Crash Course

For a crash course in the fitness business, check out "Value Added: Working Out the Business" by Thomas Heath of The Washington Post. David von Storch, founder and owner of three VIDA Fitness facilities in Washington, D.C., talks about everything from making the most of industry trade shows to investing money back in the club to getting “over the hump” and into soaring profits.

This industry has a lot of club owners with no shortage of enthusiasm and passion, but it’s too rarely applied in a way that makes financial sense. Much of what von Storch discusses isn’t revolutionary, but he’s applied it with such gusto that his success is energizing and inspiring. He’s absorbed every piece of information available, learned from past failures and created a fitness business that is going nowhere but up.

I thought the article was informative and von Storch’s approach to running a club was refreshingly simple. Your thoughts?

Advice to Potential Members Can Help You, Too

As everyone knows, January is a big month for fitness centers. It is also a big month, it seems, for newspapers and blogs to give advice about joining one. The Internet is full of tips to consumers for what to look for when joining a fitness center. These tips can be used as guides for the facilities, too.

1. Have your membership contracts in order, and make sure they are legal in your state. Many sites advise consumers to read the fine print, and not to sign anything too quickly.

2. Hire and train great people. Consumers are being advised to see if staff members are friendly, approachable and well-trained/certified. Advertise your staff members’ credentials, and make sure they walk the fitness floor and talk to members.

3. Know your market. Do your members want childcare, group classes, a variety of equipment, or other programs and services? Potential members are being encouraged to check the facility out thoroughly, and ask lots of questions.

4. Don’t oversell. One of the most-common tips for potential members is to try out the facility during the time of day they will most likely use it. That way, they can tell if the locker room is too crowded, or they have to wait to use a machine.

5. Offer trial memberships. Hand out free weekly passes so potential members can get a feel for what your facility is really like.

6. Keep your facility clean. Almost every one of these sites tells consumers to check out the cleanliness of the facility, including looking for problems with the locker rooms and dust around the equipment.

Better than a Snooze on the Bench Press

Often, being unusual gets you noticed. And, in a time when economic circumstances are causing people to cancel their gym memberships, facility owners need to get creative to ensure a constant cash flow. Take, for instance, The Marsh, “a center for balance and fitness” in Minnetonka, Minn. This 67,000-square-foot facility not only offers a fitness center, café, salon and massage services, it also offers its own hotel.

Called the Inn at The Marsh, the Inn has six rooms plus a lounge and conference room, and prices are quite reasonable for a high-end facility. (Marsh members pay $95 per night.) While a hotel may seem extreme, remember that YMCAs have been doing this for years.

Of course, most fitness centers can’t offer a hotel. There are countless variables that go into such a venture, including staff time, laundry facilities and a reservation system. But The Marsh makes it work since it is a large facility with other amenities already in place, such as conference rooms and a restaurant.

However, you could offer other unusual services and amenities that make your fitness center stand out. What about a car wash in your parking lot? Dry cleaning delivery? Dog walking while members work out? A fitness library? If you want to make your fitness center a hub for your members, one way to do that is to offer convenience — a place where they can not only get a great workout, but maybe where their in-laws can stay during the holidays, or where they can drop off their dry cleaning so they don’t have to make that extra trip.

Do you offer unusual services or amenities? Post your ideas!

What's In A Name?

Shakespeare said a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. He is an undisputed literary genius, but I wouldn’t pay him a dime to name my fitness facility.

For fitness businesses, names are incredibly important. The potential success for a facility boasting the best equipment, the lowest membership fees and the choicest amenities would be greatly diminished if it were named, say, Sweaty Feet. Or, Possible Results. Or, Failed Resolutions.

Like I said, a name is important.

So important to one fitness center, in fact, that its owners didn’t trust themselves to name it when they were looking to re-brand. Instead, they posted on a popular naming site, and were rewarded with dozens of choices for just a few bucks.

Everyone loves to suggest names. Try getting pregnant; you’ll see what I’m talking about. Naming a fitness facility is no different. It can even be a way to get some cheap publicity while you’re in the construction process. What if a club held a local contest to help find its name? The winner could receive a free membership for a year, and the contest could help build anticipation for the grand opening.

I’d name a few of my favorite (awful) facility names, but I’d like to keep my job. Instead, I’ll share my favorite (awful) name for a hair salon: Curl Up and Dye. The name just makes you want to submit to the scissors of a cynical, possibly suicidal hairdresser, right?

Just for kicks, what are your favorite (awful) club names?

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.

No Need for Separation of Church and Fitness

When it comes to encouraging people to exercise, the fitness industry can use all the help it can get – maybe even from a higher power. A 2003 Harris Interactive survey found that 90 percent of adults in the U.S. believe in God. That’s A LOT of people! By comparison, only 10 percent of people in the U.S. belong to fitness centers. Maybe the fitness industry could get a boost from religion.

