Issue 135 - 7 April 2023
YOUR REGULAR ONLINE UPDATE FOR THE UK FITNESS SCENE
Lightning to strike at the National Fitness Awards
– page 3
“We’re the new Zumba” – Indian dance fitness craze takes over West Midlands schools page 4
THEY say you can’t predict where lightning will strike. Well, we can assure you Lightning will be lighting up the National Fitness Awards this year.
Workout is delighted to announce that Kim Betts, better known to millions as Lightning from the legendary TV show Gladiators, will be this year’s guest host.
In the year that Gladiators returns to UK TV screens it seems perfect to have one of its most synonymous names.
She said: “It is a huge honour to be asked to host The National Fitness Awards. Health and fitness has been a defining part of my life from my earliest years as a gymnast, through the incredible Gladiators era right up to the present day.
“The UK health and fitness industry is critical to the wellbeing of millions
and all those involved in the provision of facilities and delivery of services and products are doing an incredible job and playing a crucial role – particularly in these tougher times. It will be a privilege to share a celebratory evening with you.”
Kim, a former GB gymnast, joined the show for the very first episode in 1992 and remained through its entire duration of eight series, making her the longest serving female Gladiator.
The show would record twice a day in front of 8,000 fans each time at Birmingham’s National Indoor Arena and broadcasts regularly hit more than 15 million Saturday evening viewers.
A qualified fitness professional Kim has spent three decades motivating and inspiring others from children watching TV to fitness clients and, in recent times,
she has been the most incredible of example of what is possible even if you are a busy mother of two and turning 50.
She has won Mr and Mrs Universe alongside husband Frank as well as Miss Universe Over 40s amongst other accolades.
A keen and highly talented equestrian, Kim has also presented TV and national radio shows and remains a busy and committed figure in the fitness world. Follow Kim on instagram @kim_ lightning_betts
The National Fitness Awards and Gala Dinner will take place on November 24 at The Athena, Leicester.
Nominations open on Monday, April 17 and close on Monday, August 28. For more information visit https://www. nationalfitnessawards.co.uk
BRIMHAMS Active has invested in versatile functional fitness equipment from health, wellness and innovation specialist Ethics Leisure to deliver frontline health and wellness sessions to people living with medical conditions as well as mainstream clients, while one of its key leisure centres is closed for redevelopment.
Brimhams Active is in the process of transitioning from a conventional leisure provider into a community focussed health and wellbeing service.
As part of its successful Active Health programme, the trust collaborates with GPs, NHS services, public health and social care partners across Harrogate to run targeted wellbeing programmes that meet local priorities and deliver improved health outcomes.
These range from falls prevention and weight management programmes to stroke and cancer rehabilitation schemes.
Maintaining its active wellbeing services while its venue, Harrogate Hydro, undergoes an ambitious £28m renovation project, was critical. To minimise disruption of delivery, Brimhams Active invested in Total Gym equipment from Ethics Leisure, one of
Director of Operations: Dominic Musgrave Tel: 01226 734407 dm@scriptmediagroup.co.uk
Studio manager: Paul Hopkinson ph@scriptmediagroup.co.uk
Assistant studio manager: Scott Firth sf@scriptmediagroup.co.uk
the leading health and wellness brands in the UK and Ireland.
“Our demographic is not the typical gym user, and when Harrogate Hydro closed we wanted something that would help us to keep our group exercise offer going so we could retain members, while serving clients with medical conditions and additional needs,” said Joanne Bogan, Brimhams Active’s health and wellbeing manager.
The community health and wellbeing company invested in six of Ethics Leisure’s Total Gym Encompass machines, becoming the first and only organisation in the Harrogate district to offer the functional training solution.
Located at Fairfax Wellbeing Hub, the bodyweight training equipment is compact and portable so staff can quickly and easily wheel it into place before each session to create the ideal
active environment for participants.
“The Total Gym equipment is so effective and efficient,” Joanne added. “It has allowed us to retain existing members while the Hydro is being redeveloped, but because it’s something completely different for Harrogate we have also attracted new users. We get so much out of the equipment, it’s brilliant. I can’t praise it enough.”
The low impact system works on an incline and relies on body weight resistance to strengthen muscles making it suitable for all abilities, including those living with long term conditions or needing rehabilitation.
