Will:

In the fitness industry of 2020, just staying afloat was an achievement in and of itself. But as we move into 2021, with hopes of a more optimistic future, now is a great time to focus on the changes that have happened, and how they've altered the fitness industry for ever.So how do we get back to a place where we all feel a little bit more comfortable? And what exactly will this new type of normal look like in the coming year? 

I'm going to identify my 3 key predictions. I'm going to give you some actionable tips to ensure that you maximize these opportunities to your advantage. 

Hey, I'm Will Brereton, founder of SH1FT Fitness and this is Group Fitness Real Talk, a show about how to survive and even thrive in group fitness in 2021 and beyond.

Hello and welcome to our first episode of 2021.

This episode is going to focus on my key predictions for the year, and the key things instructors need to know going in… so that they can make the most of the opportunities that are coming. But before we get into that, I wanted to take a short moment to reintroduce this podcast and our reasons for starting it.

When the pandemic hit and lockdowns started, me and the team at SH1FT were as worried as everyone else… we were on a roll having grown by thousands of new instructors at the start of the year, and quite frankly we were freaking out about what this was going to mean for our instructors and by extension for our business. 

Looking back, it was all a bit of a blur… but what we settled on quite quickly is that we needed to help our instructors do whatever they needed to do to survive, and that meant in the first instance understanding how to pivot to digital delivery. We from about the second week of lockdown we started a weekly session called “SH1FT School” for our instructors, during which we broke down all the essentials to getting online - from delivery to production to platform - and right front he start we often had over 100 instructors registered with many more watching the replay. 

It’s fair to say that In the first few months of lockdown we had quite a few instructors joining SH1FT because they weren’t allowed to teach their other programmes online, and at that point it became really clear to us that the fitness industry was very siloed. We were helping SH1FT instructors, Zumba was helping Zumba instructors, Les Mills was helping Les Mills instructors… but there wasn’t a clear place that welcomed all instructors and gave them the tools to survive 2020 without a focus on any particular brand. 

It’s my genuine feeling that the only way we make it through this is together, and that there can be a bit too much tribalism in group fitness - whether it’s freestyle v. pre-choreographed or brand v. brand, style v. style… we can all learn from each other, and that’s something I think we should be doing more often. 

And so that how this podcast was born - out of a desire to take on all the topics that group fitness instructors need to know to survive in the modern fitness industry, while also being up front and real about the realities. No sugar coating, no bullshit, no hard sell on any one thing - just me and other people from the industry sharing what we’ve learned, what challenges us, what interests us, and what we think is coming around the next curve.

That’s where you guys come in. We have a few things planned for 2021, but ultimately we want this to podcast to talk about the things YOU need or want to know, not the things we think you should know. So if you have any questions you need answered, quandaries you’d like elucidated, I want you to let me know. Send me an email at Will@SH1FTfitness.com and tell me what group fitness real talk you’d like to listen to this year..

Now.. on with the show.

In the fitness industry of 2020, just staying afloat was an achievement in itself. But as we move into 2021 with hope of a more optimistic future, now is a great time to focus on the changes that have happened and how they have altered the fitness industry forever. So how do we try to get back to a place where we all feel a bit more comfortable and what exactly will this new normal look like this year? In this podcast I’m going to identify my three key predictions as well as some actionable tips to ensure you maximize these opportunities to your advantage...

1. “The Future is Phygital” 

Credit where it’s due and shoutout to previous podcast guest Emma Barry for this one - which I am stealing. Phygital is the concept of using technology to bridge the digital world with the physical world with the purpose of providing a unique interactive experience for the user. 

In any industry, it’s important to think about the user, the client, the customer. So when we talk about the future being phygital - or requiring a combination of in-person and virtual touch points - we are talking about the patterns of consumption. There will be operators like Peloton that continue to operate in the virtual space, and there will be some in person experiences that hold firm to that and choose not to go digital. But the stark reality is that fitness consumers are now habituated to consuming their  fitness content through a combination of in-person and virtual. This is the new normal of hybrid delivery.