According to an article in the Montgomery Advertiser, many fitness pros and enthusiasts are taking the Biblical principle, “your body is a temple,” to heart. In addition to church-hosted group exercise classes and diet support groups, community fitness centers that offer faith-based fitness programs are beginning to pop up.

One example is Holy Spirit Gym in Costa Mesa, Calif. The fitness center is open to everyone, but features Bible scripture on the wall, and Christian music over the sound system.

Another facility, Fit 4 Christ, in Montgomery, Ala., plays Christian and gospel music, and offers weekend spiritual programs, prayer partners, and daily devotionals and Bible study. “People are finally identifying the connection between being physically fit and being spiritually in tune, and they’re inspired to do something,” says owner Antonio King.

While these examples are Christian-based, there are also facilities that cater to Muslim women, the JCC caters to the Jewish community, and many yoga and mind/body studios have a new-age/spiritual approach.

Of course, most fitness centers wouldn’t succeed with a religious-based theme, but some could and do. With so many believers out there, and so many untapped potential members, maybe this is one approach that could get more people into fitness centers. For those who haven’t responded to other types of motivation, maybe God is the answer. For fitness centers looking to fill a niche in their community, maybe God is also the answer.

Child's Play

With the Centers for Disease Control estimating that between six and 19 percent of children are overweight, and an additional 15 percent at risk for becoming obese, I think we need to ask ourselves: What can the fitness industry really do to make a difference?

I guess the first thing we have to understand is, “What is the problem?” Why are so many kids fat? Of course, discussion about this has been going on for years; the biggest culprits appear to be junk food, entertainment options that cause kids to sit for hours and hours, and school funds cuts, which have resulted in the elimination of physical education programs.

It’s been a while, but I do remember being a kid. My friends and I had junk food and ate it, albeit our junk was more in the form of sugar rather than in fat; in fact, our almost daily outing after school was to the local drugstore to purchase our favorite candy, and then proceed to eat it -- all. And, at meals, our parents made us eat everything on our plates. As for entertainment, we didn’t have all of the options that kids have now, but we did have music and television, and even “back then,” those were distractions from being outdoors with our friends -- or, in other words, being active. And those P.E. programs? They were no incentive to exercise at all. Almost every kid I knew hated P.E.; it was punishment. Yet, still, the percentage of children back then who were obese comes nowhere close to what that percentage is today.

So, why are kids so fat today? Well, many say that kids just don’t partake in as much of the good, old-fashioned fun that children used to crave. The kind that happens after school and on weekends when kids and their friends get together and roughhouse, grab the bikes and head to another friend’s to get a pick-up game together, or head down to the river, lake or beach to check out the scene. It’s not that these options don’t exist anymore. I still see kids in my neighborhood outside riding their skateboards, chasing each other around, playing basketball, etc. It’s just that, I believe, there seems to be a different perception of what is “fun.” The newer entertainment options have made good, old-fashioned fun seem sort of “hum-drum.”

The question is whether the new facilities geared specifically toward kids’ fitness that are springing up across the country are what this population needs to stave off the obesity crisis. The facilities I am talking about include those such as Volt Fitness and Intelligent Sports’ Youth Fitness Centers.

Volt Fitness is a new video arcade/gym concept in Glen Rock, N.J., which was created by a pediatrician and former fitness director, and combines circuit training machines with video games. They’re marketing the concept to pre-teens and teens who pay $10 to $15 an hour to “work up a sweat while playing video games that require them to ride an exercise bike, work out on a rowing machine or engage in a simulated boxing match.” The idea, apparently, is “to get the kids moving so that they will have a change in mind-set -- a paradigm shift in how they view exercise.”

Intelligent Sports’ Youth Fitness Centers in Upland, Calif., provides youth and family fitness equipment and programs “to allow kids to grow athletically and intellectually, and to fight childhood obesity.” The facilities, which are membership-based, are designed for kids and include exercise equipment that is interactive with several popular video game titles from PlayStation and Xbox.

Interesting concept for a whole new type of fitness facility market, but is it just a new business model that will attract only active youth? Or, could it succeed in having an effect on the child obesity epidemic?

Big, Black Boxes of Sin

I don’t know about your members, but I go to the gym for one reason: to watch hot chicks and smokin’ guys shake their stuff. There, I said it. I don’t run for an hour on the treadmill for my health; I do it so I can get an eyeful of scantily clad women lip-syncing to top 40 hits, or bumping and grinding next to a shirtless, scowling rap star. Don’t call the cops just yet — I’m not doing anything illegal. I’m just watching the videos playing on the TVs scattered throughout the club. Those big, black boxes of sin are chock full of sex, I tell you. SEX!

