Last month, a woman named Priya messaged me on Instagram asking if I knew a good personal trainer near Canary Wharf. She’d already tried two. The first charged £45 a session at a commercial chain gym, gave her the same circuit routine each week, and spent half the time texting. The second charged £110 at a boutique studio in the City, had fantastic branding and 30,000 followers, but couldn’t explain why Priya was doing single-leg Romanian deadlifts instead of conventional ones.
Two very different price points. Same fundamental problem: neither trainer was actually coaching her.
Priya’s experience isn’t unusual. London has one of the densest personal training markets in the world, and finding someone who’s genuinely worth your money requires understanding how this market works from the inside. I’ve spent over a decade operating within it — training clients, watching colleagues succeed and fail, and eventually building a strength training app because I kept bumping into the same structural problem the industry hasn’t solved.
This article isn’t a generic checklist. It’s a breakdown of how the London PT landscape actually functions, what separates trainers who deliver results from those who don’t, and how to get genuinely expert guidance without bankrupting yourself in the process.
Check Their Qualifications (And Know What They Mean)
Training in London is a completely different ecosystem from the rest of the country, and most “how to find a PT” guides don’t acknowledge this.
The average session rate in the UK sits around £30 to £50. In London, you’re looking at £50 to £100 as the realistic range for a competent, experienced trainer, with rates climbing well above £150 at premium studios in Mayfair, Knightsbridge, and the City. At Equinox, you’ll pay around £125 per session on top of a membership that runs £245 a month. Some celebrity trainers in central London charge upwards of £500.
Why is London so expensive? Three reasons that have nothing to do with coaching quality.
First, gym rental. A trainer operating from a private studio in Zone 1 might be paying thousands per month just for the space. That overhead gets passed directly to you. Second, London’s cost of living means trainers need higher rates to sustain a viable business — they’re paying the same rent and transport costs as everyone else. Third, demand. London is full of time-poor professionals who’ll pay a premium for convenience, and the market has priced itself accordingly.
Here’s what this means for you as a consumer: price in London tells you almost nothing about coaching quality. I’ve observed trainers charging £40 in Lewisham who programme with more intelligence and care than trainers charging triple that in Kensington. The £40 trainer simply doesn’t have the location premium or the Instagram aesthetic. Their clients still get stronger.
The Four Types of Trainer You'll Encounter
In my years working across different London gyms and studios, I’ve found that trainers broadly fall into four categories. Understanding which type you’re dealing with saves you months of trial and error.
The Chain Gym PT. These trainers work for large commercial gyms — PureGym, The Gym Group, Virgin Active, and similar. They’re often newer to the industry, sometimes freshly qualified with a Level 3 certification and still building experience. Rates tend to sit between £25 and £50 per session. The advantage is accessibility and lower cost. The disadvantage is high turnover — the trainer you start with may leave within six months — and the gym environment can be distracting during peak hours. Some chain gym trainers are excellent and underpriced because they haven’t yet built the reputation to charge more. The challenge is identifying which ones.
The Independent Freelancer. These trainers rent space at a gym or operate from parks, clients’ homes, or shared studio spaces. They typically have a few years of experience and charge £50 to £80. This is often the sweet spot for value in London. They’ve survived the initial years where most trainers quit, they’ve built enough of a client base to sustain a business, and they’re usually hungry enough to deliver genuine results because their income depends entirely on client retention. Look for independents who’ve been operating for three or more years — that survival alone tells you something.
The Studio Specialist. These trainers work from dedicated personal training studios like Ultimate Performance, The Cut, or independent boutique spaces. Rates start around £75 and climb past £120. You’re paying for a controlled environment with quality equipment, a quieter training space, and trainers who’ve typically been vetted through some internal selection process. The coaching is often genuinely strong here. The question is whether the premium over an independent freelancer is worth it for your specific situation. If you need a distraction-free environment and structured accountability, possibly yes. If you’re comfortable training in a busier gym and self-motivated between sessions, you may be paying for ambience rather than outcomes.
The Online/Hybrid Coach. An increasingly common model where the trainer designs your programme remotely and checks in via video calls, messaging, or an app, sometimes combined with occasional face-to-face sessions. Rates vary hugely — from £100 to £300+ per month for the programming, depending on how much direct interaction is included. This model works brilliantly for people who understand basic movement patterns and mainly need expert programming and accountability. It falls short for complete beginners who need hands-on technique correction.
The Qualification Question: What's Actually Worth Checking
I’ve left credentials until after the practical qualities because I think the industry overemphasises certificates and underemphasises competence. That said, qualifications do serve as a useful filter for ruling out trainers who haven’t met a basic professional threshold.
Here’s what to verify, in order of importance.
CIMSPA registration. The Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity is the professional body for the UK fitness sector. A trainer registered with CIMSPA has demonstrated that their qualification meets professional standards. You can check this on the CIMSPA website. It takes thirty seconds and immediately eliminates anyone operating without proper credentials.
Level 3 Diploma in Personal Training. This is the industry-standard entry qualification. It covers anatomy, physiology, programme design, and basic nutrition guidance. It’s awarded by bodies like Active IQ and regulated by Ofqual. Every working PT should hold this as a minimum. If someone can’t show you evidence of a Level 3, do not train with them.
