Brand Name Gyms Pay Their Personal Trainers

While I could have left you hanging with the above information on the three various pay structures that are common for trainers who work at/with gyms, I wanted to do a deeper dive and get some answers from real trainers who work, or have worked, at some popular gym chains.

The Fitness Mentors team reached out to several gyms chains and their current employees, as well as conducted a survey with our current and previous students on Facebook, to get currently used payment structures and insight on how various gyms pay their trainers. We have provided that information below.

If you have any experience with these gyms or would like to comment on something different, please feel free to let us know in the comments so we can update this post. 

Equinox logo

Equinox Personal Trainer Salary

Non-training payment:

Floor hours at minimum wage – typically 20 hours a week until your client base grows.

Payment structure:

Less than 42 sessions per pay period (2 week pay period):

  • Tier 1: $26 per one hour session
  • Tier 2: $30.50 per one hour session
  • Tier 3: $36.50 per one hour session
  • Tier 3+: $45.50 per one hour session
  • Tier X: $64 per one hour session

More than 42 sessions per pay period (2 week pay period):

  • Tier 1: $31 per one hour session
  • Tier 2: $42.50 per one hour session
  • Tier 3: $53 per one hour session
  • Tier 3+: $61 per one hour session
  • Tier X: $74.50 per one hour session

The average full-time trainer at Equinox performs 25-30 training sessions per week.

Equinox Income Potential

Equinox Income Potential
24 Hour Fitnesss Logo

24-Hour Personal Trainer Salary

Non-training payment

Minimum wage for non-training hours.

Payment structure:

  • 20% Commission on all individual personal training package sales paid up front.
  • 10% Commission on all TC24 group training package sales.

Also, a 5% bonus commission is added to total salary when 60 training sessions or more are performed in one pay period.

24-Hour Personal Trainer Salary 24-Hour PT Tier Structure and Associated Pay per Session:

24 Hour PT Tier Structure and Associated Pay per Session

24-Hour Bonus Structure per Training Session:

24 1

24-Hour Fitness Commission for Package Sales:

24 2

24-Hour Fitness Tiers:

24 3

24-Hour Fitness Salary Example for Entry-level Personal Trainer

An example monthly salary of a new PT 1 trainer that is building up their business at 24-Hour Fitness is shown below:
  • Example minimum wage is $10/hour
  • 120 hours worked in the month at $10/hour = $1,200
  • 60 training sessions performed in the month x $7 = $420
  • $2,500 in training package sales x 20% commission = $500
  • Total Monthly Salary = $2120

24-Hour Fitness Salary Example of a Master Trainer

An example monthly salary of a full-time Master Trainer:
  • Example minimum wage is $10/hour.
  • 160 hours worked in the month at $10/hour = $1,600
  • 120 training sessions performed in the month x $17 = 2,040
  • $5000 in Training package sales x 20% commission = $1,000
  • Monthly Salary = $4,640
  • 5% commission added to the monthly salary of $4,640 since more than 60 sessions per pay period were performed = $232
  • Total Monthly Salary after 5% bonus commission= $4,872
la fitness logo png 3 1

LA Fitness Personal Trainer Salary

Non-training payment

Minimum wage for non-training hours.

Payment structure:
$6 – $7.50 per 30 minute session
$12 – $15 per 1 hour session

$7.50 – $15 is for larger cities with higher cost of living like in Los Angeles.
$6 – $12 is for less populated, lower cost of living areas like Arizona.

Other findings:

No findable bonus structure. Trainer turnover is very high.

Every person in the Facebook group concurred that LA Fitness is a less than ideal place to work as a trainer, but a few people mentioned they pay their group exercise instructors significantly better.

anytime fitness

Anytime Fitness Personal Trainer Salary

Non-training payment: 

Varies

Payment structure:

Varies, these are franchised gyms and each one has a different pay structure. 

Answers varied on payment structure for the trainers we surveyed:

  • 50/50 split 
  • Minimum wage plus bonuses to sign people on to monthly training packages 
  • Trainers can increase income by teaching group exercise classes

Other findings:

Collective agreement that Anytime Fitness is an enjoyable place to work. They are 3,000-5,000 sq ft gyms with only 5-10 trainers per location.

crunch fitness

Crunch Fitness Personal Trainer Salary

Non-training payment:

None
 

Payment structure:

These are franchised gyms and each location may have a different pay structure.

