Abdominal Credit Crunches

Gyms and health-clubs have hard times ahead. The credit crunch is going to impact on membership figures as people start to cut-back on non-essentials; anything with a monthly direct debit will suffer, starting with the £50+ per month gym fee, then down through the satellite TV subscription to the charity donations.

On top of this, new budget offerings from clubs like MiFit and FitSpace costing from £9.95 per month are going to look more and more attractive to the average person who wants to work out once or twice a week, and doesn’t want the frills. This will hit local authority and public clubs first, as there is less to differentiate them, and they often run short term contracts, or none at all.

So how do gyms survive in this brave new world? Some clubs plan to try to increase sales, which is the wrong answer. Increased sales means more focus on new joiners, and unless you are taking on more staff, this means less focus on the existing members, which will increase drop-out. Retention is going to become so very important over the next 6 -12 months; clubs without a retention policy are likely to be in big trouble. Some suggest that 50% of the club’s marketing budget should be spent on member retention, which is a good start!

Measuring monthly attrition (drop-out) rates and then setting a target to improve (or at the worst, maintain) that attrition rate should be a priority. All staff in the club should somehow be accountable for part of the picture, and everyone should pull in the same direction to ensure members are motivated and returning to the club on a regular basis.

The health club industry is facing some major changes. The combination of the credit crunch and budget gyms means many clubs will have to evolve to stay alive. Differentiation will be the key, and clubs must demonstrate value for money to their existing members whether it be a fluffy towel and sauna, or simply tracking improvement in the member’s fitness levels.

What did you expect?

When was the last time someone said “what did you expect” to you? Probably when something had gone wrong, or you had failed to achieve what you wanted. A negative, in other words.
When something positive happens, you are much more likely to be told (or to think) that you worked hard for it, or that it was down to good luck, rather than “what did you expect”.
Here’s the theory – expect more often. Not just more (although that’s good too), but more-often. Everyone has expectations, but they are often subconscious. Set-out, think through or even write down what you expect before you start, and it is more likely to happen. Whether it is a business meeting, a run/gym session, or a golf shot, tell yourself what you expect before you begin.

Take a look at your to-do or task list (if you’re one of the lucky ones who have one) at the start of the day and tell yourself (or someone else) how many of them you expect to complete today. Not how many you’d like to complete (all of them?), but how many you expect to complete. You will be more likely to succeed, and it will not because of luck, or because you worked harder. This is a very short term example. Here is a very long term example:

The father that expects his teenage daughter to be back from her night out by 10pm is more likely to be rewarded by seeing her home before curfew than the one who does not expect it. (Beware, and read this correctly, no-one is expecting their daughter to be late, one expects her to be on time, the other does not expect). This expectation would need to be built up over a lifetime of expectation and obedience; after all, if the daughter is habitually home late, expectation alone is unlikely to change the pattern.

So set your expectations, and expect more often. Feel free to just expect more too, it’s no bad thing. As Oddball (Donald Sutherland) said in Kelly’s Heroes, “Positive vibes, Man!”

Distance not Time, or the Olympic 10 second sprint

How do you set your exercise goals? It seems to me that most people will work out on certain equipment in the gym for a certain amount of time. Many instructors set member's programs with 10 minutes on this kit, 5 minutes on that, which is a strange way of working to me...

If you're watching the Olympics at the moment, are you looking forward to the 10 sec sprint, the 2 hour cycling race, or the 2 minute swimming finals? I know it sounds weird, and would be very hard in certain contests to see who got the furthest after an certain amount of time. It is also hard to remember the distance you cover in your allocated time. I bet most people know that the 100m world record is just under 10 sec (currently 9.72 by Usain Bolt of Jamaica).

My brain remembers times more easily than distances if I'm trying to improve my performance.
If you set a distance goal to run, cycle or row, and then try to beat your previous time is much more motivating than running for 10 minutes, and checking how far you've run.
Try it, and let me know...

Harbinger: Scenario #2: The Gym 2.0

An old blog by now, but a very interesting one, particularly when I was deciding what to do with life after SMA, and writing the GG Fit business plan...
This harps back to my first posting, with a scenario that is now one of my key goals.

Harbinger: Scenario #2: The Gym 2.0

Chin Up

So I went for a run earlier today and as the sun started to beat down on me and I was going uphill for a bit, my head naturally started to droop as I tried to dig deeper into the energy reserves. As I came down the other side of the hill, my head lifted, and I had an idea (one of the reasons I run is that I often come up with ideas when I’m out).

Here it is:

Running with your head up is much better than looking at the ground.

I think it is because you get a lot more light from the sky in your vision and less dark mud/grass/road, and this is clearly a good thing. It makes you feel better, and be more creative, whether you’re running, walking or just sitting still. At least, I guess it’s linked to light – try it and let me know. Of course you need to keep an eye on where your feet are going, but your peripheral vision should be able to cope with seeing whether there’s a log or stone you need to avoid, and splashing through puddles is part of the run for me. If it’s improving your peripheral vision for free, then that’s a great side effect; goodness knows how much premiership football teams spend on peripheral vision exercises.

The “Chin-Up” expression is normally only used when people are down in the dumps, in fact the only time I remember being told to keep my chin up was when I had been dumped. But my extensive research (!) shows that you should be keeping your chin up all the time, and you will be even more positive, motivated and creative.

I made a conscious effort to keep my head up for the rest of my run (just over 5k around Highgate Woods), and came up with several other ideas, more than usual in fact, so I had to write them down as soon as I got back, before guzzling down my normal pint of water. I also recorded my best time for several weeks, which was nice too!

So if you want to be more creative or more motivated, keep your chin up, and whether someone’s just been dumped or not, if they’re shoe-gazing, tell them to do the same.

Why are gyms still in the stone age?

Why do most gyms and health clubs still use the paper and pencil method of recording workouts?
In this modern technological age, it amazes me that a workout program is designed by the instructor on a piece of paper, and the user is expected to tick the exercises done during a visit, or record times or distances run. Most gym managers to whom I have spoken believe that this offers a "more personal approach", and that systems would make it more impersonal and alienate members. Instructors are concerned that the systems will replace them, when they really should be embracing them.

Polar heart rate monitors are fantastic little gizmos that you wear around your chest on a strap, and they transmit your hear rate to the treadmill, bike, or a Polar watch. They have done this for years, before bluetooth or wifi, but still we struggle to get the data from the equipment. Any cardio machine will ask your age, weight, how far/long you want to run/bike/etc for, and then tell you how many calories you burnt, along with other stats as you get off. Systems exist to record this data, but they are not used in most gyms, so if you want to record your time/kcal/etc, you need to write it on your program card... coh!

Exercise management systems are a no brainer for improving fitness, motivation, competition between members, retention, and the member experience. So why are they so underused???