The Gym - a place to Exercise or Socialise?

The FitnessDock

This post was inspired by the recent "Gym Totty!" thread. I thought there were some interesting points made in it, with many people obviously having different views on what they expect from a gym.

My question is this: Do you believe a gym to exclusively be a place in which to achieve your health and fitness goals? Or do you join a gym, expecting it to also be a place in which you socialise or interact with other members?

The impression I got from the thread was that there are some gyms, especially the more "hardcore" ones, where the gym is strictly a place in which to train hard. Anything other than this would be considered at best a distraction, at worst an annoying hindrance.

At our gym, we take the opposite view on this and take it to the absolute extreme!

Consumer research from Consumer Research supplier Mintel shows that as many as one in five (19%) of gym members have met good friends or a partner at their gym, while one in four (26%) see their gym as a good place to meet like-minded people.

With this in mind, I have recently set-up an affiliation with Ireland's biggest dating website. Together we'll be organising Singles Nights all across Dublin, which will be 100% free and open to anyone and everyone who'd be interested. The first Singles Night will be held on Tuesday, December 18th at The Odeon Bar, Harcourt St (8pm start).

Another thing I have set up a Business Networking group, which consists of regular meetings amongst members. The idea is to provide a forum that allows members to meet other business peers who need to know effective and efficient business people. This offers them the opportunity to share ideas, contacts and most importantly, business referrals.

Finally, I've set up a Facebook group exclusively for our members. The aim is to create a social network within the gym whereby members can interact with each other. This provides members the chance to give us instant feedback and suggestions as to how we can improve the gym. We have also arranged in-gym competitions amongst the members using the various applications on Facebook (e.g. Scrabulous). Lastly, we can post videos clips on our Member's page

Obviously this is TOTALLY different to what you'd expect from a gym, especially one in Ireland. Of course, our priority, first and foremost is to help our members to achieve their fitness goals, whether that be gaining muscle and/or losing weight. We simply aim to cater for our member’s social needs too. The ultimate aim is that people perceive our gym is a part of their overall lifestyle, and not a necessary evil (i.e. a place people would rather not go to, but feel they have to in order to get what they want, e.g. lose weight).

This might seem outrageous in Ireland but such an approach is actually quite common on other countries, especially the USA. A great example of this would be Joe Cirulli, owner of Gainesville Health & Fitness Center in Florida. (See http://www.ghfc.com/) Cirulli’s aim is for his gym to be “the 3rd place in their member’s lives, after home and work”.

For all those who might find such an approach strange or even outrageous, my response is this:

Think about how most people socialise in Ireland and nearly all the time, it involves meeting in a pub and drinking alcohol. Is it so outrageous to provide an alternative way of meeting others, in a surrounding which promotes health and well being instead of hindering it? Surely, the best way to get others to promote exercise (to the non-hardcore majority) is to make the gym as friendly and welcoming an environment as possible, rather than a place which many find either intimidating or unmotivating?

What do others think? I’d be really interested in hearing the thoughts on others, especially those who are currently members of a gym.

Cheers,

PAUL

Hanley

I think it's a really good idea.

I was pretty outspoken in the "Gym Totty" thread, but that was because of the perving aspect that kept coming up. A bit of banter and what not is cool, but when you're talking about going to a gym to stare at girls, that where I think a line is crossed (obviously this isn't what you're hoping to achieve!).

As for the more "hardcore" places being somewhere solely to train, I wouldn't be so sure. I know in Hercs we'll often go out for food after training. There's a Christmas party every year, a club open day where all the members family are welcome, and the infamous end of year club champs where bragging rights for the next 12 months are established.

I think I remember saying to you previously when you were organising social nights that I thought they were a great idea. It's a good way to break the ice, and have people feeling more comfortable around each other. It can be good for some friendly competition, when you need a spot, or sometimes just motivation to get in.

Hell a couple of times in the last year the only reason I dragged myself to training is because I didn't want to miss the session and let everyone else down. If that was in a commercial gym I probably woulda just stayed in bed.

The one thing that I should think there should be (and this is mainly what I would want) is a clear distinction between "socialising time" and "training time". Nights out etc are a laugh, but if people start to take that as meaning "just come up and hit on someone when they're in the middle of a workout" then I think it starts to detract from the reason most people join gyms.

But again, all that is from my perspective and I doubt many will agree.

