Pure strength gyms.

Dazbox

Hi all,

I'm in the process of trying to open a strength gym. What are your thoughts? I just feel most commerical gyms where I live lack enough squat racks and no platforms to do deadlifts. I'm starting small with 3 racks, 2 deadlift platforms and bench, maybe a lat pulldown. Aiming for the trained and untrained market as I feel strength training is such an effective underrated tool, far better than these 8 week circuit training fat loss programs.
Any advice? I'm also looking at a system where people could book their rack for 90 minute slot..
Would a strength gym attract people? Any advice on marketing?

Cill94

As someone who has seen a lot of these kind of gyms come and go, I'd strongly recommend you really research your market. Most gyms go bust in about a year, and that's including the ones that are actually appealing to the masses (spin classes, zumba, etc). Proper strength training is not going to appeal to the vast majority of gym goers unfortunately.

The other problem I've encountered with strength training is that many of the people interested in it (mostly young men), are not very interested in paying money for it. They are naturally interested in the topic and so tend to do a lot of their own research. They'll tend to look for the cheapest option, which can force you into a race to the bottom where membership rates are concerned. Flyefit has a lot of this market cornered.


Not trying to discourage you here, I would just hate to see you lose out financially, and the debt from a failed gym can be astronomical.

As a strength coach myself, the closest thing I would ever do to this is train clients out of a home gym. That way you have no overheads, so there's no pressure to get a certain number of people in the door.

If you still were dead set on the idea of opening a proper gym, I'd strongly suggest you do it in a large market (i.e. a major city like Dublin). The higher the population, the more likely you'll be to find people who are interested in the niche of strength training. I really don't think a gym like that could work in a country town.

I think above all, you need to have a business head on you. I personally don't, so I would never take the risk of opening my own gym. Making it work is 99% marketing and sales, and 1% actual knowledge on how to coach people. Contacting the small amount of people who have made this work would also probably be helpful.

Dazbox

Thanks for the very helpful reply. I really appreciate the advice. I will be opening a kinda home gym I guess, it's in a garage on the outskirts of a big town. I agree with the marketing point and doing the market research. It's a tough gig alright but I'm hoping naively maybe that I can spread the effectiveness and results of a good strength program compared to other normal gym programs. I'm not going to limit myself to sporting people, I want the untrained person too. I'm going to really push the benefits of being strong.