Lynne Brick
Get Geared Up for the New PE @ PF
2016 Issue 3 | GearedUp
The PE @ PF Revamp Committee consists of the following zees: Dave Leon, CJ Bouchard, Chris Klebba, Sharon Lomasney, Bob Viani, Tim Lennon, Dave Bidwell and yours truly( chair). We’ ve been working diligently since the 2015 Planet Fitness ® Franchise Conference to enhance Planet Fitness’ fitness delivery. We are excited to share our committee’ s update.
The first order of business was to encourage PFHQ to hire a fitness / wellness champion. Brian Zehetner( aka BZ) started in January as the director of health and fitness. Brian came to us with a long list of accolades and experiences, including being former chief science officer for Anytime Fitness, having a master’ s degree in nutrition, as well as his CSCS, and experience working with several tech companies. We are blessed he is leading our charge for change! The next order of business was to begin with the end in mind. As you know, there are many options and possibilities for fitness delivery. However, not all options are the best candidates to roll out to all 1,200-plus clubs that are“ Planetized,” proprietary and scalable. The committee had to determine WIN – what’ s important now – and narrow the focus for phase one pilots. While the committee considers that“ fitness programming is king and fitness equipment is queen,” we determined that both needed to be tested in phase one. Additionally, fitness trainer education was taken into consideration. Our main questions: Can each fitness equipment company deliver great equipment, great programming and great education? And how will the member experience be affected?
The phase one pilots are currently in 24 clubs with three concept classes per day. The concepts we are testing are:
• FreeMotion— six pieces of standalone FreeMotion equipment are being used in a variety of ways to train upper and lower body, circuit-style.
• Functional training utilizing the 360 Synergy piece along with Life Fitness rowers.
• TRX functional training.
• Additionally, each pilot club is also offering body weight and stretching classes once per day. Results are being compared to“ control” clubs who only offer our traditional NSC, DYOP and 30-minute circuit classes.
We are also in the process of determining phase two. Many were on the table, but we’ ve narrowed it to the following potential options:
• Co-ops with national vendor partners( i. e., those who focus on weight loss)
• A la carte fee-based options( i. e., nutrition coaching)
• Premium cardio options
• Fee-based group training
• Virtual training / coaching
Other items we are working on include digitizing content, standardizing trainer credentialing and enhancing member connection with technology.
We hope that you are as excited as the committee is for the new face of PE @ PF. If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to contact me directly.
Thank you!
Lynne Brick
PE @ PF Revamp Committee Chair lynne @ pfgrwth. com 410-350-5355
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