I am writing this in-depth Trainerize Review at the request of dozens of individuals who have asked me how I’ve successfully leveraged my business online. At the end of the day, we are all just trying to get our time back. I’m sure one of the things that attracted you to personal training was the lure of a “flexible schedule”.
Clients, too, want flexibility in how they get fit. Maybe they can’t make it to the gym all the time. Lots of people don’t live near a gym at all. Or maybe they just don’t live near you at all but still want you to train them. (This is the ideal situation if you’ve been promoting your business online.)
As background information, I have been using Trainerize for over a year now, and have no plans to switch. I did use three other trials of training software during my decision process, which I will talk about below.
See also: Success Habits of People Who Are Killing It
Why an App Like Trainerize Will Make You a Lot of Money
- Americans especially are ADDICTED to subscription based products. (SUBSCRIPTION, not prescription- I’m not addressing the opioid epidemic in this post.) Once you get someone on a recurring payment that they don’t have to think about renewing each month, money will continue to flow into your pocket.
This is true even if they aren’t fulling utilizing what is available to them! People are just terrible at going through the cancellation process for things. Take it from me- I think I have like a grande in AdoreMe.com store credit right now. - Trainerize saves you a TON of time. Once you create a workout, it’s there forever. That means that you don’t have to start from scratch with each workout for each client. You can make slight edits and rename a quality workout for multiple clients without affecting the quality.
Personally, it takes me all of about four hours a week to keep 40+ clients up to date on programs. So guess what I’m doing with the other 36 hours of a standard work week? I’m making even more money elsewhere.
What Is Trainerize?
Trainerize is one of several web-based personal training applications that have sprung into popularity in recent years. There are other sport-specific apps, such as for cross fit or yoga. However, I did not review these, because I do not teach those disciplines.
In my opinion, Trainerize stands out as a great all around product for general training programs. This is in comparison to programs like My PT Hub, PT Distinction or True Coach. (I used and found each of these to be generally less user friendly and less flexible for the myriad of client needs you will run into.)
Trainerize has a sleek desktop interface for you to do your programming on. Your clients, however, will access their programs primarily through the Trainerize mobile app. You also get an app, so that if your clients have a question or issue and you are not near your computer, you can pull up the chat function or their program and get back to them on the spot.
Pro tip: Even if I know my clients personally and have conversations via text or social media, I have them send me all of their program related questions through the app. That way there is no chance that I miss or forget to reply to their message.
Pricing
Trainerize pricing is excessively reasonable. By adding just one client at a competitive price you will break even immediately. Their price structure is also incredibly responsive to the number of clients that you have and perks you want. This keeps you from paying for things you don’t need.
Also, kind of like Vistaprint business cards, the pricing gets more competitive with volume. Your plan can be anywhere from $0-200/month depending on how many clients you have. However, your price per client will continue to decrease if your monthly rate goes higher. Ie: You don’t pay more unless you’re making more.
Another awesome aspect is how responsive it is to upgrade or downgrade. If you need to do so, it can be taken care of immediately. The resulting charge or refund will show up on your next bill.
Building Workouts
Workout Videos
This might be my favorite aspect of Trainerize, because it’s just so dang easy. There is already a massive built in exercise data base, where all you have to do is search for an exercise. Then you drag and drop it into the routine that you are building. Boom. If there is an exercise or machine that is not included, you can do either of two awesome options.
You can snap a quick video of the exercise on your phone, upload and label it. (This also makes your site a bit more personal.) Or, you can peruse the myriad of YouTube videos that they automatically search for you. Import, name them whatever you want, and use them in your routines. Viola.
The only danger with this is that if the public video gets taken down later, it will disappear from your program. However, I’ve snagged tons of awesome demo videos from places like Bodybuilding.com that have a low risk of ever being taken down or moved.
Types of Workouts
There are three basic workout building template you can use: regular, circuit or interval. This is super useful, because then you can drag and drop, plug in the number of reps or weights you want your client to use, add any notes, create super sets, and boom, you’re done. No additional formatting necessary.
Billing
Setting up Billing
While I already covered some of the benefits of having a subscription service above, another awesome aspect of Trainerize is that you can create custom billing plans for clients in different situations. The fact of the matter is, not everyone is going to be able to afford the primo plan rate that you want to promote.
Personally, I have a price range. This range depends solely on how much time that I think I am going to be putting into this client. I do not post prices on my website. I do not even give any quotes until I have had a discovery call with said client. In the call we discuss goals, equipment access, physical limitations, etc. Anything that could have an impact on how much work it will take to program for them is considered.
