Equipping Your New Personal Training Studio

How you train is far more important than the equipment you use. Proper training with very limited or basic equipment will produce better results, more quickly, more efficiently, and more safely than training incorrectly on the best equipment in the world. There is no specific piece of exercise equipment you must have, no specific exercises you must teach your clients to produce good results. I have trained people at home with a basic free weight set up consisting of nothing more than a power rack, adjustable bench, and a few Olympic bars and dumbbell handles. I have also trained people in facilities equipped with a large selection of the best machines in the world. I was able to provide clients with safe, effective, and efficient workouts with both.

This is not meant as an endorsement of free weights or criticism of machines; both have advantages and disadvantages. My point is you shouldn’t obsess over a particular type or brand of equipment if you don’t have the budget or space for it when starting out. The most important thing is providing your clients with exercises for all the major muscle groups which are safe, effective, and efficient and this can be done with a variety of equipment.

That being said, if you do have the space and you can afford it I recommend selectorized machines for several reasons.

Machine exercises are generally easier for you to teach and for clients to learn and master than free weight and body weight exercises which require additional elements of balance and control. When used properly most machine exercises are also safer than free weight and body weight exercises since the resistance is confined to a set path and range of motion and usually can not be dropped onto the client like a barbell or dumbbells and the client is generally in a position where there is no risk of them losing their balance or grip and falling which can be a concern during some body weight exercises.

Selectorized machines can be set up in seconds which is important if you want clients to move quickly between exercises or are sharing a studio with one or more busy trainers and only have a single line of machines or use certain ones frequently. Loading and unloading barbells and plate-loaded machines is inefficient and requires you either to take your attention off the client while setting up their next exercise or to allow them to rest longer between exercises when you are not able to set up all their bars or machines ahead of time or when you are using the same bar for several exercises. Moving plates around all day can also be hard on trainers, especially smaller females and older people.

If you don’t mind dealing with plates plate-loaded machines tend to cost less and are low maintenance, however it is important to consider the additional cost of plates, plate storage (some plate-loaded machines have built-in storage), and the additional space required to be able to load the machines. If you are a smaller female or older person or employ one I recommend having plenty of twenty five pound plates so they aren’t required to spend a lot of time moving around forty fives. I also recommend buying forty five pound plates with built in grips to make carrying easier.

If you can only afford or only have space for a few machines when starting out prioritize machines which replace higher risk or more challenging free weight and body weight exercises so you can better accommodate a greater number of potential clients. For example, not everybody can squat safely and not everybody can perform chin ups but most people can perform leg presses and pulldowns. A good basic line includes a leg press, pull down, chest press, compound row, overhead press, and trunk extension. More machines are nice to have and allow you to provide a greater variety of exercises and work around certain physical limitations more easily but these few are all most people really need.

Stay away from multi-exercise stations like those commonly found in hotel and apartment fitness centers. Most are very poorly designed, compromising the quality of exercise movements for the sake of quantity. If you have very limited space you are better off getting a good power rack and adjustable bench or dumbbells and a chin up and dip station or multi-exercise bodyweight station like the UXS.

I prefer fixed, hexagonal dumbbells as they are durable and won’t roll when set down and take up little space if you have a vertical or three-level rack. Adjustable dumbbells like PowerBlocks and the Nautilus SelectTech are far more space efficient but a pair can only be used by one person at a time. Stay away from adjustable plate loaded dumbbells, especially those with screw-on collars; they take much longer to load and unload than a barbell which can be a problem if you plan to use them for more than one or two exercises in a workout with different weights. While this might not seem like a big deal when you have to do it multiple times per hour all day long it adds up.

Adjustable dual cable machines like the Nautilus Freedom Trainer and the FreeMotion Dual Cable Cross can be used with different grip and bar attachments for a variety of exercises and also take up little space. If you have the budget for one it is a better option than dumbbells because it provides a greater variety of exercises and clients can’t drop anything on themselves.

If you work with people in wheelchairs you can adjust the booms around them to perform different exercises which is safer and more efficient than having them move between and transfer into and out of several different machines with progressively more fatigued arms. I was able to put a paraplegic woman I trained through most of her workouts using just the Nautilus Freedom Trainer pictured below.

Some of you might be wondering why I haven’t mentioned “cardio” equipment like elliptical machines, stationary cycles, and stair climbers, “functional training”  staples like stability balls, wobble boards, and plyo boxes, and similar equipment; they are a waste of your clients’ time and a waste of your money and space. Every general, trainable factor of functional ability – muscular strength and stamina, cardiovascular and metabolic conditioning, flexibility, structural integrity/resistance to injury, and body composition – can be improved to a greater degree more quickly, more efficiently, and more safely through the proper use of weight machines, free weights and body weight than through any of the popular alternatives. Don’t do things or buy equipment because you think clients will expect it. Educate them on proper training and why certain things are unnecessary and counterproductive thus not found in your studio.

Since circumstances can vary considerably between training start ups in terms of budget, space, approach to teaching high intensity training, and other factors this may not apply to everybody. If you have questions related to equipping a studio not covered here please post them below. If there is enough interest in this I will write a more detailed guide.