Benefits of Personal Training with James Baker
Personal Training is not the cheapest service going, lets face it. I wanted to share my thoughts about pricing and really why you should consider taking on a Personal Trainer in the near future.
How much is it you ask?
In the South of the UK you are looking at a minimum starting price of c.£30 an hour for a trainer who is straight out of their level 3 (standard qualification) - even in the less affluent areas of South England. That’s 50p a minute! However prices do vary depending on the area - in Berkshire you can be looking at £45-120 an hour for a personal trainer with some experience.
A few things to consider: qualification length does not always hold any significance - People will experience awful trainers with years of experience, yet others in their first year who are brilliant and have lots of up to date knowledge and high levels of enthusiasm so choose wisely. A good personal trainer will adapt their ways of training to suit you as an individual and how you would like to train and this is seen a lot more with the recently qualified trainers - experience isn't everything.
Many people who don't have a trainer think that is a lot of money for an hour of training. The stereotype that a personal trainer is just there to shout at you and count your reps unfortunately clouds over this industry. But if they gave a personal trainer a chance then they would see that is not entirely true. Before you think that having a weekly PT session is a pretty pricey lifestyle habit you should look into the potential return.
Any business will look at ROI (return on investment), what you pay vs what you get back. In the grand scheme of things it’s about what you prioritise to be more important in life. If you are serious about being healthier, fitter, or bettering your own knowledge in fitness its a no brainer. If you set aside £500 for 12 weeks and took on a good PT it could be worth every penny - this is about 2% of the average persons annual salary.
I charge about £34-40 an hour depending on which package a client chooses. Now this is where the people who haven't had a personal trainer before and follow the stereotype will think this is really high... But, for the hourly rate it is not just an hour. It is important that I try to make this clear now: You will be training hard for that one hour but there is a lot more going on and being assessed than just the workout. For those of you that have not had a PT before I will list a few reasons below:
Nutritional Support - Arguably the most important, my initial consultations are hugely nutritionally based, most people are not battling obesity because they are not active enough but because of what’s going in their mouths... maybe a little bit to do with also being sedentary. Being able to work closely with clients and nurture them through nutritional education is a key factor of this "hourly rate". If you commit to 10x sessions, sure you fork out nearly enough to go on a small holiday, but you could potentially walk away 10 weeks later with the knowledge to understand what macronutrients are and when you should be consuming them and why, this is better than any diet you can buy.
Motivation - Someone to remind you on a weekly basis why exactly it is that you are doing what you are doing. Someone to push you a little harder every session than you may do yourself.
Supporting structures - Many of us want to change our physique, be healthier, eat better, train harder and so on. Its common to find people who do not have supporting structures in place. If you want to change your diet it is VERY difficult without getting people around you on board.
If personal trainers got £1 for every time they heard someone say 'I probably wouldn't have come in today if we were not training' they'd all retire by the age of 30.
Knowledge - The Internet is a wonderful place and holds almost all answers to any question. However, these answers are usually not deciphered into understandable analogies that may make sense to the majority of people. When you take on a PT you are paying for a depth of knowledge and experiences that very rarely can be found outside of the profession.
There are 168 hours in a week. If you had a one-hour session per week being trained by me then you will see me for that one hour and that is likely to be it. However, behind the scenes I will still be working with you - planning sessions, organising my schedule, responding to emails, checking clients’ food journals from that day, reading articles and bettering my own knowledge in order to help clients progress further.
So to summarise, the cost of that one-hour a week will bring you huge rewards that will benefit you for many weeks to come.
Contact James Baker on 07809524061 to start your fitness journey today.