Mars Athletic in Turkey turned to Life Fitness and Myzone to create a compelling new HIIT zone for its clubs

Mars Athletic opened its first club in Istanbul in 2007, offering advanced technology at affordable prices. The company now has more than 100 clubs across Turkey and around 260,000 members.

Interest in HIIT has surged to make it one of 2023’s hottest fitness trends (as reported in ACSM’s Health & Fitness Journal) and Mars Athletic wanted to include HIIT in its offering, so reached out to Life Fitness, who partnered with Myzone to deliver the perfect solution.

Together, they created a new concept called Hammer Strength Power, which enables Mars Athletic members to maximise the benefits of group HIIT activities, while enjoying a bespoke individual fitness experience via the Myzone app.

New dedicated spaces
To optimise this concept for its members, Mars Athletic has also created newly-designed spaces for Hammer Strength Power within its clubs, equipped with premium Hammer Strength HD Tread and HD Air Bikes, as well as Life Fitness Heat rowers, offering the highest-quality cardio workouts to members at every level of fitness.

Myzone’s wearable heart rate monitoring technology rewards effort rather than ability, using community elements and game-based mechanics to motivate users.

The Myzone app feeds users’ progress to a large screen to make exercise fun and increase member retention.

“This class allowed the trainers to detect people who have difficulties with the exercises, to show them easier variations of the movements – thanks to their heart rate – and even take special care afterward to provide a positive lesson for their exercise in the future,” says Onur Bayhan, fitness director at Mars Athletic.

Outcome and results
“The Hammer Strength Power concept at Mars Athletic is proof of how Life Fitness and Myzone deliver motivation, reward effort, and encourage positive behaviour change that lasts,” says David Stalker, Group CEO of Myzone.

More than 80 per cent of members surveyed after a Hammer Strength Power group class agreed the new concept would not only encourage them to attend the gym more frequently, but that it had also increased their engagement with the fitness community at the club.

“As operators, one of our most important goals is to create reasons for our members to come to the club more – this is one of the main tasks of every fitness product,” concludes Bayhan.

“With its innovation, fun, dynamic structure and connected experience, Hammer Strength Power classes make an invaluable contribution to us being able to achieve this goal.”

• More: www.hcmmag.com/MARS