The Biggest Personal Trainer Trends to Try in 2023

As a personal trainer, keeping your fitness business growing means staying on top of personal trainer trends and finding new ways to offer what no one else has — no easy task.

While it’s always better to limit the number of services you offer  — for indecisive clients, for your bottom line, and for your sanity —  it’s still never a bad thing to ask yourself whether there’s anything missing.

You are, after all, a self-improvement expert.  

With that in mind, now’s the perfect time to ask yourself:

• What personal trainer trends do you find yourself getting more and more curious about?
• What areas of your business would you like to expand this year?

Then, as you revisit your service, class, or workshop offerings, take the time to explore a few creative options that might be worth adding to your roster or Schedulicity booking page. 

9 Personal Trainer Trends for 2023

1. Complimentary Consultations for New Clients

We don’t typically recommend that personal trainers give away their expertise for free… but there’s an exception to every rule.

Cue new client consultations. 

Offering a free meet-and-greet session is a great way to talk to potential new clients about their goals, make them feel heard, and confirm that working with you is the right fit.

It’s also a great way to draw in more clients who might otherwise put off signing up for your services out of uncertainty. 

To be clear, you can make these consultations short and sweet (15 – 30 minutes max) and conduct them over Zoom between regular sessions or at the end of your day.

But, if one of your goals is to, say, get 25 new clients next year, consultation services will help a lot. 

2. Online Nutritional or Wellness Training

More and more, fitness trends are focusing on the body/mind connection — and more and more trainers are taking a holistic approach to the programs they offer.

Since “wellness”  is a full spectrum — anything from intuitive eating to injury rehabilitation to sound healing or meditation — there’s a trove of services out there that might be worth adding to your roster.

Of course, each of these areas requires expertise, which you may not always have.

That’s where collaborative services come in…

3. Collaborative/Partnership Services

Partnering with another fitness or wellness professional comes with so many perks.

You’ll drive more business to each other, cut down on the amount of time you’re actively training clients, and more. 

It can be as simple as partnering with a yoga instructor to offer a “Personal Training x Restorative Yoga” package or as complex as putting on themed weekend workshops or summits a few times a year with other professionals.

Regardless, guaranteed you’ll shake things up.  

Plus, think of all the fun fitness class names! Or witty yoga class titles!

4. Outdoor Classes  

Many personal trainers began working with clients in parks or other outdoor spaces at the start of the pandemic.

And many, if not most, of them have since shifted back to indoor gyms or at-home training sessions.

(A huge thanks to these kick-ass YouTubers for the workout inspiration.)

But one thing we keep hearing from clients is: The pandemic made them realize that they love exercising outside.

If you’re not already meeting with clients outdoors, offering “outdoor training” as a service option is a great way to capitalize on that newfound interest — and to appeal to people who might still be wary of spending time in indoor spaces.

5. Sliding Scale Services 

Not everyone can afford your services. Offering discounted community sessions makes personal training more accessible to everyone. It’s also a client retention technique. 

Take on new clients, like recent grads, who don’t have the budget for full-priced offerings right now and, in all likelihood, they’ll become full-price clients in a few years.

This is definitely a “choose your own adventure” situation, but some examples include:

• Community “small group” consultations or 
• Sliding scale pricing for all, or some, of your current services
• Offering special discounts on services for people earning under $X per year 
• Discounted services for healthcare workers
• Student packages

The choice is yours! 

6. Ask Me Anything About _____

Think of this service almost as a teacher’s office hours, but the teacher is you.

In this scenario, you offer a regular (but limited size) group class, in which you can answer attendees burning questions one by one. 

This is also a great service to conduct online.

Even if you don’t feel like this would work as a service for your particular business, it’s worth considering using this format for an Instagram Live or other social media campaign — not a bad way to build up your following. 

7. Remote Personal Training

There are a ton of people out there who don’t have access to personal training in their areas.

With the rise of Zoom, is there a way you could offer training to people outside of your immediate area?

Maybe it’s as simple as emailing your current clients and encouraging them to tell their out-of-state friends and relatives that you offer online training packages — not a bad holiday gift for the hard to please in-laws, right?

8. Inclusive Services (e.g. All Gender, All Size, etc.) 

Fitness should be accessible to everyone regardless of gender, size, ability, or ethnicity.

Still, the personal training industry feels exclusionary to many folks — because much of it is.

A recent flux of inclusive gyms, such as Everybody Los Angeles, proves the need for welcoming spaces that celebrate the goal of fitness for everyone. 

Look closely at your business model.

Are you unintentionally excluding certain people from your offerings?

What are some services you could offer that would encourage more people to explore hiring a personal trainer for the first time?

 Maybe it’s adding a “health at every size” program or a personal training program specifically for seniors. Or it could be as simple, albeit radical, as explicitly committing to personal training for all bodies and all genders in the language on your website.  

Check out some of Everybody’s workshops if you’re curious about how to build more inclusivity into your business model. 

9. Workshops

We love classes and workshops!

It’s a brilliant way to create a personal training series, which allows you to charge more for bigger ticket items — and to host more than one or two clients at a time.

The topic is your call — anything from a New Year Rest to a 30-Day Core Strength workshop will do  — but make it something that you find absolutely fascinating.

(And don’t forget a clear fitness description!)

If you’re going to spend that much time teaching it, you should learn something, too.