INTERVIEW
Thornton: “Good reputation in the community is key”
The joint MD of 3-1-5 Health Clubs talks to Julie Cramer about creating an exclusive network of ‘X-Force family’ clubs
Sean Thornton O
ne gym workout a week comprising single sets of exercises: if someone told you that was all
OPERATOR INDEPENDENT
your members needed to do to build muscle mass and burn fat in a few short weeks or months, you might be more than a little sceptical. Yet these are the kinds of results that fitness entrepreneur Sean Thornton – owner of the 5,853sq m (63,000sq ft) ‘super club’ 3-1-5 in Lancaster – claims to be seeing with his members. So what’s the secret of this success?
Thornton immediately points to the X-Force equipment used at the club – a range of machines that offer negative strength training for different sets of muscles (see briefing, p33) – which he and business partner Ceri Smith have taken on in an exclusive partnership agreement with Mats Thulin, the Swedish inventor of the equipment. “Ever since the 1970s, when the first cam resistance machines were invented
32 Read Health Club Management online at
healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital
as an alternative to barbells and dumbbells, trainers have understood that accentuating the negative motion in exercise maximises strength gains,” says Thornton. “To quote the late Arthur Jones – trainer to Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Mr Universe contests – it’s not about how much you can lift, it’s how much you can lower.” He continues: “The results we’ve
been experiencing since opening 3-1-5 in May 2013 have been phenomenal across all user groups. For example, one of our over-70s members managed to halve the amount of medication they were taking after working out on X-Force for just three weeks, while in the same period another senior was able to raise a bar behind their head for the first time in years, showing they were regaining a full range of motion. “In the US, a controlled medical study
by Dr Ellington Darden – which centred around using X-Force for weight loss – saw 50 volunteers use the equipment just
June 2014 © Cybertrek 2014
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