What does the fitness consumer of today look like – what are their priorities, their behaviours, their expectations – and how have these been affected by the pandemic?

Let’s dive into the report, A Changing Fitness Consumer, published in June of this year by McKinsey & Company. The report explores what “imperatives and opportunities” McKinsey believes is present for all players across the global health and fitness sector. Also check out the Fitness and Wellness Trends for Health Clubs for more on hybrid fitness.

Hybrid Fitness Opportunities

The Prioritisation of Wellness

McKinsey found that post-pandemic, wellness is a top priority in everyday life for 50% of all consumers, up from 42% in 2020. In line with this, a full 81% of consumers now agree that wellness is important.

Interestingly, the data is even more powerful among consumers with hybrid fitness routines: among this group, 61% now prioritise wellness more than they did pre-pandemic.

And that’s exciting, because over the last two years, the proportion of fitness consumers with hybrid routines has grown 1.4x – up from 46% in 2020 to 65% in 2022.

As a result, home fitness is now almost as prevalent a behaviour as in-club/studio fitness: McKinsey notes a 32% growth in the number of people taking part in home fitness in 2022 versus 2020. Sport and fitness apps are also up, with 30% of respondents now using these (versus 20% in 2020) and 33% (versus 22%) using wearables.

But it isn’t only the pandemic go-to channels of digital and at-home that have grown: the sector’s total revenue pool is on the rise as more people engage in exercise, more often than they did two years ago.

Indeed, in 2022, 20% of respondents are reporting buying personal training outside of the home (up from 7% in 2020), 36% say they’ve purchased fitness club membership (up from 28%) and 22% have used a boutique studio (up from 10%).

A Hybrid Fitness World Is Here To Stay

It’s clear that fitness consumers now see digital offerings as complementary to, rather than a replacement for, the gym: even during the pandemic, only 17% considered live-streamed content a substitute for the gym, while only 15% and 21% respectively saw free and paid apps as gym substitutes.

Yet as McKinsey observes, “people’s fitness routines have evolved meaningfully” as consumers around the world have adopted “a more hybrid routine”. Gyms are absolutely still in the mix, but fitness consumers have quickly showed a willingness to embrace new digital habits within the norm of their wellness routines.

Indeed, today’s reality brings to bear the predictions of lockdown, when fitness consumers told McKinsey they planned to adopt more diverse, hybrid workout routines once fitness facilities re-opened – routines that would incorporate digital and at-home alongside traditional facility visits.

Specifically, even in the early days of lockdown, people were expecting their usage of free fitness apps to be even higher post-pandemic than during it – up 263% versus pre-COVID – while content streaming was looking to continue at +146% of pre-COVID levels, paid apps at +182% and usage of connected equipment at +123%.

As the pandemic stretched on over the months and years, this intention was only reinforced: by February 2021, 50–80% of US consumers said they expected to continue with their lockdown-enforced levels of digital wellness consumption, with online fitness, TikTok and wellness apps emerging as the most popular platforms.

And this is reflected in spending patterns now, with McKinsey finding the percentage of fitness spend apportioned to gyms – and even to the more traditional forms of at-home fitness – down in 2022 versus 2020.

Now is therefore the time, say the report’s authors, to consider what consumers really want and build new business models to meet these emerging needs.

The New Hybrid Role For Fitness Clubs 

And there’s additional reason for these models to be hybrid, with this new report suggesting that hybrid fitness models seem to help people achieve their objectives more effectively.

In McKinsey’s research, hybrid fitness consumers were more likely to report positive health outcomes, with 55% saying their wellness had improved from one year ago compared to just 41% of all respondents.

The challenge for health club operators, say the authors of this new report, is therefore to “understand their role in today’s routines” – where they can add true value to the consumer in a hybrid world that’s more broadly focused on wellness, not just fitness.

Gyms must also look at how and where they present themselves to their target audience, with McKinsey finding that 76% of fitness purchase decisions are researched and/or executed online (22% purely online, 54% omnichannel), while 46% of fitness consumers are influenced by social media in making their fitness choices – the highest of all surveyed categories.

As the report concludes: “The need is there. Innovation is increasing success rates and growing the revenue pool. The bar is rising on what it takes to win.”

If you’re still assessing how digital can help your club grow its revenue and win, please get in touch. We’d be delighted to share our expertise with you – contact us at info@wexer.com

The post New McKinsey Research: Ways To Win In A Hybrid Fitness World appeared first on Wexer.

This was the business case for the creation of Wexer Virtual 10 years ago: helping health club operators cost-effectively maximise the usage, yield and retention-boosting value of their group exercise studios, by providing high-quality virtual content to fill these spaces during off-peak times, complementing live instructor-led classes.

You know a concept is strong when its value has grown exponentially over the past 10 years. Check out the Research On How Virtual Fitness Boosts Member Retention.

