You might already know that mobile personal training (aka ‘home’, ‘in-home’ or ‘at-home’ personal training) is having a personal trainer who comes to your home – bringing all of the equipment, knowledge and support to help you achieve the health & fitness results you want.
Technically, mobile personal training is when a trainer physically comes to your house to take you through home workout.
However, you’ll get many of the same benefits (and some additional ones) with online personal training too – a hyper-convenient, affordable way to get quick, easy & personalized workouts built into your day.
For the sake of this blog, though, we’ll talk purely about mobile / in-home personal training.
What does it mean to have a personal trainer who comes to your home? What’s involved? Why does it work so well?
And…Wait. Don’t you need to go to the gym to get the full benefits of personal training?
Well, it’s a resounding NO to that last one. Let’s find out why.
Finding a fitness solution that works for you
When it comes to achieving your health & fitness goals, finding a workout routine that really works around your lifestyle is the key.
The gym works for some – but it’s not for everyone. Many people don’t enjoy the environment. Whether it’s the music, the distractions or just feeling a bit self-conscious next to all the gym bunnies and bros.
For others, it’s difficult to plan that around family and work. Packing your bags, negotiating the traffic (and then gym lockers), waiting for your go-to gym equipment, then choosing between a sweaty drive home or the public showers. (Is that the faint sound of a collective shudder?)
And all of that whilst coordinating with the family who’s going to be in with the kids.
Ultimately, finding a way to workout that you can stick to regularly and consistently is the key to achieving successful results.
The benefits of personal training
Personal training is widely acknowledged to be the fastest way to get all-round health & fitness results that last.
According to a study from the University of California Los Angeles, personal training is significantly more likely to work than doing it yourself.
And it makes sense – working with an expert personal trainer who has the knowledge to help you get results quickly and effectively is the fastest path to getting fit, healthy and looking & feeling your best self. It gives you the motivational framework to help you feel like you can do it, with someone who brings a bit of fun into the mix to lighten it up and make it enjoyable. That makes it a potent and highly valuable combination.
It’s also a fast-growing industry. According to Educate Fitness, the personal training industry in the UK saw a 44% rise in the number of personal trainers from 2015 to 2019. That’s a lot of trainers.
But where you do go to find a personal trainer? Surely all the best personal trainers live at the gym… right?!
Well, actually, the opposite might be true…
Why mobile personal training can work better than gym personal training
The reality is that, for many, paying for a gym membership AND personal training just isn’t cost effective – why should half your money go to keeping the lights on and for a whole load of equipment you don’t need (or use)? Only to expose yourself and your workout routine for all to see, while you and your trainer pretend you’re not surrounded by sweaty strangers and wall-to-wall mirrors?
That’s where mobile personal trainers come in, literally showing up on your doorstep to solve all your fitness needs!
They bring all the benefits of personal training directly to your home, helping you get fit, strong, healthy & looking great – without all the hassle of the gym.
According to Educate Fitness, the demand for mobile personal training has been on the rise due to its convenient and personalized approach. As people seek fitness solutions that align with busy lifestyles and diverse needs, the mobile personal training industry has experienced significant growth. This is part of a shift towards more accessible and tailored fitness options.
Training with no distractions, focusing on your goals
Mobile personal training is based fully around you, with you and your goals in complete focus. It means you can enjoy the benefits, in private, with 100% attention from a dedicated coach – in the easiest and most convenient way possible.
The thing is, when you get a mobile personal trainer (as opposed to a gym trainer), the service you pay for is PURELY about helping you achieve your goals. That means every penny you invest is in your fitness. Not on paying for the lights, the shiny equipment you don’t use or the reception staff you feel guilty about not talking to as you shuffle past. (Just me?)
This is really important. Mobile personal training is an incredibly valuable and efficient way to get results – with the guidance, help & support from a trainer who knows their stuff.
And a trainer, contrary to popular belief, who’s probably far more relatable and down-to-earth than you may have assumed.
What is the personality of a typical mobile personal trainer?
Let’s just quickly address the elephant in the room…
When most people think of a typical personal trainer they imagine a buff/slim, extroverted, natural athlete who’s slightly obsessed with fitness and doesn’t have much else to talk about.
