Tips for Personal Trainers Working from Home

Online training sessions are nothing new for most personal trainers. In the last two years, that nice-to-have has become an essential requirement. It seems likely that remote training sessions with clients are here to stay, presenting some new challenges for personal trainers. With more people working out at home, personal trainers need to position themselves to run those sessions and excel at them.

And all while working to grow client numbers. If you’re a personal trainer struggling to manage the move to online sessions, here are some tips that might just transform how you run your PT business in the coming years.

Tip One: A Safe Space

If your clients are working out with you from the comfort of their own home, you have a lot less control over their workout space. Take the time to develop an understanding of the environment they’ll be working out in. Before the first online training session, have a pre-workout meeting to discuss the space they’ll be using. This isn’t just to help minimise distractions. It’s to ensure that they have the environment they’ll need to stay safe while working with you.

It’s also a good idea to do this kind of pre-workout meeting just so that you can both test the quality of your video and audio equipment. If the sound is below par, you’ll struggle to understand what each other is saying, which can lead to mistakes. And a poor image means you’ll have fewer insights into the forms they’re using.

Tip Two: Shorter Sessions

When you meet up with your clients in the gym or park, you can have ten minutes of catch-up, then the warm-up, before getting down to business. It’s common for an in-person session to go for an hour at the very least. You should aim to keep them shorter than this for online training sessions. The first reason is that it can be challenging for your client to keep checking their screen to ensure they’re doing the right moves. 

The second reason is that there will be a lot less interaction when you’re meeting online. That can make them feel considerably more intense, and your clients will tend to feel the burn much sooner. Keep sessions to 30-minutes to 45-minutes, which is often the perfect duration. You should also remember to keep your live online sessions focused entirely on the workout. Leave conversation about nutrition, meal plans, and tracking their health goals for a different time.

Tip Three: Change Routines

Without access to the gym equipment that many personal trainers rely on, it’s a good idea to shake up the types of exercise you do with your clients. While this will primarily need to be managed in relation to their individual health goals, needs, and the equipment they may have at home, much of your focus will tend to be bodyweight exercises. Stick to the staples, like:

• Skipping
• Planks
• Lunges
• Squats.

If your clients have dumbbells or weights, add those into your workout sessions. If they don’t, but they’re insistent on that kind of weight training, look at alternative weights from around the home (bottles of water in a bag can be a good substitute for dumbbells).

Tip Four: Get Comfortable On Camera

If you become a personal trainer because you love helping people but are used to doing so in person, making the move online can be jarring. If you want your online classes to succeed, you will need to be comfortable with that change. There are lots of advice guides available that can give you tips about getting more comfortable on camera, but the basics are all the same:

• Rehearse what you need to say
• Have good lighting
• Set your camera up beforehand so that you can use a flattering and non-distracting angle
• Dress for your role
• Check that your background is professional
• Have everything you need (including a glass of water) close to hand.

If you get everything set up and have a clear idea of what you’re going to say, you will be more relaxed and comfortable. That’s going to put your clients at ease too.

Move Online Now

A more hybrid approach to personal training will likely become the norm. A combination of in-person sessions and online classes look set to become part of the personal trainer’s permanent toolkit of offerings. So if you’ve been a personal trainer for a while now and you haven’t made the move to online classes, it’s time to consider it. 

Not only is it likely to be what your clients are going to be most comfortable with for now, but it also has advantages. You suddenly have access to a much wider pool of potential clients by going online. And when you open yourself up to clients from all over the world, your potential to earn can skyrocket.

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