How and why people get scammed in fitness clubs

Author: Timko Ilya - master of the whole project and fitness trainer.
2013-01-03

In this article, I want to talk about personal training and how people are taken advantage of financially in fitness clubs. Specifically, I will refer to gyms.

So, many of you know that an annual membership in a good fitness club costs around 30,000 rubles. You can find decent clubs for 15,000 to 20,000 rubles a year. Considering that this is the cost for a year, it is generally not so much; it is affordable for someone with an average income. Moreover, more and more fitness clubs now allow monthly payments for memberships.

By the way, the cost of memberships between large and small cities doesn't differ significantly. For example, in Moscow, a good club will cost about 30,000 to 40,000 rubles a year. In a city with a population of a couple of hundred thousand, a club of the same level will cost about 10,000 rubles less.

However, after paying this money and arriving at the gym, a person finds that they need to pay separately for a trainer. In general, this is normal. The space in the club is paid for separately, and the trainer is separate. The catch is that the cost of a trainer exceeds the cost of the club by several times!

Thus, in Krasnodar, the average cost of a personal training session is 800 rubles. In Moscow, it is 1500 to 2000 rubles. This means if you live in the capital and train approximately 10 times a month, you will have to pay an additional 20,000 rubles a month. This is already beyond the means of an average person.

It turns out that fitness clubs offer only two options: either train on your own or with a personal trainer. Is it worth that much money? As a working trainer, I would say – NO.

By the way, trainers receive at best 50% of the money you pay for their services. More often, it's about one-third. As a result, both trainers and clients end up at a loss. The club takes all the money you pay for your membership and a large portion of the money you pay for the trainer’s services.

Frequently, people who have scraped together money for a fitness club remain neglected by trainers because they simply do not have enough money. Therefore, they have to train alone, which is much less effective or not effective at all. The only goal of trainers in such a club becomes selling as many personal training sessions as possible. Consequently, the specialist turns into a salesperson who goes to great lengths to sell you “personal training sessions.”

The only beneficiaries of such a system are the owners of fitness clubs.

This situation arises in almost all fitness clubs. Almost, but not all. There is also a third option, which I personally use and promote.

In addition to personal training (when a trainer works with 1-2 people), there are also group training sessions. Group training does not mean that everyone does the same thing. In the gym, this means that the trainer works with all the people in the gym at the same time. Each person has their own individual plan, which is again created by the trainer.

Believe me, to train you effectively, it is not necessary for the trainer to stand over you during every set. And certainly, there is no need for the trainer to work with only one person at a time. Of course, an instructor cannot train 50 people at once. But personally, I can train 15 people simultaneously while giving everyone enough attention.

And the effect of such training is no less than that of personal training.

This, in fact, is the option I consider the most reasonable. The cost of such training is about 1000 to 2000 rubles a month (not including the membership fee). This is about ten times less than personal training. And this is quite affordable for someone with an average salary.

The need for personal training arises in two cases:

1. You are a very busy person and cannot afford to come to the gym when it’s convenient for the trainer. Therefore, you pay for personal sessions so that the trainer comes to the gym at a time convenient for you and works only with you.

2. You have a serious illness that requires constant supervision from a trainer and a specific approach.

In all other cases, there is no need for personal training. You will just be overpaying unnecessarily. So try to look for a club in your city that offers such a training option in the gym. Good luck!