The annual International Health, Racquet & SportsClub Association (IHRSA) International Convention & Trade Show took place March 7-10 in Los Angeles and, honestly, it was a exceptionally exciting time for AFS and the entire fitness studio community.
We had over 25 formal meetings and scores of informal conversations with industry leaders over the three-day period.
As fitness professionals, we know consistency is key to lasting results. Honestly, most of our clients know that too. But there’s often a disconnect between understanding this at an intellectual level and implementing this knowledge for lasting change.
In order for our work to be meaningful, our mission achievable, our retention rates high and our businesses thriving, we must arm clients with the right tools for behavior change.
The other week, I had the honor and pleasure to present two seminars at the Empower! Fusion event in Chicago, and let me tell you – it was most definitely EMPOWERING!
Over a thousand attendees were on hand, with energy off the charts, with an amazing eagerness to learn, network, and workout. My two sessions - one on Studio Trends and the other How to Start your Own Fitness Business – were well attended and the interaction was incredible.
Online marketing trends can be difficult to keep up with. The digital world changes so quickly and so often that unless you make a point to keep on top of it, you could find yourself falling behind without realizing it.
That’s why we want to share some of the online marketing trends we think will be the ones to follow in 2017, to help independent fitness studio owners stay in front of the curve.
When I started as a personal trainer, my club had a system where we gave each new member two “free” sessions. On the first session, we took them through a traditional exercise routine with the “boring blue card” where we marched them from one machine to the next, wrote down the seat adjustment, weight and suggested sets and reps.
Then, on our second session - which we called the “wow” session - we used non-traditional equipment, applied more “functional training” movements, and tried to impress the member with all the cool exercise combinations we knew.
We can all agree that if an activity is fun, we’re more likely to do it, right? As trainers, we understand this and do our best to incorporate “play” or “fun” into our training.
We advise our clients to choose exercise modalities that they like to do, we select exercises that will not only improve our clients’ fitness levels, but also create an enjoyable experience, and some of us even develop creative incentive programs for our clients to reward them for their hard work.
If it seems like everybody always wants a piece of the fitness studio trainers’ time, it’s probably because demands are high and ever-increasing.
Trainers are often called upon not only for one-on-one and group training, but also for scheduling, developing programming, monitoring safe exercise execution and countless other vital tasks.
Fitness is no different than many industries who are always looking to stay on top of trends. Fashion has its waves of top styles and colors, restaurants have the favorite dishes and flashy ingredients we all look to have on our plates.
Being in fitness for 12 years myself, I have seen my share of what has stayed mainstream and what has fallen to the wayside.
“We can’t escape fear. We can only transform it into a companion that accompanies us in all our exciting adventures; it is not an anchor holding us transfixed in one spot.” This quote from the book “Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway” is a perfect example of what happens to most people in life and business.
Fear is our natural reaction to danger. But honestly, at this point in world history, how much physical danger are we actually in?
Most studio owners have been affected by ClassPass in one way or another. There are those of you who have used it as a marketing tool to get an increasing number of bodies into your studios and classes. For others, you have been fighting against it as you watch some of your clients and members walk out the door.
In case you are not familiar, ClassPass is "a new kind of gym membership that grants you access to thousands of different classes at studios and gyms in your city and around the world,” per their website.
• Trainer, Manager or Owner • Beginner or Veteran • 500-10,000 sq.ft.