Highly flexible, the equipment allows for more than 250 exercises at multiple resistance levels enabling the operator to run targeted sessions that meet the needs of its clients.
The solution can be used for Pilates, yoga, strength and sculpt classes to prehab, rehab and physio sessions and more.
Brimhams Active runs Total Gym branded classes, dedicated sessions for teenagers and also integrates the equipment with existing referral and rehab programmes, such as stroke rehabilitation and neuroactive sessions.
NEW research has revealed the UK cities with surplus home gym equipment as residents return to the gym postlockdown.
The research from Versaclimber UK identifies the locations with the largest amount of surplus home gym equipment for sale, including top three; Slough, Manchester, and Bolton. Results of the research indicate potential opportunities for aspiring gym owners, as well as revealing consumer spending patterns during the pandemic.
of 4,096 gym equipment listings and a population of 554,400, ranks third with a ratio of 135.
The rankings are based on the number of gym equipment listings per city on e-commerce site Ebay, the population of the whole city, and the population-tolisting ratio.
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According to the research, with 2,193 gym equipment listings and a population of 164,046, Slough has the highest population-to-listing ratio of 75.
Bolton comes in second with 2,289 gym equipment listings and a population of 202,369, with a ratio of 88. Meanwhile, Manchester, with a total
Ryan Kelford, operations manager at Versaclimber UK, said: “I was surprised to see the list of top 10 cities with surplus home gym equipment for sale, it’s quite shocking to think that so much expensive equipment is now gathering dust instead of being put to good use.
“However, it’s good to see that this presents a potential opportunity for aspiring gym owners to get started with a more affordable investment.
“Our research has identified the top 50 UK cities with the highest populationto-listing ratio, meaning those cities
offer the most gym equipment per capita. We believe that this information will be useful for anyone looking to find gym equipment, whether they’re a seasoned athlete, beginning their fitness journey or looking to kick-start their own business.”
Making up the top 10 are Huddersfield, Wolverhampton, Bradford, Leicester, Warrington, Luton and Milton Keynes.
Ryan added: “We know that access to quality gym equipment is essential for anyone looking to stay healthy and achieve their fitness goals, and we’re committed to connecting fitness enthusiasts with the tools and resources they need, in order to succeed.
“By making it easier to find the right equipment, we hope to help people make more informed decisions about their fitness journey and ultimately achieve the results they desire.”
A DANCE fitness instructor from Birmingham has revealed how her classes are taking over schools across the West Midlands as thousands of children turn to a new Indian dance craze promising to be the next Zumba.
Bally Bhogal, 46, runs BBX Fitness along with her husband Michael – a dance fitness start-up providing on-demand online and in-person bhangra fitness classes – and as the years have gone on, they’ve seen a huge surge in popularity for the traditional Asian dance amongst schoolchildren.
She said: “I didn’t expect it to be as popular as it’s become – 23 people turned up to my first bhangra class and now we have more than 150 people turning up to multiple classes per week.
“A few teachers asked me to come into their schools to lead a session and the kids absolutely loved it, I don’t think anyone expected them to be so engaged.
“It’s beautiful to see people from all different cultures connecting with
something that’s been a part of my life since I was a little girl.”
Bhangra is a type of traditional folk dance originating from the Punjab – a region covering northern India and Pakistan.
The dance typically involves smooth bouncing motions with the legs and shoulder shrug movements that can
provide a full body workout.
One hour-long BBX bhangra fitness class burns up to 600 calories and can help to reduce blood pressure, boost cardiovascular health, increase bone density, and reduce stress.
Simple, non-explosive movements also means that bhangra classes are perfect for beginners and fitness fanatics no matter their age.
“I live and breathe bhangra – I was born into it,” Bally added.
“The music, language, culture and heritage have been strong positive constants for me since birth. It’s our happy dance – I’ve danced bhangra when celebrating weddings, births, birthday parties – any excuse really - and I’ve always wanted to be able to share that passion with people.
“I think kids in particular connect with the classes because it’s more than just fitness – we create a fun, upbeat atmosphere with our music and passion for the dance that’s really infectious and provides a cultural experience.
