STRENGTH
IN NUMBERS
By Chief Brabon
ESTABLISHING A
SUCCESSFUL LARGE
GROUP PT PROGRAM
A
s always, many
clubs, studios
and trainers are
looking to establish new
profit centres. Some look to
expand their current 1-on-1
training offering.
Others go the way of small-group PT,
while another increasingly popular
option is larger group “Team
Training”.nother option that can
prove to be extremely profitable, but
is often overlooked, and even more
often misrepresented, is Larger-
Group Personal Training (LGPT).
The first thing you need to
understand about LGPT is how it
differs from both group fitness and/
or team training.
Most fitness professionals understand
it, “Personal Training” is when a
program has been designed to
achieve a client’s specific goals
while taking into account not only
their current fitness/ability, but also
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programmer/ trainer with enough
information that they can address
any physical or mental restrictions,
while ensuring that they are being
challenged enough to achieve
physiological adaption.
their mental, physical and often
emotional limitations. The program
is then presented in a way that
ensures continued improvement by
adapting to client feedback.
So it stands to reason that there
are key elements that need to be
implemented in order to offer a
personal training experience to your
clients:
•
Understand their goals and
motivation: If you don’t know
what your clients hope to achieve,
how can you be sure you are
pushing them in the right direction.
Have your clients complete a
pre-training questionnaire. The first
thing you must do is decide which
program offering best suits their
goals.
•
Pre-training assessment: If
you don’t know where your
clients are starting, how can you
plot a course (or write a program)
that will lead to their goals. The
assessment should be designed
in a way that it provides the
•
Grouping or grading
program members: One of
the most efficient ways for a trainer
to ensure that individuals are being
trained at an appropriate intensity
is to use the pre-training assessment
to grade the group from most
conditioned to least conditioned,
and to them group them together
into smaller, more manageable
units.
•
Establishing a consistent
training schedule: One of the
biggest differences between Team
Training (TT) and LGPT is the that with
most TT programs participants have
a range of classes they can pick and
choose from. Many of the programs
offer “unlimited” sessions per week.
The problem with this is that you
can’t offer any kind of periodisation
if you don’t know when or where a
WHAT’S NEW IN FITNESS - AUTUMN 2019
client is training next.
•
Periodisation: One of the
absolute core attributes of any
successful personal training program
is periodisation. A program needs
to take into account work and rest
ratios plus, skill acquisition, and
progressive overload.
•
Exercise correction & skill
acquisition: One of the most
common reasons people sign up
for personal training of any kind is
to learn how to perform exercises
correctly. They want to know they
are doing exercises safely, and with
the best form to achieve their goals.
•
Regular Re-assessment and
Adjustment : Everybody reacts
differently to training. It is important
to re-asses clients regularly in order
to adjust the program, grading and
grouping to ensure continue to
improve.
For more than 25yrs, my wife and
business partner Emilie and I have
offered Large Group PT through our
company ORIGINAL BOOTCAMP.
Despite conducting sessions with
between 50 and 65 clients (or
Recruits) on each course we have
managed to achieve results for our
clients as good, if not better than
those achieved through 1-on-1
training. These results have been
so dramatic that they have been
featured on the covers of Men’s
Fitness (6 times), GQ Champion (6
times), as well as on the covers of
Shape and UltraFIT Magazines.
Here’s how we did it based on the
same key elements listed above:
1. Emilie speaks to every new
Recruit personally, to understand just
what they want to achieve and why.
2. We only allow new participants
to start on Day One of each 4 week
cycle.
3. Participants are locked into a
specific timeslots, on specific days,
known as Platoons. This way they
always train alongside the same
individuals, and are coached by the
same Instructors.
WHAT’S NEW IN FITNESS - AUTUMN 2019
4. On Day One all new & current
Recruits undergo our specially
designed Benchmark Workout. Not
only do the Instructors take note of
individual scores, we also take notes
on form, focus and motivation.
5. Based on their results, and
additional input from the Instructors
Emilie creates a “Roll Call” that
grades participants in order of
ability. She then groups individuals
of a similar fitness level together into
smaller groups, or Sections
5. Each Platoon is coached by a
team of Instructors, ensuring that we
maintain a maximum participant to
instructor ratio of 16:1.
By offering all the benefits of
personal training within a team
training environment, you can
create a stand alone profit centre
that is not only highly profitable,
but is self-promoting, based on the
amazing results your clients are
achieving.
Find out more on Chief at
www.thetransformationcoach.com
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