mywellness challenge club - Make a MOVE

"Make a MOVE" is a very popular Technogym UK challenge that pits club teams against each other to collect the most MOVEs. This article talks about the challenge that we're running for some clients, but you can find many more posts about Make a MOVE here on this blog.

Here's a 3 minute video explaining the Why, How and What of Make a MOVE:

MAKE A MOVE CHALLENGE - for Technogym UK clubs

For clarity, the MAKE A MOVE CHALLENGE is a Technogym UK challenge, managed by Technogym UK for connected MyWellness clubs in the UK.

We've supported this over the last few years, with tips and advice for UK clubs to get the most from the challenge and to engage, motivate, and retain as many of their members as possible. You can read all the related posts here.

How to Make the Most from Make a Move - Part 1

The Technogym Make a Move challenge is a UK nationwide club challenge that encourages facilities using the MyWellness cloud to challenge their members to collect MOVEs. It is a team challenge, so it pits instructors against each other to find out which instructor team can collect the most MOVEs from 7th to 25th November.

For motivation, there are 2 focuses on prizes. The winning team’s club will win a Skillmill, plus £500 in education vouchers. Although this will benefit the members at that club, there’s more prizes up for grabs for everyone who takes part. The top 20 participants nationwide will each win a Technogym goody-bag and training kit, plus online coaching and an Olympic training seminar. Finally, everyone who takes part will get fitter and healthier, and have more interaction with instructors, which will help them stay members for longer!

Part 1 – Collecting Members

So how to you get as many members to sign-up to your team? Here’s our top tips list for getting as many members involved in this (or any) challenge:

Catching, Hatching and getting your members moving with Pokémon GO

Improving health club retention with Pokémon Go – Part 3

In the last article we gave you a few hints on how to integrate Pokémon GO with your health club marketing plans.  Not only will this help with member retention, but it also gives your club a steady social media content stream that is highly engaging.  If you would like to know more about this secondary benefit, get in touch with our team or download the full Pokémon GO guide. If you need to go back to basics, check out our 1 minute getting started guide for health clubs.

So in this article we’re giving you ideas and methods on catching, hatching and exercising for your new Pokémon GO programs.

Is your club a PokéStop or PokéGym?

If your club is already a PokéStop or PokéGym, then you should find more Pokémon nearby, and can also attach lure modules to attract more (read on to find out how). Let members and non-members know with posters and social media posts, and have your staff (create master Pokémon trainers) educate members about the game.

Challenge your members – to stay longer!

Once you’ve onboarded all your new members (and returning members) at the start of the year, you’ve hopefully looked at upselling, referrals, and rewards. By March, the motivation of some members will start to wane, so it’s time to challenge their fitness.

This is tip number 6 in a series to celebrate GGFit’s 15 years in business. Stay tuned for more

What makes a successful challenge?

A great challenge is one that most of your members take part in.

Contrary to what many fitness instructors think, a hard challenge is not a good challenge, since most of your members either won’t take part, or will, and then will never join a challenge again.

How to Make the Most from Make a Move - Part 2

The Technogym Make a Move challenge is a UK nationwide club challenge that encourages facilities using the MyWellness cloud to challenge their members to collect MOVEs. It is a team challenge, so it pits instructors against each other to find out which instructor team can collect the most MOVEs from 7th to 25th November.

If you missed the previous article about maximising your team, you can read it here.

Part 2 – Collecting MOVEs

You’ve got a whole bunch of members in your team now, but that’s no guarantee of collecting the most MOVEs. Here’s some quick tips on how to get up the nationwide leader-board and win the Skillmill:

Let's Move For A Better World 2015

Congratulations to every member and club that took part in Technogym's Let's Move For A Better World campaign over the last 3 weeks. 

Choices & Coaching for Health

“I don’t want to tell people what to do (e.g. join a gym, don’t eat takeaways), but I do want them to be healthier… how do I do it?” asked Kim Leadbeater MP at #ActiveUprising last week.

