Personal Training is Too Expensive!

Hey Friends!

Coach Pete here — hope everyone’s having an awesome weekend! Beautiful, beautiful autumn is upon us, and I love it!

I wanted to talk about a pretty hotly debated topic today and that is the cost of personal training and whether it's overpriced or not. Maybe the single biggest objection I get with people who go through my consultation and assessment process is that, when we sit down to figure out what service is best for them, even those with the biggest budgets often balk at my session rate which, in full transparency, is $125 and about to go up to $150. Of course, there’s a discount off the session rate when you train two, three, four, or even five times per week (as well as virtual and programming options as about half the price) but I don’t shy away from sharing my in-person rate because I honestly don’t need to with a full book of clients. I know a lot of trainers out there who are hungry for business and are cutting their rates down to as low as $80, which is honestly bottom-of-the-barrel pricing... but we’ll get to that in a minute.

If you’re still wondering if I think $125 is too expensive, I’ll say: not for my services. Obviously, I’m biased but my price point isn't even top end for Boston (which is where I’m based out of and) where I know other trainers who objectively — in terms of training principles and applied knowledge — offer a much inferior service at about a 40% higher price point. Not only that but you can’t evaluate the cost of training without considering what you get out of it. Best case scenario, you achieve your immediate goals, install fitness as a regular part of your life as a means of addressing long term health, and essentially hire someone whose job it is (or at least should be) to stay on top of the science of exercise so that, as your goals and body change with time, they can accommodate your evolving needs effectively and efficiently. 

But that’s the short, personal answer. Reality — especially outside the proximity of our control — tends to be a bit messier. I think, here, the more appropriate means of evaluating the cost of training would be to recount my experience as a consumer. I don’t think my experience is any less typical than the average person who winds up hiring a personal trainer. Rewind the clock back to when I was 220lbs of mostly fat. I’d tried everything under the sun; I’d even trained for a half marathon (at the expense of my knees and right ankle). I’d lose 20lbs only to gain it right back. Little did I know I was doing little to actually recompose my body to lay the foundation for long term success nor did I know the first thing about basic nutrition. I didn’t know the ins and outs of rest and recovery. I was your typical overweight guy, running A LOT, eating like a baby rabbit, and following the misguided belief that more was better where strength training was concerned. Plus, I stuck to calisthenics only so that I wouldn’t need to go to a gym which I would entirely intimidating. My weight fluctuated violently and I ended up right where I started — if not in a worse spot from a number of nagging injuries.

I lucked out — and I really mean it: I LUCKED out — when I hired my first and lifelong personal trainer, Greg, and he applied knowledge picked from active, deeply-involved continuing education; he kept me accountable, and cultivated confidence and gave me my initial education in fitness. It took about two years but I was able to bring my weight down to 178 from 220 and have a physique I was proud of (as that’s really all I wanted in my 20s). That alone made his session rate of $110 worth every penny. A lot of the same movements and principles I apply to my own training to this day.

BUT THAT'S WHAT YOU SHOULD EXPECT FROM A TRAINER, you might say. But here’s where reality starts getting messy. Let’s say I’d walked into a commercial gym like any one of the many big franchises in the US or any wannabe luxury/boutique gym. I might not have gotten so lucky. At commercial gyms like the Equinox-es or ___________ Sports Clubs of the world, they will hire anyone who is certified through a nationally accredited body. It is the one entirely ineffective way the industry tries to institute some quality control and reflects exactly nothing about the quality of trainer you’re getting. You could take the test (now online), pass it if you have about a week to study for it, and then walk into a commercial gym and get hired if you have a halfway personable demeanor about you. Can you trust this person to actually deliver on whatever sales pitch they’ve been taught to recite? I’m not saying all Tier 1 trainers at Equinox are all like that or, if they are, that they won’t grow into amazing trainers. I know plenty of amazing trainers who were, at one time, in that position; hell, I was too! This doesn’t even begin to address some more systemic issues where trainers are internally educated by a system that insists on remaining outdated and, for the most part, more concerned about the salability of its system than it is its effectiveness. And we haven’t even talked about how trainers are criminally underpaid at commercial gyms and, if you want to make some kind of a living, you have to work insane hours that usually start at 5-6AM and finish at 8-9PM… But that’s a topic for another day.

