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Specifier: Well equipped
Operators tell Julie Cramer how they stay on top of fitness trends when it comes to choosing new equipment
Our Fitness First clubs in Germany are divided into training zones and we’re currently setting up a completely new zone, the Booty Zone, which consists of equipment that focuses exclusively on training the gluteal muscles.
Booty is a trending topic and these are useful workouts in terms of various training goals, such as promoting healthy posture, combating back pain and enhancing performance in sports. Aesthetics are also a factor with the fashion for defined glutes.
The Hyrox concept is also gaining in popularity in our clubs, meaning Hyrox equipment is becoming a permanent addition. We’re also investing in group fitness by equipping all Fitness First Black clubs with Les Mills equipment.
We implement concepts that fit into the customer journey, rather than just introducing individual pieces of equipment.
The benefits of new equipment must be clear to both customers and employees. A recognisable concept aids employees in explaining the innovations and increases member usage.
Before investing, we assess meaningfulness, added value for customers and ‘fit’ and only implement what we’ve tested and deemed effective, ensuring our offerings provide genuine value.
Experience shows that introducing new equipment without a clear idea offers no real benefit. Moreover, we prioritise maintaining a high standard for our existing equipment, ensuring all offerings in the club are consistently excellent and meet the needs of our members.
With 165+ clubs in a rapidly growing company, this is a task that should not be underestimated.
In 2025, we’re focusing on rolling out the Booty Zone in additional Fitness First clubs and integrating it into the clubs. Every year, we attend FIBO and HFA to explore innovations and trends. It’s important for us to continuously evolve and be able to offer the latest services and offerings in our clubs.
More: www.lifefit-group.com
• Glute training
• Hyrox zones
• Functional training
• Strength training
• Recovery
We’ve launched EGYM smart equipment across the Fitness First UK estate. This combined with E-Volt body composition analyser provides groundbreaking data on members’ progression.
We’re also piloting the use of luxury strength equipment from UK manufacturer Watson. Finally we’re looking at recovery through introducing Theragun and cold plunge.
We define our strategy, being mindful of what Fitness First stands for and establish our ‘why’.
Then we research new products through industry events such as the HCM Summit, W3Fit, PAF, FIBO, Perform X and Elevate, as well as keep an eye on the competition, both at home and abroad.
We’re looking for differentiation. There’s always a danger that health club operators blend into one these days, so choosing products that aren’t so common can give us that point of difference.
We’re also looking for equipment with integrations to the EGYM ecosystem. Aside from aggressive commercial terms, we’re looking for good service and training support.
More: www.fitnessfirst.co.uk
We constantly listen to member and non-member feedback and scan the market for innovations to ensure we’re offering state-of-the-art equipment.
A key focus currently is core and glute training, so we’re working with partners to plan how we can enhance our equipment in these areas.
Given the rise in demand for functional fitness and Hyrox, we’re also designing a functional zone for members wanting to train for competitions. Finally, for members who are new to strength and conditioning, we’re developing specialised equipment that eases them into strength-based training before moving into the free weights area.
Our priority is to provide maximum value-for-money, which is why we’re continuously trialling new equipment to include in our offering.
While we can’t fit everything into all our gyms, our targeted equipment innovation strategy uses data-driven insights to understand who is using the equipment and how often.
These insights inform decision making on which pieces of new equipment enhance our proposition and deliver the best value for our diverse membership.
Equipment must fulfil three groups of criteria to be added to our offering. Firstly, it has to appeal to our broad membership, be simple and regularly used and be complementary to our value proposition. Secondly, every piece of equipment needs to be virtually indestructible. We ensure this by testing new equipment in our busiest gyms before deciding if it’s the right fit. Finally, given our focus on providing value-for-money for our members, new equipment must make sense commercially.
Every year we focus on advancing our gym formats. We introduced our ‘Very Small Box’ format at the end of 2024 and will spend 2025 fine-tuning that model. We’re also looking at how we can improve our larger gym formats to appeal to an even broader audience. Looking forward to 2026, we’ll focus on our recent US expansion and what the right gym model might look like for that market.
More: www.puregym.com
Strong and sustainable consumer demand
Offers value to a club’s customer journey
• High levels of durability
• Solid warranties, servicing and training support
• Commercial proposition that makes sense for the brand
We’re always working on product innovations, focusing on how we can offer the most in-demand equipment to give members a high value experience at an affordable price.
We’ve recently extended Hyrox training classes to 120 clubs, making us the largest deliverer of Hyrox training in the UK. This has meant we need to ensure all those gyms have the right kit – for example SkiErgs.
Other key areas of focus at the moment include developing glute zones within our gyms, our strength training facilities, as well as enhancing our HIIT and functional offering.
Research is incredibly important, and we spend time looking into individual products and suppliers to assess their suitability operationally.
Lots of our members are very knowledgeable – we call this a ‘high fitness IQ’ – so staying on top of fitness trends is key, ensuring we’re up to date with what our members and potential new members want to see in their gym. This includes rolling out popular kit to more sites, such as Olympic lifting rigs and glute training.
We work closely with our current equipment partners to support future product development as our needs evolve and we continue to grow and open more gyms.
The physical product is one of the key focuses, but there are wider considerations, such as ensuring it meets our company values and our ‘high value, low cost’ proposition.
Sustainability is also an important part of our new equipment evaluation. We work with our suppliers to use less and alternative types of packing, as well as introducing a range of fully recyclable accessory products, such as lifting plates.
The overall commercial proposition has to be right, as well as the durability and the warranties. As a 24/7 provider, our kit has to be made to last as it must withstand thousands of uses per week, so getting it right is vital to the overall member experience.
We’ll keep testing, learning and listening to the most important people: our members and teams. Looking to understand members’ evolving needs, aligning with global trends and understanding where we can add value to our product proposition are also vital.
As well as this, we’re looking to open 14 to 16 new gyms in 2025, so supporting the delivery of these openings with the best kit possible is a big focus for us when it comes to purchasing.
More: www.thegymgroup.com
