The days are getting longer, the weather is getting warmer, the trees are starting to bud, all signaling that spring is upon us. And with the change in season, an increasing number of your members will be flocking to the outdoors for their workouts.
For the second year in a row, Anytime Fitness is taking workouts outside to local parks with the Free Workout Saturdays program. Each of the four Saturdays in May, Anytime Fitness staff and personal trainers will offer free workouts — for members and non members alike — at outdoor parks located near participating locations.
“We really want to provide a great opportunity not only to members, but our communities as well,” said Heather Rudolph, the brand and campaign manager for the program. “Our gyms are very involved with the communities that they are located in. We really wanted to get outside the four walls and provide something great for our members, but also something great for the community to get involved with.”
Shannon Fable, the director of exercise programming for Anytime Fitness, outlined the five workouts that would be conducted each week. The format included a warm up, a 30-minute workout and then a cool down. But each club participating in the program was more than welcome to put their unique spin on it.
“The workouts we provided were just a launch pad for them, to give them something easy to follow, but they could also add their own flair as well,” said Rudolph. “Some clubs offered a different theme every week. One club did Zumba one week, yoga the next and so on. Then some clubs offered a fun team-building event at the end of the workout like obstacle races, relay races, team events and more.”
Free Workout Saturdays launched last May with around 800 clubs participating. According to Rudolph, based on post-campaign surveys, around 40,000 people participated in the workouts throughout the month. With such success, the company decided to run the program again this year.
If you are looking to do something similar, Rudolph explained, it does take a lot of planning and marketing, but is well worth it in the end. “If it is an idea that you have, get on board, because the reward is greater than you ever think it would be,” she added. “You just need a little bit of planning, you need to have the certified personal trainers on hand and you need to be able to adapt to all levels of fitness, as well as ages. Be prepared for whoever may show up, but just being outside of the gym and being in a public place helps to build awareness.”
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Emily Harbourne is the former assistant editor of Club Solutions Magazine.
Our club in Lake Stevens WA did an Outdoor Workout, (all our parks were being renovated this year but it didn’t stop us in trying) at a local school. Our members LOVED it so we are planning a hike for next week and a “Be a Kid Again” outdoor workout the week kids go back to school. We are implementing all the kid experiences into a workout, like hopscotch, hula-hoops, sack races etc. Our members are super excited!!