What is small group personal training?

We think our small group personal training programme is one of the best in London. We also think the level of coaching you’ll receive is miles better than your average 1:1 personal trainer.  Yes, you could say we are biased but, we have our reasons. So let us bring you up to speed with what small group training actually is…

WHAT IS SMALL GROUP PERSONAL TRAINING?

Small group personal training isn’t just a small class. It’s personal training in small groups whereby you are taught how to progress through weight training safely and effectively, just like you would be in a one-to-one session with a PT. 

There are three key parts that make up a successful small group personal training programme: 

1. THE GROUP IS SMALL!

Yes, it sounds obvious, but it really is important that groups are kept small. For us, the sweet spot is six members to one coach. This is to enable us to properly coach you as an individual, not just shout instructions from the front of the room. If there are too many clients in the room, it’s a class, not personal training in a group – and that’s an important difference. 

2. QUALITY COACHING 

The second is the experience of the coach. Coaching up to six people with varying levels of strength and fitness, mobility and coordination is hard for an inexperienced coach. Throw in some members with little to no training experience and a complex injury history and then this will become very challenging. 

An experienced personal trainer will know how to progress and regress exercises to cater for the individual. This ensures that everyone, regardless of their level, gets a challenging but manageable training session 

It’s our opinion that we think personal trainers make great small group training coaches. and this is why all our coaches have over 10 years of one-to-one personal training experience. 

3. UNDERSTANDING THE INDIVIDUAL 

The final part to a successful small group training programme is carrying out an initial assessment 

We believe that all small group training members should go through an initial assessment (just like we would for one-to-one clients) prior to training. Understanding you as an individual in terms of your goals, your mobility restrictions, your injury history and your training experience prior to your session makes your training so much more effective. 

Here at PROATHLON, all small group training members go through an initial assessment. Based on the results, we make recommendations on which sessions to join and all of the information is shared amongst the coaching team so that we are all up to speed with the new member before their session.

The assessment is also a great way to meet the team and to spend some time in the gym as we know some people can feel a little anxious before their first session. FYI we are all lovely people! 

BENEFITS OF SMALL GROUP PERSONAL TRAINING (OTHER THAN HEALTH & FITNESS) 

Helping members improve their health and fitness is what we love and what motivates us as coaches but, there are other benefits to small group training that often go unnoticed. 

  • It’s cost effective – much more so than one-to-one personal training
  • It’s social – you’ll be training with like-minded people
  • Friendly competition – we find that our members work a little bit harder when training in a group.  
  • It combines the best elements of personal training and larger classes: individual attention with the fun and motivation of a group dynamic
  • And when you join PROATHLON, you won’t just be a number – all of the coaching team will know your name. You are part of the PROATHLON family when you become a member. 

SMALL GROUP PERSONAL TRAINING @ PROATHLON

So now that you understand what small group training is, let us provide you with some more information about our different sessions. 

Our training sessions/classes are broken into two divisions: Weight Training Sessions and Sweat Classes. Let us explain the difference between the two

Our Weight Training Sessions: 

  • Upper body
  • Lower body
  • Whole boy with upper body emphasis
  • Whole body with lower body emphasis
  • Arms, shoulders and core 

Primary objective – Increase whole body strength and muscle muscle mass

Secondary objective – Look and feel great, reduce the likelihood of injury, improve mobility and increase bone density 

Weight training sessions are programmed every six weeks. The first four weeks of training we want our members to master the new exercise and gradually increase the weight lifted. The last two weeks of the cycle is an intensification phase. During this phase we increase the total volume of work (i.e. more repetitions/sets). After this we start a new cycle of programming. 

Below, Co-Founder Simon Jackson takes you through an example of one of our Whole Body Weight Training Sessions

Our Sweat Classes:

  • FIT (level 1)
  • Mag 6 (level 2)
  • MetCon (level 3)
  • PunchOut (level 4)

Primary objective – improve your cardiorespiratory endurance / aerobic fitness. 

Secondary objective – improvements in strength endurance, speed and power.

Our sweat classes are graded from level 1 – 4. The levels are based on the intensity and skill level of the class. We recommend that new members start at level 1 with our FIT class and work their way up the levels.

Sweat classes are fun, fast paced, high heart rate and demand a lot of calories. Here is an example of a FIT class

We are very proud of our small group personal training and we think it is one of the best programmes in London. But don’t take our word for it. See what some of our members say below. Then why not take us for a test drive. Purchase our 28-day small group training trial. Simply book in for an initial consultation by filling in your details on the home page and let us take your health and fitness to new levels.