REX Field Trips During IHRSA 2017
Posted: March 15, 2017 in IHRSA
REX Members at Muscle Beach
LOS ANGELES, CA – Just before the IHRSA 2017 Los Angeles conference, 120 REX members and their staffs took a field trip to four different health clubs in the Santa Monica area. This happened on Tuesday, the day before the IHRSA convention began in Los Angeles. The participants traveled in two luxury tour buses to visit these sites, and each site had a unique story to tell.
The 1st site was 24 Hour Fitness, featuring its Immersive Spinning Studio designed by Les Mills. The group was transfixed by the strong three-dimensional sense of the venture. This technology is clearly a step ahead of any other projection for spending.
The next stop was at YAS-Yoga and Spinning. The largely female market of 3,500 members keeps 90 half-hour sessions filled through out the week. The Owner, Kimberly Fowler, reported that many members would take three classes a week. A strong sense of community drives attrition to a very low number. With several locations in California YAS produces extremely high numbers for a boutique size club.
The next stop was named California’s #1 Gym by Men’s Fitness Magazine. Box ‘n Burn as the intensity of top-level Cross Fit but focused on serious non-contact sparring and boxing for adults as well as 2 levels of kids classes. Founded and led by ex-boxer Tony Jeffries, Box N’ Burn also features the world’s number 1 boxing fitness certification course.
Here’s an interesting side note on marketing. 50 years ago, there was a downtown old-fashioned men’s boxing gym Boston. The owner understood how to work with elementary and middle school kids, teaching them how to take a little pain, to stand up for themselves and be courageous. You realize the goal is not boxing skill but character development. Before long, child therapists in Boston Western suburbs began referring their clients to Mike’s Gym to resolve some of the problems they were having in terms of self confidence at school. Mike quickly realized that boxing lesson might sell for $5 an hour at that time but therapy went for $50 an hour. Before long, he had a studio in Newton, a Boston suburb that was packed with middle school kids at $50 an hour. In today’s world, it would probably be $75-$200 an hour.
The last stop of our tour was Muscle Beach in Venice. We managed to corral about two thirds of the tour into the photo on this page. In the center of the front row is Fausto DE Julio, who manages REX European Roundtables. To his right is Justin Tamsett, who manages REX programs in Australia and New Zealand. To the left of Fausto in a bright, blue shirt is Eddie Tock, President of REX USA. In the center in the red shirt and white hat is Will Phillips, Founder of REX. And most importantly, with his legs in the air, is a Muscle Beach aficionado doing flips and tricks on the Muscle Beach work out arena. Everyone appreciated a visit to this most famous historic site for bodybuilding, including Jad Raguz-owener of New Dimensions clubs in Sydney shown here with two Muscle Beach Regulars.
The REX staff members included managers for group exercise, personal training, marketing, sales, operations, and finance. Each function has a distinctly colored neckband for their name so they could connect and network in the buses is a problem between the sites. The decibel level was well over 100 because of all the conversations going on in the buses.
At the end of the tour, we poured into a huge reception hall at the Double Tree Hotel for a REX sponsored reception. REX has discovered with decades of experience that visiting clubs is always a positive experience for club owners and staff. We hope to continue running REX field trips before IHRSA and Club Industry. In the future, we will work hard to hot, interesting businesses that are outside the club industry as this often sparks the greatest learning.
