Weekly Workout - Issue 72

ISSUE 1 May

WEEKLY

Issue 72 - 22 October 2021

YOUR REGULAR ONLINE UPDATE FOR THE UK FITNESS SCENE

National Fitness Awards set to be biggest yet PAGE 3 Technogym showcases its new training experiences at IHRSA PAGE 4

WORKOUT WEEKLY

Operator shortlisted in Business Resilience category at British Franchise Awards FITNESS organisation Energie Fitness has been shortlisted in the Business Resilience category of the bfa HSBC British Franchise Awards.

One of the largest and fastest-growing low-cost fitness franchises, Energie Fitness is home to nearly 100 clubs across the UK. Known as the ‘Oscars’ of the franchising industry and set to take place on November 30 in Birmingham, the bfa HSBC British Franchise Awards evening is the flagship event in the franchising calendar.

Pip Wilkins, CEO of the British Franchising Association, said: “The gym and fitness industry was certainly one of the hardest hit by the pandemic with many businesses like Energie Fitness left with no choice but to close their doors.

“However, unlike other gym operators in the UK, Energie did not freeze all memberships over lockdown, but instead, created reasons for members to continue to pay fees while their gyms were closed.

“They invested more than £100,000 in the rapid building of an entire digital fitness platform, with more than 240 ‘on demand’ videos and 40 live classes per week.

“The new platform provided thousands

of members with good reason to continue paying and this resulted in the franchise network earning £6.2m of fee income over the pandemic closure periods.

“The team were quick to adapt and evolve with the times and it’s this that has helped them weather what was an exceptionally difficult time for the whole gym sector and put them in great stead

EXCITEMENT is building for the industry’s biggest end-of-year party, with plans in place to make this year’s National Fitness Awards the best one yet.

Nominations for the 2021 awards are now closed and you can find out if your gym has made the shortlist by turning to page five of this issue of Workout Weekly.

The awards, which are now in their 11th year, recognise excellence and achievement in all corners of the fitness industry – from independent gyms to local authority facilities, health clubs and hotels – with more than 20 categories up for grabs.

Organised by Script Media in partnership with Workout and headline sponsor ServiceSport, this annual celebration of success will culminate in a glittering ceremony – taking place at the

Athena in Leicester on Friday November 26 where host – fitness professional and writer Joey Bull – will reveal the lucky winners who will take home an award.

Previous winners have reported a boost in membership, an increase in profile and positive media coverage; with sponsors, judges and hosts already looking forward to the big night.

Event director Judith Halkerston added: “Once again we were overwhelmed with the standard of entries we received.

“We can’t wait to celebrate with everyone at the awards on November 26, so get your tickets booked now for what promises to be another fantastic night.” n Tickets are now on sale for the 2021 National Fitness Awards. To book your place at the event, visit https://scriptevents.co.uk/nfa/

to secure the Business Resilience Award in November.”

This year saw a record number of entries submitted across all categories, leading to an overall increase of nearly 30 per cent when compared to 2020.

Despite what has been a challenging 18 months for most standalone businesses, the franchising sector has shown strength and resilience.

As a result, many bfa members have reported their highest ever level of franchisee recruitment and one of their most successful years for profitability and business development.

Energie Fitness will be battling it out against five other franchise brands to take home the coveted Business Resilience accolade.

The Business Resilience category seeks to celebrate the businesses that have shown great determination, creativity, and resilience in the face of exceptional challenges.

Andrew Brattesani, head of franchising at HSBC, added: “Energie Fitness has shown exceptionally high levels of resilience and determination during a period that was exceptionally difficult for the whole fitness industry.

“They were quick to adapt their operations despite having to close their doors and all their efforts and hard work are certainly commendable.

“While others closed down, Energie Fitness invested in innovation which allowed franchisees to offer amazing flexibility and support during lockdown periods. This award nomination is very well deserved and we’d like to congratulate the whole team for all their hard work over the past year.”

