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Everyone's talking about...: Gyms for all?
Is the health and fitness industry truly responding to everyone’s needs? Or are we providing an offering which in practice means the fit get fitter, while the fat get fatter?
There are still vast swathes of the population who are not walking through the doors of health clubs. Are we not meeting their needs? Or is it because they are put off by the media’s representation of the sector?
Never has it been more timely to provide a service that caters for all. The obesity crisis reflects how important it is to bring the sedentary population into exercise, while the Paralympics were a great leveller, proving that having a disability does not preclude someone from participating. Elderly people and children, meanwhile – often insufficiently catered for – are in as much need of interesting opportunities to participate in activity as anyone else.
So is the sector providing these opportunities, or are we too elitist? With hardcore workouts such as HIT and CrossFit grabbing the headlines, are we putting off the overweight 40-somethings who haven’t done any exercise since school? (see HCM NovDec 12, p3). Is the trade-off at least that HIT workouts succeed in attracting a younger audience, getting people into the habit of staying fit even though they no longer play team sport? Will this help prevent another sedentary generation?
How can we ensure clubs appeal to the super-motivated gym goers as well as those who are just setting out on the path to a healthier lifestyle? Does segregating the hardcore crew from the newbies work? Or is it more motivating and aspirational to have everyone in together? Helen Tite, who runs The Core fitness studio in Cornwall, mixes cancer patients, people with disabilities and people of all abilities in her GRAVITY classes, and says the psychological impact for special populations taking part in a regular class can not be underestimated.
Are we in fact already offering the right mix of activities – do we simply need to get the message out there more effectively? We ask the experts...
Phillip Mills,
CEO,
Les Mills International
“The new HIT trend is bringing some valuable things to our traditional club industry. It’s attracting a new, younger market to fitness: people who are not long out of school or university and who have stopped playing sport, but who are not attracted by the traditional club stereotype.
Typically delivered in a format which feels like traditional sports team training, HIT creates bonding and is likely to increase retention. It gets good results and is highly motivating. From a club point of view, people are prepared to pay much more than for traditional memberships.
Personally, I’ve found it difficult to attract people to low intensity workouts: even the deconditioned don’t stay for long. People seem to respond far better to ‘intimidating’ campaigns that the PC line of thinking in our industry counsels against.
By all means use sensible induction processes, like booking people into introductory workouts and suggesting they do half classes for the first few weeks. Creating a separate area of the club for HIT workouts is also good practice for many reasons. But I’d suggest that, rather than trying to tone down this great opportunity, we jump on the wave and ride it.”
Mark Jones,
Business Manager for Health, Medical and Sport,
Technogym
“With market penetration teetering around 12 per cent for 10 years, I don’t think gyms are reaching out well enough to the people who don’t exercise.
I believe outreach is key to engaging with non-exercisers. As a starting point, I would recommend finding out what health initiatives the PCTs and health boards are running in the area and linking in with them.
Also, to communicate the message that health clubs are for everyone, gyms need to strike up relationships with the local press. We’re too used to hearing the same stories, such as everyone joining in January and leaving in March, or about the latest intimidating workout. We must feed the media positive stories: find champions in your club to use as case studies, based on real issues like weight loss and reduction in disease risk.
Once people have found the courage to walk through the doors, the induction is all-important. Staff attitude is vital to make all members feel welcome. On the gym floor, they need to focus their attention on those who need encouragement. To make gyms a lifestyle choice, we need to be constantly aware of members’ aspirations and stay abreast of their goals.”
Richard Coates,
Director,
Stars Gym
“Stars Gym started out specialising as a martial arts gym, but we realised we needed to provide a broader offering to increase our membership at the rate we wanted and to encourage members to try new things.
I think the best way of making all user groups feel comfortable is to create a community. There are various ways of doing this, including providing a mix of activities and people in one space. This removes barriers to trying new activities and breaks down preconceptions: boxers are often regarded as beefy men with tattoos, but this is not true, with bankers and mums among the converts. We’ve also started running gym circuits: a fun, social class where people feel they’re part of a group and chat to other members, but in which they can also go at their own pace. A member-to-member notice board has also helped our members to interact.
Attention from staff is important to make everyone feel comfortable and stay motivated. We’re now using KPIs to incentivise our staff to look after members. Newcomers have to be acknowledged quickly and staff are required to spend time with people on the gym floor.”
Geraldine Tuck,
Operations director,
ukactive
“Partly as a result of the recession, the health and fitness sector has looked at provision and tried to be more inclusive, conveying the message that everyone is welcome. Local authority leisure centres are particularly strong in this respect.
Gyms need to create the sense of being a hub, linking members to other activities they can do outside of the club in order to maintain an active lifestyle – for example, creating links with walking clubs. Broader activities in-club can help with this too, such as running healthy eating sessions, or marathon and triathlon training, so clubs become places people value for lifestyle advice.
In some cases, clubs don’t need to change their offering so much as improve the in-club marketing. Each member has to have their journey laid out, with human touchpoints along the way, and everyone must be treated individually.
Media representation is important too: ukactive is proactively working across all media channels to promote more stories about the importance of a healthy body image and body confidence. We have made great strides towards changing perceptions of the sector and encouraging active lifestyles.”
