Make Your Body Your Machine : personal training business

The Evolution of the Health Club

Fraser — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 06:00:00 GMT

A must pre-IHRSA read! Check out this compelling article as industry leader Darren Jacobson of Virgin Active talks about the future of fitness in tough economic times. See the opportunities to explore new revenue streams and augment non-dues revenue by large scale integration of high impact, low cost and low maintenance equipment coupled with strong programming and educational support.

As we move through 2009 and the challenges associated, the fitness industry, being the sacred space in many people’s lives, needs to step up to survive. If you do not show the value in your offerings, your current members will look elsewhere. If his or her perception of their gym membership is just a contract, a piece of paper, and there is no lifestyle shift or compliance, routine or adherence then what value does it add? Why waste money? It is my firm belief that attrition of members and clients is a direct result of the value proposition, by this I mean that people will only cancel their personal training sessions, their gym memberships and wellness coaching sessions if they do not see the value in these entities. To stay abreast of fitness trends and to show value for money in your offering is demanded nowadays from more educated consumers who are tight with their hard earned dollars. If you stagnate you become extinct. To be competitive as a facility you need to look at the activities that show the best value to your members and offers your fitness professionals and personal trainers the opportunity to put their best foot forward and display their willingness to move and shape with the times, this will in turn reflect on the facility as a forward thinking and progressive entity.

We have successfully disconnected the industry!…..much of the equipment we see in health clubs, and the default for many start-ups is the isolated, non-functional, artificial load, artificial stabilisation type pieces, in short the bicep curl, leg extension, shoulder press machines and more.

The industry leaders and fitness organisations have touted new age training, integrating vs isolation, functionality vs formality, while many facilities are paying this lip service, few are moving with this wave at a rate that the consumer demands. Could it be that the new wave of integrated functional fitness equipment is too costly, definitely not, in fact most of these modalities are a fraction of the price of a piece of selectorised equipment…so where is the stumbling block? I believe it is through a level of complacency and ignorance from many decision makers both at a management and procurement level, that watch new trends come and go and allocate minimal space to really afford this new style of training a fighting chance to catch on. They default back to the comfort zones of selectorised pieces safe in the ignorance of their member base…. Not for long though, our members are more demanding and more informed then ever, they want to see the value in their investing in a membership, and they want to feel their membership evolving…..the time to act is now.

Do a quick check on your equipment vs member profile and you will quickly note that you have as a guestimate 20% bodybuilders in your facility and 85% of your full equipment spec is from the Arnold days! Point is that like many industries the fitness industry needs to evolve with the times. Gone are the days of steroid junky personal trainers prowling the floor looking for prey, our new age fitness professionals are coming off courses talking the functional lingo, speaking tri-planer movement patterns and then entering health clubs loaded with an artillery of new exercises and movement patterns, only to fall back into the old ways when they enter the many chains that flood their training space with high cost selectorised pieces. For streetwise health clubs and start-up’s this is a massive opportunity for you to introduce products that actually work to improve you members lives as opposed to segmenting and compartmentalising muscle groups with no carryover to daily activities.

It is a must nowadays that products such as TRX, Vipr, Kinesis and others are the logical choice. As a chain of multi-purpose facilities within South Africa with 89 clubs and 520 000 members we must gear our offerings to the needs and desires of the members, not towards the biases of the management or procurement teams. To survive we must move with the industry and gear our facilities towards that connection of all components to impact on the member experience. The TRX for me is a logical and demanded addition to our facility, low cost, high return it not only looks great but attacks the new wave of fitness with aggression, backed by clear training progressions and excellent support it is a no brainer for our facilities. The attraction for me in this product is that the human body is the driver, not some fixed plane of motion or artificial load. The challenges are gravity, lever length, body position and movement patterns… suspension training is here to stay. The smallest of movement patterns can have the greatest follow through and get the best returns, our members and clients want to move better, want to feel better and want to stay young, not necessarily in looks but in mobility.

The bottom line in most businesses is the driver, without money in the bank your facility will be nothing more then a charity, but the way in which one makes this money must be determined by the vision of the business and the sound, sensible and structured approach to both your basic member offering and your additional paid for add-on’s. An opportunity exists for you to generate additional revenue streams through these new age functional fitness activities like TRX. Lets stop paying lip service to, and start bringing in these integrated activities. The member experience will drive the bottom line, and to impact on this experience means to satisfy the member needs and desires through innovation and forward thinking.

