Personal Training vs. Group Fitness

Pros

1. Customized Workouts and Nutrition Advice

2. Better Safety and Supervision

3. Periodization or Progressing Workouts as You Become Stronger

4. Increased Camaraderie with your Coach

5. Motivation and Accountability

Cons

1. Less Affordable than Group Fitness

2. All Eyes on You

3. If You Cancel Last Minute, You Lose Your Session

Pros

Customized Workouts and Nutrition Advice

The best part about personal training is the individual focus on your and your goals. Whether you want to build muscle, lose weight, rehab existing injuries, increase range of motion, get moving after a long period of stagnation, or combat age related muscle loss, a personal trainer has the experience to design a program suitable for anything you need. 

Some trainers will continue to specialize in different modalities like women's health, sports conditioning, competition preparation, or mature fitness so every coach is different in their approach. It's always best to do a consultation first to see if you vibe well with a coach before committing to a program. Follow coaches on Instagram or TikTok to learn more about their training style, what kind of outlook they have, and whether you feel they'd be a good match to your goals.

Better Safety and Supervision

Unfortunately, the biggest disadvantage of working out in a group class is that instructors don't have enough eyeballs to look at how everyone is doing an exercise to ensure proper form. Instructors will give you cues and you will need to self-adjust. With personal training, your coach is always watching your form and providing corrections before you do anything that can injure you. If you are working with pre-existing injuries, personal trainers are keeping that in mind to ensure that you don't re-injure yourself or make it worse. Personal training can help you get back on your feet faster than if you were to work out on your own, in a group, or not exercise at all.

Periodization or Progressing Workouts as You Become Stronger

Periodization is when you change your workouts every 4-6 weeks to ensure that your body doesn't become too efficient with any type of workout. By increasing the intensity or changing the exercises, or doing different types of supersets, you can maximize your results. With group fitness, you are getting new workouts each time you come in but they are not necessarily targetting anything in particular and are designed with many people in mind.

By doing progressive overload, increasing your weights or increasing/decreasing reps, you will continue to challenge your body safely and with a goal in mind. Remember, random workouts get random results. While any kind of movement is fantastic for cardiovascular health and you may get toned initially, if you are seeking a specific esthetic or idea of health, personal training is one of the fastest ways to get it.

Either you can train for a long time or you can shorten the distance to your goal by hiring a coach. It's up to you whether you feel like you want to maximize your time spent in the gym and if that is worth it to you. 

Increased Camaraderie with your Coach

Introverts rejoice! When you are working 1 on 1 with your coach, you are more likely to build a strong connection and not feel judged. Your coach is your best friend when it comes to your health and fitness. Many people use that hour to de-stress from work or family obligations, and that additional outlet to relieve anxiety becomes the most important hour of your day. You will look forward to working out with your coach who takes the guesswork away from creating workouts and ensuring that you are being challenged in new and different ways. Your mood will improve as your body becomes stronger, and your friends will notice your new glow up. It's cheaper than therapy!

Motivation and Accountability

Working out with a partner has been shown to provide better results than working out alone. When you have no one to workout with, you are more likely to skip your workout if you are tired, feeling stressed, or not feeling like it. Your coach will hold you accountable for showing up for yourself and for them. The best workout is the one that you do, so you will not want to miss out on the calorie burn with your personal trainer!

Cons

Less Affordable than Group Fitness

While Group Fitness is generally one of the more affordable ways to workout compared to just a plain gym membership, personal training can be seen as a premium service. When you pay for the additional customization and focus on your individual needs, you will speed up the time to see results significantly. Group Fitness is a fraction of the price, but you will need to ponder what your time is worth when it comes to reaching your goals.

Consider small group personal training as a more affordable entry point to individual coaching, which is about a 1/3 of the cost of a 1:1 session. The groups are generally anywhere from 2-6 people but you will get a more personalized experienced compared to a 20 person class. Some days no one but you shows up, and you end up getting that 1:1 experience without having to pay a premium. That's a win-win!

All Eyes on You

The anonymity of group fitness is reduced when you are working one on one with a coach. Initially, it may seem intimidating but when you start to feel more comfortable with your coach and realize that they understand you aren't going to look like them right out of the gate, it will become easier to workout on your own pace. Coaches love working with newbies to the gym because we get to share our knowledge with you. We love to educate you on body mechanics and proper form. 

If you Cancel Last Minute, You Lose your Session

Similar to any type of personal service, if you cancel last minute you will lose your session. At Rage Fitness, we have a 24 hour cancellation policy to ensure that our trainer's time is compensated. It forces you to remain accountable for your time and scheduling. You are more likely to show up if there's a cost associated with missing out.

With unlimited group fitness classes and gym memberships, one thing that gyms bank on is you missing your session. Because each class is priced cheaply in that type of membership, you don't think as hard about missing it because the instructor may not even notice. Most people only go to unlimited sessions 3x a week on average. So why pay for more sessions than necessary?

Over time, accountability and motivation fades and then your fitness stagnates to the point where you end up not working out for years. Only 30% of all people have ever stepped foot in a gym or boutique fitness studio. The reason for our obesity epidemic is multiple fold, but even with good intentions willpower is not enough to keep you working out long term.

Are you ready to speed up your time to see results? 

One of the biggest misconceptions is that working out with a personal trainer is that it's just meant for rich people. This is not the case. We have students, newcomers, office workers, tradespeople, and stay at home moms and dads working out in our personal training studio. There are many options for you to access personal training at a budget that fits you. If you are seeking results faster, working out more with a personal trainer will speed up that time considerably. People generally do not push themselves as hard as a personal trainer will, which means they will stagnate or plateau working out on their own. Why waste time and spin your wheels? The experience of a coach will get you farther faster, so what are you waiting for?

Maybe it's time to stop sitting on the fence about seeking personal training and contact us at Rage Fitness at 1-825-945-7733 or fill out the online contact form to come up with a program that will finally help you cross that finish line you've been thinking about for a long time.