In this episode, Jared and Rick discuss how to align your fitness business with the future of the fitness industry post COVID. The good news is there is a pent-up demand for fitness services if you speak the right message to the right audience. 

Now that we can see the light at the end of the tunnel shining brighter with the vaccine program going on smoothly, we need to start looking at how the fitness industry will look after COVID. Consumer confidence will definitely go up, and people will start getting out more.  Anyone in the fitness industry should be poised and ready.

The big question is how we align our fitness services moving forward with the new normal. One thing that is clearly coming out is that fitness professionals need to do more to educate consumers about what they need to do to get and stay healthy. Not just workouts but from an overall health perspective. 

Rick suggests that we are going to need to do better than selling “six-pack abs and tight glutes”. We need to align the message around overall wellness and health moving forward. COVID has taught us that fitness is not about looking good; it is literally about our living  life to the fullest. It’s about mitigating our risks and giving ourselves the best chance to fight something like this in the future.

During the pandemic, leadership promoted a message of fear in order to prevent catching the virus. The only actionable steps were stay home, wear a mask, and social distance.  What leadership should have included are some things that you can do that would at least mitigate some of your risks. Some of those actionable steps are associated with health and wellness, which are in our control.   

Actionable Health and Wellness Steps to Mitigating COVID

  • Sleep
  • Exercise
  • Vitamins and Supplements – Vitamin D3, Zinc, and Vitamin C
  • Nutrition
  • Reduce weight

Studies have shown 78% of people that were hospitalized for COVID were classified as obese. Whether it is a medical condition  causing obesity, lifestyle habits, emotional challenges, or psychological, whatever those things are it is a risk factor. While this population has been relatively healthy before COVID, along comes the virus and they were now at higher risk than the segment of the population that doesn’t have any pre existing conditions. That’s a fact, regardless of how you got there. Now, you could literally die if you catch this virus. 

Now we are at the point where we see the light at the end of the tunnel and we in the fitness industry have the opportunity to reflect about the need to start to have conversations about what needs to happen and create the messaging. Whether you caught the virus and got sick or not,  we need to ask how do we mitigate our risk and give us the best chance to avoid this happening again.  As an industry, I think we’ve done a bad job to align ourselves in people’s lives as a wellness solution. Gimmicks in the past were all about the quick fix, the six week fat loss challenge, burn 1,000 calories an hour, smoke and mirrors, microphones and music. But it hasn’t been in we do as good a job as anyone. But we still haven’t leaned in hard enough, I  to be viewed as a wellness solution. If you went to a doctor and asked what do I need to do to get in shape?  Many in the medical field don’t see fitness as a wellness solution. The fitness industry is not  seen as essential, which was obvious during COVID. Local and national government shut down health clubs, gyms, and personal training facilities.   We need to change that moving forward.

As a fitness professional after COVID, there are going to be an opportunity to speak to your customer base, from a wellness position, especially from a position like the business model like  the Alloy Personal Training Franchise business. The mature segment of our population over age 40 which have a higher income are definitely interested in staying healthy and living a long time. Wellness messaging to that population obviously would be to lose weight and reduce all the risk factors.

Wellness Conversations  

  • Sleep and how that affects your health
  • Nutrition in general and healthy nutrition practices
  • Supplementation

Obviously, one thing that came out of COVID was vitamin d3 and how many in the hospital were vitamin D deficient. Moving forward, you need to at least have some working knowledge in each one of these fields.  Because the brands that simply go to market with like best workout, are going to suffer long term, certainly in the demographic that we’re talking about, which just so happens to have 70% of the nation’s disposable income. If you are looking to build a fitness business, you’re going to have to upskill yourself, get to know about cellular integrity, more importantly, you have to be an accountability coach. So you have to hold people accountable to more than just showing up and giving them a good workout. In the past we might go out in the parking lot and do 100 burpees to get the heart rate up, but what is the end result? How much should you be doing? There is also a nutrition component to the program and how are you going to hold the client accountable after the first month when they don’t want to do it anymore? Life, family and work get in the way.  That’s where real coach comes into play. And it’s something that we’ve done Alloy Personal Training since 1992.

The Alloy Systemized Wellness Approach

Alloy has already been working on the wellness solution before COVID to be able to manage their health overall, with the right messaging and conversations like sleep, nutrition, hydration, and all the things that most affects your health. If you are opening or reopening a fitness facility, then you need to be part of that wellness conversation to establish yourself as an expert.

At Alloy we systemize the wellness message fitness clients are receiving to help educate from a multifaceted approach.  In weekly trainer staff meetings, we come up with a systemized the clients will receive each week.  Week 1 – talk about vitamin D3 and how it affects your cellular integrity to help prevent something like COVID. That’s what we’re talking about this week. And of course, not everybody on your team is going to have the same education as everyone else. But somebody can look up this information. We pick a basic message around the educational subject to create awareness on how vitamin d3 is really important for your health. We don’t get enough sunlight. We’re all we’re indoors all the time, especially in the winter. So here’s a great strategy for you. Of course, we have a D3 supplement available that we have tested and researched that we might recommend. Week 2 – the topic is sleep and how it affects  fat loss, hormone recovery, and the immune system.  A systematic team message each week gives everyone an opportunity to talk to the clients, maybe do a handout, and inserting yourself into these wellness conversations. 

Listen to Rick and Jared talk about how the fitness industry will look like after COVID and what fitness professionals need to be a wellness solution.

 

Key Takeaways

  • What we’ve learned about our health from COVID (01:58)
  • How to align our fitness messaging going forward (05:00)
  • Why fitness is not a quick fix but a wellness solution (06:43)
  • How to approach the market going forwards (08:50)
  • Why fitness professionals are not just trainers but teachers as well (09:33)
  • Why the future of the fitness industry is in overall wellness and accountability (13:54)
  • Systemizing the wellness messaging in the gym (15:37)
  • How to be a relevant fitness brand Post COVID (17:35)

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Mentioned in this episode

Rick Mayo 

Alloy Personal Training Franchise

 

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