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10 Best Gyms to Work for as a Personal Trainer (UK)
Career Ideas

10 Best Gyms to Work for as a Personal Trainer (UK)

List of the best Gym to work at as a PT

Carl Smith

In this article we break down the best gyms to work at as a Personal Trainer (PT).

As a PT it is important before applying for any PT jobs to be aware of how a gym operates, which vastly differs from gym to gym. This can include:

  • How they pay their trainers

  • Typical contracted hours

  • Is the role freelance, salaried or a bit of both

  • Employee benefits scheme

  • Routes to progress your career

  • Help, support and mentorship on offer

We have only included the gyms that have at least 20 locations throughout the UK, so if you know a great personal trainer employer in Leicester, but they only operate in Leicester, they won't be included in this list.

1. Nuffield Health

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best gyms to work for uk image

Kicking off our list of the best gyms to work is Nuffield Health.

Nuffield Health is a not for profit organisation that has been running for over 60 years, that has 110 gyms and wellbeing centres across the UK, as well as private medical centres. 

Nuffield Health is one of the best places to work as a Personal Trainer as they are one of the few gym brands to pay a set salary to the trainers on a 40 hour per week contract, which is great for new trainers as you get to hone your craft whilst picking up a guaranteed income with the option to get commission from the sessions you deliver.

Nuffield Health is not the cheapest gym for members, but for a Personal Trainer, this isn’t a bad thing as that means they have the client demographic that have extra disposal income to actually afford a personal trainer.

As Nuffield Heath pays your salary, they are very invested in you and your professional development, thus you can take advantage of their comprehensive in-house training with opportunities to qualify as a Les Mills instructor, indoor cycling qualifications amongst other CPD opportunities.

Career Progression Routes at Nuffield Health:

Nuffield Health has lots of roles that you can work towards, including:

  • Lead wellbeing personal trainer

  • Programme manager

  • Fitness manager

  • Operations Manager

  • Customer Experience Manager

  • Duty Manager

  • General Manager

  • Multi-site Manager

Employee Benefits:

Take a look at the vast number of benefits you can access as a Nuffield Health employee.

  • Nuffield Health prides itself on offering a very healthy benefits package to its employees, including 25 days annual leave, plus all bank holidays off when you start, which increases to 27 days 27 days after 5 years and 30 days after 10 years.

  • Complimentary use of our exclusive Physiotherapy Triage Services along with reduced rates on both virtual and in-person treatments.

  • Offers guidance and expert recommendations on a variety of health-related topics that might affect you at work

  • Membership is free for all gym staff and discounts for your family and friends. 

  • Nuffield Health offers cost-effective loans repayable via your personal training salary and is affiliated to the government’s “Help to Save” scheme.

  • They are part of the cycle to work scheme

  • Get access to free healthcare

  • Access discounted private GP consultations

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2. Fitness First

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Fitness First has over 360 clubs in 17 countries and was established back in 1993 and has been a major employer of personal trainers here in the UK.

Fitness First is one of the best gyms to work as a Personal Trainer as they support two different business models for Personal Trainers to operate as. 

They have the personal training hybrid role, which consists of 10 hours per week contracted hours where you will conduct gym inductions, help maintain the cleanliness of the gym and support gym members on the gym floor.  Outside of this time, you can build a freelance business through growing your client base on the gym floor. 

The other route is to be a fully self-employed personal trainer where you pay a competitive rent and can access their database of gym members to build your business. 

Aside from the benefits outlined below, what makes Fitness First impressive is their dedication to supporting their Personal trainers by offering daily one-to-one business help from a specialist trainer, access to their digital market place which has guides on how to build your business and also a professional photoshoot for your online personal training profile. 

Fitness First Progression Routes:

  • Fitness Manager

  • General Manager

  • Regional Manager

Employee Benefits:

Fitness First has made real strides to enahcbing it's benefits packages that it's staff can take advantage of:

  • Personal Trainers can access a 50% discount on gym membership for a family member or friend.

  • If you work at Fitness First for a long period of time you could win one of their long service awards which they run annually. 

  • Partner with Hastee, which allows employees to access your pay proportionally early, instead of waiting until payday. 

  • Hold fitness days and challenges between team members on shift and compete as a team against one another. 

