Youre looking to get in better shape. You may have tried different diets and exercise programs in the past, and either they didnt work, they worked, but didnt last, or you got hurt. So now, youre looking to hire a professional to do things the right way. Maybe you’ve already started Googling things like ‘personal trainers near me prices’ and ‘how much is a personal trainer?’. Either way, the first question that comes to mind is how much does it cost to hire a personal trainer? How much is it for a personal trainer? Yes, you may get better results than doing it yourself, but it certainly comes at a price.
In this article, you will learn:
- How much does a personal trainer cost per session?
- What is the monthly cost of a personal trainer?
- How often should I see a personal trainer?
- Are personal trainers worth it?
- Why do personal trainers cost so much (the answer may surprise you)
- What should I tell my personal trainer?
- How long should a personal training session last?
But before we jump in, you might be wondering who the hell are you? How rude of me to not introduce myself. Let me do that.
My name is Igor Klibanov (are you trying to guess my nationality right now?). Ive been a personal trainer since 2006. I first started working at some commercial gyms, as well as a community centre and a country club, before starting my own personal training company (Fitness Solutions Plus) in 2010.
Since I started my own company, Ive interviewed over 350 personal trainers, who have worked in different gyms, from Goodlife to LA Fitness, to YMCA, Golds Gym, and many others. Ive also spoken at dozens of different personal training conferences, colleges, and universities, published 5 books on exercise and nutrition, and even currently host my own radio show (called Wellness 360.) All that is to say that Im knee-deep in the industry, and I have a fairly good pulse on whats going on.
With that out of the way, lets jump in.
How Much Does a Personal Trainer Cost?
OK Igor, just answer my damn question!!! youre probably thinking . I will. But its not quite as simple as a personal trainer costs X number of dollars per session. The cost of a personal trainer spans the gamut, from as low as around $20 per session, and as high as over $200 per session. But if you want a ballpark average, Id say it ranges based on which neighbourhood you are in.
As I live in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), I can only speak for my hood. But heres how it breaks down:
Downtown Toronto: $90-$120 / session is quite normal.
Most of the rest of the GTA (North York, Scarborough, Etobicoke, Mississauga, Durham Region, York Region): $65-$90/session
Brampton: $40-$60/session.
With all these ranges, keep in mind that even with one personal trainer, or with a personal training company, there is a range, based on the number of sessions that you get. The more you buy, the lower the per-session price is.
Now you know the general per-session prices, but that really begs the question:
How Much Does a Personal Trainer Cost per Month? (How Often Should I See a Personal Trainer)?
This is largely variable. The monthly cost of a personal trainer really depends on how often you see that personal trainer. Obviously, if you see a trainer 3-4 times per week, itll be around 3-4 times the price of seeing the same trainer once per week.
When Im asked how often our clients should see our trainers, I frequently answer that the optimal frequency might be 3-4 times per week (it obviously depends on the goal. Might be as low as 1-2 times per week, to as much as 5 times per week), but sometimes, optimal is not always realistic. Sometimes it doesnt always work out with a persons schedule or budget, so the client can see the trainer 1-2 times per week, and do an additional 1-3 workouts on their own.
Of course, the key to making this work is actually doing the workouts that youre prescribed for homework.
Anyways, to answer our original question of what is the monthly cost of a personal trainer, lets do some math. Lets say youre spending $80/session. If youre seeing your personal trainer 4 times per week, thats $80 x 4 (times per week) x 4 (weeks). So the monthly cost of a trainer before tax would be around $1280. If youre seeing your trainer once per week, the monthly cost would be $320.
Are Personal Trainers Worth It?
Personal training is not the cheapest option. Youre spending not just money, but also time with this professional. So whether a personal trainer is worth it or not is obviously a judgment call. Even I, as a personal trainer dont think that a personal trainer is worth it for everyone.
Typically, personal training for most people is a last resort. If someone wants to lose weight, theyll usually try some other things:
- Diets
- Doing their own exercise programs
- Group fitness classes
- Weight watchers
- Working out with a friend/family member/spouse
and only after none of those have worked, do they finally hire a personal trainer. They (correctly) conclude:
- Ive been on diets. Ive lost weight, and Ive always regained it. The problem is not a diet. I dont need another meal plan. The problem is keeping the weight off.
- Doing my own exercise programs, group fitness classes, or working out with a friend/family member/spouse: either it wasnt effective, it was too much of a guessing game, I didnt know whether I was making progress, or I got injured in the process.
- Weight watchers: they have group meetings, which is great for accountability, but they dont provide much in the way of personalized exercise programming.
So the big 2 reasons for hiring a personal trainer can be summarized as:
- Motivation. You need someone to be accountable to. So you hire essentially an accountability partner.
- Education. You dont know what youre doing, so you want a professional, who (hopefully) has years of experience to help you out, in a safe way, and put together a program that fits your body.
If any of the above describes you, I think a personal trainer is definitely worth it. However, even I, as a personal trainer dont think that a personal trainer is worth it for everyone. Heres when I think personal trainers are not worth it:
- If youre not going to be consistent. You know yourself better than anyone, so if you know that youd be cancelling sessions all the time, it may not be worth it. This is not the same as if you travel a lot for a living. We have lots of clients who travel, but they keep up with the workouts we give them when theyre away.
