Since i have had a few texts on my last post, i think i should expand my comments on the development of the fitness industry!!
Here’s the next thing that has collapsed in the fitness industry! Those gyms and gym owners (usually chains) who proclaim to their new members (new direct debits they only see it as!) that they have the most treadmills in town, the most bikes in town and the most steppers in town!!!! Bravo i say!!!! But this is the main reason on why they are going bankrupt in their droves!!
In the states, the likes of gold gym, planet fitness, 24 hour fitness etc etc, will have been opening around 50 gyms a year with massive capacity. 50 treadmills, bikes and steppers come at a huge cost in many ways.
They forgot the fact that although they could intitially attract massive membership, those members had to get in shape. Having lots and lots of treadmills doesnt really do it!!! Lots of bikes doesn’t either!!! This is brainless fitness with programmes designed by men in suits, who had brains for figures and not how to get people in shape!
They forgot the fact that treadmills can be hugely boring, hamster wheels to some in gym speak, and only gave part of a result!
So what happened is you had everyone on treadmills and bikes, the weight room got ignored and all the stuff that really gets you in incredible shape, the medicine balls, swiss balls, dumbbells, sprints, bodyweight exercises etc were usually ignored.
Then when people realised they got bored of treadmills, they abondoned them, AND the gym AND their membership!!! Proper training WAS NOT explained!!!
The gym then realises that in the states anyway, they were paying $300 thousand a month in hire fees for all of these machines, the bottom line wasnt coming in anymore!!! Guess what happens next? They reduce their membership and so the decline goes on, then the filing for bankruptcy happens….at record pace in the states.
The same has started in this country, with a couple of the most famous chains either bankrupt or on life support.
It doesnt give me any pleasure to report such a decline but there is better news!
In the USA, 8 out of the best 10 gyms voted for by all industry magazines are performance related gyms, by this i mean they actually GET YOU IN SHAPE!!!! Wow, what a concept, they actually give you GREAT SERVICE, Wow what a concept, they actually TELL YOU WHAT TO EAT, Wow what a concept!!!!
They work with weights, medicine balls, swiss balls, things that will actually get you in shape, who’d have thought it!!!!
And guess what, you havent got the 300k a month overhead!!!!
The bottom line is that you HAVE TO GET PEOPLE HEALTHY AND IN SHAPE, just having a gym card doesnt cut it anymore, people are willing to pay, but not for rubbish!!! Human beings are INDIVIDUALS, and not robots, they are not perfect and there is a different programme for every body.
Times are hard but i know a record number of people realising this, and you are most welcome to send your questions to fitness@kerimckibbin.co.uk