The FitnessDock

Hanley wrote: »

The one thing that I should think there should be (and this is mainly what I would want) is a clear distinction between "socialising time" and "training time". Nights out etc are a laugh, but if people start to take that as meaning "just come up and hit on someone when they're in the middle of a workout" then I think it starts to detract from the reason most people join gyms.

Great point. That's exactly why I'm arranging all the social nights, including The Singles Nights.

It's a case of providing a means by which people can meet others so that when they are in the gym, they are there to exercise.

Seperating the socialising from the exercising means the two never blur into one and that either or both goals can be achieved, depending on what the aim of the individual member is.

Biff11

I'm delighted my thread was such an inspiration for you... Ha ha ha

When i go to the gym it's for a number of reasons but meeting friends is not one of them. I'm not saying i don't want to meet people but it's not my intention. I go for my leisure time. It's my space to do what i want. I also go to try and look and feel good and if i go with a friend i don't mind having a chat during the workout but primarily i'm there to workout.

I think your on to a winner there because it's a way of getting like minded people together if they so wish without the distraction that you may get in the gym.

I was also thinking of starting a thread today about broken gym equipment and when it builds up i would email it to the relevabnt manager. In Total Fitness there is a huge picture of the manager saying "if you like what we're doing tell your friends, If you don't like it tell us" so thats what i planned on doing. It would be great if you could get the gym's "Buy in" for this.

Fair play and you have my backing!!

Malteaser!

Biff11 wrote: »

I was also thinking of starting a thread today about broken gym equipment and when it builds up i would email it to the relevabnt manager. In Total Fitness there is a huge picture of the manager saying "if you like what we're doing tell your friends, If you don't like it tell us" so thats what i planned on doing. It would be great if you could get the gym's "Buy in" for this.

Off Topic but are you in TF Castleknock or do they do that in all of them???

Biff11

Well i go to sandyford most of the time but i also go to Blanchardstown. I wasn't aware there was one in Castleknock.........:D

They have that sign in all of them i reckon. There is equipment broken for nearly 2 weeks still has signs on it!

justsomebloke

The FitnessDock wrote: »

The impression I got from the thread was that there are some gyms, especially the more "hardcore" ones, where the gym is strictly a place in which to train hard. Anything other than this would be considered at best a distraction, at worst an annoying hindrance.

I don't think it is the gym more the people in it. I think most of the people you are referring to will also train in mainstream gyms and still have the same mind set.

I know when I am in the gym I am not there to socialise. I may quickly look around between sets and if I see a cute girl I may spend an extra second looking at her but after that it is back to the important stuff.

But that said I really think it is important to have a social side to training and as such that is where here and teamtest have come in there own for me. Through Teamtest I have meet a lot of similar minded people and we have a great laugh on the times we meet up and go for drink or when we train together we then know there is someone there to push you even harder

The FitnessDock

I think there will always be a social bond formed between a group of people aiming to achieve the same goal. This seems especially the case when the goal is a challenging one which involves hard work, persistence and dedication.

Ironically, there's often less of a social vibe amongst those who join a gym partly for social reasons. These are the members I'm aiming to help.

Hopefully the end result will be that they end up enjoying coming to the gym a lot more and end up working much harder when they train!

Hanley - there's a guy in my gym called Pablo who's keen to join Hercules. He went there yesterday to check it out. So if you see a short Chilean guy in Hercules, please go up and say hi to him - he's a really cool guy and is VERY eager to compete in powerlifting. He only weighs 58kg and can shift some heavy weight for a relative novice.

empirix

Its the new Tony Quinn!!!!!!

Avoid avoid avoid avoid Exterminate exterminate

we don't need another one bud!

The FitnessDock

That's exactly the type of response I'd expect from a dalek!

g'em

Hi Paul. I think it sounds like a great idea. I go to two gyms - both I go to to train hard, but in one of them it's become a meeting place for my friends and I to catch up and shoot the sh!t a little bit (Pinnacle, of course ). If you can encourage the gym being seen as a place that folks can look forward to going to, and not dreading, then it's a great bonus.

The only thing that I'd imagine being an issue is that the atmosphere generated will greatly depend on the "core" group that initialises the social aspect. If the core group consists of people whose training ethics involve hard work, then the rest of the group will follow suit. But if the core group see the social aspect as primary, and training secondary it may lose it's potential as a health-based social scene.

Best of luck with it!!

