ISSUE 1 May
WEEKLY
Issue 34 - 29 January 2021
YOUR REGULAR ONLINE UPDATE FOR THE UK FITNESS SCENE
People more active in third lockdown page 2 Les Mills unveils digital content solution to drive club growth page 3 Centre revamp making good progress page 5
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Fitr Training unveils two-year partnership with Battle Cancer
Pulse Fitness updates kit at iGym London PULSE Fitness has completed a refurbishment of the fitness facilities at iGym London. Using the downtime from forced closures due to Covid-19, the facility has been kitted out with £200,000 worth of equipment from Pulse Fitness’ Premium Cardio range including the Pulse Airbike and the curved treadmill. The refresh comes at the five-year point of Pulse Fitness’ 10-year partnership with Imperial College London, which also sees them as the operator for the site. Complete with 41 new stations including the Run Treadmill, the Step Mill, the X-train, U-Cycle, R-Cycle and L-Train. This equipment comes with touch screen consoles, giving WiFi, Netflix and social media access – perfect to engage its tech-savvy demographic. “Our partnership with Imperial College London has gone from strength to strength over the past five years,” said Chris Johnson, managing director of Pulse Fitness. “We’re delighted to bring in our latest equipment which incorporates the very best in British design alongside some of the most innovative and advanced technology from around the world. “We hope that with the addition of TRAKK to grow our existing membership base once the facility can reopen its doors.” The gym currently serves 600 students, 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
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as well 1,000 external members of the local community. Following the recent upgrades, the team hopes to grow that external membership to 1,300. Members at iGym London will also become part of the first to have access to TRAKK, the new app from Pulse Fitness. A ground breaking content platform and activity tracking tool, TRAKK will allow users to plan and track their fitness goals, devise their own workout plans and use ready-made workout plans dependent on their fitness goals. Users will be able to access a whole library of free, curated workouts, including over 150+ videos of specific machine-based workouts. It will be completely free to use and connects seamlessly with any fitness equipment so members can track their workouts both in and outside the gym. As the operator, TRAKK, will allow the iGym fitness teams to set personalised goals for members and keep track of how members are performing both in and outside the gym. TRAKK, will allow the team to easily manage the gym floor with its simple colour-coded system that identifies at-risk members, provides a summary of previous contact and the ability to log new interactions to improve retention. Finally, through TRAKK, the team can send one-off, bulk and automated messages to help keep members engaged within the iGym community.
REMOTE coaching software brand Fitr Training has joined forces with Battle Cancer as its software partner, forming part of a two-year partnership. Fitr Training, founded by Leon Cassidy, is a health and fitness remote coaching software solution. The platform empowers coaches, brands and gyms to offer online programming and manage their client base remotely. Fitness fundraising movement, Battle Cancer, was established in 2017 and founded by Scott Britton. Starting with just a small number of fundraising events, Battle Cancer has grown to a team that now has more than 50 core members, organisers, volunteers and brand partners. The partnership comes at a perfect time, as Battle Cancer launches its global initiative, ‘The Battle Cancer Move Forward Program’; a dedicated network of educated health professionals who support cancer survivors. Fitr Training will be the delivery hub for this program, offering a free 12-week course for cancer survivors, focusing on rebuilding their physical and mental strength. Leon said: “We chose to partner with Battle Cancer as they share the same ethos to overall health and fitness as we do. “Together, we hope to change and better the approach to remote coaching within the health and fitness industry”. Fitr Training believes that a client doesn’t just require a single approach on their health journey, but one that allows multiple coaches from various disciplines to come together to further that individual. Scott added: “This partnership with Fitr Training is not just a level of support for our events and activations, the partnership is a direct lifeline to realise our next stages of Battle Cancer in providing the world’s first online post-cancer treatment
