A is a tax form given to an independent contractor as opposed to a W2 which is given to employees. In this pay structure, the gym does not actually employ you as a personal trainer, but they contract with you so that they can make money on personal training and alleviate themselves from the costs of having an employee. The model is like when you hire a plumber to come fix your broken toilet; they are getting paid for their service but they are not your employee.
The gym collects the money from the client and then will pay you, the trainer, for the session performed. With this type of structure the personal trainer will be responsible for claiming taxes on the money they make, as the gym does not set aside any income since the trainer is not an employee.
The Fitness Mentors team reached out to several gyms chains and their current employees, as well as conducted a survey with our current and previous students on Facebook, to get currently used payment structures and insight on how various gyms pay their trainers.
We have provided that information below. If you have any experience with these gyms or would like to comment on something different, please feel free to let us know in the comments so we can update this post. Other findings:. Every person in the Facebook group concurred that LA Fitness is a less than ideal place to work as a trainer, but a few people mentioned they pay their group exercise instructors significantly better.
Collective agreement that Anytime Fitness is an enjoyable place to work. They are 3,, sq ft gyms with only trainers per location. Non-training payment:. Payment structure:. These are franchised gyms and each location may have a different pay structure. Here are some quotes from Crunch Fitness trainers concerning their salary. Answers varied on payment structure:. I set my own hours and can work whenever I like.
They encourage me to sell package deals which requires a 3 month commitment from the client. They are not allowed to cancel. Money is debited from their account either monthly or biweekly. They can also get a discount if they pay in full. Those are monthly rates for hour long sessions. Level 3, of course, is higher and most of the trainers at my gym are level 3. We have about 17 trainers. Just takes time to build your clientele. I assume that cities with higher costs of living would be accounted for in pay and vice versa for smaller cities , but we were unable to find any other data on that.
Full-time minimum wage positions. Typically no higher pay for trainers, but it is an easy job that requires no sales and just training.
Decent for beginners looking to gain training experience but not really career-worthy. No commissions. No bonuses. It is a well known fact that private personal trainers have the potential to make far more than gym trainers. Because private personal trainers can set their own rates. There is a catch for private personal trainers, however, and that is that they have to drum up enough business to write their own paycheck.
The positives of working at a big-box gym are the clients would be assigned to you. The supply of clients is consistent thanks to the huge advertising investments these gyms engage in. And then there are other potential benefits:. Personal trainers serving as employees for a gym gain certain benefits that independent contractors do not.
Full-time workers may become eligible for health benefits. Part-time employees may even be eligible for health insurance at a higher co-payment. A k retirement savings plan would absolutely be an awesome benefit for a salaried personal trainer to access.
With a k , a certain amount of money would be deducted from a paycheck and invested. The employer would even match a certain amount of the funds. Big-box gyms commonly offer low monthly membership rates and earn profits based on volume.
Like any other business, these gyms do need to generate additional revenue to stay in business. Selling supplements, protein powders, apparel, and more generate additional revenue for the gym.
Someone has to help sell those products. Why not a personal trainer? As an incentive to the personal trainers, a commission could be paid to those trainers who promote sales to their clients. Often, the client would benefit from a particular supplement. A pre-workout shake loaded with good, slow-burning carbs may be helpful to someone requiring extra energy to perform reps with heavy weights.
Others appreciate a recommendation for a low-carb egg, whey, or vegetable protein shake to help with post-workout recovery. Personal trainers capable of generating sales for the gym become compensated accordingly.
Of course, individual gyms devise their own specific payment policies but this is how things probably work. To be successful with moving products, a personal trainer needs to be a little sales savvy, which is a skill that can be learned with a little effort and commitment.
Low hourly rates can lead to higher levels of turnover at a big-box gym. If you prefer the stability found with a franchise or major chain, you accept the rates they pay. Developing a reputation as a top trainer who always receives good feedback from clients would be someone a gym prefers to retain. Continuing your personal trainer certification education could lead to more opportunities and better pay. A gym may pay more for trainers with advanced certificates. Acquiring more certificates — credible ones from credible certifying authorities — might lead to better paychecks.
Not every gym is a large chain. Smaller, independently-owned gyms exist as well and many need trainers on staff, too. Not everyone working for a smaller gym is an actual employee. Often, the gym hires staff as independent contractors. You work for yourself under agreed-upon conditions with the person paying your fee. On an established payday, you receive a check for work and service rendered for the gym.
Smaller gyms, as opposed to big-box ones, frequently pay their on-staff personal trainers this way. Of course, each small gym has its own policies.
To be hired as an actual employee as opposed to an independent contractor is possible. The terms of employment as an independent contractor might be quite different from one gym to the next. You should purchase your own liability insurance since you work for yourself. Working for others has its benefits, but you do need to answer to an employer and follow the rules established by the company. Your decision making and approach to training clients may be subject to specific rules.