Reasons Why Virtual Fitness Is Growing

1. Quality of Virtual Instruction –The high quality content can be delivered to service members in an instructor’s absence–especially a last-minute absence. Say your street dance instructor called in sick with five minutes to go until class? Not a problem. Choose from a wide range of dance classes available at the drop of a hat through the Wexer Virtual fitness platform, all led by top instructors from around the world.
2. Availability of New and Niche Fitness Classes – What about special fitness classes you don’t have among your team at all? It soon became clear that Wexer had an important role to play in complementing clubs’ own in-house fitness offerings. Have a group of members who really want to try something a little more niche – a specialist form of yoga, perhaps, that your in-house team has no expertise in? Step forward Wexer, either as a permanent solution or as a trial to see if it’s worth sourcing a live instructor for that class.
3. Fitness Class Times – Over the two years of the pandemic, customers became incredibly familiar with the concept of working out with an on-screen instructor. It may have forced their hands at the beginning, but they came to enjoy the experience and the easy access to genuinely world-class trainers. This now plays into clubs’ hands as they boost their studio scheduling and timetables with virtual content their members are more ready than ever to embrace.
4. Flexibility and Convenience –The pandemic accelerated well-documented growth in consumer expectations of flexibility and convenience. People now expect brands to meet them where they are, and that expectation of convenience – the exact class they want, when they want it – isn’t just something for out-of-club. It extends into your facilities too.
5. Self-Produced Fitness Content – Wexer’s own products have continued to evolve, not least the option – launched this year – for operators to upload their own self-produced content onto the Wexer Virtual platform. It means clubs can now stream their most popular trainers onto the big screens of their virtual studios, either live-streamed or on-demand, at any time of day. In turn, this drives all-important consistency in the customer experience across all touchpoints: in-club and at-home; physical and digital.
6. Show Previously Recorded Poplular Fitness Classes – Say your regular cycling instructor calls in sick and you can’t find a live instructor to cover their class. Now, you can show previously recorded classes led by your in-house talent. You’re not limited to picking a cycling class from Wexer’s third-party library. You can now screen a virtual class led by the exact same instructor who’s called in sick that day. Cue satisfied members who still get to work out with their favourite trainer.
7. Expansive Fitness Content – The growth of the Wexer library includes years of aggregating content from leading producers and influencers to meet every workout need across all disciplines, experience and fitness levels. The strength in depth of our 1,600+ class library is unparalleled. We do all the heavy lifting here, too, keeping the library continually refreshed with new challenges and workout trends to ensure it always motivates your members to work out. Your studio really can be a place of round-the-clock ‘fitspiration’.
8. Support – The behind-the-scenes support you get from Wexer. It’s something we’ve always prided ourselves on the incredible reliability of our technology, the ongoing advice from our customer service team, the regular upgrades and add-ons we automatically deliver to your Wexer Virtual player. Our own in-house development team means we can continually innovate in response to the feedback you’re giving us–and that means tools, content and functionality you simply won’t find anywhere else.

Want to explore how Wexer Virtual could boost the value of your GX space? Get in touch at info@wexer.com

The post 8 Reasons Why Virtual Fitness Is Growing More Relevant appeared first on Wexer.

We asked our team, our customers and some of our recent podcast guests for their advice. Here are our four favourite tips.

Tip #1: Make it all about the end consumer

“There’s a land grab in fitness at the moment, and businesses that think outside in, not inside out, will be the ones that succeed,” said tech consultant John Blackburn when we spoke to him for The Wexer Podcast in July of this year.

“The more you can take what the person wants and embed it in their day-to-day life, the more relevant and meaningful it becomes to them and the more they will come back.”

Forget gut instinct. Forget what your experience might tell you. The joy of digital is that it hands you clear, usable data – not just what customers tell you they do, or would like to do, but what they are actually doing.

Use this data to continually review and refine your digital offering. How are people using it? What content are they watching? How long do they watch videos for? At what time of day is it worth doing live-streams, and when – or for what type of content – is on-demand better? Which instructors are proving to be your online superstars? Particularly for content not behind a paywall, where are users coming from: sales channels, your app, direct links?

With digital, you can see very clearly what’s working… allowing you to do more of it.

At a macro level, we can tell you that strength workouts are the most popular content on the Wexer platform, while most streams last around 10 minutes as users combine multiple shorter classes in curated workouts based on their needs that day.

But that’s the big picture. You need to know what your members want – and as Invited’s Michele Meleski said on The Wexer Podcast, you must then use this insight to create “thoughtful programming” that meets these specific needs.

Tip #2: Get into wellness, collaboratively

With the boom in wellness, there’s a gap right now into which fitness providers could reasonably hope to step: that of a wellness hub which draws together and joins the dots between various repositories of expertise and programming, both physically and digitally.

