Online Personal Training pt. 2
This blog will offer some insight into the pros and cons of live personal training and what I offer as an online surrogate. The main point is to assure clients are informed as to the strengths and weaknesses of each option and to be able to guide their investment appropriately.
Time
Live personal training is an appointment-based service that is reliant upon both client and trainer finding a mutually convenient time for that hour. This means that for a given client’s lifestyle, work schedule, or preferences, they may have difficulty finding a trainer that meets those needs. In a pursuit where minimizing barriers to success is paramount, inconvenience for a client does play a factor.
Alternatively, online personal training is 100% fluid. Presuming a reasonable level of accessibility on the part of the trainer, the client is free to set their own workout schedule as the trainer won’t be present for them at all. The trainer serves as a knowledge resource and post-hoc technician for the client, meaning the client can weave their workouts into their lifestyle free of consideration for a trainer’s schedule.
Financial
Personal training is a financial investment, no matter what level of training you are engaged in. Live personal training is a financial investment in the trainer’s intellectual property, time (for the hour of training itself, prep, and travel time if necessary), and likely overhead for any facility that may be offering the personal training service. Typically, these services are a premium (or luxury) expense for those that are opting to buy-in. Not everyone can afford the price-tag of live personal training.
As there is no in-person component, online personal training costs are significantly lower than live personal training. A live personal training package may run the client anywhere from $400.00 - $600.00 per month, whereas, many online personal trainers may charge as little as $100.00 – $200.00 per month depending on the degree of engagement they will provide. All things considered, although less engagement (more personal responsibility for the client), online personal training is significantly more affordable than in-person.
Knowledge
Knowledge is a tricky topic to compare. In a world full of pseudo-certifications and the general wild west of regulation, it may take some time to find the trainer that’s right for you. A laundry list of certifications still may not offer a client the ticket to their success. For all of my qualifications, I too have fallen short with some clients. A balance of experience in the field, experience in their own training, and academic achievement is typically required to establish name-brand credibility. If you don’t immediately understand the value of a listed qualification – ask.
That said, arguably more important for a client, is the trainer’s ability to translate their knowledge. Their ability to actually train. In live scenarios a client is going to receive ongoing, immediate, feedback. A live trainer can use a wide array of cues or teaching methods to get a client to learn the right technique, whereas, an online trainer must be much more effective at teaching these physical skills as they will be attempting to do so via satellite.
In general, knowledge is a bit of a wash. The best trainers are the ones that successfully use what knowledge they have in order to progress their client. A marble mouth trainer that you see in person is no better than generic coaching feedback from your online coach. The ability to actually teach is what matters in either context.
Motivation / Accountability
This is a wildcard. Individual clients require different levels of accountability. Some need to have every single session booked with a professional in order to actually complete them, whereas other clients simply need to know that a coach is monitoring their training routine and it will keep them from skipping out. A highly motivated client that that needs to be pointed in the right direction would benefit tremendously from online personal training; however, a client that will not set foot into the gym without an appointment is literally lighting their money on fire unless it’s investing in live personal training. And vice versa.
Available Equipment
Available equipment is more important in the age of quarantine bunker workouts than ever before. Depending on the client’s goal and available equipment, online personal training is either absolutely perfect of a complete waste of money.
My experience helping clients make training ends meet during the initial wave of COVID-19 lockdowns involved a lot of pro-bono work as charging someone for resistance band workouts leaves a lot to be desired. It’s hard to promise huge strength or hypertrophy gains when all we have to work with is a bunch of therabands.
It goes without saying that investing in live personal training (typically in a commercial gym) will have all the equipment you’d need for a wide range of goals – the same is obviously true if you take on online personal training with access to a commercial gym. However, if you’re working out from home (in absence of a home gym), it’s on the skill and integrity of the online trainer to decide if they should take you on or not.
Keeping these introductory blogs in mind, part 3 will give a specific overview of my current online service for your consideration.
Best,
Eric