Here are some quotes from Crunch Fitness trainers concerning their salary. Answers varied on payment structure:

I’m only paid for hours trained and commission on sales. I’m not paid while trying to get clients.”

“I work at Crunch. Mine is a level 3 gym but because I just started I’m at level 2 for a few months. If I charge a la carte the client pays $80/hour or $50/30 minute session. Depending on my sales volume I can make between 40% and 65% of what I sell. I’m given “potential clients” but I have to sell them the personal training sessions. There’s not a sales force like at LA Fitness but the income potential is much better. I set my own hours and can work whenever I like. They encourage me to sell package deals which requires a 3 month commitment from the client. They are not allowed to cancel. Money is debited from their account either monthly or biweekly. They can also get a discount if they pay in full. For level 2, if you wanted to be trained 2x week, it would cost $504. For 3x week $697. Those are monthly rates for hour long sessions. Level 3, of course, is higher and most of the trainers at my gym are level 3. We have about 17 trainers. It’s a great place to work! Just takes time to build your clientele.” 

ymca 3 logo png transparent

YMCA Personal Trainer Salary

Non-training payment:

Minimum wage is paid when not training. 

 

Payment structure:

Basically, YMCA trainers make $15 – $28 per session/hour depending on their tier. 

We were able to find some training salary data for YMCA but it is just for the Charlotte, NC area. I assume that cities with higher costs of living would be accounted for in pay (and vice versa for smaller cities), but we were unable to find any other data on that.

The information for YMCA trainers and their tiers can be found below, respectively:

  • Tier 1 Trainer– Pay Rate: $15.89 – $19.86; Responsible for training a minimum of 2 sessions per week; Responsible for working the fitness floor 4-8 hours per week for initial 3 months
  • Tier 2 Trainer– Pay Rate: $17.48 – $21.85; Responsible for training a minimum of 5 sessions per week; Responsible for working the fitness floor 4-8 hours per week for initial 3 months
  • Tier 3 Trainer– Pay Rate: $21.00 – $26.24; Responsible for training a minimum of 10 sessions per week; Responsible for working the fitness floor 4-8 hours per week for initial 3 months
  • Tier 4 Trainer– Pay rate: $22.89 – $28.61; Responsible for training a minimum of 20 sessions per week; Responsible for working the fitness floor 4-8 hours per week for initial 3 months; Serve as a Continuing Education Provider for YMCA of Greater Charlotte teaching at least 1 workshop per year; Serve as a mentor to Tier 1-3 trainers

Other benefits include:

  • YMCA pays for all the trainers CEUs

  • The “Y” also pays the trainers’ recertification fee – approximately $100 every two years
539119d901c6b76668f4227f51378a6a

Planet Fitness Personal Trainer Salary

Non-training payment

Full-time minimum wage positions. 

Payment structure:

Typically no higher pay for trainers, but it is an easy job that requires no sales and just training. Decent for beginners looking to gain training experience but not really career-worthy. No commissions. No bonuses. 

Personal Trainer Salary FAQ

Yes, making good money as a personal trainer is very viable. Even entry-level personal trainers can make upwards of $25 an hour, and easily up to $100 an hour if they are experienced.
Our research indicates that personal trainers make anywhere from minimum wage up to $75 an hour, at more prestigious gyms. Private personal trainers can make even more per hour, charging up top $100 an hour.
The typical beginner personal trainer starts off their career in a gym as opposed to training private clients. On average, personal trainers make around $42,000 per year but the salary can vary by city, with more urban areas commanding higher salaries.
Personal training is a great career choice because it is constantly ranked highly for providing an excellent quality of life, flexible work hours, and a solid work-life balance.
Yes, many trainers that put in hard work can make $100,000 or more a year as a personal trainer. Personal trainers that take their businesses online also benefit from higher incomes as they can sell services while they sleep and are not limited to the available hours in a day as are in-person trainers.
No, it is not difficult to get a personal training job once you have a personal trainer certification. Many gyms are actively hiring personal trainers and the health and wellness industry as a whole is forecasted to continue its growth trend.

