Weak Economy Presses Gyms

They Hope That People's Desire For Fitness Will Be Stronger Than Their Instinct For Thrift

“People think about two things every January: fitness and money. This year, worried that concerns about money will outweigh resolutions to get fit, gyms are using special deals to shore up business in what has become an increasingly competitive market. Through January, Life Time Fitness in Cary is waiving its enrollment fee, which is usually about $130. Triangle YMCA branches are cutting the fee to join in half. It normally ranges from $95 to $250 for a family. And O2 Fitness branches are waiving their enrollment fees of up to $149 and offering new members January and February membership free. Gyms typically run promotions at the beginning of the year, but in 2009, the stakes are higher. ‘Everybody in our business is really trying to put everyone else out of business,’ said Kevin Hedley, chief operating officer of Raleigh-based O2 Fitness. ‘They're trying to drive the price as low as possible, but at the same time, it won't allow anyone to be successful in the long term.’ Health clubs have always been a volatile business with consolidation and sudden closures typical. But succeeding has become more challenging during the past few years as competition has increased. New companies such as Lifestyle Family Fitness and Life Time Fitness have opened gyms here, often featuring state-of-the-art amenities such as swimming pools, saunas and rock-climbing walls. To keep up, existing businesses such as O2 Fitness and the YMCA expanded, upgraded facilities and added branches. ‘It was just growth, growth, growth for so long,’ Hedley said. Gym and health club membership jumped from 20 million in 1990 to 43 million now. With Americans increasingly concerned about obesity and placing more of an emphasis on fitness, many gym operators thought membership would continue to grow steadily. But the growth rate has started declining, from 4.2 percent in 2006 to 1.9 percent in 2007, according to the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association. ‘We projected that memberships would go up to 50 million by 2010, and they've slowed in the last few years,’ said Mike May, spokesman for the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association. ‘But people have been building thinking that we'd make it. That way, when the members show up, you're there. You've responded in advance. ... [Now] it would be great if we could get to 45 million by 2010.’ For some people, gym membership is a luxury that can be cut when household budgets need to be trimmed. At Life Time Fitness, the number of customers canceling memberships is up in the single-digit percentages -- after three quarters of growth -- said spokesman Jason Thunstrom. ‘People run into economic headwinds and challenges,’ he said.
With membership growth shrinking and consumer spending expected to be slow at least for the start of 2009, gyms are rethinking their plans. […]”

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1351743.html

New, Innovative Online Health Resource Aides in Keeping, Strengthening New Year's Resolutions

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/01/prweb1820394.htm

Fitness Centers Offer Array Of Amenities

“When Stephanie Dick wants to work out on a treadmill, she heads to the gym. When she wants to hang out by the pool with her kids, she heads to the gym. And when she wants to get a pedicure or eyebrow wax, she heads to the gym. On second thought, perhaps ‘gym’ isn't the right word for the Lifetime Fitness at U.S. 281 and Sonterra Boulevard, a sprawling 110,000-square-foot facility equipped with rock-climbing walls, a full-service salon, café and a gymnasium for kids. ‘It's more of a lifestyle center. There's a lot more to do. It's one-stop shopping,’ says Mark Takach, a Lifetime Fitness senior general manager. Lifetime Fitness, a national chain that has opened two locations in San Antonio since December 2005, is one of a growing number of multisport facilities that offer more than the standard weights and treadmills found at many gyms. These fitness centers boast amenities that appeal to members' desire not only for exercise but for convenience, entertainment and family-friendly facilities as well. At certain Spectrum Athletic Clubs, members can zoom down outdoor water slides into pools, watch their favorite television shows as they pedal exercise bikes and then check their e-mail at the computer station. If they get hungry, they can grab a bite at the full-service café. ‘Our industry is changing. It's not about weight lifting and trying to see how much we can bulk you up,’ says Nicole Jones, national marketing director for Spectrum. ‘All kinds of people seek out health and fitness facilities for all kinds of reasons. It's about wellness. It's about living healthy lifestyles.’ Thirty years ago, most gyms often offered little more than weight training, while others specialized in tennis or racquetball. In the late 1970s, those court sports clubs began incorporating strength training and aerobics classes, which launched the beginning of the modern fitness industry, according to Phil Wendel, owner of the Atlantic Coast Athletic Club and a board member of the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association. Soon the market opened up for such amenities as saunas, indoor tracks, swimming pools, a wide variety of group exercise classes, Pilates and yoga studios and staff that included certified personal trainers and registered dieticians. Health clubs with such diverse offerings ‘generally retain their members more successfully than clubs that just offer bare-bones fitness offerings,’ Wendel explains. And offering such features as cafés, spa services and 24-hour access means members are likely to spend more time (and money) at the club. In 2007, 41.5 million Americans belonged to health clubs, which brought in $18.5 billion in revenue, up from $17.6 billion in 2006. ‘Competition in the health club industry has no doubt intensified in the last 20 years,’ says Kara Thompson, an International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association spokeswoman. Full-service gyms fill ‘a specific niche in the market.’ Lifetime Fitness offers an expanded menu of options because their evolving clientele demands it, according Kent Wipf, a Lifetime spokesman. ‘The consumer is so much smarter than 20 years ago. There's so much more information out there,’ he says. Take the fitness assessments and high-tech metabolic testing that Lifetime offers its members. ‘It's amazing how many people come in and already know about it,’ he says. ‘They've done their research.’ Despite the growing number of health clubs that have it all, no-frills gyms with a lower price survive because they appeal to clientele who don't need facials with their free weights ‘There's definitely a place for every kind of health club in the market,’ Thompson says, ‘and that's healthy because every member has different kinds of needs.’”