This was the best question in a whole lot of brilliant speeches, panels, pitches, and discussions at the ukactive annual conference. Kim has a passion for health and fitness, and is a force for change in the work she does. 

We love her “Healthy Britain – A new approach to health and wellbeing policy” paper from March 2023, and also enjoyed listening to her talk at the Why Sports conference last year.

Kim's speech and subsequent panel debate at Active Uprising really talked to the need for more of a coaching approach in health and fitness, rather than the traditional prescription or programming methods we are used to.

Simply put, if people choose their own pathways, they are much more likely to follow them, and succeed, than if they are told what to do.

Motivation, Behaviour Change, and Health Coaching for the Fitness Industry

I’ve been thinking a lot about motivation over the holiday season, reading articles and listening to podcasts from inside and outside the fitness industry. Conversations with clients, partners, and trusted advisors feed and reinforce my thoughts on this, so here they are.

I’m talking primarily about motivation to be active, or to be healthier, of course.

It’s worth noting that behaviour change is very difficult, particularly when it comes to being active. It’s becoming more difficult too. Fast food or anything else we need can be delivered on demand to our door, while TV or social media sticks us to our couches, and AI is doing more of our actual thinking of us, while we sleep less. I’m not sure if we’re turning into the human characters in the film WALL-E, being softened up so that we can’t fight the Terminators.

So, behaviour change is difficult… we need more support and more motivation, to combat the evil kangaroos driving us towards an early grave.

Why People, Not Technology, Are the Heart of the Fitness Industry

At its core, the fitness industry is, and always will be, a people-driven business. Staff join, develop, and stick around to build relationships, with members and with their colleagues. The personal connections are stronger than most other industries, because of the people.

Make your move - Profile App for member dating

With so much discussion about Technogym’s new mywellness cloud apps at Leisure Industry Week (LIW) it’s no surprise that even more innovative ways of using the Profile app (Club 2.0 Aspiration Finder) surfaced. This one was borne out of a late night discussion over drinks at Bar Mechu (thanks, Big Wave Media!)

People have used horoscopes for years to judge compatibility in relationships. Basing decisions or introductions on what star sign you were born under often meets with scepticism, but Technogym’s ‘aspiration maps’ are quite different. Developed alongside extensive research by the University of Milan, the Profile tool really shows what moves a member to exercise. Members and clubs are finding it really useful for  goal setting, programming, marketing and prospecting.

But knowing what moves a person to exercise tells you a lot about them, and this new study* reveals how you can match people for potential relationships based on their aspirations.

Communicating with absent, paying members : Part 2, How?

Hopefully you now understand that contacting your absent members is a good move.  The next question is how to contact them…

There are lots of ways of communicating with individual members; a phone call, text, e-mail or good old-fashioned letter, as well as direct social media messages (if configured correctly*).

The phone call is proven to be the best way of persuading members to come back into your club.  However, it can be hard work and is time consuming.  We’ll discuss who makes the calls in the next article, but here’s how to make it easier.

MAKE YOUR GYM ESSENTIAL

There has been a lot of talk of how gyms are essential over the last year. Essential to the physical and mental health of our members. Essential for staying fit. But we are less essential than food delivery drivers. Have you thought about how your club could guarantee staying open for your members in the event of future lockdowns?

We have talked about the non-essential nature of gyms here before, but as lockdowns ease, more and more clubs are developing interesting new ideas and enhancing their offering. These pivots are what will help to both grow those clubs, and make them more essential.

Is staff turnover higher at budget clubs?

We’ve been reading a lot about staffing in clubs, budget club staff turnover, and Personal Trainers lately on various blogs and LinkedIn groups (n.b. member only groups)

There is a perception that turnover of staff at budget clubs is higher than at other clubs, and that member attrition is also higher. Here’s why:
Member attrition is a well-known problem in the fitness industry. However, staff turnover is also an industry-wide issue, and poor member retention can be a symptom of the staff issue.

