For personal trainers
Before you sign that gym agreement, check these three things.
Trainers work under gym agreements, studio contracts or their own client terms. Each can decide whether your clients follow you if you leave, what the gym takes from your sessions, and whether you are treated as an employee or a contractor.
This gym agreement bars you from training any member anywhere for a year and lets the gym raise your floor fee on notice.
No training gym members anywhere for a year
“Any member” includes clients you brought with you, and “at any location” reaches a park or a client's home.
Ask for
Check whether the restriction can be limited to members you met through the gym, and to a shorter period.
- The floor fee can change on noticeHigh · Payment
- A contractor label with gym-set shifts and pricesMedium · Relationship
The numbers
In May 2025, there were 322,930 wage and salary jobs for exercise trainers and group fitness instructors in the U.S., with a median annual wage of $47,160.
These figures count jobs, not people, and do not include self-employed work — so they say little about how many exercise trainers and group fitness instructors work freelance or run their own business.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025, national estimates for SOC 39-9031. Public domain.
Client rules, fees and how you are classified
- Non-compete and client rules — Check whether you may train your clients elsewhere after you leave, and for how long any restriction lasts.
- Fees and splits — Floor fees, rent and session splits can change the numbers. Look for how they are set and whether they can go up.
- Employee or contractor — The agreement may call you a contractor while setting your hours and rules. Check how it describes the relationship and who pays for insurance.
Check the agreement before your first client
A gym agreement decides who your clients belong to. Free: one analysis every 30 days, no card. Each analysis gives a risk read of the key clauses, quotes the contract's own words for its findings, and turns each flagged clause into a specific ask.
Analyze my contract — free- Encrypted in transit & at rest
- Files auto-deleted after 30 days
- Never used to train models
- Informational — not legal advice