r/personaltraining rules, stats, and what to post

This is a community for personal trainers of all experience levels to talk about the field with each other. The description says current and aspiring personal trainers, so the room holds both working trainers and people trying to get into the profession. The rules tell us the accepted topics are the business, practice, education, and career aspects of personal training. That means conversations about running a training business, how the work is done, certifications and learning, and building a career. Posts from clients or the general public that are unrelated to those topics get removed. So this is a peer room for the profession, not a place for the public to ask for workout advice.

The rule that decides most marketing outcomes here is “No solicitations”. It says linking to your own content is permitted as long as it is pertinent to a discussion relevant to the sub, but you cannot use the community to sell or promote your services in posts, comments, or direct messages. So a relevant link inside a real discussion can survive, while any pitch for your training business cannot. The second rule that matters is “No software/AI dev posts”. It says this sub is not a resource for tech development of any kind, and you cannot post to solicit feedback, conduct market research, or recruit testers or customers for software, apps, or AI tools. If you are a founder building for trainers, this rule blocks the most common founder post types outright. “Stay on topic” matters too, because only business, practice, education, and career aspects of personal training are on topic, and client or general public posts get removed. “No low-effort posts” means you should search the sub and check the Wiki before asking something, and comments should be helpful rather than dismissive. Finally, “Discussions > debates” sets the tone, thoughtful discussion over pointless arguments.

A good post here is a genuine discussion about the business, practice, education, or career side of personal training. If you want to share your own content, tie it to a discussion the sub actually cares about, and make the post about the topic rather than the link. Ask a specific question you could not answer by searching the sub or reading the Wiki first. Share an experience from your own work in the field that other trainers can learn from, and keep the tone conversational. If you are a founder rather than a trainer, the safest role is a helpful participant in discussions about the profession, never a researcher collecting answers for a product.

The fastest way to get removed is to pitch. Selling or promoting your services in posts, comments, or DMs breaks “No solicitations”. The same rule allows your own links only when they are pertinent to a relevant discussion, so a bare link drop with no discussion fails. Using the sub for tech development breaks “No software/AI dev posts”, which covers asking for feedback, doing market research, and recruiting testers or customers for software, apps, or AI tools. Off topic posts about clients or general public fitness questions break “Stay on topic”. Asking questions already covered in the sub or Wiki breaks “No low-effort posts”. Hate speech breaks “No hate speech”, and pointless arguments break “Discussions > debates”.

The thing that jumps out at me is rule 2, because it names software, apps, and AI tools directly, which tells me this room has been burned by founders before. That makes it a community where you earn trust by being a useful participant first and a builder second, if at all. I also like that self links are allowed when they genuinely fit a discussion, which is a fair deal. My honest read is that this is a place to learn from trainers, not to mine them.