The original title for this blog was ‘Could HIIT be featured more within your Group Ex Schedule?’ but during the writing of this blog, it became apparent that there are so MANY benefits to including HIIT on your Group Exercise timetable, that it seems almost ridiculous to question whether it should have more prominence. Rather, we should all just accept that HIIT is amazing, and as operators, you should seek to build your class timetable around this effective workout approach.
What is HIIT Training?
Before I begin highlighting the benefits of HIIT, it’s important to define exactly what is meant by ‘HIIT’ classes. HIIT, is an abbreviation for High-intensity interval training, and is an exercise technique, which when adopted in classes, will get your members performing intense bursts of exercise at 100% effort, followed by short recovery periods. The classes are often 30-45 minutes in duration.
So what can be so great about this, that it should be at the forefront of your Group Ex timetable? Here goes…
Healthy members = healthy retention
As a health club operator, the goal attainments and the wellbeing of each of your members should be one of your prime areas of focus. After all, if your members are seeing progress, they will be happier, they will credit your facility and ultimately, they will become loyal to you.
Now, according to research, around 75% of gym members want to lose body fat in some way or another. Generally speaking from experience, men want to lose belly fat and achieve a lean looking physique, and women want to lose stubborn fat around their ‘problem areas’ and ‘tone up’. Both goals are pretty much identical (just the gender groups typically tend to apply different terminology when expressing their fitness desires) as both are associated with the reduction of body fat and the increase in skeletal muscle tissue.
What about the other 25%? Some of your older members, among others, may want to see more general health and wellness improvements. Some members who already have low body fat percentages may want to increase their muscle mass and won’t be too disturbed if they a slight increase in body fat along the way. Others may be using your facility to train for a certain event like a marathon, a triathlon or an obstacle racing event. Some go for mental health benefits and the rush of endorphins and some go for social benefits but often these are secondary purposes, with the main goal being something I’ve already mentioned. Do you agree? What other reasons can you think of?
Either way, whatever their goal, your members will want to achieve such results quickly. While there are no magic lotions and potions out there, HIIT training, according to research, will speed up your members progress.
Yes, studies have shown that those who take part in regular HIIT training get the same health benefits as those who take part in ‘steady state’ exercise but in a much shorter amount of time. This includes the reduction of body fat, the lowering of heart rate and the lowering of blood pressure. Further research has suggested that HIIT training increases insulin sensitivity which can help prevent the onset of diabetes type 2 for those who are considered ‘at risk’ of this condition.
So, if you want your members to see more success, which I imagine for obvious reasons you DO, then these classes can serve as a huge catalyst.
You choose your equipment
HIIT classes can be carried out with lots of equipment, or no equipment. Some clubs utilise state of the art Concept 2 rowers, the latest Curved Treadmills, ultra-modern Air Resistance Machines and other cutting-edge Speed, Agility, Quickness accessories like Kettlebells, Slam Balls, Ladders, Core Bags and Battle-ropes. Other clubs just use floor-mats and simply encourage their members to perform a series of body-weight exercises. In truth, both can deliver the same result if delivered in a well thought-out way. On the proviso that your program promotes multi-joint, compound exercises or has your members working at 80-90% of their Target Heart Rate Zone, you can expect to see a lot of calories being burned.
If your facility has an abundance of equipment which can be used for such classes, then we’d advise to use it, but if you don’t have this equipment at your disposal then try running classes like INSANITY, LES MILLS GRIT or METAFIT, or your own take on Bodyweight HIIT that will still give your members an opportunity to feel the burn and achieve results.
Varied workouts improve retention
The beauty of HIIT classes is that your members may never need to take on the same class twice. While the aforementioned INSANITY and GRIT may see your members repeatedly performing the same workout over a six week period, if you devise your own HIIT class, that doesn’t have to be the case. If you create your program, you can tweak it as often as you want.
If your HIIT workout is different every time, your members are far less likely to get bored – they may hate some exercises, they may love others, but they will appreciate that the next class again will be full of surprises and when the class is over, they will be thankful for the workout and the high-calorie burn. If they know they have to come back to do the exact same class, again and again, they are likely to get bored of it and become demotivated. By keeping your members guessing (in a good way), the class experience becomes gamified – this keeps your members’ minds stimulated and ensures class occupancy levels remain high for you as an operator.