Clients often tell us that we’re not like the ‘typical trainers’ they had in their minds…
And whilst that might be a cliché, we’ve worked hard against the grain to work with trainers who have professional and life experience outside of personal training.
We think that’s important because it means we you can build a more authentic relationship with your trainer and they can understand the nuances and realities of life as opposed to simply the theory.
There’s a place for big personality, Joe Wicks-types. And we salute them for their work! But from our experience with a wide range of ages, fitness levels & backgrounds, we’ve learned that a more down-to-earth and nuanced approach is best.
Mobile personal training means you can build a relationship with a personal trainer who is also a human (not a super-athlete removed from the reality of day-to-day challenges) – who has learned the best ways to help you overcome barriers and negative previous experiences – to get results and achieve break-throughs in ways that other programmes or options haven’t.
With that in mind, let’s talk about the benefits.
Benefits of hiring a mobile personal trainer
There are some obvious benefits – you get to train in private without having to worry about onlookers or super-fit-looking people – and it’s hyper-convenient because you don’t have to go anywhere and can fit it around your schedule.
But there are a whole load of other aspects and layers to a mobile personal trainer too – we’ll jump into the most significant ones, and why getting a personal trainer that comes to your home could be the key to unlocking long-term results – where previous gyms, programmes or exercise videos haven’t delivered.
As one of the (sound the trumpet!) UK’s leading, longest standing and top-rated home personal training brands, we’ve worked with thousands of people at their homes to help them kick-start a fitness routine and continue to help them achieve long-term progress. And the benefits are really powerful.
Let’s walk through what mobile personal training really is under the surface, and how it could work for you.
Benefits of mobile personal training
- Convenience and Flexibility of Home Visits
- Private Workouts in your Own Space
- Increased Accountability and Motivation
- 100% Personalised Attention
- More Efficient Use of Time
- Integrate Workouts Into Home Life
- Influence Your Family
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Convenience and Flexibility of Home Visits
One of the key advantages of a mobile personal trainer is the convenience it offers. With busy schedules and hectic lifestyles, finding time to travel to a gym can be challenging. A mobile personal trainer eliminates this obstacle completely by coming to your home, garden, office, or nearby outdoor space if you prefer. This flexibility allows you to fit your workouts into your day without the need for extensive travel or dealing with crowded gyms.
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Private Workouts in your Own Space
A lot of people we speak to say their experiences of the gym are that they’re too busy, intimidating, distracting, uncomfortable – or all of the above.
Even if you’re used to the gym, there is something a bit disconcerting about grunting in public, surrounded by mirrors…
With workouts you do at home, there is a genuine sense of freedom and security that comes from being in your own space, on your own terms, and making as many grunting noises as you please. Detached house? Bonus points.
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Increased Accountability and Motivation
Sticking to a workout routine can be challenging. That’s why gyms look like Piccadilly in January and the Scottish Highlands in February.
But this is especially the case when there is no accountability.
Accountability?! Ugh. That’s a nasty word…
I know, it gets a bad rep. But it’s not as scary as it sounds. When people think of accountability they usually think of Mr Barton telling them they’re useless and will never succeed at maths. Except Mr Barton is now Steve from the gym, and succeeding at maths is becoming a bona fide athlete.
When handled well, though, accountability is actually a really valuable way to help you get faster results. It simply means sharing your goals and motivations with someone, and allowing them to ask you about how it’s going – and to help you focus on what’s most important to you. Your goals are always your goals, and you’re allowed to change or update them whenever you want. But hiring an expert who’s invested in your success and progress will help you stay focused, and you’ll increasingly feel the reward as you make progress.
Dive deeper
Mobile personal training (as opposed to gym training) is especially useful for accountability, because you’ll be inviting a trainer into your real-life world – away from any judgement, guilt or keeping up with the Lycras.
A good mobile personal trainer will begin to understand the context of your life – what’s challenging for you, why that is, and insights into ways we’ve seen others overcoming similar obstacles.
With regular sessions scheduled around you, and a trainer guiding you through each workout in your home space, it’s harder to skip or procrastinate. This means you can build consistency and see better results. And a mobile personal trainer who gets to know you (the real you) can become a valuable source of support & encouragement, pushing you to reach your fitness goals in a way that you’ll benefit from.
