There so many great reasons to hire an online personal trainer. As experienced personal trainers, we’ve noticed that terms such as “online personal training” and “virtual personal training” get thrown around a lot. In the online world (which we’ve all spent some time in recently) these terms are often used in a way that we wouldn’t necessarily expect them to be. For this reason, it can be a little confusing when you’re looking for a very specific type of service.
The bottom line is that many of these online personal training services are not very…well, personal.
Let us explain why.
The confusion around using an online personal trainer
When you’re searching for an online personal trainer, we’d assume you’re looking for a personalised solution that helps you kick-start your health and fitness goals. The clue really is in the title.
What you may find though is that you end up with quite un-personal, generic solutions. They might offer online fitness training or coaching, but the ‘personal’ part of personal training is lacking. In fact, most often, you’ll find that it’s actually just an app that you’re getting.
Using an online training app has its benefits for sure. It’s one of the lowest cost online fitness training solutions out there for a start.
However, if you want something that is truly personalised you’re more likely to be looking for a service such as our Online Personal Training service. [More on that shortly].
What you can expect from ‘real’ online personal training
An online personal trainer is about a truly personalised experience. Because of that, online personal training should offer similar benefits to traditional at-home personal training programs – but delivered online. It makes a lot of sense when you think about it. These benefits include:
- No travel involved. Online personal training, like traditional at-home personal training, starts and ends at home. You can be getting on with whatever else you want to, right up to the start of your training sessions, and immediately after them. This saves you travel time, plus it’s easier to be on time for your sessions without having to plan for potential traffic jams. You’ll also save money that you don’t need to spend on things like petrol or gym memberships.
- Privacy. You get the opportunity to build your health and fitness confidence in the comfort of your own home, without worrying about what other people are doing or thinking.
- Individual or group training. As well as one-to-one training, online personal training makes small group training a great, cost-effective way of getting fit and healthy with friends – without any geographic restrictions.
- Personalised to you. You get the same great 1:1 accountability, support and tailored approach as face to face training, which means you feel encouraged, invested in and motivated. With online personal training services you have someone right ‘there’ with you. Having someone to encourage you to push out those last few reps that you might not do on your own can be the difference between seeing great results and hanging up your training shoes in defeat. You also get technique help via live time demonstration and feedback from your trainer.
The features that you are probably not going to get with an app alone
Online personal training services that are essentially apps may have benefits, but there are certain things that you’ll miss. These include:
- Connection with a real trainer. You may get some support via chat systems using apps, but it will inherently lack that personal touch and eye-to-eye contact. As opposed to apps, online personal training means instant two-way feedback – so the trainer can see you, feedback on exercise technique and gauge how you feel in the moment; and you can be motivated by their focussed attention.
- Real-time conversations. With apps, you’re missing out on the potential to share important personal information with your trainer that may affect how you exercise on any given day. For example, say you haven’t slept well and feel a bit weak and tired. Unlike apps, an online personal trainer can use their intuition and expert knowledge to respond appropriately. This might mean safely modifying your exercise session. Or it might mean that little bit of encouragement at a time when you need it most.
- Tailored workout plan. With an app alone, it might appear like you’ve got a personalised workout plan that considers your exercise preferences, medical history, and goals. The problem is that this evolves all the time and there’s a limit to how much detail an app can go into. Online personal training allows for an evolving and nuanced understanding of you and your circumstances, so you always get the most effective program with everything taken into consideration.
- Effective accountability. With a real online personal trainer, you get more accountability because you still need to show up at your pre-agreed time. With a generic app, you can easily skip a workout – and no-one will notice! Online personal training helps you, not only in those times when you feel motivated, but crucially through those patches when you don’t.
Some added benefits of online personal training that even challenge our traditional ‘at-home’ personal training services
We’re firm believers that there are different personalised solutions for every individual. For some, an app alone may be just the ticket. For others, a traditional at-home personal training service might work best. For others still, our virtual personal training service could actually be the perfect fit.
There are, in fact, a few benefits from using an online personal trainer that you don’t get with at-home personal training packages.
- Train wherever you want. We pride ourselves on delivering face-to-face personal training to you on location – whether that be home, workplace or local park. But even home personal training has its limitations. With online personal training, you have complete freedom and flexibility to train anywhere with an internet connection. This means you could take your virtual sessions with you into hotel rooms whilst away with work, when you’re staying with friends or relatives – or even on holiday. Because the trainer doesn’t need to be physically with you, the world really is your oyster to be personally trained in!
- Save money. Online personal trainers don’t spend time traveling to your home, so services can be offered more cost-effectively. Our online personal training package is currently only £199 and includes nine interactive 1:1 sessions.
- Match up with the perfect trainer. With online personal training, you can find the perfect personal trainer for you without any geographic restrictions. Our online personal training service comes with a free taster session – so you can test the water first and only carry on if you think you’ll get on.
Find out more about our online personal training service
To summarise, online personal training is not just an app – it’s so much more. You’ll get the personal touch from an expert who can respond to you as a person with unique and ever-changing circumstances. This relationship is key, helps prevent you from falling off the wagon and is the reason why many of our clients have continued training with us for years.
To learn more about or online personal training service and the Six Week Programme Online, click here. You can get started with a free taster session to meet your trainer, discuss your goals and see how it can work for you.
We’d love to hear your thoughts about online personal training. Please start a conversation with us in the box below!
