Class Sizes Shrinking? What can you do about it...

The fitness world has changed over the last 5 or 6 years… I believe in a more accelerated way because of the amount of time we spent on our devices over the lockdown years. Fitness professionals all talked about resistance training, getting back into the gym and the like. Folks of 40, 50 and 60 used social media more and learned how to have access to information they perhaps wouldn’t have thought of looking before, or might not have thought applied to them. These gave natural promotion to resistance training in gyms. Gyms dropped their prices to get people back in (obviously now they are rising again) and budget gyms made the most of the fitness comeback. It’s actually great, people have more access to a variety of fitness and wellness classes and that is a wonderful thing. The doors to the gym are well and truly open for people who might not have gone before and I love it. 

So how do we reconcile that with wanting to run nice, busy community fitness classes? We need to recognise where our market is and how it might have changed very slightly. We might need to change the way we talk about our classes to highlight the specific benefits to the specific people we are talking to. Resistance training is SO IMPORTANT… but on its own it’s not enough. Exactly like cardio without resistance training. The two are a package… the great thing about your cardio classes is that it ticks the cardio box off but it does it in a way that is attractive to specific people. People who work harder in a group, people who find music motivating, people who like the accountability of it being in a group, folk who like having an appointment they must keep, people who feed off the energy of those around them, folk who want to be part of a community, possibly folk who like to move to music, people who want to make fitness friends. I am a BIG gym fan, huge one, I love working out on my own and train 5 times a week but I 100% prefer to do my cardio in a group, I 100% prefer moving to music, I 100% prancing about and dancing. I could absolutely go for a run or get on the cross trainer, I choose not to… and I would still make the same choice if I wasn’t teaching. There are lots of people out there like me, and many of them come to my classes and pay for a gym membership as well as my sessions because of the community and because they connect with my message. Folk will continue to come to your sessions (where their finances allow) when they feel part of what you offer and when they feel connected to it. 

We’ve also got the pricing issue to contend with. We cannot afford to run classes at the prices budget gyms can offer so let’s take dropping our prices off the table straight away BUT we can do things to ensure people can see our value and a lot of it involves changing the way we are talking about our classes and helping others to see what the benefits truly are. Additionally to that, I would always make sure that you have a system when you do have new people coming in. A follow up email or two, an encouragement to check out your pricing options whether that’s via an offer or not, some kind of way for them to join the community & stay up to date whether that’s on social media or via email or whatever it is. 

Whatever it is that you are teaching, if you feel like your numbers are dropping, I do get it, a lot of gyms have had changes in the attendance to their group ex classes as well BUT with tweaks to our marketing, possibly tweaks to our own timetable, class names, class descriptions, the way we reach out to our clients and communicate with them, there is still a huge potential in group exercise. Plus we love this job, so we have to find ways to make it work, failure is not an option because we know how many people we are helping to find a passion for fitness and for looking after their own body.

If you want some business support... or support with your class content, come and check out our Fitness Library!

Anna

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