Is Online Personal Training Effective To Lose Weight?
In this article I am going to lay out for you a true vision of what working with an Online One-To-One Personal Trainer is and what you should expect from the experience. Especially with beginners to fitness, there is a worry that they just won’t be motivated enough or disciplined enough to do it for themselves, and this often comes from a lifetime of trying and failing.
By the end of this post, you will have a true vision of what working with myself online looks like, what you can expect, and whether having me as your coach feels like a good idea for you. You will see what Online Coaching is, and then by the end of it, you will have a much much better idea of whether or not it is a good idea for you to do.
You will be able to make that call on whether this will just be another thing to add to your list of “tried and failed” or whether you can see how the constant communication and continuing updates really will work for you to get the results you want for yourself.
Whenever I get into a conversation with someone regarding Online Coaching, the conversation normally goes one of two ways:
Ghosted like the Tinder mess I truly am
Someone saying “but I need to see someone in person to get fit”
I have had success time and time again with people from all walks of life, people who have lifted barbells their whole life, or people who have no idea what a Squat is before they talk to me.
The heartbeat of what I do is to make Fitness as accessible to everyone as I possibly can In fact Fitness should be accessible to everyone. Online Coaching isn’t only for the highly motivated and highly skilled amongst us. It’s in truth, a test of how empowered you can become by learning and educating yourself on how your body works.
I don’t care if you do or do not know how to Squat, this isn’t a space for elitism. It’s a space for truth, honesty, and progress…and they are traits that we all have within us.
Just like my friend Liz.
Liz is nothing short of just astounding. She saw me talk at an event on Mental Health, and she then followed me on Instagram and that led to her working with me. We have never ever met in person, but she is the epitome of consistency when it comes to online training.
In our initial call with each other, she was so nervous and worried about where she currently was but was equally excited about seeing some change. We spoke for 90 minutes and I learned all about her family, her son Thomas (who is super cute and always says hello on our Coaching Calls), her job as a Cover Supervisor in a local school, and everything in between.
She is so consistent in her communication, and that is where her success truly lies. She has put in the hard work and dealt with some pretty huge stressors in the 18 months we have worked together, but despite all of that she has managed to lose and sustain 2 stone weight loss.
Here is Liz. The first work in process picture is from 02nd September 2019 and the second one was the 11th June 2020.
Every time I look back on this photo I just think “wow”. The hard work and effort she has put in really has paid off, and I am so incredibly proud of her.
Today I am going to address everything you need to know about Online Fitness Coaching, and whether or not it is a good idea for you to engage in.
Liz had never done any form of prescribed training or exercise before she met me, and look at what she has achieved.
You might think you can’t ever see yourself being consistent without seeing someone for 0.6% (1 hour) of your week, you might think that Liz had something you don’t, and you might think you have tried Apps and Workouts Online before and never done more than one or two, and therefore you think that this kind of coaching just isn’t right for you.
I get it.
But have a read. Find out what it truly looks like, then make up your mind.
Try not judge the “Online One-To-One Coaching” Book by its cover.
TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR Is Online Personal Training Effective To Lose Weight?
Is Online Personal Training Effective To Lose Weight?
The Pros and Cons of Online Personal Training
Like all good summaries, a Pros and Cons list has a place because let’s face it…nothing is perfect.
The Pros of Online Personal Training
You can work with any trainer you want in order to achieve your goals
Its like putting on your favourite album by your favourite artist. It literally doesn’t matter where they are in the world, you can always listen to what they have created. How often have you found something online that you really resonate with, really love and trust and not be able to actually do it, because the person or thing is only available in Australia or Peru? Online Personal Training literally means if you find a coach that you love following on Social Media, you can work with them no matter what.
Your Program is fully designed for you so that you know you are getting the one on one attention you are paying for
You might think that by seeing someone in person you are getting more personal experience. Well quite often with in-person coaching, the trainers are so exhausted and worn down from the back to back nature of their work that they will roll out the same workout for client after client and make a lot of what they do up as they go. Online Personal Training, sorry, very good online trainers will create your workout programme for you and exactly what you want and need to achieve your own personal goals
More contact with your trainer so that you stay on track and motivated a lot more
The very nature of Online Personal Training means you get more contact with your trainer. With my clients I will email them daily, they get access to coaching calls, they get access to Q and As, they get access to my online platform, and they know they can ask me anything at any time in any way shape or form and will get a response from me within 24-48 hours. If a friend I work with online doesn’t get more contact with me than any other in-person trainer they have had, then I am not doing my job correctly.
