Teach Fitness Online: How to Create an Online Fitness Course

Whether you are a personal trainer or you have a passion for fitness, now is the right time to start teaching online.

The global online fitness market was valued at $6 billion back in 2019, and is forecasted to reach $59 billion by the year 2027.

The industry is growing exponentially, so if you are thinking about starting your own online course teaching fitness, keep reading below and we will show you how.

Is Teaching Fitness Online the Same as In-Person Classes?

The short answer is no, it is not the same.

In-person classes have many benefits, especially for students. That doesn't mean that online classes do not work, they just have to be approached in a different way.

Online fitness courses have their benefits as well: students can access the classes from anywhere in the world, work our from their own home, at their own pace.

As the creator, you will be able to reach a much broader audience with online learning, making it easier to scale your business and generate leveraged income.

We have recently interviewed Shelly Coffman, a yoga teacher who uses Heights Platform to sell fitness online courses.

She explained us the benefits of teaching yoga online, and how for her it is even better than hosting in-person classes.

"The problem that online courses solve for me is that I have a ton of information to teach, and students need to understand the philosophy behind Yoga or Ayurveda."

If you want to learn how Shelly managed to create a successful Yoga online course, click the bottom below.

How to Start Selling Fitness Online Courses

Without further ado, let's see how you can get started selling fitness online courses:

#1. Pick a Niche

The fitness industry is huge! So before you start building your online course, it is important to select a specific niche within the industry and focus your content around that.

The more you narrow it down, the better.

For instance, if you are an expert in "Weight Loss", you might want to narrow down your focus to attract more of your ideal clients.

So instead of selling a general weight loss course, try specifying who the course is for and what result your students are going to achieve by the end of the course.

A good example can be "Toning and weight-loss online course for postpartum women".

We wrote a whole article on how to pick your online course topic and name it according to your niche: How to Choose the Perfect Name for Your Online Course

#2. Choose a Business Model for Your Fitness Course

If you come from the world of in-person training, you probably have never thought about choosing a business model for your classes.

With online courses, things get a little bit more complicated. There are many ways you can structure your online course and sell it to your audience, and there is no right or wrong answer when it comes to finding the right fit for your business.

When it comes to teaching fitness online, the most popular business model is the membership site.

A membership site is a type of online course that offers ongoing, gated content for your audience.

With a membership site, your customers pay a monthly or annual fee to get continuous access to your course.

This type of business model is a great option for fitness courses of any kind as generally, people who want to start working out are in it for the long run.

Membership sites are awesome but this doesn't mean that you are limited to this business model only. You can choose to offer standard online courses, challenges, digital products, bundles and even all of these products combined!

Another popular online course type in the fitness world is challenges. Challenges are short-term online courses that focus on delivering a specific, quick result to participants.

You probably already heard about challenges like "Lose 10 pounds in 21 days challenge" or "7-day challenge to get abs" etc...

As challenges are generally shorter, cheaper and require less commitment compared to an online course, you can use them to drive traffic to your main products and acquire new customers.

Learn more about creating and selling online challenges:

• How to Launch an Online Challenge in 5 Easy Steps
• How to Run an Online Challenge as a Lead Magnet to Increase Online Course Sales
• Introducing Challenges in Heights Platform: (How to Increase Engagement and Boost Online Course Sales)

#3. Choose The Right Online Course Platform

So now you learned that there are many different business models and online course types you can use to create a complete fitness learning program.

This is great! But how can you create all these different types of online courses without spending a lot of money on a bunch of different software?

The answer is finding an online course platform that lets you create unlimited content in different formats.

Fortunately, Heights Platform is the all-in-one online course software that lets you create online courses, membership sites, digital products, challenges, coaching products, communities and more - all inside one account for a fixed monthly price.

The most interactive and engaging medium for online course lessons is video. Especially when it comes to fitness, you need to offer video content to your students.

Video is an essential part of any fitness online course, as students need to visually understand what they need to do in order to be able to replicate it.

If you are not confident in front of a camera or you are not familiar with creating video tutorials, check out this article from our blog: OBS Tutorial - Create Awesome Videos for Your Online Course With Little to No Editing

And if you are not sure of which equipment you should get for creating video lessons, here is a compilation of our favorite recording tools.

#5. Promote Your Fitness Online Course

Now that you chose your business model, created content and recorded videos in your online course creation platform, it is time to start promoting your online course to get your first sales.

There are many different promotion techniques you could use to market your fitness online course. We usually suggest to our creators to try to build an audience first.

From the moment you choose to start your online business, you should try to spread the word about it and gather a small audience for your future online course. If you managed to gather a small audience before the launch, once your online course is live you will already have some people interested in your topic and maybe your will gain your first sale right away!

Check out our ultimate guide for promoting an online course with both free and paid strategies: A Complete Guide on How to Promote Your Online Course and Boost Sales

Conclusion

Now is the right time to sell fitness online courses, so if you are thinking about starting your own online course, go for it!

A fitness online course is different from in-person classes, but online teaching has many benefits as well. The steps in the article should help you to get started with your online course and create a successful fitness program.

If you are looking for an online course platform for your fitness classes, Heights Platform is the perfect solution for creators who need to sell different product offerings and want the flexibility to create an online course to their own rules.