NDIS and Personal Training in Sydney: What Is Actually Funded

Personal training is a named NDIS support. It has its own entry in the legislated supports list, its own support item number, and its own national price limit, currently $69.39 an hour. What is not funded is the gym itself. Membership, club entry and standard gym equipment are explicitly excluded. That single distinction settles most NDIS personal training questions, and it is the thing most fitness websites get wrong. Everything below is drawn from the NDIS legislation and the current pricing schedule, with links, and none of it replaces advice from your own plan manager or support coordinator.

Yes, personal training is on the list

The rules that decide what the NDIS pays for were legislated in 2024 and took effect on 3 October 2024. Schedule 1 of those rules lists the supports that are NDIS supports, and item 18 is headed "Exercise physiology and personal well-being activities". It covers supports that "maintain or increase physical mobility or well-being through personal training or exercise physiology", including "accessing services from an appropriately qualified professional", the "assessment and development of a personalised exercise program" and the "maintenance of muscle strength, range of motion, balance and mobility" (NDIS Supports Transitional Rules 2024).

In budget terms it sits in the Capacity Building budget, support category 12. Older plans label that category Improved Health and Wellbeing; PACE plans label it Health and Wellbeing. The registration group behind the item is called Exercise Physiology and Personal Training, which is why the number has 0126 in the middle of it.

The support item, and what it is worth

The current price document is the NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27, effective 24 September 2026 (NDIS pricing arrangements). The three line items most relevant to exercise are:

• 12_029_0126_3_3, personal training provided by a Personal Trainer to a participant. $69.39 per hour, national price limit.
• Exercise physiologist, direct service. $161.99 per hour, national price limit.
• Physiotherapist, direct service. $183.99 per hour, national price limit.

The schedule also sets who may deliver each one. Personal training supports are "supports delivered by a person who has a personal training qualification" at "(Certificate III, IV or Diploma) in Fitness or equivalent". Exercise physiology supports must be delivered by "a person who is an Accredited Exercise Physiologist" "with Exercise and Sports Science Australia".

Read the three numbers together and the practical point is hard to miss. An hour of coached personal training costs a plan well under half what an hour of exercise physiology costs, which changes how many sessions a Capacity Building budget stretches to across a plan year. That is not an argument for treating them as interchangeable. An Accredited Exercise Physiologist is a university-qualified allied health professional with a minimum of four years of study and 360 hours of clinical practical experience (ESSA). A personal trainer is not, and where a clinical condition needs managing, an AEP or a physiotherapist is the right call. Where the goal is strength, balance, mobility and independence, coached training is usually the better value per hour.

What the NDIS will not pay for

Schedule 2 of the same rules lists the supports that generally are not NDIS supports. Under day-to-day living costs it rules out "general health, fitness, social or recreational activity costs or services" and "membership and entry to a recreational club and standard gym equipment".

So the line runs between the service and the access. One-to-one coaching that relates to your disability and sits in your plan can be funded. The gym membership that gets you through the door cannot, and neither can general fitness that anybody would pay for regardless of disability. If a provider tells you the NDIS will cover your gym membership, they are either confused about the rules or hoping you are.

The three conditions that actually decide it

Every support has to pass the reasonable and necessary test. A support needs to "relate to your disability", "help you work towards your goals", "be value for money" and "be likely to be effective and beneficial to you", and it cannot "include day-to-day living costs" (NDIS, what reasonable and necessary is). In practice that becomes three questions:

• Does it relate to your disability? Not to general fitness. The connection between the training and your functional goals is what makes it fundable, which means the wording of the goals in your plan matters more than anything a trainer says in a sales conversation.
• Is the funding actually in your plan? The NDIA is direct about this: "NDIS funding can't be spent on anything that isn't an NDIS support." Check that you hold Capacity Building funding before you book anything.
• Is the person delivering it appropriately qualified? For personal training the schedule sets that bar at a Certificate III, IV or Diploma in Fitness or equivalent. Ask to see it.

One claim worth correcting, because it is everywhere. A lot of sites state that the NDIS requires an exercise physiologist to write your program before a personal trainer can be paid. We went looking for that requirement in the legislation and in the current pricing schedule and could not find it, so we are not going to repeat it as fact. What is true is that evidence connecting the training to your disability support needs helps your case, and the NDIA's own guidance notes that evidence "may include reports from an allied health professional". Helpful, not mandatory, as far as the published rules go.

Plan management decides whether you can use a studio at all

This is the part that saves a wasted appointment, so it is worth putting plainly. If your funding is NDIA-managed you "can't use unregistered providers for NDIS supports" (NDIS, NDIA-managed funding). Unregistered providers are available where "your funding is self-managed or you use a registered plan manager", and unlike registered providers they are not capped at the published price limits (NDIS, what a provider is).

• Self-managed. You can engage any provider, registered or not, and you pay and claim yourself.
• Plan-managed. Your registered plan manager pays the invoice, and the provider does not have to be NDIS-registered.
• NDIA-managed. Registered providers only, and they cannot charge above the price limit.

So there are two questions to ask before you book anything, anywhere, including with us. On your side: which of those three applies to your plan. On the studio's side: are they a registered NDIS provider. Those two answers together tell you in 30 seconds whether the arrangement can work, and asking them first is the single easiest way to avoid a wasted trip.

Getting started, in order

• Read your plan, specifically the Capacity Building section. You are looking for health and wellbeing funding and for goals that relate to strength, mobility, function or independence.
• Confirm your plan management type. Self-managed, plan-managed or NDIA-managed, as above. This decides your options more than anything else.
• Write the goal in functional terms. "Get fitter" is hard to fund. "Build the lower-body strength to get off the floor unassisted" or "walk to the shops without needing to stop" is a goal a support can be measured against.
• Ask the provider three questions. Are you NDIS-registered, what are your qualifications, and will I get progress notes and compliant invoices. Clear notes make the next plan reassessment far easier.
• Check it with your plan manager or support coordinator before the first session. Not after.

What is changing, and what to watch

This area moved a lot in 2026, which is why older articles on it should be treated with suspicion. The current state, as at October 2026:

• 24 September 2026. The first NDIS pricing determination under the new legislation set the 2026-27 price limits, effective immediately. The operative document is now the NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27, which replaced the old NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits as the source of price limits.
• Later in 2026. The 2026-27 schedule is expected to be updated following the Fair Work Commission decision of 11 September 2026, so the hourly figures above may move.
• Proposed from 1 January 2027, not confirmed. Differentiated pricing, where the price limit depends on whether a registered or unregistered provider delivers the support. If it proceeds it directly affects what unregistered studios can charge a plan. Treat it as a watch item, not a fact.
• From February 2027. Plan continuations are replaced by plan renewals, and unspent funds from a previous plan will not carry over. If you have Capacity Building funding sitting unused, that is a reason to plan its use now rather than later (NDIS, securing the NDIS for future generations).

Training at our Maroubra studio

Our studio at 319 Malabar Road is private and small, which for a lot of participants is the deciding factor. No queues for equipment, no crowd, no music you have to shout over, and a coach beside you for the whole session rather than a program handed to you at the door. Sessions are one-on-one, and what we program is the unglamorous end of training: strength, balance, carrying, getting up and down off the floor, and the capacity to do ordinary things without planning around them.

If you are wondering what the first session involves, here is exactly what happens in a first session, and if you are weighing up the value against other supports, we wrote about how to judge the return on personal training. On how often to train, the general answer for most adults is two to three sessions a week, which we broke down in how many times a week you should train.

Happy to talk it through with no obligation, including the awkward funding questions. Book a consultation and we will tell you straight whether this is a good use of your plan or whether an exercise physiologist is the better first step. Always confirm funding and plan details with your support coordinator or plan manager before starting.

Questions

Frequently asked questions