(2008)
Tapping Into a Vast Sea of New Members Through a 'Club Within a Club'
There are 200 million people out there ready to join a health club – if only health clubs offered a friendly stepping stone… "8 Minute Abs" fitness star, Jaime Brenkus, becomes spokesperson and programmer of the HOGGAN Sprint Circuit and creates shorter, but highly effective workouts…the Fitworks health club chain Installs HOGGAN Sprint Circuit and pulls in new members off the couch.
It was from a TV ad during the 1984 Super Bowl when the general public was awakened to a new paradigm given birth by Apple computer. In the ad, a beautiful athletic woman hurls a sledge hammer and demolishes a theater-sized TV monitor where an Orwellian "big brother" was giving a diatribe to a following of lifeless drones. The metaphor was that the user-friendly Apple Macintosh was a revolt from the hitherto established model of the complex intimidating PC. The Mac brought personal computing to all the people.
Today, a similar paradigm shift is occurring with the adoption of a results-oriented, simple-to-use exercise circuit, the HOGGAN Sprint Circuit, that is truly a fit for those masses of people who have, until now, eschewed going to health clubs because of its sheer complexity.
TV fitness personality and author of the famed "8 Minute Abs" video, Jaime Brenkus, was so impressed with the HOGGAN Sprint Circuit that he recently became its spokesperson. Says Brenkus, "It is going to bring more people in through the gym doors. Finally there's an application for the 200 million people, those that gyms should be going after, who don't set foot into traditional gyms."
A 'Club Within a Club' A Fresh Model for the Shifting Times in the Health Club Business
With the advent of Curves and the express gym industry, the health club model has shifted dramatically over the last five years. The majority of people, the 200 million that Brenkus speaks of, feel totally foolish and lost among all the iron and spandex of a typical health club. To attract this coveted audience, health clubs need to provide a "club within a club," an express circuit within the club walls, that serves as a safe haven for the newbie to get slowly oriented into the mainstream health club environment.
The standard health club with its typical array of cardio machines, weight stack machines, and group fitness studios appeals to a small sliver of the general population, roughly 14% according to IHRSA. So what gives? Why are so many, who by now are acutely aware of the health benefits of exercise, so adverse to joining large health clubs?
It may just be that the entire industry has been overly focused on the elite exerciser and with the art and science of advanced exercise that it made itself just too complex, overwhelming, and fearful to the novices out there. That may explain the phenomenon of the popular acceptance of simple express gyms, offering non-weight stack circuits, where less is definitely more.
"People are getting the message more and more that they need to belong to a club for health reasons – then it becomes a matter of just where they feel comfortable going, " said John Janszen, COO of the 17-club chain Fitworks in the Ohio area.
Janszen has always had circuit areas in his gyms, but most recently added the HOGGAN Sprint Circuit with Magnatech to his newest club outside of Cincinnati to appeal to this large untapped market.
He has discovered that the gym marketplace no longer has to be segmented with the larger health clubs catering only to the "fit" crowd, while the smaller express gyms cater to the beginners.
Larger health clubs can now attract both audiences by employing the club within a club approach. The HOGGAN Sprint Circuit has been specifically designed, from the ground up, to appeal to the entire gamut of novice exerciser all the way to advanced. It's small footprint is ideal for express circuits in limited space.
The addition of user-friendly circuit area can provide a large facility with a continuous stream of new members from a totally new demographic. "The idea of a club within a club is for any existing larger health club that wants to increase its attraction, can direct it to the extremely large pool of deconditioned people out there that normally are not attracted to the traditional type gyms," explains Brenkus
It's About Time – And The Lack Thereof
In addition to the intimidation factor, the success of the express gym phenomenon has also taught us another valuable lesson: people are pressed for time. They know they should exercise but don't want to be stuck in a gym for hours on end, several days a week.
The acceptable threshold is proven to be 30 minutes or less. A half hour, three times per week is what this crowd is willing to fit into their busy lives -- but they also want results.
The challenge becomes how to achieve their overarching goal, which is predominately weight loss, in so little time -- enter express circuit training.