“Some children don’t understand the lyrics but they’re really connecting with a new culture and getting a workout at the same time”.
After taking BBX across schools in Birmingham and the West Midlands, Bally has gone on to feature on Channel 5’s ‘You Are What You Eat’ with Good Morning Britain’s Dr Amir Khan, and performed with class members at the opening and closing ceremonies of the Commonwealth Games last year.
She added: “I’ve never seen such a positive atmosphere where children are really connecting with exercise and with each other.
“We’ve taken on four extra instructors now to deliver these sessions across schools and we’re all investing in our learning and taking courses to deliver classes of as high a quality as possible.”
BBX Fitness run multiple in-person classes across Birmingham, as well as ondemand online classes on the website, and are available for bookings for schools across the West Midlands area.
DATA from Sport England’s Moving Communities platform has provided key evidence in a recent decision to make a major new £63million fund available to publicly-owned leisure centres with swimming pools.
Critical to the decision was data that modelled the rising expenditures across the leisure sector, positioned alongside the potential loss in participation and social value.
Moving Communities is a Sport England driven initiative delivered by 4GLOBAL and a group of consortium members; Leisure-Net, Right Directions, and Sheffield Hallam University. Together, Moving Communities provides live data based on the largest data set ever gathered for the local authority leisure sector.
According to data from Moving Communities, between April and August 2019, the average utilities cost per site was £46,240.
For the same period in 2022, the sector was facing a 70 per cent increase with average costs rising to £78,442. For large facilities, there was an 82 per cent increase from £60,542 to £110,469.
These results show the challenges being faced by the more than 2,000 public leisure centres in England, over 800 of which have pools. These facilities play a vital role in helping communities engage with sport and physical activity.
Tim Hollingsworth, chief executive officer at Sport England, said: “We know the rising cost of energy, along with chemical shortages and staff retention have created a challenging landscape for the public leisure sector.
“We’ve been able to track this in real time through our Moving Communities service, alongside participation data
across different activities to understand the wider social value generated from activity in these vital community facilities.
“Efforts from local authorities and their service providers in sharing this data have been integral to the funding decision and created a positive step change that can continue to show the impact of these centres moving forward.”
Data from Moving Communities showed that facilities containing both gyms and pools were estimated to create more than £833million in social value in
2022 – 85 per cent of the total generated for the sector.
Social value combines data from several outcomes including the total savings in health and social care costs achieved through the reduced risk of various health conditions as well as the average annual costs per person diagnosed with the condition.
It also includes improved educational attainment through sports participation, savings to the criminal justice system and the value of higher wellbeing derived by sports participants.
What’s more, over half of all leisure centre participants went swimming in 2022. Including both activities and lessons, this equates to more than 4.5 million people, which is more than any other leisure activity recorded by the platform.
Of those swimming, there was a higher proportion of older, female adults participating, and over the course of 2022, 1.1 million people participated in swimming lessons.
The vast majority (95 per cent) of swimming lesson participants were under 16.
LEISURE DB has announced Heidi Blackburn as its new chief operating officer.
Leisure DB supplies the definitive annual “State of the UK Fitness Industry Report” together with market intelligence, analysis and insights for the health and fitness industry and is the ‘go-to’ data source for information on fitness facilities in the UK.
Established more than 20 years ago, the company provides industry reports, new site analysis, customer profiling, historical statistics and data licences along with latent demand estimates.
Heidi Blackburn joins Leisure DB with circa 25 years experience as a successful operator within the sector.
She said: “For more than 20 years Leisure DB has led the way in data,
analysis and market intelligence and during this time has become the linchpin of the sector – encouraging operators to foster a data-centric culture that
constantly leans on data to evolve its offering. I see my role here at Leisure DB as one that assists the future proofing of our industry by utilising data to help shift mindsets.”
Leisure DB provides gym operators with a full understanding of the type of customers currently being attracted to a facility.
These powerful insights help to create marketing messages that are clearly targeted to the typical membership of a facility, as well as attracting new members from specific demographics.
David Minton, founder of Leisure DB, added: “I am delighted to welcome Heidi as our new COO – she is already proving to be a real stimulus by leading remarkable innovations for Leisure DB, including the planning and execution
of our next industry event, EVOLVE, where we will be launching the much anticipated State of the UK Fitness Industry Report 2023.”