Many of the successful clubs and chains have their finger on the changing pulse of the industry and are not afraid to invest in new products and activities that will work to the advantage of their member. Low cost, low maintenance pieces such as TRX and the like will become the standard spec of the health clubs into the future, as much of the costs involved in health club operation relate to equipment spend and preventative maintenance, The time has come for health clubs to start working for the members as opposed to on the members. The hard sell will make way for the logical choice, and the masses will continue to move through our clubs. The health club is the third place in people’s lives, beyond home and work it is a sacred space where people can unwind from the stresses and strains of their daily lives and work to better themselves… clearly we have a huge role to play.

Darren Jacobson is the innovator of the franchise personal training concept for Virgin Active South Africa, where he manages over 780 personal trainers in 89 health clubs. He holds a bachelors degree in human movement science and is a featured writer for numerous industry publications. In addition, Darren sits on the IDEA Personal Training Committee and has presented at fitness conventions across South Africa, Canada and the USA. Darren can be contacted at darren.jacobson@virginactive.co.za

The TRX in Action at Bootcamp

Fitness Anywhere — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 19:19:00 GMT

In the last post, elite trainer Corey Belin shared how he discovered the TRX and how it became an integral component of his bootcamp fitness classes. But what does it look like in practice? To answer this question, Belin gives us a glimpse at two workouts he’s put together for his students.

During week one, Belin has the students repeat the following sequence of TRX exercises to warm up during the first five minutes of class:

Jumping jacks
Side lunges
Stepovers

Next they move on to a more challenging sequence:

Squats or Single Leg Squats
Bicep Curls
Rows

“Then we’ll repeat the process back over and do it for about four minutes. Then I’ll have them change positions and...go to some ground work on the TRX with their feet in the cradles.”

During the first week of class, students quickly master the basic principles of progression on the TRX and learn how to make exercises easier or more difficult as well as proper form and technique. They also learn how to configure the TRX in single handle mode, and how to utilize the foot cradles for movements that require them.

“Once they see how the TRX works, it all makes sense and they learn how to use it fast,” says Belin. “The whole point is to keep moving, keep moving, keep moving! By the fourth week, they’ve already pre-learned all of the exercises, and I keep them moving nonstop for 30 minutes.”

Here’s a sample of the paces Belin puts his students through on the TRX during the final week of his course:

Jumping Jacks
Side Lunges
Step Overs
Pushups-Rows-Biceps Curls
Pushups-Rows-Triceps extensions
Pushups-Rows-Triceps extensions-squats

“I just keep adding on more exercises to the sequence and keep having them repeat it until 30 minutes have gone by.”

It’s a grueling, functional workout unlike any his students have experienced before. And to Belin, that makes the TRX a more than worthy addition to his courses. “It’s an amazing piece of equipment.”

When you’re ready to take your bootcamp classes to the next level, the TRX is here to make it happen!

Until next time, FA

Bootcamp Courses & the TRX: A Case Study

Fitness Anywhere — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 19:13:00 GMT

Now that we’ve taken a look at why the TRX is so ideally suited for bootcamp classes, let’s take a look at how one trainer has successfully incorporated the TRX into his bootcamp business model. Corey Belin, NASM-CPT, owner of Belin Sports and Fitness in Washington, DC.

A former college athlete, Belin has been a trainer for four years. “Our objective is to make exercising fun and to help everyone obtain the results their unable to reach on their own,” he says. Like many of us, Belin used to rely primarily on weights for his own training. Then one day he walked into the gym where he was working at the time and saw another trainer using the TRX.

“I saw him using it and thought, no way, this can’t be hard. Then I got on the TRX and did bicep curls. My biceps were swollen like I’d been curling 45-pound plates.” He became a convert. “The TRX allows me to cheat on workouts. Instead of working out for an hour, I can workout for 20 or 30 minutes, and I’m done.”

His experience led him to incorporate the TRX into his renowned bootcamp courses. At first, he just dipped a toe in the water, adding four TRX’s to a course. “Some people were scared, some people weren’t used to how it felt. But I explained to them, the more the body keeps guessing, the more results you’ll get.

“It amped up workouts, but most importantly for me is that I try to make every camp as different as possible. The TRX allows me to add major pressure. Curling 5 pound weights, after a while you have to curl for twenty minutes to get a workout. With the TRX, people can always have exactly the level of resistance they need.”

Sometimes it can be difficult for trainees to master movements on new exercise apparatuses, but Belin didn’t experience any problems beyond his class’ initial reticence to try something new when he introduced the TRX into his classes. “I explained to everyone how to increase resistance—if it’s too much walk away from the anchor. If it’s not enough, walk towards the anchor. It’s that simple.”

