Ep. 275 How to Double Your Personal Training Rates 2025/26

Charging more isn’t about louder marketing; it’s about undeniable value. We break down the three pillars that move trainers from average rates to premium pricing: advanced anatomy mastery, a real referral network with physical therapists and dietitians, and the discipline to look the part without slipping into influencer theatrics. You’ll hear why precise knowledge of shoulder and hip mechanics changes client outcomes, how to screen pain within scope and reduce discomfort so training never stalls, and the simple phrase that protects your reputation: when in doubt, refer out.

We get real about the market too. In major cities—especially near Equinox or Lifetime—$150 to $300 per hour is achievable when your offer includes structured assessments, coordinated care, and proof of results. We talk through transforming your own habits into an authentic calling card, using clear metrics and steady progress rather than filters and hype. Clients buy competence and congruence: a coach who explains the why, programs the how, and lives the habits they teach. Rate objections fade when trust is this tangible.

To make it repeatable, we map the systems that keep your business smooth: a clean intake process, movement screens, flare-up protocols, PT handoffs, and ongoing re-assessments. We also show how to add thoughtful revenue streams—like a $100 per month online program—without burning out or eroding your premium offer. The aim isn’t hustle for hustle’s sake; it’s sustainable professionalism. If you’re ready to master the science, respect the discipline, and build a team that supports client results, hit play and take notes. Subscribe, share with a coach who needs the push, and leave a review to help more trainers level up.

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Website: https://www.showupfitness.com/
Become a Successful Personal Trainer Book Vol. 2 (Amazon): https://a.co/d/1aoRnqA
NASM / ACE / ISSA study guide: https://www.showupfitness.com

Chapters

• 0:00 Opening And Mission
• 0:30 The Goal: Double Your Rates
• 1:01 The Field Metaphor: PT Vs Influencer
• 1:34 Skill One: Advanced Anatomy Mastery
• 2:21 Build A Professional Referral Team
• 4:36 Assess, Screen, And Reduce Discomfort
• 4:59 Skill Three: Look The Part With Integrity
• 8:18 Transformation Stories And Client Psychology
• 10:31 Pricing Reality In Major Markets
• 12:05 Systems, Mentorship, And New Revenue