The general public is wrongly overly focused on cardio workouts; however, for effective weight loss to occur, members have to add the lean muscle mass which burns fat 24/7. That is why circuits have exploded in popularity -- they get the double whammy of simultaneously burning calories while adding fat-eating muscle.
"The reason why circuits are so effective is because you build lean muscle that burns calories 24 hours a day. But you observe that overweight people all get on treadmills and walked for an hour and burn two cookies. Nobody can change my mind on this fact . . . when we put people on circuits, they like it, they use it, and they get results," added Janszen.
Fitworks Provides A Stepping Stone for New Members
Fitworks is a highly successful club chain with 17 locations throughout Ohio and spilling into northern Kentucky. They have been around for decades, are exceptionally managed, and offer a complete package to their members. But of all the club chains, Fitworks is one of the few that is effective in pulling in new members off of the couch.
They do it by setting aside a special isolated area where the new members, who know nothing about fitness equipment, can go and enjoy themselves and not be gawked at. The flagship is their West Chester club, outside of Cincinnati, where they opened with the HOGGAN Sprint Circuit with Magnatech at the get go.
Not only do these new members have the total ease-of-use of the HOGGAN Sprint Circuit, where all they have to do is go from station to station and just push and pull the levers, but they're in a private area as well. The concept is that these new members cannot only begin exercising immediately and get results, in privacy, but they can see what's going on in the rest of the club and start to elevate their level of sophistication and confidence.
According to Janszen, "We set up our latest club with a circuit line of that is in a separate room up on the balcony, in an area where members can overlook the rest of the club but not have anybody seeing them. They can take time to see what's going in the rest of the club without people staring at them."
Attracting The "Intimidated but Willing" Crowd
Janszen prefers not to refer to the masses that are not currently gym members as "deconditioned," but calls them the "intimidated but willing crowd," meaning they just need a little help getting over the first hump. That is why Fitwork's private area is so effective.
As to who the "intimidated but willing" are, Janszen described them as not necessarily the older crowd. "They are in any age group and are nervous about coming into a new environment where they know no one, they don't know how to use the equipment, and, most of all, they are afraid of looking stupid."
He went on, "People feel more comfortable in a separate room, and at their own speed they can come out and start to experience other equipment, but the private room is a great thing for them to use at least for the first two or three months of their membership. "
Jaime Brenkus Becomes Spokesperson for HOGGAN Sprint Circuit
"We're absolutely ecstatic to have Jaime on board as our spokesperson and program director," said Ryan Dean Hoggan, Executive V.P. for HOGGAN Health Industries. "You're talking about a guy who has helped millions of people with time-oriented programming in the past such as with "Eight Minute Abs" and "15 Minutes To Fitness" .
Brenkus, aligned with the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, has maintained his of delivering programming to help the masses of out-of-shape people all across the nation to get in shape and stay healthy with the least amount of time – and now the HOGGAN Sprint Circuit is the perfect vehicle to achieve that end.
Brenkus articulated, “The HOGGAN Sprint Circuit is the perfect fusion of cardio and resistance training. It gives you incredible results. In our busy lifestyles these days, individuals will always gravitate towards a program that shows them how to lose weight and inches, while firming and toning in the least amount of time.”
Jaime, the Boomer, Focusing a Lot of Creativity To This Audience
Brenkus himself is a self-confessed boomer and has been allocating a fair amount of his energy to this age group. The leading edge of this 78 million person segment in the U.S. is turning 60, and they all want to maintain their health and vigor as they age -- but not at the expense of becoming gym rats.
According to Brenkus, "With the HOGGAN Sprint Circuit, I think we have that market covered. Most people my age want to look younger, live longer, and look better. The dream is we want all those elements. Now, we're going to show them how to do it in half the time. I want boomers to say, 'You know what? This guy is that old, he can do it, so can I.'"
The HOGGAN Sprint Circuit – Ideal for the Club Within a Club
If the express circuit will be the attraction for health clubs wishing to pull in a whole new audience, the HOGGAN Sprint Circuit will be a virtual Pied Piper. It was designed from the ground up by Hoggan engineers to advanced features under the hood but remain elegantly simple to the user – like the Macintosh.
