Online coaching vs a personal trainer: which one is for you
An honest comparison from a coach who sells both, including who should not buy online coaching.
I sell both, so I have no reason to talk you into the wrong one. Picking wrong is the most expensive mistake in this whole industry, and it is usually made for the wrong reason: price.
What a trainer buys you
In person, you buy two things. Eyes on every rep, and an appointment you cannot ignore. If your form falls apart under fatigue, if you are coming back from something, or if you have never trained and the gym floor genuinely intimidates you, being in the room with somebody is worth every dollar.
The honest limit: I see you for those hours. What happens on the other six days of the week is still on you, and that is where most results are actually won or lost.
Picking wrong is the most expensive mistake in this whole industry.
What online coaching buys you
Online, you buy the thinking. Your week written for your days, your equipment and your body, rewritten as you progress. Macros set and adjusted off real data instead of a calculator guess. A check in every week that I read and answer personally, and a line to message me when something comes up.
It covers all seven days instead of two or three hours. It costs less than a handful of sessions a month. And it goes with you when you travel or move.
The honest limit: nobody is standing there. If you will not log what you did, and you will not film a set when I ask, the whole thing is a very nice document nobody reads.
How to pick, honestly
Choose in person if you are brand new and the movements themselves are the obstacle, if you are working around an injury and want somebody watching, or if you already know you will not go unless somebody is expecting you.
Choose online if you already get to the gym on your own but you have been guessing at the plan, if your schedule moves around too much for standing appointments, or if you are not near me. Choose online if the problem is the plan, not the showing up.
The combination nobody mentions
Plenty of people do both, and it is often the smartest version. Online coaching runs the week, and a session in person every few weeks gets eyes on the lifts and fixes what a video cannot show. That costs far less than training twice a week forever, and it usually works better.
Who should not buy online coaching
If you are looking for somebody to make you do it, do not buy online coaching. That is not what it is, and I would rather tell you now than take a payment and watch you quit in week three feeling like you failed at something.
Everybody else: the plan is the thing you are missing, and that is exactly what this is.
Mac
See online coaching
