A few years ago this wasn’t really a question. If you wanted a personal trainer, you found one near you and showed up to a gym together. The pandemic changed that overnight, and online coaching has since become a permanent part of how the industry works.
Most people I talk to about coaching now ask the same thing at some point: should I do this online or in-person? And most of the writing on the topic answers with some version of “it depends on your lifestyle”, which is technically true but not very useful.
This is the more honest answer: the right format depends mostly on your experience level and current training situation, not your lifestyle. Lifestyle matters, but it’s not the main variable. Get experience and situation right, and the answer becomes obvious.
I run both formats. I coach in-person clients in Cork and online clients around the world, so I have skin in this. I’ll be straight about which format suits which person, including the times when online clients would genuinely be better off in-person and vice versa.
What each format actually is
Before the decision framework, a quick definition of what we’re comparing.
In-person personal training is what most people picture: you meet a coach at a gym, you train together for 45 to 60 minutes, they coach your form in the room, you go home. Sessions are usually 1 to 3 times per week. Programming, nutrition advice, and check-ins may or may not be included depending on the trainer’s package.
Online personal training (sometimes called online coaching or remote coaching) is fully remote. You train alone at a gym or at home, following a programme written specifically for you. You and the coach connect once a week, usually a 15-minute video call, sometimes asynchronously via messaging, to review the week, adjust the plan, troubleshoot anything that’s come up. Form-check video reviews are usually included.
The two formats can look very different in practice depending on the coach, so when you’re comparing options, ask what’s actually in each one. I’ve broken down what good versions of each look like in my guide on how to choose a personal trainer. Most of those principles apply globally, not just to Cork.
The honest answer: which format is right for you
Skip to the section that matches your situation.
If you’re a complete beginner: in-person
If you’ve never trained in a gym, or you’ve tried a few times and never stuck, in-person is almost always the right call. There are three reasons.
First, technique. Squats, deadlifts, presses, rows: the foundational lifts that should make up most of your early training are surprisingly hard to learn from a video. A coach in the room can see things you can’t, correct them in real time, and adjust the cue based on how your body actually responds. No video review process replaces this.
Second, gym confidence. The single biggest barrier to a beginner sticking with training is not technique or programming. It’s the feeling of being out of place. A coach walking you through your first eight or twelve weeks normalises the environment in a way that no remote check-in can.
Third, habit formation. The structure of “I have a session booked Wednesday at 6pm with a person who’s expecting me” is much stronger early on than the structure of “I have a programme to follow this week.” The hard part of becoming a regular gym-goer isn’t the training itself. It’s becoming the kind of person who shows up. In-person makes that shift faster.
Online coaching for a complete beginner is possible, but it’s the harder path and most people who try it don’t stick. Save it for when you’ve built the foundation.
If you’ve trained before but fallen off: in-person (or hybrid)
You’re in a similar situation to the beginner, except you already know what good training feels like. You don’t need to learn from scratch. You need to rebuild the habit.
Three months of in-person sessions usually does this faster than anything else. Once you’re consistent again, you can move to online and save the per-week cost.
If budget is the obstacle, consider a 12-week structured plan with one in-person session per week (about €34 per week in my pricing). That’s enough hands-on coaching to rebuild the habit while keeping the cost manageable. Then transition to online afterwards.
If you’re already training consistently and want to level up: online
This is the sweet spot for online coaching, and it’s where the format genuinely outperforms in-person for most people.
You don’t need someone in the room with you. You know how to squat, you know how to read a programme, you can train independently. What you need is:
- Better programming than you’d write yourself
- Accountability to keep showing up when motivation dips
- An outside perspective when something’s not working
- Form-check feedback on specific lifts when you want it
All of these are deliverable online with no meaningful loss compared to in-person. And online is typically 40 to 70% cheaper than in-person for the same coach, because the coach isn’t standing on a gym floor with you for an hour each session. That’s not a worse service, it’s a different cost structure.
If you’re in this category and you’re paying €50 a session for in-person, you’re probably overspending. Move to online and put the difference toward a better programme, more sessions per month, or simply keeping the money.
If you’re chasing a specific physical skill: depends on the skill
Some training goals genuinely need hands-on coaching. Olympic weightlifting (snatch, clean and jerk), competitive powerlifting at high levels, complex gymnastic movements. These benefit from a coach in the room calling cues in real time as you lift.