  • You get your birthday off as an extra day of annual leave

  • Fitness First helps support its gym staff by offering an employee assistance programme where you can access free counselling and guidance sessions.

  • You can earn money by referring people to work at Fitness First, as long as they have completed 6 months worth of service. 

  • First First offers various bonus incentives across departments to reward staff for hitting targets and pushing promotions.

3. David Lloyd

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David Lloyds is one of the most premium health club operators in the UK, founded in 1992 and now has 99 clubs in the UK.

David Lloyd's personal training model is very unique amongst health club operators as they do a 50% revenue split on all income that personal trainers bring in.

At first glance this might seem very high, however you’re not paying rent, clients are often given directly to you unlike most gyms and after delivering your first 15 sessions of the week, you get £5 extra per session on top of the 50% revenue split. 

With David Lloyds you have to work a minimum of 25 hours per week and you can choose you pricing point in which to sell personal training, with a minimum price of £16 per hour. 

This model provides a great mix of stability and scalability as you get a good number of clients to start earning right away, as well as the opportunity to earn more the more PT sessions you deliver. 

Career Progression Routes at David Lloyd:

  • Gym Supervisor

  • Activities Manager

  • Operations Manager

  • Assistant General Manager

  • General Manager

  • Regional Manager

Employee Benefits:

One of the reasons David Lloyds is one of the best gyms to work for and has a very high staff retention rate is due to how much they look after their employees in respect of both their financial and emotional wellbeing:

  • Free gym membership to all David Lloyd clubs

  • David Lloyd’s offers a huge range of discounts for gym staff, including 50% off food and beverage from the bar, 20% off kids holiday camps, 10-20% off spa products and treatments, as well as 40% off kids' swimming and tennis coaching programs

  • The discounts don't stop here, they provide exclusive 25% discount with the Stonegate Pub Company, discount on car leases and even a 20% discount on your mobile phone plan.  

  • Monthly guest passes for family and friends.

  • Discounted private medical insurance and company funded life insurance

  • David Lloyds also offers up to 6 free counselling sessions for both yourself and your family via their partner company Health Assured. 

  • Access to 400+ online CPD training courses

4. JD Gyms

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JD Gyms operates a fitness coach role, which combines the role of a Fitness Instructor and Personal Trainer together that is implemented across their 80+ locations.

As part of this role you will work 12 hours for the gym, completing three four hour shifts, but the rest of the week is yours to build up your client base using the gym floor. 

The difference between this model and other personal training models is that you don’t pay any rent back to the gym and the gym also does not take a cut of your income, meaning that you can set your own pricing structure and you keep 100% of the money you make.

Progression Routes at JD Gyms:

  • Duty Manager

  • Assistant General Manager

  • General Manager

  • Regional Manager

  • Regional Business Manager

Employee Benefits:

JD Gyms is rapidly expanding with the backing of their parent company JD Sports and so is the associated benefits package for their employees:

  • You get a 25% discount at JD gym’s parent company, JD Sports.

  • Free Gym membership for yourself and discounted membership for a friend or family member. 

  • You can advertise your PT services in club for free

  • Fully funded First Aid Course

  • You can embark on their management professional development plan

  • Receive discounts on continuous professional development courses

JD will also help you build your business through their PT Business Support network, which provides insights, guidance and support for how to grow your PT business. 

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5. Pure Gym

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Pure Gym has more gyms in the UK than any other commercial gym, with over 400 gyms in the UK at the time of writing and over 2 million members worldwide. 

Pure Gym deploys a model of contracting personal trainers to 12 hour per week contracts, where you will keep 100% of the revenue you generate from selling personal training on the gym floor. You will pay rent back to Pure Gym, which they do not publicly disclose, however you do get your first month rent free.

One of the obvious benefits of why Pure Gym is one of the best places to work as a Personal Trainer is the sheer volume of career progression opportunities available to you due to the size of the company infrastructure.

You can quickly move up the ranks to more senior managerial roles and due to them frequently having multiple sites in major cities, you won’t have to travel to achieve that career progression you’re looking for.

Progression Routes at Pure Gym

  • Assistant Gym Manager

  • Gym Manager

  • Cluster Manager

  • Regional Manager

Employee Benefits:

Pure Gym has made great strides to ensure their salaried employees are well looked after, which is reflected in there up to date employment benefits package:

  • Complementary membership for you plus a designated friend or family member. 