Almost inevitably, though, this will need to be a collaborative venture; with perhaps one or two exceptions globally, a single fitness provider will never be able to do it all – certainly not in a competitively expert, undisputed market-leading way that takes in all the different facets of wellness.

Where you have in-house expertise, your content creation strategy should include the empowerment of your experts. Incentivise them to consistently create powerful new content that ensures a steady stream of new content.

But where you don’t have in-house wellness expertise – sleep, perhaps, or stress – bring in external partners who can help you deliver in a way that reflects positively on your brand. Wexer, for example, which prides itself on having the world’s biggest (and ever-growing) wellness content library – not just fitness but holistic wellbeing too.

You don’t have to physically do it all to be an effective wellness hub.

Tip #3: Partner for scale

The joy of digital is that there are no geographical boundaries, meaning global scale is achievable if done well. But, warns Blackburn: “In today’s world, when barriers to entry in digital are so low, the need to scale without investing in it is important.”

And that means partnership, says Jason Leone of Core Health & Fitness: “If you don’t have the resources to build a solution to meet your members where they want, when they want, go externally to find the resources to support members and make them stay longer. Lean on the Wexers of the world.

Blackburn adds: “Leverage partnerships and make them look like seamless offerings to your customer. Don’t link out to them. Take all the offerings and stitch them together to look seamless. It’s a way to scale without scaling.”

Tip #4: Maintain a local flavour, even as you grow

Your digital offering is an extension of your brand and must be directly relevant to your members. We believe this has to include offering content that’s bespoke to you, featuring your own instructors as the recognised faces of your brand – the people your members already have a loyal relationship with.

Leverage the existing connection between these instructors and your members to create powerful, popular digital content. Fill your platform with great content people can only get from you.

“Fitness is about feeling a connection with someone, even if virtually,” said Sweat Factor’s Mike Donavanik in his Wexer Podcast. “It’s why it’s so important for clubs to champion their own rockstars online as well as in-person.”

To continue this conversation, please get in touch at info@wexer.com

The post Follow these 4 tips to maximise your digital success appeared first on Wexer.

We’ve crunched all the Web Player usage data from the first half of 2022, across all our customers around the world, and there are some interesting themes emerging…

Strength is strong

Looking across all the different genres of workout available on our platform, strength has emerged as a clear favourite for the first half of this year, accounting for a quarter (25.5%) of all content streamed.

While cardio comes in as the second most popular genre, it accounts for only 13.8% of streams, suggesting that many people still look to the larger equipment of the gym – or perhaps going for a run or bike ride – for their cardio workouts.

Strength workouts, however – often done using smaller pieces of kit or even bodyweight only – are seen as achievable, non gym-based workouts. On a similar vein, bootcamps accounted for 12.1% of streams.

We thought it would be interesting to break the strength data down further, and we found that full-body strength workouts dominated: 42.5% of all strength workouts done through our Web Player platform were full-body. This was closely followed by core workouts, which accounted for 32.5% of the strength workouts selected by our global users.

Complementing in-club

Continuing on the theme of complementing rather than duplicating in-club workouts, we’re still seeing recovery and low impact styles of workout coming through as popular choices on the Web Player.

Yoga alone accounted for 12.3% of all Web Player workouts in H1 2022; if you add together the usage of our yoga, pilates, meditation and stretch & recover content, you get to a nice round 30%.

That’s almost one in three at-home workouts incorporating a good degree of stretching, flexibility and mind-body connection.

We’re hearing a lot of clubs anecdotally reporting that members are doing different workouts at home from what they do in-club, whereby home is seen as a great space for recovery and club for the more high-impact, high-energy workouts. Our data supports this.

Stack it up

There’s a really interesting trend in terms of length of workout selected, too, whereby the most popular class length is 20–30 minutes (38.6%), followed by 10–20 minutes (29.4%).

Class durations of under 10 minutes account for 15.3% of streams, and 30–40 minutes for 12.5%. Anything longer than 40 minutes drops almost off the radar.

However – and here’s the big learning – in almost half of all sessions (47.9%), the actual stream time was less than 10 minutes. Meanwhile, 25.5% of streams lasted 10–20 minutes, and 19.2% 20–30 minutes.

Put another way, while a large proportion of users are selecting workouts that have been recorded as 20- to 30-minute sessions, not everyone is completing those workouts.

What the data suggests they are doing instead is taking the ‘meat’ of those workouts, then switching to a separate, dedicated stretch class for example – for a more comprehensive, extended stretch – rather than using the cool-down of the main workout.

The learning? Digital users want stackable content delivered in bite-sized chunks so they can mix and match at home, building a jam-packed session that fits their mood and needs that day, as well as the time they have available.

