Kira Mei is a certified personal trainer and nutrition coach helping UK adults over 40 get fit, eat well, and build sustainable habits.
If you walk into an Anytime Fitness in the UK and ask about personal training, you will likely be quoted somewhere between £45 and £65 per session. At 2 sessions a week, that is £360–£520 a month — and that is before your membership fee. Most UK adults who sign up for in-person PT last 6–10 weeks before cost becomes the reason they stop. Online coaching is a different model entirely: structured programmes, weekly check-ins and progressive overload plans, typically at £80–£150 a month. The gap between what you get and what you pay in each model is wider than most gym staff will tell you.
Quick Answer: Anytime Fitness personal training in the UK costs £45–£65 per session, which adds up to £360–£520/month for two weekly sessions. Online coaching delivers a structured programme, check-ins and nutrition guidance for £80–£150/month. For most UK adults training 3–4 times per week without complex medical needs, online coaching gives more structure per pound spent.
What Anytime Fitness Personal Training Actually Costs in the UK
The headline figure is £45–£65 per session, but the real monthly cost is closer to £400–£600 once you account for membership and minimum booking blocks.
Anytime Fitness charges a membership fee — typically £30–£50/month depending on the club — on top of PT session rates. Most clubs sell PT in blocks of 10 or 20 sessions, and the per-session price drops slightly if you buy the larger block. That sounds reasonable until you price it across a full year.
Session Rates and Block Pricing
At £55/session (a common mid-range rate across UK Anytime Fitness clubs), buying a 10-session block costs £550. If you train twice a week, that block lasts 5 weeks. Across 12 months, you would buy roughly 10 blocks — £5,500 in PT fees alone, plus £360–£600 in membership. Total: £5,860–£6,100 per year for gym-based personal training.
What That Session Actually Contains
A standard 60-minute session at a chain gym includes warm-up, the workout itself, and cool-down. Your trainer designs the session, cues your form during it, and you leave with the training done — but rarely with a written programme you own, logged progressions, or a plan for your four solo sessions that week. The accountability exists only during the hour you have paid for.
The Cancellation and Flexibility Problem
Anytime Fitness PT requires booking in advance, and cancellation policies vary by club — typically 24–48 hours notice to avoid losing the session. If your schedule is irregular, travel is frequent, or work commitments shift, you absorb those costs. There is no partial refund for the sessions you did not use.
What Online Coaching Delivers for £80–£150/Month
Online coaching at £80–£150/month gives you a written programme, progressive overload tracked week by week, regular check-ins, and nutrition guidance — for a fraction of the annual cost.
The structure is fundamentally different. Instead of buying contact time, you buy a system: a programme designed for your goals, adapted over months, with accountability built into weekly or fortnightly check-in calls or messages.
Programme Ownership and Progressive Overload
A competent online coach writes a 12–16 week block, shows you where loads increase and when to deload, and tracks your progress data to adjust the next block. You arrive at every session — whether at Anytime Fitness or a home gym — knowing exactly what you are doing and why. The NHS guidelines on physical activity recommend progressive strengthening activity for all UK adults; a structured written programme is the most consistent way to deliver that.
Check-ins, Form Feedback, and Accountability
Online coaches typically use video form checks (you film a set, they review it), messaging apps for daily questions, and scheduled check-in calls. The accountability is distributed across the week rather than concentrated in one paid hour. For most trained movements, this is sufficient — and the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences supports coach-led remote assessment for non-clinical populations.
Nutrition and Lifestyle Guidance
Most online coaches include basic nutrition guidance — calorie targets, protein targets, meal timing — in their monthly fee. In-person PT at a chain gym rarely covers this; most gym-employed PTs are not qualified to provide detailed nutrition advice and will refer you to a separate nutritionist (another fee). Online coaching packages typically bundle this from the start.
The Annual Cost Gap Between Models
Across 12 months, the difference between Anytime Fitness PT and online coaching is typically £4,500–£5,500 — enough to fund 5–7 years of online coaching.
At 2 PT sessions per week at £55/session: £5,720 in session costs + £480 membership = approximately £6,200/year. Online coaching at £120/month: £1,440/year. The gap is £4,760.
Where That Money Goes in the In-Person Model
In-person PT at a chain gym carries overhead: the gym's cut of the PT fee, the trainer's travel and equipment costs, and the room hire. You are funding a physical presence that may or may not improve your result. The Mind UK resource on physical health and wellbeing notes that consistency and habit formation — not trainer presence — drive long-term adherence. Consistency is what a written programme with progressive overload delivers cheapest.
What the Online Model Does Not Deliver
Online coaching has real limits. If you have an injury requiring hands-on assessment, a physiotherapist or sports medicine GP is the correct referral — not a coach of any kind. If you are brand new to exercise and have never been coached in compound lifts, a handful of in-person sessions to learn movement patterns is genuinely useful before switching to a remote model. These are real cases, not marketing copy.