  • Enhanced maternity pay where you can get up to 16 weeks full pay and an additional 50% to the government’s standard statutory pay. 

  • Pure Gym also offers a round the clock counselling service for all employees.

  • Fully funded first aid qualification.

  • management training programme to help you progress towards a management positon

  • You will never have to work your birthday at Pure Gym and they allow you to take a ‘personal day’ off once per year. 

  • Personal trainers will get access to the app MYPTZONE which has an abundance of useful resources, as well as ongoing business mentorship to try and guide you to success. 

6. Bannatyne Health Clubs

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Bannatyne's deploys a fitness advisor role across its 69 health clubs and spas, which you can apply for with either the Level 2 in Fitness Instructing or a Level 3 diploma in personal training, as long as it is completed via CIMSPA accredited partner .

The Fitness advisor role comes with a set number of hours, ranging from 8 hours per week through to 40 hours per week with a guaranteed salary where you will help their members via conducting health assessments, writing workout plans, progress reviews and offering advice and support on the gym floor. 

Bannatyne's also allows personal trainers to operate on a freelance model if they chose to, where you can grow your own business from using their database of gym members, which averages out as 2,800 members per club.

Progression Routes at Bannatyne Health Clubs:

  • Fitness Manager

  • Member Experience Manager

  • Duty Manager

  • Club Manager

  • Regional Operations Manager

  • Regional Manager

Employee Benefits:

Bannatyne’s takes great pride in their employee benefit scheme which is what makes it one of the best health clubs to work for in the UK:

  • Bannatyne's gives all employed staff complimentary breakfast or lunch as part of there B-fed scheme. 

  • You will get Free gym membership for yourself and then complimentary membership for another person once you have completed 2 years service.

  • You get 28 days annual leave if you’re a full-time fitness advisor, which increases with tenure.

  • You get discounts with Bannatyne’s partnered brands like Hello Fresh, Grenade and Secret Escapes, amongst other retailers and food outlets. 

  • You get a 50% discount on meals and drinks from their on site bars

  • 30% distinct on spa services and 20% off spa related products. 

  • You can up skill yourself by getting yourself qualified as a Les Mills Instructor and teach classes like bodypump, as well as their senior development programme, that helps prepare you for a managerial position. 

  • Bannayne’s also recognises its staff through staff awards and length of service awards

7. Virgin Active

One of the best gyms to work for as a PT is Virgin Active, despite the fact that all their personal training roles operate on a zero hour contract basis.

When you start working at Virgin, you will get 120 hours worth of guaranteed paid time over the first 8 weeks, which equates to 15 hours per week.

During this time, you will attend practical and theoretical workshops, get familiar with the business operations and Virgin Active’s way of doing things as well as receiving support from a business leader, who will impart their knowledge, time and expertise to help you get your PT business off the ground. 

You get paid per session that you deliver and split the profits with Virgin Active, but for Personal trainers that are not confident in acquiring clients from the gym floor or marketing themselves, this works out as a fair trade as many clients are given to you.

You can also work as many or as little hours as you like and when you like, giving you complete flexibility. 

Progression Routes at Virgin Active:

  • Fitness Manager

  • Operations manager

  • Assistant General Manager

  • General Manager

  • Learning and development manager

Employee Benefits:

Virgin Active offer one of the most comprehensive employee benefits packages in the UK:

  • You get your birthday off every year as bonus to your existing holiday entitlement.

  • You can utilise any Virgin Active across the UK and you get a free membership for friend as well as free access to V club for your kids. 

  • Access the Virgin Active academy which covers sales, business and PT client retention strategies, as well as discounts on further development courses, from group exercise through to yoga. 

  • Get discounts across the Virgin brand, including Virgin Holidays and Virgin Media via their onlije shopping portal

  • Annual awards ceremony called the “Star Awards”, where they celebrate achievements of individuals and branches across Virgin Active.

  • You can embark on their career development plan that helps you navigate your way up the Virgin Active employment ladder.

  • Offer financial support via their access to salary finances, which can help you better educate yourself on managing your finances, as well as get you access to  loans and savings plans.

  • If you encounter issues with your mental health, you get four free Counselling sessions via their BUPA assistance scheme

  • Discounts to a whole host of major retailers via their e-points scheme.

