Top 5 Online Personal Training Courses

When you’re a qualified personal trainer, your day-to-day routine revolves around training appointments at the gym or your clients’ homes. While this is awesome for a long time, you can eventually run out of free hours in the day and it can become difficult to scale in the long term.

Additionally, most individuals struggle to align their fitness goals with their busy lifestyles. With long working days or young children in tow, some potential clients find it impossible to make time for a PT appointment in their hectic schedule.

This is where becoming an online personal trainer can create a win win situation for you and your clients. You can scale your business and service clients who aren't so keen on meeting a trainer at the local gym.

However, becoming an online PT comes with its own challenges and doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a delicate balancing act to deliver a convenient digital training program without losing the quality of training or encouragement for your clients.

What is Online Personal Training?

If you've been at it a while and you're more of a tech savvy seasoned PT, skip ahead. If you're quite new to the world of online personal training, here's a little break down.

Online personal training is very much like 1:1 personal training but you serve your clients digitally. Instead of meeting face to face you might meet via Skype. Instead of training in a gym you might train them via a personal training software like PT Distinction.

You'd also use apps to track results, for habit coaching and for nutrition.

Why Do I Need a Course?

In theory, you don't. You can train people online as soon as you're certified and have the relevant personal training insurance. However, training clients online comes with it's own set of challenges and the best online personal trainers look for ways to overcome those challenges.

In particular, marketing and communication are the main barriers to get over and that's what most online personal training courses cover. Here are the top 5 online personal training courses to bridge the gap:

1. PT Distinction University

https://www.ptdistinctionuniversity.com/

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The PT Distinction University is an online personal training course built and designed by the creators of the PT Distinction software. You can access the University on a month of free trial of their software to access all their courses and resources.

CHECK OUT PT DISTINCTION

This gives you plenty of time to review the material provided and figure out whether the course videos and literature on the platform can be useful to you. Additionally, you can work your way through the curriculum and purchase the courses you’re interested in.

If you’re in the process of building your own fitness business, the PTD University lets you choose the skills and knowledge that are relevant to your situation. While you don’t receive any degree at the end of your study, the university is building an awards point system that will act as a qualification process for the main certifying body. 

With individual courses such as how to market your services to how to make the most of online coaching for your clients, you can learn from the best personal training experts and build your business confidently. 

For personal trainers who are already working full-time, PTD University has no time limit on the completion of their courses. This gives you plenty of flexibility to schedule courses around your work life. However, there are some key dates you can’t afford to miss for your benefits, such as the LIVE masterclass each week that lets you engage with tutors and instructors.

2. Online Trainer Academy

https://onlinetraineracademy.theptdc.com/

​​The Online Trainer Academy is dedicated to personal trainers who want to grow their business rapidly and successfully, regardless of where you are in your career.

With a solid entrepreneurship take on online personal training courses, the Online Trainer Academy guarantees to help you to get a minimum of 5 clients in 90 days or less. You can read an review of the Online Trainer Academy here.

The course takes you through the basics of starting an online PT business, structuring it, delivering positive results to your clients, and attracting more clients. You can also add a bonus module to learn more about the marketing and selling process and boost your digital presence. 

CHECK OUT THE FOUNDING CLIENT CHALLENGE

The advantage of the Online Trainer Academy lies in its business mindset. You are going to see quick results in terms of how you approach your business and brand awareness.

Additionally, you can also discuss issues or real-life applications during one-on-one sessions with a mentor. While you’re not getting any PT certification at the end of the course, you’ll be able to make your investment back very fast. Most students find they have recouped their costs halfway through the training program.

3. Online Fitness Business

https://onlinefitnessbusiness.com/

The Online Fitness Business course was created by Sukh Sidhu, an online personal trainer that successfully coached more than 400 online personal training clients at a time.

CHECK OUT THE OFB COURSE

The programme promises to show the trainer everything a standard personal training or business course doesn't teach. The course covers everything from getting your business set up and marketing, to sales, technology and software.

4. Institute of Personal Trainers

https://www.instituteofpersonaltrainers.com/become-an-online-trainer.html

​The Institute of Personal Trainers is the best free resource for online personal trainers on how to build a sustainable and money-making business. If you are unsure whether this is the right material for you, the Institute of Personal Trainers gives you free access to browse all courses.

You will not get a qualification at the end of the course. However, you can find a lot of information and tips on how to build and market your business model online.

CHECK OUT THE IPT ONLINE TRAINING COURSE

The Institute of Personal Trainers takes a holistic approach to your business so you can learn everything from setting up and finance to social media marketing, email campaigns, SEO, copywriting, and AdWords tools.

Institute of Personal Trainers members also benefit from discounts to industry services. You can also reach out to the community to exchange views and tips with other students and online PT experts.

5. Exceed Masterclass

https://exceedmasterclass.com/

​Exceed Masterclass also takes an entrepreneurial approach to online PT businesses and focuses all its online personal training courses on tips to plan, build, and grow an online fitness business.

Exceed Masterclass doesn’t provide any certification at the end of the program. However, members can choose to sign in for the premium membership where they can get one-on-one email coaching with the founder, Ru Anderson.

CHECK OUT EXCEED MASTERCLASS

It’s important to note that Exceed Masterclass doesn’t build up on your personal training knowledge but instead provides guidance on how to run an online business in the fitness industry. 
 
It’s an additional source of online marketing and presence materials for qualified PTs who are trying to launch their business. Members can receive support and tips from a successful personal trainer and learn to grow a profitable presence for themselves.

The Exceed Masterclass promises an ever-growing resource database to support members through their online sales funnels, marketing communications, web building, business masterplan, and even growth strategies. 
 
Hopefully, these online personal training courses can help you to launch your fitness career in the online market. With a strong focus on the business side, you can choose to develop your presence as an entrepreneur.