Eugster says clubs need to specialise in three age groups, with functional training the focus for older members
Neither does continuous education
for coaches seem to be universally compulsory, while clients are inadequately assessed before and after training. Clients are simply not given what they need or want. The result is a 55 per cent annual loss of clients: more than half of clients are dissatisfi ed within one year! This is the biggest challenge facing the fi tness industry. As clients only stay for a short time, the
industry can’t conduct meaningful research to prove it consistently provides health and fi tness as advertised. One of the biggest challenges for the sector is to demonstrate that it has a positive effect on national health, which at present it can’t really do. In summary, the fi tness industry is not
fi t: parts of it are off the pace and it’s under threat from new technology.
What’s your vision? I have a dream in which the fi tness sector has a good reputation with sports clubs, the medical profession and academia. Head coaches will have academic degrees, with instructors highly trained and receiving compulsory regular retraining. Older age groups will have older coaches. Clubs will actively pre-assess, diagnose
and continuously re-assess the physical condition and progress of their clients, with the results relayed to their physician to form part of the client’s medical history. Genetic testing will also become the norm, giving valuable information on nutritional and physical type. The results of these tests will form
the basis of the nutrition and training plan. As no effective training plan can be made without knowledge of the client’s activity outside the gym, tracking devices will also be used as standard. Fitness centres will specialise in three
age groups. For the 18–30 age group, they will specialise in sport training. The basis of training for the 30–50 age group will be functional training, to assess, rectify physical defi ciencies and re-assess, so clients’ daily function is improved.
July 2014 © Cybertrek 2014 The 50–90 age group will also be
given functional training, but with an acknowledgement of other important factors: the gym should be close to home, the training supervised and with same age group. Building muscle lost due to sarcopenia, with hypertrophy exercises and supplements, will be extremely important and will have a huge impact in reducing dependency in old age. As clients begin to understand that
training is a long-term commitment, and as re-testing continually evidences their improvement, retention will become the norm and clients will sign up for long-term contracts such as three years. The stream of long-term clients will also be greatly increased and augmented by
prescription from physicians, and payment will be guaranteed by health insurance. For the fi rst time, the fi tness industry
will have long-term clients and will be able to conduct extensive research to prove its status as one of the most important factors in public health, especially in combating age-related disease. The huge reduction in client attrition
will cause a dramatic increase in profi tability, but in addition there will be considerable additional income from tests, food, supplements, rent or sale of tracking devices, heart rate monitors and so on. This is my dream – and I believe the
fi tness industry has the ability to make my dream come true.
Read Health Club Management online at
healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital 11
PHOTO:
POTOCZNA.COM
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