PerformX 2023 was a great opportunity to meet industry friends, partners, prospects and discuss new ideas and industry trends.
The mission of 'Credibility through Content' certainly shone through in the talks we attended.
We summarise below four key takeaways from the event that will help gym owners this year:
1. Not enough is being done by gyms or technology platforms to support personal trainers with lead generation.
Personal trainers are an incredibly important part of a gym's ecosystem but many struggle with lead generation and marketing their services.
This is an area where technology platforms can work with gyms to provide more support for personal trainers and small group personal training in order to have a positive impact on member retention and club yield.
"We've spoken to hundreds of gyms and personal trainers and their biggest challenge is lead generation. Working closely with gyms and up and down the country to gain gym floor insight we've been able to develop tools that will help PTs generate leads whilst helping gyms engage and retain members."
Sohail Rashid, Brawn Founder and CEO
2. Strength training and training for performance are on trend, and here to stay.
One of the main themes of the PerformX event was the growing trend towards strength training and also training for performance.
This is supported by an abundance of recent data:
- Data from ACSM's 2023 Fitness Trends which ranks 'Free weights' and 'Bodyweight training' as number two and three behind wearables.
- A study by Mindbody and ClassPass revealing strength classes were the most reserved class type in 2022 and total strength training bookings were up 94% from 2021.
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PureGym confirmed the public's desire to lift in their most recent fitness report which reported that 93% of PureGym managers deemed the free weights section of the gym as a highly popular part of the gym.
Gyms and personal trainers need to be up to speed with the latest developments in strength to help innovate and meet the evolving needs of members and clients interested in lifting weights.
3. The gym sector has quickly moved towards technology, gamification and hyper-personalisation but still has a long way to go.
Garmin, via its fitness wearables, highlighted a 20% increase in strength training activities in 2022 vs 2021. However, although technology is being widely used in the fitness industry, there is still a lack of personalisation. However, many fitness apps and wearables still lack personalisation and offer generic training programmes that do not cater to individual needs or goals.
On the other hand, many gyms continue to use outdated systems, processes, and engagement/retention tactics that can be frustrating for members and personal trainers.
With the right tech, data privacy and understanding of which metrics members care about, a gym's community could be measured not merely by how many people turn up each day but by what they achieve individually and together month by month and throughout the year.
Brawn is helping gyms rewards loyal members through collecting data on their habits in the gym and running smart challenges driven by tech that engage and excite the entire gym community.
And what's to come? We're working on using wearables and other products like scales and video AI to enhance, expand, and simplify the experience of using Brawn in a gym.
