Monday, February 13, 2012

Adding PACE to an Existing Health Club

Why add a PACE circuit training program to an existing club? According to IHRSA (International Health & Racquet Sports Association), less than 20% of the US popular are members of a coed health club. Intimidation and no time are the top two reasons cited by nonmembers; especially for seniors, the overweight and those with busy lifestyles.

These factors contributed to the vast spread of women’s only clubs across the country in the last 10 years. However, Curves for Women, the largest chain of franchise women’s clubs had an inherent flaw in its program- built in obsolescence with their nonadjustable equipment resulting in members eventually hitting a plateau, getting bored and saying “now what?” This is one of the factors that contributed to thousands of Curves clubs closing in the last few years leaving hundreds of thousands of former and potential new members with nowhere to go.

Some wise fitness professionals are using our non-intimidating PACE circuit as a
means of attracting this deconditioned and intimidated market and transitioning them into the general population. Here are a few:

Fit n Fast Australia (http://www.fitnfast.com.au/). Founder Tony DeLeede is a long-time customer, first featuring PACE in his Australian Body Works chain in Atlanta back in the 1980’s. Tony and his team now use PACE as their “Quickie”
busy lifestyle circuit workout as well as a non-intimidating introductory workout into their clubs.

Gold Star Fitness (http://www.goldstarfitness.com). A 5 club chain in Tennessee, uses PACE as a part of a women’s weight loss program which has become both a stand-alone profit center as well as a “feeder” member program into their full service clubs.

Snap Fitness (http://www.snapfitness.com). One of the nation’s largest 24/7 chains, recently completed a test of a separate women’s only room featuring a PACE circuit in their club in Springtown, TX. Watch for more Snap Fitness clubs with PACE coming soon! UPDATE!!! Just returned from conducting a PACE Training Workshop with the staff of Snap Fitness in New Caney, TX. Had a great time and they learned a lot about what PACE will do for their members and club.