Just don’t sell yourself short. Make sure to check out the most costly mistakes that personal trainers make and how to avoid them. Billing is taken care of entirely by Trainerize, which was a huge selling point for me.
Refunds/Missed Payments
If a client backs out for whatever reason and needs a refund, Trainerize offers you a variety of ways to do that. You can offer full or partial refunds, schedule cancellations for specific days, and turn app access or or off easily with a few clicks.
If a client misses a payment, Trainerize handles that too. They will be sent multiple reminder emails, as well as notify you. If the client still does not remedy the situation, they will cut off app access until the payment is updated.
Tracking Client’s Progress
This is where Trainerize really shines. When you send a program to a client and they full it up on their phone in the gym, it is wicked easy for them to input the weights and reps they used, and any notes about how difficult/easy the exercise was. This translates into progress tracking for specific exercises.
If you have a client who is training for a specific event, say a race or a power lifting competition, you can easily create benchmark workouts for them. A benchmark workout evaluates a client’s performance in specific exercises, and can be programmed at regular intervals throughout their training cycle. The progression function of Trainerize allows you track your client’s progress exactly, and displays it as a side by side comparison to see the big picture over time.
Trainerize also has a myriad of super convenient ways to track nutrition adherence, progress photos, goals and personal bests.
Compatible Apps & Meal Planning
Disclaimer: I am a huge believer in macro coaching, not meal planning, so I have not used the Evolution Nutrition add-on fully. However, I did use it for a time, because I had a vegan client that needed specific help, and it found it to have lots of frustrating quirks: rearranging meals, adding things that didn’t need to be there, etc.
In all fairness, that was a year ago. Maybe they have improved. It’s definitely worth checking out if you do meal planning and you want it seamlessly integrated into your physical training planning.
The app that I am a HUGE fan of Trainerize being compatible with is MyFitnessPal. Within Trainerize, I can set specific calorie and macronutrient goals for my clients, and these goals automatically reconcile with what the client inputs into their MyFitnessPal app. The results are viewable as a bar graph on a weekly basis, and makes it super easy to adjust and compare nutrition success according to activity type and intensity.
Additionally, although most of my clients wear Apple Watches, Trainerize will also sync with Fitbit, so you can see exactly how many steps/calories/flights etc that you client accomplished through the day or week. (Sidebar: I do wear an Apple watch because it was a birthday present. However, and I will post another review on this later, I LOVED my Fitbit Versa. It’s the same size/feel as the apple watch, the battery life is long enough to actually track sleep patterns, it gives you all the same notifications, and it’s MUCH more affordable.)
Setting Up a Client
Setting up a client is so simple it’s ridiculous. All you do is head to the ‘client’ portion of your dashboard and select ‘new’. You’ll input their name and email, and Trainerize will send them an invitation to download the app that will automatically connect them to your training set up.
Their first step is to complete a questionnaire detailing how often they can work out, what equipment they have, any injuries, previous experience, etc. The answers to this survey are permanently stored in their client profile, which is so, SO handy later on, when you have a ton of clients and need to refresh the details before programming.
You will then assign them a product, they will input a credit card, and the app will take care of all billing for you, as detailed above. They will have immediate access to their program, and you can start assigning them workouts immediately.
Summary
In summary, Trainerize would be my recommended platform of choice for online training. It is efficient, anticipates your needs, and is highly compatible to individual situations.
I forgot to mention this above, but their customer service is also on point. If you have any type of issue, they will get back to you within 24 hours (on a business day) and always by someone who works directly for the company and knows what they are talking about. This was a life saver for me in the beginning, because I loaded about a dozen clients into platform as soon as I had decided upon it, and had tons of questions as I was figuring it out.
The cost to profit ratio is also undeniable- you will never pay more than what you’re making, and typically far the opposite. If I’m paying the maximum amount of $200/month for 200 clients, I’m pocketing well over $30k/month. Do the math if you want to snoop on my median monthly price range.
Finally, you are never locked into any contracts. If you need to suspend or cancel your subscription for any reason, you are able to do so. While I still recommend doing your due diligence with different companies to find what works for you, I have applied the Trainerize platform to clients who only train at home, clients with regular gym setups, clients training for power lifting or body building competitions, clients who travel constantly, clients with physical limitations, etc, all with great success.
I hope this helped! Check out their feature section more in depth on their website, and if you have other friends in the training market space, feel free to give this review a share!