More Workouts so that you achieve the goals you are after in a more productive way
In-person training is expensive and the more you want to workout, the more expensive it will get. Trainers will nearly always let you have your session with them, but if you wanted a programme to compliment that, that you can do on your own, I know many trainers charging extra on top for this. The reason you pay a trainer is for a result. Not for a certain number of workouts. Online Personal Training completely avoids this issue as the coach is always there for you to get the result. Not there to charge you for their time as you are taking them away from other potential clients.
No Upfront Cost so that if something unforeseen happens you still have financial flexibility
So you decide you want a personal trainer. You try to find one, you might get a “free taster session” and then without really knowing if you are going to get along well with your trainer, for 10 workouts you have to find quite a large amount of capital. You might need anywhere between £350 and £500 non-refundable. How do you know what the next 10-12 weeks are going to look like? That’s a lot of money to just part with on a human you just met and are now locked in to spend time with for the next three months of your life. Online Personal Training with me is fluid, flexible and without any upfront costs. You don’t have to part with £2000 for a 12-week programme or worry about what will happen if your child care fails you and you can’t meet me at the gym. I’m here to make this as sustainable as is humanly possible for you as that is what is going to give you the best weight loss results - the ability to give yourself time.
It’s More Affordable so that you can have more money for a Gym Membership or to spend on your family
Online Personal Training is more affordable for you than in-person training because I don’t have to pay a Gym to use their space. You aren’t paying me for the hour. You are paying me for results, and you get those results through a system that is personalised for you. You aren’t just paying me for 10 workouts, you are putting me on a retainer for your fitness and I will do everything within my power and what we have agreed to in order to get you those results.
You Will Get Results so you know your hard work and financial outlay isn’t wasted
There is no doubt about it, online personal training is as effective as in-person training when it comes to results. If you are a person who is willing to work hard, communicate with your trainer and be honest and open…you will get results. You do not need to see someone in person to lose weight because to lose weight all you need is a Caloric Deficit and therefore being able to communicate with a coach and ask questions and learn and educate yourself on what you need to do to get into a calorie deficit then you will get incredible results.
The Cons of Online Personal Training
You Will Be At The Gym Without Your Personal Trainer
There is no way around this. If you are in the UK, and I am in Australia - I can’t physically train you for that workout. However what I can do is review video footage of your form, advise you based on your feedback which you can give me daily and send you video “How To’s” on every exercise you will ever need in the Gym. Of course, there are people out there who just need that person next to them and if that is truly you, then start with an In Person Coach, and then to save money move to an Online Coach
Often Times Your Workouts Are “Custom Made”
As in they aren’t. They are sold to you as a Custom Plan, but they aren’t really. They are rolled out on an App and have been to hundreds of people before you. I have a guarantee that your workout is 100% designed for you when you work with myself online, but that is only possible when you fill out an initial form detailing for me the information I need. If you haven’t gone through that process with an Online Trainer, chances are, your workout is exactly the same as Bills who is 68 and a powerlifter.
You Might Need To Video Yourself From Time To Time
Correct Form is useful in the Gym environment. It can protect from injury and it can also allow you to reach your goals more efficiently as activating the correct set of muscles for an exercise will make it more effective. But correct form doesn’t just happen. It’s not something that being with someone in person can just create all of a sudden. Its to be coached worked upon and takes a long time to create. The “quick fixes” that can occur in form from a first glance can be nearly always seen on a video as well as being in person. So to check a few things over, grab a camera, and video yourself in an environment you feel comfortable in. You then have to email that to your trainer, and they will analyse what they see and give you corrections on what they see.
You have to trust yourself
I personally don’t think this is a con. But I bet you do. You probably think that Online Training leaves you on your own. That you have to do it all yourself, and you just can’t trust yourself to do that. I personally think that learning and nurturing your ability to trust yourself, going on a process of self-development with this as one of your goals is a very inspiring and positive thing to do, and I have no doubt you are capable of doing it.
Is Online Personal Training Effective To Lose Weight?
What is the Process of Online Personal Coaching?
This is what a month of Online Personal Training looks like. I personally would like to think this is how it works for all online training, but alas that just isn’t the case as there are lots and lots of “quick buck” and “plug and play” trainers out there.
So this is what you can expect if you work with me because that is the only process I truly know.
Your Initial Application
At some point, you will need to state your intention to me that you are considering hiring me as your coach.