http://www.mysanantonio.com/business/local/Fitness_Centers_offer_array_of_amenities.html

Amid Financial Crunch, Health Clubs Get In Shape To Keep Members

“At the Bodies in Motion health club, Tee Mushonga wrapped up a successful sales pitch by handing a stack of paperwork to a new customer for the West Los Angeles facility. If Mushonga, the club's membership director, had looked through his office's glass window, he would have seen another customer at the front desk completing paperwork. This one wasn't signing up for a new membership. He was canceling it. ‘There's definitely been an increase of cancellations,’ said Mushonga, who estimated losing 155 members in December while bringing in 110 new ones. For the workout business, 2009 is shaping up as a year in which health clubs will get worked over by the economy as members try to balance physical and fiscal health. Though health club owners and industry officials expect a traditional surge in January as customers make New Year's resolutions to get in shape, they're aware of the financial crunch ahead. ‘I anticipate the consumer will come out of this retail tailspin that happened over the last eight weeks and have to decide: 'I only have so much money to spend. What will I spend it on?' said Carl Liebert, chief executive of 24 Hour Fitness, based in San Ramon, Calif. Fast turnover is typical in the business, with five out of 10 new members canceling in the first year, he said, but he's unsure of 2009's prospects. Last month, Bally Total Fitness filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 for the second time in less than two years. In 2008, Bally closed 19 gyms nationwide. The picture was better at 24 Hour Fitness, which added 19 clubs and brought in $1.4 billion in revenue -- a figure Liebert called a ‘single-digit increase.’ But with his company benefiting from its sponsorship of the U.S. Olympic team, Liebert had expected to add 40 to 50 clubs. The credit crunch and mortgage crisis in September delayed those initiatives. For now, 24 Hour Fitness operates 415 locations in 15 states. ‘Our year was like a basketball game where we were coasting with a 20-point lead but had to call a couple timeouts to win by two or three points,’ Liebert said. Still, the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Assn. contends that its industry is ‘recession proof’ despite layoffs, the credit crunch and the mortgage crisis. The trade group has determined that consumers have spent consistent amounts of money on the health club industry despite economic uncertainties since 1981, the first year it tracked industry statistics. Gym memberships peaked nationally in 2006 at more than 42 million and were down by less than 3% last year at 41.5 million, according to statistics provided by the health club group. In 2007, health clubs brought in $18.5 billion -- a $900,000 increase from 2006. Association Chief Executive Joe Moore said the final numbers in 2008 would ‘probably’ be the same. ‘From talking to a lot of people in the industry, the bargain clubs and the high-end clubs continue to do well,’ Moore said. ‘The clubs that are in that middle price range are having more trouble.’ Heading into 2009, health clubs are breaking a sweat to attract new members. Gold's Gym, for instance, started the new year with free services, including four days of on-site workout advice from experts.”

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/valley/la-fi-gyms3-2009jan03,0,7059562.story

Gyms Still See Solid January Enrollment

“If you like your meals super-sized with fries, you might want to join the millions of people who get a health club membership every new year — enrollment, at least in Shreveport, does not appear to have been impacted by the economy. "So far we're on track with our normal, historical numbers for January right now," said John Campbell, co-owner of Element Fitness on Quail Creek Road. "Unless it's an extreme time of economic crisis, which now certainly could be, people don't generally give up their workouts." About 1 million people across the nation — 50 percent of total gym membership nationally — join health clubs in January, according to the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association, or IHRSA. Be it a New Year's resolution, a forward look to the summer, or the need to burn off the stress of the holidays, January is when health clubs know they can count on some of their highest enrollment figures. For Element Fitness, for example, that means a jump from about 60 new memberships in a typical summer month to about 260 in January alone. The IHRSA's latest data indicated strong growth despite the economy, with a sample survey of member gyms seeing more than 10 percent growth in enrollment between second quarter 2008 and second quarter 2007. Those figures only extend to July of this year, but most local gyms say they seem to have, for the moment, remained unscathed from the economy. "I had thought it might be (worse) to be honest with you," said Denise Hussein, owner of the Curves facility on East 70th Street. "I looked at the number of appointments we have on the books, and people are still signing up. I don't know how it's going to end in January "» but so far it's looking bright." If membership in American health clubs continues to rise, that would make it a sixth year of growth in the health club industry. Membership in gyms nationally has seen a whopping 25 percent rate of growth in new enrollment over the last five years, as of 2007, to 44.1 million members, according to the IHRSA, which attributed the increase to greater public awareness of healthy living. Campbell added that stress could be a factor. "Gym memberships keep going up because people want to get that stress out — get their tigers out," Campbell said. "Some people turn to that like other people turn to alcohol and tobacco." If stress plays a part in the urge to keep fit, Louisiana residents appear to be quite relaxed. A much-publicized report in early December 2008 by The American Public Health Association and the Partnership for Prevention, a nonprofit, fitness advocacy group, declared Louisiana to have officially displaced Mississippi as the least-healthy state in the nation, citing, among other things, the state's high rate of obesity.”