The best analogy is found in retail - an industry whose move into digital was also accelerated in 2020 in a massive way. But they were a little bit further along the technology transformation curve at the start of the year. Look at your buying habits and the habits of your friends and family - there are some people who always buy online. There are some people who always buy in shops. But majority of people, who are living in a big city where distribution is not a massive problem, are moving towards a blended approach where they choose between the options based on choice, convenience, availability and experience. Look no further than the fashion brand Balenciaga’s “video game fashion show”, which made headline in December. Retail, from the mall and high street to the luxury boutique is realigning itself to the new reality of phygitial consumption. Stores are being reimagined as destination spaces where the brand can be experienced and felt, in a way that complements rather than competes with the online e-commerce experience. 

Fitness is a bit further behind in it’s phygital journey - but it’s going in the same direction. In person fitness will continue to be the best in class experience, but people will expect a decent experience for the extra effort and they will happily accept a slightly lower level of experience for the convenience of working out at home. 

People will definitely return to live classes in 2021 but Apple entering the market is proof that the convenience of ‘at-home fitness’ is here to stay. Life Time, a big chain in the US, has signed deal with Apple and members across Life Time's 150 US clubs will be able to sign up to the service by the end of the year. Les Mills has also been focusing on their On Demand for years and have just had a big investment of capital of which they have stated clearly will be mostly going to to LMOD. These are big pivots away from instructor-led, in person classes, and it’s absolutely a development that anyone in the industry should be watching. But it’s not a cause for alarm. 

What can you do about it? 

Don’t get overwhelmed - the market is still huge! 

The  pros and cons of Applefitness+ has been discussed at length by the industry, but the one thing everyone agrees on is that it’s validated fitness in a big way. It remains a product with high barriers to entry with only Apple watch owner being able to sign up, and should be viewed as proof that digital fitness is here to stay rather than a threat to the industry or group fitness instructors. 

As an instructor, you shouldn’t be stressing about 10 dollar a month all you can eat memberships and instead, focus on what you and you alone can provide. 

We can sometimes get caught in our fitness bubble being served ads from fitness companies and it might seem like digital fitness is saturated, but remember that you will be getting served a lot more fitness ads than the average person because you are in fitness. But rest assured - there's still a massive market out there for you to access, and within reach in a way it hasn’t been before.

Adam Zietsiff, who was previously CEO of Gold Gym and is now president of the digital fitness platform Intelivideo likes to describe the future for most operators as both hybrid and “hyper local”. What this means, is around a well-defined community with its primary focus directed toward the concerns of the population in that community. That might be geographical, where you live, close to home, or it might be based around some specific niche. The Pelotons and Apple fitnesses will - by virtue of their size and scope - always be for everyone. As an instructor or local operator, your opportunity in 2021 will rest on your ability to really connect with your niche and target market. 

Figure out your unique approach to digital fitness. Ask yourself the following questions:

• Who is my in-person audience and who is my digital audience? Keep in mind that they are possibly different types of people.

• What will my setup be? What tech do I need? 

• How do I price it? Most people price digital at a slightly cheaper price but it’s completely up to you. Think about the value your customer gets from each option and price accordingly. 

If you need more help on this, I recommend checking out Eps 4 and 8 of the Podcast, where we cover these off in a bit more detail.

Get real with yourself over where you spend your money and effort.

This is group fitness real talk, so I’m going to be real. Those of you who are teaching licensed fitness formats probably need to have a real think about how the Phygital future impacts you. 

Les Mills are a company that was way ahead of the curve on this, and have been building a phygitial business for a number of years through Les Mills on Demand.  However, many Les Mills instructors found themselves unable to teach in 2020 because the rules of the instructor licence do not permit you to teach either for yourself, or online in many cases. All this while Les Mills hoovered up users into Les Mills On Demand which is something that instructors do not and cannot share in. It’s just an unfortunate reality of the way the structure works for that company.

Contrast this with Zumba, who in 2020 went in the complete opposite direction and spent their development time building a virtual platform specifically for their instructors to deliver virtual classes AND earn money for their sessions. Zumba has created a massive marketplace for instructors to deliver online and make money for that effort.