Keep it fresh

A final observation, which is a point we’ve made before but which is still absolutely key: members want a steady stream of fresh content, so they always have something new to try and don’t get bored doing the same-old virtual workout from home.

The evidence? We’re seeing significantly more usage on our platform for the content providers who are really active, launching new content on their channels on a regular basis, than for those who upload a class collection and then leave it untouched for months.

For more guidance on the content trends that can help you shape your digital business, get in touch now: info@wexer.com

The post The digital fitness content your members are looking for appeared first on Wexer.

You can read the full interview here, but here’s a little teaser of what Paul had to say…

Create hybrid experiences

The pandemic may already have accelerated the fitness sector into a hybrid era, but what comes next is vital: ensuring clubs are delivering a true hybrid experience, not merely ticking the box of hybrid technology.

As the buzzword becomes ‘omnichannel’ and the number of channels proliferates, digital cannot be a mere add-on. Equal importance must be given to digital and in-person, with the same experience being delivered whatever the touchpoint.

“And when I say the same, I mean exactly the same,” Bowman told RIDE HIGH. “Every customer will use multiple touchpoints and expect to dive straight in to a familiar experience each time.

“Clubs must therefore learn to view everything they do as one big customer-centric experience, and I believe that experience has to be led by content. Content is the element of a health club offering that can transcend all boundaries, and also happens to be what today’s fitness consumer is looking for.

“Content creation is the absolute cornerstone of omnichannel success.”

Maximise people power

In a world in which “everyone from celebrities to media networks seems hell-bent on becoming a fitness content provider”, clubs still have a major USP, says Bowman: their in-house superstars.

Yes, group exercise instructors have been key to member loyalty for decades, but they’ve become even stronger during lockdown, forging lasting relationships by reaching beyond club walls and supporting communities in their hour of need.

“Clubs must recognise the power their instructors and trainers now hold,” says Bowman. “They are the content creators. They are the face of your brand in the digital arena. They have the power to reach huge audiences.

“If your club is looking for an advantage over the big digital players and the global fitness influencers, this – your team of local rockstars, whose relationships with members weld them to your brand – is it.”

Operators must therefore maximise opportunities to put their in-house superstars in front of customers, both on-site and at-home – and that requires a sustainable strategy for the production of ownable, brand-enhancing, monetizable, local superstar-led digital content.

Make the most of what you do

“Producing digital content doesn’t have to be hard,” Bowman explains. “Start by looking at your live timetable. Where are your superstars? Which are your waitlisted classes?

“Maximize reach and ROI of these classes by installing a simple camera set-up in-studio and filming them, then offer this content on-demand in your studio and to members at home. It doesn’t even have to be beautifully produced: the more fresh content you create, the more forgiving members are on quality.”

Indeed, other than large chains with the budgets to build and run specialist digital production studios, Bowman’s advice is that clubs focus on getting the most out of everything they already do – namely, by filming as much as possible and making it accessible via multiple platforms, both digital and physical.

“You need to see all your content as, well… content. Don’t mentally place in-person content and digital content in different boxes,” he says.

Speaking specifically about indoor cycling, he adds: “As a club operator, there’s great value to be had in producing your own indoor cycling content; we’re having to put more indoor cycling content on our Mobile platform to meet demand.

“The first step is upping the ante on your live classes, potentially running fewer if they aren’t all full but making each a really special event that members waitlist to be part of. Then record the classes for on-demand use in-club – your own signature, ‘wow factor’ cycle classes are suddenly available whenever members come in – as well as at-home.”

Create a win-win

There’s money to be made all round, says Bowman, provided you create a win-win scenario for both club and superstar.

To keep your content creators contributing to your brand rather than going it alone, nurture your talent and find ways to incentivise and reward them for the contribution they make to your now omnichannel business. Give them a reason to promote the content they’ve created with you to their own followers.

“Recognise that their success is your success, but work hard to ensure they know the flip side is also true: that they will do better with you than on their own,” he adds.

As usage and revenue rises, your operation will have more to invest in content, meaning superstars continue to grow… and so the virtuous circle goes on.

Read the full interview here.

Sign up now for a FREE subscription to RIDE HIGH magazine. No marketing spam. Just an email notification direct to your inbox each time a new edition of the magazine comes out: ridehighmagazine.com/subscribe-for-free/

The post Align your stars appeared first on Wexer.

She’s also a long-term believer in the importance of digital for a health club business, and has many pearls of wisdom to share from an operational perspective.

