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Personal Trainer Salary- In gym
- Thread starter wabn04
- Start date
Hi,
Your salary will depend on several factors. You've determined that you want to work in a health club setting initially, so that is a start. The next set of variables are your geographic location and your education/certification level.
Some of what is posted above is true as far as the beginning stages of working as a Personal Trainer not earning you very much money. However, you have to go into with the mindset that you will soon be the most sought after Personal Trainer at your location.
It is a fun and lucrative career for those who keep an open mind and are willing to learn not only new exercise techniques, but also communication, sales, program design, marketing, etc.
It is possible.
Good luck with your fitness search,
Boh
David I. Bohmiller, BS, NSCA-CSCS, NASM-CPT
http://www.my-personal-trainer-school.com
Your salary will depend on several factors. You've determined that you want to work in a health club setting initially, so that is a start. The next set of variables are your geographic location and your education/certification level.
Some of what is posted above is true as far as the beginning stages of working as a Personal Trainer not earning you very much money. However, you have to go into with the mindset that you will soon be the most sought after Personal Trainer at your location.
It is a fun and lucrative career for those who keep an open mind and are willing to learn not only new exercise techniques, but also communication, sales, program design, marketing, etc.
It is possible.
Good luck with your fitness search,
Boh
David I. Bohmiller, BS, NSCA-CSCS, NASM-CPT
http://www.my-personal-trainer-school.com
nab12
New member
Tomer said:
Your out of touch with reality if you think its "stooping low" to work for 15-20 an hour! Im not saying thats alot of money, but being conservative I would say 75% of the working population make that rate or less!
If you were paid that much doing data entry you were paid extremely well. I know thats much more than our data entry folks get paid....they are closer to the 8-9 an hour range! And of course maybe it depends on where you live.
Anways..not trying to hijack your thread
jmead
New member
actually its 7 an hour PLUS the 7,12,16, or 24 percent of what it costs per sessionNeo22 said:
so 7 percent of say 60 bucks + your 7 an hour..
and its 20% of what you sell..
if your any good you pull in 4500-5 grand a month.. workin 35-40
a week.. wearing shorts at your job.. and lookin at hot girls in small clothes..
calimuscle
New member
I'm not sure where the other people on this thread are training, but is very possible to make training a full time job. You need to be knowledgeable, interested in your clients, and know how to sell yourself.
Making $5000 a month as an independant trainer requires 71 session hours over the course of a month at $70/hr (pretty much the market rate for basic personal training). That means about 18 session hours per week. Now, the clients you want to keep will want to train 2-3 times a week. So this means you need to find between 6 and 9 clients that are serious. It takes time to weed through the non-serious people.
It is not true that people who are too lazy or too unmotivated go for training. There are plenty of motivated and driven people who want training because they don't have time to learn anatomy, physiology, exercise science, etc. Not everyone is a kineseology major, bodybuilder, etc. The three major types of clients are: older/deconditioned/preexisting medical conditions (by far the greatest percent of your business), sports performance athletes, and bodybuilders (the smallest percent of your business unless you're a nationally ranked bodybuilder).
Its all about what you put into it. At the top gyms its easy to sell $10,000 to $20,000 per month for established trainers (i.e. 2+ years at the same gym). A 20% commission means that based on sales you get $2,000 to $4,000 per month. Then you have the sessions you service. If you sell that much then you are probably servicing about 30 to 40 sessions per week. An established trainer will make about $20 to $30 per hour. Therefore that's another $600 to $1,200 per week. That equates to another $2400 to $4800 per month. All total that means about $4400 to $8800 per month.
The startup is brutal though. Expect to go about a month or two before the first sale. Expect to go a couple weeks before you build up 20 session hours per week.
Bottom line is you need to be interested in your clients. If you want to work with bodybuilders then don't pick up older/deconditioned clients. If you want to work with older/deconditioned clients then don't pick up sports performance athletes. If you want to work with all three (pretty damn difficult to do well for each group) then the sky is the limit.
Making $5000 a month as an independant trainer requires 71 session hours over the course of a month at $70/hr (pretty much the market rate for basic personal training). That means about 18 session hours per week. Now, the clients you want to keep will want to train 2-3 times a week. So this means you need to find between 6 and 9 clients that are serious. It takes time to weed through the non-serious people.
