PERSONAL TRAINER MEMBERS: Must Read Report. How to double your income!

I was a trainer for a long time and there are certain things where the formula just has to be figured out and it will allow you to blow it up. I think that’s what we’ve done here.

At present time of writing this (March, 2010), a couple of years ago, no personal trainer or personal training association would have ever thought to have suggested that clients workout for shorter amounts of time.  But, that’s exactly the case I’m going to make here.  The best part is that it won’t skimp on anything and might even increase their results and it will certainly double the time that you have available to take on paying clients or give yourself more free time.

Classically, the typical personal training session lasts 1 hour.  I’m here to tell you that you can convert all of your 1 hour clients into half hour sessions so that you can now see 2 people in an hour and double your income.  I have been instructing 1 on 1 personal training workouts for over 11 years and have NEVER performed an hour long session.  There are numerous ways that you can perform a quality 1 on 1 session in half the time.  It just so happens that we use the high intensity training (HIT) approach which has always been a duration of around 30 minutes.  Basically, we perform full body, single set programs, to voluntary muscular fatigue on each exercise, and move QUICKLY between each exercise to maximize cardiovascular involvement too.  If you’d like to learn more about this philosophy, you can obtain a specialty certification from us for $449.  Or if you join our association (Only $33/month) to get our newsletter and join our social network, you’ll be able to purchase the certification discounted to $119.

However, that’s not the only way you can do it.  The problem is that there is so much wasted time in a normal hour long workout.  My good friend, Dr. Paul Kennedy, told a story one time where he timed a workout he saw a trainer doing in the gym with 2 stopwatches.  1 to record the total workout time and the other to record only when work was being done.  At the end, the total time was 57minutes and the total working time was about 3 minutes.  That’s because there’s only a few seconds of super fast reps for any given set followed by 3-5 minutes of rest or talking.  Let’s do the math.  If you did 10 sets, with only 3 minutes rest in between, that’s 30 minutes of non-working time right there.  If you rest 5 minutes and talk, walk around, get a drink, etc., that’s already 50 minutes wasted.  A HIT workout is continuous activity for nearly the entire 30 minutes with a high heart rate.  There might be 5 minutes left over to talk about calorie control or do a head to toe stretching routine with 20 second stretches for each area.

About 97% of the research shows that you can perform a quality set to voluntary muscular fatigue and that is just as effective as multiple sets.  If you have been doing 3 set programs, you can eliminate 2/3 of the work without compromising effectiveness.  That’s absolutely true and I’ve been doing it for over a decade.  You can attend to more than one component of your client’s fitness in one program.  Who doesn’t like to kill 2 or 3 birds with one stone?  If you still prefer to use multiple sets, you can use advanced techniques like breakdowns, some sort of superset arrangement, etc.  Or just cut out some of the talking and move on.  Clients also don’t need you to babysit them and stand next to them on a treadmill if you choose to prescribe additional cardio.  A simple direction and you’re off to something else that is bringing you revenue.  You could also have them come in 15 minutes early to do cardio and continue for an additional 15 minutes after resistance training with you.  But, they will only pay for the 30 minutes they are with you.  I’m not saying they will pay you less, on the contrary, you will actually be giving them more work and maybe more productive work in less time.  You’ve found a new method that will possibly increase effectiveness while making it more efficient too.

Prospective clients will associate time with value.  That’s a mistake on their part and it’s your job to educate them that it is far less about quantity and more about quality.  It can be difficult to convert existing clients.  You’ll have to paint it in a new light.  Tell them that you’ve come up with something better.  If they are really against it, you don’t have to do it, but you can make a deal with them.  If they don’t get equal or better results in less time and commitment for them, you can go back to hour long sessions.  Of course, it will be just as effective assuming the exercise intensity is appropriate.

Get out of the mindset that you are trading your time for dollars.  To an extent, you are, but in this case, you charge PER SESSION.  The session will be equally effective if not better because there is more work in shorter time.  What do we call that?  Intensity.  Every trainer knows recent research is showing shorter duration, higher intensity workouts can be more effective and slash exercise time.  Why waste a client’s time?  They can get back to work sooner and be more productive to make more money.  Everyone is benefitting from this arrangement.

If you can convert all of your 1 hour clients to half hour sessions and not glue yourself to the side of a treadmill while they walk on it, you just DOUBLED YOUR CAPACITY.  You can now take on twice as many clients at the same PER SESSION rate.  Remember, you charge per session, not per hour.  Your clients pay for results, not wasted time and your time is valuable.  If you’re accustomed to making an average market price of $60/hour in exchange for your services, just imagine doubling that.  You now make (AND ARE WORTH) $120/hour.  Why would you leave half of your income on the table by not doing this?  Now, take it a step further.  Most people don’t have a lot of cash lying around in a down economy so lower cost small group training is an option.  You can still get $60 in 30 minutes, but get $30 from 2 people that you see at the same time.  It’s a little less personal attention, but it’s half the cost and equal for you.  A better bet would be to find a group of 3.  Let’s say 3 stay at home moms that would like to workout together.  You can charge each $25 for a total of $75 in a half hour.  Let’s say you are really good and you get 2 small groups of 3 back to back and now you just made $150 in one hour.  Does charging $60 per hour still seem like something you should keep doing?  Nearly everybody wants more money.  Why not save your clients money and time and earn more (a LOT MORE) yourself in the process?

If you do a FREE hour long consultation with a client when they first come in, make sure to inform them in your marketing copy and in person that what they are getting is at least a $120 value for FREE.

Start this immediately with all of your new prospects that come in and convert all of your existing clients to this format.  A good approach would be to make it multi step.  Start by sending a letter or email informing them of this with the language that I used above.  Talk to them in person about it and let them know you’ll be moving to that model in the next week and you GUARANTEE that it’ll be equally or more effective as before.  Get the specialty HIT CERTIFICATION to have the new credentials to back up your assertions.  Be sure to join S.P.A.R.T.A. (Only $33/month) to get the certification discount as well as the other services that will help you retain more of your clients.

If you have questions about how to implement this new arrangement or about the specialty HIT CERTIFICATION, feel free to send us an email.