Private Personal Trainer Salary

It is a well known fact that private personal trainers have the potential to make far more than gym trainers.

Why? Because private personal trainers can set their own rates.

There is a catch for private personal trainers, however, and that is that they have to drum up enough business to write their own paycheck. But before we get into a sample private personal trainer salary let’s define exactly what a private personal trainer is.

A private personal trainer is a trainer that is self-employed, creates their own work schedule, and is free to choose the clients that they work with. For many personal trainers, this is the end goal of their personal training careers and is what sees some trainers working with celebrities and making big bucks.

Unlike gym trainers, private personal trainers don’t get help from the gym or get funneled clients from fitness organizations. They utilize their own networking, sales, and marketing skill sets to drive leads and ultimately generate new clients.

For that reason, many private personal trainers struggle to make a decent income. You can’t simply get a personal trainer certification and expect leads to come your way. (Check out this course to learn how to build your business and get clients). This is also why so many trainers start out in the gym, get experience, make relationships, begin taking on private clients on the side, and eventually leave the corporate gym environment behind.

 

How Much Do Private Personal Trainers Make?

A respectable private personal trainer can make upwards of $70,000 per year.

Compare this to the full time salary of a respectable personal trainer at 24-Hour Fitness which would likely fall in the low $40,000 range. And by respectable I mean one with a couple thousand hours of sessions under their belt and training 20-30 sessions per week. This low $40,000 range is also commensurate with what NASM says their average trainer makes.

For example, a 24-Hour Fitness trainer in their middle tier (PT3) makes $13 an hour when training. If you compare a potential salary of an entry-level trainer at 24-Hour Fitness, $22,440/year, to that of a Master Trainer at 24-Hour Fitness, $58,464, and split it down the middle (which is more or less where a PT3 would be), you’d get $40,452.

Now, let’s compare the above salary of a gym trainer to that of a private personal trainer.

The average private personal trainer in the U.S. charges around $50 session. Let’s say this trainer works a total of 30 hours per week and making $1,500 in that time. Multiple this time the weeks in a year, 52, and you have a respectable private trainer who is making $78,000 a year.

Potential Salary of Private Personal Trainer

  • Charges $50/session
  • Works 30 hours per week (sessions)
  • Makes $1,500/week
  • Makes $78,000/year

That same trainer can charge $100 a session, work 15 hours a week, and make the same salary.

Gym trainers typically have to work a lot more hours than private personal trainers for a fraction of the salary which is why private training is often the more desirable route. But as we’ll learn, private personal training is not the only way to make money as a trainer outside the gym.

Interested in getting a CPT with an emphasis on entrepreneurship and business development? Check out the FM-CPT for more info.

Next Steps for Aspiring Personal Trainers

Now you know what you can potentially make when you become a personal trainer at a gym. With this information, you may understand the gyms you want to work at and those you potentially want to stay away from.

One thing that should be clear with this information is that personal growth equates to more money as revealed by the tier systems many of these gyms have. The goal of continually developing yourself as a personal trainer is so you can build your book of business and generate a better income for yourself.

If you are interested in becoming an all-around better personal trainer and business-savvy individual, check out my book and online course I’ve made specifically for hungry self-starters looking to earn the income they deserve: Business and Sales: The Guide to Success as a Personal Trainer.

In addition to understanding which gym to kickstart your career, you’ll still want to have an understanding of which personal trainer certification is right for you. Amongst the three most popular certifications are Fitness MentorsNASM and ACE, of which we cover side-by-side in this in-depth blog post

If you liked this post or want us to try and find additional information, please let me know in the comments. If you have experience at other big brand gyms and want to share the salary information, please help us educate other personal trainers by sharing your thoughts below.

Instructor

CEO of fitnessmentors.com – Teaching 30,000+ students how to become CPT’s


BS Kinesiology, NASM-CPT, CES, PES FNS, MMAS, WLS, FM-CPT, ACE-CPT, Master Personal Trainer

Eddie Lester is the founder and CEO of Fitness Mentors. With more that 17 years experience in the health, fitness and athletics field, he has helped tens of thousands of personal trainers transform their careers and reach their business goals. With a background in Kinesiology and Exercise Physiology Eddie has assisted in research that is spearheading the exercise science field.

