Everyone Wins with Small Group Personal Training
I’m the eldest daughter of two 64-year-old former (current?) hippies who are definitely not your typical gym goers. My parents have always been active - hiking, biking, yoga, yard work, you name it and had healthy diets but never had a regular strength training routine. Every time they come to visit me in Seattle, they visit Seattle Strength and Performance (SSP - the gym I work for) and express how much they wish there was an SSP in their neighborhood. This past weekend I found a gym in their neighborhood that is very similar to what we do at SSP and spent a lot of time convincing them to join. I even went as far as to make them an intake appointment myself and drive them to the appointment. In giving them my sales pitch for this style of gym I realized that I strongly believe in the small group personal training (SGPT) model not only for businesses but for clients as well. I hope at the end of this article, you’re convinced too.
SSP uses an SGPT model where each client has their custom program, but they train in groups of 4-6 with one coach delivering the programming to each client. If you’re used to the old-school 1:1 model, you may think this is crazy, but it works. It’s better for the business because we’re able to see 4x as many clients in a day than we would in a 1:1 environment, making the business more sustainable. But what I’m here to argue is that it is a better experience for you, the client than 1:1 personal training and will yield better fitness results and overall more enjoyment. I have 3 reasons that I believe SGPT is the way to go if you’re looking for guidance in your strength training journey.
#1 Your programming will be better
I hate to say it, but most 1:1 trainers are not programming your workouts in a periodized manner. I was one of those trainers when I first started. They are likely coming up with your workout for a given day in a somewhat random manner, picking things that feel hard on a given day. I want to acknowledge that movement for the sake of movement HAS VALUE, full stop. Aaaaand the Masters of Physiology in me knows that there are better and worse ways to train if your goal is to gain strength. In an SGPT model, your programming is done by a centralized team or person in that gym and in a periodized way. Periodized means that your programming is done by making a plan not just for a particular day, but for a whole month (or whatever period your coaches choose) in a way that uses progressive overload. Progressive overload is how we drive strength gains in a program over time. Adding reps, sets, weight, tempo, etc. to make exercises more difficult and drive adaptation in the body. Instead of doing random one-off workouts that aren’t strung together in any way that makes sense, you train the same movement patterns and improve on those over a pre-planned period. This will get you results more quickly, safely, and consistently than random workouts with a 1:1 personal trainer.
#2 You will learn more about strength training & walk away with better knowledge of how to do it on your own.
Every new coach that comes into our gym is blown away by the autonomy our members have. When you have 4-6 people in the gym at any given time, as a coach you don’t have time to set up and clean up after them (which is a huge part of 1:1 personal training), which in turn leads to gym members who know their way around the gym! After a couple of weeks of repeating the same movements, I can tell any of our members “Let’s set up a barbell hip thrust, and warm up to a 3x6 at 225” and they know exactly what equipment to grab, plates to add, warm-up sets to do, etc. This allows me as the coach to put all my focus and energy into actually coaching movement.
We love our members, and obviously, we hope that they never leave us, but sometimes life happens and folks have to leave SSP. I know that our members leave us more confident in the weight room, with more knowledge of strength training, how to build workouts, and how to properly execute movements and pick weights. Training at SSP and in the SGPT style impacts our clients’ whole lifelong experience with strength training, even when they have to leave us.
#3 Community keeps you accountable to your goals.
There is absolutely nothing as powerful of an accountability tool as surrounding yourself with people who are already doing (or trying to do) the habits or lifestyle you are trying to adopt - and I will die on this hill. Finding community in fitness increases enjoyment, adherence, and overall results. Even though our clients are all doing their individual workouts, they often have to share equipment, they share space, they share stories, and new connections are made every day. We’ve had clients who meet at the gym and find out their kids go to the same school, or they work in the same field or maybe went to the same college, and some beautiful friendships have bloomed from there. Especially since 2020, people need more places - places of gathering, of sharing, of community, places where they can come as they are and be welcome and accepted. Small group personal training creates these kinds of spaces for people - who already have something in common, a desire to work on their health.
I hope by now I’ve convinced you that SGPT is the way to go for your fitness goals. If you’re reading this and you’re thinking “But Natalie, how do I find one of these amazing SGPT gyms that you speak of?!” send me an email on my contact page with where you live, and I will personally do my best to help you find a gym in your area!
