21/03/2026
10 Reasons I Hate Being A Personal Trainer
1 - As well as a programme designer, nutritionist, behavioural coach, motivator and accountability partner, now I also have to be a cinematographer, video editor, copywriter & data analyst before the algorithm decides who sees my stuff!
That's like telling a gym floor PT that he can't talk to or be seen by 70% of the gyms
members
2 - The PT gym rent model is akin to a scam. Paying upwards of £1k a month in some places but still sharing all the kit with the public and not getting a thing back in terms of help.
3 - Working late usually means working LATE. I've had 8pm/9pm/ 10pm finishes before making my way home.
(How many of you say you work late 'cos you're on your phone at the dinner table, but you're not actually working are you?)
4- An early start doesn't guarantee the client shows up for a 6am session.
Thank god all the coffee chains open at that time now.
5 - The UK Government doesn't give a f*k about us. We learnt that during the lockdown as one of the last industries to open.
Crippling business rates are forcing gyms to close everywhere...
6 - The barrier to entry is lower than Katie Price's standards, Keir Starmer's loyalty and Prince Andrew's body temperature…
Other industries are protected. If I showed up on TikTok and started taking legal clients on, there'd be consequences.
Doesn't exist in this world.
7 - It's lonely doing it all by yourself. If you work in a great team you can bounce ideas off each other, cover clients and just have a laugh.
8 - Sometimes you're stuck sharing a gym with other PTs who can only talk about their macros and Hyrox time. I don’t have much in common with the rest of the industry.
9 - Your diary is built around other people.
Early starts, late finishes, quiet summers, dead winters, inconsistent lunchtimes.
You also learn to love eating cold food… and quick!
10 - You can end up caring about your clients progress more than they do. Weekends spent designing programs, checking food diaries, tweaking things around injuries or holidays..
If you give a s**t you go the extra mile. Funnily enough it's never crowded there.
But...
I wouldn't ever stop being one.
Because in an industry (and country of low standards, you deserve something better..
So I built something better.
Someone has to give a f**k…
And if the industry won’t raise the bar, I will.
PTs sit on a funny spectrum of walking encyclopaedias who prefer to show off their knowledge than apply it to real people…
…and those who can apply it to themselves only.
And there’s a giant % who wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for social media.
I like to think I sit on a different spectrum. Most of my clients came to me after what they were doing with someone else stopped working.
They were given a cookie cutter meal plan.
They were told they could still eat at Greggs.
They experienced a random workout every session based on what their trainer had seen on Instagram…
…or their PT was too pre-occupied spying on my life through the gyms CCTV instead of eliciting any meaningful change in their clients (or helping me get more people where I could help them!)
Why am I different? I’ll show you tomorrow with my next post… 10 reasons why I LOVE being a Personal Trainer.
90% of which will be said by other people about me 😉
