Been a while since I've blogged, eh? Like everyone else, life has been throwing me curves and loops lately. But I thought I'd take a few minutes and address something I have heard folks question: Why do personal trainers charge so danged much?
In a nutshell, it's because our expenses are very high. Before you roll your eyes, bear with me:
First of all, if we are working for a gym, they often get 50% of our client income. It can vary a bit, but in most gyms I've talked with about half of the trainers fee is the gym's take. Yeah, it seems like highway robbery (and honestly, it feels like it, too), but the fact is that we are paying for the convenience of using their equipment. That stuff is expensive!
If the trainer happens to own the gym, their expenses are even higher. Think the expense of a house, only filled with uber-expensive gym equipment, repairs to said equipment, water and electric bills for multiple people, cleaning services, and insurance that's out-the-roof expensive. I'm sure there's more, but I can't think of it because I have never owned a gym.
Then there is the matter of what it takes to get and stay certified. If the trainer is with a reputable certifying agency, the initial certification was somewhere in the neighborhood of $500-$600. We have to re-certify every two years, and the cost to re-certify is just under $200. In the meantime, we are scrambling to take our CEC's (continuing education credits) in time for the re-certification. Depending on what you decide to study for these, they average somewhere in the neighborhood of about a hundred bucks a year. And then there is trainer insurance, which is about $180 a year. I'm sure there's something else I'm not thinking of- This is just off the top of my head.
Then there's the little expenses, like buying ankle cuffs because the gym doesn't have them, and calipers to measure body fat (which we seem to be continually losing, or another trainer loses for us because they lost theirs and borrowed ours), and measuring tapes for the exact same reason as calipers, and a host of other small expenses that add up fast.
And socks. We go through a lot of socks.
Then there is the time we spend on being a trainer that we are NOT with clients. For instance, I don't know about other trainers, but I don't "cookie cutter" anything. I start from scratch with each clients program. This can take more than an hour to assemble for just one client. I generally create a new program for each client once a month. BUT, after the client walks out the door I almost always have to take time to make little tweaks to better suit them, as well as annotating what they did that session so that I can know where to start them the next time. Personally, I always try to put my clients an hour and 15 minutes apart, despite the fact that I spend about an hour with each client. While it helps me with my sanity, it reduces the amount of clients I can squeeze into my available training hours.
Additionally, there is the time we spend reading up on everything we can to stay abreast of current trends, throw out what we think won't work for us and our clients, and file what we think will. I don't do much "leisure" reading that isn't fitness related. Which doesn't really make it "leisure", I guess, but it helps to equip me to help others to the best of my ability.
Unless we happen to live next door to the gym, a lot of time (and gas money) is spent going back and forth between the gym and wherever else we go between client sessions. (Because rarely do we really get all of our session scheduled back to back. The client doesn't work around us- we work around the client.)
And, of course, the time we spend studying for and obtaining our CEC credits. If we don't pass, it's wasted money, so we are very motivated to apply ourselves.
So you are really paying us for much more than the 45 minutes or hour that we spend with you directly.
Can most of this be written off on our taxes? Yes. But we don't get it all back- Mostly it just reduces the amount we pay. And even if we do get some of it back, trust me: It's not cool to get paid once a year.
The fact is that if we don't have a full roster of clients, whether by choice or because of some other circumstance (this could be a whole 'nother blog), many trainers are making next to nothing for the hours they put in, despite the fact that you think you are paying them a small fortune. So why do we keep doing it? Because we really, truly want to help you.
I'm not writing this blog to complain. Obviously, we choose this profession because we love it and want to do it. We are here to help you, and most of us do it for the joy of seeing you feel better about yourself, not the money. So cut your trainers a little slack when it comes to fees. And please...... Stop asking for free services. Yes, people really do that. And no, we really can't afford it.
Great blog.
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