Motiv Personal Training, Chicago

With three young kids at home, the founders of Motiv Training Gym realized how hard it was to see a trainer. Finding time as busy parents wasn’t the only source of hardship—they also hated having to reserve time with coaches via the phone, squeezing into a packed gym, and dealing with other people staring at them as they exercised. This got them thinking about how they could eliminate all of the things that got in the way of getting in a great workout while keeping all of the benefits they loved. In the end, they settled on a small-group training system in their own private fitness studio where a team of encouraging coaches set up convenient, individualized workouts for groups of up to five. These small resistance-based sessions, which they designed to build lean muscle as opposed to bulk, allow trainers to focus on each client in a semiprivate environment and offer tailored advice on how to get the most from their workout. For those who enjoy a larger group setting, they also offer boot-camp classes.

To make things even easier, they offer an online scheduling system that eschews the normal hassles of playing phone tag with a trainer or dressing up like Jack LaLanne to ensure a spot.