What semi-private training costs
Semi-private personal training runs roughly $40 to $80 a session in Toronto, against $80 to $130 for an independent one-to-one trainer. One coach works with several people at the same time, each on their own programme. It is not a class and it is not a discount version of one-to-one.
This is the spoke of a longer piece on what a personal trainer costs in Toronto. Here we deal with one format, including the part most pages skip: what you give up.
What semi-private training actually is
One coach, several people, separate programmes. Everyone arrives to a session written for them, and the coach moves between them for the hour. Nobody is following along and nobody is counting anybody else's reps.
That last point is the whole definition, and it is what separates it from small-group training, which usually gets marketed with the same words. In a small group everyone does the same movements at the same time. In semi-private, six people can be doing six unrelated things.
If everyone in the room is doing the same exercise, it is a class with a better name.
What it costs in Toronto
Roughly $40 to $80 a session, depending on the studio and the group size. Compare that with about $60 to $90 for a commercial gym trainer, $80 to $130 for an independent, and $120 to $180 for premium private coaching.
It is more often sold as a membership than a per-session price, which makes comparison harder than it should be. To compare honestly, divide the monthly figure by the number of sessions it includes and add HST. A $325 biweekly membership covering thirteen sessions a month is about $50 a session before tax.
Group size is the number that actually moves the price, and it is the number most studios do not publish. Four people and eight people are very different products at similar prices.
Why it costs less without being worse
The saving is not coming out of your coaching. It comes from the same hour of a coach's time being paid for by several people rather than one.
There is a second effect that surprises people. A coach standing over one person for sixty minutes spends a fair part of that hour counting and filling silence. A coach with several people spends it looking at technique, because that is the only thing worth their attention. More than one member has told us they get corrected more here than they did one to one.
Continuity matters too. At the cheaper end of one-to-one, particularly inside commercial gyms, the trainer keeps a small share of the session fee and turnover is high. Paying less for a coach who is still there in a year is not obviously the worse deal.
What you give up
This is the part most pages selling semi-private leave out.
You do not get somebody's undivided attention. If you are coming back from surgery, preparing for a competition, or working through something that needs constant hands-on correction, one-to-one earns its premium and this format does not.
You cannot train at any hour you like. Sessions run when a coach is on the floor, so the flexibility of a private trainer who fits around your diary is gone.
And you are in a room with other people. For most of our members that turned out to be the reason it worked rather than a cost, but if the thought is genuinely unbearable, it is honest to say so rather than talk you round.
What we charge
Thrive Fit caps it at six people per coach. Membership is $225, $325 or $425 biweekly plus HST for nine, thirteen or eighteen sessions a month, plus a one-off $97 programme design fee on a new membership.
At the middle tier that is about $50 a session before tax, and about $27 at the top tier where you train most often. The space is included, so there is no separate gym membership underneath it.
Everyone starts with a private Body Reset Baseline. Thirty minutes, one to one, no charge, and nothing to buy at the end of it.
How to tell whether it suits you
The question is not really about money. It is whether you want to be coached or supervised.
If you have a plan and want somebody to keep you honest with it, a cheaper option will do. If you want somebody else to own the plan, watch you do it, and change it as you go, semi-private is the least expensive way to get that in Toronto. And if you need one person's full attention for a specific medical or competitive reason, pay for one-to-one and do not compromise.