[randall]

Could some of the members here, who are currently training clients, tell those that are studying and trying to break into the field what a typical day at work is like.

What time do you go in?
What do you do all day?
How long do you work?
How many hours a week?

The more details the better
Thanks

[muscletrainerdh-NSCA CPT]

Randall,

Great questions but it really all depends on whether you are going to be a FULL TIME Personal trainer or a Part time personal trainer. Then it depends on if you are working for a personal training studio, a commercial gym, or are going into business for yourself.

Even when I trained many clients in DC, it would be a rare day where I would train 8 clients in a row making it a solid 8 hour work day. And training 8 clients in one day is hard work and definitely not the status quo or norm.

Typically when you start out you are doing personal training part time, working for a gym or holding another job.

If you are working for a gym, you'll probably have to work a set number of "Floor Hours" where you help members free of charge and try to upsell them into hiring you as their personal trainer. If you train a client while you are "Working the FLoor" the gym will probably subtract your hourly wage from the personal training wage they pay you per session.
Again, this is typical for a commercial gym i.e. Bally's, 24 Hr Fitness, Crunch, etc.

I cannot speak about what it is like working for "Personal Training Only" gyms or studios.

It's not uncommon for trainer to have their first client at 6am and their last client at 9pm at night. As the bulk of the population either wants to train before they go to work, or after work. So you must be creative in filling in the hours between clients. Easy to do if you own your own personal training business, as you'll be working on marketing and other ways of getting new clients. Hard to do if you are working for a gym and aren't scheduled a shift that day.

The number of hours you work also vary. You could spend 10 hours a week actually training a client, but an extra 20 hours developing exercise routines for these clients.

I'm in corporate fitness now. I work an 8 hour day managing a corporate fitness center and then train 1 or 2 clients when I get home. Due to my hour long commute each way, it's difficult to get more personal training clients in.

I know this reply isn't my best work! LOL But hopefully it gives you some insight.

Let me know if I can clear anything up for you.

Dave

[randall]

I would assume my first job would be at a big gym (I have to do an internship and I'm try to decide on Bally's or the YMCA, I'd like to get hired at the place I do my internship).

It would be weird to just walk around and try to help people at a gym. Most people at the gym think they know it all because they read Health and Fitness. I guess you have to pick the right person.

I work out at Planet Fitness and notice the trainers give a lot of bad advice and have their clients do exercises wrong.

[Christina]

Hi Randall, welcome!

[Liz]

[muscletrainerdh-NSCA CPT]

[chrisg35]

I currently work for a privately owned large "commercial type" gym. What you have heard is the norm.

Mon-Fri

I go in at 5:30 AM and train 2-3 clients. After that I head to school from roughly 9-12. After school I come back and train from 3pm until 7 or 8pm. There are 2 days during the week that I have night classes and do not train. Most clients that you will find want to train either before work or after work so the hardest client to find, at least for me, is during the middle of the day. I don't know about the rest of you but I have found that in the profession you really "get out of it" what you put in.

I think Dave made a lot of good points. Consider working at a commercial gym as a stepping stone towards being out on your own where the real money is. I still work for a gym because I am in school, but if I wasn't, I would be out on my own. Selling can be extremely intimidating at first but you will find your own way of making it work. You don't have ot be pushy about it. I find that a lot of times I can let the complimentary workout speak for itself.


Chris

PS. Spelling is not my strong suit!

[Liz]

[randall]

I'm not much of a salesman............I know my stuff when it comes to working out, exercising and teaching how to live a healthy lifestyle.

[megfit]

Hi guys,

I read the thread on this and thought I'd post my experience, as I didn't quite see it on here from this experience.

I started my business in 1996, offering in-home personal training to previously unfit adults. My goal was to be making what I made working in a hospital (clinical dietitian - this means feeding people in comas, NOT working in the kitchen, grin) in 2 years. I made that in 1.5 years, working half the hours. I knew I was onto something...

Most of my clients wanted to work out in the mornings, before going to work, so my days started early, generally getting up at 3:30 M-F. What I DID refuse to do, however, is work at night, and even in my busiest time, I was usually done by noon. I decided that a big goal was to have a life... lol; granted, that meant going to bed at 8pm, too.

Because of my clinical background, from the beginning, I would chart on all of my clients. They all have their own chart and I would keep notes on every session. I also create the routine I'm going to have them follow before I see them each session. Naturally there may be changes, but this helps us keep them on a rather cyclic, periodized routine that I can track for progress.

