We’re all creatures of habit. So when August starts to look very much like September, our behavior patterns can change. Suddenly the kids are back in school with all kinds of evening activities, work is busy after vacation season and your residents are likely facing the realities of full fall schedules and the rapidly fading convenience of summer’s free time. Add shorter days, colder weather around the corner and all of this means residents will very soon be spending more time on their doorsteps.
While communal fire pits and outside hang out areas are always popular most of the year, some amenities – like the building fitness facility – may need a little reintroduction to some homeowners or renters. Consider these three quick tips to get people reacquainted with fitness at home and optimize the investment you made in your building’s fitness facility.
Promote 24-7 Schedule
If your building is one of the many that now make access to the on-site fitness club available all day and all night, look for opportunities to engage residents throughout the day and evening hours. Chances are your community consists of several residents who work nontraditional shifts: nurses, doctors, night workers and so forth.
Target these residents with information and educational content via your website, social media and on-site signage suggesting self-guided workouts, stretches and wind downs after long shifts using your on-demand fitness platform. Or maybe your building is a respite of sorts from long daily commutes for many residents who get up early and return home late.
Can you make free yoga mats, early morning juices and smoothies available and engage residents with on-demand, self-guided yoga sessions to start their day right?
New tools to make life easy
Optimizing your fitness facility for busy fall months is just as much about reviewing your tech and ensuring you have hands free platforms and products that can free up your time while offering maximum services to residents.
Newer on-demand fitness platforms like FOD’s SO1O product for instance are designed for plug and play simplicity. The sleek unit hangs just like a flat panel TV and is designed for flexible use in small spaces like many residential fitness clubs. They also require almost zero daily maintenance from building staff but give residents access to hundreds of specialty, core and strength training classes or shorter form workouts that they can access at any time on their own terms.
Create community, foster a little competition
The idea of creating connections and community is a high priority for every residential manner. Most buildings today come with names to distinguish their living environments from the apartment buildings of yesteryear.
Many residents want to know each other, so design ways through your fitness facility that they can meet, connect and get to know each other. Daily workout challenges, promoted on-demand content across your building channels at fun times of the year – cycling leader boards during the tour de-France, or virtual treadmill “road races” where residents can compete against others’ times.
Make sure to build fitness community beyond the physical space too by creating, planning and managing engaging content on your building’s social channels. Promote the diversity of on-demand classes at different times of the day and week, share nutrition tips, workout techniques and above all, make your fitness center the hub of a vibrant online community of residents as much as it is square footage in your building.
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