National Fitness Awards set to be biggest yet

Group Editor: Judith Halkerston Tel: 01226 734639 jh@scriptmedia. co.uk Group production editor: Dominic Musgrave Tel: 01226 734407 dm@scriptmedia. co.uk

Sales and marketing director: Tony Barry Tel: 01226 734605 tb@scriptmedia. co.uk Sales manager: Louise BristoweHarrison Tel: 01226 734699 workout3@ scriptmedia.co.uk

Studio manager: Stewart Holt sth@scriptmedia. co.uk

www.workout-uk.co.uk

New app features fitness and food AN entrepreneur personal fitness guru has launched a phone-app designed to help people live happier, healthier, fitter lives.

Targeting companies keen to lure staff back to the office, HubFiiiT aims to tap into a £3billion global fitness market, set to rise to £11billion.

“HubFiiiT offers every element of health, wellness and fitness in one affordable app,” said Hampshire-based founder and qualified coach, Shireen Davina Walker.

“Train at home, at the gym, at work and cook healthy nutritious meals with our chef all from our app. Track your calories, interact with our coaches and be part of a community.

“Not everyone has the time or can afford to go to the gym. And as we switch to flexi, remote and hybrid

working, people want to integrate digital home-training with their workouts at traditional bricks and mortar gyms.”

With businesses like BP luring staff back to offices with free breakfasts and fitness classes, Shireen’s focus is to offer firms a blended health and fitness programme.

One which lets workers combine online workouts and healthy meals with outdoor and in-gym training, just like their new emerging hybrid and flexi athome and in-office working patterns.

The app, available to all, from £4.99 a month, offers thousands of on-demand workouts plus personalised at-home video workouts - with and without equipment.

These range from cycling, cardio, core and kickboxing to weight training, HIIT,

Pilates and dance. And like in a real-life gym, it offers a community where people can share their fitness journeys.

What makes HubFiiiT stand out from competitors is Shireen’s decision to take on a trained chef. Gino Fasolino, 31, has been a chef for 12 years.

Living with Type 1 diabetes since he was 16, Gino, also a qualified personal trainer, integrates healthy eating with fitness personal health. His recipes are designed to help followers find cooking fun, engaging and rewarding.

HubFiiiT will soon introduce recipes and tips to help people in the diabetic community with their health and fitness.

The team plan to react to seasonal trends. It now features Halloween recipes. The App is available on IPhone and Android phones.

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WORKOUT WEEKLY

Technogym showcases its new training experiences at IHRSA TECHNOGYM has showcased its new cutting-edge product lines and innovative solutions for clubs and health centres who want to make a step forward in their business at IHRSA. Among the wide variety of training experiences offered by Technogym was Biocircuit.

Biocircuit is Technogym’s circuit training solution and method offering a personalised workout to help users to achieve their goals in a short amount of time: 22 or 30 minutes for a complete circuit training experience.

You just need to login once, then work out by following the circuit with equipment that adapts to you.

A completely guided experience, from station to station, where you never stop, never wait.

The guided programme delivers an engaging experience that requires no adjustments or wait time, since exercises, workload, work/rest ratio and pace have been defined and integrated into personalised programmes.

At IHRSA’s Mywellness – Technogym’s unique open CRM software platform that enables clubs to improve members’ experience and accelerate attraction, retention and secondary spend – plays a fundamental role and enables wellness professionals to deliver unparalleled user experiences anytime, anywhere.

By helping them easily book their favourite workout from home or even on their way to the facility, they avoid queues, and increase their confidence and security by making the experience seamless.

The latest evolution of Mywellness 6.0 adds the ability for businesses to deliver a hybrid model, making products and services accessible both in facility and at home (from bookings and payments to physical training experiences and classes).

When it comes to cardio training,

Technogym presents Excite Line: the revolutionary range of fully connected cardio equipment equipped with the ultimate user interface – Technogym Live. Technogym Live offers users a new, fully personalised training experience tailored to their goals and needs, thanks to a full range of workout content and entertainment options.

