photo: Escape Fitness

1. We’re sensing a shift in behaviours on the gym floor and emerging operator needs are driving us to evolve our small group PT offer.

The industry is telling us two things. Firstly, a growth in the popularity of strength training – especially among women – is increasing traffic in free weight areas and creating more of a demand for limited equipment such as squat racks and plate loaded stations. Secondly, operators are struggling to retain experienced trainers and coaches. This is driving a need to introduce more simple programming that doesn’t compromise performance results.

2. In response to the rise in demand for strength training and powerlifting equipment, we’re developing new octagon frames and attachments that integrate this equipment into the functional training space, creating opportunities for people to train in a way that they prefer, but in a small group PT environment.

This can relieve the pressure on the free weight zones and encourage people to train together, promoting peer-to-peer support and strengthening the gym floor community.

3. Kit needs to be easily accessible, promoting quick turnaround between exercises. For this reason, kit storage needs to be incorporated into the live training environment, so equipment is easily accessible to keep up exercise intensity.

Our octagon frames integrate storage solutions that ensure immediate accessibility while occupying minimal floor space.

If additional storage is required, we also provide a range of freestanding racks and cages, each designed to optimise storage capacity in the smallest possible footprint.

Our Strongbox Bench also offers storage capacity for up to six pairs of dumbbells, two kettlebells, medballs and resistance bands – creating a multi-purpose workout station for small group PT sessions, especially where kit sharing is not desirable.

MORE: www.escapefitness.com

photo: Indigo Fitness

1. Functional fitness, HIIT and combat are the hot topics in fitness, with people searching for variety to keep themselves motivated.

The efficiency of HIIT classes means clients can get in, get a hard workout and get back to everyday life in a short period and with this in mind, operators should look to design studios that are multi-purpose and which allow them to provide a variety of class types for their clients.

2. A small kit approach can be advantageous. This kind of equipment doesn’t require much time to set up, and the smaller the kit, the more variety of equipment operators are able to store.

Typically, functional fitness classes will be focused around light- to medium-weight dumbbells, plyo boxes, skipping ropes and medicine balls. For HIIT cardio it’s ski ergs, rowers and bikes or air bikes. Combat equipment, when integrated into clever storage solutions, only requires small footprints, such as bags, gloves and/or mitts.

With clever product integration, all these can be seamlessly housed in a studio or gym floor without taking up open space.

Operators can freshen things up with the inclusion of pieces such as sliding rail systems or rigs. Sliding rail systems allow operators to simply slide out carriages that lock into place within the studio and house a variety of types of apparatus, such as TRX, rings, ropes and boxing bags.

These can be used to change the type of training stimulus from week to week, while allowing operators to seamlessly slide them away when the next class type is to take place.

Custom rigs can be used to offer a vast range of attachments, pull up options and clever integrations. Operators can use rigs for all types of training, such as compound lifting, callisthenics/bodyweight, accessory work and/or classes and PT sessions. Rigs can be a great way to provide a variety of training and classes.

MORE: www.indigofitness.com

photo: Matrix Fitness

1. By rotating equipment week by week, trainers have a fun way to keep workouts fresh and challenging for members, which is essential for small groups in a circuit-style set up. However, if the aim of the session is to improve on strength and ability, or for more focused users, I’d stick to some key exercises the group can become confident in doing well and build on.

Seeing improvement will boost motivation and allow the trainer to be more focused on the personalisation of each exercise, rather than becoming just a timekeeper on a stopwatch.

2. Bars, bands and straps are consistently popular within small group personal training environments because they’re effective training tools and are incredibly versatile.

You can challenge or change intensity quickly depending on the individual. Minimal setup and adjustment is required, making them an efficient training tool to help maintain intensity throughout the workout.

For functional training offerings, we have a range called Connexus, giving studio floor spaces or small areas organisation with the adaptability to adjust the heights of anchor points and to create an excellent functional training environment. This means the trainer can adapt quickly between different modalities

MORE: www.matrixfitness.com/uk

photo: Physical

1. Three main themes are emerging: boxing fitness; mind-body; and ‘strength and conditioning meets functional HIIT training’.

There’s been a lot of talk about the growing interest in mindfulness and from our experience this is real: we’re seeing an upswing in the provision of reformer-based small group PT, as well as mat-based Pilates and yoga.

Meanwhile, boxing is surging ahead, with mainstream gyms as well as boutiques putting it front and centre of fitness floors. We’ve worked with a number of operators to launch signature boxing concepts using our new boxing and combat range. Finally there’s hybrid strength and conditioning/HIIT functional programming – best described as a less gritty CrossFit.

2. Keeping things fresh is less about rotating equipment – although of course, the more varied the kit, the more diversity the team will be able to build into programmes – the delivery of fresh, engaging small group PT is actually about programming.

To engage members, operators need to create and continually evolve these for different user groups and training goals; it’s this that drives variety in equipment use.

Physical’s Apex programmes are available through our app and are free to use for any operator. They span seven categories – agility, core, active (older adults), strength, fusion (mind-body), explode (HIIT) and release (stretching and recovery) – and within each category is a year’s worth of programming.

For each 30-minute programme, we explain what kit is needed, the room layout and timings. We also break workouts down, exercise by exercise. Each also has an instructor training video that includes progressions.

Many of our customers are successfully using Apex in their clubs – GLL has even incorporated the content into its own app.

MORE: www.physicalcompany.co.uk

photo: Blk Box

Training pods are still a highly popular and effective use of space within any small group personal training environment.

Last year, we launched the BLK BOX Nexus range which took the traditional training pod to a new level with the inclusion of two 125kg adjustable cable stacks built into the compact footprint of a traditional squat rack.

When combined with storage or linked together to create multiple training pods, the Nexus range can be configured and adapted to suit any training environment.

2. One of the main themes we’re seeing is more demand for versatility. Training spaces now need to be multi-use and multi-functional, so they’re fit to host a sweat class of 30 people and then transform into a brand activation space for a photoshoot, before transforming back into a high functioning small group PT environment.

The new Marchon LDN location in Stratford is an excellent example of this level of flexibility – recently voted one of the world’s best gyms by Men’s Health, Marchon LDN includes eight of our stainless-steel Nexus training pods, integrated storage solutions and our seamless fusion flooring, which is easily cleaned and built to withstand anything from Olympic lifting to Hyrox classes.

3. A solid wall can be your best friend in any small group facility. We provide a wide range of wall-mounted storage solutions for anything from barbells to dip stations and resistance bands. If a solid wall isn’t available, the next best solution to preserve space and keep things close to hand is either in-built or connecting storage solutions that are situated between training pods.

MORE: www.blkboxfitness.com