My point is — you walk into a commercial gym and can expect to pay $100 to $160 session rates for training that is, at its worst, ineffective, and, at its best, outdated. But — hate ‘em or love ‘em — commercial gyms are still the staying power of the industry. They set the standard and that includes pricing. So, what do you get for your $110 to $160 session rate besides usually sub-par training? Well, you get the sub-par program, and... that’s pretty much it. 

Now, as much as I’d love to use myself as an example, I think that’d come off as arrogant, pretentious, etc. so I’ll use another one of my colleagues who prices his services at $150 but is certified in much more than many (willing and unwilling) students of the EFTI (Equinox Fitness Training Institute). In fact, he doesn’t just have his nationally accredited certification (Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist) but has attended the three flagship Postural Restoration Institute courses (and has taken nearly a dozen more), has been certified through Functional Range Systems, has been trained in Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization, and has worked on staff for a NHL team. For $150, not only are you getting someone who can just see much more from a biomechanics, kinematics, programming (yes, you get programming just like at commercial gyms) standpoint than nearly anyone else out there but, since he makes a greater percentage of that $150 after overhead, can actually afford the time to provide extra personal attention in the form of nutrition guidance, sleep/habit coaching, skill acquisition, and extra time to dialog and provide care. I know that sounds like such a meh answer but put yourself in the shoes of one of his trainees. Let’s say you develop a pinching sensation as you progress your squat; he’ll identify what’s going on and help you out of what might be a very subtle issue. He’ll try to figure out the circumstances around why you are experiencing the discomfort and address it holistically, and, instead of rushing you out the door at the end of the hour, will talk to you about other protocols you might employ in your own time to improve the issue. What do you get with an inexperienced trainer charging the same rate? A problem that likely gets worse and worse and puts you off from training and consequently attaining the short and long term benefits of smart, structured training.

Even just this example evidences how two very similarly priced products have two very different end results. But you see it across all price points as well. I’ve seen excellent trainers price sessions at $80 and really terrible trainers price sessions at $175, and vice versa. The end result from the prospective client’s end is the inability to truly know what you’re getting for whatever it is you’re paying. Now, some might argue that results speak for themselves. In a perfect world where bad training resulted in, well, no results and good training resulted in dramatic physiological change, this would make sense. You hear it all the time, “I’ve been working with Bob for five years and have lost ten pounds and have never felt better!” However, in many instances, bad training is still better than no training at all. Will you end up achieving fat loss over the course of five years that could’ve been achieved over the course of six months? Sure. But is that what you want? Will you end up taking weeks off to “rest a bad knee” rather than actively building strength in and around that knee and in relevant other areas of the body to prevent it from hurting ever again? That’s up to whether the trainer knows or learns how to do as much or belongs to a group or gym that facilitates actual growth.  

Now, the logical question to ask next would be, “Well, how do I find a trainer that’s worth it?” That’s a question I’ve already answered HERE. But, the short answer is, you’re likely going to have to shop around and try. Treat the consult and assessment as much of an opportunity to ascertain more about the trainer as it is for the trainer to learn more about you. Also, be warned — the biggest threat to a prospective client in this line of work are the really bad trainers who are really great salesmen. I’ve known some of the worst trainers dress up their foam rolling skills as the second coming, when in reality that good feeling you get after rolling around disappears after the session’s over and, in fact, does jack all to create lasting change on the tissue level. I’ve seen trainers literally scroll through instagram to pick and choose exercises they see actual experts employing without actually knowing when to or why they’re using them.

So, is personal training too expensive? Absolutely it is if you run into the wrong trainer but… if, you run into the right trainer, it can be a steal.

When I met my trainer Greg almost fifteen years ago, it wasn’t just my body that changed. I can actually say that it literally changed my life. He not only helped me make fitness a part of my life but put me in a position that helped me earn an athletic scholarship to college, become a healthier human for the rest of my life, but also inspired me to become a personal trainer myself.

If you’ve decided to pull the trigger on training, make sure the barrel on that gun isn’t pointed right back at you. Find a quality trainer, take the time, invest in the process, ask around, or even ask me to vet a potential trainer you might want to hire. Know that, if you meet the right trainer, you can change your body AND your life.