Professional insurance. Non-negotiable. Every trainer should carry public liability and professional indemnity insurance. If they get uncomfortable when you ask about this, that discomfort is your answer.
Beyond the baseline — what’s genuinely useful. A degree in sport and exercise science, exercise physiology, or a related discipline means the trainer has spent years studying how the body responds to training at a much deeper level than a Level 3 covers. Specialist certifications in strength and conditioning (look for NSCA-CSCS or UKSCA accreditation), pre- and post-natal training, or clinical exercise are meaningful additions that indicate genuine investment in professional development.
What’s marketing, not substance. Self-awarded titles like “Master Trainer” or “Elite Coach” that aren’t attached to a recognised awarding body. Certifications from weekend courses with no practical assessment component. An impressive Instagram following, which correlates with marketing ability, not coaching ability.
A Smarter Way to Think About Cost
Rather than asking “how much does a personal trainer cost?”, ask “what’s the cost per unit of progress?”
Let me explain what I mean with some real maths.
If you train with a PT three times a week at £70 per session, that’s £840 per month, or roughly £10,000 over a year. For that investment, you should expect significant, measurable results — strength gains, body composition changes, movement quality improvements. If after six months you can’t point to concrete progress, the investment isn’t working regardless of how pleasant the sessions feel.
Now consider an alternative scenario. You work with a quality trainer once a week for technique-intensive sessions at £70, and follow a structured programme independently for the other two to three sessions. Your monthly PT cost drops to around £280, and your total investment over a year is about £3,400 — one-third of the first scenario. If the independent sessions are programmed well, your results can be comparable or even better, because you’re training more frequently with expert-designed programming rather than waiting for your next PT appointment to do anything productive.
This is the gap I kept seeing in my own practice that eventually led me to create 12REPS. Clients would make excellent progress during their training blocks with me, then stall or regress once they stopped because the cost of three weekly sessions wasn’t sustainable indefinitely. The missing piece wasn’t motivation or knowledge — it was structured programming they could follow on their own. At £12.99 a month, the app provides the same evidence-based programming methodology I use with my in-person clients, built around progressive overload and adapted to whatever equipment you have access to.
That’s not a pitch against personal training. I’m a personal trainer. It’s an acknowledgement that the traditional model — where you either pay premium rates for face-to-face coaching or you get nothing — leaves out the vast majority of people who want expert guidance but have realistic budgets.
The Questions Worth Asking Before You Commit
If you’ve found a trainer you’re considering, these five questions will reveal more than any amount of Instagram research.
“Walk me through how you’d approach my first month of training.” You’re looking for specifics: an initial assessment, a clear programming structure, defined progressions. Vague answers like “we’d start light and build up” suggest they’re improvising rather than planning.
“How do you decide when to change my programme?” Good answer: “I track your performance data and adjust based on your rate of progress, recovery indicators, and how you’re responding to the current training volume.” Bad answer: “I like to keep things fresh so you don’t get bored.” Training isn’t entertainment. Consistency with a well-designed programme is what produces results, not novelty.
“What do you expect from me between sessions?” Trainers who only care about what happens during the hour you’re together are missing the bigger picture. Nutrition, sleep, stress management, and what you do on non-training days all influence your results. A trainer who has clear expectations and offers practical guidance for life outside the gym is thinking about your outcomes holistically.
“Can you show me results from clients with similar goals to mine?” Not just before-and-after photos — those can be manipulated with lighting, posture, and timing. Ask for specifics: “This client came in unable to squat bodyweight. After four months, they were squatting 80kg.” Measurable, verifiable progress.
“What happens if I need to reduce sessions or take a break?” This reveals whether the trainer views you as a long-term relationship or a revenue stream. Good trainers will offer modified programming, reduced-frequency check-ins, or a structured plan you can follow independently during gaps. Trainers who respond with hard-sell tactics about losing progress are prioritising their income over your outcomes.
When Personal Training Isn't the Answer
I’ll end with something that may surprise you coming from someone who earns a living as a personal trainer.
There are situations where regular PT sessions are the clear right choice: you’re recovering from an injury and need specialist oversight, you’re a complete beginner who’s never touched a barbell and needs hands-on technique coaching, or you’ve identified that external accountability is the specific thing standing between you and consistency.
But for a significant number of people — especially those who’ve already been training for a while and understand fundamental movement patterns — the bottleneck isn’t a lack of coaching. It’s a lack of structure. They don’t need someone standing next to them three times a week. They need a properly designed programme that progresses intelligently, tracks their performance, and adapts to their available equipment and schedule.
That’s the space between “I need a personal trainer” and “I’ll just figure it out myself” — and it’s where most people actually are. Recognising which category you fall into before spending thousands of pounds is the most honest piece of advice I can give you.
If structured programming is what you actually need, the 12REPS app was built for exactly that scenario. And if you genuinely need a personal trainer, I hope this guide helps you find one who’s worth every penny.
Will Duru holds a BSc (Hons) in Sport and Exercise Science and has spent over a decade training clients across London. He is the founder of 12REPS, a strength training app that delivers expert-designed workout programming for a fraction of the cost of personal training sessions. For more on Will’s training philosophy, visit ptwill.com.