OK, so the previous paragraph is not entirely true. I don’t actually go to the gym to watch music videos. I do run on the treadmill for my health, but I’ve only clocked an hour once and that nearly killed me. But there is a group of concerned — no, HORRIFIED — students in Utah who are doing whatever they possibly can to get that filth off two area Gold’s Gym closed-circuit televisions.

I promise you, this time I’m not kidding.

Five “organizations that fight pornography in the community are upset with the videos at the gym and say they have collected nearly 1,000 signatures on a petition calling on Gold’s Gym to quit showing the videos,” reports KSL5. Dallen Johnson told the KSL5 reporter, “I’ve had to leave, honestly! There have been four times I’ve run out of the cardio cinema because of racy and inappropriate things being shown, things I personally view as pornography.” You know, there are certain shoe displays so alluring that I view them as pornography, but I’m not demanding that the stores take them down. I just want a discount.

Jesse Yaffe says the injustice goes even further. Not only does Gold’s broadcast porn, but apparently those sadists force him to watch it. “Once you are a member here, you basically don’t have the choice anymore,” Yaffe told the reporter. “You’re forced to watch indecent material because it seems everywhere you go there’s a TV.” And you thought your members wanted entertainment options!

Gold’s Gym officials in Utah, bless their hearts, are taking the time to listen to the students’ complaints. “Gold’s says music helps to energize people who are there to exercise, and say they don’t want anyone to be offended at the gym during their workout experience,” reports KSL5.

However, it seems the offenses don’t stop at lascivious videos. The students have demanded that Gold’s install blinds on the group exercise room because the exercisers’ “dancing” is “very provocative.” Unless the cocktail-loving ladies from Flirty Girls Fitness have stumbled into a Gold’s by mistake after a wild night of pole dancing, I fail to see how group exercise could be so provocative it should be behind closed doors.

Don’t get me wrong. Some people prefer a more modest environment to work out in, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Heck, we’ve written about facilities that cater to those people. But it’s my opinion that Gold’s should stay strong. A club should not change to accommodate the few — nor should it do so in a manner that suggests all of its other locations are doing something wrong or indecent. If the students are unhappy there, then Gold’s should refund their money and send them on their way.

And I’m not kidding about that, either.

Calling All Gladiators

Happy (almost) New Year! The good news is that your fitness center is likely packed to the gills with resolution-wielding exercisers. The bad news? The Writer’s Guild of America is striking, which means that your favorite television shows are on indefinite hiatus until a deal is hammered out between studio bigwigs and Guild leaders. What does this have to do with the fitness industry, you ask? More than you think.

TV has long been a source of ideas for fitness programming. (’Fess up: How many of you have held a Biggest Loser- or Survivor-themed competitions at your facility?) Popular reality shows based on competition are perfect for time-crunched managers to make their own. Now, thanks to the writer’s strike, studios are relying even more on the reality formula to fill empty slots in their program schedule. They’re even dragging out some old favorites, like American Gladiators. The new and improved version of the program, hosted by Laila Ali and Hulk Hogan, debuts Sunday, January 6, on NBC. I’ll wait while you set your TiVo.

If you’re starting to mull ways to bastardize the American Gladiators formula for your fitness center, I’m sad to say that you’re too late. Someone has beaten you to it. The Tribune Chronicle reports that, in May, the American Gladiators Sports-Fitness Training facility will open in Niles, Ohio. I imagine it will be a place where members can act out their long-dormant fantasies of wearing helmets and spandex, and going head to head with muscle-bound opponents.

I find it hard to imagine there is anyone out there yearning to be an American Gladiator — save a few adult males with memories of Saturday mornings watching long-haired dudes with names like Blaze and Firestorm beat the living daylights out of hapless weekend warriors. To be completely honest, I can’t imagine anyone wanting to participate in these kinds of activities sober, but that probably says more about me than anything.

Still, John Ferraro Sr., who is heading the project along with his two sons, assures skeptics that, “It will be fantastic.” The fitness center will offer exercise facilities on three levels. Fitness challenge competitions will be staged between members, and with representatives of other facilities, according to the article.

The Ferraros say they plan to franchise their idea, and believe that people all across the U.S. are chomping at the bit for the kind of campy competition the TV show embraces. “People ask me, why here?” Ferraro told the Tribune Chronicle. “People here are no different than they are in Beverly Hills.” Really? I used to live in Los Angeles, and I have a hard time picturing the gaunt, moneyed shopoholics who haunt Rodeo Drive forgoing their private Pilates sessions for a round of sweaty jousting.