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome to the Show Up Fitness Podcast, where great personal trainers are made. We are changing the fitness industry one qualified trainer at a time with our in-person and online personal training certification. If you want to become an elite personal trainer, head on over to showufffitness.com. Also make sure to check out my book, How to Become a Successful Personal Trainer. Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review. Have a great day and keep showing up. How do y'all? Welcome back to the Show Up Fitness podcast. Today I'm going to help you double your rates as a personal trainer. I'm not talking about the average personal training rates, which are between like 19 to 25 bucks per hour. That's what happens when you get those C level tier certifications. I'm talking to trainers who have leveled up. They've shadowed the best trainers. They're investing in their career. They're going to weekend seminars at 21st in Dallas. And then the OC, December 5th and 6th, learning from the best to become the best. So what I want you to do right here is I want to go through this little thought experiment. We're on the 50-yard line. We're talking football. On one side of the end zone, you have an influencer. On the other side, you have a physical therapist, and you're in the middle. So the first thing that you can do to really level up your career is to be more like that therapist and within reason, less like the influencer. Like the price is right back in the day. There's that game where when you guessed the right amount for a product within like a buck, you moved up. So I want you to think of it as are you more like a therapist or are you more like an influencer? So the first thing that's going to really help you level up your career, advanced anatomy. I'm not talking about simple anatomy. That's what you've done when you get your SUF CPT. You know the 17 muscles around the shoulder, 20 of the lower body. You can tell me 14 around the knee. That's easy. I'm talking about advanced anatomy. Can you tell me what the rotator cuff muscles do? Not just stabilize the glenohumeral joint. I'm talking about what does the supraspinatus do? It abducts the first 10 to 15 degrees. The subscapularis is an internal rotator, also adducts the humerus. Is your anatomy more like a therapist or is it more like an influencer? So, number one, hands down, is focusing on leveling up your anatomy to being more like a therapist, which brings me into number two. We had a live call in the last couple of weeks, and there were trainers from Lifetime and Equinox, which are hands down the best gyms in the world. And I surveyed them. How many people on your team had a physical therapist, had an RD? Out of a hundred trainers, zero. The SUF CPTs were the only ones. We're looking at three out of a hundred plus, less than five percent, I would say closer to one percent of trainers have a physical therapist on your team. So if you want to be charging 100 to 200, you have to do things differently. Don't be like the influencer who's just posting TNA photos or their abs and they're vacuous. They're not able to network. How much money do they make? I have no freaking clue. But whatever you think it is, I guarantee you it's not. I have personally never met an online trainer who's quote unquote crushing it today, making$500,000 a year online. Never met one. Been in the industry for 20 years. Maybe I'm hanging around professionals, that's why, and not influencers. I don't know, but that's really peculiar to me because I've never met an online coach who's quote unquote crushing it, like all the ads say. If you want to be a respected professional, you need to have them on your team. So when that client comes in and you say, you know what, you have A, B, C, and D, I can definitely help you. I guarantee you I can get you out of pain because worst case scenario, I have PTs who I can refer you to. When in doubt, refer out. Trainers don't have that. So when a client comes in and they're experiencing shoulder or knee or ankle pain, they just focus on the opposite. Client has knee issues. Okay, we're gonna do an upper body workout. Client has shoulder issues, okay. We'll just do lower body. You should be able to assess within your scope and help them get out of that discomfort by implementing soft tissues, certain mobility and stability drills, and they should lower that discomfort so they can train that area. You know the right screens because that's what we teach you at the weekend seminars. You will build your tool chest so that you can level up your career in charge twice as much. And the third thing that you need to do if you want to double your hourly rate, and this one's kind of interesting because you need to look like the influencer, but you need to talk and have the credentials as the physical therapist. Not to knock therapists, but I've interviewed lots of them on the podcast in person. And a common denominator that I hear is a lot of therapists don't practice what they preach. They're just doing band clams and YTAs or not even lifting. They don't even know how to coach a squat or a hinge or a bench press. So they don't even look like a professional. Yet they are the professional because of their schooling. But on the other side of the field, you have an influencer who looks amazing, five, eight, 10% body fat, but they can't actually help people get to what they look like because they only understand their body. Great trainers understand the human body, but respect the discipline of the influencer. And instead of getting mad at the social media echo chamber that's out there right now, you look at that and go, wow, he's in amazing shape. She's in amazing shape. How can I level myself up so I really look the part? Over 10 years of having a gym, I've had thousands of applicants, not necessarily applicants, they're inquiries to get trained. One of the most common responses I get from clients who are looking for a trainer is they want someone who looks the part. It doesn't mean you need to be like that influencer, but your clients, interestingly enough, they follow them because they respect their discipline. They look at them and say, Oh my God, Chelsea's in an amazing shape. I want to look like her as they're eating a bag of Oreos. They don't have the discipline to do what she's doing, but they want to look like her. So when it comes to hiring a professional, they want someone who knows the human body, but also practices what they preach. There's nothing that's a bigger confidence booster when someone says, Wow, you're in great shape. Are you a trainer? You have huge arms, you got great glutes. I don't say that, but girls will say it to other girls. Girls are always funny that way. They'll go up to another girl, be like, oh my God, you got great, you got a great ass. I'm not doing that. Guys, you shouldn't do that to girls, but girls will do it to girls. And so if you want to be that professional, I challenge you to look in the mirror and ask yourself, are you in the best shape of your life? That's it. And if you're not, get to the drawing board and come up with a plan to get there. And just like our clients, like the pot call and the kettle black, hire a coach. Who is currently helping you with your programming? Have you met with an RD to review what you're consuming and where you can clean it up? If they can help you get there faster, you're going to transform. And that's really what the third one is. Have you been through some type of transformation? Why do you think influencers get a ton of followers? Because they were once not practicing what they preach. They lose 50 pounds and they post about their progress and their transformation. And then people are attracted to it because they were once in that spot and they're currently there. They want to be at the finish line, but they don't have the discipline and they don't have the right coach to guide them. Remember, we're Sherpas. We can get you to the top of the mountain. I'm not going to do the work for you. And that's part of the fun of coaching the psychology because it's not just do 10 reps and that's it. Eat the tilapi on rice, that's it. There's a lot more that goes into it. But as a qualified coach who's competent in movement and programming and a master in anatomy, and you have the team in the scenario that I said earlier, you're closer to the therapist as a professional, but you respect the other side of the end zone and you look at the influence and go, wow, you know, you're in great shape. I applaud that. How can I implement that myself? So I go through a transformation, lose 20 pounds, put some size in your arms or your chest, go through a transformation, dad bod transformation, whatever it is. Your clients see that, your book of business is going to grow. That's what's so attractive about that MPC bikini physique world, is because these are the elite, the 1% physiques. They're very diligent with what they consume. They may be taking some exogenous testosterone or other stuff, Annavar, even though their bio says natural, all natty. Yeah, horseshit. But outside of what they're doing is they look the part. And people fantasize about wanting to get there. So if you practice what you preach and you look the part, you're going to get people in there, but you have to have those people skills. Be able to communicate, be empathetic. But you have the professional side, the technical side, like a therapist. And that's how you create the ultimate personal trainer. And that's exactly how you can double your rates. When you can go from 100 to 200, 150 to 300, those are rates that you can charge in big markets. If you type in the top 20 biggest markets in the United States, all of those markets you can charge 150 to 300 plus. If there's an Equinox or Lifetime around you within three to five miles, you can charge 200 plus. And this isn't all about money, but people type in the Google machine how much the trainers make. And they see 19, 20, 25 NASA trainers for getting$61 per hour, which I'm like, okay, well, that's not that impressive because you should be charging$125 to$150 plus. And you can get those referrals from physical therapists. Start with your anatomy. That's going to level up your confidence and you're going to be more competent to have the conversations, to get a physical therapist and get numerous ones on your team. And then go through a program from a mentor, from someone who you admire, buy their program, invest in them so you can see what systems they have, and then you can take some of it and implement your own. And then you drive through streams of revenue. I want you to listen to this unsolicited video message I got from one of our trainers. Got his SUF CPT, been doing this for two years, networking, building his brand. The audio is not going to be amazing, but just listen to what he has to say.

