Looking for an online personal trainer in Toronto? Maybe you like the idea of having someone in your home “without” them in your home, or maybe there’s a trainer who you really like, but is too far for you, or heck, maybe you travel a lot for a living, and need a trainer to train you while you’re away. I get it.
In this article, I’ll help you find the right personal trainer online for you.
But let me state my bias up front: I run an online personal training company, and have a number of trainers working for me, doing so. I think we’re pretty good, but this article isn’t just another “choose me” article. Rather, this is meant to be a legitimately helpful article to assist you in finding the right online personal trainer for you. Maybe that’s my team, and maybe it’s not, but if you want to find out, just fill out the application form on my home page. And don’t worry – filling out the form doesn’t obligate you to anything. It’s simply to set up a quick, 10-15 minute zoom call or phone call to see if we can help. No sales pitch, no pressure.
Anyways, now that you know my bias, here’s what we’ll cover:
- The benefits of having an online personal trainer in Toronto
- The drawbacks of an online personal trainer
- How does in home training work?
- How online coaching is different than virtual training (they sound like the same thing, but they aren’t)
- What to look for in a personal trainer online
Let’s get to it!
Benefits of Training with An Online Personal Trainer in Toronto
Online personal training appeals to lots of people, and there are a few reasons for that:
- You can be anywhere. You might be in downtown, and your trainer is in Markham. You don’t want to go to him/her, and they don’t want to go to you. Personal training online is a great compromise.
- No driving. You can do online personal training at home, with whatever equipment you have (in which case, you might also have some time savings). Or you can go to the gym, and take your trainer with you on your phone or tablet.
- The big reason that interest in personal training online spiked: covid. Lockdowns or no lockdowns, online personal training is safe, doesn’t require vaccination, and is socially distanced.
- Privacy: if you’re shy, or self-conscious, and don’t want people in the gym looking at you, online personal training at home is a good option.
Drawbacks of Online Personal Training
Just like most tools, everything has its benefits and drawbacks. Here are some of the drawbacks of personal training online:
- Can’t do physical assessments. If you want body fat testing done, you can’t do that without physical touch.
- If a client is not understanding the mechanics of a particular exercise, in person, the trainer would just move the client’s body into the position that is needed for the exercise. Online, all that a trainer has is their words.
- Some trainers have certifications in hands-on tools, like Fascial Stretch Therapy, Muscle Activation Technique, and others. Obviously, those hands-on tools can’t be used in an online setting.
How Does In-Home Training Work?
In-home training has been around forever to help people with their fitness goals. In this section, we’ll explore how that works.
A certified personal trainer will come to your home gym and do in-home training sessions with you. So whether you are looking to lose weight or just seeking to live a healthy lifestyle, you can benefit enormously from one-on-one training in your own home!
But, what should you expect from in-home personal training?
- Whether you’re not a “gym person” or just prefer to save time on driving to gyms, that’s the whole idea behind in-home personal training.
- Everything else is the same as a personal trainer in the gym. Whether your goal is weight loss, or you want to get in the best shape of your life, or you want to stay active and be healthy, in-home training accomplishes this.
- Ideally, a vetted and certified trainer would use a holistic approach to your home personal training sessions. While I hate the word “holistic”, and that it’s morphed into something very woo-woo, as opposed to the true definition of the word, I use it here as it’s actually intended: to mean complete or integrative. Not woo-woo.
The main difference between virtual personal training and in-home personal training is that one is done solely online while the other is in person, at the location of your choice, such as your home or at the park. With in home personal training sessions, you can even arrange small group training sessions so you and your friends can reach your personal goals together, and often, get a lower per-person rate than private sessions.
Whether virtually or in person, your trainer must understand that each client has different fitness levels and a possible medical condition. According to their physicality and medical history, they must design a fitness program as a starting point for workouts. At the same time, during the initial consultation, these factors will also determine how many sessions are required each week to lose fat and build lean muscle mass to improve overall health. Millions of people want to lose weight but don’t know where to start. Often, the fear of going to the gym and being judged is a reality for many. However, virtual personal training, online training, and in-home training can cater to your fitness levels, provide you with a healthy diet plan, and get you in the best shape possible.
Online Coaching vs. Virtual Training
The whole field of personal training online is still very young, so the terminology is not totally set yet. Two trainers may use the words “online coaching”, but mean very different things.
The way that my team and I use the term “online coaching” is to mean that the trainer provides the client with the program to follow on their own, without a trainer. As the client is following the program, they are recording their sets, reps, and weight. The trainer has access to this data, and every week, the client and trainer meet over a phone call or zoom call, look over the client’s data, and the trainer makes modifications to the following week, based on the results from the previous week.
