Fitness and nutrition. It’s a simple concept, but all too often health clubs have ignored the second half of the equation. From large health clubs with hundreds of pieces of equipment, to small “hometown” gyms, to personal training studios, many facilities struggle to provide a complete solution to members for weight loss. Who hasn’t heard a member complain that he’s been working out six days a week for over a year, bought a three-month personal training package, and tried his best to eat healthy, but the pounds still haven’t come off? Experiences like this cause members to give up – and force club owners to constantly devote valuable resources to finding new members.
In my own personal experience, it wasn’t until I joined a health club that offered a nutritional guidance program, that I truly started to succeed. Not only did my personal trainer give me access to the program, but he also took the time once a week to sit down with me and go over my results. To encourage me to stay focused, I was told that he would monitor my progress online even when I wasn’t looking. It was this combination of personal training and accountability that finally resulted in me seeing immediate results.
My story is all too familiar in an industry where it can be easy for club owners to convince themselves that adding extra treadmills, a sauna, or a juice bar is the best way to add member value. But if you only focus on fitness and extra amenities, you will continually lose members with stories similar to the one above. The reason for this is simple. It is now well documented that nutrition accounts for about seventy percent of the puzzle when it comes to your members achieving their goals, and many health clubs in the industry are starting to do something about it.
This increase in demand from clubs has caused nutritional guidance programs to come a long way in the last decade. As the Internet has matured, these programs have become very user-friendly and easy to implement. Some may even be private-labeled by your club and require very little staff overhead. These programs are evolving, just like the health and fitness industry itself.
By making this new service available and easily accessible for your members and your personal trainers, you can open the door to a large class of new clientele who are primarily interested in weight goals and improved health. When given the proper tools, your customers have the potential to surpass even their own expectations. And, with better results come higher retention rates and more referrals. By supplying services through your health club that improve your members’ eating habits, you increase the value of your facility to you, your trainers, and your members.
For more information call 301-864-3886, or email jpeters@vitabot.com, or visit www.vitabot.com.
