Clubs & Studios
Find success for your personal training business
If you want to know how to become a successful personal trainer and influential leader to your clients, you need to invest in yourself as a professional. How? Seek out resources, people and a personal training business plan that will enhance your career. The good news?
Time for New Equipment?
Evolve Fitness in Halifax, Nova Scotia, took a huge step this past summer, going from 2,400 square feet to 21,000 square feet. That meant a lot of additions, including new equipment. “It was an eye-opener, for sure,” said co-owner Matt Benvie about the process. Benvie’s experience—along with the wisdom of countless other fitness facility and studio owners—reveals some good lessons for any fitness entrepreneur who wants to add new equipment, whether it’s for a big-box gym or a small studio and whether you’re buying in bulk or buying just a few pieces.
Is a Franchise the Right Fit for You?
A number of tried-and-proven options to attract new members and clients can help you grow your business without reinventing the wheel. You can join a franchise system, license the rights to an established brand or invest in instructor training to build a specialty business. Each option has an opportunity cost (what you might lose if you don’t choose the particular option), as well as benefits that you might gain. Among these choices, franchise systems offer many advantages.
Comprehensive Research Project on How to Create an Exercise Habit
24 Hour Fitness® is partnering with the University of Pennsylvania Behavior Change for Good Initiative [BCFG] to support research into what works best for creating lasting exercise habits. With an interdisciplinary team of world-renowned researchers, the BCFG addresses the broader question of how to make positive behavior change stick in aspects of life related to health, education and savings.
How to Help Participants Find Flow
For a moment, think about your own workouts. Tap into that feeling of being completely absorbed in your favorite fitness routine. Everything else fades away, and your entire focus is on the present moment. You feel confident in your body’s abilities, you’re challenging yourself, and you find great meaning in what’s happening now. You’re in the zone. Before you know it, your workout is over, and you can’t wait to do it again.
2018 IDEA® World Convention: An Epic Explosion
While life may not always be a highlight reel, thousands of the best personal trainers, group exercise instructors, fitness entrepreneurs and nutrition/wellness professionals added significant footage to their lives at this year’s IDEA World Convention, where everyday actions became epic adventures in education. At the 2018 event, held in San Diego, June 27–July 1, more than 14,000 like-minded pros converged to learn from more than 350 workshops and workouts taught by the industry’s keenest minds.
Sexual Harassment and the Fitness Industry
One day, while stretching my client Jim, I was taken aback when I realized he wasn’t wearing underwear. His shorts were swim trunks with interior netting. I quickly looked away and continued to stretch him. This happened with Jim on several other occasions, but I never mentioned it because I wasn’t sure how to broach the matter. I also didn’t feel as if he was doing this intentionally, nor did I believe he meant harm.
The Case Against Allowing Injured Instructors to Teach
Owing to the part-time nature of most group fitness instruction jobs, program directors don’t always interact with staff on a daily basis and may not know that an instructor is teaching while injured.
Question of the Month
Summer is a fun time to exercise outside, and the benefits of green exercise are getting attention. Are you or your facility offering any outdoor summer programs that use nature as a backdrop? If so, please describe the programs you’re promoting, your target demographics, and how you’re using nature as a key element.
Creative Ideas That Inspire
TabataRide, offered at various JoyRide® locations and based on Tabata™ workouts, is an indoor cycling class that offers high-intensity interval drills that include 20 seconds of top effort and 10 seconds of recovery, repeated for 4 minutes. This is followed by 1 minute of rest before repeating the cycle. The high-energy, super-athletic classes at this studio are designed to “torch calories and boost endorphins.” In addition, the instructors strive to provide authenticity, joy, humor and positivity.
Get Your Business Out of Debt in Three Steps
What if you walked into your facility tomorrow and everything was paid off?
What if there were
no weight equipment or treadmill payments due;
no payments due for a rubber floor or a state-of-the-art sound system; and
no loan bills due—that is, no bank requesting its piece of your pie plus interest?
What if instead of paying the bills (aka “your debts”) every month, you could put all that money into a savings account and begin to build true wealth? Does this sound like a fairy tale?
Where Your Career Goes From Great to EPIC
The IDEA World Convention means a lot of things to different people. For some, it’s primarily about updating their skill sets and knowledge to maintain a competitive edge. For others, the connections and relationships they build at the fitness event are priceless in advancing their careers and enriching their lives. Whatever stands out for each individual, one thing unites allIDEA World attendees: an intense desire to create a career that thrives.
Making Connections That Boost Career Success
Creative Ideas That Inspire
KONGA®, at Funk & Twist Fitness in Basingstoke, England, is a high-intensity offering that incorporates elements of boxing, cardio, dance and sculpt. The program vibe is fierce and wild, and sessions are set to upbeat music designed to inspire and motivate. The class is updated each month with fresh choreography so that participants don’t become bored or hit fitness plateaus. It’s appropriate for all levels, from beginners to seasoned fitness enthusiasts.
9 Simple Ways to Keep Your Clients
The success of your business relies solely on your ability to attract and keep clients. Use these tips to enhance the client-trainer relationship so that you can focus more on providing quality service to your current clients and less on finding new ones.
Empowered Entrepreneur Podcast: IDEA Personal Trainer Institute East Roundup
Your browser does not support the audio element.
How to Compete Against Discount Clubs
You’ve worked long and hard to get your fitness facility off the ground, and while you’re doing okay in your community, you’ve noticed some of your membership base trickling away. Upon further investigation, you realize that while you’ve had your nose to the grindstone, managing your facility and planning for growth, a discount club has opened up not far from you. Not only that, but a handful of specialty boutique studios have carved out some market share. Where do you fit in, and what can you do to keep your place?
7 Keys to Creating an Unforgettable Onboarding Experience
Do you want to strategically and consistently educate and motivate your new clients so they feel like they’re getting incredible results—and so you’re getting a steady flow of referrals and earning positive social proof? Are you ready to not just deliver but over-deliver? If your answer is yes, then one of your most important next moves is to create a step-by-step onboarding process.
Learn, Connect and Thrive at the IDEA® World Convention
Education is the foundation of the IDEA World Convention, but this fitness event offers plenty more than stellar instruction. For Jonathan Bernath, publicist-turned-personal-trainer, it’s where he discovered the “fitness family” that would guide him in his new career.
How to Find Your Epic
The fitness industry is a rewarding and inspiring place to be. However, it’s not without its challenges, and getting ahead with passion alone can be difficult. The most successful fit pros know that to build an epic life and career, they must invest in education and learn from those who’ve been there and done it.
Fitness Facility Membership by the Numbers
In 2016 America, traditional commercial health clubs—multipurpose, fitness-only and corporate facilities—served 32.2 million members, a 3% decline from 2015, according to the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association. Studios served another 18.2 million, a 15% improvement.
Nonprofit facility membership rose 6.9% from 2015 to more than 24 million. Collectively,
studio facilities claimed 40.7% of total membership.