Combined with an innovative design, Excite Live combines fun, performance, and results that meets the needs of all users.

Space savvy and sustainable,

Advertiser’s announcement

with tailored training variety and connectivity, it offers users a meaningful, engaging and personal training experience to offer operators innovation for the future to enhance their business.

The new Technogym Live training experience, available on all Technogym cardio products, offers users a revolutionary training experience thanks to the new Technogym Coach, the AI based virtual assistant that guides users through the different training options based on their personal passions, needs and tastes.

Alongside Technogym Coach is a complete library of “Technogym Sessions”, on-demand digital classes available across the entire cardio line; the library includes training videos – with different duration and training focus – led by sought after trainers.

The renewed library of outdoor virtual training, a full range of exercises and training routines, complete the variety of training options users can choose from.

These are yet another opportunity for operators to offer every single member a fully personalised and engaging experience both on the training and entertainment standpoint.

Entertainment-wise, Technogym Live includes TV channels, social media, Netflix and a wide range of gaming and news-based apps.

Fisikal boosts member onboarding with digital solution EVERY individual has a unique reason for embarking on a health and fitness programme.

For operators, the challenge lies in creating an environment that offers each member or client a highly bespoke service, catering for individual needs and abilities.

Fisikal has developed a digital member onboarding solution that presents selected content at timely touchpoints on the member’s onboarding journey.

Integrated into either an app or a website, digital onboarding provides constant, progressive support to every member, wherever they are, whenever they need it.

Fisikal CEO Rob Lander said: “The key to a successful delivery is drip feeding content to members as they move along their training journey, presenting only content that is relevant to their needs and preferences at that precise moment in their training plan.

“Every member has a unique set of needs and preferences and their content provision needs to reflect this.”

Fisikal’s digital onboarding function also ties remote training seamlessly to in-club training.

As part of the on-boarding journey, members can receive automated messages about any relevant classes, products or services provided in-club that will support their training journey.

These messages can be automated for delivery at key touchpoints on the member’s journey, reducing administration for the club and trainer, whilst supporting the member when it matters.

“This level of bespoke tailoring for members is now the expected norm,” Rob added.

“This drip feed of information provides a membercentric service that is results driven and performance focused.

“A member who is achieving goals and is constantly aware of the next stage in their journey is much more likely to remain a member than one who is left to make their own way.”

To find out how fisikal can help maximise your digital potential visit www.fisikal.com

N F A 2 0 2 1 S H O R T- L I S T IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

Functional

National Gym of the Year

Colne Valley Fitness, Huddersfield Elite Fitness, Stoke-on-Trent JWPT, Nottingham KCT Community Fitness, Dingwall Kept Fit, Bolton ManAlive, Kings Langley Unity Fitness, Berwick Upon Tweed

The winners of the gym categories will automatically be entered for the National Gym of the Year Award.

Scotland AKR Fitness, Aberdeen Diamond Fitness, Edinburgh Future Fitness, Glasgow Garioch Sports Centre, Inverurie Pro Life Fitness Centre, Paisley SGF Gym, Wishaw Synergy Group Fitness, Edinburgh

Midlands and Wales CKI School of Martial Arts, Leicester Elite Fitness, Fenton New Image Gym, Sleaford T30 Fitness, Penygroes The Pit, Birmingham Your Space Worksop Leisure Centre Zumba with Sion, Swansea

South Fit Club, Hillingdon Lifestyle Fitness, Canvey Island Luxe Fitness, Bristol Peak Health and Fitness, Tavistock Waterside Farm Leisure Centre, Canvey Island Vision Fitness, Henham, Essex

Strength Dual Strength and Fitness, Horsham Fit Club, Hillingdon Fit24 ‘Hessle Road’, Hull Hamiltons Fitness Centre, Colchester Kings Gym ‘Farnworth’, Bolton Live Health and Fitness, Chorley Urban Performance Fitness, Egremont