SPEAKER_01: 10:33

I just want to say hats off to you and thank you because I just hit a milestone, not only in my life, but my business. Thanks all to show of fitness and everything that you do for people that want to become a successful personal trainer. I finally hit six figures in my business for the first time. And only year two of me starting this. I'm not even this was something that I didn't even think that would come this quickly. I knew it was possible, but I thought it was going to be way harder than it actually was. And having you as a mentor was literally a cheat code, my man. So thank you very much. I'm not even offering nutrition coaching yet.

SPEAKER_00: 11:08

Then he got into some of the things he's setting up for 2026, his B HAG, how he can clear seven figures. It is possible as a trainer. If you are more like that physical therapist, not bitter, but get better. Look at the influencer on the other side of the field and you go, you know what? I respect the hard work and discipline that you do. I'm going to transform my body. And if you get those three ducks in a line, your anatomy, physical therapy, and you go through a transformation, I guarantee you you can absolutely double your hourly rates, which is going to make your life that much easier. So then you can have fun exploring and optimizing those other streams of revenue, getting an RD on your team so you can start charging for nutrition coaching, have an online program. You're selling that for a hundred bucks a month. You have 15, 20 clients, an extra two grand. That's 25 extra grand per year. Who wouldn't like that? You do not have to burn the candle at both ends. You do, if you're that level C trainer, listen to that last podcast, textbook certification, because you're going to be charging 15 to 25 per hour. And it's not realistic to do that for the rest of your life. If you want to level yourself up, get into one of the seminars. Two days you will learn more than any textbook certification. Dallas, the 21st and 22nd. That's a really cool one because we got an email from Lifetime that head honchos. Holy crap, you've already booked out Dallas. So that location, Mansfield, no more lifetime trainers can go because there's already 40 people. We're going to try to get 10 to 15 show up. It's going to be one of our biggest ones. Really excited to implement the upper body soft tissue. And then seminar B, which will be lower body, which we'll do at the OC, December 5th and 6th at Lakeshore Irvine. Belt buckle trainers here to help you grow those biceps and keep on showing up.