However, by 2003, I was really getting tired of going from house to house to house. And, if I had a cancellation between clients, I'd have to figure out how to make the most out of that time, because all my clients lived in a town that was NOT my own town (I live in the mountains above this area). At my busiest time of training, I had ~15 clients. Now, that may not sound like much, but I had made an early decision that I would rather have fewer clients and charge more/hour than have lots of clients and charge less/hour. And, since I specifically targeted my market, they could pay my fees.

It was in 2003 that I started looking into coaching and how I could incorporate what I was doing long-distance. Great choice! I also started to encourage new clients at this time to meet with me less often, because I felt I could provide more value if I helped them learn how to incorporate the fitness into their lives on their own. This developed into providing more of their services long-distance, by sending them updated workouts, with pictures, etc, for their workouts between our sessions.

Today, I still have a few training clients, but I no longer take new ones and the people I do have know that when they quit working with me, they won't get me back. But, honestly, it seems they will have to die or wait until I move, because they've each made it clear they do NOT want to quit. The average length of time for each of these clients has been at least 7 years.

However, today what is happening, and I need to start actually PROMOTING this, is I'm getting more 'training' clients long-distance. This is the trend, guys! But I also see that, compared to my coaching services, it's time to raise my training rates, because clients value this service more than the live training.

So, Randall, if you're still reading this thread, that may answer some of your questions from a totally different perspective than what I saw discussed, earlier.

Margie

want to create a website? Check out http://www.websitesmade-easy.com

[jackson]

Nice post Meg. And very informative.

I have a few questions...are you saying youre finding that more clients are interested in distant personal training verses life coaching or were you referring to something else?

If you incorporate life coaching with your personal training what sort of marketing do you use?


Others here are a few questions...

Have any of you purchased marketing techinques from Ryan Lee? If so, have they proven beneficial?

Meg, lastly how did you go about deciding on your target group and then basing your rates on such?

Me personally, I do not want to get stuck in the 1-1 personal training as this can become time consuming and take a lot to earn more than a decent living. With that in mind, I'm thinking about doing group fitness in the form of lets say a boot camp style. I dont want to call it a bootcamp but that sort of feel where I can help more than one person at a time and make more in less time...

Anyone have any ideas on how I should begin?

Meg do you a mentor program or anything? I really have an entrepreneual mind and desire but sometimes I get afraid that others wont buy into my services and believe in me...can you or anyone else help me?

Thanks,

Jackson

[megfit]

Hi Jackson,

You know, I still feel that there are two totally different markets out there - those who are interested in life/wellness coaching and those who are interested in personal training. Granted, the two do NOT have to be exclusive, but people are still more focused on what they WANT, rather than what it's called.

It's really how and who you market to. Right now, on my megfit.com site, I only market to people looking for wellness coaching services. I am starting to consider making some changes, though, which will (again) offer distance personal training services. (I just have to get my act together while on winter break, grin.)

To explain myself a bit more, you may notice that I have two totally separate websites. This is because you need to very specifically market to the target you are after, even if this means separate sites for each market.

Now, to answer your other question about how to incorporate coaching into training, well that's also a matter of what you want to CALL it. Even though I will continue to call my services 'wellness coaching' (or even fitness coaching, for that matter!), I will specify what is involved, so people are clear about what I will offer. The more clear you make your message, the more likely you are to get calls from people who want 'that'. If you're too vague, people don't really know what you do! Plus, if you aren't clear who your ideal client is, you can't specifically speak to THEIR needs, wants, pains and fears.

For anyone starting or building a business, you need to create a business plan. It's amazing how few companies do this, actually, but it can make all the difference in the world between success and failure. And not JUST because business is slow, but also when business gets busy! If you haven't planned, what will you do when things pick up? I have several business coaching clients who were in exactly that situation when they came to me. They couldn't think straight because business was growing, and they had never set any goals, objectives or plans together to prepare for such events!

And, when you create your business plan, you identify who your target (ideal) clients are. One of the early exercises that my business coaching clients must work through is identifying who their target market is. That's HOW you decide what you'll charge, what type of programs you'll offer, etc.

It's great that you have an idea of what you want to offer, but you also have to look at your ideal clientèle and decide if that's the type of program THEY want. What if they prefer one-on-one training, they may be willing to pay for it! Also, if you are going to offer a boot camp-type of program, where will you offer it and will the season of the year, based on your weather patterns, impact it's success or failure? I'm not at all discouraging you from considering this, because it can be quite successful in some locations; they are just things you have to really investigate while putting your business together.

Jackson, I do offer business coaching to fitness professionals, and offer a free, 30-minute coaching interview so you can see if my coaching services are for you and for us to determine if you're ready for that step. Sometimes I've met with people and we discover they aren't actually ready, yet, but it's not uncommon for them to call me a year later, when they ARE ready!

Margie