The Economics Of Training
Let me bring you up to speed. America is getting fatter by the second. There is a huge need for quality fitness facilities in America. More and more big box gyms are starting to pop up. LA fitness, LifeTime Fitness, 24HR Fitness, Balley’s, and many more are springing up everywhere. Enticing you with low monthly fees.
There are also a lot of small private clubs popping up in order to bring a higher quality health and fitness experience to the public. These are your 1200 to 5000 square foot facilities that force you to have a coach during your training session. You won’t find saunas, pools, or tons of TVs, but often times you will find a really high quality experience.
Recently, there have been some grumblings that these smaller facilities cost too much to join.
As a fitness economist I disagree.
It is time you all heard the truth about big box gyms.
To prove my point I went undercover posing as an average gym goer at a publicly traded health and fitness facility. This was the ultimate big box gym.
I first called the club to see if I could get a list of all the prices of the services that the club offered. But for some reason when I called this information appeared to be secret stuff. All I could get out of the person on the phone was that it would cost roughly $100 to join, but he could knock off the initiation fee and I could be in that day for just $79. I took his advice and scheduled an appointment to meet with the membership counselor.
Upon arrival at the club I was met by a very nice looking “front desk girl”. I told her I was interested in seeing what the gym had to offer. And boy they had a lot to offer. Pools, childcare, strike class, spin class, TV’s, saunas and personal trainers.
I told her I was mainly interested in personal training. After a short 20-minute wait for my scheduled appointment, I was greeted by a membership counselor, aka a sales rep.
Here is the gist of what I got.
I posed as a single person, no wife, no kids (ahhhh the single days).
For me to join they were going to waive what seemed like thousands of dollars in initiation fees to get me started for $79/month. I told him I liked the sound of that!
I told him that before I signed a contract I wanted to meet with a trainer to see what they had to offer. I asked if I could meet with a trainer right then and there. I was told they were all “busy” even though I saw a plethora of black polo’s standing around doing nothing. Nonetheless, I scheduled my appointment for the next day. I was told I would be doing an assessment. And with that my mind raced, wondering what they were going to put me through.
I met with my personal trainer the next day. He was a nice fellow, a good-looking muscular kid who looked the role of personal trainer.
He put me through the assessment which consisted of the following: height/weight measurements, sit and reach flexibility test, isometric bicep curl, resting heart rate and blood pressure test. From that he determined I needed some private coaching, which I do!
Just not for any of the reasons he suggested.
After the assessment my trainer told me I needed to be further assessed. He told me I needed to get a VO2 max test and a resting metabolic rate test. I obliged, as all of these tests are inherently good. However, those two tests were going to cost me an additional 200 bucks.
I scheduled the test for the next day.
The next morning I paid my 200 bucks and got the RMR and VO2 max test completed. The person conducting the test was not the same person who “assessed” me. Apparently, VO2 max test and RMR test require a specialist to hook someone up to hoses and monitor breathing.
After my testing I was told by the trainer who conducted my tests, that my training would not amount to much unless I used one of the Polar Heart Rate Monitors they so conveniently sell. The cheapest one was another 200 bucks.
Day four, I met with my original trainer to go over my goals and go through a trial workout. I told him I wanted to get strong, squat more weight, and lose fat.
He promptly put me on the free motion squat machine. Next we crushed some body-weighted lunges and finished my sample workout with some crunches.
Can I get a sarcastic yay for machine squats and spinal flexion!
For those of you wondering, no I did not warm up before the workout, that was not part of the instruction, but my first to sets of free motion squats were “really light”.
Upon conclusion of my workout we were going to get down to the nitty gritty of personal training. My trainer showed me what it was going to take to get my fat butt in shape.
I was going to need to train with him three times a week. I do agree that I need coaching 3x/wk, just not from him.
I asked my trainer; “How much was is this going to cost”?
It was only 70 bucks per session. I asked him if that was the average price per session and he said it was. He informed me if I wanted a master trainer I would need to train with another trainer who charges $100 per hour. I inquired as to why the “master” trainer was the “master”.
Pretty candidly I was told that it was due to the “master” having more sales per month. Yeah you heard right, the more personal training you sell, the better trainer you are. This is the dirty secret of commercial fitness companies. You are warned.
I gave a pretty awesome excuse as to why I couldn’t sign up that day. I told him I had to talk it over with my wife. He agreed that would be a good thing to do. Little did he know he failed another test.
Remember I told him I was single.
So to recap lets break down the economics of what happened at this “cheaper” option in the health and fitness industry.
Lets stick with the number from my original trainer and see how much my first month of training would have cost.
Membership 79.00/month
RMR and VO2 200.00/1-time fee
HR mon 200.00/1-time fee
Training (3x/week @ 70/session) 840.00/month
My first month would have cost $1339.00, and then just $919.00 per month after that.
Now, for comparison sake, lets use the Force Barbell prices to compare. In full disclosure our pricing is listed on-line at www.forcebarbell.com/schedule and is never kept a secret. In fact the first time you come into our gym we hand you a list of our services and prices, because we know you are curious. Then we get down to business and find the best solution for you. I would also say our pricing is a little more expensive than middle ground for facilities of comparable size.
We believe we offer a premium service at a fair price. Our average member pays roughly 189.00 dollars a month, our service contracts range from 80-420 dollars a month depending on the service. The more expensive the price, the more exclusive the use. The more cost effective, the more people you are going to have standing next to you sharing a coach. But one thing never changes, our quality of coaching always remains high.
The key here is everyone that comes in our doors has a coach ensuring the obtainment of each individual’s goals. Quality of service is our goal.
To learn more about Tyler and I check us out here: http://www.forcebarbell.com/about/
As always, Live Light, Lift Heavy