Personal Training - sounds cool but what's involved?

If you are thinking of becoming a Personal Trainer or would like to know more about Personal Training then you've come to the right place!

What is Personal Training?

Let me answer the question by asking you two questions.........

1. How hard do you push yourself when you exercise?

2. How good is your technique?

Even if you think you are good at training, whether it be in a gym or outside, you could always do better, with better technique if you had someone with you. That person could encourage you to train more effectively using better technique that will get you better results. That is Personal Training!

A Personal Trainer is an educator, motivator, mentor, evaluator and assessor.

How do I become a Personal Trainer?

There are many Personal Trainer Courses in the UK that offer vocational training related to becoming a Personal Trainer. It depends on where you live and when you want to start the course, that determines which course you go for. If you don't already have a Level 2 Fitness Instructor qualification, you will need to do a Fitness Instructor Course before progressing on to Level 3 Personal Trainer.

Be A Better You -Training also offer online personal trainer courses for those who have a good grounding of practical skills and want to do distance learning at a discounted fee.

There are various awarding bodies such as Active IQ, CYQ and OCR, but they all do the same thing. They all create the course content and learning criteria based on the National Qualifications Framework which Approved Training Centres such as Be A Better You-Training adhere to.

I'm a qualified Personal Trainer, now what?

Get yourself on the Register of Exercise Professionals which will show potential employers that you are committed to continual professional development. They also provide insurance which you'll need once you start working as a Personal Trainer.

Fitness jobs vary. You can work freelance in a gym or in people's homes and parks etc. or you can work with a salary in a gym, or earn commission for Personal Training. There are many ways to work in the Fitness Industry!

Personal Trainers have various  business models to choose from including:

1. Self employed; training people in their homes, parks without entering a gym
2. Self employed but work in a gym and pay as you go
3. Self –employed in a gym paying rent every month or week, clients pay you directly
4. Work with the gym as a member of staff or ‘in-house’ PT giving a percentage or commission to the gym per session.
5. Work with agents/consortiums who provide clients in return for commission
6. Franchise an established brand and pay royalties

Self –employed paying rent to a gym:

This has been the dominant model for some time among not only the big gym brands but also small independents. Why? From a gym business perspective, there will be a specific revenue stream coming in every month. Let’s say there are 10 Personal Trainers bringing in £500 per month, the gym could usually expect £5000 per month in revenue. If a PT leaves, another one takes his/her place and so it goes on. It pretty much runs itself!
From the new PT angle, they know what their outgoings will be and will have to forecast the amount of sessions they’ll need to break even. Once established the earning potential is only capped by their energy levels and skills as PT. For example at £500 per month and £25 (net) per hour session, a PT would need 20 sessions or 5 per week to break even. In this example, doing 20 sessions per week would bring in £1500 per month. However, it’s not that simple. For a new starter it will take a while to get clients, meaning that you could be out of pocket. Also to get those 20 sessions per week you’ll actually be around for much longer maybe even 40 hours, waiting between sessions, consultations, writing programs etc.
Pro’s- You keep 100% of client payments (taking off taxes of course!)
Some gyms will have you, as part of the contract, doing some work for them, but in general you won’t have to answer to anybody except your clients.
Cons- Being self-employed means more paperwork; especially filing taxes
Even if you have a bad month, the rent still needs to be paid.
As a new a starter it can be scary knowing that you have an outlay before knowing whether you’ll be successful.

In house salaried PT

A few major gyms use variations of an in house model. Basically, there is no rent to pay and you’ll receive a basic salary, but any PT session you do will go through the gym till and they pay you after taking a commission. This works for the gyms because they get staff working for them and their profit increases as PT’s do more sessions.  However, it’s slightly riskier because if PT’s don’t do well then the club doesn’t make any money.
Experienced and successful personal trainers who have been self employed will probably find it difficult to justify giving a percentage to the gym. In some cases this can be 70% gym 30% trainer.
The PT can usually expect in return a more stable work environment where courses and in house training is provided, with holiday pay.
Pros:  No fixed rent to pay
‘Paid’ to find clients
Taxes and administrative paperwork taken care of
Training and courses
Cons
Working for the gym usually involves doing many other tasks such as cleaning and maintenance
The money taken from clients is split with club

Invoicing gym per session delivered means cash flow is in arrears if you’re not careful.

I would like to learn more subjects related to the Fitness Industry, what can I do?

We will soon be offering a wide range of 1 and 2 day CPD courses/workshops that will keep your REPS points tally up, including:

• INDOOR GROUP CYCLING
• VIBRATION PLATFORM TRAINING
• KETTLEBELL TRAINING £99
• MUAY THAI KICKBOXING
• CORE STABILITY
• MATT-BASED PILATES
• OLYMPIC WEIGHTLIFTING
• SPORTS MASSAGE
• MMA
• PADWORK
• BOXING
• FLEXIBILITY

and many more!

Keep an eye on this website to find out when they launch.

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