Is there such a thing as an affordable personal trainer?

I used a personal trainer at a cost of $900 a month for 5 days a week one-on-one coaching (roughly $45/hour). The key for me was finding a young trainer who was starting to grow his business. All the established trainers I looked into were $80-$100/hr. I don't use him anymore, but the things I learned will stick with me for life.

You will have to define affordable and what you are looking for exactly.

Online is usually a good option if you are lucky to find an a well rounded trainer. Ones in the commercial gyms usually obtained a cert to find a job. Much better to find so done independent in most cases.

Then you may need to buy in bulk in order to get a price break (as suggested by @snuff15ee) and with someone online (as suggested by @Chieflrg).

Now, all that's left is to find a trainer online who uses an approach you're familiar with (or willing to adapt to) and has some kind of pre-made/cookie-cutter nutrition program for you to follow. If that's your route, I would hope there's an initial consult opportunity (either via some kind of form-filling process or, if you're lucky a short video conference call) to ensure there's a match before you shell out upwards of $300-500 for maybe a dozen sessions.

@springlering62 I've never heard of hospitals doing this (at least not beyond the barebones physio departments with have in many Canadian public hospitals) but now I'm intrigued!!

[ETA: Allow me to disclose my bias - my mother is a registered nurse, former bodybuilder, and current gym owner whose clients pay upwards of mumble-mumble for her services. That would either be at her studio location or at-home sessions which cost even more. That said, her average client ranges from active executives to amateur athletes trying to escape their farm teams. She'll cover the nutrition piece but that is an extra/add-on fee]

Do you have a buddy or a group of people you can train with versus 1 on 1 to help save on cost?

LaurenBarnett2 wrote: »

MaltedTea wrote: »

That depends on what affordable is to you as well as your training goals.

In the Before Times, one could approach a university or college kinesiology or sports therapy faculty for students in training. Yet, while they are supervised, you get what you pay for. Furthermore, if your plan requires adaptations due to a disability then this route may not be possible.

True, except i am not disabled. I am missing the way my old gym used to do things but they arent around anymore and i havent been able to find anything comparable to that without paying an arm and a leg. They covered both nutrition and fitness in the same package.

To be honest it isn't in the scope of practice for most trainers to give specific dietary advice and/or recommend specific foods or supplements.

If you are motivated find a really good trainer (and pay for it) to develop a program and teach you the movements over several sessions, then work on your own for a month or 2 and meet with the trainer for progressions from the original program, bringing the total cost down compared to sessions several times a week.

I drive 350 miles round trip and pay $200 an hour (in what is a fairly low cost area of the US) 4 times a year for sessions with a nationally known physical therapist who is also a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist. Sure the cost per session is up there but I get much more out of the $800 than paying someone $50/hr 3X a week to count reps for a month and a half.

This obviously won't work if one needs a trainer to motive them to show up and do the work.

Are you open to someone online? I have a coach who I work with online, we have Zoom meetings and he designs programs for me, reviews my form etc when I send him videos of my workouts, works with me on nutrition etc and it's working really well for me. Cost is (Aussie dollar) $250 per month, but I have unlimited access to him. Even accidentally video called him at like 10pm one night and he cheerily answered - so embarrassing!!

I had the curious luck of stumbling upon a terrific trainer who trains for personal pleasure. I’ve told her she doesn’t charge enough, but she donates my fee to childhood cancer research in honor of her granddaughter, who is a survivor.

She owns her lovely (and very pro) lifting gym and treats it the same way. A third of the members don’t pay, whether they’re kids from the neighborhood who can’t afford (free, but they have to show her their report card), or cops, firefighters, EMS etc.

It’s an amazing place. The kids are off the street, exposed to folks they might otherwise consider as adversaries as in a communal setting, and several have gone on to be NCAA and Olympic champs, or earned athletic scholarships.

OTOH, if she feels like a user is there for Instagram photos or is trawling for a hookup, she will pull them aside and tell them they’d be much better suited to the Workout Anytime down the street and refund them on the spot.

She knows each and every members PR, and if she sees someone trying to pull something heavier, she stops whatever she’s doing, and starts yelling encouragement until the whole gym is participating.

It’s a hoot. And you better believe she has the most loyal gym members. I think we are all very, very grateful to be a part of her extended “family”, and to be able to experience this one of a kind woman. I have truly never met anyone else like her.

I sincerely wish you could all find a trainer like this one but I’m afraid she’s one of a kind.