Why Fitness Trainers Should Offer Online Personal Training

The fitness industry is evolving all the time. Workout class and training options are available for every fitness goal or fitness level. This exciting career has so many benefits! A personal fitness trainer can build their business with in-person sessions in a gym or in-home personal training clients. However, there is a growing opportunity to create workouts for clients all over the world with an online personal training business. There are many reasons why every fitness trainer should offer online personal training!

No Personal Trainer Certification Yet? Start There!

If you're not yet a certified personal fitness trainer, you definitely want to start there! Whether you plan on working in a fitness facility or for yourself, the process is the same. Being a certified personal trainer means you've learned the basics of anatomy, exercise physiology, the principles of program design, and a little about nutrition. Certification is a tough process, but well worth the benefit of knowing how to help your clients from the day you begin work as a personal fitness trainer. While a degree in exercise science is not necessary to earn your certification or create an effective training program, a fitness professional with advanced knowledge is going to have a slight advantage. Just know that there are tons of credentials available to expand the knowledge of every personal trainer!

Top Benefits of Online Personal Training

The benefits of moving your personal training business online (in full or in part) are many! You will get to be a health coach to people all over the world and share your training program, increase your client base, keep a flexible schedule, and get out of the gym from time to time! Being a successful online fitness coach takes more than just a love of training.

Online Personal Trainers Can Reach Clients in Every Corner of the Globe

When you take your business online, you can reach people all over the world! Your online marketing, content, and programming can reach anyone with access to the platforms you are on. Online personal training is a unique opportunity to hold clients accountable, challenge them, and motivate them without even being in the same space.

Grow Your Personal Training Client Base

Once you've reached the masses with your content and training philosophies, you will have a massive pool of potential personal training clients to pull from. Regardless of the niche of client you work with, there is a way to effectively train them online. One-on-one training sessions can be completed via video calls or a workout app. Apps and websites are great options for an online personal trainer. You'll create workouts, programs, and check-ins online and the client logs in, completes their workout or task, and the app sends you a notification when they have completed it. The trainer doesn't have to be available at the same time as the client! Talk about flexibility for both you and your client.

Group sessions can be easily offered in a virtual training environment as well. For example, you have a group of 10 senior clients from different states. You can create a training session at a set time where they all log on and complete it together on a video conference with you at the helm. The same can be done with general population, youth, and even nutrition coaching clients!

Make More Money as an Online Trainer!

As you grow your client base, guess what? You are sure to make more money! The end goal in any job is to make the money you need to support your lifestyle and, if you're lucky, afford a nice vacation every now and then. The more clients you help, the better your reputation becomes. A trainer with a good reputation for getting results will get client referrals. The growth curve is infinite!

Speaking of vacations, an online personal trainer can still work with clients from a beach somewhere in the Caribbean! The biggest drawback of in-person fitness training is that a personal trainer doesn't make money if they are not servicing sessions. Vacations become difficult, if not impossible, for many trainers.

Build a Training Schedule with Flexibility

With clients potentially in many time zones, this can be a lot to juggle. However, your personal training service doesn't have to offer only live video sessions! Create a personal training package specifically for those who want video sessions and offer them during times that work for you. Offer another training package within a workout app or via email where the client has their assigned trainings and can complete them on scheduled days. This option doesn't require you to be immediately available to the client.

Change Your Environment

As an online trainer, you have the flexibility to get outside of the confines of a gym and out into the fresh air! Video sessions can technically be completed from anywhere—the gym, a park, or even your living room. Beat the monotony of daily one-on-one sessions and have some fun! This will keep not only you, but your clients engaged and enjoying their workouts more.

The Finer Points of Online Personal Training

Making the transition to online personal training has to be a calculated step. There are several things to consider and think through as you make the change. First, answer these questions: How will you market yourself? How will you communicate with clients and what services will you offer? What will you charge? Will you use personal trainer software to manage your business? How will you complete necessary training protocols like assessments and weigh-ins?

Marketing Your Fitness Business

Second only to the time spent training clients, an online fitness coach will spend most of their time marketing. This is more than just offering free sessions or creating a sale. Marketing is how you present yourself to current and prospective clients. This includes your email communications to email lists, social media posts and content, and networking with other fitness professionals.

When marketing yourself to be hired as an online personal trainer, remember to tell people about the flexibility, accountability, and structure that you can provide. Your own personalized website is a great place to start (and link your social media and email campaigns to) to inform potential clients about you, your training philosophies, and what you stand for as a health coach. You can even detail your services, fees, and client expectations on your website. Visitors to your site should walk away with most of their questions answered.

Business Platform

The best way to stay organized when you’re offering Online Personal Training is to use TrueCoach, The Official Coaching App of ISSA. TrueCoach allows you to program for your clients, communicate with your clients, take automated recurring payments from your clients, and more. Start for ONLY $1 per month for your first 3 months here.

Good Communication is Key

Email is a common communication tool for the online personal trainer. It takes a certain level of mastery to craft effective, informative, and engaging emails. ISSA's Online Coach Certification is loaded with tips and valuable techniques for email campaigns and marketing for the fitness professional!

Personal Training Services

There are many ways to service the virtual client- video sessions, trainer apps, via your website, and even by phone for things like nutrition and goal setting. Decide early in the process what you wish to offer, the times your live sessions will occur, and the frequency of your check-ins and programming changes.

Personal Training Fees

Once you've determined what you'll offer, decide how much to charge for your services. This is usually based on factors like your experience, the expenses you have for your business, and the amount of attention and guidance the client will receive.

Fitness Assessments

No matter how you do your personal training, assessments are a critical piece of programming that should not be neglected. In-person assessments are simple and straightforward. With online assessments, you may have to teach a client to take their own measurements and self-report. Dynamic and static assessments may have to be completed via recordings that are sent in or in live video sessions periodically. Decide how you will perform assessments and with what frequency.

Set Expectations for Personal Training Clients

As you can see, there is a lot that goes into virtual training, but it can be done! Your online fitness coaching may run differently from the next trainer's online business. The key is to set expectations with clients early in the relationship. Establish what you need for them to get started and hold them to it. Let them know when and how to communicate with you and how you will communicate with them. Ensure clients know when and how assessments are completed and how and when they pay for their services. With everything laid out upfront, there will be fewer issues down the road!

Ready, Steady, GO - Get Your Personal Trainer Certification!

Being a fitness instructor or personal trainer is a rewarding, fast-paced, and fun career. Knowing all the benefits of online training, it is time to get your business up, running, and growing today! For existing certified personal trainers, check out ISSA's Online Coach Certification for more on marketing strategies and being effective with your training business online. For those who are just diving into the fitness industry, GET CERTIFIED! Your very first online client is waiting for you!