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8. Ultimate Performance

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Ultimate performance (UP) is a personal studio company that operates across the UK and internationally, providing to-one and online personal training to their client demographics.

Ultimate Performance is the best personal training studio to work for in the UK, offering almost exclusively full-time salaried based roles where trainers are paid a set salary for the work they do over a traditional 40-hour week.

With UP, you also get the chance to achieve bonuses and commission on top of your basic wage by excelling in your job, not by selling of personal training sessions that many other employers demand.

UP gives you the clients to work with and provides you with over 200 hours worth of mentorship and further education to ensure you become a great trainer.

Progression Routes at Ultimate Performance

  • Senior Trainer

  • Lead Trainer

  • Gym Manager

Employee Benefits:

UP's employees are largely just trainers, thus their employment benefits package is very PT focused, but this is what sets them apart and makes them one of the best places for personal trainers to work.

  • Access to their range of personal training software tools and

  • Weekly team workshops and 200 hours of mentorship

  • Access to "Simply Health", which is a cash plan where you can claim back on claim costs incurred from dental, optical, and physiotherapy treatments. 

  • Monthly one-to-one meeting with your mentor to gain valuable feedback and action plans for improvement.

  • Access to their in-house education platform which has a host of resources and courses so you can deepen your knowledge further.

9. Everyone Active

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Everyone Active has more than 230 centres across the UK, and employ personal trainers from Sunderland, through to Manchester, down to Kent and everywhere in between.

Everyone Active is a Leisure Management company that support and operates charitable trusts across the Leisure industry.

All Everyone Active's personal training roles are on a self employed basis and they deploy a rent based model where you can build your business out of any of there venues.

You will have to market yourself and be proactive in approaching gym members on the gym floor, but you can determine your own hours and they do offer business and marketing support.

Progression Routes at Everyone Active:

  • Duty Manager

  • Team Leader

  • Operations Manager

  • Wellbeing Manager

  • General Manager

  • Regional Director

Employee Benefits:

  • Free gym membership for you and a friend

  • 25% off on other Everyone Active services such as swimming lessons and their junir adveture camps for your kids.

  • 20% off food in their on site cafe and retail products

  • Access to specilised continuous professional development courses and training.

  • Cycle to work scheme

  • Discounts at a range of partner brands

10. Better Gym

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Best Gym to work at as a PT image

Better Gym is part of the GL Leisure Group, which as over 240 leisure centres across the UK and employ yoga teachers, fitness instructors, as well as hire lifeguards and swimming instructors and many more speciality roles across there 5,000-10,000 employee demographic.

At Better Gym you can either work as a fitness instructor, where they have both flexible and full-time roles with set hourly rates between £12 and £15 per hour or you can work for them as a freelance personal trainer via their PT management company, Your Personal Training.

When you opt for the personal training route, it is your own business and you get to keep 100% of the money you earn and they limit the number of personal trainees operating at GL Leisure sites to prevent market saturation and allow you a fair chance of building a PT business.

To help you along the way, YPT give you the first month and a half rent free and you will then get guidance, support and coaching from the regional management team tom help you on your journey.

If you want to progress your career, there are tons of routes within the GL Leisure Group that you can explore:

Progression Routes at Better Gym:

  • Fitness manager

  • Duty manager

  • Community Sports Manager

  • Graduate Trainee Manager

  • Leisure Centre Supervisor

  • Operations Assistant Manager

  • General Assistant

  • Events Manager

  • Assistant Manager

  • Health and Fitness Manager

  • Regional Director

Employee Benefits:

  • Discounts with some of the UK's leading training providers on future qualifications

  • Free gym membership

  • Social media exposure via YTPT channels

  • Mentoring from regional managers to help you grow your business and access to a 10 module business course

  • Incorporated personal training insurance

  • Learning and educational resources that you can utilise to further your understanding of the industry and role.

View Jobs at Your Personal Training

About the author

Carl Smith

Carl has been a qualified fitness professional for close to two decades and has worked in numerous fitness management positions across the industry. Carl holds a masters degree in Sport Science and ran his own fitness start-up company focusing on health in the workplace before selling it for undisclosed 7 figure sum in 2017. Carl is passionate about fitness, sales and business but loves nothing more than his beloved Norwich City, to which he is has been a season ticket holder for 25 years.