Workout Weekly September 22

WEEKLY

Issue 152 - 22 September 2023

YOUR REGULAR ONLINE UPDATE FOR THE UK FITNESS SCENE

New app boosts operator’s PT bookings – page 3

Mental health main motivation for exercise, new research finds – page 5

Energy efficiency works completed at multiple sites

ALLIANCE Leisure has completed decarbonisation works at four leisure venues on behalf of three councils over the past few weeks.

Works, with a combined investment level of £5.3million, are anticipated to deliver a total annual energy cost saving of £23,401 and an annual C02 reduction of 586 tonnes.

Teignmouth Lido and Broadmeadow Sports Centre, both owned by Teignbridge District Council along with Dronfield Leisure Centre, owned by North East Derbyshire District Council and Darlaston Swimming and Fitness

Centre, owned by Walsall Council have all undergone works to improve energy efficiencies. Across the four sites, works have included replacing gas boilers with air source heat pumps, installing LED lighting and adding solar panels.

Julia Goddard, senior business development manager at Alliance Leisure, said: “All three phases of the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme has been over-subscribed, highlighting the huge need for modernisation of ageing assets, such as energy intensive leisure centres.

“Including these four completed

projects, Alliance Leisure is involved in 23 PSDS leisure projects with a total investment value of more than £30million.”

Works at these four sites have been managed by Alliance Leisure and delivered in conjunction with Leisure Energy, through the UK Leisure Framework.

Mike Worsnop, strategic director at Leisure Energy, added: “We were delighted that Leisure Energy was appointed as Alliance Leisure’s partner to design and install renewable energy technologies and solutions at a number

of public leisure facilities. Lowering carbon emissions and reducing energy usage is an important priority and commitment for local authorities and we are pleased to have been able to provide our expertise and support Teignbridge, North East Derbyshire and Walsall Councils’ in their transition to net zero carbon leisure facilities.”

The Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme supports the aim of reducing emissions from public sector buildings by 75 per cent by 2037 and has, so far, invested more than £3billion across three funding phases.

New app boosts operator’s PT bookings

EARLY this year, Everyone Active launched a trial of Fisikal’s custombuilt digital PT management app across 12 sites in a move to create an experience driven, efficient process that linked members to trainers.

Ben Beevers, Everyone Active’s group development director, said: “This trial has been a huge success. Since launching the Fisikal PT app, we have increased PT bookings by over 60 per cent at the trial sites.”

“These results have driven positive financial figures, with income increasing on average by 30 per cent at participating sites.

“We’ve also received great feedback from our PTs, who have highlighted the greater flexibility and reduced admin time that the app has allowed.”

By digitising the PT model, Everyone Active has provided its trainers with an environment in which they can thrive, digitising the management system to support their build of a financially sustainable

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

www.workoutuk.co.uk

career whilst making it seamless for members to engage their PT services.

From a trainer standpoint, Maria Giordmaina, Everyone Active’s

personal trainer at Stratford Leisure Centre added: “The Fisikal app is really user-friendly and helps manage the entire PT booking process at just

the touch of a button.

“In return, this save me valuable time, which I can now spend supporting my clients.”

Due to the success of the app, a custom-build which took Fiskal just eight weeks to create from concept to launch, Everyone Active plans to integrate it across a further 117 sites by the end of 2023.

“The app provides real-time insight at an individual, and enterprise level.” Ben added.

“By 2024, we’ll have oversight on how our whole PT business is operating, allowing us to make more informed decisions, continually adapting for the benefit of both members and PTs.”

Rob Lander, Fisikal’s CEO, said: “Digitalising PT and adopting a more centralised model has provided tangible results, an enhanced understanding of the business and we’re looking forward to supporting Everyone Active on the future rollout.”

New appointment to Oldham Active’s fitness team

OLDHAM Active (Oldham Community Leisure) has employed a new group health and fitness brand manager, responsible for improving the Trust’s leisure offer, including its gym provision, group exercise programmes, health referrals and services based out in the local community.

Lauren Connis has been appointed to this new role, which will see her working with the senior team to facilitate key local community projects.

