When the pandemic first hit and lockdowns began, many industries were hit hard. One of those that has been largely overlooked is the personal training industry. With gyms and other health-related businesses closing down for months at a time, personal trainers were suddenly without a major resource for their careers.
However, the reason this hasn’t made bigger news is that most personal trainers adapted quickly. They started to offer outdoor sessions with social distancing, and most made the move online. That shift to more virtual training sessions might change an entire industry.
Online Success
On hearing that gyms and other fitness premises would have to close their doors, most personal trainers assumed that their business was over. It’s already a challenging role, with constant self-marketing and client sourcing combined with often short customer lifecycles and the ever-present threat of no-shows.
But those personal trainers that went looking for a solution soon found what they were looking for online. And then some.
Many of the personal trainers that started to offer virtual training sessions are contemplating never going back to in-person sessions. There’s a good reason for this: the earning potential is leaps and bounds higher.
When a personal trainer just offers in-person training sessions, they only attract local clients. That’s proven to be a rather small pool of potential clients. By going online, they eliminate geographical constraints. Personal trainers can now teach classes and hold one-on-one sessions from wherever, to wherever.
A Global Opportunity
Personal trainers are finding success online. Without having to travel to meet clients and expanding to a more national or global approach, successful personal trainers are cutting overheads and making life easier for their clients.
The success of a shift to online sessions wasn’t immediate. With thousands of personal trainers suddenly offering online teaching, the big names found their footing first. Smaller, less well-known personal trainers had to compete against those big names, many of whom started by offering free taster sessions.
The competition was high, and staying healthy wasn’t a priority for most people when there were so many other worries in the world. Slowly but surely, though, online personal training took off. For the personal trainers that pivoted to online early, many are now running more sessions with more clients than they ever had pre-pandemic, and the fitness sector is booming once again.
Online training doesn’t just mean expanding globally to find clients. It’s also an opportunity to attract clients who would never even consider entering a gym. And despite needing to be somewhat tech-savvy, those new clients are proving to be a lucrative revenue stream. Those clients can choose to train whenever they want and in total privacy. They experience no gymtimidation and no guilt over their health levels.
It’s Not All Online
The move online isn’t the only saving grace for personal trainers. Many found that the business they spent so long building was threatened, and many personal trainers were wary of offering online sessions. Plenty of personal trainers tried it and found the competition too high.
However, other business models proved to be a success for those personal trainers that couldn’t find their online footing. Home visits became popular, but so too did outdoor sessions. Another popular avenue to explore was a more commercial offering, with trainers providing exercise sessions for large employee teams. Personal trainers had to be creative about new ways to generate an income, and they did so.
Choosing a Personal Trainer
It’s not always easy to find the perfect personal trainer. By using online personal trainers, clients get a lot of benefits. One of the main ones is that online personal trainers will be working hard to ensure they are visible online, with reviews and feedback from previous clients.
Reviews are a great way to create a shortlist of potential personal trainers to work with. But that’s not the only benefit for clients. The fact is that those that choose to have remote training sessions will tend to pay significantly less for their hour of exercising. In-person personal training sessions come with a cost, largely due to the fees that trainers have to pay gyms. With online trainers charging less and able to build bigger client lists, both trainers and clients win in a locked-down world.
The Future of Online Personal Training
It seems likely that even if the pandemic was 100% over tomorrow, a seismic shift has occurred in the personal training industry. Due to its successes and the potential to generate higher profits, online training looks like remaining an option for those who want to get fitter and healthier. When everyone is connected to the internet at all times and loaded with smartphones, tablets and miniature laptops, clients can train anywhere and anytime.
However, that doesn’t mean that in-person personal training is gone forever. Not everyone is comfortable working out with someone who’s just a face on a screen. They seek a personal connection with their trainer. What this means for the future of gyms is uncertain. With online personal training costing less, gyms must adapt quickly.
The Hybrid Approach
Most personal trainers will likely continue to offer a blend of in-person and online sessions. Running larger classes has become commonplace, allowing trainers to earn more within the same block of time.
Adapting to the sudden shifts in a global landscape has been critical for all businesses in the last few years. For personal trainers, the transition was quick and proved to be more successful than they could have hoped. It’s not the solution for everybody, but for those that put the work in, online personal training looks set to become a permanent game-changer for an industry once again on the rise.
David Prior
David Prior is the editor of Today News, responsible for the overall editorial strategy. He is an NCTJ-qualified journalist with over 20 years’ experience, and is also editor of the award-winning hyperlocal news title Altrincham Today. His LinkedIn profile is here.
