How Much Does a Personal Trainer Make?
We get this question a lot. Here's the answer...
It’s a question we get often when prospective students reach out to us about the personal trainer school. And frankly, it’s a very difficult question to answer because the answer has many variables; but we’re going to try and answer it today!
Google Says...
A quick search on Google will show $36,160. But it also says that was in 2015. Furthermore, as stated above, there are many variables. Is that for full-time trainers? Part-time trainers? Is that at a corporate gym? Is that at an independently owned gym? How about those who work for themselves? Well today, we’re going to dive in and try and answer all your questions on what a personal trainer makes or can make.
Full-time or Part-time
This is a huge variable. Many personal trainers start as part-time trainers and a lot of them remain part-time. Personal training is almost always commission based; thus, it’s very hard for someone to start off as a full-time trainer. Not many people can afford to quit their job and concentrate on personal training full time. If you can afford to start off full-time, that would be my recommendation. This gives you an opportunity to meet as many gym members as possible. It also allows you to become familiar with all the equipment in the gym. The more you are around the gym, the more quickly you’ll be able to pick up clients and start your new career. There are lots of benefits to become a personal trainer. Read more about these benefits in our blog: Top 5 Reasons for Becoming a Personal Trainer.
Corporate Gyms
Many trainers start off working at corporate gyms. These gyms would be like Gold’s Gym, 24 Hour Fitness, L.A. Fitness, and many similar gyms. These big chain gyms provide lots of equipment and lots of members; therefore, they take out lots of money from the personal training sale. For example, Let’s say you sell 10 sessions for $599 (this is pretty common), a large corporate gym may take out 70% and give the trainer 30%. So, in this example, the gym makes $419 while the trainer makes $180. If these personal trainer sessions are for 60 minutes, then a quick calculation shows that the trainer makes $18 per hour while training this client. If these are 30-minute sessions, then the trainer doubles his take to $36 per hour. All in all, corporate gyms are a great place to get started and you will learn a lot about the business. But keep in mind they will take 70-80% of the sale. This is a great question to ask your prospective employer.
Smaller Gyms
On the other hand, we have the small gyms like Anytime Fitness, Fitness 19, Joe’s Gym, etc. Boot camps such as Camp Gladiator may fit into these categories as well. These are normally independently owned and don’t have as many members and don’t have as much equipment as a large, corporate gym. Because of the smaller size, personal trainers will be required to be great marketers as well! Personal trainers will have to drum up clients because there aren’t as many opportunities for clients at smaller gyms. But, because of this big difference, there’s also a big difference in the commission structure. Trainers in this category usually trainers make 60 to 70% of the sale. Therefore, with the example above, the trainer makes $419 and the gym makes $180. Also, using the same example, that same 1-hour session increases from $18 per hour to $42 per hour. You can see the allure of working at smaller gyms. And if you’re self-motivated, then this may be the answer for you!
Self-employed
In addition, there is one more type of trainer and that’s the entrepreneur. You can start at one or both of the above and eventually move into this field OR you can just jump into this field right off the bat! Like the small gym quandary, you will be in charge of doing most of your marketing; and in some cases, ALL of it! Pick a name, design a logo, start a website, and many, many other responsibilities fall on your shoulders. In fact, this is a whole other blog that we’ll write soon for the persona trainers that are on the path to entrepreneurship. But for now, just know that it’s a lot of work but the reward is 100% of the sale. So, with the example above, you are now making the full $599. Some of these trainers will still pay a small fee to use a gym. Other trainers will start their own personal trainer studio and pay rent. And to keep overhead down, other trainers will train at homes, parks, tracks, etc. If you are creative and have great marketing ideas, then this path may be for you sometime in the near or far future.
Getting Started
Once again, this is going to be another blog for another time but the first thing you should do is get certified. Yes, I’m fully aware that you like to work out; but, can you pass the certification exams? That means you’ll have to know muscles, bones, joint actions, exercise physiology, biomechanics, program design, etc. etc. For example, do you know the Muscles of the Lower Leg and which exercises are best for each muscle? If you’re client asks about protein, will you know How Much Protein Your Client Needs. Will you be able to do a fitness assessment for your new client? Again, we’ll write another blog soon on the steps to become a personal trainer. The larger corporate gyms may have different requirements than the smaller gyms. And of course, being your own boss will have also come with different requirements.
Summary
Hopefully this gave you a pretty good idea on what a personal trainer makes. The salary will depend on how many hours the personal trainer works. Full-time trainers generally train 30-40 hours. Part-time trainers may just have 1 or 2 clients and work 2-3 hours per week. In the example above, we used a conservative 10 sessions for $599. Some gyms and personal trainers charge more, others will charge less. So, as you can see, there are a lot of variables in pinpointing a personal trainer’s salary because it will vary greatly from trainer to trainer. I’ve seen PFTA graduates make $10,000 a year and then I’ve seen PFTA graduates start their own business and make well over $100,000 per day. At the end of the day, a lot of the salary will depend on you. How much time are you going to spend acquiring clients? How much time are you going to spend on the gym floor with your clients? Finally, keep in mind that although most personal trainer jobs are 100% commission based, you may find 1 or 2 jobs that pay a small hourly rate to help members get acclimated to the gym or help with other gym duties. Hopefully this article has answered many of your questions. If you have more questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us. Remember, knowledge is power! Happy health and happy training!
Knowledge is Power
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Written By
RAEscobar, PFTA instructor and personal trainer
Sources:
R.A. Escobar, PFTA instructor and personal trainer