Like the lifts we’ve covered in the exercise series so far, the barbell row is another weightlifting movement that often causes gym owners some anxiety. It’s a compound movement done with heavy barbells that carries a risk of serious injury when done improperly. It can be tempting to outlaw or restrict exercises like this in your gym out of the fear of injuries and liability issues. However, barbell rows, just like squats, deadlifts, and other major compound movements, are so incredibly beneficial to most exercisers that you would be doing your gym members a disservice by banning them altogether. In this post, we’ll be [...]
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Overhead presses are one of the six most popular weightlifting exercises that your gym members will likely want to perform during workouts. As such, it’s important that you, as a gym owner, understand what proper form looks like and what equipment your patrons will need to stay safe. Benefits The overhead press movement works the arms, shoulders, upper back, and core muscles. Though you may feel like you’re doing a solely upper body exercise, you are using the muscles in your back and abdomen to stabilize the heavy weight overhead, which makes the overhead press an excellent choice of exercise [...]
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In the first exercise series post covering the squat, we discussed a number of reasons you, as a gym owner, should know the major exercises your gym members will be doing. Enforcing higher safety standards, knowing red flags to look out for when you’re on the gym floor, and understanding what equipment your gym members will need are all essential things you can handle when you know the basics of each exercise. Today’s post will cover another major movement: the deadlift. Benefits of the deadlift A compound movement that uses several major joints and large muscle groups, the deadlift is one of the best exercises [...]
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As a gym owner, you might not feel the need to concern yourself with the actual exercises your clients are performing. After all, if your business is running smoothly and you have properly delegated responsibilities to your trainers and staff, then why would you need to get involved with the fitness side of things? The answer to this question is multifaceted, but it essentially boils down to two reasons:• In order to provide the best service to your members, you must understand what they want from your gym.• In order to keep your members safe and happy, you must understand how each [...]
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Fitness trainers are the bread and butter employees of gyms and fitness centers. Knowledgeable, effective trainers lend credibility to their workplace and make clients feel like their money is well spent. However, underqualified or ineffective trainers might have the opposite effect, leading clients to seek fitness expertise elsewhere. How can you, as a gym owner, ensure that your trainers are offering the best and most current industry knowledge and maintaining high standards for health and safety? A good starting point is to evaluate their third party fitness certifications. These credentials prove that a trainer has passed a fitness organization’s tests [...]
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As a gym owner, you work hard to devise engaging fitness programs, keep a qualified rotation of trainers on staff, and offer a variety of equipment for your customers to enjoy. But there is one often-overlooked aspect of maximizing your client retention and member satisfaction: optimizing the building itself. Your physical building space is the face of your business. Before your clients walk up to the front desk and greet the first employee they see, they will make a snap judgement about your gym based on what they see around them. Consider the environment and ambiance of your gym, and [...]
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In the modern era, few businesses can get by without taking advantage of all the myriad technology upgrades available. Utilizing the best business software can propel your gym to a new level of productivity, security, and success. What can great gym management software do for you? Save time and money When your software takes over the automation of menial tasks and shoulders the burden of the everyday work load, your staff is set free to do more important work that only humans can accomplish. Your employees’ time is much better spent in face to face interactions with clients and trainers [...]
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Being a great leader to your gym staff is similar to being a great boss or manager in any business where you lead a team. Team management principles are mostly universal regardless of your business, but with some creativity, you can utilize fitness principles you already use every day to hone your management skills and build a strong and cohesive team of employees for your gym. Maintain a good working relationship with your staff. Remember that happy people work more efficiently. It’s a fact that employees with the highest mental and emotional satisfaction work harder and more efficiently than employees [...]
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Everyone in the fitness industry knows about the dreaded slow season. The hot months of summer, June through August in the United States, are notorious for low client participation and a dearth of new memberships. How can you weather the heat and keep your gym running smoothly even during the slowest of summers? Plan Ahead For The Seasonal Dip The good news about the slow season is that it’s widely known and accepted, so you can anticipate it. Don’t let June’s lack of client engagement take you by surprise. Plan your year ahead of time, from your annual budget to [...]
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If your gym operates solely on income you bring in from client memberships, you could be leaving a whole lot of money on the table. Opportunities for Alternate Revenue Streams you can operate from your gym or your website are nearly endless. Passive (Or Almost-Passive) Income The least time-consuming revenue opportunities will earn money for your business with little to no effort or time spent on your part once the initial setup is complete. Truly passive income is difficult to generate, but it is entirely possible to build low-effort revenue streams into your business. From simple to complex, you can [...]
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So, Should You Pursue Alternate Income Streams or No? There comes a limit to the number of memberships you can sell, which is a good thing. You hit the ceiling for your single gym it means you’ve maxed out the potential for monthly subscriptions. To go further, you have to sell more to the same people with alternative fitness club revenue streams. There’re some alternatives to this alternative, but they may not be the best choices. You can do the big-box corporate brand shuffle, which means over-selling memberships and hoping they don’t all turn up. Instead, you have to connect [...]
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Structure Your Offerings with Client Programming for Fitness Client programming is your menu of good things that you offer your market. In the fitness business, it’s one of the fundamental dimensions that define a successful training practice. The big-box fitness brands can afford to stand back and cover all of the programming bases. As a small gym business owner, you are probably better served if you focus on one or a few. The irony, of course, is that the corporate brands would do better if they could do the same. However, in my experience, excellence doesn’t scale all that well. [...]
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Breaching the Barriers of the Fitness Business Gyms should always be about positivity and overcoming obstacles. So, it’s worth taking a look at a few of the hurdles you’re likely to encounter in fitness entrepreneurship. I’m not saying you should forge ahead recklessly. You need a plan and contingencies. However, don’t let the inevitable difficulties and the nay-sayers turn you away from your dream of becoming a fitness club owner. Big Box Brands Take All the Business False! You don’t have to invest a fortune in a primo location, lease one-hundred tons of the latest Internet-connected equipment, and then compete [...]
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Building Your Dream by Starting Your Own Business in Fitness If you are the kind of person, like me, who enjoy fitness and being at the gym, the dream of starting your own business in fitness is the logical next step. Fitness is so wide-open because it’s a people business. If you can gain a following of one person, you have a fitness business. That sounds crazy but, if you’re in the right place at the right time, celebrities and the super-wealthy do sometimes hire trainers full-time. That may be a bit extreme and takes a lot of luck. However, [...]
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Survey of What Is On The Horizon for Special Populations in Fitness Specialty Fitness Fills Niches and Gyms Humans come in a delightful diversity of shapes, sizes, and physical needs. I think it is super-rewarding to see people achieve spectacular levels of fitness achievement. It is even more rewarding when you can help special populations take small steps to better health and enhanced mobility. Special Population Niche Opportunities The fitness profession offers opportunities to assist people at all stages of their fitness journeys, as well as their extended sojourns through life. Special populations present you with many unique niche opportunities [...]
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