program. “Along with housing the program and coaches for our remote locations Fitr Training has allowed the Battle Cancer team to pull together our dream of providing this service. “The community features, media delivery, and ease of the whole product have made a mammoth task so much easier and to talk to the Fitr Training team at each stage has been a phenomenal experience. “I cannot wait to onboard our first post-cancer treatment athletes and grow this to be the world’s biggest post-treatment fitness program with Fitr Training every step of the way.” If you would like to find out more about Fitr Training and Battle Cancer, you can visit https://www. battlecancer.com/fitr-training
People more active in third lockdown MORE than two fifths of Britons believe they are keeping more active this lockdown, a survey by the pain-relief therapy experts at www.Biofreeze.co.uk has found. Almost 2,000 Britons took part in the research, and it was found that 42 per cent of the participants are being more active throughout this lockdown, an increase of 14 per cent compared to the first set of national restrictions back in March (28 per cent). www.Biofreeze.co.uk spokesperson Bharat Gohil said: “It’s great to see the number of people who are still getting involved in physical activity in this third set of national lockdown restrictions. “It can certainly be hard to find the motivation to do so when we’re all feeling so dejected and the weather outside is truly frightful, so those who
are keeping themselves active truly deserve a pat on the back. “If you are going to be working out from home, or going for regular walks or runs, it’s important to look after your body. If you aren’t used to performing strenuous exercises, your body is more susceptible to injury.” It was previously found that a third of Britons (33 per cent) turned to physical activity in lockdown to combat the lockdown weight gain, while a further 30 per cent found it helped with their mental health. The most common reasons as to why people are keeping more active than usual in the third lockdown were revealed to be: 1. It’s my New Year’s resolution – 35 per cent. 2. To keep me distracted throughout
Dry January – 27 per cent. 3. To look good for holidays planned later in the year – 25 per cent. 4. For the mental health benefits – 23 per cent. 5. To get out of the house – 19 per cent. Of those who are keeping more active during lockdown three, almost one in five (19 per cent) had experienced an injury of some kind in their efforts to stay fit. The most common injury was found to be sprains (25 per cent). The team also performed a Google Trends analysis of the top searches related to fitness and physical activity. They found there to be an 850 per cent increase in searches for ‘Apple fitness app’, as well as a 300 per cent increase in the number of searches for ‘fitness bands’ and a further 120 per cent increase for ‘exercise bike’.
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Les Mills unveils digital content solution to drive club growth GLOBAL group fitness leader Les Mills has launched an additional digital content solution to help clubs boost their reach in the booming online fitness space and engage members at home. This is in addition to the highly regarded LES MILLS On Demand solution for clubs that saw partners benefit from 60 days free access for their members. With digital fitness exploding into the mainstream and becoming a basic expectation, LES MILLS Content is designed to dial-up the digital experience for current members and make it easy for clubs to attract new ones by offering world-class digital workouts within the club’s own customer journey and platform. Recent research from Alliance Leisure found 96 per cent of consumers who tried a digital workout from a club during lockdown said they would use that facility when it reopened. Meanwhile, a ClubIntel report into the post-Covid fitness landscape concludes that “operators seeking relevance to Gen Z and Millennials need to commit to providing virtual fitness content”, as these demographics were the biggest consumers of digital offerings during lockdown and say their ongoing provision will be the most important factor in them returning to their club post-pandemic. With quality content now crucial to a club’s success, LES MILLS Content provides a suite of world-class workout
videos to help clubs to grow their digital presence while saving them the substantial cost and effort of creating bespoke content. The package includes 100+ premium videos, comprising of Les Mills workouts with and without equipment, technique tips and mindfulness videos, with new releases refreshed quarterly. As part of the LES MILLS Content product, clubs will also be able to build their own video on demand library of Les Mills workouts featuring their own Instructors. Using royalty-free music, clubs can now build a centralised livestream library with their Instructors teaching the workouts. Les Mills is working with leading app providers, including Move and Netpulse, to ensure clubs can launch their digital solution quickly and easily. Les Mills is excited to announce that, via this partnership with Move, Clubs can be provided with a turnkey platform to host LES MILLS Content in their own branded ecosystem (web and app) which is seamlessly integrated into their existing membership system. “Covid-19 has posed unprecedented challenges for health clubs,” said Martin Franklin, CEO of Les Mills Europe. “With the changing needs of consumers and ongoing uncertainty, we’re evolving rapidly to support integrated in club and at home offerings. “We’ve created adaptations of our most popular programmes in super quick time
