Why is Personal Training so expensive?

The reason personal training is so expensive:

• Being able to call audibles in the moment to needs and wants
• Managing time to keep things efficient while also safe
• Adjusting intensity to match where the athlete is for the day
• All while chatting and building a relationship

This comes up time and time again whenever I'm talking to someone about Personal Training: Why is personal training so expensive?

Or even better: Why would I pay someone to tell me to do something I already know? (That last one is my favorite).

Let me answer this question with a story about a session I had recently with a family that I train. To save their privacy, I'll remove their names, but past that, everything is accurate.

Once a week, I have a family show up to train with me. The dad works in computer science (so a very sedentary job) but trains BJJ 2 or 3 times a week. He's been training with me since I first started back in 2017 (he was my third or fourth ever client). The mom is an NP and lives with fibromyalgia (chronic pain, fatigue and sleep issues). She was also in a car accident in her early 20's that left her with a right shoulder injury that plagued her most of her adult life (she told me one time that she couldn't even feed her children with that arm because it hurt so much). The mom began training with me in 2021. Their teenage daughter began coming along with her about half a year later. Being a teenager (now 15) she's still growing and developing coordination - the same bumbling & stumbling all teenagers go through. (Their teenage son used to come along as well, but for a while now he's been more interested in dating and friends so his training is on "pause" as he puts it).

This particular day, they show up and begin their warm ups. Over the years, I've made changes to their individual warm ups to fit their needs. The mom and daughter do similar movements: reverse lunges to warm up hip flexors, suitcase carries to work the frontal plane (side to side) and cat/cows to warm up the core. The dad is slightly different. His mobility isn't the best, so we have him not only do the lunges, but then he does a squat / calf mobility movement to loosen his ankles (it's more simple than it sounds - squat all the way down and do a "calf raise" in this position). He follows this with a T Spine extension exercise to open up his chest (that desk job says hi every time I see him). He finishes up by performing his suitcase carry with a 35 lbs plate to strengthen his grip for BJJ. If you want to do something well, do it often.

We then get started with the workout. I ask them each how they're feeling physically. The mom mentions that her left hip is pinching and hurting her when she's walking. So right off the bat, I know we're going to try to help alleviate that some during our session.

The exercises for today's routine are already programmed:

1. Half Reverse Planks w/ 1 Mississippi Hold (3 sets of 15)
2. Banded Side Steps
3. Lat Pulldowns
4. High Incline Press
5. KB Deadlift

We start off by letting the daughter go first. I have them doing a Half Reverse Plank to practice the hinge movement (something that just hasn't been easy for her to learn, and for the economy of time and safety, I've decided this is a faster and more efficient method for them to warm up and work the posterior chain for today). While she starts, I take the mom over to the turf to work her hip. Lately, performing a kickstand stretch has been a huge benefit for her, so we start there, 10 reps each side for 2 sets, and tell her to superset them with Standing Banded Clamshells, 10 reps each side for 2 sets. The goal here is to stretch the adductor and then work the opposite side (the external rotators of the hip). Mobilizing the tonic muscles and strengthening their antagonists seems to help alleviate any pain she's having.

I come back to the daughter and the dad, and now it's the dad's set. In an effort to make the exercise more tailored to him, I switch it from repetitions using both legs, to single leg iso holds for 20 to 30 seconds. Remember, he's very tight, so we want to work the muscle while it's lengthened AND improve muscular endurance for BJJ. This isometric work helps pump the tendons and ligaments full of blood, as well, leading to improved recovery from the joint fatigue he may have from grappling. Each athlete does their respective exercise: the mom on the turf and the dad and daughter taking turns with Half Reverse Planks. With time and general session flow in mind, the mom's two supersets match serendipitously with the three sets I'm having the dad and daughter do.

Next, I have the mom superset Couch Stretch with a Standing Hip Flexion to do the same as before: stretch and pump full of blood. I do this because we need to work the front of the hip, AND because the next exercise in the plan, Banded Side Steps, would be repetitive for her. I don't want to cut those for the dad or daughter, so I'm covering 2 birds with one stone, helping her hip and keeping to the program for the other two. Timing works out and they all get 3 sets of their respective exercise.

We move to Lat Pulldowns as a group. Other than adjusting weight for each of them, there's not much to change here. There are ways I could modify it (different handles, fat grips to work grip for sport, making it unilateral to hit any weak spots in a movement chain, etc), but for the time being, there's no need to do so. They each do 3 sets of 10, the weights going up each set, respectively, and then drop back down to the first weight for a set of 15 for a little burn.

Next, the program calls for a High Incline Press. In the moment, I'm thinking about how we could change it slightly to reach a stimulus best suited for each. I decide that we're going to audible and work on 90/90 stretches. I have them each grab a mat, I demo the movement for them and then they get into position.

The dad is struggling, but in a good way. This is a good challenge for him that has great carry over into BJJ with improved hip mobility. The daughter struggles here, too, but that's from being a teen and sitting a lot in school and on computers. The mom is the most mobile of them all but can definitely feel her QL (a muscle in the core) on the opposite side of the knee in the front working to hold her torso up. As long as there's no pain for any of them, we're using time well. I then decide to make sure we're still getting a pressing movement in by adding a single arm DB press in the 90/90 position. They press with the arm opposite of the knee in the front. This lets them use their hips to stabilize (loading while stretching… MOBILITY!), and work the core to hold themselves upright. The press is very difficult for the dad, but it's helping open his T Spine and the coordination is a huge boon for the daughter.

The last exercise is a KB Deadlift. Upside here is we've already warmed up and mobilized our hips a number of ways and our lats are primed from the pulldowns. I demo the exercise, something I've done a million times for them, but repetition is key to learning! I vary the weight by person and encourage them to go up if it looks too easy. The daughter is definitely improving her hinge and engaging her lats, so she's even able to get a PR for the day.

The last thing I'll mention here is that not only have I managed and "edited" the workout on the fly for each of them, I've kept 2 or 3 conversations going. This is actually one of the things I love about being a trainer. Talking and getting to know them is a hidden benefit. It's nice to hear how school is going, how exciting a job transition is and how BJJ practice is getting better as we're getting stronger. It's a blessing to grow along with them.

So there we have it. The reason personal training is so expensive: being able to call audibles in the moment responding to needs and wants, managing time to keep things efficient while safe, adjusting intensity to match where the athlete is for the day, all while chatting and building relationships (granted building rapport with someone you've trained for years is quite easy haha).

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