North Fit24 ‘Hessle Road’, Hull Kings Gym, Farnworth, Bolton Pace Health Club, Manchester St Peter’s Leisure Centre, Burnley YourGym, Lytham Your Space, Hoyland Leisure Centre

Outstanding Achievement Claire Adams, Claire Adams Total Health, Edinburgh Graham Partington, National Water Sports Centre, Nottingham Ismail Saleh, CKI Martial Arts, Leicester Matt Gleed, Winchester Sion Lee, Zumba with Sion, Swansea Tracey Taikes, Zumba with Tracey, Penarth Vikash Prang, Duo Chelsea, London

Customer Service AKR Fitness, Aberdeen BFit Lincs, Caistor Boss Fitness, Durham Elite Fitness, Alnwick New Body Fitness, Weymouth Pro Life Fitness Centre, Paisley Waterside Farm Leisure Centre, Canvey Island

Boutique BLOK, London Marina Fitness, Gosport Synergy Group Fitness, Edinburgh The Pit Gym, Birmingham Vision Fitness, Henham, Essex W10 Personal Training Gym, London

Education Coventry University Sports Centre Fitness Evolution Education, Burnley Fitter Stronger, Kent Forces Fitness, Bridgend

Personal Trainer Alex Youngman, Keepfit, Edgworth Daniel Harrod, Harrow Leisure, Harrow Jake Harvey, YourGym, Lytham Jamie Kirk, Diamond Fitness, Edinburgh Kevin Poole, Fitness for All, Liverpool Leanne Bierton, Winners 2000, Paignton Tracey Chuck, Bfit, Caistor

Group Exercise

BFit Lincs, Caistor Cocks Moors Wood Leisure Centre, Birmingham Just Train, Knowle Green, Staines T30 Fitness, Caernarfon Waterside Farm Leisure Centre, Canvey Island Your Gym, Lytham

Ladies Only Amy Pounder Personal Training Ltd, Middlesbrough Believe and Achieve, Sheffield Boom Fitness, Canterbury Claire Adams Total Health, Edinburgh Club Zest, Sunderland Serendipity Ladies Health and Fitness, Selby T30 Fitness, Penygroes

Member Achievement Cairen Bedward, The PIT Gym, Birmingham Chris Hayes, Premier Kickboxing, Newton Abbot Liz Dennett, Fitness For All, Liverpool The Knight family, XCELERATE Gym, Edgware Wendy Ince, Water Meadows Swimming and Fitness Complex, Mansfield

Local Authority Basingstoke Aquadrome Oswestry Leisure Centre St Peter’s Leisure Centre, Burnley Two Riversmeet, Christchurch Waterside Farm Leisure Centre, Canvey Island Your Space Hoyland Leisure Centre, Barnsley Your Space Worksop Leisure Centre

Community Involvement Blazefit, Leicester Bollington Health and Leisure, Cheshire Boostfit, Surrey CKI Martial Arts, Leicester J7 Health Centre, Manchester Ladywood Leisure Centre, Birmingham #DoingOutBit Platform for NHS Workers

Health Club Cambridge Country Club Chelsea FC Health Club and Spa Coolhands Fit24 Central, Hull Foxhills, Ottershaw Pace Health Club, Manchester Workhouse Fitness, Leeds

Newcomer Axe & Hammer, Rainford Coach Gym, Leeds Fierce Gym, Milton Keynes Luxe Fitness, Bristol Ramsay Fitness, Nuneaton Snap Fitness, Newport Urban Performance, Carlisle Urban Reform, Ancoats

Hotel and Spa Foxhills, Ottershaw Rookery Hall Hotel and Spa, Nantwich The Spa at St Michaels, Falmouth

Gym Team Anytime Fitness, Welwyn Garden City Fit Club, Hillingdon GymFit, Ripley Synergy, Edinburgh Waterside Farm Leisure Centre, Canvey Island YourGym, Lytham