What Would Bring You Into a Gym?

Off Topic
21

[quote]TDog305 wrote:
I hate, HATE gyms that have too many members. The gyms that you can go to workout at 2pm on a Tuesday and it is still crowded.

Which is actually why I several memberships, and depending on the time of day I am going I choose the gym accordingly.[/quote]

I completely agree with this. Definately on my top 5 of things I look for in a gym. When my gym closed, I took some time and looked around at some of the gyms in the area. I was at one being shown around and I mentioned how busy it was(on a Sun afternoon). The girl giving the tour smiled and said, “Oh if you think it’s busy now, you should see it during the week”. For some reason, she saw this as a selling point…

22

[quote]Professor X wrote:
conorh wrote:
NorskGoddess wrote:
I’m a marketing/PR student – and I just conducted a large scale survey of college students to find out this very thing (among other things…)

Of course, this is just a sample of college students (70% female exercisers, between the ages of 20-24.)

  1. Price
  2. Proximity to where they live
  3. Cleanliness

– although I’m told by a couple of gym owners who are old hats at marketing rsearch that normally Cleanliness is #1. – I found this really surprising!

Hope this helps. And for the record, my priorities are:

  1. Price
  2. Equipment
  3. Etiquette of other gym members

Just a tiny hijack here, but I find that very odd. Not to say I don’t believe you, it’s just not the way I think about a gym. I don’t care about cleanliness in the gym at all. I always find it surprising when some guys in the club get all anal about having it spiffed up, and as long as people don’t leave junk in the way, im fine.

The original poster didn’t ask what hardcore gym rats look for in a gym. If that was the case, I would say 24 hour card key access, heavy weight, Hammer Strength machines and a floor.

When it comes to the general population who only trains hard enough to break a sweat maybe once a week, they are looking for a pseudo-night club where they can wear their brand new matching workout gear and talk to Linda, their bridge partner, while walking on a treadmill going 1mph and looking at a flat screen tv stuck on the Oxygen network. Plenty of mirrors and neon lights also help so they feel they are in a gym (almost) but just enough bright light so they can squint and think they are at the mall.[/quote]

Oh, I missed that part about the typical gymgoer. They too,are not all the same and are more and less hardcore. But I’d say the typical gymgoer looks for a gym that’s clean, well-lit, plays good music, has lots of weight machines, and lots of cardio machines. In the more affluent areas, ammenities like juice bars, masseuses, lots of classes (Pilates, spinning, etc…)

23

[quote]sasquatch wrote:

You got a problem with my gym??

And oh–my gym must have a floor![/quote]

I’m actually “floor optional”.

24

[quote]Professor X wrote:
sasquatch wrote:

You got a problem with my gym??

And oh–my gym must have a floor!

I’m actually “floor optional”.[/quote]

All I need is a crack house with weights.

25

[quote]Yo Momma wrote:
Professor X wrote:
sasquatch wrote:

You got a problem with my gym??

And oh–my gym must have a floor!

I’m actually “floor optional”.

All I need is a crack house with weights.

[/quote]
LOL

26

  1. Environment of gym

  2. Location

  3. Equipment selection

  4. Price

27

Must have:

squat rack/power rack–more than one would be nice
enough benches so you don’t have to wait long
barbells and plates coming out the old wazoo
proper gym etiquette

Should have:

good location
good price
cleanliness
lockers/changing room
Nautilus Pullover machine

Nice to have:

sauna or steam room

Must not have:

squat rack curlers

28

childcare is a big one for me

29

Before I became a personal trainer I managed gyms. Believe it or not what I heard from most people were these things.

  1. Not a “meat market” Not too many super fit or super hot people to intimidate them.

  2. Cleanliness

  3. Price / Convenience to home / Amenities to them (childcare, saunas, lockers. etc)

  4. Comfort level of the enviornment.

  5. Pool (which they never use)

Believe it or not only for 20% or so do the hours, or equipment or group classes or any of that make a difference. Most people go where is closest to home or work, and has a decent price and other people they see with similar fitness levels. Hope this helps.

30

[quote]conorh wrote:
NorskGoddess wrote:
I’m a marketing/PR student – and I just conducted a large scale survey of college students to find out this very thing (among other things…)

Of course, this is just a sample of college students (70% female exercisers, between the ages of 20-24.)

  1. Price
  2. Proximity to where they live
  3. Cleanliness

– although I’m told by a couple of gym owners who are old hats at marketing rsearch that normally Cleanliness is #1. – I found this really surprising!

Hope this helps. And for the record, my priorities are:

  1. Price
  2. Equipment
  3. Etiquette of other gym members

Just a tiny hijack here, but I find that very odd. Not to say I don’t believe you, it’s just not the way I think about a gym. I don’t care about cleanliness in the gym at all. I always find it surprising when some guys in the club get all anal about having it spiffed up, and as long as people don’t leave junk in the way, im fine. [/quote]

If all I was going to do is workout Cleanliness is not important. But if I have to take a shower there cleanliness would be very important.

31

[quote]TrainerinDC wrote:

  1. Not a “meat market” Not too many super fit or super hot people to intimidate them.[/quote]

This one confuses me. You can’t be the type who actually expects to make progress if the people who have made progress are no inspiration to you.