His in-depth knowledge of the Health, Wellness and Fitness industry has earned him a place as a regular contributor on high profile sites such as the Personal Trainer Development Center, (Dan to list top sites) online where he writes about nutrition and personal training.

His contributions to help personal trainers include a weekly blog, podcast, youtube channel and multiple books including: Business and Sales: the Guide to Success as a Personal Trainer.

Eddie’s Philosophy often times includes focusing on the bigger picture in which daily positive contributions lead to a major impact on himself, his family, his community and the world.

Eddie is commonly found at the beaches of Southern California with his wife Courtney and five kids.

NASM Reviews: Personal Trainer Certifications – CES, CNC, PES, WLS, MMAS, GPT, YES, WFS, SFS, GFS

NASM Reviews  Personal Trainer Certifications

NASM Reviews: Personal Trainer Certifications –

CES, FNS, PES, WLS, MMAS, GPT, YES, WFS, SFS, GFS

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NASM Reviews

Certified Personal Trainer, CPT The NASM-CPT is the most widely chosen certification among fitness professionals, making it the most widely accepted in the industry. As a future personal trainer it is important to align yourself with the most reputable certification and we believe that NASM is just that, which is why we are giving you an objective way to learn about NASM reviews. 

The way that you receive your CPT credential is by passing the NASM CPT Exam. This is done by learning the information from the NASM CPT Textbook that is most relevant to succeeding as a personal trainer. NASM will provide you with education packages ranging from $800 – $2500 dollars, but most people agree that their education is confusing, which is probably why the pass rate is at 79% (proctored/accredited) and 90% (non-proctored/non-accredited). 

The best and least expensive way to pass their exam and learn the information you need to be successful, is by taking our Free NASM Study Course (we use to charge $500 for this course) and then purchasing the exam and textbook separately. Our course goes into specific detail regarding what makes it onto the test so you can better prepare yourself for what to expect. The course also adds real world experiences and examples that teach you how to use the material to train your clients more effectively. Whichever way you chose to learn, the NASM certification should be your top choice as it is accepted at almost any training facility.

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Other NASM Reviews for Specialty Certifications

Extra Credentials are like super setting your favorite two body parts, it pumps you up! (insert Arnold voice). When you are already a NASM Certified Trainer, I highly recommend focusing your continuing education on sales or sticking with their other certifications, as they transfer to equal the amount of CEU’s you need to recertify (1.9 CEU’s + 0.1 CEU for CPR). When choosing your additional certs, think purpose. What credential is going to make you more valuable to the type of clientele you want to attract? Below is an honest breakdown:

Corrective Exercise Specialist, CES

Train people in pain

The CES certification is far and away NASM’s best cert, as you will learn extremely applicable information. It forces you to understand origins of pain and how to fix it. My biggest concern with my training was learning how to always progress in strength, athleticism and body image, while avoiding any training associated injury. Here’s the truth, if you don’t have perfect flexibility and muscle balance, you are on your way to finding injury. In the CES materials you learn about all the mobility issues that can lead to these injuries. Beyond this, the value you can build knowing and understanding your clients’ pain is immense. Imagine you look at the most basic movement patterns of someone in their everyday life and are able to tell them about how their overactive Pec Major is giving them that shoulder pain they have been dealing with for months. They are blown away. Another great thing about this cert is that the test you have to pass, which is NASM’s hardest by far, makes sure you have completed your studies and understand these difficult topics. All of this combined makes the Corrective Exercise Specialist Certification a true educational experience that is held to the highest standard.

Certified Nutrition Coach, CNC:

With a huge mess of information out there on nutrition, it is extremely important to be able to differentiate the good from the bad. When put simply we can say things like, avoid processed food; eat whole foods; avoid Trans fats, but we need to understand why these things are important. The Certified Nutrition Coach by NASM takes a detailed college level textbook and goes to town on understanding everything you need to know about PRO, CHO and FAT, as well as all of the vitamins and minerals, what they do and where to get them. Although there is no definitive way to eat (some may argue otherwise), being able to analyze the true nutritional content of what you are eating and understand why you are eating it, the knowledge gained through the Certified Nutrition Coach will help you to boost your own and your clients’ fitness goals.

