It’s not always easy to know which equipment you need to stock in your gym right off the bat. Some gyms operate under strict financial constraints, while others have smaller indoor spaces than they’d ideally like. In a perfect world, of course, you would be able to start with the most essential equipment and then expand to include more as your business also expands. But where do you start? What are the essentials? And if you have to choose between a high-quality barbell cage, smith machine, or leg press machine to fill out your “lower body” equipment section, what’s the best choice? All three have distinct benefits and [...]
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When you’ve been “the boss” for a long time, it can be hard to remember what it felt like working for someone else. You get used to making the decisions, holding the power, and choosing the direction in which you want your company to go. When the future of your gym business lies on your shoulders, you feel that weight every single day. Especially now, with COVID-19 fresh in everyone’s minds and the futures of independent businesses everywhere hanging in the balance, you’re probably feeling the stress of holding everything together. You might feel like you are the glue trying to keep [...]
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As a gym owner, you have likely been concerned with keeping the fears of your paying members at bay in the post-COVID-19 world. You probably have spent the mandatory lockdown coming up with ways to maneuver your business through the crisis and putting plans in place for your grand reopening strategy once the stay at home orders are lifted. But what about your employees? Many workers are facing huge numbers of uncertainties surrounding their jobs, as well as worrying about their own health and that of their families. Now is the time to plan how you will address your employees’ fears and keep your [...]
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So many business owners are facing uncertainty due to the COIVD-19 crisis. Will your business weather this period of being closed down? How well can you recover once you reopen? What are the best ways of minimizing financial losses and maximizing health and safety standards for your staff and members? The best way to combat this uncertainty is to drive forward with a clear and determined strategy for reopening. This strategy should focus heavily on enforcing stringent health, safety, and sanitization protocols. When you take the guesswork out of your plan, you reduce your own anxiety as a business owner [...]
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What benefits does partnering with a physical therapist bring to your gym members? As the collective age of United States citizens continues to rise, so does the rate of exercise-related injuries. For many people trying to stay in shape, effectively rehabilitating an injury now means that they must see both a physical therapist and a personal trainer, often at different facilities with no communication between them, and hope that the information they receive is consistent, safe, and helpful. This is why, immediately, it seems obvious that bringing a physical therapist into your gym space would be of huge benefitto your members. They can [...]
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It’s not always easy to strike a balance between managing your employees closely and letting them take initiative. Depending on your management style, you might feel it’s more in your nature to micromanage your employees’ tasks and ensure everyone is getting the job done according to your standards. Or, if you lean toward the other end of that spectrum, you might enjoy taking your hands off the reins and allowing your workers the slack to largely manage themselves. In most cases, the “right” approach falls somewhere in the gray area between those two extremes. Only you know how your employees [...]
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The outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 (also known simply as “coronavirus”) and the resulting COVID-19 pandemic has affected nearly every industry worldwide. Gyms, classified as “nonessential businesses,” have been ordered to close until the pandemic wanes and health officials deem that it is safe for the public to return to normal daily activities in public. As a gym owner, you are no doubt feeling the strain of this unplanned closure during the normally busy spring months. Thankfully, there are many things you can do with this time to not only lessen the impact of this crisis on your business, but also to [...]
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As the owner of a gym, drawing in new members is a topic that will always be near the front of your mind. Successful business owners never truly stop marketing. Over the years, you have probably run your fair share of gym promotions, membership discounts, and group signup events. Marketing strategies like these often - for good reason - make up the backbone of gym advertisement campaigns. However, sticking to these tried and true methods can feel a little stale after a while. Not to mention, if you neglect the technical and online sides of your marketing campaign, you are leaving dozens [...]
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The exercise series so far has focused on weighted movements such as the bench press, squat, and kettlebell swing. We’ve highlighted these movements because they are some of the most effective exercises that a person can do to build strength and overall functional fitness. However, it is completely possible to get a great, effective workout without any equipment at all. In fact, for some people with certain injuries or range of motion limitations, bodyweight exercises offer a safe and simple alternative to heavy resistance exercises. For this reason, this article will highlight the burpee as one of the “best of the best” bodyweight [...]
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As a gym owner or manager, you’re in charge of hiring personal trainers and checking credentials. You probably already know that a trainer must hold a certification from one of the recognized, accredited fitness organizations in order to be qualified to train individual clients. However, not everyone knows that the entry level personal training certification does not qualify a trainer to teach group fitness classes or give clients detailed nutrition plans. If you’re in charge of checking backgrounds and choosing the best candidate among a pool of potential fitness trainers, it’s important you’re clear on what exactly the various levels of certifications cover so you [...]
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There comes a point when every gym owner or manager must decide on a group class lineup. Some managers take a hands-off approach and let their trainers take over building out class schedules and routines. This works fine as long as you already employ a wide variety of skilled trainers in a bunch of different specialties. But what if you are just getting started hiring trainers? Or what if you want to broaden the scope of the classes you offer beyond the basic classes your trainers are qualified to provide? Keep in mind that not all fitness trainers are qualified to [...]
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The CrossFit program uses some unusual movements that you might not be used to seeing in your gym. One such movement is known as a “thruster”. You might still hear non-CrossFitters calling this movement a thruster, but the name was made official by CrossFit in 2001 and has stuck ever since. Unless you’re familiar with the CrossFit library of exercises, this particular movement might catch you by surprise. If you see someone on your gym floor doing a fluid combination of a front squat and a push press, you’ve just come across a thruster in the wild. In fact, outside of the realm of [...]
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If you are new to the fitness industry, you probably have some amount of trepidation toward the time of year known as the “slow season” for gyms. Typically, when people talk about the slow season, they are referring to the summer months where most gyms struggle through a dip of low memberships and class participation. Assuming you have just opened your gym, or you are still preparing for a grand opening, you have not yet been through a slow summer in order to judge how it will affect your business personally. However, in this post we’ll run through the basics [...]
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Previously in the Exercise Series, we have covered major weightlifting movements such as the deadlift and bench press. Today, we’ll be looking in detail at a lesser-known exercise known as the kettlebell swing. This is another highly effective and beneficial exercise that requires excellent form to avoid injuries. As a gym owner, you can learn the essentials of this exercise to make sure you’re providing your clientele a safe and encouraging environment in which to do their kettlebell swings. Benefits Major proponents of kettlebells are often amazed at how little the average exerciser knows about kettlebell workouts in general. Kettlebells appear so odd [...]
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Choosing which equipment to stock in your gym is one of the many huge decisions you must make as a business owner. Especially when your budget and floor space are limited, the pressure is on to make your selections carefully. This week, we’ll be looking at some of the pros and cons of popular cardio equipment, so you can evaluate them based on your own priorities. Treadmills Regarded as of the most ubiquitous cardio machines out there, treadmills are popular for a reason. Running (or even walking) in and of itself is a fantastic, effective cardio workout that the majority of [...]
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