This App Wants to Make Personal Training Affordable

Personal trainer photo via istock.com/AzmanL

If you’ve decided to make 2017 the year you get fit and strong, a personal trainer’s help can be invaluable. Training sessions themselves, however, are often quite valuable—at some gyms, a single visit can cost up to $100.

Enter SplitFit, a new app for splitting the bill at the gym. It’s like UberPool, but for personal training sessions.

“Personal training has earned a reputation for being very expensive—a luxury—and a lot of people simply can’t afford it,” says Rob Shapiro, cofounder and CEO of SplitFit. “But personal training provides such an incredible workout, and it certainly shouldn’t be restricted to the wealthy.”

Say you’re at work in Kendall Square and want to squeeze in a quick workout during lunch, but you don’t have time to run all the way to your neighborhood gym in the South End. Just open the free SplitFit app; locate a time, gym, and trainer you want to use; then book your appointment. You can even set preferences for the intensity of workouts, so you aren’t overwhelmed or underworked.

Prices for a pool may start at $49 per session, for example. If you add a second person, you could pay $39 each. If you add a third—the limit for one workout—it would cost $29 each. You can invite friends to exercise with you, or make new ones through the app.

“Our vision is for SplitFit to connect people with gyms wherever they are in Boston, so they can get great personal training at the right place, right time, and for the right price,” Shapiro says.

As of now, the app only hosts personal training pooling at Bodyscapes Fitness in Kendall Square, but hopes to expand to Bodyscapes locations in Longwood and Brookline this month. Eventually, Shapiro says, the company plans to reach other local gyms and studios as well.