2021 is already proving a better year for clubs – and their members – than we all saw in 2020. This month we check in, down under, with Jacinta Faint, Area Manager, Snap Fitness in Forest Lake, Queensland, Australia, on the cusp of the club’s tenth anniversary and looking ahead to one of its busiest years ever.
Q: What kind of a club is Snap Fitness Forest Lake?
Extremely active. We’re a south western suburb of Brisbane so we’re usually busy with members getting a convenient work out in before or after their daily commutes. Our area also has a vibrant hospitality industry, so we see a lot of shift workers and Fly-In-Fly-Out guests using the club’s facilities and classes. We offer a wide array of classes to all of our members (both live and on-demand) including things like Live Group Fitness Zumba, Fighting Fit, Functional Training, FitBox, Tabata, MetaFit, Ladies Conditioning, Booty Burn and more. The club also has a functional training room too, covering Lifting Rig, Sled Track, Boxing Bags, Speedball, TRX straps, Calisthenics and a ton of other specialty activities too. We have such an active membership and club that in July of 2018, we decided to relocate to a larger club facility – which also enabled us to integrate digital on-demand classes into our schedule., which have been growing in popularity ever since.
Q: Like other gyms, you took pandemic precautions and closed. What did you do to keep your members engaged?
A big part of running a club is doing exactly this: interacting with members and finding ways to connect with them. Day to day around the club that’s organic and easy. When our club closed our staff looked for other ways to recreate connections: emails and text messages, we created a Facebook group and kept close to members through our social channels. We created fun activities like a membership-wide Push Up Challenge that we ran and promoted through social media, and of course streamed classes and other content from our own Head Office programming and FitnessOnDemand which every member received in their homes.
Q: How has technology and digital, on-demand content played a role in your club?
Even though we truly believe in face-to-face interactions with members and the benefits of in-person studio and gym workouts, technology is becoming a bigger part of fitness, just as it is in life. We’re using Myzone, an innovative, new heart-rate based system that integrates health metrics into member activities using cloud and wireless tech. We expect that with wearable devices and advances in fitness technology, we’ll see even more of this kind of thing going forward. FitnessOnDemand, became very important to our members streaming classes and working out at home during the pandemic, but it’s also a really helpful tool on site at the club. With our membership working shifts and non-traditional workday hours, giving them 24-7 access to fitness classes and content whenever they need it is ultra-convenient. It’s also a good resource for when live, instructor-led classes need to be rescheduled or cancelled at short notice and we can direct our members to similar or complimentary classes and content from FOD.
Q: What are your hopes for your club this year and beyond?
The same as they always are, really. That we continue to play an important and involved role in the lives and overall wellness of our members. Over the past year or so, we’ve all come to really understand the intrinsic value of staying physically – and mentally – fit, so that we remain happy and healthy, and best able to cope with whatever comes our way.
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