Fitness Industry United On 1st June | #exerciseismedicine #gymsaresafe
On Monday the fitness industry united globally and was so amazing to make #gymsaresafe and #exerciseismedicine hashtags that went crazy on all social media!
I saw brands postings, owners, staff, members, friends of members and even partners – one post said please open the gym so my wife can get her weekly fix of cycle classes!
I want to say a huge thank you to the industry for the inspiration from a united global initiative.
To be honest I have no idea of the success of the initiative my newsfeed was filled! So hopefully we made it into mainstream feeds! And I’d love to hear from anybody who did see success . . . although the hashtags made the news here in Sydney!
I don’t want to single out one association or supplier or individuals for helping spread the word as there is so many and I know I will miss people! Thank you to everyone!
Our marketing budget was zero!
We simply used the goodwill of the initiative as the currency. Other than people’s time, no hard cash was spent to create a consumer confidence building platform we all could use!
That to me is very cool and a success in itself!
Extend #exerciseismedicine #gymsaresafe
People have asked me to extend the initiative and my answer is “Why extend?”
This message should never end!
Seriously! Our message to our communities must always be #exerciseismedicine and #gymsaresafe
We should never take for granted that members remember the health benefits of exercising.
There are people in our community who do need to be scared of our gyms they are safe! Not just from a cleanliness perspective but also a welcoming environment for people of all ages and sizes.
Please don’t moth ball your social media posts or those amazing videos I saw. You should consistently reuse them and again ask members to share them with their friends including #exerciseismedicine and #gymsaresafe.
There Is An Exercise For Everyone
The stark reality for the fitness industry is we are small fry compared to many others – not huge in employees nor direct contribution to the economy. Our indirect contribution though is massive as we all know the health benefits of people using and enjoying our product of exercise. We touch millions of people’s lives and we have the capacity to contribute to millions more.
After 30 years in the fitness industry, I know there is an exercise form for everyone! Crossfit. Group fitness. Strength training. HIIT sessions. Boxing. Yoga. Pilates, Cardio. Or even Zumba at home! These exercise modalities all help our communities stay healthy and show we have something for everyone.
I can guarantee that in every community there is a version of exercise suitable to someone.
The industry’s #1 problem is people either do not know about what you offer or they are still intimidated by gyms. Hint: #gymsaresafe
The Lesson From The Fitness Industry Uniting
What this initiative showed me is that when the industry does unite we can achieve move mountains!
When we all push in the same direction we can move any size rock!
We have goals set by the World Health Organisation that our industry can influence and there are multiple industry bodies, so I call on every industry body in the world to work together with the single aim to create a movement on the 1st June in 2021.
We saw what is possible with 7 day’s notice, imagine what we can do with 365 days of planning!
We need our associations to drop their competitive curtains, we need suppliers to do the same. Gym owner and teams we also need to be open to working with our competitors to get more people moving and moving more often.
And we need to enlist our greatest supporters – our members! They are the fans of our product and we need them to tell their friends, so we have an impact on more lives.
We all have the same goal. We are getting there in different and sometimes competing directions.
Let’s do this together!
I am positive that if we can double the number of people who exercise in gyms with time, effort and united energy!
Finally, I’ve heard on every webinar and read in every magazine that things will be different in our gyms after COVID-19 – “Everything will change”
Well I’m asking, let’s also make everything different for our industry as we are stronger together and get more people moving and moving more often – for their own health’s sake!
#exerciseismedicine #gymsaresafe
Justin is the Managing Director of Active Management, which he began January 2004. He offers coaching to businesses worldwide in everything from start up and design to marketing and sales systems. Justin also facilitates four Australian and New Zealand ‘fitness industry roundtables’ events, which allows him to see a huge cross section of business models.