Farewell

This is the last post on the FM Blog.

I hope you've enjoyed reading Ronale's, Anne's and my blog posts as much as we've enjoyed reading your intelligent, enlightening comments.

It's a cliche to say that all good things must come to an end, and as a writer I've been taught to avoid cliches like the sweaty, wild-eyed freak in the back of a Boot Camp class. But in this case, I just can't help myself.

Thanks to everyone who has read and commented over the years — and best of luck with your fitness businesses.

Bigger, Stronger, Faster

It's time to admit that steroids are here to stay.

Whether we want them in the fitness industry or not, closing our eyes to steroid use is no longer an option. When fitness facility owners are arrested for selling steroids, guilty baseball players are popping up like Whack-a-Moles and documentaries are exposing the growing acceptance of steroids, it's time to re-assess our position.

Is it time to legalize steroids and put an age cap on them, like cigarettes and alcohol? Is it time to launch a full-scale initiative to wipe steroids out of the fitness industry completely?

I suspect the line between "supplements" and "steroids" is too blurred, at this point, to erase steroids completely. But I can't come up with any viable solutions for the problem, either.

Can you?

Restructuring for Redemption

Bally Total Fitness owners are hoping a judge approves their restructuring plan and their deal with lenders to exit Chapter 11. But a large group of disgruntled former and current customers are probably hoping Bally's plan includes more than moving money around. Bally's members have a long list of complaints, and this is the company's chance to make a new name for itself.

First on the list ought to be a more customer-friendly cancellation process. I'm not saying Bally's ought to stop holding customers to their signed contracts, but they should improve their communication protocols so that members who want to quit are re-informed of what Bally's requires of them.

Second, the company should improve staff training. Bally's is a huge chain. Its employees' dismal customer service reflects on all fitness facilities, whether it's fair or not.

The web is overflowing with negative Bally's reviews, and the company has struggled financially. This is a golden opportunity for Bally's to clean up its reputation. I hope it's not wasted.

First Family Fitness

The fitness industry has long used spokesmodels to hawk its product. Whether they're oiled-up hardbodies at trade shows or smiling, trim "afters" in commercials or ads, spokesmodels are historically effective marketing tools. They showcase the results of fitness in a way no words ever can.

But finding the perfect spokesmodel is no easy task. It takes more than a low BMI and muscle definition to get the job done. A spokesmodel has to connect with consumers and also project an image that makes them someone consumers aspire to be.

It's a tall order.

Luckily, thanks to the 2008 election, the fitness industry now has the ultimate spokesmodels: Barack and Michelle Obama. He is a basketball fiend and she has to-die-for arms that have inspired articles and fitness programs. They are riding a wave of immense popularity.

And the best part? They aren't charging us a dime.

Death of the Energizer Bunny

The fitness industry suffered a bit of a blow last week. A recently released study shows that exercise doesn’t boost the body’s long-lasting calorie-burning power, after all.

This is bad, right?

The ability to prime the body to burn calories even after a person stops exercising has been the fitness industry’s answer to the consumer’s hunt for the “magic pill.” We’ve been selling exercise as the gift that keeps on giving, turning the fit body into a calorie-burning Energizer Bunny.

But, if this study is right, then we’ve been wrong.

How will this affect people’s perception of exercise? Will this one study change you sell your product? For me, anyway, this study seems to have raised more questions than it’s answered.

Tweet: Clubs and Social Networking

I just want to start this post with the following link to a recent article on Bloomberg.com: Crunch Bankruptcy Shows the Limits of Pole Dancing.

OK. I'm done now.

On to a new topic. Specifically, social networking.

Facebook and Twitter are part of the general vernacular, and I’ve been thinking about how a fitness facility can harness them. Then I read an article that made me consider that the fitness club experience may be the anti Facebook and Twitter experience. Instead of virtually connecting to everyone you may be connected to, however tenuously, Form & Fitness owner Ben Quist, Mequon, Wis., says his fitness facility is the place people can actually connect.

Member Georgia Rapkin said, “You can't see anybody on Twitter. You need that human connection to inspire you toward new ideas or new ways to market your business." I’m not sure people who tweet incessantly are looking for human connection, exactly, but I do think she’s right. After all, I’ve never been inspired by someone’s updated Facebook status.

Making a fitness facility into a social networking venue is no easy task. Quist says his studio’s layout encourages interaction between members. A bustling front desk area with complimentary coffee may accomplish the same atmosphere in a more traditionally designed club.

Is your club a social networking space? Do you want it to be?

Fitness or Fetish?

I’ve always thought “stripper fitness” was less of a trend and more of a gimmick. But the promoters of a recent event in Utah apparently disagree.

The first pole fitness competition in Utah took place in Davis County, and the resulting controversy served up a bit of media attention. Not surprisingly, the event promoters are claiming that not only is this a legitimate fitness activity, but they hope it will one day become an Olympic sport, much like gymnastics.

Really?

I think media-savvy promoters hijacked the word “fitness” to give this event legitimacy it does not deserve. And here’s why:

1. The event is officially called Pole Fetish 2009. Not "Pole Fitness," but "Pole Fetish." If the promoters were trying to keep the event out of the gutter, right off the bat it’s an epic fail.
2. The event is co-sponsored by Ogden Adult Dance & Fitness. If their services are for “adults only,” as is stated in the business’ name, it implies that it isn’t appropriate for children. And while all fitness pursuits are not safe for children due to muscle and bone development, we all know physical fitness is appropriate at any age.
3. The event rules state that, “Performers were required to keep on the same clothes from start to finish, as well as wear something that covered breasts and buttocks.” Last I checked, I don’t recall seeing similar rules in the sport to which the promoters keep trying to compare it. Shawn Johnston never got a .10-point deduction for tossing her leotard at the judges.

Maybe I’m a fitness purist. Maybe I’m being puritanical about the whole thing. But I stand by my belief that “fitness” and “fetish” are not interchangeable terms.