Strategies for prioritizing strength equipment in your health club this season.
The core of the fitness industry is results. While some people enjoy the gym and working out for the social aspect, the root of what brings someone there is a desire to obtain an outcome. Facilities should be designed with results in mind, not just flash and sizzle.
Space and money should be prioritized towards maximizing results on investment. There has been an overwhelming amount of evidence coming out to confirm what those of us in the fitness industry have already known: strength training is king.
Just about every population can benefit from increasing their strength and lean muscle mass. Whether it be to increase metabolism, promote healthy aging, help with osteoporosis or improve performance – strength training has unlimited benefits.
While there are many approaches to increasing strength and muscle mass, free weight movements done properly will always have the most benefit. With this in mind, health clubs should aim to maximize these areas and minimize the amount of circuit machines and cardio equipment.
“They have a ton of equipment!” is usually a measure by which people judge the quality of a gym. It is time that we rewrite the narrative of what makes for a good gym and stop enabling people to be attracted to sitting on circuit machines or plugging away aimlessly on cardio equipment. While they are useful tools and have their place, they should not be prioritized as much as they historically have been.
Machines are easy. Machines are comfortable. We know the routine: People join the gym – they do the same machines and cardio routine for a few weeks – then they quit. It is on us to set the tone of what sound exercise programming is and modify that to specific needs that will generate results.
This starts with the facility design and where we prioritize our space and money when equipping a space. Don’t be an enabler. Help members start prioritizing strength equipment and what is best for their desired results.
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Ryan O'Toole is the regional manager for Anytime Fitness Cheswick, Leechburg and Kittanning, and the founder of Culture First Fitness. He can be reached at ryan@culturefirstfitness.com.
