Four Factors of Functional Fitness Success in Your Facility

HIIT and Functional Fitness have been noted as 2 of the top 10 fitness trends of 2018. That being said, with so much information out in the world about how to train, what to train and where to train, the term information overload comes to mind when it comes to your members understanding any of these trends.

This causes frustration, lack of motivation and even worse if you're in business, member attrition.

Plain and simple, your members are not seeing the results they want from training, and a lot of it has to do with the fact that they don’t know what is right and truly what is wrong.

That’s where you, the operator comes in. Instead of just posting another article about how members should be doing HIIT and Functional Training, you should facilitate their success in both of those modalities.

Not only will it actually help your members, it will help you.

With HIIT and Functional training in your facility, you can run small group training (another top 10 Trend for 2018) that is truly a solution based training. One that allows members to be motivated by you and other members, held accountable and actually see results, oh and will bring you more revenue.  

Crossfit grew 2,300% in 10 years and the reason is that not only did members see results, but Crossfit made it simple (definitely not easy) to do. When you walk into a Crossfit box, you have the workout there ready for you. No thinking, just doing.

In an age of information overload. People don’t want to think about what is right and wrong and write up their own training. They've got enough to think about outside of your facility.

They want step by step how to do it, and they want it in a fun, inviting and motivating atmosphere that allows them to do more than run on a treadmill watching the news.

In order to be successful though it does take an investment. An investment of time, money, space and resources.

This investment will see a greater return on investment though because people are looking for what you’re offering.

A dedicated space where they can train like an athlete, be apart of a team and actually see results that they expect from going to your gym.

With boutique facilities becoming more and more mainstream and offering solutions rather than services, it is a necessity that large facilities take note and create the same experience surrounded by proper programming and a motivating community.

Perfect the following four factors and you’ll have a solid arena to bring in new revenue and truly delight your member base.

Factor #1. Space

This is the biggest concern when we talk to facilities, yet the easiest to overcome. “Guys, we don’t have the space.” Or do you?

If we looked at a heat map of most facilities you would be surprised how little certain machines are used. Even if you sit in the minority and every piece of equipment gets equal love, most gyms are inefficiently set up and if we did a basic mapping of what an efficient functional design could look like, we would find space.

In layman’s terms - You have the space, we just have to look for it.

The best part about this is that you don’t have to tear down walls, create a room and do a complete build out. All it takes is about 50-75 Square Feet per member using the space and you’re good to go. A true small group session is usually 10 members and below, so in this case, all we need to look for is 500 - 750 sqft that we can equip with the following step.

Factor #2. Equipment

Great, we found the space, now what the hell do we fill it with? Functional fitness is defined as exercise that prepares you for everyday life. If we want to break it down to bare bones, it prepares you to reach up to put your cereal away or squat down to pick up a piece of paper off the floor. That being said, you’re equipment is not going to be reams of paper and cereal boxes.

If you’ve ever been in a Crossfit box or any big box functional space you’ll usually notice some similar equipment, including: Turf, Kettlebells, Barbells, Weight Plates, Plyo Boxes, Battle Ropes, Tires, Bands, Medicine Balls, Sleds, agility ladders, and athlete specific training methods such as the VertiMax Raptor.

The basic premise is free weight training, minimal to no selectorized equipment, basic weights that you can lift up and put down multiple times in a row, and a turf area to sprint, push sleds, and do speed work when programmed.

This brings us to our next factor

Factor #3. Programming

It is essentially functional fitness area suicide to build out this space, equip this space, and then leave this space open with no direction.

In order to be successful and see an ROI on your new training area, you must have proper programming. Most functional equipment manufacturers will help you find the space, design the space, and program for the space. This is key, and this truly is what differentiates the Crossfit and Boutique style facilities.

When you walk into a big box facility, a member who doesn’t understand training walks directly to the treadmills, hits quick start and runs for 30 minutes, maybe hits a selectorized machine or two that tells them how to use it, and then walks out. A month down the road this becomes not only monotonous, but they don’t see the results they were expecting. They’re not a trainer and yet they are trying to train themselves to success.

This is where programming comes in.

With proper programming, your members walk into the functional area, don’t have to think and can follow a routine that is professionally built and implemented by one of your certified coaches.

This not only allows for variation of exercise, but allows for results to be seen in an efficient and effective manner.

Program for success and your members will see success. If you don’t want your trainers to spend the time programming, there are companies that will program for you 365 workouts a year, built with the proper purpose, process, priority and progression to aid in performance for your members.

Factor #4. Community

Last but probably most important is the community you build in your space. Like I stated earlier Crossfit grew a whopping 2,300% in 10 years! Let’s think about why CrossFit has been so successful. Overlook the fact that most CrossFit Boxes only need a few hundred members to turn a profit.

They have built a culture of belief. Their communication and member penetration is intense. If they have the right leadership in their gyms, upwards of 90% are using the same supplements and buying them there. They hold events, outings and gatherings. They brand their own clothing and live in that CrossFit brand.

They have created their own culture and will insist to the end that their training, system and belief are superior to all. It’s quite impressive actually.

Researchers interviewed CrossFit box owners to try and understand this phenomenon, and what they found was that beyond the physical and psychological benefits of working out, CrossFit tapped into the social aspect of training.

In order to replicate this success in your facility, and on your functional area, you need to build a lasting and engaging brand, plain and simple. Create a community feel through proper programming, equipment, space and motivation.

Factor #5. Bonus Round - Get Raptor Fit

The VertiMax RaptorFit solution brings in the new age of small group functional training.

Using patented VertiMax technology. The RaptorFit program allows your members to train using the exact same equipment as olympians and professional athletes around the world.

The RaptorFit solution is an all encompassing package that provides you a brand new revenue stream for your facility. We provide you everything you need in order to build, optimize and scale a successful functional fitness business inside your existing business.

Our goal is to provide you a turnkey solution that will bring you additional monthly revenue with very little work on your end. The deployment of the RaptorFit solution can be done in very small areas (or no area at all), and is customized based on your facility’s specific needs.

When you onboard RaptorFit, you’re not bringing on another class or training system, you’re joining a community. A community of like minded facilities, athletes, coaches and parents whose goal it is to inspire the athlete in all of us to become our very best.

Sound too good to be true? Let's find out together! Click Here to Learn More!

Ned has worked in and around the health and wellness industry his whole life. He has his Master’s Degree in Exercise and Nutrition Science, during which time he collaborated on and was published in multiple peer reviewed articles in health and human performance. He has consulted for multiple 7 figure organizations in the healthcare space, has worked with hundreds of club locations all over the United States focusing on digital strategy and mobile branding as an Account Manager with Netpulse, as well as automating and restructuring the sales processes, marketing systems and operations of the SMB segment as the Customer Lead for Netpulse's entire SMB market. Ned is currently a Business Development Consultant for Vertimax, a company focused on enhancing athletic performance of athletes of all levels. His true passion is providing fitness facilities and sports performance professionals with the tools to achieve autonomy and success through market positioning, technology adoption and operations optimization. You can reach ned at ned@vertimax.com or follow him on Instagram at @NedArick.