Short answer? Yes! In fact, behavior change psychology indicates that online personal training is actually more effective than traditional training. This might sound counterintuitive but habit change psychology tells us that the only way to truly make a change is through developing autonomy in that skill or habit. Meaning having a coach to guide you through the process but still doing everything independently is the best approach to ensure success and safety along the way. And we've actually seen this proven by our clients, time and time again.
We have both worked in the industry for years, working in various cities, with multiple different demographics. The bulk of our time was spent with traditional in-person coaching while working with a few online personal training clients in our "free time". After a few years working with both, we started to notice something, our online personal training clients were making remarkable progress, bounding over obstacles and staying consistent not only with workouts but also with their lifestyle and nutrition habits. On the other hand, however, our in-person clients were of course progressing but, on average, not at the same rate. The in-person clients really seemed to stay stuck on lifestyle obstacles such as sleep and stress management for much longer. But why? When we began online training we deemed it the secondary option, the next best thing for people that we couldn’t work with us in person for one reason or another. So how in the world were these clients making such amazing progress and so quickly online? The answer came down to simple math....bare with me for a moment on this...
We saw our in-person clients on average 3 times a week. This meant they received 3 personalized, 1-hour workouts each week. During those workouts amidst coaching them through warm-up, strength training, cardio and stretching we tried to fit in coaching conversations and guidance on everything that happened the other 112 waking hours of the week. If we were really successful we would maybe find 10mins of coaching time within each session. So maybe 30mins a week. A bulk of that time was spent reiterating and regrouping after each exercise and then trying to come to a solution or at least figure out what was going on in their lives. On the other hand, our online personal training clients on average would receive 4 workouts a week, so 4 hours of personalized workouts in addition to a full hour of uninterrupted time to just talk everything out. So not only were they killing it in their workouts without having to answer an endless barrage of questions. They were also able to sit and talk and really focus on their lifestyle concerns, get answers to all their questions and walk away each week with a clear plan for success! So, we decided to switch gears. Yes, in-person training still has a place and a very real benefit for many, but we now know that the time that we can really give to our clients through virtual coaching is so powerful! So we want to try to share this level of coaching with everyone!