The way that we use the term “virtual training” is literally like personal training, but online. In other words, these are supervised/guided workouts. The trainer is watching the client’s every rep, correcting errors in technique on the fly, and adjusting the client’s program on a day-by-day basis.
Both options have their place. Online coaching is good if you’re already a regular exerciser, and have good technique. Accountability and motivation are not an issue for you. But education is. You need the guidance of a professional to tell you what to do, and you’ll do it. This also takes less time (just a 12-15 minute call per week), and because of that, costs less on a monthly basis.
By contrast, training virtually is for you if you need more supervision and safety. If you’re a beginner with no history of consistent exercise, or if you want the safety to make sure that every rep is done perfectly, with any deterioration in your technique (and possible injury), then training virtually would be more up your alley.
What to Look for in an Online Personal Trainer
Now that you know the pros and cons of online personal training, what should you look for in a personal trainer online? That’s what we’ll cover in this section.
But before we get there, you might be thinking “what qualifies you to come up with these criteria?” Fair question.
How rude of me not to introduce myself. I’m Igor. Nice to meet ya. I’ve been a personal trainer since 2006, and I have 12 people on my team, doing both in-person, and online personal training. I’ve done over 350 interviews with other personal trainers, and between my team and I, we’ve worked with over 1000 clients. Additionally, I’ve written and published 7 books on exercise and nutrition.
So that’s my background.
Now, let’s get to the criteria to look for in a personal trainer online. In no particular order:
Criterion #1: Good Internet Connection
It goes without saying that if you’re hiring someone to help you get in shape, it’s very frustrating if it keeps disconnecting all the time, and you have to repeat every sentence 3 times. If a personal trainer won’t invest in a proper internet connection, how professional can they be?
Criterion #2: Great Motivator
Different people are motivated by different things. A great personal trainer should know how to motivate people with different motivators. Some people are motivated by having a mean jerk yell at them. Cool. Some people are motivated by zen-wisdom. Some people are motivated by a professional showing them the science behind why they’re doing what they’re doing.
And that’s just scratching the surface. In other words, there are different motivation styles, and a trainer should be able to adapt to different styles. They should have more than one tool in their toolbox to motivate you.
Criterion #3: Can Adjust to Varying Equipment Needs
This one isn’t a big deal if you’re taking your trainer with you to a commercial gym on your phone or tablet, but it becomes a big deal if you’re training at home with very limited equipment.
Does the trainer know enough about biomechanics to adjust your program to still be very effective with minimal equipment?
It’s sad to say, but most trainers have atrocious knowledge of biomechanics, so they are limited by the techniques they learned in school (or worse – Instagram and Youtube). The trainer with great knowledge of biomechanics can think more critically, and adapt the program to different equipment needs.
Criterion #4: Hungry for Knowledge
You want a trainer who is constantly learning about topics relevant to their client. You don’t want a trainer who says they’re a trainer, but really, has no certifications, and is just doing it on a whim, or on the side to just pay the bills.
But also, certifications, while good, in my humble opinion, are not good enough. Certifications are just the gateway into the industry. They are not a marker of expertise. A marker of expertise is spending time and money on topics relevant to the client. And I emphasize “relevant to the client”, because there are tons of trainers who think that they are learning, but they’re learning about areas interesting to them – not the client.
Case in point – many trainers will follow bodybuilding authors. Which is fine… if their clients are bodybuilders. But if their clients are the general public, who are not interested in 19-inch biceps, what’s the point of studying bodybuilding?
For my team and I, our clients want help with their hormones, fat loss, and maybe chronic conditions (like type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, osteoarthritis and osteoporosis). So that’s what we spend out time and money learning more about.
I wrote about this in my soapbox article on the behind-the-scenes, all-access look at my professional development process.
Criterion #5: They Avoid Common Personal Trainer Mistakes
Personal trainers are people, and people make mistakes. Only in an industry where anyone can call themselves a personal trainer (from the Insta trainer, who has no background in fitness whatsoever, but was just able to get themselves into great shape, and no one else, to the PhD in kinesiology), people make way more mistakes than in regulated industries.
So personal trainers happen to make a ton of mistakes. I won’t rehash them here, but there are so many mistakes, I wrote 3 articles about the biggest mistakes personal trainers make (here’s part 2, and part 3).
Hopefully this article will help you in choosing the right personal trainer for you, whether it’s my team or not. Though if you do want to see whether my team is right for you, just fill out the quick application form on our home page. Filling out the application form doesn’t obligate you to anything. It’s just a quick, 10-15 minute chat to see if we’re right for you, and you’re right for us. No sales pitch, no pressure.
