You filled out the form, or you are about to, and a small voice is asking what you just signed up for. Will they make you do burpees until you feel sick? Will someone weigh you in front of a mirror? Will you walk out holding a contract you did not mean to sign?

Fair questions. Plenty of people who reach out to us have a story about an “intro session” that felt more like a tryout, or a sales pitch, than a conversation.

Full disclosure: we run a private personal training studio in Lakeview, at 2900 N Broadway, and the free first session is how people start with us. So we are not neutral. What follows is how that visit actually works, so you can decide whether it is worth 30 minutes of your week. Use it on us.

The short answer

What happens in a free first personal training session? At our studio, you spend about 30 minutes with one of our trainers. You talk through your goals, your background, your health history, and what has you interested in training, and you hear how the program could work for you. It is not a punishment workout and not a fitness test you can fail. You walk out with a clear picture of what training would look like, and the yes or no is entirely yours.

The rest of this post is detail for people who like to know what is behind the door before they open it.

Before you arrive

Block about 30 minutes, plus travel. That is also the length of every training session here, so the visit doubles as a preview of how the appointment fits your day. If you can, book it at a time you could realistically train every week.

Wear something you can move in and comfortable shoes. You do not need new gear, and nobody is grading the outfit. Bring a water bottle and anything a trainer should know about: a list of medications, notes from a physical therapist, the year of that knee surgery you always forget.

The studio sits at the corner of Broadway and Surf, at the south end of Lakeview, a couple of blocks north of the Lincoln Park border. Getting here:

  • Bus: the #36 Broadway and #22 Clark stop within about a block, and the #76 Diversey stops two blocks south.
  • L: the Wellington and Belmont stations are roughly a ten-minute walk.
  • Driving: ask when you book and we will point you to the easiest parking nearby.

More neighborhood detail lives on our Lakeview page.

Hours are Monday through Saturday, by appointment only:

  • Monday to Thursday: 5am to 9pm
  • Friday: 5am to 8pm
  • Saturday: 7am to 3pm

Every visit is booked, so you are not walking into a crowd.

How the 30 minutes actually go

Every trainer runs the conversation a little differently, and yours will follow where your answers lead. This is the rough shape.

First: what you want, and why now

The opening stretch is you talking and the trainer listening. What do you want to change? Why now, instead of last year? What have you tried, and what made it stop working?

“Lose 30 pounds” is a fine answer. So is “carry groceries up three flights without thinking about it.” The more honest the answer, the more useful the plan. Nobody needs you to sound like a fitness magazine.

Then: your health history and your calendar

Next come the questions that keep training safe: old injuries, current aches, surgeries, medical conditions, medications, and how active you are right now. This is not paperwork theater. The American College of Sports Medicine’s updated preparticipation screening recommendations (Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 2015) center on three things: your current activity level, whether you have known heart, metabolic, or kidney disease or symptoms of it, and how hard you plan to exercise. If something suggests you should talk to a physician first, a good trainer says so plainly. Every client who trains with us also signs a medical form before sessions begin.

Your schedule gets real attention too. Which mornings are actually free? Which week of the month does work swallow whole? The goal is still showing up in month four, not a heroic week two.

Then: how you move (a light look, not a test)

If there is time and you are up for it, your trainer may ask you to try a few simple movements, the kind you already do when you stand up from a chair or reach for a high shelf. The point is for the plan to start from how you move today, not from a questionnaire alone. Nothing here is max effort. If a knee or shoulder complains, say so. That is useful information, not failure.

Last: what “next” would look like

The final minutes are about a plan, not a pitch. Your trainer will explain how the program could work for you: how many sessions a week makes sense for your goal, whether 1-on-1 or a small group fits better, and how nutrition guidance and day-to-day support work between visits. You will hear about the trainer’s own experience, too.

Ask anything. What happens when I travel? What does a late cancel cost? We would rather answer hard questions now than surprise you later.

What we will not do

We will not run you into the ground. A “prove yourself” workout on day one tells a trainer very little and teaches you that training feels awful. The research backs the instinct. A review of 33 studies in Sports Medicine by Ekkekakis, Parfitt, and Petruzzello found that pleasure during exercise drops mainly once intensity pushes past the ventilatory or lactate threshold, and that people tolerate harder work better when they have a say in the intensity. Soreness so bad you cannot sit down on Thursday is not a badge. It is a reason people never come back.

We will not shame you. Our founder, David Bostik, weighed 346 pounds in 2003 and went on to lose 150. He owns the studio and built it to be private and free of judgment, because he remembers walking into a gym carrying that weight. Nobody here is surprised by where you are starting.

We will not lock you in on day one. You are not asked to buy a long-term package at the free session. If you decide to continue, plans are monthly, and the full policy language is published before you ever talk to us. More on that below.

How this differs from a big-box intro or an in-home trial

The setting usually tells you what a complimentary session is really for.

At a big commercial gym, an intro session can happen on a busy floor, around strangers and a rack someone is waiting on, and it may end with a membership conversation. That is a business model built around access. It is not the same thing as finding out whether a trainer and a plan fit you.

An in-home trial solves the commute and privacy problems, but you train with whatever equipment you own, in a living room you clear every time.

Our first visit happens in the same private, appointment-only studio you would train in. No crowd, no floor traffic, no membership fee stacked on top. You meet the kind of coach you would work with, in the room you would work in. If you want the research behind why our sessions are 30 minutes instead of an hour, we laid it out in 30-minute vs 60-minute personal training.

After the free session

If it feels like a fit, the next step is a custom plan: a training program built around what you shared. Then you start training.

Here is how plans work at a high level:

  • Frequency: 2, 3, or 4 sessions a week.
  • Format: 1-on-1, or Group Max 3 (a small group, three people at most).
  • What is included: personalized workouts, nutrition guidance, and daily support.
  • Billing: monthly auto-pay. You can change your number of weekly sessions before each month’s billing.
  • Canceling: 30 days’ notice.
  • Rescheduling: rescheduled sessions have to be used within the same billing cycle.

That is month to month, not a twelve-month contract, but it is also not walk-away-anytime. We would rather you know that now.

Current rates are published on our studio services page, and our Chicago personal trainer cost guide shows how they compare across the city. Still deciding whether training is worth the money at all? Read Is Personal Training Worth It in Chicago? first. A free session can settle that question too, even if the honest answer is to keep training on your own.

If the nerves are about the day itself, our older post on first-session nerves covers sleep, water, and clothes.

How to book your free first session

The short version: it costs nothing, it takes about 30 minutes, and you leave knowing more than when you walked in, whatever you decide. Request your free first session through our contact page or call (312) 635-5139, and we will respond within 24 hours to find a time. Curious who you might train with? Meet the team first.

Not near Lakeview, or on the road more than you are home? Our online coaching starts with a free coaching call instead: a real coach, a custom program, daily check-ins, and a weekly 1-on-1 video call from anywhere in the US.

A first session should lower your guard, not test it. Come with questions. We like skeptics.