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20090105/NEWS01/901050318

What Health Club Fits You Best?

“According to the International Health Racquet & Sportsclub Association, almost one million Americans sign in to a gym or exercise facility at the beginning of every year. Yet, the same association shows that 35% of them give up during the year and almost 50% of them are gone by April. And the tradition goes on for 2009 too. Many fitness centers are ready to release fees for current and new members at the beginning of the New Year. The marketing trends spread to this business too. For example, the SportsClub from Los Angeles has invited its former members to return to the gym facility with no need to pay the one-time initiation fee. This fee can reach $600. In addition, the former members wouldn’t need to pay either the membership dues for two months, which can also reach to almost $330. The Bally Total Fitness offers a two-week free guest pass and Curves gives its clients one free month together with 50% off the monthly membership fee starting March. Joe Moore, chief executive of the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association, a fitness trade group, stated that the gym facilities and fitness centers are aware of the fact that the United States passes through a very hard economic crisis, during which there aren’t enough money to be spent on these kinds of pleasures. Moore also advices the persons who are interested in getting a package at a gym center to review the benefits of the gym online and to safely check the information package handed when signing up. Many such clubs are now considering free months, bigger membership discounts, free personal training sessions, passes for a workout buddy as well as free trail for a service, such as a pool.”

http://www.efluxmedia.com/news_What_Health_Club_Fits_You_Best_32476.html

Economy Has Some Gyms Scaling Back On Prices

“So you ate one too many snickerdoodles over the holidays, and now your tummy is bulging over the top of your pants. Like many Americans, you probably have the same New Year's resolution year after year, and 2009 is no different: Get in shape. But with the economy in the dumps, a gym membership may seem like an overindulgence. In response to the tough times, many area gyms are offering deep discounts for January, which historically is the biggest month for new membership enrollment at health clubs, according to the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association. ‘This is due in large part to the overwhelming number of New Year's resolutions,’ said Kara Thompson, spokeswoman for the association. ‘Most deals and discounts are offered at this time of the year. There may be a little more leeway with mom and pop niche gyms because they can offer more discounts.’ At many gyms, this year's discounts are deeper then usual, owners and managers say. Chris Carter, co-owner of Fitness Xpress in The Village at Lee Branch near Greystone, said he is offering discounts through March to make up for the 20 percent loss he has experienced since the economy turned sour. The gym is eliminating its $100 enrollment fee and discounting monthly rates by $5. That brings the monthly fee to $29 for a single two-year contract, $34 for a one-year contract and $39 for a month-to-month membership without a contract. ‘With the economy the way it is, a lot of members opt for the month-to-month,’ he said. Besides price, Carter said he has added other benefits for his customers, including 24-hour access to the gym and three free personal training sessions, which would normally run about $120. Down the street, SportPlex in Inverness is offering discounted monthly fees and a $69 enrollment fee. A monthly membership for one person is less than $40 and a spouse can be added for an additional $10 per month, said manager Bob Joy. "Our memberships are really reasonable," he said. "You can have a membership here for less than $1.15 a day, which is the cost of a Coke." Tine Hoffmeister, general manager of Lady Works Fitness in Pelham, said a few clients have canceled their memberships because they lost their jobs. "We do see people cutting off fitness, and it's sad because they need to de-stress and there are great health benefits from exercise," she said. "It's important to keep your health in any economy. You get more energy and confidence. But it's also important to know that you don't have to go to a gym to exercise. You can take the stairs, walk, dance." Hoffmeister said she can't afford to lower monthly rates for new clients because, like everything else, the economy has affected her business. But she said she has cut the enrollment fee to $20.09 for January. Monthly fees range from $32.95 to $49.95. "We are the third-fattest state in the nation, and it's costing us so much in health care," she said. "People think it takes so much to change, but it doesn't. It just takes a little bit of exercise every day. It's all about consistency."

http://www.al.com/health-fitness/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/living/1231146950193130.xml&coll=2