06 Sep 5 Ways Gyms Take Advantage of Personal Trainers

Chris had no doubt in his mind.

While his peers spent their undergrad years switching between majors, trying to figure out what they wanted to do with their lives — Chris had zero doubts.

Chris knew what he wanted to do. He knew what he was going to do.

Chris wanted to be a personal trainer. He wanted to utilize his own passion for fitness to inspire positive change in others.

So he knew what he had to do.

Chris buckled down and earned his degree at Towson University.

He completed an immersive internship program at FX Studios in downtown Baltimore.

He earned his nationally recognized personal trainer certification from the National Academy of Sports Medicine.

Chris had literally done everything right.

So when he landed his first job at a respected local gym, he expected to be delighted.

He was miserable.

In fact, he quit within a week of being hired.

Why?

Well, unfortunately, Chris experienced what most personal trainers do — an unfair system.

Chris saw firsthand how deeply flawed the personal training industry is.

He saw clients not getting what they were promised. He saw himself not getting what he was promised.

In fact, he witnessed a system with only one winner — the gym.

He saw why the average lifespan of a personal training career is less than two years.

That’s right — less than two years!

Do you understand how insane that is?

That means that the average personal trainer might spend 4 years earning his/her bachelor’s in exercise science, another 6 months completing the CPT… and then what?

I’ll tell you what.

Then, after all that work, after all that anticipation, that incredible personal trainer is forced to quit. She’s forced to leave her passion and find a boring desk job.

Within 2 years of beginning their careers — most trainers discover that personal training just doesn’t pay the bills.

It’s a serious problem in the fitness industry. And that’s why we started Fit2Go Personal Training.

In 2013, we founded a Baltimore company that was going to put personal trainers’ best interests first.

Importantly — this wasn’t a selfish goal. We knew that putting our own best interests first would allow us to provide a better service to our clients.

It was the middle man that had to go. The gym. The faceless building that kept the profits and distracted us from our purposes of improving lives.

Yeah, screw that.

Look, if you’re a personal trainer, you’re the one working with clients day in and day out.

You’re the one inspiring meaningful and lasting change.

If you’re not happy, if you’re not taken care of, then nobody wins. Not you, not the client, and you know what? Not even the gym. Cause you’ll be out of there within two years (we already discussed this).

So, with that said, I want to dive into the five worst ways gyms take advantage of their personal trainers, and how we’ve aimed to solve this with Fit2Go Personal Training.

Problem #1: Surprise, you’re a salesman!

We’ll start here, because it’s what pissed me off most as a new trainer.

I was there to be a trainer.

I was there to talk drop sets and undulating periodization.

I was there to guide clients past their own limits.

Never had I agreed to be a salesman.

It made me so mad, because it felt like the exact opposite of what I had signed up for.

I thought my job was going to be to work with people who wanted my help.

But that wasn’t really my job.

That was a false advertisement by the gym industry.

My true job was to convince gym members that they needed my help.

That’s quite a different job.

So here’s how it works at the average gym:

Step 1: The gym hires you. They tell you you’ll work 25 hours / week (or whatever number).

Step 2: After being hired, you’re told: “Cool, now go fill those 25 hours with clients.”

Wait. What?

Step 3: You find out that working at a gym doesn’t mean you’re training existing clients. It means you’re creating clients.

Your job isn’t really to do the work (train clients), as much as it is to create the work (convince clients to train with you).

The gym tells you “Look, for every new member that signs up, you’re going to give them a free session. We market it to the member as a free intro to the gym – but really it’s designed for you to tell them how much they suck at life and convince them to hire you to save them. Bonus points if you make them cry about how much they hate their bodies — that stuff sells.”

Step 4: Confused, but trying to be optimistic, you attempt to make the most of the situation. You do as you’re told.

You try to convince clients to pay you for your time. You try to be a salesmen.

Step 5: If you’re Chris, you already quit by Day 7.

If you’re the average trainer, you’ve stuck it out a bit longer.

A few months down the road, you start to see what this “dream job” actually looks like.

You wake up at 4am because Corey, your first client, can only train at 5am. You can’t turn him down because you don’t make enough money as it is. So you forgo your own health and cut back on sleep.

You spend 12 hours per day at the gym. The problem is that you’re only paid for half of those hours.

See, Corey starts at 5am. Gina follows him at 6am. Then you have Brian at 7am and Susan at 8am.

But then 9am hits. You have no clients scheduled between 9am and 12pm — everyone is at work. It doesn’t make sense for you to drive home for three hours, so you wait around for Jake, that one client with a weird work schedule who can train midday.

So you spend about 12 hours at the gym in order to work 6 (if you’re lucky). Your day is filled with gaps that isn’t really free time (you’re sitting at your job), but you aren’t paid for it either.

Oh, and this is all assuming that you’ve somehow managed to figure out how to be a salesman. A completely separate skill that neither NASM nor Towson University prepared you for.

