Opening a gym in Gdańsk

I am planning to open a gym & i would like to know what would attract people to my gym? I need something that other gyms dont have.

How many people on P/F are members of a gym & regulary use one?

gym for nudists

Get a decent squat / power rack and a set of kettlebells

Good idea I thought about that a few years ago. I would say one winning formula is to restrict the steroid heads, nothing worse than skinny guys trying to build muscle with meat heads staring at them. Just make it nice and clean with a good variety of exercise equipment and weights, perhaps introduce specialised classes for women and such.

I would probably take a succesful gym in the UK and copy it as best i could.

Than again, having a couple of the big guys in the gym is motivating. A gym full of skinny men turns as bitchy as a women's hair salon.

Have an aerobics class like this one

youtube.com/watch?v=U95RbuzmxmU

and the punters will be banging down the door trying to join!

Here's what I like at my gym, a Cardio Cinema. Everyone HATES doing cardio, so if they're being entertained while doing it, it makes the jog goes by quicker. You can show different movies on different days.

I once fell off a treadmill because I was laughing at On the Buses :D

I've been a member of various gyms over the years, and I believe that friendly staff / trainers are the way forward. I once stropped out of an aerobics class in Germany when a cow of an instructor singled me out and said that I was uncoordinated :(

I like classes - the Les Mills ones are really popular (Body Pump, Body Step, RPM, Body Balance, Body Attack etc), and would definately be a good selling point. I wouldn't join a gym that didn't have Body Pump on the timetable.

Keep the classes fresh and change the timetable regularly - but try to avoid gimmicks like drums alive (hitting a swiss ball with a drum stick... hmmm... what kind of a workout is that??). If you think that I made this up, here's a link:



Providing towels is also a plus, as is free shower gel (in dispensers) in the showers. Am not too bothered about free body lotion and cotton buds.

Are PowerPlates popular in Poland? They're big here in London, but I get the impression that they're just a bit of a gimmick. I've used them a few times, but didn't really feel much benefit.

Disturbing.

I agree with the decent staff. I can put up with obnoxious customers but stroppy wannabe PE teachers are a turn off.

The most obnoxious staff at my gym are the semi-pro sportsmen... footballers and rugby players etc. They are totally disinterested and just give the impression that they would rather be anywhere else than helping overweight office-workers get a good technique at press-ups in the circuit training class.

The best ones are the ex millitary guys - they have a real no-nonsense approach ("come on LC, give me ten more full press-ups... don't be soft... you know you can do it" etc.)

Some good advice here.
I must admit that i have never heared of this before (cardio cinema) sounds quite expensive thoughy, do you think something like this would make the difference in someone choosing my gym instead of another?

any more ideas are welcome.

Please, ignore all these gimmicks. Have extensive free weights, that is weights, bars, dumbbells. You can achieved the best results with simple and cheap equipment and you will attract a more serious and therefore more valuable clientele as a result.

Discourage use of ipods and mobile phones, people should know what's going on around them.

How about a gym without blaring music, that would be a unique selling point!

Wroclaw Boy, it is the serious weight trainers who know how to behave in gyms. Too many casuals and you'll have weights left all over the place.

Did you open your gym ? I may visit in October.

I would say its important to balance out between cardio/weights/core stability areas. I have been to gyms where there is too much of one and not enough of the others. Usually i find that a gym has way way way too many cardiovascular machines such as tredmills, steppers, cross trainers, rowing machines etc etc that take up three quarters of the gym.

It also depends on what people you are looking to attract into your gym, not everybody is into the 'free weights' some people prefer the 'assisted weights' (people who are usually starting out or are not comfortable using free weights)

It is also important to have a 'cool' gym invironment, make people work and sweat instead of them doing it as soon as they walk through the door. Make sure you have a good air conditioning system or at least a number of fans set around the gym. If people want to train for hot weather conditions they will find somewhere to do it :)

You may also want to look at setting up a number of classes, for example at my local gym there are 'body pump' sessions, 'abs attack' sessions and other such classes that are specific to muscle groups/cardio etc etc.


With this you don't need to go over the top on really expensive tv's or systems, again at my local gym they have decent sized tv's that have different channels on them and each of the cardio machines has a box you can plug your ipod/phone headphones into to listen to the tv.

It's a gym, not a military training camp. People should enjoy their workout however they want.

You want to attract both male & female customers. Have a separate cardio area for ladies only.

Designate a Total Body area for beginners with easy to use machines.

Consider the following services as well:
Childcare - an area people can leave their kids off while they work out
Free Weights
Group Exercise Classes
Juice bar
Massage
Resistance Machines
Spinning room
Yoga/Pilates Studio

For me its all location and membership price.
Sounds simple, but I can deal with just about anything else.

100th post!

Yea for sure, those are important too.

Lose the monthly fee. My gym you pay a joining fee, another fee for a couple of sessions work with your own personal trainer and then they work out a circuit for you. After that you only pay when you turn up, you still have your personal trainer assigned to you and you can talk to them any time you want. You can pay for an additional session with the trainer after a while if you feel your circuit isn't doing you any good after a while.

I'd agree with that - or maybe offer two type of membership... a monthly fee for unlimmited use and a "pay as you go" type agreement / pay per visit.

One thing that irritates me about gym memberships is the "admin fee". I have yet to meet a gym that can explain what the £300 (or whatever) covers. Seems like a lot to pay for a "free" t-shirt and towel.

A transparent pricing policy is the way to go...

Have peak and off peak rates for monthly direct debit members, and a pay as you visit.

lots of hot babes will bring in the guys.

Maybe some hot guys will bring in the girls. ;)

[quote=PolskaDoll]Maybe some hot guys will bring in the girls. ;)

obviously that works in both directions
in my gym the best sort meet up between 9-10 pm
( not me, just my observations )

dat

"People should enjoy their workout however they want."

Not if it's not safe – which is isn't if you've got Bon Jovi blasting through your headphones when someone is trying to warn you a falling dumbbell is heading for your foot.

"Consider the following services as well ..."

And that is exactly what would put me off any gym designed along those lines, because my membership fee would have to pay for these "services" which I would never use myself!

"Have a separate cardio area for ladies only."

Why ? A waste of space and energy! I also think that would be against the law in some countries. In any case, women can be just a sweaty, smelly and inconsiderate as men.

Fatima
Guest

Ummm.. I listen to loud music every second of my workout when I'm in the gym and I've never had a problem. If somebody is stupid enough to get in the way of a "falling dumbbell" (does that even happen?) then they deserve a smashed foot.


Some women may be more self conscious... A seperate, smaller optional area wouldn't hurt. A gym can be very intimidating if someone is insecure with their looks.

There is no way that I can work out without music. I am sure that lots of people are the same.

well then they shouldn't be at the gym in the first place, as it is a place where you find all the "look at me,look at me" attention horz.

What age group /fitness level are you trying to attract? The bored-but-money-to-spend middle-aged housewife or the atlas-in-the-making teenager?

Friendly staff are my #1 requirement.
And then it's down to the quality/variety of equipment and the space around it (I don't want to be breathing armpit air from the victim sweating over the adjacent machine ...)

Oh, and the gym I used in Vancouver had a small juice bar attached -- sold fresh juices / smoothies etc. That was nice ...

I totally agree with that, and I hate those fuc***s.

Luckily there are those people, like myself, that go to the gym at the least busy times just to avoid other people and actually work out.

"look at me, look at me" like Bruno whilst asking about his sunglasses grabbing too much attention from his fashion consultant.

Well, instead of dedicating areas for men, maybe it's better to just offer cardio yoga pilates boxercise classes with some really bad music - you won't find men going to them.