She will work to ensure Oldham Active maintains its standing as the key health and wellbeing provider in the local community.

Lauren has extensive experience in the leisure and fitness industry, having spent many years working for Pure Gym, GLL, David Lloyd and Blackburn Borough Council in a variety of positions including activities manager and leisure

centre manager. She began her journey in the industry as a semi-professional dancer, fitness instructor and personal trainer.

“I’m passionate about creating opportunities for everyone to move a little more every day,” Lauren said.

“Part of my commitment with Oldham Active is to identify health inequalities

and deliver programmes that redress this imbalance.

“I am delighted to have the chance to work with Oldham Active. The opportunity to work in a role that focuses on improving the health of the Oldham community through exercise provision is perfect for me.

“There are countless physical and mental health issues that can be reduced or resolved through physical activity.

“I am excited for the different challenges that await me; Oldham Active is a fantastic operator that’s not afraid to try new things and push boundaries. It has a great portfolio of facilities too, which is something I’m excited to work in.”

She is particularly excited about exploring ways to give everyone access to the same opportunities for health.

Quest launches Long Service Awards to recognise centres’ continuous commitment to excellence

SPORT England’s quality assurance scheme, Quest, is re-launching its Long Service Awards.

Designed to recognise and reward leisure centres that have shown a long-standing commitment to continuous improvement and delivering quality facilities and services, they will be awarded every five years following the first five years of maintaining Quest Accreditation.

Caroline Constantine is managing director at quality management expert Right Directions, which manages Quest on behalf of Sport England, and Quest’s operations director.

She said: “Quest has been defining industry standards and good practice for more than 25 years, encouraging their ongoing development and delivery within a customer-focused management framework.

“It’s a very in-depth assessment, consisting of a mystery visit to try the facility and talk to as many staff as possible whilst on site, as well as a minimum of three telephone calls to the centre, at least two online interactions, and a full one-day or two-day in-person assessment with the management team and frontline staff.

“Some of our operator clients and their leisure centres have been undertaking this assessment process for 25 years – since its inception.

“It’s time we helped demonstrate their commitment to excellence to their local community, who probably use the facilities day in and day out without considering the effort that

goes into ensuring a clean, safe environment whilst still offering high-quality facilities that are both affordable and accessible.

“We hope this new certificate will do just that.”

Some of GLL’s facilities have been undertaking Quest since the late 1990s.

Chris Hebblewhite, GLL’s director of standards and compliance, added: “As the UK’s largest public provider of leisure facilities, GLL greatly values Quest as our primary quality and improvement tool.

“It is quite simply the gold standard for our industry and we’ve been using it since we were a small leisure trust right through to the 260 leisure facility network – spanning England, Wales and Northern Ireland – that we are

today.

“Quest’s strength is in keeping standards high. It helped us to stay focused after the Covid pandemic and it challenges our facilities to get better and better, and adapt to the ever changing environment.

“GLL is pleased to be part of and support the long service awards.”

The Long Service Awards, which were paused during Covid due to the interruption of renewal dates, will be relaunched in October.

Quest was first established 25 years ago as a continuous improvement tool to measure how well a facility is operating and how effective organisations are across a range of topics. The renowned award has evolved over the years to keep pace with the ever-changing sport

and leisure industry and is still the sector’s best-known improvement programme, with its rigorous assessments challenging even the very best leisure centres in the UK.

The Quest assessment enables operators to be nationally recognised and accredited for their hard work, and provides a view of what ‘good’ and ‘great’ look like so they can benchmark and review their services against a national picture to enable their teams and their facilities to deliver greater impact and social outcomes.

To ensure Quest remains understandable and valuable to the industry, numerous changes have been rolled out across the years. The most recent change is known as Quest 2022.

Each Quest assessment is made up of six Core Modules.

The Core Modules provide the key building blocks for success, including ensuring facilities are safe, clean and well maintained, with knowledgeable, qualified and trained staff who deliver customer service, whilst a number of additional Choice Modules allow centres or teams to tailor the assessment to suit their own operation and activities within their facilities.

