The following information comes to you from a former personal trainer at Body of Change, and yes, I firmly feel they are a rip-off to everyone, consumer and personal trainer alike. To be concise I am just making a list of things you should know.
1) The standard fee structure is between $35 and $50 per 30 minute session. BoC is the only national company that charges by the 1/2 hour versus a full hour. Training for full hour sessions at private training studios ranges, on average, between $40 and $70 per full hour.
2) Body of Change has no formal or informal training program or training philosophy, nor does it have any stated requirements for trainers. Managers have hired individuals based purely on the fact the trainer looked physically fit him/herself. An "acceptable" training certification is simply completion of any course that is health oriented regardless of content material or testing difficulty.
3) The personal trainer only makes between $6.00 and $7.50 per session. Trainers are not encouraged to pursue advanced certifications, nor are they offered even minimal tuition reimbursement for any courses or classes taken. Trainers are offered no benefits at all, no medical or dental package is even offered. There is no paid vacation. The only existing bonus program in place to my knowledge was a quarterly $100 one time reward given to the "top" trainer in the district which incorporates about 30 different clubs. Furthermore, the reward is typically given to the trainer who sells or helps sell the most contracts, not to the one who helps the most clients achieve their goals.
4) Body Of Change is a sales organization, not a fitness organization. There is no career track for a personal trainer.By this I mean that there is no "Senior Trainer" or "Lead Trainer" designation. An Athletic or Fitness Director position does not exist either. As mentioned earlier, no training program exists for newly hired personal trainers. But, there is a hierarchy and a formal training program for the sales side of the organization. New hires are given packets of information and required to complete role playing scenarios to make sure they can change any "No" to a "Yes" in order to close the sale. Also, sales individuals can progress from Assistant Manager to General Manager to District Manager to Regional Manager to Corporate Sales Manager.
5) Body of Change and LA Fitness are seperate business entities, therefore working as a trainer at BoC gave me no benefits through LA Fitness. I was only allowed to workout at the LA Fitness where I trained, and I could not workout during the "peak hours" of business, although LA Fitness employees were granted certain luxuries.
6) A monthly report was generated by the corporate offices detailing which personal trainers made the most money in sales commissions, yet there was no report generated that informs the trainers of new ideologies, advances, or accomplishments in fitness relating to either the client or the trainer.
7) I was asked on multiple occasions to keep a new client (typically who was at risk of cancelling) in the program for at least seven days so the client couldn't cancel the contract without the penalty and the "manager" could earn their commission.
8) On multiple occasions I helped a manager close the sale by offering the client a free training session with me so they could see how we worked together. Never once was I compensated for assisting in the sale.
9) I graduated from college last year, promptly left Body of Change and found employment at a premier training-only facility (I charge $35-$55 per 60 minute session), but due to the non-compete contract I was forced to sign upon employment, I could not ask any of my clients (40 of them at the time) to follow me to the new fitness facility where I could help them achieve even more results in a healthier and more personalized environment. A year later, I am still threatened with severe legal action if I offer services to any of my former BoC clients at any fitness facility that is within a 10 mile radius of any Body of Change location anywhere. I am bound to this for 1 more year, as the non-compete specifies a 2 year period. Yes, I know, I should have read the fine print but I was about to be a senior in college and needed the job to pay for school, while I was trying to apply my knowledge.
In closing, I would like to say that not all trainers at BoC are bad trainers, some of them are, but some are like me. We are new to the industry and trying to become better. Our love is fitness, and we want to share it with others to help them lead healthier lives, but unfortunately we were sold by those "managers" on opportunities that never materialized. Tardiness, absenteeism, and lack of attention is unexcusable, but please realize that the trainer is getting ripped off just as bad as you in the end. Recently I ran into a former manager of mine. I lambasted the manager about the falsehoods told to me during the interview process and he apologized for misleading me about the organization. He stated that he sold me on the company because he wanted a good trainer and he knew I would be one, but in the end he knew he was motivated only to sell more contracts and a trainer like me could help him do that.
Do not waste your time with Body of Change, if not for your own consumer reasons for the fact that they are horrible employers and should not be in business. Body of Change is the perfect example of worker undercompensation and it only results in unhappy consumers.
Anonymous For My Own Protection
Atlanta, Georgia
U.S.A.
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