Maybe I’m jaded. Maybe the recent faltering of fitness franchises has hardened my journalist’s heart, and I fail to appreciate the secret desires of the American public to act out their adolescent fantasies. Maybe the next big fitness franchise idea really is found in old TV favorites. I have to wonder if my husband wouldn’t get in line for the chance to wear a leather Speedo and raise a massive sword by a replica of Grayskull Castle.

It might be fun for a day, but is play-acting the way people would choose to get their daily dose of exercise? I suppose anything is possible … but I doubt it.

The Fitness Industry Is No Friend to the Environment

Fitness centers are loud and bright and crammed with equipment that requires electricity. They have pools and showers and hot tubs that require water and heat. They are big boxes with high ceilings that require more air conditioning in the summer than most types of businesses. They have members using water bottles and reading papers and magazines that get thrown away, instead of being recycled. They are, in other words, no friend to the environment.

Are we ignorant about how to “go green”? Do we not care? Is it too much of an effort? A recent industry trade show boasted about 130 seminars for facility owners and managers, but not one of them had anything to do with the “green” craze that is happening in other industries. But, maybe the show organizers actually got it right. One of the keynote addresses, “Healthy People, Healthy Planet,” was about how living healthy (eating organic, walking more, riding your bike to work, etc.) can actually be healthy for the environment, too. This keynote, unfortunately, had a dismal turnout, which makes me think that the fitness industry just isn’t ready to deal with this important issue.

The politics of “global warming” may have turned some people off, but I think that the industry may actually be just too concerned with profits to care about the environment. However, the facts go against this type of thinking. Establishing environmentally friendly practices at your fitness center can actually save you money. Low-energy lighting, solar electricity, low-energy equipment, low-flow showers and toilets, a paperless office, double-paned windows, etc., can all save your facility money in the long run.

There are many resources out there for fitness centers that want to do more. The Environmental Protection Agency offers tips on energy efficiency and renewable energy, water conservation, environmentally preferable building materials, waste reduction and more. The U.S. Green Building Council offers tools and information you need to design, build and operate a green building. And Green Building Solutions gives tips on everything in a building from plumbing to flooring to roofing. In addition, an article in Fitness Management gives specific tips for fitness centers wishing to go green.

The resources are there. Now all the industry needs is motivation, or, possibly, a more sympathetic attitude about what is happening to our planet.

When the Greater Good Doesn’t Prevail

Every so often, a law put into effect for good reason ends up undermining the greater good. This was certainly the case when a court ruled that a Santa Rosa, Calif.,-based women’s-only fitness center, Body Central, violated state law by excluding men. And, when owner Shannon Hartnett failed to comply with her settlement agreement, reached in 2004 with the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH), to eliminate all advertising that portrayed Body Central as a women’s-only fitness center, as well as provide separate shower and locker facilities for men within two years, the DFEH filed yet another lawsuit in 2006.

To provide some background.… In 1995, the California Supreme Court ruled that private clubs operating as businesses are required to follow state laws against discrimination. California’s law (the Unruh Civil Rights Act, Civil Code section 51(b)) stipulates that businesses have to provide “full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities, privileges or services,” and cannot discriminate on the basis of “sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability or medical condition.”

The original lawsuit against Body Central occurred when a man, Phillip Kottle, filed a complaint in 2003 with the DFEH, saying that he was refused membership at the facility on the basis of his sex. California is not the only state in which this has happened. Other states, namely Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Tennessee and Wisconsin, have had similar lawsuits, and now have laws allowing same-sex fitness facilities.

In most instances, there is no question that California’s law is a good one, protecting the rights of its citizens. But in the case of Body Central, the law stands to undermine the efforts made to encourage healthy lifestyles. There are many women who would prefer to only work out with women, and many men who would prefer to only work out with men — simply because they feel more comfortable, perhaps due to a weight issue, or perhaps because they would rather leave the sexual social atmosphere out of their workouts. I’m not saying that all men are eyeing women in the gym or vice-versa. But, let’s be truthful, it does happen.

I realize that the DFEH is required to act on all complaints that it deems violate state law, but it’s hard to understand how Body Central could be so unfairly singled out. There are hundreds of women-only fitness facilities in California, not to mention the recent growth of men-only fitness facilities, that have not had suits filed against them. Yet, they are also in direct violation of California’s or, perhaps, another state’s law.

If our industry is going to help the population get fit and, in the process, reduce the burden on healthcare costs caused by obesity and sedentary lifestyles, operators of single-sex facilities might be well-advised to be proactive about this issue, rather than waiting for the DFEH to come knocking on their doors. There is certainly a greater good to be gained by allowing these facilities to exist than to ban them.