HOW TO LAUNCH AN ONLINE PERSONAL TRAINING BUSINESS
IN JUST 7 DAYS
✓ The new, better way of launching an online business
✓ The fastest way to create in irresistible offer ✓ A simple system to sell to clients who are interested |
HOW TO LAUNCH AN ONLINE PERSONAL TRAINING BUSINESS
IN JUST 7 DAYS
✓ The new, better way of launching an online business
✓ The fastest way to create in irresistible offer ✓ A simple system to sell to clients who are interested |
Operating a home gym is a brilliant alternative to working in a commercial or studio gym. It eliminates the need to pay rent or provide classes for free and if you already have an established client base you can still provide them with individualised attention in a gym environment. With the added bonus that you have a personal gym at home that you can use any time you like. We asked our Institute of Personal Trainers Facebook Group members so we can extend some of our ideas for this topic. Let's see how you can build your home gym to PT at home! Types of Home Gym As a personal trainer, you probably already have some pieces of equipment around your home that you’ve been using with clients. Using what you have on hand to minimise your costs is a good first step. You can then consider what you’re missing having access to in a mainstream gym, and prioritising those purchases. You will likely want to use the space you have available rather than committing to building entirely new spaces. 1. Spare Room Gym You may have a spare room inside your home which would be fine if you wanted a personal gym. Remember, if you intend to use this as a personal trainer to work with clients inside your house, make sure that you’re comfortable with your clients in your personal space. The biggest benefit is that you can work with exactly what you’ve already got, so costs are low. A potential drawback of this could be that your tenancy agreement may limit what you’re allowed to do at home in terms of business use so you may want to double-check that before making arrangements to move your clients into your spare room. 2. Garage Gym An outdoor space is fantastic, as you can use bigger equipment and leave it there at the end of the session. However, be warned that in summer and winter the garage is often subject to extreme temperature changes. You may have to look into air conditioning or heating units, depending on where you live. Also, remember that gym equipment can be expensive, and if your garage is damp the metal could rust. Alex Shaw, the founder and head coach at Body Transformation Solutions in Texas had to find a way to add air conditioning to his garage gym so him and his clients can keep up their workouts throughout the summer. He used a portable unit and hole in the wall to set up his own. 3. Exterior Building If you have a dedicated outdoor space, you can design it specifically around the needs of your personal training business. The building can be damp proofed, and the temperature can be more closely regulated. It can also be made to actually function as a dedicated gym. If you’re running your personal training business from this space, this will be important. However, if this involves building a brand new building from scratch that can increase the cost of the build significantly. The best advice on this is to speak to several builders and get a number of quotes. As Pamela Aitcheson's story shows, sometimes you need to think outside of the box and make some compromises to achieve the best solution for you and your clients. She built a cabin in her garden to train clients. In 4x3 metres she has everything she needs for a great workout for all abilities. Home Gym Equipment Making choices about what equipment you need for your home gym will be influenced by the type of clients you work with and that budget you’re working with. Broadly speaking, if you’re on a tight budget, you will have three options for buying equipment: Buying Used Equipment Checking Facebook marketplace is a great start, sometimes you get really lucky and find excellent quality items being sold by people you may even have a personal connection with. It may be worth speaking to local gyms too; they often struggle to get rid of old equipment after they’ve replaced what they’ve got. Building Your Own Equipment Depending on how skilled you are, you could build your own. This can be a perfect weekend project for someone looking for plyo boxes, adjustable pulling blocks or plate storage at a fraction of the cost of buying new. If you are in the process of setting up an outdoor space, like Andy Heath in this picture, you can think even bigger, depending on the type of sessions you want to deliver and clients you have. Buying New Equipment From Affordable Retailers Who the affordable retailers are will depend on where you are are in the world. In the UK, Bulldog Gear, Assassin Goods and Wolverson Fitness are great places to start, but you may want to keep an eye on international companies like Rogue who have predictable sales throughout the year. Home gym enthusiasts on Reddit can anticipate a sale and plan their purchases around these big sale days throughout the year. 1. Flooring Flooring is going to be one of the most important considerations if you train clients through powerlifting and Olympic weightlifting style movements. The flooring must be able to withstand the impact of barbells being dropped on them, and to absorb the noise. We recommend rubber matting or a much cheaper alternative - horse stall mats. Deadlift or weightlifting platforms (which differ from each other only in terms of their size) make a sensible addition to a lifting focused gym, and while these can be very expensive to buy new, there are tutorials available online for building your own from stacked plywood. You can even add your own personal training logo to the platform! In the picture above you can see what I did and my son was a great help in adding our family logo: S for Salcumbe. Exercise mats which can be pieced together like a jigsaw are useful if you need to move them around, and they’re in place more in a more temporary way (e.g. you still use your garage space as a garage, not only a gym). They’re also much lighter to pick up and move than dedicated flooring mats, which can be heavy, awkward and very rough on your fingertips to lift and stack as they’re made from recycled tyres. 