to give clubs the ability to launch in the ‘golden quarter’.” Designed to complement the in-club offering, LES MILLS Content enables operators to create meaningful digital and in-person connection with members. Martin added: “Nothing beats the live in-studio experience with your favourite Instructor, which we all can’t wait to get back to. “And by providing solutions that allow members to connect easily to their facility and Instructor wherever they are, we aim to help clubs build a sustainable model for the future.” With the Covid-19 pandemic causing clubs to adapt their models, leading UK operators such as Parkwood, Places Leisure, Fusion and Active Tameside are already harnessing LES MILLS Content to boost their online presence and unlock new revenue streams. Tom Davies, marketing director of Parkwood Leisure, said: “We’re excited to partner with Les Mills and integrate this solution into our member journey. “Launching LES MILLS Content has helped us bring a full digital solution to our members that will enable a seamless experience in and out of our centres. “The support received, especially during lockdowns and restrictions, has enabled us to stay connected to our members during these tough times and we’re looking forward to strengthening our partnership as we build for the
future.” Over the past year, Les Mills has launched a suite of digital solutions to help clubs future-proof by expanding their reach in the booming online fitness space while complementing their live offerings. The full suite of solutions available from LES MILLS are: n Live workouts in-club – offer members the ultimate workout experience with live fitness classes from a certified Les Mills Instructor. n Virtual workouts in-club – allow members to workout in club anytime with cutting-edge virtual fitness, delivered in-studio using your choice of AV. n LES MILLS Virtual Bike in-club – take the best presenters, programs and content, and deliver them on a worldclass bike. n Livestream workouts – provide your instructors with the ability to deliver Les Mills workouts to members via your platform of choice. n LES MILLS Content – host the world’s best workout content in your branded ecosystem, without the need for Capex and mass content creation. Includes access to LES MILLS Recorded Livestream to build a video on demand library featuring your instructors. n LES MILLS On Demand Affiliate Program – provide members with over 1,000 home workouts and receive a share of the revenue for each sign-up.
ATMT Labs launches second of its Amazon Alexa Skills ATMT Labs has launched the second of its Amazon Alexa Skills; ‘Fitness Workouts’ with the team from Bio-Synergy. Already on the back of their successful skill; ‘Indian Food Recipes’, the fitness skill has seen several personal trainers excited to demo home work-outs given the worldwide pandemic. “Given with what’s going on around the world more and more people are stuck at home, so to have workouts on this platform is amazing,” said Ed Djafer, one of ATMT’s PTs to sign up to the scheme. “We are always looking out for ways to reach new audiences and get people fit.” The ‘Fitness Workout’ skill is available to enable on more than 100 million Amazon
Alexa devices; the skills can be seen on Amazon Echo’s and now most smart TVs in the comfort of your own home at a time that suits the user. “It’s simple to access by asking your Alexa device to ‘enable fitness workouts’ the user can then follow any of our exercise videos, we are covering everything from CEO, Senior Management workouts to pre and post-natal exercises for Mums,” said David Wilson, head of partnerships at ATMT Labs. ATMT have produced content with several skills for Amazon Members on the platform, some of which include ‘Indian Food Recipes’, Healthy Food Recipes and their most popular one; ‘Find me a job’. “The skills part of Amazon is in its
early stages, however, we know it has tremendous appeal once users get familiar with it,” added David. ATMT has now approached several wellknown brand names. One of the few to pilot this project is Bio-Synergy, a reputed nutrition and wellness brand. They will be sponsoring some of the content with product and imagery. Daniel Herman, CEO of Bio-Synergy, added: “This is the first of its kind, we believe the team at ATMT are ahead of the curve and that’s a journey we wanted to be on. “With home work-outs increasing in popularity this a great opportunity to get in to people’s homes and keep them fit and healthy.”