Performance Enhancement Specialist, PES

Unless you are planning on focusing your fitness career in sports specific training or you are a competitive athlete yourself, the Performance Enhancement Specialist may be of little use. The market for sports training is not a large one, and typically caters to high school and college aged clientele, which usually don’t have room in their budget for private training.  It’s not too frequent that business men come to personal trainers looking to become a better running back or shortstop. In review of what you are learning there are great things about the PES. Through the assessments chapter you are introduced to some great sports specific assessments that can expand your repertoire when considering performance as a goal. Also they have a great Olympic Lifting chapter that is essential to understand for improving explosiveness and power in sports that have those needs. Same goes for the plyometric chapter. If you like understanding concepts behind why these types of training will benefit athleticism, then the science based information throughout the book will be a great resource. Overall the PES is great, but remember it has a very specific and small market. Certifications to explore that will benefit your sports based training knowledge would be the USA-Weightlifting’s (USAW) Sports Performance Coach and National Strength and Conditioning Association’s (NSCA) Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist. These certifications are very focused on the college and pro level setting and it would not be easy to carry out their training programs in your typical commercial gym.

Weight Loss Specialist, WLS

I may sound a little harsh towards this certification, only because they beat the law of thermodynamics to death (calories in vs calories out). When will NASM jump off the government recommended nutrition band wagon and realized there is more to altering body composition; ie. Hormonal OptimizationMacronutrient Ratios, and eating low inflammatory profile foods to name a few. Unfortunately they don’t discuss any alternative methods to weight loss, and just repeat what you already know, to slightly more detail. I do have to say that having this title will make you sound great, but recognize your investment in furthering your education provides little return.

Mixed Martial Arts Specialist, MMAS

Is this your target audience? Then get it. Similar to the Weight loss Specialist, if you expect to get great insight into how to train someone like MMA fighters you are understandably misled. Mixed Martial Artists are athletes and you are better off applying the PES principles to understand and program toward the demand of the sport, rather than take them through circuit training with added kicks, knees and elbows. I really only see this as a clever way to capitalize on the recent MMA influenced fitness training boom. Once again the education is lacking, so the title is all you’re really paying for.

Group Personal Training Specialist, GPT:

 Did you know that no gyms require you to have this to train their group exercise classes? I can only see this benefiting you in a few ways; one of them being that you’re starting a boot camp or private group class and want to bring attention to the fact that you are qualified, and the other being that you really suck at training groups and you need more insight, which is unlikely. If you fall into one of these categories I guess you could try it?

Women’s Fitness Specialist, WFS:  

If this is your target market, adding this certification may be of value. It dives a bit deeper into the uniqueness of female clients including monthly cycles and hormonal factors. Sounds okay but you decide. I will be waiting for the Men’s Fitness Specialist to arrive. Any day now…

Youth Exercise Specialist, YES

Teach them how to play and perform speed, agility and quickness drills. Once again if this is your target market it may hold value. The special considerations for youth can be found in chapter 16 in the NASM Essentials of Personal Fitness Training Textbook. The additional information in this cert does not add to much benefit beyond what the basic standards are for youth training.

Senior Fitness Specialist, SFS:

Great title if this is your main focus for your business. Besides that your money is better spent on the CES, learning ways to address musculoskeletal pain.

Golf Fitness Specialist, GFS

Do you already kick ass at golf? Is this your Target Market? I love golf. If you love golf this does provide some great baseline knowledge for you to build upon in the real world, but check out the Titleist Performance Institute if you are serious about getting to golf training.

Highly Recommended: CES, CNC, PES

Honorable Mention: MMAS, WLS 
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Convinced NASM is the way to go?

Your next steps for NASM certification:

  1. Get Fitness Mentors’ Free NASM CPT Study Course
  2. Begin Your Studies Using the Fitness Mentors’ 4 & 8-week Study Timeline
  3. Purchase NASM’s Cheapest Study Package Here
  4. Begin Your Career as a NASM Certified Personal Trainer!

Written by:

Eddie Lester BS, NASM-CPT, CES, PES, FNS, WLS, MMAS, GFS, YES, SFS

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