This blog for the most part as of right now has been talking about personal training, the different types of trainers, who to listen to for health and fitness advice, and some basic things that personal trainers do.
Well, today is going to be no exception.
In the final post of the personal trainer insight series that we have been going through, I want to dive into detail about the nitty gritty of personal training and what exactly we do on a daily basis, what do the sessions look like, where does our pricing come from, what service options there are, and help you along and be more educated on all aspects of personal training, if you have any questions up until now.
Let’s get started
As we have talked about numerous times before, personal trainers provide workout programming and some nutritional guidance along the way to not only help you out with the fitness side, but also the health and nutrition side. This is about the extent that the majority of trainers take when working with their clients, which is not always the wrong way to do it. To give you a better idea on how most trainers operate, below will be a basic schedule that most full time trainers follow:
6:00 am - Start with First Client
7:00 am - 12:00 pm - Lunch
1:00 pm - 8:00 pm - Training
8:00 pm - Programming and Relaxing
Now, this is after a few years of a trainer building up their schedule to get them to be super busy, but this is not always the case. As you may notice, most trainers start really early in the morning and they usually go for long days every single day in the week. The reason for that is the majority of clients that trainers have also have jobs, so they may need to work out at 5 pm and not be able to come in at 2 pm when you are free. This allows for your schedule to free up during the day if needed, but these are just the basics.
Now, some trainers may not take the time during the day and program for their clients and just have a template in their head that they work off of based off of the clients goals and go from there. This is not always the best option, but depending on the knowledge of the trainer this may be something that works for you.
Most trainers will take time in their day and program out the workout for you. Sets, reps, weight, rest time, all may be logged and taken with you when you are working out. The only issue you run into is if a client becomes sick or is not able to show up, now your programming may be thrown off and will have to be changed up in order to receive the results that are needed.
This is now where I talk pricing, and I have to be blunt with it.
Personal Trainers charge what they are worth. Since training is not a 9-5 job that is guaranteed hours, there is a lot that can change with clients showing up along with the trainer being sick and not able to get paid for that day. So, trainers will start to charge a little more for personal training along with leaving clauses in just in case someone cancels last minute on a session.
Since there is no guarantee, trainers are at a disadvantage when clients are sick, on vacation, or just not feeling up to working out because that is money that they lose at the end of the day. So, when you are there and you are working out, you may have to pay more just because of that uncertainty or pay a select amount up front before you start training. There also could be cancellation policies in place to where the client still needs to pay the trainer if they cancel less than 24 hours before their session.
Not only is the job of a personal trainer so uncertain, a lot of money and time is put into certifications, degree, and books for experienced and high quality trainers to expand their knowledge and develop their unique training style. When you see $75 for a session or $150 a month for online training, you may just see that price and not even know the worth behind it. People don’t realize the degree that you may have gotten, how good you are with people, the multiple years of experience and happy clients that you have under your belt, or the sheer determination of you wanting to continue to learn and read and grow as a trainer and as a person.
A lot of times, people judge the price of a service before they know the worth. This is where we try to change that mold and we try to show our worth to our clients through our work and through our fitness assessment and through getting to know you so that you have a better idea of who we are and why we are good at what we do.
Now, along with the payment you do get more services that are not listed above. Like mentioned earlier, for majority of trainers they will give you workouts and nutrition advice and that is the extent at the end of the day. Where we separate the good from the great trainers is how much more they are willing to add on.
For example, Blades Fitness and Performance is unique in the way that we look at habits you have every day and take the approach of modifying or changing habits before writing something down concrete. The reason for this is because everyone has lives and everyone is different, so if we work with you on the smaller things and work our way up, we are covering all the bases that we need to. We are also one of the only trainers out there that help you with your sleep. How can you get more sleep, what does good sleep look like, what is your bedtime routine, things that people don’t necessarily think of when it comes to health and fitness. Recovery is one of the biggest components in making sure we accomplish our goals, so why not help you out with that portion? We are also one of the only people out there in the personal training and fitness industry that will allow you to be more flexible with your diet, being able to eat what you want with some modifications of course and also accomplish the goals that you want.
Majority of the time, trainers will try to sell you on chicken, rice, and vegetables. While this is good for some people, not all the time will everyone just want that every single day. Burgers, pizza, fries, dessert is always out there and always something that people want. If trainers can workout, eat well 70-80% of the time and then go out and eat like that then why can’t anyone else? My brother and I will be the first to tell you that we eat burgers and fries, we eat pizza, we eat things that people think is unhealthy, but we also workout and eat right outside of those times. We also get enough sleep, we drink the right amount of water, we have healthy habits.
Setting yourself apart in the personal training and health industry is hard, there are a lot of “weight loss gimmicks” out there with outrageous claims of helping you lose 20 lbs in a month. This is not healthy to do nor is it possible to do. Many times these products are out there to get people interested in just spending money so the company can make money. There is no benefit for you because the body does not work like that. Due to this, people give up because there is no way to get slim fast. While we understand that everyone wants to lose weight fast and be happy and healthy quickly, health and fitness is a marathon and not a sprint. Personal trainers got healthy and slim through hard work and discipline over the course of a couple years, this is unfortunately the only way that we as humans are able to make these sustainable changes
While I am trying not to discourage you from starting health and fitness, this is how the human body works. People will make products to sell you something so they can make money with no sheer benefit to you. Trainers will provide you programming and constant support, with added on benefits depending on the service you go with, not just for the money.
Great trainers are there to help you reach your goals, help you feel and look better, and also help you mentally turn into the person you want to be. Us getting paid just allows for us to make a living doing what we love, which is helping people reach their health and fitness goals.
For the majority of the rest of the blog, we will be getting into some athletic performance and strength and conditioning things along with some useful tips that will allow for you all to have some resources to reference when you are working out and have some things on your mind that you can either change or add to your daily regimen.