Online personal trainer
The market runs from about $50 to about $300 a month, and the difference between the two ends isn't quality: it's whether someone is actually looking at your case. Below is what your money buys in each band, the five questions that separate a professional from a template, and where you can work from.
If what you want is to train to BECOME a personal trainer — a course, a certification or a job in the field — this page isn't for you and you won't find that here. This is for someone who wants to hire one. I say it up top because both searches are written the same way and one of them wastes its time.
And what they don't. The word covers three different products sold under the same name, and confusing them is where almost all the disappointment comes from.
The template
A structured plan, picked from a few variants by your stated goal and level. Monthly check-in and a chat with variable response times. For someone who already has the habit and just needs structure, it's fine and it's fairly priced.
The app with a coach
An app that generates the plan and a person who reviews it lightly. Better than the template, but the adjustment is still reactive: it changes when you flag it, not when the data asks for it.
1:1 coaching
A person who looks at your data every week and decides what to change. It costs more because it's someone's time, and it has a client ceiling for the same reason. It's what Elevate does.
If your bottleneck is information — you don't know what to do at the gym — the first one is more than enough and paying more is paying for something you don't lack. If your bottleneck is that life gets in the way — travel, stress, broken sleep, weeks that fall apart — the first one ignores exactly the three variables that are holding you back.
You ask them before paying and the answer is checked in the same conversation. They work for any trainer, not just this one.
| Question | If it's a template | If someone's behind it |
|---|---|---|
| What do they ask before giving you the plan? | Goal, level and available days. | Bloodwork, injury history, real schedule, sleep and stress. |
| How often is it reviewed? | Once a month, or when you write. | Every week, with your metrics in front and one change at a time. |
| Who answers your messages? | 'The team' or app support. | The same person who signs the program. |
| How many people do they coach at a time? | No number. However many sign up. | A declared ceiling. Here it's 6. |
| Does the guarantee have written conditions? | 'Satisfaction guaranteed', no document. | Published requirements and a document you can read before paying. |
You verify the first three before putting down a cent.The six full criteria, with how to check each one.
None of these is illegal or makes anyone a scammer. They're signs that what you're about to buy isn't what you think you're buying, and they all show up in the conversation beforehand.
The difference between a service and a promise is that a service can be read before you pay for it. This is the minimum, and it works for any trainer you're considering.
The plan and its progression rule
Not just the exercises: what has to happen for the load to go up, and what's done the week it doesn't. A plan with no progression rule ends up being the same session repeated for months.
What's measured and how often
Weight, waist, loads, adherence, sleep: the specific list, the frequency and who logs it. It's what lets you say "this is working" without depending on how you feel that week.
The channel and the response time
Where you write, in what hours and how fast you get an answer. Coaching that doesn't define this ends up being a chat that replies when it can, and Tuesday's question gets solved on Friday.
The cancellation and refund terms
How long the commitment lasts, how you cancel, what happens if you travel or get injured, and in which cases money is refunded. Asking before you pay isn't distrust: it's the part of the contract that only matters when something goes wrong.
The market runs from about $50 to about $300 a month depending on the level of support. Below that it's almost always a template with your name on it and a monthly check-in; above it you're paying for a plan built on your data, weekly adjustment and direct access to the professional. Elevate's program is $300 USD a month with a 3-month minimum.
The hourly rate is the in-person reference and varies a lot by city and experience. Comparing that rate to a monthly online price is comparing different things: in one you pay for presence for an hour, in the other you pay for follow-up over thirty days — and the follow-up is what you can't buy by the hour.
At a chain gym, coaching is usually sold in session packages and the price depends on the city and the gym. Elevate doesn't charge per session: it's a monthly, virtual program, and the price is the same whether you're in Bogotá, Medellín, Cali or abroad. It's charged in USD and the site shows you the reference in your currency.
Yes. The program is 100% virtual and works in any Latin American, Spanish or US time zone: sessions are booked around your real calendar. The canonical price is in USD and the payment method is arranged in the initial assessment according to your country.
There's excellent free content and very cheap generic plans, and for someone who already knows how to train and just needs structure, they're enough. What doesn't exist for free is a person looking at your specific case every week and deciding what to change. If you've abandoned three attempts, cheap already cost you a lot.
It depends what not doing it is costing you. If it's your first attempt and you have time to experiment, start free. If you've trained for years with no measurable result, sleep badly chronically or already quit three times, what you're paying for is no longer a trainer: it's the time you've spent repeating the same cycle with nobody looking at your data.
The honest comparison isn't always won by the format you happen to sell. There are clear cases where in person is the right answer.
In person wins if
Online wins if
Knowing what's going to happen avoids the most common disappointment, which is expecting in week two what you see in week eight.
And on the result: what can be put in writing before an assessment is a range, not a number. What Elevate publishes is 2–8 kg, or the goal we agree in the initial assessment, with 3×40 min a week and metrics logged weekly as your minimum. It's a range and not a fixed number because the result depends on your starting point, your level and your genetics — which is why the assessment comes first.
Any time zone in the Americas and Spain
Sessions are booked around your calendar, not mine. Clients across Latin America, Spain and the US: the program works the same because it never depended on a specific gym.
No mandatory gym
Sessions are 40 minutes and adapt to whatever's in front of you: home, hotel gym, your building's room or a full gym. It's the scenario it was designed for, not a compromise.
Priced in USD, referenced in your currency
The canonical price is in USD so it doesn't depend on one country's exchange rate. The site shows the reference in your local currency at the day's rate, and the payment method is arranged in the initial assessment.
Elevate is a 1:1 program run byDavid Rentería, trained in the Aspire Leaders Program of the Aspire Institute — the organization born from an initiative founded at Harvard University. It gives you the capabilities of an elite athlete — physical, cognitive and recovery — without being one and without the effort that level demands.
There's a channel 6 days a week and always with David, not a team. Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday are the follow-up days; Monday, Wednesday and Friday are for short questions.
If you don't get there, you choose: I refund you, or I keep working with you free until you do. David works with 6 people at a time, and that ceiling is the reason the price is what it is.
Or write to [email protected]