So yeah, this surprise is the main reason Chris quit the gym after his first week.

How Fit2Go solved the salesmen problem:

We completely removed ourselves from the sales process.

In fact, we didn’t only remove ourselves from the sales process. We removed ourselves from the money altogether.

It’s actually written in each Fit2Go trainer’s contract that he/she is not allowed to ever discuss money with any client. The trainer knows nothing about when or how much a client pays.

The trainer’s job is to train.

That’s it.

There’s something beautiful in that simplicity. It leads to the most authentic relationship possible between trainer and client.

Everyone wins.

Problem #2: You do all the work, they keep (almost) all the money.

Look, it’s quite normal for a company to charge a client X and pay their employees only a fraction of X.

That’s how companies work.

It’s not a bad thing. In fact, it’s usually in everyone’s best interest.

The company takes care of all the complicated crap that the employee has no interest in handling (sales, systems, billing, legal, insurance, advertising, etc.). So the company keeps a big chunk for all the work they do, and pays the employee a set amount for the work that employee does.

So why is this a problem in the gym industry?

Because let me ask you one stupid question — what the heck does the gym actually do for you?

Trainers have this idea in their head that if you want to be a trainer, you work at a gym.

They usually aren’t aware of how ridiculously unfair the gym setup is.

Every gym is different, and some are certainly better than others. But let’s examine the common setup:

Who signs up the client? The trainer does.

Who designs the client’s workout program? The trainer does.

Who designs the client’s nutrition program? The trainer does.

Who checks in with the client in between sessions? The trainer does.

Who deals with any billing issues the client has? The trainer does.

Who’s ass is on the line if the client doesn’t see results? The trainer’s is.

Oh, one more question:

Who pockets up to 90% of the money paid by the client? The trainer do-

Nope. Not this time.

The answer to “Who keeps the money?” is “The gym does!”

Again, there would be nothing wrong with this setup, assuming that…

A) The trainer is receiving a comfortable wage

B) The gym is handling a good portion of the workload for the trainer.

The unfortunate reality is that neither A nor B are met in most gyms.

How Fit2Go solved the problem of all work,  no pay:

Fit2Go Personal Training was literally built to solve this problem. This was goal number one, and we’ve worked backwards.

We’re making progress every day, but the bottom line is that that Fit2Go Personal Training is a team of personal trainers.

It’s not some corporation that they work for. The trainers are the company.

So each trainer sets specific quarterly financial goals, and the team collaborates to help him/her get there.

Look, if you aren’t happy with the money you’re making, then nobody is winning. It isn’t fair to you and it isn’t fair to the client.

You must receive a decent (at least) salary for your applied skill set.

Problem #3: Your Services Are Falsely Advertised.

“Having trouble losing weight? Sign up with our personal trainers to melt the fat away!”

No.

No.

No. No. No.

It’s just a lie. A big fat lie. And it’s despicable.

Personal training should not be advertised as a weight loss service if it isn’t one.

And at most gyms, it isn’t one.

Yup. At most gyms, personal training does not result in weight loss.

Though seemingly shocking, if you have experience working at a gym, this fact probably isn’t such a surprise to you.

Why not?

Here are a few of the reasons why personal training fails the client at most gyms:

No, or very limited, nutrition coaching. 

The data is clear — exercise without a solid nutrition plan is a terrible approach to weight loss. In other words, it doesn’t work. So unless a client is receiving personalized nutrition coaching from a qualified expert along with the workout sessions, it is nothing less than false advertising to encourage clients to expect weight loss.

Aside from the financial rip off (thousands of dollars spend with no results), there is a deeper ethical problem involved here. What do you think happens when a person resolves to get fit, pays thousands of dollars, puts in 100% effort… and then sees zero results? They lose their self-efficacy. They begin to believe that weight loss is impossible, And that’s why they fall into the arms of scam artists selling saran wrap and juice cleanses. The problem begins with false promises. Give clients truth in the first place, and scam artists will have no one to sell to.

Lack of personalized programming.

Most personal trainers make up their workouts on the spot. It’s just the truth. No one is overseeing them, and the client probably doesn’t know the difference. So the trainer devalues his own service. He makes it up as he goes. Sure, he could design a scientific, organized fitness plan for the client’s specific needs. But honestly, what’s the difference? Who’s gonna know?

No personal trainer growth / guidance.

When I worked at a gym, we had a monthly team meeting. We only ever discussed one thing — money. How many packages did we sell? How many people did we convince to give us money? Wanna know what was NEVER discussed in these meetings? Our clients. Their programs. The workouts we had planned. Their results. Our effectiveness as trainers. Our growth as fitness professionals. Yeah, none of that. Just money. Needless to say, wasn’t in the best interest of the client nor the trainers.

How Fit2Go solved the problem of false advertisements:

Our programs are results-oriented.

It pisses me off that this term has become such a throw away. Because it actually means something.

