How much can you earn as a personal trainer?

Thinking of becoming a PT? Find out how much your personal training services could be worth.

If you’ve made the decision that a career in personal training is definitely for you, then it’s likely that you’ve already done some preliminary research on how much you can expect to earn once your qualified.

We’re often asked from students and graduates of our many personal training courses how much we think newly qualified trainers should be charging, and this is one of the main reasons that we’ve created this short guide.

Before we get in to the specifics about earnings, we wanted to just touch on how you might go about defining your worth as a PT.

Don’t let price define you – know what you’re worth!

If you’re committed to becoming the best PT that you can be and you know that you can deliver engaging exercise programmes that are fun, educational, and lead to real results for your clients, then it’s only right that you charge accordingly for your services.

Don’t get caught up in the trap of discounting or going head-to-head with other price-slashing trainers in your area. This can be a slippery slope, and you’ll effectively be giving your valuable time away for next to nothing.

Of course, if you don’t have the knowledge and skills to deliver results, you’ll be a ‘glorified rep counter’ and you’ll struggle to justify a higher price point. This is why you can’t afford to compromise on quality when it comes to your PT education.

Broadly speaking, cheaper equates to inferior, because people and companies alike price their products and services according to the value they attach to them – if they think they aren’t particularly valuable, they are priced correspondingly.

If you know you’re going to be a great trainer, plan to position yourself as such in the market and don’t get distracted by the noise of inferior services. On that note, it’s also crucial to have an understanding of how to attract and retain personal training clients.

What’s the average salary of a personal trainer?

Most personal trainers are in fact self-employed, and as such, don’t earn a conventional salary. There are still a handful of health clubs in the UK that do employ their trainers and pay them a base salary, but even this is very often tied to performance outcomes, usually around the number of PT sessions delivered.

In the UK, there are very few personal training jobs where you’ll be paid a fixed salary for just turning up, regardless of how many clients that you train or sessions that you deliver.

To give you a practical and real-world example, David Lloyd, one of the more premium health club brands, pay personal trainers a base salary for the first 12 weeks or so, giving them time to build-up their client base. After which, the trainers only work when they have clients in the gym, which can range between 15-25 sessions (hours) per week.

David Lloyd PT’s receive an incremental wage, with those with the highest qualifications and most training hours earning the most money. David Lloyd report that they pay their trainers ‘on average’ between £26,000-30,000 per annum, although this does vary depending on location.

Personal Training is a results business and so it's essential that you focus delivering value and results for your clients. While making sure that you earn enough money is essential, it can't be your sole focus. In fact, your earnings and profits should be the outcome of the value and results that you deliver, and not your focus. Matt RobertsCelebrity Personal Trainer

What’s the average hourly rate of a personal trainer?

It’s much easier to answer this question because most PT’s are paid hourly for their training services. Although, in reality, clients very often make block bookings across weeks and months, so it’s not like there’s a transaction after every session.

The average hourly rate of PT’s does vary considerably based on 3 distinct factors:

Workplace

Trainers working in budget-style gyms tend to charge lower hourly rates that those working in a premium-style health club. For example, trainers in a Pure Gym in the north of the UK will charge around £25-£30.00 per hour, whereas those working in more exclusive clubs can charge upwards of £40.00 per hour.

Skill and expertise

Trainers with more qualifications and skills are very often able to provide more tailored and advanced services to their clients. As such, they’re often able to charge more for their services.

For example, a personal trainer that is able to design and deliver strength, conditioning and performance orientated services might charge as much as £50.00 per hour. A point worth making in this instance is the type of clients this quality of service could attract, such as professional athletes, who see greater value in such a session.

Conversely, a newly qualified trainer with only a basic Level 3 personal training qualification might only be able to realistically charge £25.00 per hour. Despite a lower price per hour than the previous example, this type of client is likely easier to find, meaning the trainer could deliver more sessions.

Geography and location

Like most other modes of employment, the South of the UK does still seem to attract higher rates of pay, although the cost of living in those areas most likely cancels any advantage out. To find out more about how geography might affect your earning potential, check out our complete guide to Personal Trainer Pay and Salary.

We haven’t provided any specific examples here, because previously mentioned factors such as the type of club the trainer is working in, their skills and expertise often play much more of a role on the hourly rate than where the trainer is located.

Realistic earnings of personal trainers

The table below provides some realistic earning projections for personal trainers delivering 20 hours of training per week, alongside the typical level of skill and experience of the trainer. Naturally, there will also be some planning and administration required outside of these hours.

NB: The above data is based on 48 working weeks and assumed 4-weeks of holiday will be taken.

There are some groups of personal trainers that do earn considerably more than others, especially those providing group-based services, like body transformation coaching for example. These coaches, will often work with clients for a given number of weeks (e.g., 12-16 weeks) and will see multiple clients at the same time, planning their nutrition and adapting their training programmes. These coaches will therefore be able to generate higher hourly rates because they are seeing more clients within a single hour.

If you have any questions about your future career as a PT, feel free to reach out to our dedicated Careers Team who will be more than happy to assist you.