Why You Should Run a Fitness Challenge

Thinking about running a fitness challenge at your health club?

I always believe there are two reasons why members leave a gym. First, there is a lack of motivation. Whether this means the equipment, music or customer experience, members tend to leave their gyms if they aren’t being motivated.

Secondly, because when there is a lack of motivation there tends to be a lack of results. Reaching a fitness goal is one of the primary reasons you join in the first place so not reaching those goals is a cause to leave. That said, fitness challenges open new ways to not only acquire new members and referrals but keep your existing members for a longer period of time.

Below, we’ll take a look at some best practices when running a fitness challenge.

Define the Time Frame

How long do you want the challenge to run? Think in terms of both keeping members engaged, as well as strategy for the business. Since most gym memberships are month to month, it is always a good idea to at least have a 30-day challenge. Let a member experience a full 30 days of being engaged at your gym. 

Track Results

Challenges only work if members see results. How will you measure them? This could be something as simple as weigh-ins prior to the start of the challenge or something more sophisticated like an in-body scan or body fat machine. More importantly, make sure you are taking the time to complete a thorough needs analysis. Finding out what someone’s goals are, why it is their goal, and what their prior experience is like will all play into what they want to get out of a fitness challenge.

If you aren’t comfortable measuring body fat on members you can run the challenge based on points. Completing a certain number of workouts or check-ins each week earns you a certain number of points. 

Incentivize with Prizes

It is always fun to incentivize winners. That could be a free 30-day membership for them and a friend or a gift card for a set dollar amount. What I always recommend is to leverage some local businesses to see if they want to contribute to a gift basket. This helps bring some notoriety to the business, as well as make the giveaways much larger.

Building the Challenge into Your Value Prop

Now that you are set to start a challenge at your facility, it is important your staff understand how to build it into your value proposition during the sales cycle. In other words, using the challenge to further build value in your membership. I always recommend spending dedicated time each week to role play. Role play is underutilized in the fitness industry in my opinion and yet so vital in building results in the business. Don’t be afraid to role play with your staff on how to use the fitness challenge to increase new members and referrals.