For example, there are more 30 choice modules including Sales and Retention, Lifeguarding, Safeguarding, Marketing, Food and Beverage, Ice Rinks, Event Management and Fitness Suites, as well as a range of engagement modules.

Scottish wellness giant partners with Ronald McDonald House Charities UK

GLASGOW headquartered global fitness and well-being community app, TRUCONNECT, has announced a partnership with globally renowned independent charity, Ronald McDonald House Charities UK, who provide free ‘home away from home’ accommodation, facilities and support to families while their child is in hospital. Specifically, the partnership sees TRUCONNECT become Ronald McDonald House Charities UK’s official healthy lifestyle partner in the UK, with free access to the TRUCONNECT app to be provided to families staying at all 14 Ronald McDonald Houses extending to all Ronald McDonald House Charities UK employees.

The news comes amidst the release of a recent cost-of-living survey conducted by Ronald McDonald House Charities UK, whereby 70 per cent of parents and carers who have stayed in a Ronald McDonald House in the last six months reported that their finances have been negatively impacted by having a child in hospital.

Two in three also reported the cost-ofliving crisis to have caused their mental health to suffer.

The partnership is aimed to help tackle

this statistic, ensuring the well-being of families in Ronald McDonald Houses is optimally supported so they can remain actively involved in their child’s care.

James Wildish, head of technology and corporate wellness at TRUCONNECT parent company The Original Fit Factory, said: “The work that Ronald McDonald House Charities UK does to keep families together, helping them maintain a

degree of normal life and reducing emotional and financial strain when it matters most is critical.

“Working with them, we hope to be able to harness improved overall wellbeing for families going through what is an incredibly challenging time.”

Families and Ronald McDonald House Charities UK employees will have access to more than 1,000 mental

and physical health programmes through the partnership including NHS approved mental well-being courses, and extending to more than 400 tasty and nutritious recipes, while the TRUCONNECT app features unique interactive functionalities designed to empower users to take control of their physical and mental well-being hand-inhand with others.

James added: “There’s everything from the option to create, complete and log your own workouts, to monitoring your mental health through the use of meditations, soundscapes and podcasts.

“We have also recently introduced a challenges feature designed to connect families across the country, which is also a tool we see being game-changing in enabling Ronald McDonald House Charities UK staff to engage with one another.”

More than 60,000 families have stayed in a Ronald McDonald House in the UK since the first House was opened in 1989 with Houses located as close as possible to specialist children’s hospitals spanning the likes of Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Manchester, Liverpool, London, Oxford and Southampton.

Mental health main motivation for exercise, new research finds

MENTAL health has become a stronger motivation for Brits to exercise than staying in shape, but three-quarters vastly underestimate how much activity they need, according to a new poll released on National Fitness Day.

In a survey of 2,271 people, commissioned by ukactive and conducted by Savanta, more than half of UK adults (54 per cent) reported that their main motivation for keeping physically active was to help their mental health, while 49 per cent said it was getting in shape.

National guidelines from the Chief Medical Officers state that adults should undertake 150 minutes or more of ‘moderate-intensity activity’ each week, but three-quarters (75 per cent) of respondents thought it was much less –with 38 per cent thinking that less than 90 minutes is sufficient.

More positively, the findings show people are increasingly aware of the physical and mental benefits of being active, with 86 per cent agreeing that keeping physically active can help prevent various illnesses and injuries from occurring.

Huw Edwards, CEO of ukactive, said: “More people are recognising the incredible mental benefits of being active in their daily lives, not just the physical rewards.

“These findings show the huge opportunity to ease our nation’s mental and physical health crisis if we can raise awareness of the importance of physical activity, alongside better nutrition, and ensure everyone has the chance to be active.

“We’re on a mission with other leading organisations in the sector to make the UK the most active nation in Europe.”

The theme for National Fitness Day 2023 was ‘Your Health is for Life’, highlighting the importance of staying active throughout our lives.

The UK is facing a growing health crisis, with rising NHS waiting lists and recent research revealing that two in five inpatients in England report significant health decline while awaiting treatment on the NHS.

National Fitness Day celebrated the role of physical activity in our lives but

getting more people active also has a crucial role to play in improving national health outcomes, wellbeing, and economic productivity.