In this latest edition of The Wexer Podcast, Wexer CEO and podcast host Paul Bowman chats to Michele about:

• Invited’s in-club digital success, with members already “incredibly habitual” users of scheduled and on-demand virtual classes – and even more so since the pandemic
• The next step being mobile, driving higher touch frequency with members, creating value within the membership and giving them “something amazing whether they’re in the club or not”
• The huge value self-produced content brings to digitally-delivered experiences, especially when it’s directly relevant to the in-person offering and members’ broader lifestyles
• Digital as a high-value, relevant, immersive yet low-intimidation entry point
• The growing need to personalise the fitness experience, harnessing data from a range of digital touchpoints and devices to create “thoughtful programming” that incorporates preventative and predictive analytics
• The notable swing away from HIIT, HIIT and more HIIT to a balanced approach that incorporates restoration, recovery and mobility – both in-person and digitally
• The need to build communities within digital experiences, as well as in-person

The Wexer Podcast sees Wexer CEO Paul Bowman speak to digital pioneers and experts from around the world, offering listeners insights and advice to support their own digital journeys. Follow the podcast, browse all episodes and listen right here.

The post Creating high-touch experiences in a digital world appeared first on Wexer.

“Our over-arching digital vision is to continue to develop an inclusive, best-in-class ecosystem to affordably meet the needs of the broadest possible customer base,” says Nad Myan, director of growth and innovation at Evolution Wellness.

“Our out-of-club strategy has been accelerated to expedite this vision, with Virtual Studio a core aspect of this: a full digital gym offering, created in collaboration with digital market leader Wexer, that complements our physical sites.

“Conceived as a core product across all Evolution Wellness brands – Fitness First, Celebrity Fitness, FIRE Fitness, CHi Fitness, GoFit and Fivelements – Virtual Studio is a blended offering of our live classes, on-demand content from our various brands, and the extensive third party content libraries provided and managed by Wexer.

“Together, we’ve built an integrated, own label solution that sits within Evolution Wellness’s own ecosystem – a solution in which content and user experience is carefully tailored for each of our territories.

“Wexer has created nine different variants of the platform: for Hong Kong, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia, as well as for three local languages. Each version pulls in only the relevant content for that territory, both from the Wexer library and from our in-house production.”

A phased roll-out

To date, Virtual Studio has launched in Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia – and to the Fitness First and Celebrity Fitness membership only at this stage – with Hong Kong, Indonesia and the Philippines to follow.

This phased roll-out allows the business to fully focus on each launch, maximising impact and uptake.

Launch marketing efforts have been reinforced by app alerts for live streamed classes from Fitness First and Celebrity Fitness, as well as for weekly class collections from the constantly refreshed Wexer library.

Future developments

Myan adds: “Virtual Studio is currently sold only as an add-on to a standard membership, effectively creating a membership tier that includes on-demand content. Moving forward, we will also launch a standalone, Virtual Studio-only subscription for those who aren’t interested in a traditional gym membership at one of our approximately 200 physical clubs.

“We will also be adding more content, including for a home bike we’ll be launching soon.

“We’re working towards a position where we can deliver any combination of solutions for a true hybrid membership. Ours will be an ecosystem that delivers multiple products and experiences across a range of brands and platforms, offering the flexibility to ‘mix and match’, allowing customers to curate personalised solutions around their specific needs, and affordably addressing the needs of the broadest possible customer base.”

Does your business still need to take full ownership of its digital content, with an own-branded space that ensures a seamless user experience? Contact info@wexer.com for more information.

The post How Evolution Wellness partnered with Wexer to accelerate its digital agenda appeared first on Wexer.

SH1FT stands for Smart High Intensity & Functional Training, and its workouts are designed to deliver maximum results in minimum time – all of which may sound rather similar to a lot of fitness content out there.

But in fact, SH1FT Fitness does things quite differently…

Waging war on the stereotypical, unrealistic images of what fitness is “meant” to look like, SH1FT Fitness focuses not on how you look but on how you feel – and importantly, how you can continue to feel amazing as you age, in the body you’re in, still doing all the things you love.

Indeed, its mission is to build a global community that strives for ‘Fitness for Life’ – and that gets a big thumbs-up from us.

Principles worth sticking to

In line with this mission, every SH1FT Fitness workout is designed around four key principles:

Fitness for life, not just for summer!

SH1FT believes fitness is about feeling great in your own skin… for the long term.

Train smarter, not harder

Hard work doesn’t have to be hard on your body, says the team at SH1FT Fitness. “Let’s face it – it’s great to be able to do a tuck-jump right now, but it’s more important to be able to pick yourself up off the floor when you’re in your 70s. That’s why our workouts focus on functional movements that make you feel great now while also allowing you to stay ‘fit for life’.”

Smart, safe, simple progressions ensure all workouts are scalable and suitable for all ages and fitness levels.

For anybody, with any body

Workouts are designed to be non-intimidating, simple, inclusive – and dare we say it, fun.

