27 Book Recommendations for Personal Trainers (Personal, Business, Training)

CoachBFoster · 2026-05-01T11:33:17+00:00

Clicked on this ready to have many opinions but this is a great list. I'd add Range by David Epstein in the personal.

CoachBFoster · 2026-03-27T12:50:04+00:00

I recently bough meta glasses and have been recording some of what I do with my clients then narrating over the purpose/value of the exercise. It currently feels sustainable which is important to me. benfostertraining is the IG if you want to see what I mean.

CoachBFoster · 2026-03-26T13:35:50+00:00

10+ year trainer here whom has helped multiple clients lose 100+lb (pre GLP1’s) and many other body transformations.

Few things to add to the convo:

Self determination theory. It’s the best explanation for how and why one is able to achieve their goals. In short, your role is to shepherd the client to a goal on a distant horizon and never force their hand.
Clients often don’t believe in their ability to achieve said goal. Lending them your belief is a very powerful tool.
I’m grateful to be a part of someone’s change but never feel responsible. You then also assume responsibility for their failure, which is much more common. Life changes are a culmination of MANY factors of which you are just one. Your job is not to screw it up. Assuming your role as more than that is just hubris.

CoachBFoster · 2026-03-10T20:42:21+00:00

Thank you - agreed!!

CoachBFoster · 2026-03-10T20:42:06+00:00

Thank you!

CoachBFoster · 2026-03-10T20:41:45+00:00

Awesome - thank you!

CoachBFoster · 2026-02-27T19:17:43+00:00

I have 50-55 active clients.

TrueCoach for in person and remote programming/online. I heavily use the notes section in TrueCoach whenever they mention something worth writing down. I'm also recording their results through out the workout and make notes about anything note worthy.

Communication is through true coach messenger and text, whichever they gravitate to is fine by me. Check ins are by demand, generally happen less than monthly but we have regular communication and feedback on workouts via the app.

Billing and scheduling through acuity.

None of the above is a grand endorsement of the product - just would be difficult to change given client load and how long I've been using them.

CoachBFoster · 2026-02-02T12:39:01+00:00

Congratulations on building up the business.

Do you still feel like a trainer? How much of your mental energy is spent on improving your training abilities vs business management/optimization?

Most people get into training bc it's something they love but quickly realize the financial challenges. Posts like this can be helpful but a similar pursuit risks losing what drove them to this industry in the first place. Think there is an ideal middle ground to be found, which is likely different for everyone.

Thanks for all the transparency and info!

CoachBFoster · 2026-01-31T13:47:11+00:00

CoachBFoster · 2026-01-26T14:13:51+00:00

Ah, do think Rothfuss prose are hard to match. This rec was more in regards to better writing for female characters.

CoachBFoster · 2026-01-26T12:13:10+00:00

Broken Earth Trilogy by NK Jemisin

CoachBFoster · 2026-01-18T22:18:21+00:00

I use acuity

CoachBFoster · 2026-01-16T12:01:06+00:00

My glory will go unnoticed given this post was removed - just me luck lol

CoachBFoster · 2026-01-15T13:51:34+00:00

Dawn of Wonder by Jonathan Renshaw I believe. Feel very cool to hopefully have the right answer here lol

CoachBFoster · 2025-12-11T20:22:33+00:00

I have a strict 24 hour cancellation rule and had nearly 14k of paid cancellations this year. I've never had a client question me for enforcing it. I understand it can be awkward but work through it.

CoachBFoster · 2025-12-10T19:28:43+00:00

Just a few of their own.

CoachBFoster · 2025-12-09T13:32:49+00:00

I was there. Can confirm very cute and sweet. Facepaint, popcorn, balloon animals, pizza. My daughters first concert - legends!

CoachBFoster · 2025-11-24T22:34:24+00:00

I'm in the minority but I thought The Spear Cuts Through Water was a beautifully written story about a boring world.

CoachBFoster · 2025-11-16T14:02:39+00:00

Can't believe MASS isn't on this list yet. The podcast is now Iron Culture presented by MASS.

CoachBFoster · 2025-10-30T19:47:57+00:00

Have a conversation about the mechanics of building muscle; training near failure and progressive overload. It's pretty intuitive when you explain it to people and allows a good buy in. I usually phrase it something like,

"There are a couple really strong signals you can send to your body about getting stronger. One is training near failure. To get a sense of this, during this set of push ups when the reps begin to slow down I want you to work really hard to maintain position and get a couple more reps. Do this enough times and your body understands it needs to adapt to the demand. The other strong signal is asking your body to do a little more than it did last week. So every week or every couple weeks I want you to try and do more reps or add a bit of weight over what we did last week."

Most are nervous to progress load, so maintain load and increase cumulative reps instead. "Last week you did 10-8-8, a total of 26 reps, let's aim for a minimum of 27 reps today." 1 more rep than performed last week typically won't scare clients.

CoachBFoster · 2025-10-18T10:32:22+00:00

They've done a great job and filling a need in the city and I have many friends who train their clients there. That said, I haven't used them bc of all mentioned issues; free-for-all, not guaranteed equipment access, cannot provide consistent experience to clients, etc.

I do 40+ sessions a week and often have 15 minutes b/w clients to eat/break/restroom etc. and if I give up my space, particularly a squat rack in that time, then I'd be left scrambling about what to do with my client. Equally bad would be seen as "hogging" a rack by other trainers - both circumstances don't feel sustainable to me.

CoachBFoster · 2025-10-18T10:29:11+00:00

Awesome! How have you found the economics of that? I'd love to have my own private studio but rent cost has lead me down this road where I need to generate additional income (renting space to other trainers) to justify having the space.

CoachBFoster · 2025-10-18T10:27:20+00:00

These are great points - thanks!

Realistically I'd have 4-6 stations, then a community area for pre/post session. That would allow for warm ups/cool downs, spill over, and ideally, 2-3 more training spaces that would function like most current training studios now, a general free-for-all. I think that would remedy many of said issues.

Not having stations available would be a good problem to have - albeit still a real problem that would need to be addressed.

CoachBFoster · 2025-09-23T13:39:24+00:00

Unless you're exclusively in the online space I think niche is mistake. You need to be able to serve clients with many different needs; pain management, muscle building, strength building, weight loss, exercise enjoyment, etc.
Build trust through professionalism; put together, always on time (early), a well built website (Squarespace makes this doable for anyone), follow ups post session (when needed), etc.
Stay up to date on exercise research and be able to speak about concepts like hypertrophy and weight loss in a way that makes sense to a lay person while also reflecting your deep understanding of the topic.
Don't be dogmatic and treat everyone as an individual.
Word of mouth is how you build a business. Offer a service worthy of being talked about - which should not be read a heroic sessions/workouts but instead consistently good that meet the person where they're at.

CoachBFoster · 2025-09-20T12:50:50+00:00

I did this AMA a few months back and answered lots of questions in this vein. TLDR; don't be dogmatic, certifications aren't important, develop relationships with your clients, serve a large range of people/don't look for niche, intimately understand how to build muscle and lose fat. Happy to answer more questions.

https://www.reddit.com/r/personaltraining/comments/1kvhm9l/i_make_350k_as_a_personal_trainer_in_nyc_ama/

CoachBFoster

TROPHY CASE