The FitnessDock

g'em wrote: »

If the core group consists of people whose training ethics involve hard work, then the rest of the group will follow suit. But if the core group see the social aspect as primary, and training secondary it may lose it's potential as a health-based social scene.

Great post g'em - thanks for replying.

Obviously people have different definition of what "hard work" is. For many, that's 1 hour of steady-state aerobic exercise done 3-4 times a week. 20 rep sets of squats and deadlifts are not part of their vocabulary!

The main benefit of the social aspect for them would be they'd be more motivated to come to the gym on the nights they don't fancy going, e.g. a rainy, windy night. A few such nights like this in a row and suddenly the member gets into the habit of forever procrastinating, not coming to the gym and promising to go "tomorrow". Of course, "tomorrow" never comes.

Consistency and motivation are two vital keys to success in every aspect of life. "Hardcore" trainers are never lacking in these and that's why they get such great results. So my aim is to do whatever it takes to ensure that our non-hardcore members (the vast majority) are equally motivated to attend the gym and get the results they had in mind when they joined.

PAUL

Dragan

Thinking about it now over the last few months i have trained regularly in 5 different gyms.

Two of them the traditional Big Box gym ( Westwood and Total Fitness in Sandyford)
One of them a private but well equipped gym.
One of them the college gym of the National Training Center.
The last one being Pinnacle.

Yes, i'm a total gym whore.

Anyways, by far the best place for both is Pinnacle. When i am training in that place there is always someone there to push me, and i can always chat away with them. I've actually never been in a gym where it doesn't matter if i know the person or not, you can just shoot the **** when you need to and when you need someone to shout you on they will fill that role as well.

Awesome stuff.

Total is great for when you want to move some big weight, it has a nice big lifting environment and some big strong people training there but it's not that great for the social aspect.

Westwood is fine, but 9 times out of 10 unless 3 of my mates are around i will be the strongest person in the place and thats fine but not really great for driving me on at times. I like to see people crushing my own lifts, that drives me on more than anything.

Anyways, for me the gym can be the best of both worlds. If the earphones are in then i'm working, if they are out then come and chat.

Boru.

Personally I think anything that increases people's awareness of health and exercise is brilliant. Anything that encourages an integration of health and exercise into one's daily lifestyle is even better, and Paul I think what you are doing is nothing short of fantastic.

Like Hanley I was quite stern in the Gym Totty thread, but Hanley, G'em and Dragon have all expressed perfectly what I view. When I train I'm there to train, but I certainly wouldn't be adverse to chilling out afterwards or chatting to my mates etc. I'll even do sessions with my mates - I just don't expect to get a good workout doing them and will get to the gym and train hard before hand. As D put it "If the earphones are in then i'm working, if they are out then come and chat."

Catering for the social aspect and actually organizing specific events for that is brilliant - that way you can have the best of both worlds. I hope it's a great success.

Roper

Nice one.

The modern world is full of barriers against socialising (real, non-internet socialising), so breaking down a couple is a great idea.

The FitnessDock

My main focus is on membership retention so keeping the customer more than satisfied is my absolute priority.

So many gyms have slick salespeople who do a great job at influencing people to join the gym. After they join though, they have no relationship with the salesperson so beyond the initial assessment and program, members tend to be left to their own devices by the gym staff. This is fine for a select few (e.g. the hardcore trainee) but the vast majority of members of any gym would benefit greatly from increased communication with the staff. That means the instructors being on the gym floor, offering advice and asking them how they're getting on.

This is the least anyone should expect from a gym yet so many gyms fail to do even this! :mad: What I'm doing, adding the social aspects, is merely the icing on the cake. The foundation is simple customer care. But it seems common sense is not very common.......:rolleyes:

Instead of taking this approach to customer care, what many gyms do is paper over the cracks by pumping more money into advertising and marketing. As a result, they have to work hard to find new members to replace the ones who are leaving unsatisfied every month. The big problem with this approach is that every 1 unhappy customer tends to tell at least 10 people about their experience, warning friends, family (and whoever else who'll listen!) to stay away from that gym.

Any gym that takes care of their members will benefit hugely from word-of-mouth referrals, which are 100% FREE! Simply pumping more and more money into advertising and marketing will never be the answer.

The FitnessDock

By the way, everyone is welcome to attend any of the events I'm organising. I'd especially love to meet members from Hercules and Pinnacle, 2 gyms I really rate.