Personal training gives you control over your hours, work with an obvious point to it, and income that rises with your reputation. It also puts responsibility for a client's safety, and for filling your own diary, squarely on you.
Josh Thursby
Founder & CCO · 10 January 2023 · 5 min read
Reviewed by
Adam Rhodes
Owned a gym for eight years before founding Create
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Personal training gives you control over your hours, work with an obvious point to it, and income that rises with your reputation. It also puts responsibility for a client’s safety, and for filling your own diary, squarely on you.
Below are five pros and five cons, written plainly, so you can judge whether that trade is one you want to make. If you have already decided, read how to become a personal trainer in seven steps.
Personal training rarely runs to a nine to five. Clients want early mornings, evenings and weekends, which means you build the rest of the week around them. For people with children, studies or another job, that flexibility is often the reason they move into the industry at all.
Watching a client do something in month six they could not do in week one is the part of the job coaches talk about most. You are in a position of trust, and the progress is visible in a way it is not in most work. That matters on the days the admin piles up.
The industry keeps moving, and the qualifications stack. Once you hold a Level 3, you can specialise in nutrition, strength and conditioning, pre and post natal work, or exercise referral, and each specialism opens a different type of client. Gyms also promote from the floor into senior trainer and management roles.
Most personal trainers are self employed. You set your rates, choose who you take on, decide how you coach and keep what the business earns after costs. That comes with the paperwork and the risk of running a business, but the control is real.
Income depends on where you work, how many hours you coach, what you charge and how full your diary is. Experienced trainers with a strong reputation charge considerably more than new ones. Rather than quote an average, use our income calculator to model your own rate against realistic client numbers.
You are responsible for keeping clients safe, for spotting when something is not right, and for working inside the limits of your qualification. That means insurance, records, screening and knowing when to refer someone on. It is manageable, but it is not something you can be casual about.
Long days on your feet, demonstrating movements, setting up equipment and coaching through your own training. Trainers who last look after their own recovery and build recovery into the week, rather than treating themselves as the one client who does not need a programme.
Self employed income moves. January is busy, August is quiet, clients go on holiday and some leave without notice. It is workable with a cash buffer and a mix of income, for example one to one sessions plus classes or online clients. If stability matters more to you than upside, a salaried role at a gym is a legitimate route in.
Clients do not appear because you are qualified. You have to be visible, on the gym floor and usually online, and be able to explain what you do without cringing. Some coaches enjoy it. Plenty do not, and they have to do it anyway.
There are a lot of personal trainers, and in a busy gym several of you are selling to the same members. Standing out usually comes from being specific: a population you understand, a method you are genuinely good at, or results you can point to. For a wider look at demand, earnings and job security, read whether personal training is a viable career.
Last reviewed August 2026. Refreshed with a clearer pros and cons summary, a suitability checklist, new FAQs and current course links.
Josh Thursby
Founder & CCO
Josh qualified as a personal trainer in 2008 and spent twelve and a half years training clients face to face, delivering 45 to 55 sessions a week at his peak. He co-founded Create and writes about the commercial side of the job.
Reviewed by Adam Rhodes, Owned a gym for eight years before founding Create.
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