Nine questions to ask an online fitness coach before you pay
By Anubhav··6 min read
The questions to ask an online fitness coach before you pay: who will coach you, their qualifications, what they need to know about you, how they check form, what a check-in involves, how the plan adapts to a hard week, how progress is measured, what happens if something hurts, and what you are signing up for. A good coach will answer all nine on a first call.
Online coaching asks you to trust someone you may only ever meet on a screen, so it makes sense to know how they work before you commit. These are the questions we would ask in your position, what each one tells you, and what a clear answer tends to sound like. Most of them work just as well as questions to ask a personal trainer at your gym. Take them to any coach you are considering, us included.
1. Can we talk before I pay, and will you be my coach throughout?
A call before any payment is the simplest check there is. You hear how the coach thinks, and you find out who you will actually be working with. It is also the moment to ask who writes your programme, who reads your check-ins, and whether that stays the same person from start to finish.
What a clear answer sounds like: a name. The person on the call either is your coach or tells you exactly who will be. It is also fair to ask how many people they coach at the moment, and how they make time for each one.
2. What are you qualified in, and where can I check?
A recognised certification means someone has been assessed against a standard. The useful follow-up is where you can look it up, because the main certifying bodies and registers keep public records.
| Where you live | Where to check |
|---|---|
| US | ACE’s Find an ACE Pro directory, or USREPS, covering several certifying bodies including ACE, ACSM and NSCA |
| UK | The CIMSPA Member Directory. The old REPs register was combined into it in 2020 |
| UAE | REPs UAE’s Find a Trainer, set up with the support of Dubai Sports Council |
What a clear answer sounds like: the name of the certification, the body that issued it, and the name it is held under, so you can check it yourself in a minute. Insurance is a fair follow-up too. NASM notes that clients may ask a trainer for proof of insurance before hiring them.
3. What do you need to know about me before you write anything?
A programme is only as good as what the coach knows about you: your goals, your training history, anything that has held you back physically, the days and hours you can really train, and the equipment you have.
What a clear answer sounds like: a proper conversation or questionnaire before the first plan arrives, and a first block that clearly uses what you told them. If you mentioned a hotel gym and two free evenings, it should show.
4. How will you check my form from a distance?
Online, nobody is standing next to you, so ask how technique gets checked. The usual answer is video: you film a set, the coach watches it and sends back corrections.
What a clear answer sounds like: which lifts they want to see, how to film them, and roughly how quickly feedback comes back. If they use a training log, ask what they can see in it. In TrainingPeaks, for example, a coach can open each session you complete and leave comments inside it.
5. What does a check-in involve, and when do you reply?
In our experience most of the value in online coaching sits between sessions, in the check-ins. So it helps to know what you send, what comes back, and when.
What a clear answer sounds like: a set rhythm, a description of what they look at, and a reply window you can plan around. Stated hours are a good sign. A coach who tells you they reply on working days is giving you something useful to plan with.
6. What happens when my week falls apart, or I travel?
With a demanding job, some weeks will go sideways. A late project, a sick child, three days in another city. The plan needs to cope with that for coaching to last beyond the first month.
What a clear answer sounds like: a specific example, such as rewriting the rest of the week around the time and equipment you have left. Ask what happens to your programme in a hotel gym, too. We wrote about what to do when you miss a week if you would like to see how we handle it.
7. How will we know it is working?
Progress shows up in a few ways: weights going up, sessions feeling easier, better sleep and energy, measurements, and sometimes the scale. It helps to agree at the start which ones matter to you, and what you will be asked to log.
When a coach shows client results, it is reasonable to ask how long they took and how typical they are. Regulators ask the same thing. The FTC expects adverts to make clear what people can generally expect, and the UK’s ASA expects signed, dated proof that before and after photos are genuine. Reviews on a site the coach does not run, such as Trustpilot or Google, are worth a look as well.
What a clear answer sounds like: two or three measures that fit your goal, a sense of when you should start to notice change, and results shown with the context around them.
8. What happens if something hurts, or I have a medical question?
Coaches design training. Diagnosing and treating injuries, and writing diets, sit with physiotherapists, doctors and dietitians. The ACE Personal Trainer Manual puts it plainly: “Personal trainers should never provide services that are outside their defined scope of practice.”
What a clear answer sounds like: they will programme around a niggle, and anything that needs assessing goes to a physio or doctor first. Listen for the word refer.
9. What am I signing up for, and how does leaving work?
Ask what is included, how long the commitment is, and what happens if you need to pause or stop. This is the same as reading the terms on anything else you buy, and a good coach expects the question.
What a clear answer sounds like: the length of commitment, what you get each week and each month, and how pausing or leaving works, all given to you in writing before you pay.
How we answer these ourselves
Since we are asking you to put these to any coach, here are our answers.
- You speak to one of us on the intro call, and your coach is Anubhav or Anuj, the same person the whole way through.
- Anuj holds the ACE Personal Trainer certification, accredited by the NCCA.
- Your first programme comes out of that call: your goals, history, schedule, equipment and how you like to be coached.
- You send us lifts on video and we review them, and your sessions are logged in TrainingPeaks where we can see them.
- You get support on WhatsApp through the week and a one to one call each month to review the block.
- When your week changes, the plan changes with it, and anything that needs assessing goes to a physio first.
- Coaching runs in three month blocks, taken a block at a time.
- Our reviews are on Trustpilot.
You can see exactly what is included on our coaching page. And if you are still deciding between a coach online and a trainer in person, we have compared the two side by side.