This summer, IHRSA released the IHRSA Health Club Equipment Report: Spending, Utilization & Programming Trends, sponsored by Precor. The report provides insights on health club equipment practices, including space allocation, spending trends, and utilization in training programs. Based on data gathered from more than 400 health and fitness facilities, the publication contains the most recent and complete equipment data in the club industry. “The IHRSA Health Club Equipment Report provides club owners with vital information needed in order to understand health club equipment practices,"...

Prescription to Get Active (RxTGA) is an exciting integrated partnership between family doctors, other health care providers and recreation organizations. This health promotion initiative, now a federal not-for-profit corporation, was created in 2011 to encourage physical activity in sedentary Canadians with the ambitious aim of improving overall health and quality of life and reducing the risk of chronic disease and premature death. Family doctors and other health care providers first identify patients who could benefit from more physical activity, and they then provide a prescription for physical...

I have been selling commercial fitness equipment for over 10 years now, and over that time I have learned a lot about how to buy…yes; I said “buy”. Jeffrey Gitomer, one of the greatest sales experts of all time, has said that understanding why people buy is more important than how to sell. Having taken that advice to heart when I was starting my career I have learned a lot about the thought process behind purchasing decisions. In general, buyers try to determine what their exact needs are, and then they try to get the best deal on the products that will meet those needs. It seems simple enough,...

There is no single strategy that will guarantee survival for 15 years of an independent gym that starts from scratch in a low-income economically depressed community. It takes a wide-range of strategies that blend together forming Branches of Brand. ‘Branching Your Brand’ refers to building a multi-dimension business personality in mind, body, and soul that achieves the number one objective of a Branched Brand – separate from the rest. You have to be instantly recognizable to new and current customers. Instant recognition is the key element in customer recruitment and retention. You can’t...

Toronto, Ontario – Metro Convention Centre – August 12, 2016 – 4:30pm During the World Fitness Expo in Toronto, Ontario, on August 12, 2016, at 4:30pm, Fitness Industry Council of Canada (FIC) has sponsored Barbara Allan, the Program Manager from the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services, to speak at the panel presentation on behalf of FIC. This portion of the presentation will inform fitness club owners, operators, and trainers about their rights and obligations under the Consumer Protection Act and explain what to expect if their operations are inspected by the Ministry of Government...

Surviving 15 years as an independent gym that started from scratch in one of Canada’s worst economies required the number one lesson I’ve learned from coaching football – strategize and improvise. Winning football championships is dependent on a complex decision-making process that is transferrable to starting a gym from scratch and surviving for 15 years in a depressed economy that has to be experienced to be believed. What saved us is the concept of Strategize & Improvise, the same decision-making process that I used to coach football for 40 seasons, in 15 years of policing between...