Out go the fitness models and the beachbody-ready before and afters, in come workout videos featuring real people – of all shapes, sizes, ages, backgrounds and fitness levels – and instructors who are inspiring and motivational but who, in spite of being world-leading, also know how to laugh at themselves and not take themselves too seriously.

There’s also a strong emphasis on working at your own level and using modifications: “It’s not about being the best, it’s about doing your best.”

Have fun!

The unique workouts have themes like 80s aerobics, gridiron, tennis and surfing “because enjoyment and fun are just as important as the physical benefits of exercise. If you’re looking to improve your health and fitness while having fun and maybe even letting out a few laughs, then our classes are the right choice for you.”

A segmented approach

At Wexer, we also love the way SH1FT segments its workouts into distinct, identifiable concepts. As online workout content continues to proliferate, we believe this sort of clarity is key, helping exercisers get exactly what they want, every single time.

In the case of SH1FT Fitness, that means:

SH1FT (HIIT)

Smart HIIT and functional training workouts that use bodyweight as a tool to develop speed, balance, agility and overall athletic fitness. Each unique class takes its theme from the world of sport and movement, including track and field, football and Winter Olympics, alongside some classic bodyweight HIIT and impact-free options.

Who’s it for: Perfect for those who want to get started with exercise at home but lack experience or equipment. All workouts contain modified / low-impact options for beginners, with options to progress and work harder for regular exercisers.

Recommended class: Ultimate HIIT Cardio Ladder Challenge  

Prepare to get a serious sweat on as you race yourself to the finish line in LADDER RACING! With no need for any equipment, this workout stacks six moves in a series of ladders to challenge your cardio fitness, coordination and memory and keep neuromuscular connections firing on all cylinders.

L1FT (strength & conditioning)

Training with weights to build a strong, healthy body, sculpting lean muscle and turning you into a fat-burning machine long after the workout is over. Each session uses smart, safe, progressive movements to ensure no fitness level is left behind, and training protocols that ensure you never get bored.

Who’s it for: Anyone who wants to stay strong and healthy, with programming designed around hand weights to easily accommodate home workouts. Expect simple movement patterns programmed in smart and unique ways, so you get the most out of your workout time but without complex or intimidating lifts.

Recommended class: FULL BODY Strength Challenge

Feel like a challenge? In this full body strength and conditioning workout, you get to compete against the only person that matters: yourself.

R1ZE (Step)

A modern take on a classic piece of kit, in these workouts the step can act as anything from a jump box to an exercise bench to an obstacle, with multi-dimensional functional movements that deliver a full-body interval blast. Forget everything you think you know about the stepper!

Who’s it for: Workouts cover all bases of fitness and are perfect if you like working with bodyweight but want to avoid repetitive impact. The most varied of all SH1FT Fitness formats, workouts range from no-impact strength to speed and agility – but as always, there’s no requirement to move to any beat but your own!

Recommended class: 12 Minute Co-ordination

R1DE (indoor cycling)

A 30-minute, beat-based cardio workout on a bike – any bike – that’s high-intensity but low-impact. Blending the best of boutique cycle and performance riding into a single class, these workouts feature specially created (royalty-free/rights-included) music to simultaneously drive intensity and encourage play.

Who’s it for: Perfect for those who want to lose themselves on the bike for 30 minutes (or less). Every minute is designed to maximise effort, sweat and connection with the music and is a great no-impact way to get in 30 minutes of cardio fitness.

Recommended class: 30 Minute Ride #5

Blend power and pace in this 30-minute HIIT ride, designed to deliver maximum results in minimum time.

M1ND (mind-body)

Designed to complement an active lifestyle, M1ND draws its inspiration from sports, yoga, calisthenics and rehabilitation, with each unique session including elements from one or more of these disciplines – but with a central theme of connection between mind and movement.

Who’s it for: As zero impact workouts, these classes are the ideal entry point for older populations or those brand new to working out. Meanwhile, for regular exercisers, M1ND workouts are perfect for recovery days and to complement other workouts and forms of exercise, making you more mobile and functional.

Recommended class: 30 Minute Mobilise, Stretch & Strengthen

This signature M1ND workout begins with a heat-building mobility section that introduces movement to the muscles and joints, followed by stability work to build confidence and proprioception, and finishes with a relaxing stretch and lengthen.

To find out more about SH1FT Fitness, Wexer, and the many other world-class content providers available through our ecosystem, contact us at info@wexer.com

The post SH1FT into a new gear and get “fit for life” appeared first on Wexer.

Active Nation’s early adoption of the Wexer Web Player is very much in line with this thinking. By creating Active Nation On Demand, it not only allows its supporters – the charity’s preferred term for its members – to be active under expert guidance wherever and whenever they choose, but also provides a pathway into activity for those who don’t engage with its physical venues.

