“It’s a very toxic industry,” says Alex, Co-founder and Director. That’s what he and business partner, fellow Co-founder and Director, Levi, realized quickly when they got into personal training.
In summary
Problem
Personal training had a personal problem: gyms handed out the same weight-loss or muscle-building plan to everyone, no matter who they were or what they actually wanted. Co-founders Alex and Levi saw where that led — burned-out new trainers (about 80% leave the industry within a year, per Alex) and members reduced to a number on a scale. Limitless resisted going online, worried it would strip away the personal connection that made their coaching work. But members kept moving away, taking real revenue with them, and Alex knew that standing out in a crowded market of online personal trainers wouldn’t be easy.
Solution
Limitless started with a free trial of TrueCoach and built their online coaching model around it. In-app messaging and video uploads let trainers keep things personal — sharing stretch and breathwork classes, checking in with written notes, and giving every member a weekly one-to-one response. TrueCoach handles the admin: structuring workouts, managing communication, running the logistics — so trainers spend their time coaching, not managing spreadsheets.
Results
Online coaching now brings in £3,500 ($4,600) a month for Limitless. Retention hasn’t just held — it’s been flawless: not a single member has left in nearly a year since moving online with TrueCoach, saving the business thousands a year in memberships that would’ve otherwise walked. TrueCoach also made a hybrid model possible, letting members train in person once a week and online the rest, so Limitless keeps growing without losing what made their coaching personal in the first place.
They met in a transformation focused gym where they learned the day to day of being personal trainers exercise execution, managing session intensity, etc. But they found that most programs swapped the “personal” bits for routine numbers on a scale, regardless of the members’ personal situation or goals.
Beyond that, the system wasn’t set up to help new personal trainers stay with their passion, resulting in most trainers leaving the field soon after starting. They knew that there had to be a better way – and they were able to execute it with the help of TrueCoach.
Limitless Lifestyle Community Mission: Personally Holistic
As Alex explains it, most personal training gyms have two plans; one for weight loss, one for building muscle. Whether you were a 5-foot tall 20-year-old female or a 6-foot 4 ex rugby player, you were given the same plan. “There was no personal about it. You basically put someone’s self-worth on the number of a scale. We decided to make our mission about putting the personal back into personal training.”
To do that, they became very holistic focused. “Everything we do tries to fit into our five pillars of physical exercise, mental wellbeing, mindful nutrition, social interaction, and the most important, which we all neglect, is our recovery. We have a digital body scanner, which we check the fat percentage, biological age and muscle mass – not just weight.”
They also didn’t want cost and access to be an issue for members trying to achieve their goals, so they created a unique unlimited coaching model. “Each of our tiered memberships have a set amount of PT sessions per week, but every member has access to unlimited classes. If you want to train every single day, you can train every single day, and you’ll be coached every single day.” At other gyms, if you want or need more help you’d have to pay more or go without.
A Stable Start for New Trainers
At the same time, they found the industry was especially tough on new trainers. “I think the latest index is saying about 80% of personal trainers will leave the industry within the first 12 months,” says Alex. “It takes more than being an amazing trainer – you have to market yourself, ask for money, schedule clients, and more. It’s constant competition. More experienced personal trainers aren’t going to help because it’s their livelihood too.”
They flipped the script on that, providing an opportunity and security for new trainers to make a go of it. “We get them straight out of the (personal training) qualification and we coach them to be the best coaches. We take care of their taxes, we do all the marketing for them, we help them build the programs.”
Growing the Business
The results are bespoke programs driven by members’ needs and goals delivered by qualified personal trainers at a fair price. The response three years in has been tremendous. In fact, if members did drop off it was because they moved away. But the losses were significant. Being committed to keeping personal training personal, they were resistant to online training. “As gym owners, we were kind of fighting against the online because we just thought in-person PT is the way to do it.”
The numbers don’t lie. Members moving away meant less money, plus they wouldn’t find the same attention anywhere else. Online would mean less money, but something was better than nothing for both the business, trainers, and members. They looked at a couple of solutions, started with a free trial of TrueCoach, and haven’t looked back.
Establishing an Online Presence
With a unique business and membership model, they wanted to make sure they could continue to deliver on their mission. “Setting up the business, my biggest worry was that there’s a lot of online personal trainers – how am I going to stand out?” TrueCoach made it possible.
“Having a tool like TrueCoach, I just have to focus on what I’m good at, and that is delivering my service.” TrueCoach takes care of the rest, all of the time-consuming things such as structuring the workouts and communicating with the member.
In particular, Alex points to the in-app communication via the messaging and the video upload to bringing their personal attention to online members. “We wanted to focus on some of our classes we do, stretch and breathwork classes. The videos that we can upload, the communication side of the app allows us to actually offer as good as you can get without being in person.”
Members can communicate what they’re struggling with through notes, not just weights and reps. Once a week, everybody gets a one-to-one response from their trainer to maintain momentum toward their goals. “You can actually communicate with them, even if we’ve got people in Australia and it feels as though we’re just right there for them.”
“The way you can communicate with the online member as a trainer, how you can manage and use AI alongside TrueCoach, it’s such a seamless process and is really effective. Coming up to a year now, not a single person has left, which is crazy when you think about it. It saved us thousands a year from lost memberships, which is invaluable with an economy that is fighting against small businesses. Every penny is so important right now.” And it’s more than pennies. Now (mid-2026) online drives £3500 ($4,600) per month for the business.
Level Up with Gamification
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that a business that puts such a focus on personal attention to the member takes it a step further. “We try and gamify all branches of the business where you get XP (experience point). So for every time you complete a session, you’ll get XP.” That translates into incentives and rewards for both in person and online members alike. For example, when a member completes 50 sessions, they might get a voucher to their partner’s favorite restaurant.
Just Be a Coach
To do online coaching, you need a tool that’s going to allow you to be an online coach says Alex. “You need to focus on what you have to do as a coach and not worry about the admin side.”
“You need something that is simple but so effective and TrueCoach will allow you to do that. I can’t put that into words how much of a difference that makes to our business,” says Alex. “Never mind the ex-members who’ve moved away. Never mind the new members that we can take in. We do the hybrid training where they can come in once a week to do PT and the rest of its online. True coach is just head and shoulders above the rest.”
In his parting words, Alex summed it: “TrueCoach allows you to be a coach.”
About Limitless Lifestyle Community
Limitless Lifestyle Community is an award-winning personal training facility located at 89 Dale Street, Liverpool City Centre.
Limitless Lifestyle Community | Award-Winning Liverpool Gym
With TrueCoach, Alex and Levi’s clients now have access to state-of-the-art exercise prescription and patient management tools, including:
- Workout Design and Execution – TrueCoach’s drag-and-drop workout builder allows coaches to create a completely customized program in under two minutes.
- Goal Progress & Analysis – The comprehensive dashboard allows coaches to see client progress and analysis all in one place.
- Client Management – The success of any fitness instructor hinges on this. See client engagement, success, and performance at a glance from your home screen.
- Personal Branding Business Management – The fitness industry is a competitive one, which means getting to grips with the ins and outs of finance, business management and personal branding in an app designed to be customized.
- Nutrition & Habit Tracking – Prescribe custom nutrition plans and create individual habits for clients to focus on their success in and outside the gym, fuelled by TrueCoach’s MyFitnessPal integration.