Personal training, plus 2 or 3

Feeling that his workout was in a rut, Rich Burns turned to a personal trainer in hopes of kicking up his stale exercise routine and losing some weight. But instead of signing up for the typical one-on-one sessions, he opted to share his training periods, and their costs, with two other clients. The experience has proved to be just what Burns was after, and at the right price.

“In six months, my body is completely transformed,” says Burns, a screenwriter in his early 40s who lives in Santa Monica. His weight had hovered around 215 pounds for a decade, and he wanted to get it under 200. He’s surpassed that goal and is now happily at 190.

“I definitely feel the most fit I’ve ever felt in my life,” he says.

Sharing a personal trainer with two, three or even four other people may not seem so personal. But the practice appears to be increasingly popular, according to a survey released last fall by the IDEA Health & Fitness Assn. in San Diego.

The poll of 281 health club owners and managers in the United States and Canada found that the popularity of one-on-one personal training has remained relatively constant over the last several years (83% of clubs offered it in 2004). However, personal training involving more than one client has increased. Sixty-five percent of clubs offered personal training with two clients in 2004, up from 42% in 1998, and 42% of clubs offered personal training with three to five clients in 2004, up from 33%.

Trainers will often accommodate clients who ask to train together, but some gyms have programs dedicated to the practice.

The Sports Club/LA, for example, has a Duets program that allows two people to work out together, though larger groups may be arranged. And 24 Hour Fitness is planning to test its new Buddy Training program, which also allows members to pair up for training, in a dozen Los Angeles area clubs in mid-February. The chain expects to launch the program at its other clubs in April, according to Matt Nelson, manager of fitness services at the company’s headquarters in San Ramon, Calif.

It’s not hard to see why small-group personal training appeals to some gymgoers, says IDEA executive director Kathie Davis, who pairs up with her daughter.

“It’s a cost savings,” she says, because trainers typically charge less per client. “Not only that, it’s a great social outlet and it’s more motivational.”

Vanita Spaulding thrives on the support of her three training partners at the Sports Club/LA, where the group meets with trainer Ray Bolton three mornings a week for a high-energy workout that includes boxing, running, push-ups and sit-ups.

Spaulding, a business executive and the only woman in the group, says she works hard to keep pace with the guys. “I do not want to be the girl that boxes,” she says. “I want to be one of the boxers.”

But it’s not all so serious. “We also laugh and poke fun at each other,” Spaulding says.

Trainers can also benefit from small-group personal training, says Walt Thompson, a professor of kinesiology and health at Georgia State University in Atlanta and a spokesman for the American College of Sports Medicine.

Instead of charging $65 an hour for a one-on-one session, for example, a trainer could charge four people $45 each and come out well ahead. “From the personal trainer’s perspective, it makes good business sense,” Thompson says. Fees vary widely, but industry experts say clients can typically save 25% to 30% or more with small-group personal training.

“I think it’s a win-win on both sides,” Thompson says, even though training in groups does divert some of the trainer’s attention away from each person.

That can be a disadvantage if someone really wants or needs close supervision and detailed instruction. Some people, however, don’t like being the permanent center of attention.

Brely Evans, a real estate agent who trained with four friends last year at the Workout Warehouse, now the Fitness Factory, in West Hollywood, confesses that sometimes she’d sneak a little breather while her trainer, Jeanette Jenkins, was helping another client.

“I could rest if she was focusing on someone else,” she says. “It was really good to share the pain.”

But training in a group can be difficult when it comes to coordinating several busy schedules, says Evans. “It’s disappointing when someone doesn’t show up,” she says.

Karl List, Burns’ trainer at Gold’s Gym in Venice, says larger groups can get unwieldy, even for an experienced trainer, and he prefers to limit his clients to no more than three at once.

Most important, he says, the clients should have compatible abilities and goals. “It can be very motivating to have someone else to work out with, provided you’re on the same level playing field,” List says. But pair up a couch potato and a gym rat, and the trainer has to “cater to the weakest link.”

As for Burns, he now works out two mornings a week at Gold’s. List leads the group in a rigorous hour of exercises that includes running stairs, jumping rope, lifting weights, and doing squats and abdominal crunches.

Although Burns is watching what he eats and exercising on his own, he says one of the main factors in his success has been the extra motivation he’s received from his three-person group, even though one training partner ultimately dropped out.

“You sort of get competitive,” says Burns. “You want to stay in the game so you push yourself more. Not only do I have Karl cracking the whip, but I have the other guy pushing me too.”