The personal training industry has spent the last five years selling online coaching as roughly equivalent to in-person coaching at a fraction of the price. It's not equivalent. They are two genuinely different products that solve different problems, and the marketing tends to obscure that.
Here's how I'd actually think about it if I were shopping coaches today.
What in-person coaching is actually selling
The thing you're paying for with in-person coaching is real-time observation. A coach who can see your knee cave in on rep three of your squat. A coach who can change the load on the fly when your hinge breaks down. A coach who can spot the small failure patterns that show up over hundreds of reps and reroute you before they become injuries.
That observation, multiplied across years, is what turns coaching into compounding value. By year three, your coach knows your body the way your dentist knows your mouth. They can predict what's going to go wrong before you can.
This is hard to replicate remotely, regardless of how many video check-ins you do.
What online coaching is actually selling
Online coaching at its best is programming + accountability + asynchronous form review. You pay $200-400/month, get a personalized program written by someone qualified, send in videos of your lifts, get notes back. The good versions of this can be excellent for adults who already train well, know how to coach themselves through a session, and just need someone smart writing the program and watching the video.
The bad versions are AI-generated templates with a check-in once a month. Lots of those exist. They're hard to distinguish from the good ones without trying them.
When online is actually the right call
- You travel constantly and can't commit to a regular in-person window
- You live somewhere with no good local coaches
- You're a well-trained adult who's mostly looking for thoughtful programming and a second pair of eyes on a few key lifts
- You've worked with this coach in person before and the remote relationship is a continuation
When in-person is actually the right call
- You're past three years of consistent training and have stopped progressing
- You have a chronic pain pattern or injury history that needs eyes on it
- You're a beginner trying to learn the lifts well from the start
- You know yourself well enough to know that you don't push yourself hard enough alone
The hybrid version
Some coaches offer hybrid arrangements — one in-person session a week, programming for the second session done remotely. This can be the best of both worlds for the right client. It's not what I personally run, but it works for some practices.
How I structure my own practice
In-person, in Palo Alto. I don't take new clients remote-only because the first three months really need eyes on the body. I do remote programming for past clients who've moved out of the area.
FAQ
Is online coaching worth it if I can't afford in-person? For most people, yes — a good online coach is better than no coach. Just be honest with yourself about whether you'll actually do the program on your own.
How much should online coaching cost? Good online coaching from someone qualified is usually $200-450/month. Below that, it's usually a template product.
Can I switch from online to in-person? Yes. If you've been doing online with a coach you like and you can get in-person time with them, take it.
If you're shopping in-person coaches on the Peninsula, the 12-week consult here is free and there's no sales pitch.