Pilates is trendy, sure, but for clubs who are willing to make an investment in equipment and staff, it can usher in a new era of memberships and profits.
Is your club ready?
Pilates is not for clubs who fear commitment. Though this fitness system, which began almost a century ago as rehabilitation for injured ballerinas, has become positively trendy lately thanks to numerous celebrity endorsements and its promise of sculpting bodies into longer, leaner shapes, most clubs would rather dabble than commit. They’re willing to toss a few Pilates machines onto the fitness floor and bring in an instructor to teach the occasional class, but they’re not ready for anything long-term. Unfortunately for them, Pilates is one health club trend that defies dabbling.
There’s no denying the popularity of Pilates. The American College of Sports Medicine Fitness Trends 2008 survey named it number 7 on the list of top fitness industry trends, and 9.5 million Americans say that they participate in a Pilates class at least once a week. Many of these classes take place in health clubs-according to IHRSA, 65% of health clubs now offer Pilates classes, a 49% increase from 1999. Despite Pilates’ popularity, however, few clubs really seem to get it.
There’s a good reason for that. To have a successful Pilates program, you’ve got to have qualified Pilates instructors-people who know what they’re doing and who can communicate that knowledge to members. But there are a lot of erstwhile “Pilates” instructors out there, which can make it hard for club owners to find quality instructors. There’s also the question of equipment, which can be a major consumer of valuable club space.
Still, Pilates attracts the members clubs really want to bring in, says Leslee Bender, who has been teaching Pilates for more than 11 years. “Pilates tends to bring in members of higher socioeconomic status,” she says.
“It’s the chic exercise now,” says Joan Breibart of the Physical Mind Institute. “It can be a strong selling point for a club-members want to say they do what the stars do.”
It’s true that adding a Pilates program to your club is more complicated than, say, adding a new treadmill. But doing so is not just practical-it’s smart. Here’s what you need to know to get past the most common Pilates hurdles and start giving your members the workout they’ve been waiting for.
Training
The downside to the popularity of Pilates is that everybody’s doing it-and not everybody is doing it right. In their haste to pull together a Pilates program quickly, club owners often send their trainers for “quickie” Pilates certifications and assume that will be enough. Instructors need rigorous training-and continuing education-to teach Pilates. If you don’t know what you’re doing, someone can get hurt.
It’s worth investing the time and effort into making sure that your Pilates trainers get real certification and training. The best trainers have completed several hundred hours of instruction in addition to being certified, and while these trainers may command a higher wage than you’d like to pay your personal trainers, their expertise is usually worth the cost.
You should also make sure you have an instructor who’s comfortable with all your Pilates equipment because, for instance, a reformer, is nothing like a treadmill. A member can walk up to a treadmill for the first time with no experience and still get a reasonable workout. Sure, there are tricks and techniques he’ll learn as he progresses, but treadmills work pretty intuitively-you don’t need an expert to help you figure one out. The same can be said for most fitness equipment: A combination of simple observation and common sense can give someone the knowledge to make it through a basic workout.
But that’s not the case for Pilates. Because the equipment is so sensitive, the smallest adjustments matter. And you need a qualified instructor on hand so that you don’t sustain an injury. Without an instructor who knows what she’s doing, your Pilates equipment is a dust-catcher at its best and a safety hazard at worst.
Equipment
The issue of equipment is its own potential pitfall for club owners, who often believe that they have to go all-out with a full-on, dedicated Pilates studio or skip Pilates altogether.
It’s true that Pilates takes up room-“the minimum space you need is 500 to 1,000 square feet,” says Bender-but you can test the Pilates waters at your club before jumping in with both feet. Some companies, like SPIN Pilates, have been working hard to shake the notion that a club can’t have a Pilates program without a dedicated Pilates floor. Their lightweight, stackable Pilates equipment means that Pilates can take place in your group fitness rooms, just like yoga or step classes.
“Sure, it’s not ideal,” says SPIN’s Marci Clark. “But for a lot of clubs, a full Pilates floor just isn’t an option. The real estate is too valuable to devote to something that’s more niche than mainstream for them. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have a Pilates program.”
Peak Pilates is another company that’s pushing the boundary of how Pilates can work in a club environment. “We’ve got folding pieces and units that are designed to be stored,” says Anderson. “People often think they’re limited because of space, but most clubs have more options than they think.”
So what equipment do you need? Clark recommends starting with the chair, which she says is a better starting point than the mat. “Mat Pilates is hard,” she says. “The equipment is really there to help you move to being able to do mat Pilates. If you have people who’ve never done Pilates come in and try to do mat, you’ll send them away thinking they can’t do Pilates.”
The chair, then, is a good starting point, since it’s small enough to be stackable but supportive enough to be a useful tool for beginners. It’s also an affordable entry point for clubs who are willing to spend a little money but not willing to invest major funds before they see results.
Clubs who have active Pilates programs may want to consider investing in the reformer. This machine gives the ultimate Pilates experience, but it’s big and unruly, so make sure you have enough of a following before you devote floor space to it. Reformers traditionally came hand-crafted of wood-and some companies still make them that way-but many manufacturers have begun producing reformers in the sleek steel and molded plastic that are so familiar in club decor so Pilates equipment doesn’t register a visual disconnect if you have to position it near your strength floor. Reformers aren’t inexpensive-if you’re determined to have one on a budget, some companies like SPIN sell their reformers in components, so you can buy the basic machine now and add the tower later, but if you’re going to make an investment in Pilates equipment, it’s probably best to splurge on the whole set so that members can get the complete experience.
Marketing
Most of your members will probably be excited to see you’re offering Pilates, but some may be intimidated. As a club owner, make it easy for them to get hooked. An easy way to recoup some of the cost of equipment, training and staff is to offer Pilates to members for an additional fee, much the same way most clubs offer personal training services. But members are more likely to pay for something they already know they like, so show them how fabulous Pilates can be. Consider offering free classes on certain days so members can try out Pilates before purchasing a package. Have your personal trainers invite Pilates trainers for a portion of appropriate workouts to make recommendations for members. And offer discounts to members who book multiple classes or sessions to encourage them to keep coming back.
“Pilates is addictive,” says Anderson. So get your members hooked, and keep their business long after Jennifer Aniston moves on to the next big workout craze.