All of which makes Stu the perfect candidate to chat to us on The Wexer Podcast. You can hear the full podcast here – but here’s a little taster of what he had to say…

• Even pre-COVID, Active Nation believed it could exist without venues. A digital proposition that would take it where the other 80 per cent were was key to that vision.
• When it comes to digital, you have to start with the end in mind. Be clear on your desired outcomes, keep it simple, and align digital with your core proposition. Do not treat it as a bolt-on.
• To secure team buy-in, be clear that digital isn’t there to replace them, walk the walk yourself, and make them raving fans. Active Nation gives its whole team 30 minutes a day to be active, and ensuring everyone hits 5 x 30 minutes is a KPI for the business.
• ‘Launch, land and avoid rust’: Getting digital up and running is as hard as launching a start-up. It won’t happen overnight, so be patient and keep plugging away. Then continually work to keep it alive and fresh, including channelling a steady stream of new content from your own instructors.
• Keep it real and keep it inclusive. If you use influencers, make sure they’re real people with lifestyle challenges your customers will identify with.
• Simplify, simplify and then simplify again to remove all the barriers and friction points.
• And finally, for Active Nation, measurement isn’t just about the numbers – who uses its digital platform and how often – but about how happy and healthy it makes them feel. It uses NPS to ask people if they feel like it’s making a difference.

The Wexer Podcast sees Wexer CEO Paul Bowman speak to digital pioneers and experts from around the world, offering listeners insights and advice to support their own digital journeys. Follow the podcast, browse all episodes and listen right here. For more information on any of the topics covered contact us at info@wexer.com.

The post Launch, land and avoid rust: How to make a success of digital appeared first on Wexer.

One of Wexer’s most popular and prolific content partners, Sweat Factor is well-known for its short format HIIT workouts, but also recently introduced a new Self Care by Sweat Factor series comprising 15–30-minute programmes to reset, refuel and restore body and mind.

As you might expect, Donavanik has some great insights to offer around content creation, as well as how COVID has changed the rules of the game. Listen to the full podcast to hear him discuss…

o Accessibility as his biggest takeaway from COVID, encouraging brands like Sweat Factor to still produce their typically more hardcore content, but also to produce more accessible ‘stepping stones’ to allow new users to come into the brand via easier, more accessible workouts. The advice: Branch out and build out your content portfolio while remaining authentic to yourself.

o Why content creators should focus on scaling their strengths, delivering more of what their users want rather than trying to do everything. The advice: Keep your ear to ground, listening to physical and digital customers as well as your trainers to work out what content you should offer, and offer more of.

o Why it’s OK to let go of perfectionism in order to produce the volume of content people now expect, not getting hung up on falling over your words while you’re filming, for example, but simply seeing it as part of an authentic experience.

o Why clubs need to champion their own rockstars online as well as in-person, maximising the power of human connection.

o How quality is subjective, with many influencers having grown and monetised loyal followings just by filming on their iPhone.

o How talent will always rise, especially with the barriers now well and truly down. Anyone who can engage, create good content and commit now has the chance to succeed.

o Why the secret is simply to start. When you first go in front of a camera, it can feel a bit strange, but you’ll soon find your footing and establish what works for you. The key: just start.

The Wexer Podcast sees Wexer CEO Paul Bowman speak to digital pioneers and experts from around the world, offering listeners insights and advice to support their own digital journeys. Follow the podcast, browse all episodes and listen right here.

The post How COVID changed the rules of the content creation game appeared first on Wexer.

When it comes to the fitness and wellness industry, de Leede really has been there, done that – and that includes content production in the shape of Move123 and Mind123.

These content collections far pre-date the pandemic, with Move123’s various class categories popular on the Wexer platform for a number of years now. Also on the Wexer platform, Mind123 is less about physical activity and movement, more about wellness education and coaching. Created to support all-round wellness, these short films bring together leading experts to speak on the topics of Health, Nutrition, Beauty, Self, Wealth and Relationships.

Here, de Leede shares his views on the growing importance of wellness, the role of digital content and the delivery models he’s found to work. Tune in for his thoughts on…

• Why you need to break what ain’t broke, abandoning “this is how we’ve always done it” to prioritise a hybrid model that will help sell memberships and retain members.
• How a ‘fitness buffet’ of short-format digital content is the way forward, both for fitness enthusiasts and those still reluctant to join a gym.
• How premium operators are beginning to split out their virtual offering into multiple smaller, specialist studios – and why an immersive recovery room should be first on your ‘to do’ list.
• How immersive, curated, tech-enhanced wellness experiences can drive significant revenues from ‘wellness PT, without the cost of labour’.
• Why digital success is all in the execution. You can’t do it half-heartedly. You have to get the ‘wrapping’ – the environment and the experience – right.

