Some people are paying up to $120 per session to get yelled at twice a week. Those people have personal trainers. Fitmob, the company known for funny group fitness workouts like “Weapons of Ass Reduction” and “Drop it Like a Squat,” is now getting into the game with the launch of a new personal training program called MobTribes. Its goal is to get you out of the gym and bring the workout to you at a much more affordable price point.
Just like Fitmob group workouts, the cost is much cheaper than it would be with a traditional personal trainer. For as little as $35 per session, Fitmob lets you sign up with a small group or bring your friends along and get the same benefits. Groups agree to twice-a-week sessions within one month with their chosen trainer, which works out to be eight sessions a month for $280.
The company has also added social features to its mobile app, which allows participants to check in with each other and get encouragement or additional tips from instructors and trainers.
Fitmob sources its trainers from many different places. One comes from a circus family in Russia. Jeremy Falk, the trainer I worked out with, is up from L.A. He spent the last seven years traveling the globe to learn about the mind-body connection. He says he stumbled into Fitmob through online service Thumbtack. Falks’s certifications in yoga, massage, nutrition and personal training made him the kind of trainer that is ideal for the Fitmob culture.
Trainers track your vitals and measure body fat and progress as you go. Friends can band together and get the trainer to come to their neighborhood, or they can go solo and sign up for an already formed group on the company website.
A MobTribe Session
“Get those jumps higher, everyone,” Falk shouts as I arrived for my first MobTribe session. He’s already started the warm-up portion with the small group of five. “Tuck your chin, Jeff. Knees higher, Natalie. Nice job…” he’d continue throughout the session.
It was windy and starting to get cold in San Francisco’s SoMa but I was soon to break into a hot sweat by doing rounds of push-ups and jack knives over and over till it felt like my arms might fall off. Two Fitmob assistants lay out black yoga mats and stretchy bands for the crew. What torture awaits us next? Apparently some breakdance moves. Katy Perry’s “Big Balloons” blasts in the background as Falk demonstrates the correct poses.
The hardest part for me was a circuit that lasted five minutes (but that seemed like an eternity). We start with 10 push-ups, 20 full sit-ups and 30 jumping jacks and then do that over and over and over again. The goal is to get in as many rounds as we can. I get in three full rounds. Most of the other women get to four and the two guys manage to get in five rounds.
Okay, so I’m not so fit. But I do like the idea of being able to get a smaller group of friends together and doing a private workout in my neighborhood for a third of the regular price.
You can find local workouts or sign up for a personal trainer via Fitmob’s mobile app or on the website. MobTribes are only available in the San Francisco area for now. There are over 100 workouts in various neighborhoods throughout the city now. Fitmob plans to expand both workout offerings and the amount of personal training sessions in the next few months.
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