Your schedule might not be yours to make. You may not maintain as much desirable control over your income. The rewards can be huge and so can income potential. Often, with income, you collect the money yourself. That means you must establish a payment arrangement of some sorts with your clients.
As an entrepreneur, you do not work for the gym as an independent contractor. You would collect money directly from your clients. The gym sets a rate for renting out gym space and you pay to rent the facilities. No matter what you pay the gym, getting paid is all on your shoulders. You must find your own clients and collect money from them.
The arrangement with the gym is strictly subletting. There are a lot of ways this rental arrangement could work. Visit several gyms to see if the costs and the facilities are agreeable. If the cost, location, accessibility, and condition of the facility meet expectations, the gym might be perfect. Our research shows that professionals with this certification are also required in the sports sector just as much as private individuals at home or the gym pay for their services.
While they may not earn as much as the top two certification types, their job is very exciting too. Not too far away are the group exercise certifications. Modern urban life is gradually conditioning people to seek out health clubs where they can feel loved and valued. As such, gyms are becoming some of the most popular places for group activities and people qualified to lead such groups are very important in the grand scheme of things.
Whether its yoga, Zumba dancing, aerobics, calisthenics and choreographic training, or trekking through a trail, urban dwellers are increasingly needing the services of group fitness trainers.
Corrective exercise trainers are not as popular as the others because they work in a specialized field and require in-depth knowledge of human anatomy and other health-related considerations. People with these certifications commonly work with physiotherapists or alone, helping people correct their posture or when recovering from illnesses.
Our survey showed that the intensity of studying and the difficulty the exams pose are factors that put people off.
The kind of certificate you hold will largely determine the physical trainer salary you will be offered.
Just as not everyone who goes to medical school becomes a surgeon so is the personal training industry shaped too. The most successful personal trainers we surveyed all pointed to the same thing — find your niche! They all agree that spending more time building your profile by offering specialized services is the way to go.
To do this, you need to find the area you love most in the fitness industry and acquire the necessary certification. While there is absolutely nothing wrong to have diverse skills, becoming a true professional in one area is what will encourage people to advertise on your behalf. In effect, a Certified Personal Trainer salary is higher when they pick a niche and stick with it! In this section, we will talk about what the top-earning personal trainer certifications are.
Results from the research PTPioneer commissioned also indicated that the earnings are greatly influenced by the certifying body that issued the qualification the trainer is wielding. As far as this business is concerned, the certificate you hold is as important as where you got it from.
From the study, we have come to find out that there are hundreds of purportedly legitimate certifying bodies. Some are so bad, they just want your money after which they send you materials in PDF format — no video, no hands-on training, nothing! After speaking to dozens of top-earners in the fitness industry, our research shows that certifying bodies accredited by the NCAA and DCEA are the most recognized, a validation that authenticates the trainer best. The ISSA, on the other hand, is one very unique fitness certification body that operates quite differently from the other three in the list above.
Thanks to the recent endorsement by celebrities, the access it offers international candidates, and its work with the military and vets, people have come to trust its specialist certificates. NASM and ACE are more or less on the same pedestal, trusted over the years for providing quality study materials and standardized tests.
In the end, your certificate goes a long way to determine the Certified Personal Trainer salary you will earn. In the section below, we will break down the difference between trainers with and without a degree.
While it is not compulsory to have a degree to work as a personal trainer, findings from the study show that people who have at least a bachelors are paid more. A college degree especially in Physiology- or Exercise Science-related fields proves that you have gone through the necessary training, passed many exams, and have been authenticated by the school as qualified to train and give advise. Having a degree and then additional specialist personal trainer certificates ups your value a great deal and people will trust you more.
While you can earn money training without a degree, the next trainer like me who holds a degree can branch out to other fields like writing and publishing books for exercise, paid to give advice, manage big athletes, and so much more.
It goes without saying that a relevant post-grad degree pushes your worth and earning even higher. In this section, we reveal some of the marketing tactics some of the top personal trainers use to make more money. A huge billion-dollar market like personal training will naturally attract a lot of people — some very good, others mere mediocre. To distinguish yourself from the crowd and get your message to the potential client, you need to market your service, your unique selling point, and unique value proposition.
Cutting through the noise is not easy but thanks to modern technology, you can achieve your aim by putting in the work. A large percentage of the trainers interviewed during the research say that word of mouth is the most effective form of marketing. In other words, your valuable service and professional delivery will earn you more clients, for free, literally. User-generated contents reviews and endorsements star ratings on trusted review sites go a long way to convince potential clients that you can be trusted to deliver what you are selling.
The media giant has proven to be one of the most important places to market your services given that people can actually SEE you do your thing and evaluate if you can truly help them. The power of visuals is incredible; no wonder many of the survey respondents use this method to market their services.
We found out that a lot of those interviewed actually use multiple digital marketing strategies to put their name and services out there. Strategies like SEO optimization, paid ads on search engines, and link building, are said to generate the necessary traffic and, in turn, interest and sales.
