{"id":6792,"date":"2017-03-07T15:04:58","date_gmt":"2017-03-07T15:04:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fitproblog.mysites.io\/boutique-studios\/"},"modified":"2017-03-07T15:04:58","modified_gmt":"2017-03-07T15:04:58","slug":"boutique-studios","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fitpro.com\/blog\/boutique-studios\/","title":{"rendered":"Sweat conference showcases boutique fitness"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 2 March, FitPro attended \u00a0\u2018Sweat\u2019 \u00a0\u2013 a one-day, London-based workshop aimed at educating and empowering all those in the boutique fitness sector. The event was hosted by not-for-profit health body, ukactive.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Almost 250 fitness experts listened intently to multiple headline speakers to explore what has driven the boom in boutique fitness across London and beyond. Studio design was a point of interest and Hot Yoga Society founder, Olga Allon, argued that understanding your business and commercial capacity is vital, while Kyriakos Katsaros, principal of Studio C102, warned that you can\u2019t squeeze a brand concept into an unsuitable space. Nightclub trends will continue within the UK and \u2018how colour makes us feel\u2019 will be what boutique studio owners need to explore when designing their functional space.<\/p>\n

Richard Scrivener, product development manager at Train Fitness International, along with BOOM Cycle co-founder, Hilary Rowland, and co-founder of Bear Grylls Epic Training, Natalie Summers, discussed at length their trainer recruitment process and training methods. In relation to recruitment, Rowland said, \u201cWe always look for personality when hiring new trainers and then you have to teach the skills and values. You need to constantly nurture your trainers. At BOOM, we have a lengthy training process, we even take our trainers to acting classes, and no trainers have left BOOM in two years.\u201d<\/em> The audience was keen to find out how they kept hold of good trainers, and Natalie Summers told attendees that you need to bring trainers up through the ranks and give them more responsibility \u2013 \u201clet them shine,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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Richard Scrivener had different ideas and said, \u201cGyms need to look after their best coaches by rewarding them both financially and with education. Once the trainers are securing a vast number of sessions, they are clearly doing something right \u2013 you need to go out of your way to develop people and keep them within the club.\u201d<\/em> All panellists were in full agreement that educating staff was essential to maintaining a strong team and brand loyalty.<\/p>\n

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When analysing the boutique fitness industry, Scrivener said, \u201cI think what the boutique fitness industry does really well is that it provides a framework for personal trainers. Most trainers who have only done a six-week training course and then go straight into a large health club will struggle. The most successful trainers are the ones who get the support structure, it takes someone pretty special to just do a personal training course and then go straight into a large health chain.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

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Laughter filled the room when Barry\u2019s Bootcamp spoke of individuals sussing out their offering by coming in and picking up their laundry bags for takeaway inspiration. The incredibly successful boutique doesn\u2019t appear to let copycats bother them, though. The journalist Bangs also produced a ripple of laughter with her upfront and straight-to-the-point thoughts on why going to the gym should never be about weight loss. \u201cI\u2019ve got jingly hips, cellulite, and I\u2019m good with it,\u201d<\/em> she told listeners. \u201cDo it because you love it, do it because you don\u2019t want to feel stressed out, don\u2019t make it about white sandy beaches, do it because you want to do it.\u201d<\/em> It may sound obvious to some, but her frank comments on why she isn\u2019t interested in calorie counting in indoor cycle sessions was refreshing \u2013 especially because of the web of lies plastered on social media.<\/p>\n

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For the data-driven individual, Running Heroes \u2013 the first reward platform for runners, which launched in 2014 in France \u2013 shared the current status of its product. James Poole, business development manager, said, \u201cFrance is a very different market to the UK in terms of sophistication, and especially in terms of running. France doesn\u2019t have the success that the UK has with Park Run. Most of the people on our Running Heroes platform aren\u2019t running every week. We\u2019re all interested in progress, whether it\u2019s 1K, 5K or 50K; we like to know that we were a little bit quicker.\u201d<\/em> On the subject of wearable technology, he told people to embrace it as it\u2019s not going anywhere and said people shouldn\u2019t be fearful of it. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be increasingly adopted, it\u2019s still evolving, there\u2019s plenty of time for companies to adopt it.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

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Dame Tanni Grey Thompson, chair of ukactive, used the opportunity to address town planning laws that may be restricting the development of new fitness businesses. Thompson described the current planning laws as \u201carchaic\u201d and said Britain\u2019s high streets are \u201cdrowning in a sea of betting shops, fried chicken joints and empty shop windows.<\/em>\u201d When talking of solutions, Thompson said, \u201cFitness operators breathe life and vibrancy into high streets.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

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Research by the Royal Society for Public Health has found that \u2018unhealthy high streets\u2019 are often linked to high deprivation and ill health, with the North and Midlands said to be the worst affected areas. Its chair has called for an urgent rethink and said town planners must be given move power to tackle physical inactivity.<\/p>\n

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On 2 March, FitPro attended \u00a0\u2018Sweat\u2019 \u00a0\u2013 a one-day, London-based workshop aimed at educating and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6793,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[908,137,909,910,546,911,104],"class_list":{"0":"post-6792","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-boutique-fitness","9":"tag-featured","10":"tag-fitness-event","11":"tag-fitness-trends","12":"tag-public-health","13":"tag-sweat-event","14":"tag-ukactive"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fitpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6792"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fitpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fitpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fitpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fitpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fitpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fitpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fitpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fitpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fitpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}