Learning from Our Past

Pioneers and inventors have always amazed me. How did they come up with those ideas? What inspired them? Could I, in their situation, have done the same thing? Those of us in the fitness industry can certainly learn from our “founding fathers,” and gain inspiration from their hard work, creativity and commitment to the cause of “fitness” for the masses.

Ray Wilson is one of our pioneers, and he is still going strong. He recently started a new chain of clubs called Ray Wilson’s Healthy Exercise. And, true to form, this isn’t your typical health club chain. These facilities are geared toward “people of all ages who shy away from the traditional gym,” according to a recent news article. At 80 years old, Wilson is still looking ahead toward the future of our industry.

Wilson’s career can serve as an example to all fitness managers. Here is how he has continued to succeed for more than three decades and through varying financial climates:

1. Work hard: Wilson grew up in a large family of poor migrant farmers who all picked cotton to earn money. From that he gained a strong work ethic.

2. Go with your instincts: Wilson was one of the first to change the image of traditional gyms, transforming them into light, open areas that attracted more than just bodybuilders.

3. Listen to others: Wilson took advice from former astronaut James Lovell, who was also former chairman of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness, to include cardio training options in all of his future fitness centers.

4. Create smart partnerships: Wilson bought the rights to an exercise cycle in 1968, which he and business partner Augie Nieto perfected. This eventually became the Lifecycle, and the beginning of a fitness revolution.

5. Continue to reinvent your business: Wilson paid attention to trends and his market when opening new clubs. His original Family Fitness Centers became the model for modern chains, and all were eventually sold to 24 Hour Fitness. His new Healthy Exercise clubs may very well set new models for fitness centers geared toward the non-exerciser.

Free Personal Training?

It’s never a popular time to suggest taking a cut in income, especially right now, during what most believe is a recession. But, here goes. I strongly believe that for fitness center operators to keep as many of their members as possible — especially those who lack the knowledge and the motivation to succeed in their health and fitness goals — fitness instruction (a.k.a., personal training) needs to be included in the membership price.

There are two compelling arguments for this. First, in an industry trade show seminar about selling personal training, the speaker, a facility owner, said, “Most of your members know they don’t know how to get real benefits from exercise, and those who think they know, don’t know either.” The point was that most members need personal training to succeed. However, since the majority of members don’t pay for personal training, mostly because they can’t afford it, they’re not reaping the fitness benefits of their membership. Typically, that means that they don’t stay members.

There is a strong perception by the public that fitness centers and their staff simply don’t care about them. All they care about is selling them the membership, and then the member is forgotten. In the majority of cases (no, not all), this really is the truth. But, as Carl Liebert, CEO of 24 Hour Fitness, said in an industry trade show panel discussion titled “Fitness Business at a Crossroads,” the fitness industry’s membership numbers are never going to change until we earn the public’s trust: “It’s about earning people’s business; giving first, and then receiving.” It just seems logical to me that if we can show members that exercise really does work if they do it correctly, they will reward us by staying members and recruiting others.

Second, if you Google “free personal training” on the Internet, 27 million results turn up. Not all of these results actually offer free personal training, but a lot of them do. Free online fitness programming is exploding. How, then, when pinching pennies is a necessity for most people, are fitness center operators going to compete with that if they don’t offer something comparable? The online freebies may not be as good as the hands-on personal training you would get at an actual fitness facility, but tell that to the cash-strapped consumer, especially since it’s free.

There are fitness centers that have set the example for how offering free exercise instruction works. And, it’s paid off for them. A couple of these include two Anytime Fitness centers: one in Wabasha, Minn., and the other in Lake City, Minn, and West Virginia University Recreation Center.

Maybe this isn’t such a popular suggestion right now, but maybe it’s one solution that may get our industry through some tough economic times, and, in the long run, it may be one of the solutions to altering public perception.

In Defense of Checklists

Fitness Management has published a lot of articles that deal with checklists. Equipment maintenance checklists, cleaning checklists, locker room checklists … the list goes on and on. I have to admit, after seven years, I’d gotten tired of them. Isn’t this common sense? I’d think. Don’t all fitness centers use checklists? Can’t we stop writing about them?

After reading a Fox News article about a dead man left overnight in a fitness facility’s steam room, I think it’s safe to say that the answer to these questions is a resounding NO.

Sixty-six-year-old Thomas Dodge, a regular member of the Coeur d-Alene Tribal Wellness Center, Plummer, Idaho, apparently suffered a heart attack in the center’s steam room after swimming. A janitor didn’t find his body until the next morning, almost 10 hours after his death.

This is inexcusable on so many levels, I don’t even know where to start.

The fitness center was likely helpless to prevent the heart attack, but it could have made a painful situation somewhat easier for Dodge’s family if staff members had found the body in a timely manner. Now the facility has made national news for poor maintenance practices, and its steam room will undoubtedly be deserted. What member wants to contemplate having an emergency in the steam room, then being abandoned by inattentive staff?

“Tribal spokesman Marc Stewart said closing procedures at the center require a walk-through to make sure no one is in the building,” reports Fox News. “Center officials will decide whether to change procedures after an investigation.”

Might I offer a suggestion? How about using … a checklist?

No Time to Exercise? Tell that to the President

With the election this week, it should be comforting to know that our current President, and both presidential candidates, set good examples of leading healthy lifestyles, even with their busy schedules and high-stress jobs.

President Bush regularly exercises six times per week, including doing cardio, resistance training and flexibility exercises. At the recent Club Industry National trade show in Chicago, the keynote speaker was Dr. Kenneth Cooper, who also happens to be Bush’s personal physician. Cooper said that, when he asked Bush about his personal stress level, Bush replied that it is “moderate” (not “high” or “extreme”). Bush attributes his ability to keep his stress level in check to his regular workout.

Senator John McCain likes to hike and swim, and says that his worst health habit is coffee drinking. Senator Barack Obama is a regular runner, and was recently “spied” on while performing a full-body resistance-training workout.

While I’m sure we’ve had great past U.S. presidents who weren’t in the best of shape (any history buffs want to contribute here?), a healthy president is a great example for the rest of the country. If the president has time to exercise, most of the rest of us have no excuse.