A Program for the Fit Population

Every club has a group of die hard, competitive types who want to be pushed to exhaustion. They would typically like a bootcamp style class where an instructor designs a workout that is fast-paced and relentless, not to mention impossibly difficult.

How many of these classes provide nutrition information or an eating plan to supplement and support the exercise? If your club is offering a bootcamp program and not including a companion diet, are you doing all you can to service those participants?

We can’t assume that even these people who are really into their exercise regimes know how to eat well or eat for optimal performance. This group of people could be where we may have a truly captive audience who are ready to listen and learn about improving their lifestyle.

We often focus on the overweight or obese and forget that even the apparently healthy population could use our help as well. In today’s vernacular, the word “diet” seems like a dirty word, but a healthy diet and one that can be chosen for changing or improving body composition can have applications to lots of other members.

How do you market a healthy diet to healthy people? The first thing I would do is welcome members to try to change how they eat rather than go on a diet. It’s a very clear distinction that focuses on what you will eat rather than what you won’t. They can learn new ways to eat new foods and incorporate the principles of fat loss eating.

There are lots of plans on the market for losing fat, especially belly fat, which is very appealing to the high performance exerciser. Most of the plans require that a person eat more protein, lots of veggies, and little or no carbs of the starchy variety. So no grains, no sugar and sometimes not even the carbs like oatmeal that have been considered acceptable for most dieters. It can be very “painful!”

My suggestion is to offer a Bootcamp Plus program where the members are asked to participate in a nutrition education plan along with the exercise classes. If you have a nutritionist on staff who can develop a plan specifically for your program, that would be great! If the trainer or instructor is sufficiently knowledgeable to do the job, that would be fine too.

Don’t miss this opportunity to capture a unique audience and cross-sell your other services. Try to make the eating plan a requirement of the program in order for the members to maximize their results within a specific time period, like a month. And be prepared for lots of great publicity!

Judith Samuels, M.A. is a certified nutrition and wellness consultant and master personal trainer at Sport&Health Clubs in the Washington D.C. Metro Area. She can be reached via e-mail at judi@judisamuels.com.