Personal training vs fitness apps vs doing it yourself
A fitness app is cheap and does not know your knee. A free program done alone costs nothing and dies in week five for most people. Personal training costs $149 once or $199 a month with me, and what you are paying for is a plan written from your intake and a person reading your numbers. Which one fits depends on whether the missing piece is information or follow-through.
Part of personal training with Sam, online from $149 and in person in Morton Grove from $68. Prices and how to start, or call or text (847) 387-0244.
Where does an app do well?
Structure and logging. A good app gives you a sensible split, tracks your sets and reminds you on Tuesday. If your problem is that you do not know what to do, an app solves most of it for the price of a coffee. I am not against them. Half my clients arrive with one on their phone.
Where does an app fail?
It cannot see your squat. It does not know the knee is sore, or that the week was a wreck, or that the program should bend instead of you skipping it. It applies the same rule to everyone, and it never asks why you missed three sessions. Follow-through is the problem apps do not solve, and follow-through is the problem most people have.
The other gap is judgement. An app adds weight because the formula says so. A coach looks at the video, sees the hip shift on the last rep, and holds the weight for a week. Those are different products, and the second one is the one you are paying for.
Neither is wrong. They answer different questions.
Is a free program done alone enough?
The free program on the coaching page is a real eight-week plan and plenty of people finish it. The ones who do usually have a training history, a fixed slot and nobody at home telling them to skip it. If that is you, do it. If you have started and stopped more than twice, the plan was never the missing piece.
What does personal training add?
A program built from your intake: your goals, your injuries, your equipment, your food. A person who reads your numbers every week and changes one thing at a time. Form feedback on your videos, or a coach at the rack in person. And a plan that works around an injury instead of pretending it is not there. That is what $149 once or $199 a month buys, and $68 a session in Morton Grove for the in-person version. The numbers are in how much personal training costs.
So which should you pick?
If you need information, start with the app or the free program. If you need follow-through, or you are learning the barbell, or there is an injury in the picture, that is coaching. How to choose a personal trainer is the checklist, and the personal training page has the three ways in. The application is ten minutes, and if the honest answer is the free program, I will say so.
Common questions
Can I use an app and a coach at the same time?
Yes. Log in whatever you like and send me the numbers. The app tracks; the coach decides what changes.
Is online coaching just an app with a person attached?
It is a person with an intake, a program and a weekly look at your numbers. The app is the notebook. The coaching is the judgement.
What if I only need a plan, not a coach?
Then the Custom Plan at $149 is the buy: a full intake and an eight-week program, yours to keep, with one revision call. No subscription.