Hey Team,
Hope everyone is well and has enjoyed the first couple of weeks back. I am getting questions and hearing chatter about various things so I thought I would try a bit of a ‘catch-all’ blog to try and address some ‘stuff’.
| When are we allowed to bring our friends? |
| OK. Good question. I have been pretty nervous about this but we have started letting people come in via the two (2) week trial. Basically, in this new world you need to have a membership in order to book in for a class…so the $50 x 2-week trial is the best way we can achieve this. Unfortunately, we can’t do ‘HIRE-Gloves’ (in this new world I’m pretty uncomfortable with the idea of shared ANYTHING) so they will either need their own gloves or need to purchase some of those as well in order to get started with boxing…Functional Fitness people don’t really need gloves so they could do a Funky class instead? |
| Is this cleaning stuff forever? |
| Yep. And it’s a good thing. If each of us clean down our own equipment after a session and everyone plays their part, then the gym will forever be a safe place for us to be. Yes, we still have a few things to ‘tidy up’ but I am very happy with the ‘CELL MODEL’ and convinced that it is providing a safe environment to train in. I am not so happy with washing and drying armloads of rags everyday, but someone has to do it! (And to be fair, I think Tracey took them home last night!). |
| Is the booking system “HERE TO STAY” |
| I think a solid ‘YES’ is the answer here. As time goes by, the intention will be to open things up so people can do things like book into ‘back-to-back’ classes etc, but the reality is even when restrictions are lifted, the way we have configured the gym now means a maximum of 45 people boxing/20 people ‘func-ing’ and in the past there were times those numbers were exceeded…so we need to have a way to manage that. On the flipside, the new class format means there are more session options, so there are more classes to book into. |
| Is the new class format staying or will it go back to the way it was? |
| GREAT question. The short answer is that it isn’t GOING. We have rebuilt the gym in case you hadn’t noticed so we simply cant go back to the old model where you move from station to station. But I think it would be short-sighted to say ‘this is it’. For a start, we have no cardio gear at the moment…so that will immediately change things. And further, we had 10-years to evolve our old classes…these new ones? Less than 2-weeks. They are going to change. Personally I love the format from a coaches perspective (easy to be involved and engaged) and a participant (no rest, high intensity, in and out, zero wasted time)…but I am sure we can make it better. I really need a good couple of weeks with full equipment access to really ‘sort things out’.
As for the 30-minute format, well, I have cut and pasted the below from the original Round 1 Fitness business plan – which a very naïve version of me wrote back in August 2008! 2008 for goodness sake!
Round One Fitness has a simple image and a simple philosophy. Provide the very best training equipment and the very best workouts – for everyone – in a safe, healthy and fun environment. The classes can be completed with elementary equipment (gloves, skipping rope, hand-wraps) and will provide a superb all-round body workout building shoulders and arms, working legs, abs and upper back – all in 30minutes. Round One Fitness will be a real gym, for real people, supporting the time challenges of modern life by providing more than 60 scheduled 30-minute group workouts every single week. The original plan I had for the gym was 30-minute training sessions – this was changed due to council concerns about parking and building access…going to 45 minutes with 15 minutes ‘off’ between classes addressed their concerns. In a lot of ways, what is happening now better represents the original vision of the gym! As for 60 classes? Well, that’s about 3-days worth at our current rate of cranking them out…man we run A LOT of classes! |
| What about ‘SHARING’ Gear? |
| Well…what can I say. This is a sticky one and a tricky one. So far there hasn’t been a lot of impact in the boxing gym (obviously no bike challenges etc) but the Functional Classes have been impacted quite a lot. I think it is fair to say that the world is never going back to December 2019 – it just isn’t. Back then we were fancy free – do you want to work in with me? I’ll just give this bench/rower/bike/dumbbell a half-hearted wipe down with my towel and you can go for it…- I don’t see us doing those things again anytime soon.
What I think it ultimately means is that we all need to take responsibility for our ‘personal workout gear’ – those things that the gym has traditionally had on hand for ‘everyone’ that now really need to live in YOUR gym bag. What things? – Foam Rollers and massage balls – Skipping ropes – Exercise bands and mini-bands – Weight belts. These things are all inexpensive (basically less than $30 each for basic versions though you can spend the moon and starts if you like on skipping ropes, weight belts and rollers – I know I have on your behalf and that stuff is now ‘under lock and key’) and easy to carry and I just don’t see HOW exactly we continue to share them. So – if you need a power band to assist with your pull-ups? Bring one along! If you need a foam roller for mobility? Bring one along. It is a new world and we all need to be prepared…if you don’t have the gear, well, that’s fine – we can just do exercise substitution in the class for the things you don’t have. And by the way, this isn’t some massive play by me for ‘retail sales’…I don’t think we actually carry any of that stuff right now though there might be a blackroll roller or two floating around. It is just a genuine “It’s a new world – let’s be new world safe/smart” solution. |
| When I get there, the gym is closed…when are you going to be open all day again??? |
| Ummm. Maybe NEVER?
I am really unsure on this one. When we are open, we are paying wages and everything else…and our 1200m2 of space generally gets 1-2 people in per hour. Closing it (at the moment, our total hours are down by 4.5/day = approx. 19/week. Or around $2000 just in wages per month. I had a vision (of course I did) of people coming to the gym and doing their own training – hell, that’s why I invested so heavily in the amazing Hammer Strength equipment at the end of 2018 – but it basically sits idle, people come in and do their class and leave. Half the time when people come in outside of class times they ask us to start the bell so they can do the class…that’s become impossible in the new world… Long story short, I don’t know. I suspect the model we have arrived at – Open in the morning until around 10, open for 2 hours at lunch, open again from 4pm is going to be what we do moving forward. In a lot of ways I wish we could access some of that ‘free money’ that comes from having members who just come in and run on the treadmill for 20minutes then do a bit of ‘chest press’ and leave…but somehow those people simply don’t train at our gym. |
I **THINK** that about covers it. None of this is set in stone right now because I am kind of trying to make policy on the run based on both the rules and regs we are fitting in with and my own sense of things – right or wrong. I guess I just have a feeling that the world we live in has changed forever and we need to be at the forefront of supporting those changes if we are going to see it through.
And yes, I know – everyone has sent me pictures of ‘other gyms’ sharing kettlebells and doing padwork (even sparring) and using cardio and everything else. Let them be them. I want to both follow the rules as they are today and also try to make sure we are establishing a high standard in terms of a ‘healthy’ training environment that will see us operating for another 10 years. Though if I don’t manage a day off soon lives are going to be lost!
See you in the gym,
Michael.
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