How long is an average workout for each person Kyle?
Up to the person. They buy sessions in 30' blocks, either casually or else direct debit (pay for X sessions a fortnight). Some people like a full hour, mostly because they assume they need an hour the PT doesn't disabuse them of this notion since it's easier for them to handle a 1x 60' session than 2 separate 30'. Some will pay for 3x30' and get 2x45', but it's not common since it makes scheduling a hassle. The most common is 2x 30' a week.
2x 30' a week is enough for the "I just want to tone up" crowd, you just do circuits. 10 goblet squats, 10 dumbbell bench press, 10 rows, 10 hip hinges, a farmer's walk, one round of that is 5'. Do 3 rounds of that and 5 minutes of intervals, plus some stretching, there's your 30'. Or they could do heavier stuff, and do some steady-state cardio on their own after the PT session - they might need me to hang around for intervals, they don't need me to hang around while they jog on the treadmill for half an hour (though some people will actually pay for that). Combine with eating more protein and fruit and vegies, and most people are going to look, feel and perform better over the next 3 months, probably not much will change after that, though, to get better than the newbie effect you need to
train, and that means longer workouts.
Doing 30' sessions back-to-back, even if you had 8 hours of clients you wouldn't want to. Just being bright and chirpy, adjusting your tone and pace of the session for the sullen middle-aged accountant, then the lazy uni student, then the driven solicitor, then the stay-at-home mother, then the old retired guy with the heart problem, etc - it takes a lot out of you.
Sometimes I end up training them for longer sessions, though. If the person is strength-oriented, then provided they arrive early to warm up and do a third workout on their own sometime during the week, the women can get to squatting 60kg, benching 40 and deadlifting 80, and the men to 100/80/120, in 3-6 months. Or thereabouts. If they want to go further than that they'll need longer sessions, but they also don't need one-on-one attention by then, so I stick them in small groups; if Anna was coming tue/thu 0600-0630, and Bob 0630-0700, they can come together 6-7, get extra time, price of that is they share their own.
In practice if the person is genuinely interested in training and I've not got an appointment straight after them, the 30' stretches to 45' or even 60'. Plenty are watching the clock though, when it hits the hour or half-hour, they thank me and fuck off quickly. Exercising, not training.
My clients in my garage gym, they just pay for 3 months, and come up to 3 times a week, they stay for as long as it takes to complete the planned workout, this might be 30' or it might be 90'. I'm not watching the clock.
Certainly there's a lot of crap in it,
myst, but there is in every job. Question is, do the good bits make up for the bullshit. With weights, you change people's lives. Of every 10 clients, about 3 don't hang around long enough to get any lasting improvement (less than 3 months). About 3 stay long enough but aren't that dedicated so get only a small improvement, another 3 stay and are dedicated and get a big improvement, and 1 is just fucking astounding. So 7 out of 10 get some improvement, and 1 of those amazes me.
General gym members you can take the same numbers but make them out of 100 instead of 10. But it comes to the same thing, you use the ones who get good results to help you handle those who get none.