It is not true that people who are too lazy or too unmotivated go for training. There are plenty of motivated and driven people who want training because they don't have time to learn anatomy, physiology, exercise science, etc. Not everyone is a kineseology major, bodybuilder, etc. The three major types of clients are: older/deconditioned/preexisting medical conditions (by far the greatest percent of your business), sports performance athletes, and bodybuilders (the smallest percent of your business unless you're a nationally ranked bodybuilder).
Its all about what you put into it. At the top gyms its easy to sell $10,000 to $20,000 per month for established trainers (i.e. 2+ years at the same gym). A 20% commission means that based on sales you get $2,000 to $4,000 per month. Then you have the sessions you service. If you sell that much then you are probably servicing about 30 to 40 sessions per week. An established trainer will make about $20 to $30 per hour. Therefore that's another $600 to $1,200 per week. That equates to another $2400 to $4800 per month. All total that means about $4400 to $8800 per month.
The startup is brutal though. Expect to go about a month or two before the first sale. Expect to go a couple weeks before you build up 20 session hours per week.
Bottom line is you need to be interested in your clients. If you want to work with bodybuilders then don't pick up older/deconditioned clients. If you want to work with older/deconditioned clients then don't pick up sports performance athletes. If you want to work with all three (pretty damn difficult to do well for each group) then the sky is the limit.
Gymgurl said:
Wait, wait . . . you guys aren't making $12 gazillion dollars a year like one of my client thinks??
Gee whiz, (almost) glad to see I'm not the only one.
How he extrapolated $80/hr to $12 gazillion/year . . . the math didn't quite work for me.
At least as a private contractor I can set my hours and my rates unlike my time at the gym. While in graduate school I worked at the University gym and made my *best* (snicker, snicker) pay ever. Just guess how much MAD CASH I pulled in....
$12.15/hr
And I was one of the highest paid instructor/trainers. OUCH! That what it looks like when there are too many undergrads willing to turn tricks for a buck fifty.
Good thing that MBA was worth more than the cash I made as a trainer.
For the folks doing the math (Independent, not in gym):
$80/session with up to 5 sessions/day (part timer)
Marketing costs run 40% of that in start up months (first 6-12 months as independent)
Stabilized marketing costs are closer to 20%, anything less and you have to kickstart the marketing engine after 3-4 months with about 40% for 1-2 months - painful.
Taxes 15%
When I use a gym (for a specific piece of equipment) rental fee: $10/session
Good thing I have a day job too. The extra cash is nice and I could go full time, but I like the variety of hot pants in the morning, hot dress during the day. But then again, I am a female who trains semi-competitive male athletes - there's only so much of that I can handle each day! But sure is a nice way to start the morning.
Better than coffee!
This is a topic of great interest to me, since I just got certified this week with NASM and have been interviewing at gyms in my area all week. Every where I have gone seems to have the same pattern. As a new trainer your goal is to get familiar with the clients of the gym and do introductory sessions at no cost. You may or may not get paid for these sessions as a trainer and your goal is to try to sign the client up for additional personal training after the free sessions. You make commission off of these sales (as high as 40%) to start off with and continue to build up a client base doing this. A gym I went to the other day had a $7/hr rate while you are building up your base before you start making commissions.
There is an interesting amount of negativity going on in this thread that really confuses me, it seems like some people are convinced you can't make money as a trainer. Well, you can't make money doing anything with a poor attitude about it. I know people who make tons of money doing the most unorthodox isht but they have a good attitude and know their strengths and play to those strengths. As personal trainers we have knowledge that is geared towards helping the general public get healthier, look better, live longer, and have a more fun life. In my eyes that is a product that sells itself if you go about it the right way.
Anyway, as my job search continues I will keep everyone posted about how the cheddar is flowing.
J
B.S.; Exercise and Sports Science
NASM - CPT
There is an interesting amount of negativity going on in this thread that really confuses me, it seems like some people are convinced you can't make money as a trainer. Well, you can't make money doing anything with a poor attitude about it. I know people who make tons of money doing the most unorthodox isht but they have a good attitude and know their strengths and play to those strengths. As personal trainers we have knowledge that is geared towards helping the general public get healthier, look better, live longer, and have a more fun life. In my eyes that is a product that sells itself if you go about it the right way.
Anyway, as my job search continues I will keep everyone posted about how the cheddar is flowing.
J
B.S.; Exercise and Sports Science
NASM - CPT
