What do you picture when you think of a mobile personal training business? Is it a pair of dumbbells and some boxing gear dumped in the trunk of your car, or is it a logo-wrapped van with enough gear to put a small gym studio to shame? Probably the latter based on what I see on the streets and parks these days.

The mobile personal training industry has evolved into a category within itself in recent years, with some trainers choosing to ditch the conventional gym environment entirely and focus their entire business outdoors.

So what is the fascination with outdoor training?

I spoke to a few mobile personal training entrepreneurs while researching this article and the consensus was simply that their clients prefer to train outdoors. They enjoy the variety of activities and after being cooped up in an office all day, they love the fact that they can spend time outdoors.

When deciding if this type of business will work for you, it’s important to keep in mind that the clientele you attract as a mobile trainer could be considerably different than the market for fitness centers or gyms.

Depending on your area of ​​expertise or the type of client you want to attract, you’ll need to weigh the opportunities, because if it’s bodybuilders you’re looking for, make sure you pack warm clothes for cold mornings, because they don’t show up.

I’m not suggesting you can’t introduce some outdoor training to your strength and power clients, 8 times Mr. Olympia Ronnie Coleman started a worldwide craze with his parking lot walking lunges! The target market for him should be the general population, regular people who want to get in shape or lose weight. If this type of client bores you and you don’t want to get your shoes dirty, then I suggest you stick to the gym.

So once you’ve decided that mobile training is for you, it’s time to decide what type of business you want to invest in.

There are opportunities these days to buy a mobile personal training franchise that has its positives and negatives. On the plus side, you buy an established brand and their marketing and advertising is handled almost exclusively for you. On the downside, there are startup expenses and franchise fees that can vary, but you can expect to pay up to 20% of your gross profit directly to the franchise owner.

If you choose to go solo as many do, then you need to consider the upfront costs involved.

First, you need a reliable and practical vehicle to transport your equipment. You may have to trade in the Miata or MX5 for something a little bigger. You will need to arm yourself with a variety of equipment; the basic would look like this:

* Boxing equipment: Gloves and focus pads.

* Light dumbbells: You don’t need anything too heavy

* Matt’s: For abdominal work, push-ups, etc.

* Hats or Cones of Witches: For running exercises

* Physio bands: Mobile resistance training

* Exercise balls: There are countless exercises that you can do with these

*Medicine Balls: Again, for a variety of reasons

* Mother Nature and your council can provide the rest

It can be difficult to find a place that is uncrowded, suitable and convenient. I suggest trying Google maps as a fantastic research tool where you can get a bird’s eye view of the type of terrain and natural obstacles available such as stairs, hills and banks etc.

Many municipalities also now have fitness equipment in their parks, such as pull-ups and other parallel bars.

As you can see, offering mobile personal training to your clients opens up a whole new field of business opportunities. Many trainers probably already own some of the equipment I mentioned above, and if not, there is always cheap used equipment to be found.

ben london