- If itll put you at too much of a financial strain. And not just I really dont want to pay that much but actually I wouldnt be able to pay certain bills if I do this.
- If youre too high-risk. If youre taking a lot of medications, have some serious health conditions, or have a large number of injuries, I usually tell these folks to take the money they would have spent on personal training, and spend it on osteopaths, naturopathic doctors, etc. to get healthy first. After they have the all-clear, then personal training starts to make more sense. After all, we dont want to hurt our clients, and we dont want to disappoint our clients. So if we dont think that we can do a good job with them, well refer out.
Why Do Personal Trainers Cost So Much?
On the cost issue, I have some opinions. Firstly, they dont ALL cost so much. You can find a cheap, $20 personal trainer on Craigslist or Kijiji.
The other point is that we often think of cost as having to do strictly with money. But theres also a cost to time. And arguably, the time cost is a larger cost than the money cost. After all, you can make another dollar, but you cant make another minute.
What do I mean when I say the time cost? Well, it takes time to figure out what works for you. A quality, professional personal trainer will do it way faster than you could do it yourself, and with more certainty.
Dont forget a personal trainer may have gone to school to learn anatomy, physiology, training methods, etc. You didnt. You could do as good of a job as that personal trainer if you spent thousands of hours studying those same topics. Not to mention that you may spend money studying those topics.
With a trainer, what youre really buying is speed and certainty. Essentially, its a shortcut. If youve tried different approaches, and they didnt work, you can keep going on the trial and error route. But it may take you months or years to figure things out. Or you may never figure it out. However, you can hire a personal trainer, who has done what youre trying to do with other people. What seems difficult to you may be perfectly ordinary to him/her, because they do it every day.
What determines the price of a personal trainer? There are a number of factors. In no particular order:
Neighbourhood
As you saw earlier in this article, different neighbourhoods have vastly varying prices for personal training. In general, the higher the prices of real estate in a certain neighbourhood, the higher the prices of personal trainers as well. Generally this goes for online personal training as well, but it definitely can vary.
Education
Usually, the more formal and informal education that a trainer has, the more theyll charge. Formal education would be things like degrees, diplomas, and certifications (many of them will be in kinesiology or exercise science of some sort). In addition, trainers who are continuing education can also fall under this category of formal education. Informal education would be things like attending seminars that further their knowledge in certain areas, books they read, internships they do, and other colleagues that they talk to.
Experience
No surprise, the more experience that a trainer has, the more theyll charge. Someone fresh out of school will charge less than a 20-year veteran. But education and experience isnt the same thing. As I drive the point home in my article on professional development, if you dont learn anything after you finish school, and youve been a trainer for 20 years, you dont have 20 years of experience. You have 1 year of experience 20 times. Experience comes from learning. Not just working. And not merely spending time.
Unfortunately, even trainers confuse experience (ie information learned, and implemented with clients) with time served.
Specialization
A specialist usually charges more than a generalist in any field. A surgeon charges more than a general practitioner. Same with trainers. A trainer who does 1-3 things really well will usually charge more than the generalist, who does everything kinda well. For example, a trainer may declare himself a specialist in fat loss for women with PCOS. Hell be able to charge more than someone who does it all fat loss, muscle gain, athletic training, endurance training, powerlifting, rehabilitation, etc. As the saying goes, a jack of all trades is a master of none. By the way, if you want learn more about PCOS, check out my article on how to lose weight with PCOS).
So figure out if you have a special need that might require a personal trainer for back pain, or personal training for diabetics, a personal trainer for people with a slow thyroid, or something else.
Demand
A basic law of economics is supply and demand. The more demand there is for a trainers services/time, the more limited his ability to provide that service, the higher his price. Just like a night club who wants to go to a night club that has no line outside the club? The busier a trainer is, the more theyll charge.
Celebrity Factor
Some trainers may be local celebrities. Maybe theyre authors, having written books on exercise/nutrition, maybe theyre an in-demand speaker, maybe theyre on TV, radio, newspapers, or magazines. Typically, the celebrity trainer will charge much more than any other trainer.
If you’re looking for a personal trainer, here’s a video that outlines 9 things you should know before hiring a personal trainer:
What Should I Tell My Personal Trainer?
Youve made the decision to work with a personal trainer. What should you tell them? Although every trainer will want to know different things about you, at bare minimum, every trainer should know:
- Your goals
- Your current routine
- Your medical history
- Your medications
- Your present injuries
Over and above that, feel free to tell them whatever else you want. You want someone whos more than a trainer? Someone whos also a friend? Feel free to discuss music, sports, movies, where you went to school, you know the same stuff youd talk about with a friend.
How Long Should a Personal Training Session Last?
Personal training session are usually 1 hour, because well thats how time blocks work. Not for any reason of physiology. But there are gyms/trainers offering 20-30 minute sessions, and less frequently, offering 90-minute sessions. To me, none of these are about physiology. Theyre more about time convenience.
I believe that a session should be as long as it takes to get the necessary result. Thats why with our clients, we do per-session pricing, and not per-hour pricing. Whether a session is 45 minutes or 75 minutes, the price is the same.
So how long should a training session last? In my opinion, as much or as little as it takes to make progress. How long does it last in the real world? Most of the time, about an hour.