They got it, and the class enjoyed the constant challenge of progressing exercises or trying entirely new movements they’d never experienced before. Belin added more TRX’s to the next bootcamp he taught, and now he has TRX’s for every student in his class.

Belin has found that using the TRX has advantages beyond providing his students with a great workout. “Number one, I like it because it gives my classes something different to do. Number two, I’m one of the few bootcamps to incorporate equipment and exercises besides bodyweight exercises and calisthenics. I haven’t seen another bootcamp in DC using the TRX.”

Incorporating the TRX into his classes has given Belin a unique marketing angle. “When people see us using the TRX, it turns heads. They want to know what we’re doing, because they’ve never seen anything like it before. When cars drive by, they literally slow down to see what the heck you’re doing. ”

In the near future, Belin has a plan to draw even more attention to the use of the TRX in his classes. “We do our classes at 6 a.m., not 5 in the afternoon, so most people don’t see what’s going on. I want to take it out in the middle of a traffic island and set it up during rush hour so people can really see what we’re doing. Using the TRX really sets us apart.”

Next time, Belin will share some of his training tips. Until then! FA

TRX Advantages for Bootcamp Training

Fitness Anywhere — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 00:30:00 GMT

The TRX provides considerable advantages over other pieces of equipment a bootcamp instructor might use in a class. Consider that:

Packed in its stuff sack, the TRX weighs less than two pounds and takes up about as much space as a sack lunch.
Setting up the TRX takes less than a minute and it’s easy to teach a class how to set up the TRX themselves.
Even if a trainer is working with a large class, he or she can easily toss thirty TRX’s in the backseat of a vehicle and move them in and out with little effort—something not as easily achieved with, say, thirty 45-pound kettle bells.
While most pieces of equipment a trainer might consider adding to a class are bulky and only suitable for a limited range of exercises, the hundreds of exercises that can be performed on the TRX mean that class participants will never get bored and trainers have virtually unlimited options to choose from when programming a class.
Whatever aspect of fitness a trainer chooses to emphasize in each class, there are TRX exercises perfectly suited to each aim.
Not everyone who takes a bootcamp class represents the zenith of physical perfection. When bootcamps do use kettle bells or weights, it can be psychologically challenging for less conditioned trainees who can’t move as much weight as their neighbors. With the TRX, the heaviest, most deconditioned person can do the same exercises as the most fit person at his or her own level without having to swap out weights, move to another station or disrupt the flow of the group.
Trainees can instantly adjust the level of resistance they experience when using the TRX by taking a step towards or away from the TRX or performing exercises with a single arm or leg instead of using both. This allows every trainee, even in a large class, to do every exercise at his or her own level, every time.
Once trainees experience the TRX and become familiar with TRX exercises in class, bootcamp organizers can sell participants TRX’s and home training plans that complement the work trainees do in class. It’s an easy way to create a new profit center on top of class fees with little extra effort.
The TRX’s heritage of use in Navy SEAL teams provides an excellent marketing opportunity for bootcamp operators. Trainees who work out on the TRX are getting the same advanced functional training that’s used by the military’s most elite soldiers.
With hundreds of exercises, you and your trainees will not get bored using the TRX.

Next, we’ll take a look at how Washington, DC-based trainer Corey Belin has taken his bootcamp classes to the next level with the TRX.

Until then! FA

TRX for Bootcamp: The Perfect Combination

Fitness Anywhere — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Bootcamp fitness classes borrow from the military’s tradition of whipping fresh-off-the-bus recruits into shape using circuits of simple bodyweight exercises and high intensity cardio that give participants a grueling metabolic conditioning workout. If you’ve used the Fitness Anywhere Military Program or All Body Xpress you’re already familiar with this style of training—performing timed intervals of an exercise followed by brief periods of rest or active recovery before jumping right back in and hitting it hard again.

Like all metabolic conditioning, bootcamps are an excellent way to melt fat and build functional strength and conditioning; but any bootcamp class can be made even better with the addition of the TRX!

Bootcamps usually meet in outdoor locations ranging from parks to parking lots, trainers don’t have the luxury of choosing from an entire gym full of equipment when programming their workouts. Every extra piece of equipment a trainer adds to a bootcamp class must be transported to the location, set up, and stored somewhere in between classes. It all needs to fit in the trainers’ vehicle, too.

The TRX makes it easy for trainers to provide their classes with a complete and challenging workout.

In the next post, we’ll take a look at some of the advantages of using the TRX for bootcamp training.

Until then! FA