2. Dumbbells Dumbbells are a useful piece of equipment for most client populations and they don’t take up a lot of space. If you have the space available, it’s nice to have a range of fixed weight dumbbells on a rack (personal preference is a hex dumbbell, but there are other models available). If you don’t have much space, adjustable dumbbells are a good alternative. 3. Kettlebells For any style of home gym, a small selection of kettlebells is a must. It’s more flexible than a dumbbell as it has a broader range of dynamic uses, and it can still be used to teach highly technical, even unilateral movements like the snatch. Depending on the needs of the clients you train, these are useful in almost every session, are hard-wearing, and are easy to restore yourself, as Danny Millet explains. Do be careful to avoid broken lights though if you’re using kettlebells indoors with tall clients! 4. Bench Ideally, an adjustable bench that can be set to flat, incline and decline (if necessary) will be ideal. You’re likely to only buy one bench, so make sure it’s multi-functional and hard wearing. 5. Skipping Ropes If you’re low on space, these are a must. Especially if there are no other cardio machines available. These fold up to take up minimal space and give a fantastic conditioning workout. When paired with other exercises, such as boxing with a partner holding pads, they can be used in short interval-style workouts and longer endurance work. For beginners that are just learning to skip, a heavier rope is better for them to develop the sense of rhythm they need. If your clients are more experienced, and aiming to develop double-unders or more advanced techniques, a speed rope is preferred. 6. Resistance Bands If you’re working out with clients at home or you don’t yet have the proper flooring in your home gym to let them safely use weights, resistance bands can be a good alternative. They’re a useful tool for any gym, and depending on your client, they may be enough of a workout in their own right. For more experienced lifters, they’re a useful warm up and recovery tool. I especially like them prior to snatching to prepare my rotator cuffs. 7. Medicine Balls Medicine balls are large and soft and could be used instead of weights for some clients. They can be thrown, sometimes slammed and can be used to improve coordination. How heavy you buy them will depend on the clients you train. They’re also a useful method of scaling movements for some people, so if you have a client who wants to learn an Olympic clean, it can be a useful tool to help them to learn the hip extension and speed needed without risking hurting themselves on a barbell. 8. Box Plyo metric boxes are available in two styles; soft and wooden. These are fantastic for jumping on and developing the strength for dips. Softboxes are usually stackable, with velcro flaps to secure one box to the next. These are great for populations that don’t yet have a full-sized jump and want to develop that skill by working to a lower height (also athletes with injuries or shorter athletes). Wooden boxes are single objects - easier to move and store. They have three different heights depending on which height they’re stacked on (20”, 24” and 30” is typical). If you were to make your own, these dimensions could change. 9. Squat Rack We recommend a multifunctional power rack for squats. These safety cages will have adjustable safety arms and moveable J-hooks so if you’re benching alone and you need to bail on a lift, you can be safe. Many of these power racks come with a pull-up bar attached. 10. Barbell A barbell in your home gym will last a lifetime, and it will probably be one of the single biggest purchases you make. If you train client populations who use a barbell, and you have enough space to accommodate one, we recommend taking time to choose the right one for you. One of your first considerations will be the weight of the barbell itself. A standard men’s barbell is 20kg. A standard ladies’ barbell is 15kg. There are lighter bars available (sometimes called training bars) but their tensile strength will be different. If you’re using advanced weightlifting techniques with your clients you’ll want to make sure that the cuffs of the barbell have enough spin (if the budget will stretch, consider a bearings barbell rather than a bushings bar). Keep in mind though that if you don’t know if you need a bearings bar, you almost certainly do not. When buying a barbell, make note of the PSI tensile strength of the shaft - that’s how much weight the bar can take, and whether or not you want centre knurling, which could be uncomfortable while squatting for some. How aggressive the knurling on the bar is going to be a matter of personal preference but very rough knurling could be uncomfortable for clients that are inexperienced. Finally, if your barbell is going to be stored in a garage or under humid or damp conditions, you could consider a Cerkote finish which makes your barbell more resistant to rusting and extends the life of your bar. 11. Plates You’ll be making two major decisions with your plates. Firstly, do you want bumper plates (standard diameter so perfect for clients who are learning any lift from the floor, and can withstand being dropped) or metal plates (variable diameter, should not be dropped, but can often be picked up second hand and be restored). The next decision is which pairs of plates to buy. For most people, pairs of: 20kg, 15kg, 10kg, 5kgs, 2.5kg and 1.25kg will be enough. However, if you get the opportunity to pick up more fractional plates, do. They’re extremely hard to come by, especially 1kg, 0.5kg and 0.25kg. For heavy lifting clients, it could also be useful to have a pair of 25kg plates. 12. Rower An indoor rower can be a fantastic addition to the home gym if you have enough space for it. It’s low impact on joints, and there’s scope for extensive, structured training plans around the rower alone. If the budget will stretch to a Concept 2, this is the industry standard. There are other, cheaper rowers available, as well as more expensive “water” rowers, but the C2 holds its value well if you were ever to resell and the C2 aftercare is exceptional. 