004 Industry News Fitness & Beauty Professional
Xercise4Less members hit back at Watchdog criticism Hundreds of Xercise4Less members have come out in support of the low-cost gym chain after the company came in for criticism on last night’s edition of the BBC consumer rights show Watchdog. Gym users tweeted their support last night in the wake of a Watchdog investigation into cancellation procedures at some of the 32 Xercise4Less health clubs. The programme highlighted five cases where members’ cancellation orders hadn’t been processed, leading to direct debit payments continuing to be taken from their accounts. In one instance where a member had cancelled her direct debit payment, the outstanding amount was passed on to an asset recovery service. In a slightly less clear-cut case, one member was aggrieved to have signed up for a gym which hadn’t yet opened. Xercise4Less has apologised and refunded all of the members affected, adding that “human errors do, very occasionally, occur.” Meanwhile, the gym chain’s 250,000 UK members rallied round in support, with hundreds taking to Twitter to air their views on the programme’s findings. One member writing under the handle ‘cannyfella’ tweeted: “@Xercise4Less just watched @BBCWatchdog and what a load of rubbish, excellent service, excellent equipment, top notch advice all for £9.99” Another, Michael Heath, wrote: “@Xercise4Less is the best gym iv been to watchdog need to get a better story to talk about #bleedyellow #Getagrip” “We would like to thank everyone who has offered their support on our social media channels over the last 12 hours, we have been truly overwhelmed by the amount of positive comments,” Xercise4Less CEO Jon Wright told Health Club Management. “On behalf of Xercise4Less I can only apologise unreservedly to the very small number of members who have had difficulties cancelling their membership. These cases have now been resolved with full apologies and refunds. We have over 250,000 happy members paying from just £9.99 a month and we will continue to improve our services as we expand throughout the UK, making fitness accessible and affordable for all.”
New study seeking parkrunners to help dispel exercise myths Researchers at the University of Nottingham are recruiting thousands of parkrun participants to assess whether recreational running puts people at greater risk of developing osteoarthritis of the knee in later life. Recreational running has become one of the UK’s most popular pastimes and the parkrun organisation, which provides free weekly 5km running events around the world, has 800,000 members in the UK alone. Despite this, there is currently only a limited amount of research into the longterm health benefits of running, as well as the injury risks. The Health of Adults’ Longitudinal Observational (HALO) study is aiming to recruit at least one per cent of all parkrun participants across the 350 locations in the UK and a further 1,500 parkrunners in Australia. Over the next 15 years, researchers will follow the fortunes of the volunteer participants to assess whether recreational running puts people at greater risk of developing osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee in later life. “One difficulty with research about physical activity and health is the lack of detailed data, especially running data, on large samples over many years,” said Dr Kim Edwards, who is leading the study. “For example, many individuals believe that running will have a detrimental effect on their knees, yet the balance of previous research suggests that this is not necessarily the case. However, these were small investigations and a large study is needed. “Additionally, in an ageing society, with increasing obesity and sedentary lifestyles, it is clear that a greater understanding in this area would be beneficial to the overall population.” The participants will be asked to complete a questionnaire about their age, height, physical activity, their running habits, hobbies and pets, general health and injuries, osteoarthritis, knee problems, pain and stiffness. With agreement, the researchers will then follow up with participants at 12 months and every two to five years subsequently until the end of the study in 2030. “It is really important that physical activity is encouraged within our society,” added University of Nottingham PhD student Richard Leech.
In a statement, ukactive executive director Steven Ward added: “Xercise4Less provide a crucial service to communities across the UK, helping individuals and families access physical activity services at a competitive price in trying economic times.
“Our research seeks to identify the short and long-term outcomes associated with recreational running. In doing so we wish to identify the benefits, particularly in relation to musculoskeletal health, so that people of all ages can participate safely.”
“Although ukactive is unable to comment on specific contractual matters relating to individual cases, from the information presented to us Xercise4Less is compliant with all requirements in this area.”
Anyone who is interested in taking part can contact Dr Kim Edwards in the University of Nottingham’s School of Medicine by email at: Kimberley.edwards@nottingham.ac.uk