Daniel Herman
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Lumen partners with Anytime Fitness LUMEN, a health technology company at the forefront of metabolic tracking and the creators of the world’s first metabolism measurement device,has announced a partnership with fitness franchise Anytime Fitness UK. Anytime Fitness’ 170,000+ UK members will now have access to the innovative Lumen device to support their healthy lifestyles through real-time metabolic data to make smarter health and nutrition decisions on a daily basis. Lumen is a device and app that measures your metabolism through the CO2 concentration in a single breath, giving you insight into what fuel your body is using, fats or carbs. Through your Lumen metabolic measurements, you can now see how your fitness and food choices impact your body in real time. Lumen takes the guesswork out of nutrition by leveraging these insights along with crucial data points that enable you to take actionable steps for your fitness, nutrition and health. With a renewed national lockdown in the UK, Anytime Fitness UK will be supporting its members via its new online member platform, AF Connect Online. Encompassing on-demand workouts and wellbeing content from a range of experts, members can also access an exclusive discount on Lumen devices, supporting them with their nutrition goals and complementing their healthy lifestyles. “We’re looking forward to partnering with Lumen and offering more support for our members’ nutrition goals,” said Neil Randall, Anytime Fitness UK CEO. “We recently launched our ‘Hand of Wellbeing’ which shows that overall health goes beyond just fitness, with nutrition being an integral part of that. This partnership provides our members with access to a product that can support their healthy lifestyles.” With the ongoing challenges of Covid-19, Lumen and Anytime Fitness UK are committed to keep UK adults healthy and moving. Remote health and fitness have become a crucial way
to maintain a healthy fitness and nutrition routine. Lumen is the solution for at-home nutrition so that Anytime Fitness UK members can have readily available data on how their food and workouts are impacting their metabolism without leaving home. “Anytime Fitness UK is at the forefront of accessible fitness and our partnership is launched at a crucial time where we can positively impact the lives of its members
in a health-focused framework,” said Daniel Tal, CEO of Lumen. “People in the UK have been given a wake-up call in regards to their health and we’re looking forward to supporting the ongoing efforts of the government in keeping UK adults healthy. “Good physical health is an effective way to increase resilience and people are more aware than ever of the importance of a healthy lifestyle.”
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Centre revamp making good progress A MAJOR refurbishment of the Stour Leisure Centre, which will significantly improve the leisure offer for the local community, is on target to open this summer. It is just one of a number of community and leisure facilities across the borough which are being improved. At a time when investment in leisure provision has been severely affected elsewhere by the pandemic, Ashford Borough Council is investing more than £9million in total. The council, in partnership with Freedom Leisure, who took over the running of the centre last September, are investing £6.5m in the Stour Centre, transforming the facilities and providing new spaces to boost participation and improve the health and wellbeing of the borough’s residents. In addition, a new fitness suite at the Julie Rose Stadium is planned, while both reception areas and the catering offer will be improved with the introduction of Costa Coffee. Councillor Matthew Forest, portfolio holder for Culture, Tourism and Leisure at Ashford Borough Council, said:
“The Stour Centre improvements are progressing well, and will open in the summer. We look forward to our residents being able to using them later this year. “The council and Freedom Leisure are investing heavily in improving the facilities on offer, including an extended gym with new equipment, a new soft play and clip and climb and dedicated café area, upgraded reception, new leisure pool features targeted at younger children and major redecoration throughout including the dry and wet changing areas. “As the borough continues to grow, we feel passionately that our leisure offer must evolve to meet demand and expectation and ensure Ashford remains active. “This is even more important given the effects of the pandemic, which is why we are investing more than £9m towards improving them.” Freedom Leisure is a not-for-profit leisure trust which manages leisure and cultural facilities on behalf of partners across the UK. Managing director Ivan Horsfall Turner