Hybrid Approaches
Some UK adults use 4–6 in-person sessions to learn technique, then move to online coaching for ongoing programming. This makes financial and practical sense — you spend £250–£390 on skill acquisition, then £1,200–£1,800/year on a structured remote programme, rather than £6,000/year on indefinite in-person contact.
What Online Coaches Say About Gym-Chain PT Models
Online coaches consistently highlight three structural weaknesses in gym-chain PT: trainer turnover, programme inconsistency, and the incentive to keep sessions open-ended rather than build client independence.
Anytime Fitness, like most chain gyms, has high trainer turnover. A trainer who built your programme in January may have left by April. You restart the relationship, often without full notes on your history. Programme continuity — the single most important variable in strength and body composition progress — breaks.
The Incentive Structure Problem
A gym-employed PT earns more the longer you need them. There is no structural incentive to build your independence, give you a programme you can run autonomously, or teach you to self-coach over time. Online coaches — especially those who sell lifetime-access products — earn from reputation and referral, which aligns their incentive with your long-term result.
What Good Online Coaching Looks Like in Practice
A reputable UK online coach delivers: an onboarding assessment, a 12+ week written programme with weekly progressions, video form reviews on request, a nutrition framework, and a clear end-state (you know what fitness looks like for you and how to maintain it). The NHS Eatwell Guide and progressive resistance training form the backbone of any credible programme — not proprietary methods or recurring upsells.
The Qualification Question
Both in-person and online coaches in the UK should hold a Level 3 Personal Training qualification at minimum. Neither model guarantees quality by default — that comes from vetting the individual. But the structural economics of online coaching create stronger incentives for coaches to produce results rather than sell more sessions.
When Anytime Fitness PT Is Worth It
In-person PT at Anytime Fitness is worth the cost in three specific situations: you are a complete beginner, you have an injury that needs supervised rehabilitation, or you require the physical presence of another person to show up at all.
These are genuine use cases, not dismissals. If you have never lifted a barbell and have no one to teach you, paying for 6–10 in-person sessions to learn squat, hinge, push and pull patterns correctly is money well spent. The alternative — learning from YouTube with no cue feedback — carries real injury risk.
Medical and Rehabilitation Scenarios
If a GP or physiotherapist has referred you to supervised exercise following an injury, an in-person PT with appropriate qualifications is the right tool. Online coaching is not a clinical service. For any fitness programme following injury, check with your GP first — NHS guidance on returning to exercise after injury covers the basics.
When the Cost Is Simply Not the Issue
For some UK adults, the cost differential is not meaningful — the in-person structure is what makes them show up. That is a valid reason to pay for it. No model is universally superior; the question is whether the premium is delivering proportionate value for your specific situation.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does an Anytime Fitness personal trainer cost per session in the UK?
Anytime Fitness personal training rates in the UK typically run £45–£65 per session, though pricing varies by club and trainer. Most clubs sell sessions in blocks of 10 or 20, with a small discount for larger purchases. At 2 sessions per week at £55, that is £440/month in PT fees alone, before the gym membership cost of roughly £30–£50/month.
Is online coaching better than in-person PT at Anytime Fitness?
For most trained UK adults with no acute injury, online coaching gives more structured programming, week-on-week progression tracking, and nutrition guidance for significantly less money — typically £80–£150/month vs £400–£600/month for twice-weekly in-person PT. The trade-off is no live coaching cues. If you are a complete beginner or returning from injury, a short block of in-person sessions has real value before transitioning to a remote model.
What does an online coach provide that an Anytime Fitness PT does not?
An online coach typically provides a written programme you own, progressive overload tracked across months, video form reviews, nutrition guidance, and asynchronous check-ins — all included in a monthly fee. Anytime Fitness in-person sessions give you real-time cueing during a 60-minute block, but rarely a programme you can run independently between paid sessions. Programme ownership and consistency are the key differentiators.
Can I use an online coach while still having an Anytime Fitness membership?
Yes — this is a common and sensible setup. An online coach provides your programme; you train at Anytime Fitness using their equipment. The membership cost (typically £30–£50/month) plus an online coaching fee (£80–£150/month) still comes to significantly less than adding in-person PT sessions. Many UK adults find this split gives them the best of both: gym access and structured remote coaching.
What should I look for in an online coach in the UK?
Look for a Level 3 Personal Training qualification, a clear onboarding process, written programme delivery (not just weekly session calls), a defined check-in structure, and transparent pricing with no mandatory renewal. Ask how they track progress and whether they provide nutrition guidance. The NHS recommends adults do strengthening activities at least twice a week — your coach should be able to show you a programme that meets this and progresses from it.
Kira Mei's Training Blueprint gives you the full progressive programme that online coaches charge £80/month to drip-feed you — one purchase, lifetime access, built for UK adults. Get the Training Blueprint for £49.99 at kiramei.co.uk/training.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical, nutritional, or professional fitness advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making changes to your diet or exercise routine.