The Wexer Podcast sees Wexer CEO Paul Bowman speak to digital pioneers and experts from around the world, offering listeners insights and advice to support their own digital journeys. Follow the podcast, browse all episodes and listen right here.

The post Fitness ‘snacking’: How short-format content is changing workouts & workout spaces appeared first on Wexer.

If the answer is ‘not so great, actually’ – if you’re finding it much harder to hire quality individuals these days – well, you’re not alone. Over the last two years, we’ve seen a veritable talent drain from our sector as experienced professionals have left health and fitness in favour of more pandemic-resilient careers. The result: a global shortage of well-qualified instructors.

Based on our many conversations with operators around the world, it seems the repercussions have been particularly evident in group fitness, where instructor availability – or lack thereof – has caused major disruption to class schedules.

Yes, we’re seeing positive return rates to our facilities as members seek out the social aspect of exercising together again. We’re seeing interest from new audiences in what we have to offer. But around the world, clubs’ delivery of their product has certainly been – and continues to be – impacted by instructor shortages.

Finding the budget for high-quality live instruction when fewer members get to benefit from each limited-capacity class, and club coffers have been drained by months of zero income, has only magnified the challenge.

The value of Virtual

 That challenge is being met head-on by Virtual group exercise, which now has a greater relevance and role to play than ever. We’ll come to that in a moment.

Let’s quickly backtrack first, though, because Virtual group fitness has long been a go-to for clubs around the world: a way to maximise the value of any studio space by allowing clubs to cost-effectively deliver group exercise around the clock, complementing live instructor-led sessions with high-quality, off-peak classes on the big screen, led by top instructors.

With more than 1,500 regularly refreshed classes available in our library – including many specialist classes you may not otherwise be able to offer your members – Wexer Virtual gets your in-club studios buzzing with as many hours of world-class group exercise as you and your members wish, all with a consistent guarantee of quality.

Little surprise, then, that Wexer Virtual has long been recognised as a vital part of the jigsaw: an invaluable resource for off-peak scheduling, reliable cover for instructor absence, and provision of world-class instruction where there’s no local talent to meet member needs and interests.

An even greater relevance

But let’s come back to our observation that Virtual now has a greater role to play than ever.

With the considerable – and occasionally crippling – talent shortages being faced by operators… well, it doesn’t take a huge leap of the imagination to understand the incredible value and relevance that Virtual group exercise now holds.

We’re talking cost-effective provision of round-the-clock GX to ensure every member who wants to do a class can, in spite of capacity restrictions. We’re talking high-quality cover when instructors are off sick or isolating – and, of course, a safe pair of hands while instructor shortages remain an issue.

But there’s more.

We’re also talking Virtual Connect, Wexer’s new in-club solution that moves Virtual fitness and wellness provision into a whole new, loyalty-building sphere – not to mention directly addressing today’s staffing challenges.

Already live on the Wexer platform, Virtual Connect – which is FREE to all Wexer Virtual customers – allows clubs to upload their own self-produced content onto the platform. Think in-club Virtual classes starring your very own loyalty-building superstars, streamed directly onto the big screen of your group exercise studio.

How’s that for giving your members more of what they want?

The power of Connect

 The power of Virtual Connect can be illustrated in one very simple example: how to look after the regulars – those who attend the Monday lunchtime yoga class, say, every single week, without fail – when their favourite instructor has COVID, is isolating or is otherwise unavailable.

This instructor is the reason for their loyalty; if they’re missing, and the class is either cancelled or cover is brought in, the member experience is negatively impacted. Multiply that by the other classes in the week that any given member regularly attends, and then imagine that the worst happens and some of those instructors are off at the same time…. You can see how the member will quickly become disillusioned.

Now imagine you have your Virtual Connect library stocked up with classes you’ve recorded with all your most popular instructors. You don’t even have to have filmed special digital classes – you’ve simply filmed the classes they’ve already been instructing each week.

Now, when one of them is off sick, you can offer your members a Virtual experience with exactly the right instructor – the instructor they’re loyal to. Not another cover instructor who might (but also might not, especially in these days of depleted talent pools) keep members satisfied. Now, members can be 100% guaranteed a workout with their favourite instructor.

Not only that, but you can run the Virtual class in other slots too, catering for those who – even when live classes are running as normal – can’t make it to the club at the scheduled time, or don’t manage to secure a spot in the capacity-restricted live class.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the power of Virtual Connect to give your members exactly the experience they want, and even more of it. When combined with the strength in depth of the Wexer Virtual content library – 1,500+ classes from over 60 of the world’s top content providers – you can rest assured that your members’ needs and expectations will, even amid today’s many challenges, be well and truly met by your Virtual fitness offering.

To find out more, please contact us at info@wexer.com.

The post Struggling with instructor shortages? Here’s how you keep your members happy. appeared first on Wexer.