Personal Trainers Vs Online Coaches: What's The Difference?

What’s the difference between personal training and online coaching?

I’ve heard this question a few times now, and I think most people have a pretty good idea what personal trainers do, but actually not many people really understand what an online coach does, so I just wanted to give my thoughts on this.

So, a personal trainer is someone like me that you’d meet in-person at the gym. They’ll guide you through your workouts, correct your form and motivate you to push yourself during though the session. They’ll often provide structured training programs and nutrition advice, but their support is usually more focussed on what happens during your gym sessions. This can be a short-term or long-term arrangement, depending on what you want to get out of it, for example you might just want a one-off session to help give you a push or you might want to book a number of sessions over several months to help keep you accountable.

An online coach, on the other hand, would provide structured training and nutrition guidance remotely. So, instead of working with you in person, they’d create plans around your goals and check in with you regularly through messages, or video calls. This format of coaching is more suited to specific longer-term goals, of usually 3-6 months or longer and works well for people who either can’t meet face to face or aren’t interested in or don’t need in-person training.

So just to summarise, a personal trainer will:
✅ Correct your form
✅ Provide immediate feedback and motivation
✅ Give hands-on guidance with gym equipment and technique
✅ Provide structured training and nutrition guidance

But the focus is usually more around the in-session training rather than coaching overall lifestyle habits and is also limited to availability of the trainer.

Whereas an online coach will:
✅ Give personalised training and nutrition guidance that is specific to your goals
✅ Allow you to train anywhere, anytime
✅ Give regular check-ins for accountability and long-term progress
✅ Focus on building habits beyond just in the gym

So with this option, there’s no in-person guidance to help during your workouts, and you’d need to be more self-motivated to follow a plan.

Some people might start with personal training and then transition to online coaching once they’ve built the confidence, discipline and consistency to follow a plan independently. You can also do both! So, for my PT clients that have longer term goals, I do a hybrid approach which includes the benefits of online coaching in addition to your personal training sessions, so you get the best of both.

If you're interested in online coaching, or you're looking for expert guidance to help you stay on track and actually see results, I offer online coaching designed to help you hit your goals—no matter where you train.