Keep your residents engaged with these Fitness Trends

The summer months when residents are out and about, traveling or on vacation, can be months when nobody is thinking much about your building. Or its facilities. That’s not a great thing when studies show keeping residents engaged with your offerings and amenities is the key to year round retention. So as they look further afield for activities this summer, be sure to find creative ways to remind residents of all of the fitness, activities and wellness offerings right on their own doorsteps. As you do that, keep these three things in mind. 

Create property-wide fitness for maximum engagement

It’s true, many luxury condo buildings and developments have stellar workout facilities. But the summer months are a time when residents want to break out of the rut and get outside. So even if your treadmills are running 24/7 with enthusiasts in the fall and winter months, look to your building’s grounds and surrounding neighborhood for workout options and activities that still give a chance for residents to come together. 

Organize a weekly summer running group that leaves from your lobby every Saturday or Sunday – and make it early before the heat of the day kicks in. Routing the run through the local neighborhood and wrapping up at a local farmers market or favorite coffee shop, is a good way to showcase everything that’s on their doorstep and create opportunities for shared resident experiences. 

Think about other activities too. As a healthy lifestyle, yoga grew by almost 70% in the United States in the past decade, with more than 34 million people practicing regularly. Try starting a building-wide yoga group – either a casual get together or bring in a local instructor to lead a class that meets early mornings or for sunset sessions. Build a community and then as the weather cools in Fall bring it inside your fitness facility to make it a year-round offering. 

Use app-challenges to engage residents

According to a recent article on Mobihealth.com,  more than 34% of people aged 24-34 use fitness apps frequently and for people in the 35-54 age group, usage jumps to 47%. Apps are an increasingly efficient tool for your property management team to reach and engage a cross section of residents from first-time apartment renters, to professional residents and later-in-life, high income couples emptying their nests. 

One of the fastest growing trends in the app space is the integration of challenges for users. Try creating a monthly summer challenge with your FitnessOnDemand app, or other chosen fitness app. Login, name the challenge and push it out to resident users. Make sure to promote app use and any new challenges in building communications, newsletters and social media channels. Have your on-site fitness manager engage with residents and make sure they’re signed up and familiar with your app offerings. Then it’s a matter of keeping things interesting, engaging and fun. 

A 30-day run challenge – on your building’s grounds, treadmills or round the neighborhood, a cycle ride for Pride, a fundraiser for a local charity partner, or more. The key is to socialize each challenge, showing leaderboards, goals met and don’t forget to reward residents with perks for completion and success. Free lobby smoothies, discounted parking for a month, or other easy to manage ideas are all good.

Help them think wellness not just fitness

We’re way beyond the gym-fanatic, competitive culture of the 2000s. Today, fitness is about holistic wellness. According to a study by McKinsey, more than 50% of Americans today view wellness as a priority beyond fitness – a jump of 8% since 2020 and the pandemic. 

As you look for ways to keep residents engaged with your fitness programming and facility this summer, make it a center of wellness offerings and information. Curate nutrition, mindfulness and meditation content from your on-demand library and promote that to residents on-site and online. 

Think about bringing a local nutritionist in to do an educational weekend session in your facility, or some on-demand platforms like FitnessOnDemand allow the ability to stream events to residents in their own homes and on their apps. These could include weekly or monthly healthy eating tips with a local chef (helping them promote their restaurant), relaxation and stress management advice sessions, or free healthy-lifestyle “checkups” from a local trainer who can offer advice on workouts and recommend content to follow on-demand.

Integrating your on-demand, online, social media and content offerings into the real lives and activities of your residents (or those considering renting) takes time but it will elevate every resident’s fitness journey and help them to live their healthiest, fittest lives.