Best thing I ever did

[regl8r]

Raised my rates and started to push half hour sessions instead of full hours.

-Can fit more clients in, one person leaving doesn't cause as big of a change in income
-More clients=Greater word of mouth
-Sessions go by much quicker
-Less downtime in between sessions when someone is sick, out of town, etc
-Clients are much less likely to be late if they know they only have 30 minutes and someone is in the slot after them

If you are offering full hours, I highly recommend making the switch. It might hurt your income levels in the short term, but long term you will definitly reap the benefits.

[SFT]

Raised my rates and started to push half hour sessions instead of full hours.

-Can fit more clients in, one person leaving doesn't cause as big of a change in income
-More clients=Greater word of mouth
-Sessions go by much quicker
-Less downtime in between sessions when someone is sick, out of town, etc
-Clients are much less likely to be late if they know they only have 30 minutes and someone is in the slot after them

If you are offering full hours, I highly recommend making the switch. It might hurt your income levels in the short term, but long term you will definitly reap the benefits.

I've thought about doing this, but 30-45 minute sessions. I would basically have clients warm-up and/or cooldown on their own. Another viable option is semi-private training. I do believe that hour long sessions do seem very long and have some serious downsides.

[BodyQuest1]

Hmm...Interesting. I offer both 30min & 1 hr sessions...I find that my 1 hr session clients are the most committed/dedicated and the long-term ones though :O

[MaxFuark]

I've always had 30 minute sessions but I recently gave them a gimmicky name and started pushing them and advertising for people who are too busy and have no time. No bites yet but I'm thinking after New Years it will be popular.

[regl8r]

I agree, but what I'm saying is I make the people who want hours do 30 minutes instead. Pretty much say come 5-10 min early do warm up on your own, do more difficult exercises with me and finish with isolations and stretch on your own.

Can't stand watching someone do curls, leg extensions, etc

Hmm...Interesting. I offer both 30min & 1 hr sessions...I find that my 1 hr session clients are the most committed/dedicated and the long-term ones though :O

[arian11]

I agree, but what I'm saying is I make the people who want hours do 30 minutes instead. Pretty much say come 5-10 min early do warm up on your own, do more difficult exercises with me and finish with isolations and stretch on your own.

Can't stand watching someone do curls, leg extensions, etc

Except you will get people who are too lazy or too busy to come in early and warm up. So then you come in and get them to do the difficult exercises without any warm up.

[regl8r]

No that means we will spend the first 5 minutes warming up. Warmup for my clients is simple mobility stuff. They still warm up by ramping up weights, there is no way for them to get started without me because they don't know what were doing.

Except you will get people who are too lazy or too busy to come in early and warm up. So then you come in and get them to do the difficult exercises without any warm up.

[KyleAaron]

Just be aware it's more work for the same money.

5 clients at 2x1hr sessions a week each = 10hr PT
10 clients at 2x0.5hr sessions a week each = 10hr PT

10 clients are more work than 5. There are twice as many injury and health condition issues to deal with, twice as many personality differences to adjust to, twice as many clients taking holidays or being off sick, etc. But the same money. More work, same money. This is less than ideal.

Don't get me wrong, I do mostly half-hours myself. That's simply because when we tell them the prices, most people say, "I guess I could do an hour a week..." and I reply, "if you're going to pay for an hour, do two half-hour sessions, you'll get better results." Which is true, and if they get results, they'lls stay longer as clients; so even though 2x30' is harder to do than 1x60', I'll go for it, the greater retention and results make up for the extra work. I may be ripping myself off though, they may be willing to do two full hours...

[WoofieNugget]

I knew a trainer at my old gym who did this, and he basically just did the same circuit with every client all day long. It would be really hard to make anything individual when you're dealing with people so quickly all day and you have no time to adjust for anything. Or if you want them to lift you get about 10-12 sets of whatever you are doing in (with rest periods)? Not for me, but I can understand the appeal.

[Footballa_19]

I do believe that one hour sessions are optimal, but I have had a lot of success with 30 min sessions too. The intensity seems to be a little easier to sustain throughout the whole session as well. It really depends on if the client seems reliable enough to be accountable to warmups and cool downs like you guys said earlier. I also have a problem with hour prices sometimes. A person might want 2 hr sessions a week but can't afford it. Instead of taking a price hit for 1 hr a week at say 60$, I will recommend 2 half hour sessions at 35$ and a lot of people have gone with it (75 is better than 120 a week) but I am actually making better half hour wages than the 30 i originally offered. It works out for both client and trainer. 2 Half hour sessions aren't that much work to write as 1 hour session for me anyways.

[KyleAaron]

I agree, but what I'm saying is I make the people who want hours do 30 minutes instead. Pretty much say come 5-10 min early do warm up on your own, do more difficult exercises with me and finish with isolations and stretch on your own.

Can't stand watching someone do curls, leg extensions, etc

Except obviously for steady-state cardio, if it's not worth your supervising, it's not worth their doing. With 30' sessions, you really have to cut out the fluff. The warmup is the workout. If I know they're going to squat 60kg today, I don't have them jump on a bike for 10' and then squat 60kg, I have them squat 20, 40 and then 50kg, this gives us a chance to tune up form issues before rather than during work sets.

Some French writer said, a thing is perfect not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. Take your planned workout and throw out half the exercises, make each exercise argue with you for its inclusion.

I knew a trainer at my old gym who did this, and he basically just did the same circuit with every client all day long. It would be really hard to make anything individual when you're dealing with people so quickly all day and you have no time to adjust for anything. Or if you want them to lift you get about 10-12 sets of whatever you are doing in (with rest periods)? Not for me, but I can understand the appeal.

It's hard personally, adjusting from one person to another, bang-bang-bang like that. This is why in the 3-4 hour slot nobody does 6-8 clients straight, you need a break. It's usually not an issue, many times I've had 6 people booked in a row, only once or twice have all 6 shown up, someone usually cancels, postpones or fails to show.

The workouts you have to plan ahead of the session, write them out. There are limits to this of course, since at certain times you can't be sure certain equipment will be available. Of 3-6 planned exercises, I'll often have to change one of them, but that's okay, that's part of the skill of a PT.

I get around 20 total sets in the 30', which is plenty. Most are novices, who need less rest between sets since the intensity is low, or else females, who need less rest whatever their level. When things get heavy then the total sets drop to 15 or so, and the routine gets split a bit.

Ideally we'd all have 4-6hr a day per client, and we could turn them into Ryan Whatsit or Jessica Biel in Blade Trinity in three months. But we make best use of the time they've got. Obviously this does eventually limit their results, you're not going to get a 180kg squat or be able to run a marathon on 2 half-hour sessions a week. But they can still get results far in excess of what most people in the gym ever manage, and by the time they stall 6-12 months after starting they're either ready to do things on their own and just maintain, or else they sign up for longer or more frequent PT sessions.

[FueledByYelyah]

I agree...

[NorwichGrad]

Good for you, OP!

In half hour lots of great things can be accomplished. I take it your programs are more or less metcon type of training where the goal is to get your client's heart rate up and then get em out of the gym?

[spiny]

Interesting concept

[Angela_rack]

nearly all my session are 45 mins.