Personal Trainers can become Fitness Instructors
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, or you’re not the intended audience for this blog (in which case, I hope you’re still enjoying the read), for Personal Trainers to become qualified, they must complete a Level 2 Fitness Instructor course and a Level 3 Personal Trainer course. During these courses, they study the principles of training, the concept of programming and advanced training methodologies alongside many other components and areas of health and fitness. Through the knowledge they acquire on these courses, it should allow them to orchestrate the perfect HIIT Class.
If your Personal Trainers become class instructors, your Health Club can better manage your Group Exercise schedule within your direct personnel, and you won’t have to rely on external instructors. Depending on your ‘Personal-Training’ business model, this can be profitable for your Health Club. If your Personal Trainers are salaried, they can be expected to take on classes while on duty. If your Personal Trainers are self-employed, then you can offer a clause in the contract which states if the PT covers a certain number of classes, they can pay less rental fees, which will be mutually beneficial for you and the trainer. Both these solutions should mean you can reduce your spend on external instructors.
However, just be careful that at the expense of maximising such profits your members’ experience is not compromised. The Personal Trainers who run your HIIT Classes should possess ALL the qualities and characteristics of an amazing Fitness Instructor, they should be energetic, confident and have clear communication skills and not just appointed merely for their fitness expertise. Additionally, your Personal Trainers should not be holding classes if it means the gym floor is void of them to serve your members – there must be balance and you ought to do what is right by the member.
HIIT’s cardio!
The majority of your members, with the exception of those who are looking to see dramatic gains in muscle mass, will need to undertake the ‘dreaded cardio’. I’ve termed it the ‘dreaded cardio’ because not everyone seems to enjoy it. The reason people don’t enjoy it is because running on a treadmill for 30 minutes or more, with no support from an instructor, can be either mind-numbingly boring or very difficult, depending on the intensity level which one is working towards. HIIT Classes offer a supportive environment for your members to do their cardio, without them ever having to think ‘how long is left? That for me personally, is why HIIT is a big winner!
HIIT compliments Small Group Training
In a previous blog, I suggested ways to maximise the value of Small Group Training (SGT) and mentioned that in order for SGT to be profitable for your Health Club it needs to have a price attached and represent much higher value than a free Group Exercise class. I stand by this, but the reasons people may choose a HIIT class may well be the same reasons they eventually take on Small Group Training.
Anyone who is looking to reduce body fat, lower their blood pressure, and/or wishes to train at a high intensity may take on a HIIT class, especially if they prefer to train in a class environment rather on their own. It’s likely that SGT will attract a similar audience, so by offering HIIT Classes on your timetable, these can act as an eventual gateway or lead generator for SGT.
As an operator, you can examine the data of HIIT class goers and further analyse other data on these members pertaining to; the stage in their customer journey, the number of times they attend the gym, their frequency of attendance, their secondary spend history and their goal attainment. If you cross-reference this data against a typical SGT member profile, this will allow you to determine who from your HIIT classes may have a greater propensity for taking up SGT.
Providing you maximise the value of your SGT in the ways I’ve proposed, your members will clearly see the difference between free HIIT Classes and SGT and will then be more likely to convert into fully-fledged SGT participants. This will be even more remunerative for your wider revenue streams – HIIT’s a win-win situation!
Compete with boutiques
Lastly, there has been a considerable rise in the ‘boutique’ or ‘specialist’ operators in the last five years. From kickboxing gyms to outdoor military bootcamps, these specialist operators are offering various versions of HIIT training. If your Health Club wants to gain the maximum market share in your geographical region, don’t just look at your closest competitor, look at the ‘salami slicers’ of the industry who are taking away certain segments of your target market. If there are any small scale boutique or specialist providers who are delivering more HIIT sessions than your class timetable, and people are actually attending these, then updating your class timetable to include more HIIT classes is an avenue worth pursuing.
To sum HIIT up…
There are a plethora of advantages to making HIIT the centripetal focus of your class timetable. It can help you cut costs and smooth your operations, while in the process it can enable you to become the market leader in fitness again. Above all, it can help you retain more members which will multiply the effects further.
It’s never too late, do HIIT now!
Do you want to see how eFitness can use state of the art, member-friendly software to help health club operators with their Group Exercise Schedule? Organise a software presentation today.
Go to www.efitness.com to book a free software demo.