13. Air Bike Sometimes known as an assault bike, both Bulldog and Wolverson have occasional sales where these bikes are paired with other pieces of cardio (sometimes the rower, sometimes a ski erg) and those packages are outstanding value. This piece of equipment has about the same footprint as a large living room chair, so consider space before you buy. It’s also quite noisy so if you’re training clients inside your home you may want to be considerate of your neighbours. 14. Spin Bike A spin bike can be picked up at a fairly low cost and takes up a little less space than an air bike. Another low impact exercise, this piece of equipment is perfect for warming up and cooling down. It’s also a challenging exercise in its own right, and with the choice between the resistance coming from magnets or from friction on a weighted flywheel, it’s also much quieter than an air bike. Cost of a Home Gym It could be a good idea to set a budget when designing your home gym. This is the sort of project that could get very expensive very quickly. One way to do this is to buy the bare-bones minimum you need and then set a savings goal from personal training to reinvest in your home gym. Clients love to see that you’re reinvesting in their training. Cheap home gym A basic home gym could come in for a budget of around £100-£150. Your purchasing here would likely include a few resistance bands, kettlebells, a skipping rope, perhaps an adjustable dumbbell. Mid tier For up to £300-400 you could include a little more equipment, perhaps some medicine balls, TRX, plates and a plyo box. Expensive If you’re able to really invest some money, for around £1000 you could be looking for a barbell and plates, a bench and a rack too. Please note if you have bought a Cerakote barbell, make sure the J-hooks on your power rack have plastic inserts or it can scratch the coating off your barbell. Home Gym Design How you design your home gym will have massive implications in terms of how people feel when they come to your space to train. Dark, dingy atmospheres don't exactly scream motivation so where possible, your gym design should reflect your branding. Here are few ideas to get your started. Flooring: Horse stall mats are a cost-effective way to absorb dropped barbells and noise. These are a must if you’re planning on doing any powerlifting or Olympic lifting in your home gym facility. You can also buy piece together soft flooring if you don’t need something quite as hard-wearing as this, and these can be pulled up and moved if you need that flexibility. Mirrors: These are a useful tool to help your clients to check their lifting form and for you to check their form from other angles without being overly intrusive. If your home gym space is small, it’s also useful to make the room feel a little bigger too. Of course, mirrors are essential to check out that top set pump too. Posters: Inspirational posters for your clients can be enough to get them fired up to train. But who your clients will look up to will vary based on who you train and how you train them. Educational posters can be useful too, depicting muscle and skeletal systems, which can be a way to help coach your clients to learn how to develop a mind-muscle connection while lifting. If you train groups, you might even consider a big team photo and getting that printed off poster-sized and framed to help your clients feel a sense of belonging. Asking each person in the picture to write a short, encouraging message to the next person to walk in the door could be a real talking point and could help new clients feel a sense of community. Heating/cooling: depending on where you live, this is going to be a priority - especially if you’re running your personal training out of a garage. Investing in an air conditioning unit can be expensive upfront, but this will be important for the comfort of your clients. Alex Shaw had some advice on keeping costs down while staying cool. Lighting: Good lighting is going to be vital for that all-important post-workout photo. Michael Roberts suggests downlighting with a slight brown colour was particularly flattering to his clients. Don’t make the mistake of dismissing this as unimportant; when your clients feel like you make them look good, that’s a big part of the reason they come for personal training. If your facility has awesome lighting and they’re excited to share photos on social media, that’s a lot more exposure for your business, and potentially more referrals and inbound enquiries. Just make sure they also tag you too! Colour scheme: Picking something which is congruent with your branding is one option, as you’ll have the flexibility to do this in a home gym in a way that you wouldn’t in a commercial gym. I recommend searching through Pinterest for inspiration. There are some fantastic ideas on being effective with a limited budget for decoration. Music system: If the budget will allow wall-mounted, surround sound speakers in every corner of the home gym - that would be amazing. But the quality of Bluetooth soundbars is exceptional these days, with immersive 3D sound possible from a single fixed point. Having music playing can set the tone for your session, and Bluetooth is easy to connect to your phone or dedicated iPad streaming music from Spotify. Do be warned though that in the UK the PPL PRS licensing is sometimes prone to changing on short notice and the “exercise to music” license (such as you’d have for Zumba and more recently, CrossFit) is prohibitively expensive when compared with “background music while exercising”. Extra for the client: These are the sort of attention to detail features that would allow your personal training services in a home gym to stand out from the competitors. They may include a freshly brewed tea or coffee on arrival, complimentary protein shake. Here's what Brendan Turner suggested in the group. While making or drinking this “value add” you could schedule your next session, and it would give you some room in the current session to actually coach the client on the things between now and the next session.
Perhaps you need them to replicate that session or hit a given amount of cardio between now and your next appointment. You could even ask them for a referral. That 10 minutes or so could be useful just to let your clients feel heard and valued. These little things are often what make the difference in client retention over the long term. Did you find this information useful?
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