RETENTION SERIES
Rebranding EXERCISE
Michelle Segar, PhD, explores how health clubs can retain members by helping them find joy in exercise, both in and outside of the gym
L
et’s start by defining the problem: gyms and health clubs are seeking ways to retain members. Many people join because they think
they should – for better health, fitness and weight loss. But many of them subsequently fail to attend – despite paying a lot money for membership – because they have scheduling difficulties and can’t get there as often as they think they should, and/or don’t enjoy the intense exercise they think they need to do to succeed. Their initial burst of motivation wanes and they end up feeling like failures, and feeling
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Michelle Segar, PhD, is a motivation scientist and author of No Sweat! How the simple science of motivation can bring you a lifetime of fi tness. A leading authority on what
motivates people to choose and maintain physically active lives, Segar is director of the Sport, Health and Activity Research and Policy Center (SHARP) at the University of Michigan, and chair of the US National Physical Activity Plan’s Communications Committee, charged with advising the Plan on more persuasive messaging for American people and policymakers. Her expertise has been
featured in The New York Times, Forbes, The Washington Post, Prevention and Oprah and her corporate clients include global organisations such as Adidas, Google, Walmart and PepsiCo. For more information, please visit:
www.michellesegar.com
ambivalent (at best) about the value of exercise. They often see the gym as the source of their failure, so drop out. What can be done about this? I
believe the solution is rebranding exercise, whereby gyms become people’s physical activity partners. We need to teach members that fi nding opportunities to move outside the gym is a great way to complement their structured exercise at the gym – an approach that will help foster motivation and sustainability. Gyms and health clubs can actually
boost member retention by de- emphasising the ‘health/wellness/ weight loss’ message and prescribed reps/minutes of intense exercise in the gym. By redefi ning successful exercise as coming to the gym for some things, but also giving permission to members to enjoy physical movement outside of the gym, you help them form a lifelong partnership with enjoyable exercise. Encourage your members to maintain
the gym as a place to go for some things – classes, weights, machines, intense bouts of exercise, community and so on – while helping them be even more successful through incorporating fi tness in other ways too. If you teach them how to be successful with both – exercise in gyms and in daily life – it helps them view gyms as their partners instead of the source of their failures.
The facts ● Studies show that many women in particular have negative feelings about,
during, and after intense exercise. ● Studies show that our brains are wired to respond to what makes us feel good (immediate gratification), not to logical promises of abstract future
improvement (health, weight loss). ● Everything counts: Exercise can be added up over the course of a day and doesn’t have to be done in one intense bout over 20 or 40 minutes.
46 Read Health Club Management online at
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Help people realise that even tasks like carrying the laundry count towards daily activity
● We’re more likely to do the things we’ve taken ownership of and want to do for ourselves, rather than things we
think we should do. ● Studies show regular exercise benefi ts our mood and emotional wellbeing, as well as our overall physical health.
Food for thought So what does all this mean for gym owners? Here are just a few ways you might implement this knowledge:
‘Everything counts’ is the doorway to retaining members: Teach members to think of formal structured exercise (gym) and informal exercise (daily life) as equally valid. Even carrying the laundry downstairs and upstairs is a form of physical movement that makes you stronger. Remind them that fi tness is a lifelong learning process, not a target they have to hit. This means learning to be fl exible about scheduling, setting realistic expectations and so on. Having a fl exible mindset helps members feel successful, even when they can’t make it
August 2015 © Cybertrek 2015
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