Of those polled, one in four people (23 per cent) said they were currently awaiting treatment on the NHS. Of those on waiting lists, only seven per cent have a current gym membership. In fact, those on an NHS waitlist are almost three times less likely to have a gym membership, so there is a major opportunity to increase participation in physical activity to reduce pressure on the health system.

According to statistics from the Office for Health Improvements and Disparities, regular exercise improves health outcomes and reduces the risk of longterm health conditions and illnesses, including a 40 per cent reduced risk of type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease (by 35 per cent), dementia (by 30 per cent) and some cancers (by 20 per cent).

Thousands of free activities took place across the UK to celebrate National Fitness Day, with the kick-off held at Salford Sports Village in Greater Manchester, showcasing a powerful example of physical activity reducing pressure on the NHS.

GM Active’s Prehab4Cancer programme uses group exercise classes to support those diagnosed with cancer to manage their recovery and treatment in the community.

The programme has been proven to cut patient contact time within hospitals by up to 36 hours and these shorter hospital stays ‘released’ 550 ward bed days and 146 critical care bed days, showing the potential to support the NHS if it is scaled nationwide.

Sports Minister Stuart Andrew added: “Sport and physical activity are hugely beneficial to our mental and physical health which is why we are aiming to get 3.5 million more people active by 2030.

“We’re determined to drive up participation and that starts with 150 minutes of exercise a week for adults and 60 minutes a day for young people.

“Whether that’s at school, in a gym, on the pitch or court, you can make a huge difference to your health and the health of the nation by getting active.”

F45 announces the return of Wahlberg Week

FOLLOWING the unparalleled success of Wahlberg Week earlier this year, F45 Training Group has announced its return from October 2 to 8.

Throughout the week, participants will be put through their paces with seven workouts designed exclusively by F45’s chief marketing officer Mark Wahlberg and their world-class team of training experts.

The return of Wahlberg Week will feature the popular performancebased workouts, which existing and new members can take part in to track their stats and points by downloading the F45 Challenge app in the App Store or Google Play.

All the classes are inspired by Mark’s favoured workout technique, which incorporate intermittent overload training with a focus on targeted muscle groups to give the ultimate workout.

Wahlberg Week promises to offer an unforgettable week where participants can enhance their training game, learn more about the benefits of F45 Training and kick-start life-changing results.

George Crook, head of performance at F45 Training Europe, said: “We are delighted to be bringing Wahlberg Week back to the timetable.

“It was a huge success when it first

launched in April this year and people enjoyed being able to train like Mark Wahlberg.

“He is no stranger to staying in shape, so it provides a fantastic opportunity for new and existing F45 members to try out something different and we are looking forward to seeing the response to this latest phase of workouts”.

The Wahlberg Week 45-minute workouts will consist of:

Underdog: A cardiovascular

endurance workout that incorporates an erg machine, with participants competing for the highest number of points.

High Roller: A resistance workout designed to push your lifting capabilities. You will pair up and work one at a time in a “You Go, I Go” format until both partners have completed three sets.

Patriot: A cardiovascular workout with a focus on heart rate recovery scores. Prepare to work hard to

understand your body’s ability to recover and be ready to take on the next challenge in the following lap.

Southpaw: A smashing resistancebased workout that will get your muscles activated like never before. Muscular endurance is the aim of this workout. Push through muscle fatigue in the longer working sets and calculate your max reps.

Swagger: A hybrid workout focusing on power output. You should strive for strong and explosive movements. The class will incorporate five varied core stations in each pod (crunches, bicycle crunches, Russian twists, leg twists, and leg-to-knee planks).

Blue Arrow: A hybrid workout will take you on an exciting journey, with an extra 15 minutes added to the class. The aim is to complete as many meters in a relay format as possible in seven minutes. You will have three chances to tackle each machine in this workout (Rower, BikeErg, SkiErg), with the pod stations being timebased.

Horizon: A full body workout demonstrates the possibility of change and perhaps improvement. This dynamic recovery provides solid lifting sets and finishes with a recovery sequence to leave you bursting with energy.