Online personal training has become more popular than ever before. If you’re just starting out as a personal trainer or you’ve been running sessions in the gym for a while, making the move online might be easier than you think.

For many personal trainers who’ve been avoiding the digital space, opportunities are being missed. So whether you’re looking for a new career or are already a fully qualified personal trainer wanting to pivot to digital personal training sessions, you have lots of options and plenty of potential to grow your brand.

We’ve already taken a look at how to become a personal trainer. So now, here’s everything you need to know about how to become a personal trainer UK from studying one of our Active IQ Internationally recognised online personal training courses

Should You Become an Online Personal Trainer?

If you’re starting a brand new career as a personal trainer, your first step is to ensure that you have the right qualifications. Being interested in exercise is a good start, but you’re going to need more than that! Our Level 2 Gym Instructor course is the ideal starting point. 

Next, you have to look closer at why exactly you want to become an online personal trainer. If it’s because your in-person gym instructor sessions are slowing down, then making the move online is smart. That’s because online personal training sessions allow you to reach more customers. 

However, whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been a personal trainer for a while, moving online requires a different approach. Marketing and building client trust can be a lot more challenging. There’s also the fact that just because you’re not heading off to the gym every day, you’re still going to have work. It’s not simply a case of deciding to be an online personal trainer. You have to put the work in.

Getting the Hardware Right

Knowing how to become an online personal trainer UK means knowing more than just what types of exercise your clients need. You’re also going to need the right tech. Don’t let this put you off too much, as it’s not as overwhelming as you might assume. All career progression involves learning new skills, and online personal training is no different.

Your first step is to create your virtual training space. In that space, you’ll need to have a camera and a laptop. You can invest in other tech later, such as lighting and microphones, but to start, you can get away with just having the basics. As you begin to build a successful career as a self-employed online personal trainer, you can invest in bigger and better technology.

Top Tip: If you have a top of the range laptop or PC, you may not even need a dedicated camera to record your online lessons.

Your Teaching Space

The virtual training space you use needs to be right if you want to kick start and get the most out of your gym instructing online. That virtual space can be anywhere (you can even take it outside if you like!). However, ideally, you should have a specific and dedicated space in your home or workplace to conduct your lessons.

In the fitness industry — and for online personal trainers particularly — the right exercise space is crucial. You need to ensure that you have plenty of room for demonstrations involving physical activity, somewhere safe and secure for all of your exercise and gym equipment, and somewhere neat and tidy enough to showcase you as a professional. All of the fitness qualifications in the world won’t get you any repeat clients if they think you’re unprofessional!

Your Website

If you’re wondering how to become a personal trainer focused on online sessions, the first thing you probably realised is that you’re going to need a website. Don’t assume that this can be avoided these days. While you can run training sessions on social media video chats, you’re still going to need a website. Think about a website builder like WordPress to get started.

When someone is looking for an online personal trainer, they will head to the internet. If you don’t have a website, those clients simply won’t be able to find you.

So you’re going to need a domain name. This should be the name of your business (or your actual name if you haven’t yet begun your personal fitness career). 

You’re also going to need a website host, ranging from a free service to extremely expensive options. There are plenty of online guides that can help you choose a website host for your personal training business.

Getting Paid for Online Fitness Instructing

The aim of the game is always to be earning money as online fitness professionals. So you need to ensure that you’re helping your clients achieve their fitness goals, but also that they can pay you for your time. Payments are always an uncomfortable conversation, which is why, along with time management skills, an often overlooked part of personal training is good communication skills.

Make sure that you make payments as easy to accept as possible. You have plenty of options to consider, but it’s hard to go wrong with payment portals like Stripe or Paypal. Make sure that you do some shopping around though. Different payment portals will charge different amounts, and what you don’t want is to become a personal trainer online to mean that you get paid less than when teaching in person.

Check the charges of your payment portal, and look around for better deals.

Getting Insured

Having the proper personal training qualification isn’t enough to just hook up your webcam and start selling yourself as a qualified personal trainer. Just because you’re focusing on online personal training, that doesn’t mean you can overlook insurance. You’re still going to need some form of professional liability insurance in case anyone gets injured during your online classes.

While we all hope that never happens, having insurance can save you a lot of headaches, especially if you ever do get sued. Personal Trainer Business insurance is essential when running your own business, even if that business is online only. So don’t assume that just because you’re not face to face with your clients in a professional gym (or your own gym), that you can avoid insurance needs. It will be a legal requirement.

Top Tip: Give yourself an extra advantage by having your clients sign a disclaimer that lets you use their name and their images on your website and your promotional materials. This is a great resource to have, but without the disclaimer, you could find yourself being sued.

Finding Clients

If you already have a list of clients as a successful personal trainer, your first step is to let those customers know that you now offer online classes. In some cases, that might be all that you need to do to get started.

For those that have only recently taken our accredited personal training courses, you already know how to become a personal trainer. But now you’re going to have to start marketing. For new personal trainers and those that have been personal training for a while, the move to online exercise sessions for personal training will mean a lot more marketing work.

Digital marketing is a vast area to explore, and the rules and trends can change quickly. If you want a successful career as a personal trainer, it’s worth looking closer at additional qualifications that can help you with marketing. 

The basic thing to remember is that you can pay for adverts (social media ads or search engine ads) or use free marketing methods that just cost you time (content marketing, email newsletters). Ideally, you want a combination of paid and free advertising. If your initial budget is tight, you can always focus on digital marketing strategies that don’t cost anything.

Make the Move: How to Become a Personal Trainer in the UK

The fitness industry is bigger than ever. The first step for anyone wanting to start their own online personal training business is to become a personal trainer with the proper personal training qualification. You can even take those courses online to become a qualified personal trainer with The Fitness Group’s online study and assessment options. 

Once you have taken those first steps to becoming a successful personal trainer, you can start thinking more about your online business. While a fitness career can be hard work, it also comes with a range of personal and financial benefits. 

Interested in becoming a fully qualified personal trainer and setting up your own online business?

Take a look at our extensive range of internationally recognised courses. With our years of experience and a rock-solid 100% money-back guarantee, we have helped students across the UK gain the skills and the confidence to make personal training a successful career.

Get in touch with The Fitness Group today to learn more about how we can help you make personal fitness your dream career.