"Here is a completely self-empowering piece of machinery. Believe me, I deal with a lot of deconditioned people, and you really have to empower them; that is why this machine fits them to a T," exclaimed Brenkus.
No Learning Curve - Just Get On and Go
Since the HOGGAN Sprint Circuit is simple to use and very intuitive, people don't feel foolish. "It's a line of equipment that you get on, you adjust the resistance with a simple dial, not a pin -- there are no weight stacks, no seat adjustments, no complicated levers; it's just that one knob you turn left or right, and you start exercising," explains Ryan Hoggan.
The engineers devised each station ergonomically, so that it would not require seat adjustments. Just one less major demotivator for a beginner. "I like HOGGAN because you can get your body into the right position by feel. You do not have to set adjustments, it is quick, it is easy, it's fun equipment to use," added Janszen.
Magnatech -- A Full Spectrum of Resistance Without Weights
In strength training history, the migration from free weights to machines used the existing model of gravity acting upon iron weights. From a physics perspective, this worked well; however, from a psychological perspective, it is a major inhibitor for ordinary people -- it conjures up images of advanced bodybuilders.
So, HOGGAN engineers started with whole cloth to design an effective resistance machine, using "Magnatech" that provided a new, extremely fluid bi-directional resistance that could also have infinite settings with the turn of a simple dial – and no scary clanging weight stacks.
This made for not only a technological breakthrough in resistance machines, but, more importantly, it broke through a psychological barrier, as well. This is important to health clubs wishing to expand their membership base and tap into the "intimidated but willing" crowd.
As Janszen explains, "Magnatech is a step up because the movement goes in both directions; the resistance goes both ways. When you push and then you pull, the workout is little bit faster than it was before. The Magnatech is incredibly smooth. You don't have to worry about someone pulling the pin and the weights all slamming."
An Ideal Use of Space for Health Clubs
One of the greatest dilemmas facing club owners is how to get the best return on their floor space -- how to service more members with limited square footage. Recall the days when a 20' x 40' racquetball court could service only 2 people at a time could be converted to a cardio room to service perhaps 20 people at a time. Similarly, the existing configuration of standard cardio and weight station areas should be viewed with a critical eye toward redeployment toward assets that will attract and service more members.
"Club owners can drive more revenue per square footage through the circuit than they can with just static cardio equipment. Both the independent gym owner and the larger chain that can benefit from a value chain offered by circuit areas which will attract beginners, seniors, and even teenagers," said Ryan Hoggan.
"The HOGGAN Sprint Circuit is very space efficient," he went on, "With our 15 machine package, all we need is from 500 ft.² to 650 ft.² and that can be the showcase for the beginning members."
A Better Workout Than Traditional Circuits
Again, it's all about packing a lot into just a 30 minute workout (or less). The HOGGAN Sprint Circuit allows members to be constantly working out and not fiddling with all kinds of adjustments.
Since there are no cumbersome adjustments -- just get on and go -- the heart rate stays elevated during the entire workout. Members are not stopping in between machines, or maneuvering cams, so they get an optimal cardio workout in addition to adding more lean muscle mass.
Brenkus has been diligently working with the HOGGAN Sprint Circuit to devise programming to get members, especially the newcomers, to get maximum results in the least amount of time. Who better than the "8 Minute Abs" guy to do that best?
He's created segments, like building blocks, that users can choose depending upon their time and desires. The smallest workout is actually only 15 minutes. As Brenkus explains, "It can be a basic 15-minute program that we devised, or if they want to go further, they can do a 30-minute program, all the way up to a 45-minute program."
As to what's on the drawing board for the future, Brenkus reflected, "I'm constantly researching what the psychology is of the deconditioned person to get them exercising and get healthy. I'm working on an exercise prescription for them that is both fun and functional at the same time. And the HOGGAN Sprint Circuit gives me a powerful tool. Stay tuned. "
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