The Switch to Virtual Training

Completed on November 8, 2020

If you scroll through social media,  you’ll see countless fitness instructors promoting their live workout schedule for followers to join in on from the comfort of their own home. Many online media platforms have started to become the new at-home gyms with the added bonus of no payments needed for gym memberships. Whether they are affiliated with a gym or not, for 30 minutes to an hour, personal trainers are giving their followers at-home workout sessions to keep up with their physical activity.

Olivia Kriegel, a former personal trainer at Lync Cycling in Dallas, Texas, answered the phone optimistically and seemed excited to share her experience about training. She began using media platforms to conduct workouts with clients once quarantine began. Around mid March, Kriegel left Dallas to quarantine with her family back home in Southern California. “I started doing virtual training almost immediately,” she says “ I was kind of lucky because both of my parents own a dance studio and my dad is super tech savvy. Within 48 hours of California shutting down the state, my dad had already set up their Zoom account and their virtual classes so I was able to piggyback off of that and kind of start instantaneously with some of my die hard clients that would take classes with me.”

Across the country, Isiah Robinson finds himself in a similar situation. 

Isiah Robinson, a personal trainer at Equinox D.C., switched to virtual training at the start of quarantine. “Because of COVID I went off and did my own thing,” he says “I have virtual clients. I'd say it's not a large portion of my business but I have 2 really consistent clients that are in Virginia and Jersey.” 

To conduct training sessions, Robinson alternates between Zoom and FaceTime with the occasional use of a platform called LIFT for work associated with Equinox. 

The influx of personal trainers on virtual platforms comes from the mandated quarantine period brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Gyms across the country thought of different ways to keep their clientele working out while at home. For many, partnering with online platforms, such as LIFT, which are designed for personal trainers to continue workout sessions virtually, has been beneficial for keeping trainers in business. 

Equinox partnered with LIFT back in 2015 and over the past months has been encouraging their personal trainers to make the switch online. As an incentive to switch, Equinox D.C. continued to pay their personal trainers a portion of their paycheck and trainers would be able to keep the added money from their private sessions. 

In Robinson’s experience, working at Equinox D.C., he says “The club takes most of the money. If I charge 130 I’ll probably make 30-45 dollars, I really only make a certain amount if I hit a mark”. 

For many personal trainers, online training has guaranteed them a larger income as they are now able to see clients more frequently. “It allows a lot of flexibility,” Robinson says, “Working for the gym, there are times when I go on vacation or clients go on vacation and I can't train them but virtual we can still get work done. It really helps to promote business in a lot of ways.” 

These benefits as well have been a large reason as to why Justin Grant, also a personal trainer at Equinox D.C, says he and many trainers he knows will continue with virtual training even past the COVID-19 pandemic.“I think this is something that is going to stick around in general because it is a much more convenient thing to do if people can't make it to the gym or they are traveling. I think all of the trainers I know have incorporated a little bit of it into what they offer and I think it is going to stay” Grant says.

As an added on bonus, Grant says virtual training has made him a better coach. “It forces you to be so much more creative and think outside of the box a little more. You figure out how to deliver the same experience to your clients without the same space and without the same equipment ” he says.

While clients are able to buy smaller equipment, such as exercise bands, larger workout machines can be harder to come by. For Kriegel, her gym rented out 45 bikes for clients to use for at home workouts; this ensures clients continue to take classes with her gym. Similarly, an article from Forbes explains SoulCycle is having to sell many of their bikes for $2,500 in order to keep up with equipment companies. Workout equipment companies, such as Bala who grew its popularity on Shark Tank, have been in high demand over the quarantine period. These companies are making it easier for people to add equipment to their virtual at-home training sessions. As a result, large gyms such as 24 Hour Fitness are on the brinks of closing. 

Trainers and clients have begun incorporating household items into their workouts when in need of weights.“In terms of everyday regular stuff, I was using cases of water for leg work so you can do deadlifts or squats while holding a big case of water bottles. In terms of something you can hold onto with a handle, gallons of milk, gallons of water, detergent, like big detergent bottles can be used. In terms of lighter weight things you could hold in your hand for high repetition but low weight, peanut butter jars, cans of soup, and wine bottles work" Olivia Kriegel says. 

Although virtual training has proven to be beneficial for many trainers, a few have experienced a loss in clientele. Ivaylo Kasabov, also a personal trainer at Equinox D.C., has lost around 30-40% of his clientele during the quarantine period. Clients who have stayed with their trainers throughout the pandemic have been keeping trainers in business. 

Kasabov has also felt a difference between training new clients and pre established clients while online. “If you already have the client and you know what they can do, it's easier to train them and you can do a lot more exercises but if it's someone that cannot train with just verbal cues, it's a little bit tougher and you need to be better at your verbal cues. It's not impossible, but it's a little bit different” he says. 

In order to provide quality training sessions, Kriegel asked all of her clients a few simple questions “What did you like? What didn't you like? Is this working for you? How can I make this better?”.

The common answer from clients was how pleasantly surprised they were at the sense of community they felt while doing the workouts. Kriegel explains that her gym puts a lot of effort into establishing friendships, connecting with one another, and creating a welcoming workout environment. Now being virtual and not being able to see one another, having the same sense of community helps keep clients participating in workout sessions.

Besides teaching workout classes, Kriegel has joined in on many workout sessions from fellow trainers she works with and trainers she follows on Instagram. “I really enjoy taking other trainers classes. Before we went virtual, I was really involved in doing that beforehand. I would go to like three or five other studio classes along with taking classes at my own gym. Going virtual I was like I want to still mix up my workouts, I want to have the opportunity to take classes with different types of people” she says. 

After spending months conducting virtual training, one consensus from trainers is the proven preference for in person sessions. “I'm more of a face to face guy. I don't like to talk on the phone too much so it's the same thing with training. It still has value so I don't mind it but I do prefer the in person stuff” says Isiah Robinson. 

As we near the end of the year, personal trainers are wondering what the future of their industry will entail. As this industry has already seen a spike in clientele these past few months, Robinson believes personal trainers will gain even more popularity. Robinson says, “ I don't think the big gyms are the way to go anymore. Boutique styles gyms and personal trainers are going to start happening. Big gyms like LA Fitness and Equinox, I don't see them in like 5 years being as big as they are.” 

For some trainers, such as Kriegel, they have not been back inside of a gym studio and instead have adapted to the new normal of at-home workouts. Kriegel believes the vast majority of people are “going to look towards the at home workout as their new normal.”

From her experience with at-home training, as both a client and trainer, Kreigel has noticed many people believing they had to spend hundreds of dollars on gym memberships in order to have a healthy lifestyle. Now as clients have been able to stay at home and learn ease of at home workouts, Kreigel says “My hope for the future for fitness in general is that we can break down those barriers to entry and more and more people are putting it into their everyday lives and it doesn't have to be an expensive ordeal but instead it can be 30 minutes in your living room.”