I’ve said this before, and I will say it again - if you want a stable group fitness career moving fwd you need to take responsibility for your own future and can’t be reliant on other companies or gyms providing you with opportunities. This doesn’t mean you can’t still focus on teaching in a gym, but you need to take a good hard look at what you are teaching, what, when and how you are allowed to teach with that format - and also the time and cost of what you are teaching itself. 

If you are teaching things that don’t maximise your ability to participate in the phygitial fitness marketplace, then does it serve you going forward?

2. In person classes will return, but things will be different.

Gyms will be back, but things will change

We saw the fitness industry decimated in 2020. 

A worrying survey from TD Ameritrade found that 59% of Americans don’t plan to return to their gym after the pandemic, and Fast Company claimed in an article this week that analysts and industry insiders believe that gyms and fitness studios as we know them could become a thing of the past. 

Personally, for the reasons we’ve already discussed, I don’t believe that this prediction is accurate, especially because the distinction between attending a gym physically or using their digital product will start to fall away. But the realities are troubling. There’s no better example of this than 24 hour fitness who went in receivership in 2020 at the cost of thousands of jobs and hundreds of location. 

But there are some green shoots - since christmas there’s been news that 24 Hour is likely to come out of receivership towards the end of this year after consolidating its operations which is great news for everyone - but for sure things will change in 24 and for other UK chains, across the board for gyms.

Here are the things you’re likely to see:

1. Schedules are likely to be lighter, with smaller class sizes. 

2. Costs are likely to be stripped out wherever possible, meaning less opportunity in clubs for instructors, and probably more expectation, including around cleaning.

3. It’s possible that costly licenced formats will be swapped out in favour of cheaper licence-free alternatives. Think here of Mossa, for example.

If you’re at all concerned about whether physical gyms will come back - look no further than the markets. Peloton, the poster child of digital, made their biggest purchase at the end of 2020 paying 420 million for the equipment manufacturer Precor - which added 5 billion to their company valuation. If the biggest name in digital fitness is investing heavily in the physical gym market, you should feel more confidence that in-person experiences, physical gyms will be back.

4. Hygiene, safety and security will be required at all levels. 

We’re now in a place where Gold standard cleanliness is the price of entry to the fitness market, rather than a premium benefit. Whether you teach in a gym or for yourself, prepare for at least a year of not more of greater attention to all aspects of the cleaning process - and you need to be able to explain the steps you take around hygiene to prospective clients. 

5. Fitness instructors roles will expand.

-Fitness Instructors who are lucky enough to retain their classes are now a host. You will need hone your ability to make people feel safe and comfortable. That probably includes some rigorous cleaning, but that’s not a lot different to anyone these days. 

In a world of less classes and less opportunity, what makes you different, and special is going to become even more important. If you need some help with that, I recommend going back to episode 3 of this podcast with Bodypump legend, Susan Renata where we give you a fantastic exercise for determining your unique strengths. 

Finally, once you know your unique strengths, work to build your personal brand. If, after 2020, you still think you can make a sustainable career riding on the coattails of a fitness format, and club, or a studio, then you haven’t been watching. Control your career up front by understanding the value of your time and connection.

3. Health & Fitness will become a priority in a way that it never was before.

”Fitness Instructors are essential workers”

Whether or not governments recognise this currently, fitness professionals ARE primary healthcare providers. The diseases of inactivity - cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and obesity, increased blood pressure - all these things are massive risk factors for COVID and are almost certain to be risk factors for any other pandemic that we are forced to endure - not to mention the fact that COVID or respiratory viruses aside, your mortality risk is doubled with any of these diseases.

And then we have mental illnesses which are highly related to inactivity - 

depression and anxiety - which are on the rise and having terrible impacts on people’s quality of life.

Exercise helps to prevent against all of these illnesses, and despite the reality of many gyms and facilities being closed in 2021, the opinion of the scientific community and the political leadership in every country could not be more clear - physical fitness is one of the best ways to protect against COVID and any other future pandemic or disease. 