Instagram is great because you can post pictures and short videos, using visuals to capture the minds of prospective clients. Here I will talk about my top-secret recommendations to earning top dollar as a PT. Likewise, the farther you progress in your PT career, raking in more wins, the better your reputation — and that counts for credibility which will bring you more cash in the long run.
Nowadays, the hiring process in most career fields focuses more on skillset with less emphasis on what you have on paper. As you grow in experience, the strength of your personal brand grows along with the demand and price tag.
Our research shows that people with the right certifications and who have spent up to five years training many clients earn as much as double what a new entrant into the business is offered. Also common in this regard are trainers with strength and conditioning certificates who work with big athletes and sports stars. The experience they gain in such a high-intensity environment is priceless and pushes up their value astronomically.
As your experience in the game builds up, your reputation and associated value will grow with it. Maintaining a good reputation is one of the most valuable assets you can possess as a personal trainer. There are thousands of trainers today carrying the same legit certs with similar skills and aspirations. Your rep is the only way you can truly stand out, so nurture it and keep it on the good side at all costs!
Major metropolitan areas such as New York or LA have populations that seek out health and fitness trainers in higher proportion than more modest or smaller cities. This opens you up to more opportunities, and if you play your cards right, using the best strategies, you can expedite your fitness instructor salary growth.
To give you an idea of where the money is, here are the top 5 cities with the highest average PT salary earnings for a personal trainer. This will vary City by city and state by state. The personal trainers living in urban areas make more on average. Yes, it is possible to make k the year as a personal trainer. Most personal trainers need to do a hybrid approach of personal training live as well as online personal training sessions to earn 6 figures as a trainer.
According to payscale. This will vary depending on your geographical region. The hourly rate can also be increased greatly if you are working as an online personal trainer as well. According to ziprecruiter. These numbers can fluctuate based on State and whether or not you are living in a urban area or not.
Once again, this depends on many factors such as living in an urban area or which state you live in. According to our research, Hour Fitness is the gym that pays their personal trainers the most. Personal trainers either get paid by the gym that they are working for or directly from their personal training clients if they are independent trainers.
This is usually done on a biweekly basis if working at a commercial gym. Well there it is everybody, the full breakdown on personal training salaries. I hope you guys learned that there is plenty of money to be made in this industry. This study has been a long time in the works and we ensured we have all the angles covered to help you make the right choices as your progress in your personal training career.
Utilizing outcomes and stats sourced from some of the highest-paid and most recognized personal trainers in America will help guide you properly as you shoot for the top too. That trainers with CSCS certification make more money than sports nutritionists does not mean you have to choose that path if your passion is geared at helping people stay fit through proper eating habits.
Like I mentioned above, you can use the results and data for references endeavor to cite this page as the source. If you are interested in becoming a personal trainer in a specific state, check out my state-by-state Guide to Becoming a personal trainer. Great article!!! I am changing career from cubicle to fitness training and your article encouraged me a lot!
Great stuff. I recently graduated with my B. Hoping my background will cover most of the information already. Not sure if you have any input on the best way to prepare. I think the knowledge that you already have will be able to help you out in certain parts. I would suggest studying slowly and being consistent on a daily basis.
It is a big textbook that is for sure. There are sections to help you review the material you a birdie learn that are helpful. Hi Tyler, I just found your website and have found it very helpful. Good luck as a personal trainer! I work full time at an office job but thinking about making the switch to personal training while obtaining this second degree. Your article was awesome, do you have any tips? I would sign up and start studying for one of the top personal trainer certifications as well as start doing your research and networking with gyms you may want to start working at.
After you have obtained your certification, apply to the gyms you think you will obtain the best experience and go for it! Hello Tyler, Before I purchase the NASM practise exams that you offer, I wanted to know if I need special software to get acces or will any browser do to open the tests? I have never heard of any problems with any of the browsers to be honest. You do not need any special software, just an Internet browser for the exams.
Your trainer salaries for LA Fitness are a bit off. While master trainers earn between per half hour with capacity to earn per hour plus retention bonuses. As a master trainer at a signature gym in FL I was earning between 65Kk some years.
Of course this was hustling at peak 65 hours of training a week 6 days a week and as low as 25 hours a week. Hey Tyler, Thank you so much for responding to this information on personal training salary. This is the information I got when I called LA fitness directly. I definitely agree that if you hustle in this industry you could make upwards of six figures if you have experience. Thanks for your valuable input and I will adjust my numbers accordingly.
Some certifying agencies use one while others use the other. A certified personal trainer is the same thing as a personal fitness trainer. The majority though called their personal training certification a CPT which stands for certified personal trainer.
Thanks ever so much! Hey Rosa, Are you asking how much money a group exercise instructor can make? Or are you asking how much money you would pay for group exercise training as opposed to personal training? The salaries for group exercise instructors compared to personal trainers vary greatly. I have a B. I have a heart for helping people achieve their health and fitness goals and your website is helping me choose where to go and how to get there, so thank you.
0コメント