Natalia was a popular Body Pump instructor at a Los Angeles club. She was toned and fit, but hardly a candidate for the SI swimsuit edition. Her accent sometimes made it hard to understand exactly what she was saying, but her enthusiasm was crystal clear in any language. I never had a single personal conversation with Natalia, but I identified with her and never missed a class. When Natalia eventually left the club, so did I.
Finding an instructor like Natalia is like catching motivation in a bottle. Most likely, you have an instructor like that on your staff. If you’re lucky, you’ve got a whole group fitness schedule filled with Natalias. And, chances are, you’re wasting their talent.
The situation: MSNBC.com says more people are getting their workouts on the Internet. Enterprising personal trainers are putting their workouts online — like Gwyneth Paltrow’s trainer, who emails the Oscar-winner intense workouts while on tour with Madonna. (Let's ignore the fact that Ms. Paltrow aims to open her own NYC gym with the same personal trainer, shall we?) It’s time to harness that technology and make it work for your business, rather than against it.
The idea: Set up a members-only section of your club's website and post videos of your group exercises classes online. This should be an added value for members — the ability to maintain their relationship with the club, instructors and fellow exercisers even when they’re not able or willing to make it into the club.
For too long people have taken cracks at clubs for saying they don’t care if members actually use the club or not, so long as they pay their dues. This is a way to quash those critics and keep the club community strong. Best of all, it’s a way the fitness industry can make the most of a medium that too often isolates users even as it claims to connect them.
4 comments:
Trainers are starting to wake up. Cross-fit is growing because of group prices, Precor now has ipod cords on their cardio.
I've gone EXCLUSIVELY techno after 25 years in the gym with clients using a company called NextFit.
They have $16 million invested in a training system that's dynamic, progressive and adapts via user-feedback.
Wake up trainers, especially rep-counters, change is coming.
www.ten-weeks.com
Interesting concept and not such a bad idea. Keeps members engaged in yet another way. Some people are afraid the members will no longer come in if they use videos but a video can never replace the energy and motivation felt in a live class.
Anonymous — I can see why some club owners would fear that people wouldn't come in, but I don't think that fear will be realized.
Think about it: At-home exercise DVDs are static. No matter how much someone likes the instructor or the workout, they have almost no chance of experiencing it live.
But if a club puts videos of its classes on its website and viewers like what they see, they have the opportunity to experience all that energy and motivation LIVE.
It's like free marketing. Well, almost free.
I agree with both comments. What I like about the NextFit system though is the fact that its NOT static. A new workout is mixed for the user-on the spot. I can even travel, plug into the system, and get a workout in Tokyo. Very cool
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