On my Online Coaching Page I have a section at the bottom where you can send in an email to me with a few questions that you have answered so that I can get to know you.
There is also one at the bottom of this page right here
I ask the usual about Height, Weight, and Age, etc….then I also ask you two things:
What are your fitness goals?
What are you struggling with most right now?
Once you fill that out I will then respond to you within 48 hours and let you know if I think that I might be able to help you.
In that email, I will send you a link to book a video chat with me.
Your First Call
In my life, I have done these very “salesy” calls. I’ve literally sat there with a script in front of me, and tried to negotiate my way through a conversation in order to literally “make a sale”.
What is really interesting is that I personally didn’t find it very successful, and that was because I hated doing them, and I have always hated selling.
Therefore on your “Initial Call” now we just chat. Clearly, you want to learn more about Coaching and this is your opportunity to find out more about who I am, how I work and what I would expect from you. But more importantly, it’s my opportunity to find out all about you, because the more I get to know about you, the more empathy and understanding I can use when creating your program and when coaching you.
If you listen to my Podcast “The Fitness Solution” you will come across a few episodes with members of The Fitness Collective (my group coaching program) where we just chat about who they are and what they need help with. Your initial call with me will be very much like one of those podcasts.
So what I am really trying to say is make sure you bring a cup of tea and get ready for a good ol’ fashioned chin wag.
Let us now assume I thought we were a good fit for this relationship I will then send you:
Your “New Client Questionnaire”:
This is probably the most in depth fitness questionaire you have ever seen, and your answers on this will form the structure to how I write your programs and what goals you will set for yourself.
It is designed to give you a vision of what you want to achieve in the context of actually working with me, as well as giving me a vision of what you will be able to do and how you will do it.
It covers things like:
Your Fitness history
Your Nutrition history
Your current lifestyle factors like sleep and energy levels
Your Social life
What equipment you have at your disposal
What your long and short term goals are
Once I recieve this you then get:
Your Program:
Exercise/Training:
Every month you will get a new training program from me, it might be very similar to the month before, it might be completley different as you change and adapt.
How I build your program is completley up to you based compleltey on a couple of factors:
Your Goals and the amount of work that will be required to achieve them
How much work you feel you can be adherent to in order to remain consistent and enjoy the work set for you.
Like with all things, the key word here is balance.
You must always balance what you want with what you can achieve.
Then you must react to what life is throwing at you, and how you are feeling, and how that will affect your training over a certain period.
You may go through times in your life where three workouts a week is totally achievable - two at the Gym and one at home. But then all of a sudden you have a busier work schedule next month, combined with Christmas and a few family birthdays…and you need to drop to two workouts a week.
All you have to do is to tell me.
Tell me what you are expecting and what you think is achievable and we can amend your plan to allow for that.
I will of course send you any video tutorials you need and any advice you would like along the way in terms of your exercise. In The Fitness Collective, there is an Exercise Video Library which you will have access too and I am constantly updating that and adding new content to it for you.
Nutrition:
First of all I want to tell you that I will not give you a Meal Plan, I will not tell you when to eat or what to eat directly. You might think right now that you need a lot of guidance in this department, but restrictive Meal Plans especially in the Weight Loss field traditionally have very low success.
Remember this Chinese proverb:
“Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life”
I will teach you how to fish.
You will get guidelines and parameters on what you should be doing with your Diet.
All of my clients also get access to The Fitness Collective and in there I have over 250 recipes that are all Calorie counted, Macro Counted and are really tasty to help give you some fresh ideas on your Diet.
Your Diet will be checked in with every month as well, and we will spend a lot of our time strategising and getting this working for you in the best way possible for your goals.
REGULAR CONTACT WITH ME
The rule of more applies here. More contact. More help. More communication so that you do not feel alone in this journey. Many In-Person Trainers will only communicate with you during the time you pay them for, i.e your 1 hour a week, and maybe you get access to their Facebook Group…
But I don’t trade time for money.
I trade results for money.
Part of getting great results is effective communication. It doesn’t matter what team environment you are in whether that be a sporting team or a business team you must have effective communication.
And have no doubt.
We are a team.
Therefore to encourage results we will communicate in this manner:
Daily Email Communication: so that you don’t feel lonely on this journey, and I will respond to every email you send me within 48 hours.
Weekly Review Forms: so that we can have all of your data and track your progress regularly so the results you are getting are clear to see over time
Weekly Q and As and Group Training Calls: each week in The Fitness Collective I hold group Q and As and group Coaching Calls so that you can keep on track and stay super focussed.
