Become a Personal Trainer

If you are in great shape and want to show others how they can achieve the same for themselves, then starting a personal training business can be an excellent way to do something rewarding and potentially make great money at the same time. In this section we will talk about how you can create an amazing workout plan for trainees and how you can find customers for your personal training business online and in person.

The first thing you will want to do is make sure that you are in excellent shape! Your physique will be the main source of marketing for your personal training company. If you are not in amazing physical shape already, you should focus on grinding it out in the gym before even thinking about trying to get a trainee. Make sure that you have visible abs and are at the very least toned in all areas. You will want to use your body to inspire other people to get in great shape and have the confidence that you know how to do it and help others.

Once you are in great shape you will want to put Personal Trainer in all of your bios on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok. If there are any of these profiles that you do not have already, be sure to set them up with a profile picture that shows off your physique and with the goal of gaining new trainees in mind. After you set up your profiles you should find big pages that focus on fitness (for beginners preferably) and start following and unfollowing people on Instagram and sending friend requests on Facebook. You can learn all about the follow unfollow method in our Instagram marketing section as well. You want to get as many followers built up that care about fitness as possible because these will be some of the people you funnel into your training program from the content you will post.

Now you will want to create a 3or 4 phase training program that is unique to you in some way. Generally, the first phase should be fat burning depending on where a trainee is starting from physically. The best way to get a new trainee to commit to training after a free first training is to hit some intense circuits so that they FEEL out of shape. Even people that are in decent shape will be laying on the floor from exhaustion after an intense cardio circuit. Take advantage of this, push your clients hard and make them want to improve from how they feel after this first workout. For this first phase (the introductory phase) you can circuits that include tire flipping, battle ropes, pushups, crunches, sprints, box jumps and do them together in a way that will physically break down your trainees and make them mentally and physically stronger.

For the second phase you will typically focus on hypertrophy. At this stage you will still encourage your trainees to perform cardio but will begin focusing on breaking down muscle groups for growth. You can check out our section on resistance training/weight lifting for more information on creating a schedule for clients in this phase. You will focus on pairing muscle groups together for work outs, giving your clients time to rest each muscle group and making sure they reach FAILURE for each muscle group.

The 3^rd phase will typically focus on maximum strength. Here you will still be focusing on hypertrophy but with weights that are closer to your client’s maximum strength. You will still be working on the same muscle groups but having them do more weight that induces failure in 4-6 reps. This phase should be started once your clients have shown growth in the weights they lift and have the forms down well. This phase will help them reach their maximum lifting potential and grow muscles further.

The last training phase will be for power. Here you will be making use of both heavy and light loads for your clients with a focus on pushing reps as fast and explosive as possible to help improve their overall power. Good rep ranges for power are 1-10 reps and 1-4 reps for 3-4 sets. If you want to go above and beyond as a trainer you can also provide meal plans for these phases that focus on the needs of your clients. You can check out our section on diet for some ideas for each body type and goal. You should have meal plans you can provide based on cutting and bulking at the very least. This is something a lot of trainers don’t do that is very easy and can set you apart from the competition.

The next thing you will want to do is make a website for your personal training business. You can check out our site on how to make a professional site to learn all about how to do this. You should also look at some top personal trainer sites online to get an idea of how they layout their site. To start with you should add a video of you introducing yourself in clothes that show your great physique while you are standing in a gym. Talk about the key points that set your training program apart whether that’s emphasis on meal plans for their personal goals, a training program that focuses on individual needs or anything else that will catch a person’s interest looking to get in better shape. Have a good hook at the beginning and check out our how to make an effective video for more detailed instructions. You should also list out the phases you chose. Talk about the science behind your program, show testimonials from other clients with before and after pictures and have plenty of call-to-action buttons that allow them to sign up and schedule their first training. I recommend advertising a free first training that will allow you to get easier commitments that you can sell after the free training is done. You should also be thinking about how you implement online personal training to your site which we will talk about at the end of this section.

Posting content related to fitness and nutrition will be your main source of gaining new business for your personal training company. You should be shooting short form videos every day to post to your TikTok, Instagram reels, Facebook reels and YouTube shorts. Make at least 3 videos each day showing off some valuable tips on reaching hypertrophy, eating the right macros, dieting based on each person’s individual fitness goals, calorie intake and output and any other valuable tips you can. You can check out our section on physical health for a bunch of tips that you can turn into short videos to share on these platforms. Each video should briefly mention your training program at the end and mention the link you put in your bio to your fitness site. You should also be posting results from any clients you have frequently as well with short form videos and with regular posts with their permission. As you grow followers also be sure to post stories to your followers that go over special offers every now and then that can entice them to take the leap and become a customer. You should offer a free no obligation training that will get you in front of people that want to work out and use this to get long term commitments that are month to month.

Another thing that you will want to think about is how you will charge your trainees for your services. Once you have given them a free training you will want to get a commitment from them for more trainings right away. You can call some trainers in your area to get an idea of what people are typically charging near you but a good rule of thumb starting out is $40 per 30 minute training session or $70 for an hour but this can depend on your target clients and your area. Instead of having them pay as they go however, it is much better to have them sign a “fitness plan” or contract rather, that allows you to lock them in for long periods of time. You can ask them questions like how important is your fitness to you? What results do you want to see? These kinds of questions after an intense free session will allow you to get them thinking about taking this serious and find a program that works for them. You can sign them up for a year of service, 6 months or even 3 months at a time depending on what they are willing to do but always start by offering your biggest and longest plan. You can them charge them by month for the number of trainings they choose to do per week and charge 50% of the payments they have left I they ever decide to cancel. You can even paint this cancellation fee as a way to keep them accountable to their fitness goals.

One of the best ways to get in front of people that want to get in shape is to spend a lot of time at your local gym! This should act as your workspace and a place that you are always making friends and interacting with new people. Strike up friendly conversations with people at the gym. Offer to spot people, and make sure that you are not pushy about personal training when you meet them. Plant seeds for friendship and casually mention that you are a personal trainer. If you are seen as THEE friendly personal trainer at a gym that knows their stuff then it will be a matter of time before people are asking to work with you. Offer people at the gym free sessions when they ask you questions or come to you for advice and start your sales process from there like we have went over. The gym is filled with leads for your business so make sure you are spending a lot of time there especially when you are growing your customer base.

Another amazing way to grow a personal training business that you can scale much faster and have much more potential for growth is by creating an online course and providing virtual training over the internet. This will allow you to gain customers outside of your area and allow you to train with the use of an online database of videos while you focus on getting new business. When you are ready to take this step create a new page for your site that is behind a paywall that breaks down the phases of your training program into easy-to-follow videos that show the workouts and tips you provide to trainees in person. You should film videos of yourself performing these workouts step by step. Give them resources for creating meal plans for cutting and bulking and offer support through zoom as well. You can create an online program that lets people follow along with your videos during their workouts and you can incorporate weekly calls to go over their progress and keep them accountable to the program.

Once you create an online training course, you should start ramping up the short form content marketing we talked about before so you can reach even more new people online and mention your new course that you offer. Give them an incentive to go on your site and become a customer by offering free meal plans they can download a free section of your course, or a free consultation by phone. Set yourself apart from other trainers by offering something free that you can use to sell them on a full program, and you will be sure to get people to reach out. If you stay consistent with posting informational content and sharing the results of your clients, you can grow a large client base online quickly. You can also use personal training software like mystudio.io to build an app for your clients, build a site, take payments, and get help with marketing all in one place. So be sure to check out platforms like this to grow your personal training business as well.