The benefits of small group training for your fitness business

Did you know that 50% of members quit the gym within the first 6 months?

It’s true; many people quit the gym and other fitness areas after some time in their lives. 

At first, it can be great to work out and start feeling good, but then other commitments in your customers’ lives can arise, making them fall back on their training plans. 

After a while, many people start to prioritize other aspects of their life than their wellness, causing their initial motivation to diminish. Plus, members might look at their financial costs and look at spending their gym fees elsewhere. 

As a gym owner, you’ve probably experienced this cycle of inactive members joining and quitting. One way to stop them from leaving is by providing them with a consistent motivation to keep training. 

If you hold small group training sessions, many people might be confident to stick to their fitness plans. There’s a range of benefits to doing this, but the main one is that people feel accountable to show up and have fun with others. 

In this article we will look at how small group training can benefit your gym and the benefits of small group training for your members.

Skip ahead to:

• What is small group training? 
• How can small group training benefit your gym?
• Benefits of small group training for members 

What is small group training? 

Small group training is the same as personal training, except instead of being one-on-one, a few people are training under one trainer. Many people choose to take up group exercise as it’s a lot more affordable and comfortable. This type of training has around 4-10 people in a typical training session. 

Looking at the number of people in a class size, you may be confused and think of it as a fitness class. The truth is, they actually differ a great deal from regular gym classes as they’re personalized towards each member.

Every exercise in a group exercise classes is tailored to each member’s fitness and health problems, written and laid out by the personal trainer. These people also act as a coach and help create nutrition plans to complement their group training sessions. 

How can small group training benefit your gym? 

Normally small group training sessions last for a certain period of weeks, and the intensity and variety change according to each member’s ability each week. Usually, small group training sessions are conducted offline, but due to COVID-19, some are online, and often, there is a hybrid of both. 

Looking at the concept of small group training, you may think the benefits sway more towards your member’s side; this is not the case. As a gym owner, small group training can help you with the following:

Increase membership retention rates 

Membership retention is something every gym owner needs to keep on top of to survive as a business in this day and age. In fact, if you manage to keep a 5% increase in retention, you could see your profits growing between 25-95%. 

Group classes can help contribute to sustaining membership retention rates. Often many members drop out of training and gym sessions is because of personal commitments, pricing difficulties, and accountability. 

Hosting affordable group sessions can encourage your most loyal members to carry on training with their friends, therefore maintaining or increasing your profits. This also reduces the risks of inactive memberships, and you may find you don’t need to go through exhaustive promotion spells during the quiet periods. 

Higher profits 

Group training sessions can be more profitable for you in the long run. You can have more people attending your gym and paying for your services in one go. For example, if you just have personal training sessions, your employees will be limited to training one person per hour for a certain period of their working day. Whereas if you host sessions, you can offer the same person but several people in one go, therefore maximizing your turnover of members in your gym. 

Builds a community

A true gym will never make its members feel like they’re just a number. In fact, the best gyms often have their own tribe of members and employees. Hosting small group training sessions allows people to socialize and have reasons to attend your gym. These classes make your gym so much more worthwhile than just being a fitness center. 

When members attend such sessions, they will likely make friends with similar interests and feel a sense of belonging at your gym. This is because they’re sharing something of a greater purpose amongst others. This connection can add to why members want to come back and train and keep paying for your services. Plus, having a strong community can encourage newbies to feel like they have that sense of connection. 

Adds to the diversity of your services 

To be on top of your game as a fitness business, you constantly have to innovate and be a step ahead of your competitors. One of the best ways to lure customers into your gym is by having a wide range of services and fitness equipment. If your gym only offers classes and personal training sessions, it might look a bit restrictive. 

Whereas if you offer small group training sessions, it makes you look more inclusive to people from different financial backgrounds and situations, allowing you to have that unique edge. 

Creates a better environment 

As highlighted earlier, small group training can help you build a community. Once you have a great community of people wanting to attend small group training sessions, it can make people want to attend your gym. Your gym can become a happy place people enjoy coming to due to the physical, mental, and social experience. After all, happiness and smiles are infectious, and it can allow many other members and employees to absorb the happiness from those who attend the small group training sessions. 

Encourages new members

At gyms, there are introverts and extroverts. Some people can attend gyms without any problems, whereas others need a helping hand. Hosting personalized group training classes allows people who have anxiety or nerves around the gym to feel comfortable by attending personal sessions with friends or family members. This service encourages new people to join and allows you to have an increase in membership.

It’s versatile 

With small group training, you don’t actually need to worry about the type of sessions you can conduct. Once you have your members’ ambitions, fitness goals and results logged, you can be pretty versatile. You can conduct training tailored to your member’s goals online or offline; it’s simple and flexible. 

Benefits of small group training for members 

If you want to make the gym experience more enjoyable for members, then small group classes are a no brainer because:

1. They’re economical

Gym memberships can be extremely affordable, but a standard gym pass might not be enough to sustain your members. At the same time, a personalized training session can be too expensive, making it hard for some members to pay. On the contrary, a small group training session can be extremely affordable, being in the midpoint of the two. Often many members will find that small group training sessions can fit in their budget and allow them to see results from assessments conducted.

2.  Personal touch

At gyms, many people come from different backgrounds and have a range of fitness levels. If you have members that aren’t that experienced, they may find it difficult to see results by just using standard equipment. Similarly, if they attend generic group classes, they may be exposed to different trainers and members each week, limiting their progress. On the contrary, in small group training sessions, members get access to the same coach and get personalized plans according to their fitness and dietary requirements. Each class is tailored to their strengths and areas of improvement, allowing them to become better versions of themselves in the long run.

3. Increases accountability

The most difficult thing about fitness is staying consistent, and it can be one of the most common problems for your gym members. In comparison to today and monthly gym passes, small group training sessions have to be paid upfront in bulk. 

Therefore, this large financial fee already being paid gives members a reason to stay motivated and keep on training. Plus, when members don’t attend the small group training class, they will most likely be charged for their no-show. But, there’s more than just finance for accountability; members will likely show up more due to the shared goals of others in their class. The extra support from their coach and members will allow them to feel more confident towards hitting their goals and keep on attending your gym.

4. It makes fitness less stressful

Fitness can be quite a tedious task mentally as well as physically. The reason for this is, you have to plan your fitness according to each day to compliment your abilities and different areas of your body. If you have gym members that live a busy professional life, they may not have the time to create a proper workout plan, and the fitness experience can be tough. A small group training program can relieve the stress and pressure from members as a trainer has already organized it for them. All they have to do is turn up, work out and enjoy their training session.

5. Results based

Remember earlier when we talked about gym membership retention? Well, group training sessions help keep members showing up and making the effort due to their results. The sessions that trainers conduct are done on a personal level with a lot of science behind them. Trainers log members’ weights, dietary habits, and data regarding their fitness challenges. It can help people achieve their goals whether they are strength training or wanting to achieve weight loss. 

Then after every few weeks, the instructors look back and reflect on the member’s progress, looking at the achievements and downfalls. This personalized, results-driven approach can encourage your members to keep attending and buying more small group training classes. Plus, working in a group can instill habits amongst members.

In summary

Overall, small group training has a lot of benefits to you as a gym owner and your fitness members. First of all, it can help you build a thriving community where members feel valued and find ways to bond with each other. This community builds an environment that can make people feel happy and influence potential gym-goers to join. 

In addition to this, small group training is inclusive, it’s extremely affordable for a variety of people from different backgrounds and profitable for you, as you train many members in one go. Most importantly, it adds to your diversity as a gym allowing you to have that extra edge over your competitors. If you haven’t already, add small group training to your services.