The world is changing. Technology provides us with a unique opportunity to work with personal trainers anywhere in the world. This type of training provides convenience, flexibility, and accessibility.
The Benefits of Online Personal Training
Working with an online personal trainer means working out on your own time with whatever equipment you have access to. No need to match up your schedule perfectly every week in an effort to meet with your personal trainer. And when life happens, you can simply push your workout back to a more convenient time.
With in person training, cancelling an in person session at the last minute comes with a cost in most cases as the trainer most likely has a policy since they could have filled that time with another client. With online personal training, you can just do your scheduled workout on a different day – at no extra cost and a lot less stress for both you and your online trainer.
What to Look For in an Online Personal Trainer
First and foremost, there must be some sort of consultation / phone call with your online personal trainer. This is a must because this allows you both to get to know each other during the chat and most importantly talk about what you want to get out of coaching. This includes goal setting, any injuries your trainer should know about, how many days per week you want to workout, what workouts look like, what equipment you have access to, and a regular check in schedule.
Delivery Platform
Apps are an amazing tool that have made remote coaching extremely accessible. There are many different apps that are specifically designed for online personal training. Gone are the days of excel spreadsheets! We personally use an app called TrueCoach.
Every client sees their programming for the week ahead and every day of training includes demo videos of the movements programmed as well as the sets and reps prescribed by us. There is also a section in each exercise where the client can make comments about the specific exercise for us to see and a spot for the client to upload a video of themselves executing each movement so we can give them feedback on form!
At the bottom of each workout, there is a section where we, as the online trainer, deliver feedback either in the form of video or text. If there are a lot of form corrections we want to provide, we will shoot a video of ourselves and upload it to that same workout.
Goal Setting and Check Ins
Goals are ever-changing and they will continue to evolve from the initial consultation you had with your online trainer. There should be some sort of schedule for checking in with your coach just to make sure you are both continuing to stay on the same page. Some of our clients do a check in call with us once per month and some of our clients do check in calls bi-monthly. It really depends on YOU and how you want to structure that as the client.
Remember, the coach is there to guide you along the way so make sure you never feel anxious about reaching out to your coach and asking questions! You should continuously discuss macro and micro goals. For example, a macro goal would be “I want to achieve my first handstand”. A micro goal would be implementing into your routine to practice kicking up on the wall 3-4x per week for 10-20 minutes.
Another macro goal example could be I want to lose 10 lbs of body fat. A micro goal would be I am going to eat 3 servings of protein and vegetables each day this week. These are just a couple examples, but make sure your goals are SMART (Specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound).
To learn more about SMART goals and get steps on how to set them, check out our blog “How to Stick to Your New Years Resolutions” where we break down this process in detail.
Communication and Feedback
Your personal trainer should always be providing feedback for you and be available for your questions! Think of it as building a relationship with your trainer vs a transaction for services – this will allow you to get the most out of your training and feel comfortable reaching out to your coach. If you don’t feel that with your trainer, find a different one!
Get comfortable taking videos of yourself! This is crucial to your progress in working with your online trainer. This will allow them to analyze your technique and provide adequate feedback for you to implement for your next training session.
Qualifications
At the very minimum, your online personal trainer should have a nationally accredited personal trainer certification. A personal trainer with a bachelors and/or masters degree is definitely not a must but a huge plus. After this, you want to look for trainers with experience.
An online personal trainer should have at least some years of in person training experience along with their online coaching. Why? Having time in person with clients really allows for building solid communication skills and teaches the intricacies of programming for each individual client.
Strong testimonials from clients on your online personal trainer’s website are also a good sign and big plus!
Online Personal Training Packages
One of the best things about online personal training is the cost savings which make this type of training more accessible for many people.
On average, a personal trainer costs about $60-$80 per hour session. If the trainer has more experience (which you definitely want), specializes in something, or lives in an expensive area, the cost is closer to $85-$110. It’s best to train at least twice, but optimally three times per week, so the cost can rise quickly. $80 x 3 times/week = $240. That makes the monthly cost for three sessions per week about $960 for an experienced trainer. For online training, you can find trainers charging anywhere from $100-$350 per month, depending on experience and interaction level with clients.
With our remote coaching, we charge the same online training rate regardless of the client’s experience, equipment access, or desired frequency for training. So you could get a 5 day/week online personal training program from us for less than a quarter of the price you’d pay for in person training.
We also give video feedback to our clients quickly; typically within 24 hours. So you know right away what to fix for your workout next time. We have trained hundreds of clients over the past 15 years, and online training gives us the opportunity to help more people in all different areas of the world.
Check out a few of our online training client testimonials:
If you want to check out our online training, fill out an interest form for a free consultation so we can see if working with an online personal trainer is a good fit for you.
