Personal Training: fundamental to the Future of Health and Fitness

The fitness industry is going through a revolution. Technological advances in fitness streaming, apps, and member support have developed at a rapid pace. Clubs have been shut down, re-opened, locked down again, and some businesses have already gone for good. 

Yet more people are interested in health and fitness than ever before. Existing fitness fans quickly adopted apps and livestreaming to tide them over or replace their club experience. However, inexperienced people need more support. While some will look to apps alone, many people will need proper encouragement and motivation if they are to make significant lifestyle changes.

Let’s get back to basics. For training to be personal, there needs to be a person involved. The club where you do the training is a less important factor. Likewise, the app you use plays a part, but it is not the key. 

As a PT based in a club, you can win clients by doing inductions, walking the floor, being helpful, friendly, approachable, and offering free advice. But when the club is closed, your pipeline is stagnant. Depending on local restrictions, you can still meet with clients outdoors, but this is maintaining rather than developing your business.

How are you moving online?

Shifting your offering online not only helps with keeping your clients engaged, but also allows you to grow. Your existing customers will help you to define how you go online and what you offer. You could focus on zoom sessions or designing “at home” programmes, nutrition advice or recipes, sending messages of encouragement or making high-five calls.

As well as your existing customers, it is also worth talking to or surveying your ex-clients, prospects, and any other leads you might have. Find out where you can help them with their health and fitness. Making suggestions can help to frame your research, but be curious and ask open questions. They might request something you do not want to provide. In this case, you could still help them, with a referral to a fellow fitness professional. 

Your specific talents, both in the fitness/health/nutrition space, and in the technology sense, will be critical. You might want to spend some time developing your skills in one or more areas. As well as building a business that your customers and prospects want, you need to follow your calling too, if you are going to make it a success.

Online sessions can feel less personal sometimes. However, you can still develop a personal relationship, or use online (calls, sending programmes by email, nudges by SMS, etc.) to maintain contact in-between face-to-face sessions. 

Remote Coaching

Several businesses I work with have developed remote coaching for exercise and nutrition, which have sold equally well to members in the club as members outside. The level of communication and interaction is the same. Club members may get an extra hello and quick chat when they visit, but non-club members get an extra email or push message through the app. Interestingly, both are just as likely to purchase additional time or programmes on top of the standard remote coaching, a one-to-one PT session for example.

Recommending a specific app or platform for your clients is a good idea. You should also be open to their suggestions, or look at the apps they use, as long as you can maintain your service and standards.

Carve a niche and build a bridge

Although more people are showing an interest in health and fitness, and there are likely to be fewer clubs in the near future, it’s still important to make a niche for yourself. Build a bridge for people who want to progress and need your personal training. You could be the coach who takes people beyond the Couch to 5k, or the extra motivation and step up from online workouts like Joe Wicks. Thousands of people have invested in fitness equipment from kettlebells to exercise bikes in 2020. Make it your mission to ensure they put them to good use and don’t become a doorstop or clothes hanger.

Social Prescribing

Another big opportunity on the horizon is social prescribing. If you are genuinely interested in helping people with their health, both physical and mental, then it is worth building relationships with primary care networks and link workers. People being referred (or self-referring) are unlikely to want to build muscle or get a beach body, but many of them will be looking for support and motivation from a personal trainer.

As you develop your products, you should look at your processes and systems too. Think about how your clients will upgrade or downgrade from different ‘memberships’, or where there is crossover in content and communication strategies. While you want to make it as personal as possible, standardisation allows you to scale your offering more easily. Check out the article in PTM June 2020 on subscriptions, and the last issue on how testimonials, referrals and case studies are great stories that can help boost your value and help support 

A more personal touch is needed

Personal training is at the core of the future of health and fitness. Sure, technology will play a role, and will be presented as the new solution. But as we come out of lockdown, many people will need a more personal touch to support their health and fitness. Be there for them, and you will be a part of that future.

This article originally appeared in December's issue of PT Monthly Magazine. Click here to read the online turning pages on issuu.