But for general strength, fat loss, muscle building, conditioning, and habit-based health goals, which covers 95% of what most people want, online is fine. Often better, because the cost savings let you stay with a coach for longer.
If your goal is mainly fat loss or recomposition: either, but online is the better value
Fat loss isn’t a technique problem. It’s a consistency-and-nutrition problem with a side of progressive training. Online coaching is well suited to it because the weekly check-in call is essentially a nutrition and adherence conversation, not a technical one. You don’t need a coach watching you squat to lose fat. You need a coach reading your week’s food log and adjusting your protein target.
If you’re working around an injury or chronic condition: in-person, often hybrid with a physio
If you’ve got an injury (past or present) that affects how you can train, see a physiotherapist first. Then find a coach who can work alongside the physio’s recommendations. This is hands-on coaching territory in nearly all cases. The cost of getting it wrong (re-injury, slower recovery) is higher than the cost of in-person sessions.
If you live somewhere without good local PTs: online
This is the unsung use case for online coaching, and it’s why I have clients on different continents. If you’re in a rural area or a city where the available PTs aren’t the right fit for your goals, online opens up a global pool of coaches. The right coach in another country is almost always better than the wrong coach down the road.
A short note on hybrid
A growing number of people do both. The most common version: weekly in-person session for the hands-on work, with the rest of the programming, nutrition, and check-ins handled remotely between sessions.
This is genuinely a good model, and it’s how a lot of my Cork clients work with me on a structured plan. One in-person session a week, with a written programme to follow on their other training days, plus the weekly check-in, the diet guide, and Slack access. They get the benefits of hands-on coaching at a fraction of the cost of two sessions a week.
If you’re considering hybrid, the question to ask yourself: would the in-person session be the foundation of my training (i.e. I need someone there for me to train at all), or the upgrade (I’d be training anyway, and the session adds something on top)? Both are valid, but the answer shapes which version of hybrid is right for you.
The factors that don’t matter as much as you think
A few decision criteria that come up a lot but are less important than they seem.
Cost. Online is meaningfully cheaper than in-person, but if cost is the main reason you’re picking online over in-person, and you’re someone who actually needs in-person, you’re going to waste money either way. Spending less on the wrong thing is still spending. Get the format right first, then optimise within it.
Schedule flexibility. Yes, online is more flexible. But this matters less than people think. Most in-person clients settle into one fixed weekly slot inside a month and never feel the constraint after that. If your schedule genuinely varies week to week, online wins. If it’s stable, the flexibility argument is mostly hypothetical.
Gym access. This is more about what equipment you can access than whether a gym is “convenient.” A good online coach will programme around the equipment you have. If you have access to a barbell, plates, and a rack (at home or at a commercial gym) almost any goal is reachable online. If you have nothing but resistance bands at home, online has real limitations you should know about.
Technology comfort. Worth thinking about. Online coaching means weekly video calls, an app or shared document for your programme, and occasional video uploads for form checks. If any of that genuinely stresses you out, in-person removes that friction. For most people under 60 it’s a non-issue.
How I work with online clients
To make this concrete, here’s what my online coaching actually looks like in practice. Every online client gets a weekly 15-minute video call (Zoom), a four-week programming cycle that’s rewritten based on your progress each block, a personalised diet guide built from your starting questionnaire, form-check videos turned around within 48 hours when you send a clip, Slack access for questions between calls, and the same freebies (TDEE calculators, deload guides, etc.) as my in-person clients.
I run a first-week money-back guarantee on online coaching. If after the first check-in you decide it’s not for you, full refund. That exists because online is harder to commit to without meeting me first. Taking the friction out of trying is fairer than asking you to commit blind.
If you’re in Cork and want hands-on coaching, the in-person side covers single sessions, 10-packs, and structured plans. If you’re not in Cork or you’re confident training on your own, online is probably the better fit. And if you’re not sure which is right for you, the consultation is free. We’ll work it out together, and if I think you’d be better off in-person with a coach in your own city, I’ll tell you that.
TL;DR
- Beginner or restarting: in-person
- Consistent and want to level up: online
- Fat loss / general fitness: either, online better value
- Working around an injury: in-person, alongside a physio
- Specific physical skill (oly lifting, powerlifting, gymnastics): in-person
- No good coaches locally: online
- Tight budget but need hands-on help: hybrid. One in-person session per week with the rest online
Pick on experience level and situation, not lifestyle. Get the format right and the result follows.