Fitness apps and software have been nothing short of a blessing, especially for personal trainers.
If you’re just starting out as a personal trainer, there are several types of software to consider. This will make your job as both boss and employee that much easier.
Let’s take a look at the best software for personal trainers.
The Best Personal Trainer Computer Software
These types of software can help you manage your business more effectively. You’ll also be able to provide a better customer service experience, and increase clients and sales.
One thing you’ll notice is that there is some overlap between these types of software and apps, so why list everything out?
Because not every type of software or app is right for everyone.
You might love your messaging or accounting software despite those features being a part of another app.
I’m listing these out so you have options, although I will comment on the apps that offer as close to a one-stop-shop software as you can get.
Now, let’s get to it.
1. Finding New Clients
Let’s start with knowing where to find new clients.
After all, this is literally the foundation for any personal training business.
Online personal trainers will especially benefit from software and apps that helps them find clients.
If you’re a traveling personal trainer, this will be almost exclusively how you’re finding most of your steady – not situational – clients.
There are a few software programs that can help you with this by allowing you to post your profile and contact information on various websites and directories.
UpWork is one of the most popular examples. Although it’s largely associated with jobs like graphic design or writing, UpWork does have people looking for personal trainers and nutritionists.
Another type of software that helps with finding new clients is a website called ipersonaltrainer.
You can post a profile of yourself, experience, and client preferences.
Naturally, social media is great for this as well. You can create a Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok account, demonstrating your expertise and providing clients with a way to contact you.
2. Client Messaging
Once you’ve found clients, it’s important to be able to communicate with them effectively.
Client messaging software allows you to do just that, by providing a platform for you to send and receive messages.
More importantly, the best messaging software allows you to send images and video, which will be helpful for sending things like exercise videos you record.
Some software even syncs with things like Google Calendar to schedule appointments and training sessions.
Some of the best client messaging software programs include Signal, Slack, Google Hangouts, and Skype.
3. Workout Builders
If you’re a personal trainer, then chances are you already know the importance of having workout builder software.
This type of software allows you to quickly and easily create custom workouts for your clients, based on their individual goals and needs.
As a personal trainer myself, I wish this was around when I was at the height of my PT career and training for 10 hours a day.
You want to make sure every workout is unique to your client, but after a while, it’s common to burnout. That’s where this type of software can help.
There are many different workout builder programs available on the market, so it’s important to find one that fits your specific needs.
Trainerize and True Coach are two types of workout builders that do a whole lot more than help you create programs.
They also offer direct messaging, video conferencing, and accounting software.
4. Fitness Tracking
Another type of software that can be extremely helpful for personal trainers is fitness training software.
This type of program allows you to track your clients’ progress, set up new workout routines, tweak existing routines, and much more.
It’s a great way to stay organized and motivated, and it can also help you identify areas where your clients need improvement.
Popular examples of fitness tracking software programs include Trainerize and Training Notebook.
5. Diet and Nutrition Tracking
A healthy diet is a critical part of any fitness routine. That’s why it’s important for personal trainers to have access to good diet and nutrition tracking software.
This type of software can help you keep track of your clients’ eating habits, as well as their calorie intake and nutrient levels.
It can also be helpful in creating meal plans and tracking progress.
The app Lose It! is pretty good, but nothing beats MyFitnessPal. There’s a reason that it’s rated as the top nutrition app in both the Apple and Google app stores.
6. Exercise Demonstrations
When you’re working with clients, it’s important to be able to demonstrate exercises properly.
Exercise demonstration software can be a great tool for personal trainers, as it allows you to create step-by-step video demonstrations of exercises.
This is a great way to ensure that your clients are doing the exercises correctly, and it can also help you troubleshoot any problems they may be having.
If you personally want to demonstrate an exercise, you can record an entire library on YouTube and only give paying clients the private links.
You can also provide a link to clients to have access to an entire library of pre-recorded exercises, curtesy of a third party. For this, I’d recommend True Coach.
7. Accounting Software
Finally, personal trainers need to be able to track their income and expenses, in order to run their business effectively.
It’s not the sexiest part of being a personal trainer, but we all need to pay the tax man.
There are a number of accounting software programs that can help with this. You’ll be able to track your clients’ payments and billing information while sending invoices and collecting payments.
Some of the best accounting software programs for personal trainers include QuickBooks, FreshBooks, and Wave.
Personally, I use FreshBooks with clients. It’s very user friendly, and it allows me to directly invoice clients (even those on retainer).
It also makes taxes easy at the end of the year.
Is There ONE App or Software that Does All This?
There isn’t one type of software or app that does everything on this list, BUT there are two options I found that come pretty close.
The first is Trainerize. It’s been mentioned a few times, because it has a good reputation and makes it pretty easy to get started with training your clients.
The other option is NASM EDGE. I was surprised when I found this because I didn’t realize NASM was branching out even more.
NASM EDGE does everything I mentioned above, even accounting… to a degree. It’s not going to provide you with tax information like FreshBook or QuickBooks, but you can invoice clients, collect payments, etc.
Do you have a favorite type of personal trainer software? Let me know in the comments below!