32

[quote]Professor X wrote:
TrainerinDC wrote:

  1. Not a “meat market” Not too many super fit or super hot people to intimidate them.

This one confuses me. You can’t be the type who actually expects to make progress if the people who have made progress are no inspiration to you.[/quote]

Exactly

Why wouldn’t you want to be exposed to success. I preach this to my market managers. Spend time and learn from those who inspire you and who’s success you would most like to emulate.

My target membership audience would not be any people to whom it mattered what the other members looked like. Except, of course, for us superfit people who want nothing to do with fat lazy slobs.

33

A hot tub and/or pool

No skinny kids following you around asking stupid questions

An awesome supplement store

Enough room to workout in

Good equipment

Good music(no backstreet boys being played when I’m working out)

Weights that go up to 50 and not 40 or 45

34

[quote]conorh wrote:
NorskGoddess wrote:
I’m a marketing/PR student – and I just conducted a large scale survey of college students to find out this very thing (among other things…)

Of course, this is just a sample of college students (70% female exercisers, between the ages of 20-24.)

  1. Price
  2. Proximity to where they live
  3. Cleanliness

– although I’m told by a couple of gym owners who are old hats at marketing rsearch that normally Cleanliness is #1. – I found this really surprising!

Hope this helps. And for the record, my priorities are:

  1. Price
  2. Equipment
  3. Etiquette of other gym members

Just a tiny hijack here, but I find that very odd. Not to say I don’t believe you, it’s just not the way I think about a gym. I don’t care about cleanliness in the gym at all. I always find it surprising when some guys in the club get all anal about having it spiffed up, and as long as people don’t leave junk in the way, im fine. [/quote]

Yep. That’s pretty much what I thought, but this is what I was told – at least for my market area. If you think about it, it makes sense. Especially with cardio bunny wussy females and pansy-ass dudes. :slight_smile: No but seriously, I can see some merit in this, just in the way that people see that sweat = gross.

Gotta think like a chick, man. :slight_smile:

35

I still look back fondly on my dungeon-esque high school weight room. It always reaked of sweat, was a little cramped, and just had four benches, four power racks, and some weird machine designed to simulate coming off the line in a football game. It smelled so much like man that I could smell it when a girl came in; apparently they smell a lot better than we do.

It was nice. People were a little scared to come in, so I almost always had it to myself with a few other guys. It got even better when my HS got a brightly lit Nautilus room; even fewer people invaded my space.

That’s pretty close to my dream of a home gym . . . dark and smelly, 600 pounds of plates, an oly bar, power rack and adjustable bench. I can’t wait to have my own house.

36

I personally like the more fit and better looking around me but I can not tell you how many sales I have lost for my club with people not wanting to be in a “meat market.” And this was their exact word.

In my area people who aren’t super fit leave places like Gold’s and look for smaller, private, less “meat market” clubs where they can get in shape. I can equate it to, say you are learning how to bowl and we place you in a league with all professional bowlers. It wouldnt really be too motivating for you, knowing you will lose for years to come.

I’m not speaking personally. I’m speaking from years of experience managing clubs, I heard this many times and it has cost my club money over the years when the new prospects are intimidated by the current clientele.

This wouldn’t affect the serious, dedicated people that would take the time to study, and post on a forum such as this one. But for the normal, overweight, sedentary, self-conscious american this becomes a main issue to deal with when trying to run a health club.

37

  1. Lots of T-Vixens.

  2. Lots of T-Vixens in thongs.

  3. Lots of T-Vixens in thongs doing Romanian dead lifts!

38

I know a few guys on here have commented on how they don’t care at all about how clean the gym is. I am not one to really think that sweat is all that gross but I still don’t really want to go onto something like an incline bench and have some other guys ass sweat mark on it. There is just something about ass sweat that I don’t like very much. But enough of that.

The things that I would look for are:

  1. Free weights other than just dumbells that go up to fifty pounds.

  2. Machines that are not the absolutely newest and best. I don’t care if changing the angle of your body by two degrees on a leg press gets you 0.05% better results (hypothetical), I don’t want to have to pay an extra ten bucks a month for it.

  3. Good Music. Kiddie pop sucks give me something that will get the energy flowing.

Just an idea: play music that is on the side of hard rock and then give people the option to rent mp3 players, something like the $30 ones from walmart. Create playlists for them that can easily be added and then market them to people like the cardio bunnies and the fifteen sets of concentration curl men. This will keep the more hardcore men and women happy because they get to listen to music that fires them up without the nuisance of haveing cords on hard lifts while the less intense “work outers” have music that they want to listen to.

39

[quote]Professor X wrote:
TrainerinDC wrote:

  1. Not a “meat market” Not too many super fit or super hot people to intimidate them.

This one confuses me. You can’t be the type who actually expects to make progress if the people who have made progress are no inspiration to you.[/quote]

People are frightened of each other and more so of those seen as physically superior/imposing. At Fitness First gym’s in the UK members are given quick color psychology questionnaires, so they can be approached properly by staff and be treated like “reds” or “blues” should be, dont wanna be going all “green” on them or they’ll be intimidated and leave

in response too the first Q.

  1. Powerrack! these things are gold in Many gyms in the UK

  2. Decent showers, that have good pressure, dont wanna feel like a im being peed on from 20 feet above

40

How bout a damn glute/ham raise…I know I’m being specific, but I can’t find a gym in my entire metro area with one. Drives me nuts.