Monthly Review Forms: Once a month you will receive a more in-depth review form to fill out so that we can get a wider look at your progress and see what changes need to be made for the upcoming month.
Monthly Video Calls: you also get Monthly Video calls with me to review, chat and figure out anything and everything you need to make sure that you head into the next month ready and raring to go.
The Fitness Collective: added to all of that as one of my one-to-one clients you get bonus access to The Fitness Collective which is basically the fitness equivalent of the inside of Gringotts Bank.
That’s about it. That is everything you should get from your Online Personal Trainer.
Is Online Personal Training Effective To Lose Weight?
How Online Personal Training Can Be Effective To Help You To Lose Weight
I cannot guarantee you results, and anyone that says they can are lying.
The only person that can guarantee you a result in your Weight Loss Journey is yourself.
What an Online Personal Trainer or Coach can and should do is facilitate your ability to believe in yourself.
What I will guarantee for you is that you will have all of the knowledge, facts, educational resources, and communication you need to become a success. You will always be treated with empathy and understanding and I will always hold up my end of everything I say.
We will almost definitely become friends, and we will celebrate all of your wins together. I will be there for you when the going gets tough…because it will get tough at some point…and no matter what happens you will get something out of this relationship.
To lose weight, you don’t need drastic measures and extreme diets.
You don’t need to be punished in the Gym each and every day.
You don’t need hours and hours of Cardio.
What do you need to lose weight?
You do need a modest Caloric Deficit so that you are behaving in a way that will lead to your desired outcome.
You do need someone to talk to so that when things get hard you can get some objectivity in your life.
You need to make learning and understanding yourself in this manner as enjoyable as possible.
You need someone to help you to keep you motivated and inspired to keep going even when you don’t want to and everything is telling you to give up.
You need regular communication and methods to keep track of what you are achieving so that you don’t lose focus and forget how far you have come.
And the bottom line?
You need to make it as sustainable as possible so that you can be consistent and do it for as long as you need to do it to get your result.
Weight Loss is a slow process.
And it is my job to make all of that happen for you.
To make it enjoyable because enjoyment leads to adherence, which leads to action, which leads to results, which leads to motivation.
For as long as you can enjoy the process of understanding and going through a Weight Loss Coaching Program then you will be successful.
And that means enjoying making progress, enjoying time off, enjoying building a relationship with a Coach, and everything in between.
Is Online Personal Training Right For Someone Like You?
This is hard for me to advise on a Blog post.
But what would I say is this…
If you have got to this point of the Blog and if what I have laid out has got you thinking about the possibilities that could come from working on your goals in this way, then yes. It is right for you.
If you can see yourself with a plan in your hands, a coach by your side, and open to the idea of not losing weight fast but losing weight effectively so that you can keep it off…then yes, I personally think this could be right for you.
Words are very powerful.
And they have the ability to help you visualize what you want.
If you can see yourself doing anything I have said in this post, then chances are you will do very well working with me.
One of the big resistances I get from people who are thinking about Online Training is that they aren’t going to be motivated enough to go to the gym themselves.
Which I understand.
But it is also a huge misunderstanding of how motivation works.
This is how motivation works:
You don’t need to be motivated to get the results you want.
You just need to keep going and keep taking action.
The more action you take, the more motivated you will become.
As an Online Personal Training Client all I would ask for from you is the following:
Try your best even if your best is still not getting you the results you want
Be honest even if it is hard and scary, worried, and disappointed with what the truth is.
Engage in the process talk to your coach, try things out, trust the process, understand that you learn through failure as well as success.
Do what is asked of you if you are asked to track your weight, then track it. If you are asked to fill out a form then do it. Don’t give into excused but be inspired by taking action.
Be coachable, allow yourself to be pushed, and take on feedback both positive and negative.
Ask questions both of your Coach and of yourself…and allow the answers to surprise and educate you.
Always be learning, being a student of what you are investing time and energy into is a very important part of the process. Through education comes inspiration.
If you are willing to do those things that I have listed, then I believe that Online Personal Training is right for someone like you.
You shouldn’t expect perfection from yourself.
In fact, I openly discourage it.
Because you are human, and understanding and engaging in your humanity will bring you success as opposed to treating yourself like a robot.
Be human.
Be perfectly imperfect.
And Online Personal Training will be very good for you.
What’s Next?
Well if after reading this blog post, you feel fired up, inspired and you want to chat with me about whether I think we could work together then you can start the process right now by filling out this Application Form: