NEW YORK — When Laurie Davis wakes up in the morning, she sometimes feels like skipping her workout. But two days a week, hitting the snooze button is not an option: She knows that at 7 a.m., Yvette Rose will ring the buzzer at her Manhattan apartment with hand weights and resistance bands in tow.

“Even when you don’t want to get up and put your workout clothes on, there’s just no excuse,” said Davis, an account executive at a New York advertising agency.

Many people find that hiring a personal trainer who makes house calls is the only way to ensure they stick to their fitness goals. Although it may sound like a luxury, training at home has grown more affordable since the economy soured because more instructors are willing to strike deals.

There are plusses and minuses to an at-home workout. For the client, training in the living room means giving up commercial-gym amenities — spinning rooms, saunas, the latest elliptical machine — in exchange for privacy, convenience and, most important, an iron-clad appointment.

For the trainer, making house calls means not having to split fees with a gym or invest in a lot of equipment. On the down side, it can mean having to lug heavy weights and operate in spaces that may not be ideal for a vigorous workout.

“Every time you go in, you have to scout around and make sure there isn’t stuff lying around or that the floors aren’t sticky,” Rose said.

Children and dogs can also be a problem. “I’ve taught yoga classes where the client will be in a plank position, and her son jumps on her back,” she added.

Although the price for at-home training is usually about the same as for meeting a trainer at a gym — in the New York area, it usually costs $75 to $225 an hour — many personal trainers and yoga and Pilates instructors are hungry for work, so it is a buyer’s market.

Liz Neporent, president of Wellness 360, which manages residential gyms in co-ops and condominiums, said that since the downturn she has seen a sharp increase in the number of highly qualified trainers asking to get on Wellness 360’s payroll, which offers steadier work but lower hourly pay than independent contracting.

“It used to be like pulling teeth to get them to come,” she said.

Many private trainers do not want to admit that they will lower their rates, but some clients are quietly passing on the word. Karen Hochman, editorial director of TheNibble.com, an online food magazine, said that her Pilates teacher gives her a half-price discount. Without it, she said, she would not be able to afford twice-a-week lessons in her Manhattan apartment.

“I’m grateful the recession has provided me with this opportunity, though I wish I could pay my teacher more,” Hochman said.

For Andrea Albicocco, meeting a personal trainer at the gym in her condominium in Hoboken, N.J., helped her get in shape for her wedding last fall. “I’m the kind of person who doesn’t push myself at the gym,” she said.

Though Albicocco had previously worked with trainers at a fitness club, she found the setting too public. “I didn’t like the way people were watching me,” she said. “You feel self-conscious while the trainer is showing you how to do it and pushing you.” At her home gym, she was able to negotiate a rate of $65 an hour — down from $75 — by paying for 25 sessions up front, she said.

Some people are able to afford at-home training by teaming up with a friend to share the cost. “Trainers are realizing that they may not be able to charge their regular fee of $80 an hour for a solo session, but they can charge two people $50 an hour and train them together,” said Neal Pire, a personal trainer from Ridgewood, N.J. “So they are charging less per person, but they are also making more money.”