It means that we don’t have “an approach” to fitness.

It means that the program starts with listening.

We listen to what the client’s goals are. We look at where they’re starting from.

Then, we simply find the path that will take the client from point A (where they are now) to point B (where they want to be).

Importantly, we aren’t creating the plan.

It’s more like we’re discovering it.

We, together with the client, are simply figuring out what the solution is to the client’s problem.

It truly is a journey. A journey that we take together.

We come to the table knowing fitness. We bring tools like in-home personal training, nutrition coaching, the Fit2Go app, and constant support.

The client comes to the table knowing him/herself. She knows her likes, dislikes, and tendencies.

We don’t create a solution. We simply find it.

It’s based on truth and acceptance.

And that’s why it works. 

Problem #4: You start with your head against the ceiling.

Ever hear of a “ground floor opportunity”?

The term implies room for growth.

The idea is that the employee may start at low-level position, and then continually graduate, receiving more responsibilities and better pay.

So yeah, personal training at a gym is like the opposite.

The position you start in is almost always the position you end in.

There’s no — or insufficient — guidance.

There’s no growth.

You’re not developing a passionate career built around helping others.

You’re clocking hours at a part time job. Trading minutes of your life for the right to pay your own bills (if you even earn that much!).

It’s awful.

It’s partly why personal trainers burn out and quit the industry in less than two years.

Nobody likes stagnation.

Maintenance is bullshit.

You’re never “maintaining” anything. Whether we’re talking a client’s fitness goals, or your own career.

You’re either progressing or regressing. Stagnation is just another word for the latter.

If you’re passionate about what you do; you want to improve.

You want to learn.

You want to get better.

You want to be the best you can possibly be in this world.

And that’s the problem with gyms lacking a system for trainers to grow their careers.

Nobody wants to waste their days at a job.

True fulfillment comes from spending your days working toward something you’re passionate about.

That’s what it means to have a career.

How Fit2Go solved the problem of trainer stagnation:

Boy, where do we start?

First, let’s look at some of the places our team has been featured:

• Reader’s Digest
• Fox 45
• Muscle & Fitness
• Shape Magazine
• Self Magazine

And many, many more.

All of these opportunities are open to you as a Fit2Go trainer. If you know your stuff, you’ll be featured in local media, national media, or both.

Second, let’s look at who’s running Fit2Go Personal Training.

His name is Dani Singer.

He has great hair and he’s currently writing this post.

Um, hi 🙂

In addition to running Fit2Go Personal Training, I teach over 200,000 trainers around the world as an advisor to the Personal Trainer Development Center.

I’m passionate about improving trainers’ career and lives.

As a Fit2Go trainer, you don’t work for me.

We’re partners.

We learn from each other.

I don’t care how many fancy titles I have — every one of our trainers has valuable insight to bring to the team.

We have some awesome discussions in which we geek out about  macronutrient distributions, ankle mobility, and the best means of jacking up one’s biceps.

So as a Fit2Go trainer, you join this team. You join these discussions. You both learn from and teach the rest of us.

Thirdly, we subsidize your continuing education.

That part is pretty straightforward. So let’s move on to the final problem.

Problem #5: “You Work For Me.”

There’s a definite change occurring in our capitalist society.

While 20 years ago, tyrants like Steve Job were idolized for being effective, the crap he pulled wouldn’t fly today.

Spontaneous outbursts, publicly embarrassing employees, demanding to be treated as king…

… you can’t get away with it. At least not anymore.

The idea of an all-powerful boss who owns your life… is dead.

What does this have to do with the personal training industry?

While tyrants like Steve Jobs are probably rare in gym culture (though certainly not non-existent), the current system still stems from that mentality.

You do all the work, and you reap barely any rewards.

Why?

Because that’s the way things are.

Don’t like it?

Too bad. You’re the employee, not the boss. You don’t get to choose how things should be.

At least, you didn’t used to have a choice.

But now you do.

We live in a pretty cool age.

Successful companies today aren’t built around one gloriously charismatic CEO.

They’re built around the core — its people.

So that’s what we’ve done with Fit2Go.

Though we’re still small, we’ve created an environment for ourselves — personal trainers — to flourish.

There are no investors, stakeholders, or faceless managers to report to.

We’re certainly not perfect, but we strive to create systems that are win-win.

Win for the client.

Win for the trainer.

Win for the company — because the company is our team of personal trainers.

And that’s the biggest difference between working for a gym and being a part of the Fit2Go team.

The former is a job.

The latter is a career. A passion project.

Look, this post has barely touched the surface of what Fit2Go is all about.

But if you’ve read this far. You understand where we’re coming from.

You understand our mission.

Understand one more thing:

We’re hiring 1-2 awesome personal trainers in Baltimore.

Interested in finding out more about the opportunity?

–> Apply here.

Can’t wait to speak with you.

-Coach Dani