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100% Personalized Attention
Mobile personal trainers specialize in creating personalized workout plans tailored to your specific goals, fitness and context. They assess your strength & fitness level, take into account any injuries or constraints, and design workouts that challenge you while ensuring you stay safe and get the maximum benefit from your training.
With individualized attention, you can make progress faster and avoid the risk of injury that may come from following generic workout routines.
But there’s another layer to this…
Gyms can be distracting places for trainers as well as the people they’re training. Especially when everyone they know at the gym (i.e. everyone at the gym) says hi in passing.
Mobile personal training means you get 100% focus and attention. Your private home space makes this possible. But from 15 years in the industry, I’ve also learnt that home personal training typically attracts trainers who are more focused on getting you results than they are about themselves.
Put it this way: if you’re worried you’ll end up with a gym bro who only cares about flexing his pecs in front of the mirror – you can rest assured he’ll be at the gym (probably right now) and not showing up as your mobile PT.
Don’t get me wrong – I have no doubt there are some fabulous gym personal trainers out there, and no doubt some duff mobile personal trainers too.
But, from talking to hundreds of trainers over many years, mobile & in-home personal trainers are probably more likely to care about helping you get results than they care about being the best-looking trainer with the best moves for their captive gym audience.
With mobile personal training, it’s all about you. Which means more attention, more insights and a faster path to success.
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More Efficient Use of Time
Mobile personal training allows you to make the most of your time. Instead of spending hours commuting to the gym, packing your bag and faffing at the lockers, you can instead utilize that time for a focused, effective home workout session. This efficiency is particularly useful if you’re a busy professional or a parent (or both) – and you’re balancing multiple commitments.
Mobile personal training takes one hour of your time, 2 or 3 times per week, to purely focus on your fitness and supporting you to build a healthy routine.
Pause, do a workout, then on with your day. No travel, no gym faff, just pure fitness.
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Integrate Workouts Into Home Life
Integrating exercise habits directly into your home routine naturally builds healthy attitudes and behaviors.
The more you exercise at home, the more you’ll start to build stronger associations between your home and your health. And the more you’ll naturally begin to cultivate your environment to make healthier decisions.
With gyms, it’s easy to go and do “health & fitness”, before coming back to real life with all its obstacles and challenges.
In contrast, building health & fitness into your home life will make it more sustainable, helping you get better results that last.
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Influence Your Family
You can’t make home exercise part of your routine and not also turn a few heads. In my experience, new attitudes and behaviors nearly always have a positive influence on others who live with you.
Making exercise and healthy living part of your home life can also have a significant and positive effect on your kids. Check out my blog ‘How can you influence kids to exercise?’ for a really encouraging insight into this.
But suffice it to say, exercising at home quite often becomes a family package deal, with others’ attitudes changing faster than you might have guessed. It’s also much easier to train together as a couple or even as a family.
Who can benefit from mobile personal training?
Mobile personal training is suitable for a wide range of people, including:
- Busy professionals seeking to balance work and fitness
- Stay-at-home parents who find it challenging to leave their children
- Seniors looking for personalized fitness guidance at home
- Individuals with limited mobility, injuries or illnesses who need specialized workouts
- Those who feel self-conscious or uncomfortable in a gym environment
How mobile personal training works
Getting started with mobile personal training is pretty straightforward. The At Home Fitness team use a 5-step approach that covers all the key benefits of personal training at your home:
- Discovery – this is a free initial consultation and assessment with a mobile personal trainer at your home to discuss your goals, assess your current fitness level & other variables, and talk you through how it works.
- Kickstart – any effective health & fitness plan should cover exercise, nutrition and self care – to demonstrate the best path to get the fastest results. This step is a chance to agree to and commit to the best plan for you – and to help you get excited and inspired about what you can achieve!
- Workouts – together with your trainer, you’ll establish a workout schedule that fits your availability. Workouts can take place anywhere with a small space. The trainer will bring their creativity and a range of portable equipment for extra variety and benefit. They’ll also give you workouts you can do by yourself.
- Support – a mobile personal trainer will be there to support, guide and encourage you, to help you keep doing the things that will help you get the results you want
- Re-focus – our personal trainers lead you through periodic check-in sessions to help you keep making progress, by helping you see your progress, checking in on the plan and how it’s working, and supporting you to keep moving forwards.