Chris Whitty, the UK’s chief medical advisor, was very clear in his keynote to the UKActive at the end of 2020:

“As we come out of the COVID-19 crisis, it’s very important we try to get people who’ve got out of the habit of regular exercise back into a situation where they’re doing so, and encourage others who’ve taken up exercise in a way they previously hadn’t done, to continue,” Whitty said.

"There is no point in life where doing more exercise does not improve health in multiple ways.

Exercise is essential to a happy and healthy old age and it's also extremely important to provide opportunities for those with mental or physical disabilities to be physically active.”

It’s easy to think in terms of what we lost in 2020, and how our ability to teach or exercise in our usual settings was restricted for a great deal of the year. But I think it’s important to acknowledge some of the gains that were made this year. Thanks to those who were already regular exercisers being forced to work out at home, sedentary people were forced to watch their housemates and family working out, and in many cases joined in for the first time. This represents a huge new market for fitness professionals to target, and is also the section of the population most in need of the benefits that fitness brings. 

This is exemplified by a really interesting study coming out of Belgium (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7312512/) after the first lockdown, which showed that while people who reported as “high exercise” spent slightly less time working out during lockdown, adults who self-identifed as “low exercise” before lockdown actually spent MORE time working out during lockdown than they did before. It’s difficult to come to a solid conclusion about why this is the case - but it seems certain that the fact that fitness is a key factor to protecting against the virus played a part (along with a desire to get out of the house for an hour a day). 

The end of COVID related restrictions - which sadly look set to continue into 2021 - provides us with a unique opportunity to capitalise on the clear messaging about health and fitness throughout the pandemic in order to reach sections of the community we didn’t necessarily reach before. 

Our industry has - for a long time, for too long - focused on aesthetics and short term transformations as a key motivator for selling memberships and getting people into our classes and facilities. And this is messaging that clearly works with a particular segment  - the young, the motivated and the educated. But it has for the most part failed to resonate with the section of the population that could most stand to benefit. 

The researchers in the Belgian study noted that, from a behavioural standpoint, the gains made in previously sedentary populations during lockdown were at a high risk of not being maintained because they were based on extrinsic - or external factors. Most theories conclude that people are most likely to continue with a behaviour when that behaviour is interesically, or internally motivated. 

My challenge to group fitness instructors in 2021 (and beyond) is to take this opportunity to think about how you can expand your reach to the massive cohort of people who are willing to give exercise a chance who previously were not. 

Utilise the newfound focus on health as a disease prevention tool to communicate with older sections of population who know that being fit will help them lead a longer life. 

Make the most of people’s newfound digital awareness to reach the people on the couch who will still be there when gyms re-open. While Applefitness+ and Peloton go after the existing exercise market and consider how you can reach the people who need it more - and who are more likely to be intimidated or put off by the hot model-like presenters but would feel welcomed by authentic, locally based instructors who look and sound more like them.

Consider leaving the “shredded 7 week challenge beach body abs wedding transformations” to the likes of F45 and big box gyms, and focus on creating fitness for life for your community. The local people that you can reach. The friends and family of your current members who you can easily reach out to and create change with. 

Understand that a fitness class might be a step too far for some people and start a walking group for people new to exercise, and use that as a lever to get people into your class.

Go back and listen to Episode 9 of the podcast with Bevan where he talks about his running group is fostering community how how gets people up to 5k with runners who are brand new to running and often exercise. It’s about building community and starting small with something achievable.

Try to reach the 80% of people who DON’T exercise rather than the 20% who are being already targeted by the big guns on social media. Think about exercise as medicine - and consider your role as a primary healthcare professional helping to improve and extend people’s lives, and decrease the burden on every country’s over-burdened health systems.

My final thought is this: Applefitness+ is but one of many companies who understand that fitness and healthcare are merging - as we continue to track our steps and record our sleep, movement will become intertwined with health in a way that it hasn’t been before. How can you position yourself in a way that will allow you to not just capitalize on this massive untapped market , but also help those in your community who need your services the most to move?

2021 is a stressful, nerve wracking, exciting, hopeful time to be in the fitness industry - and there’s so much work to be done.