For the past two years Leisure DB has worked with industry partners through EVOLVE to bring about conversation, collaboration and change – taking powerful data and insights from its renowned industry reports and working together with leaders from across the sector to stimulate growth and diversification into new and untapped markets.
This year, in conjunction with carefully selected partners delivering industry insights, Leisure DB will be releasing its annual State of the UK Fitness Industry Report 2023 at the next live EVOLVE event.
InBody has announced a new partnership with Everlast Gyms. This partnership will see body composition experts InBody come together with the ambitious Everlast Gyms – which is part of Frasers Group – as they set out on a new health and fitness journey.
A big focus for Everlast Gyms this year is developing an elevated gym model which includes creating an exclusive member journey and member onboarding product.
As part of this ongoing commitment, Everlast has invested in 19 of the InBody 370s model which, within just 15 seconds, generates a comprehensive overview of an individual’s body composition including weight, skeletal muscle mass, body fat percentage and body water levels.
This means fitness coaches and
personal trainers can easily track, monitor and manage their clients’ results.
Martyn Oakey, head of fitness at
Frasers Group, said: “We recognised the products and tools we used in our fitness set up were impersonal and lacked clinical expertise.
“The InBody 370s is quick and easy to use and with the InBody app, the member experience is seamless either with or without a fitness coach’s support.”
InBody aspires to be the go-to brand for body composition across the UK and is already well-established within the fitness industry.
In fact, this partnership with Everlast is just one of the most recent relationships InBody has developed.
Ian Rushbury, head of product at InBody, added: “It’s a crucial time for operators to look at the customer needs that sit outside the norms of cardio, functional and resistance equipment –especially in the wake of the pandemic
Advertiser’s announcement
recovery for people.
“We see technology as the enabler of the programs and services that operators produce, and support to validate the success of them.
“Everlast is very forward thinking for the market they are targeting, and body composition sits perfectly for upskilling their trainers as well as educating members on the benefits of monitoring baseline health markers.
“It is so important for us all to understand and interpret our internal health, and Everlast have shown they are willing to invest in their people as well as their product to support that.
“We are looking forward to a longlasting relationship with the brand and the team, as they continue on their journey to evolve their proposition in the market and serve their members’ health and wellbeing expertly.”
IF YOU want an example of a club that is well managed, here it is.
Having acquired Kingfisher Health Club in December 2021, Raymond Harrod and his team operate a tight ship and run various in-house marketing and sales promotions all year round.
They have turned around a struggling business into the life and soul of the community in under 14 months, increasing membership numbers by 33 per cent and member attendance by 95 per cent.
In February this year they decided to take a different approach to compliment everything they have done in the past 14 months and employed a new marketing strategy to target the ‘untapped’ local market. The results of the campaign were exceptional, with 362 new members signing up on the ‘health awareness’ offer and an additional 280 signing up on the club’s standard rates. The campaign was managed by Creative Fitness Marketing who specialise in marketing and sales for gyms and health clubs.
Jonny Packard said: “With health being at the forefront of people’s minds after the pandemic, now is a great time for
those in the fitness industry to promote themselves.
“The key is to know your market and to target them with the right message. This is what we live and breathe at CFM.”
In addition to getting your messaging
right, the frequency also needs to be considered. It can take some prospects up to five exposures to a message to act. Plus, if you can incorporate an element of social proof into your advertising, then this can help that nervous prospect
to take the first step.
On working with CFM, Raymond added: “I was very nervous a couple of weeks leading up to it as naturally you have some doubts.
“My reservations were the initial discount, especially as we’re all trying to increase prices on memberships due to inflation and increase in energy costs. However, I also knew this was about quantity and the advertising was very targeted, so it all worked out fantastically.
“I knew CFM were going to spend a good amount of money on marketing that we wouldn’t have done on our own.
“I was especially impressed with the open day, which sold 48 new memberships. We had Chris and Mike (from CFM) working at the club and they were very much part of the team.
“For any doubts I had with current members being unhappy, we had a plan in place. We had two or three who queried the campaign, but there were no issues with it, and everyone is happy. I would absolutely recommend CFM.”
To find out more about how CFM