added: “It’s great to see the investment into redeveloping The Stour Centre really starting to take shape. “Being active is a key factor in maintaining our physical and mental health and wellbeing, and it can really help to strengthen the immune system which is so important right now. “We look forward to the completion of the project and being able to reopen the centre which will provide a fantastic health, fitness and leisure experience for everyone in Ashford.” The Stour Centre is not the only leisure facility to benefit from investment. Tenterden Leisure Centre is also having some improvements, with a new roof and pool air handling unit planned for later this year. The council is working with Tenterden Leisure Centre Trust (the tenant of the leisure centre building and operator of the facilities) and Serco (the Trust’s agent running the leisure centre day to day) on the changes. Meanwhile a major new arts hub for the county, providing a long-term base for internationally renowned dance company Jasmin Vardimon will open
next Spring. Work on building the Jasmin Vardimon Creative Laboratory and 29 light industrial units in Javelin Way started in January with funding from Kent County Council, the Arts Council and Ashford Borough Council. The new building will include space for the creation of the company’s touring productions, rehearsals, training, educational and community classes, plus incubator space for small creative businesses. Construction on new facilities at Waterside Sports and Children’s Centre is also underway. The new building will be leased to Bromley Green FC, who operate out of the site. When finished it will include a lobby area, four football changing rooms, an officials’ changing room, a fully accessible changing room and accessible toilet. There will also be a social area including a kitchen. The work is being done by local Ashford company Lancaster Building and is due to be finished for this summer.
Thought-provoking white paper for the sector AS A former club operator, Keepme CEO and AI expert Ian Mullane brings an interesting perspective to the discussion of what comes next in fitness. He now shares these insights in a ground-breaking white paper to help operators increase their income and successfully move forwards in the new normal. The Fitness Future: Rules of Engagement, which launches on February 1, raises questions around the pivotal role technology can – and must – play in the future of fitness and the true power of AI, AR and automation in shaping our sector’s evolution and ultimate success. Ian highlights the very real opportunities available to operators who accept the new, post-Covid reality and reposition
Ian Mullane
themselves for the inevitable, and questions how the relationship customers seek with a fitness business is changing and evolving. After 18 years working with some of the biggest names in Fintech, Ian – who is founder and CEO of AI-powered sales and marketing platform Keepme – is well placed to debate the role that technology can play in opening up a whole new set of solutions and opportunities for the
industry. He said: “Our industry is forever changed. Digital transformation has accelerated and so the sector must adapt, and fast. “My concern is that, to do so effectively, genuine enthusiasm for technological innovation will be required. “Now is the time to march forward with deliberate action and establish our position within the new reality.”
The white paper explains in detail how the sector must begin what Ian describes as ‘business-critical repositioning’, considering every aspect of this journey, from understanding the pivotal role mobile will play and striking the right balance between physical and digital offerings, to embracing AI, AR and Machine Learning as a way to re-imagine the customer journey. Speaking in the foreword, Humphrey Cobbold, CEO of PureGym, added: “This paper includes ideas that should challenge us all. “As such, it makes a valuable contribution to the debate around our sector’s evolution and will, I hope, stimulate progressive discussion. “Ian’s observations on the growing importance of digital are undeniably correct. Let’s remember that most businesses don’t fail because they don’t trade well in any given month, quarter or year. “They fail because they do not spot nor deal with the big problems, which roll out over many years. A reluctance to embrace technology would unquestionably be one such cause for failure. “I am utterly convinced of the pivotal role technology will play in the future of fitness, and I see this white paper as a vital call both to action and much deeper thought.” Ian’s six rules The Fitness Future: Rules of Engagement will be available as a free download from February 1. Register for access to the paper at http:// bit.ly/TheFitnessFutureROE
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