If we consider a ‘standard’ low-cost club model of minimal staff, long opening hours, automated member communication, centralised operations, it is a different environment than fitness professionals expect, or are used to.

Lessons from Budget Clubs - Part 1 – Ripping Up the Business Model

Budget clubs, or low-cost gyms as some prefer, are creating a paradigm shift in the leisure industry. Love them or loathe them, there are valuable lessons to be learnt. We’re going to summarise our insights in this series of short articles. Every day is a school day!

Coaching on Time Management

Time management has to be one of the most popular problems that people want to improve through life coaching. Clients might be looking to improve productivity, increase sales, get a new job, or get fit, but the coaching often involves an aspect of time management. A fitness analogy is that members of health clubs nearly all want to lose weight. This comes in different guises; tone up, fight the flab, drop a size, etc, but the basic goal is the same for many.

People who are new to coaching are often looking for advice or expertise; in other words they want the coach to provide the solution. This is not what coaching is about, because 9 times out of 10, it will not help the client. And I believe that this is also why time management is such a common problem. Many managers impose their ways of doing things on employees, or when people ask a friend or colleague for help, they’re often given a solution that works for the friend, which may be a short term fix, but doesn’t normally stick.

Different strokes work for different folks. There are a lot more distractions these days, but there are also more tools to help us to manage time and focus. Making lists works for some, while others use prioritising, planning, scheduling… personally, I’m a big fan of eating frogs. The key is to find what works for you.

Coaching helps with the motivation to make a change and to keep up momentum. We check on the desire for change (if it’s not there, it’s not time to change yet). If the time is right, we set smart goals, investigate options, identifying what might work, gauge the way forward, and move towards the goal with purpose and belief. Good coaching is non-directive, i.e. the client comes up with the options and solutions themselves, and 9 times out of 10, these stick.

Helping people to seemingly create more time is very rewarding!

The Daily Mile & Challenge for Change: How One Small Step at School Can Spark a Global Movement

How I helped my kids (and others) to move more and run around at school

Ten years ago, before the wonders of government recommended daily walks and Joe Wicks daily workouts (aka lockdown), I talked to the head teacher at my kids’ primary school about daily exercise.

I’d read an article about the Daily Mile, and heard about it in my health, fitness, and movement circles. In a nutshell, children get to run outside for 15 minutes once a day, not during breaks or lunch, but skipping part of a lesson. They behave and concentrate better, eat healthier lunches, and are also happier.

Your Retention Problem Isn’t Pricing. It’s Silence.

Recently, an article in The Guardian explored something simple but powerful: we’re losing the art of talking to strangers.

• Banks are digital
• Supermarkets are self-checkout
• Food ordering is app-based
• Even everyday services that once required conversation are now screen-led.

We’ve removed friction from modern life, and in doing so, we’ve removed conversation.

And that matters.

Because for many people, the leisure centre, health club or gym is now one of the last remaining places where real, human interaction still happens.

Photo by Mikhail Nilov on pexels

Get the message right (part 2) - "Pop in for a chat"

We know that in-club interactions are most effective and most valued by members, but we can also boost contact between members and staff in the club through external messaging like SMS, email and letter… if we get the message right. 

Some new members need that extra nudge to make their next visit or to talk to an instructor. As a club manager, you should know how many visits your new members have made, so give them that nudge if they are below your minimum threshold. Include a call to action; for example try a class or speak to an instructor.

Begin With Retention In Mind

When opening a new club, gym or studio, member retention is probably far from your mind.  The business plan focuses on your unique selling points, marketing spend and sales projections.  A clean new space with shiny equipment will keep members coming back for ever, right?

If you also plan your retention strategy at this early stage, your business plan will be more accurate.  Imagine the possibilities for your business if you have 100% retention after 12 months.  You would be re-writing your business plan for growth rather than adapting it to stay open.