Group training involves a fitness trainer from your gym leading a group of participants in their path of fitness. Participants, apart from group camaraderie, also benefit from access to a knowledgeable fitness professional at shared costs. These basic benefits of group training are making more and more fitness enthusiasts go for it in today’s world. It is therefore essential that gyms look at this trend and provide an avenue for such people in order to stay competitive in the fitness market. The effectiveness of group training is mainly because of the following factors:
Social interaction: For most people, workouts are means of relieving stress and doing them in groups can get them out of their daily blues. Group training gives clients the incentive of meeting new people with similar lifestyle and goals, and an opportunity to socialize with them during workouts. People find it easy to connect with like-minded people and make friends. Group training thus gives participants a reason to hit the gym everyday and become a part of the group for the long term.
Answerability: Once people become buddies in group training, they find it hard to skip a class. In other words, it prevents them from being couch potatoes as they are answerable to their gym buddies when they miss a class. The trainers should make this mutual responsibility a feature of the group training.
Financial viability: Most people who regularly come to the gym want a fitness trainer but usually cannot afford it. Group training eliminates this problem as the trainer’s fee is shared by a group of people. If your gym adopts this method, you are likely to widen your customer base as your clients may even bring along their buddies to be a part of the group.
Promotion of healthy competition: When people work in groups, they are likely to compare themselves with others and strive to do better than or at least be as good as them. This automatically sets fitness goals for the exercisers and they are very likely to be regular to the gym for this purpose.
What the trainer should keep in mind?
While there are many advantages of group training that must be brought to the notice of the potential clients, there are certain things that trainers must keep in mind too. Most people visualize a group of individuals working out aimlessly to loud music when they think of group exercises. Trainers must allay the apprehensions of such clients and convince them that they will get enough attention from the trainers during the exercise sessions.
Not all people are very sociable and can be introverts. But this does not mean they do not wish to avail the services of a trainer. Fitness trainers must keep this factor in mind and make sure that all participants feel comfortable. They must be proactive in understanding whether people are comfortable in the group setting. Some people take longer than others to break the ice but it is necessary that the trainers understand this.
What group training can do for gyms?
Group training expands the membership base of gyms as more people can afford the services of a trainer through it. The training also ensures more clients are retained because of the fact that they make gym buddies and find comfort in the environment.
The gym also tends to get a lot of mouth-to-mouth publicity as participants are likely to discuss the happenings at the gym beyond the gym premise. Such conversations can motivate others to be a part of the group too. Gyms can also target specific groups of people with common interests like pregnant women, postnatal women, and elderly.