Intro

After the long lockdowns, gyms and fitness clubs have finally reopened. Some members have returned to exercise in the facilities. Some are more comfortable continuing with home workouts via live sessions and fitness apps. Despite this, after such a long period in which members did not maintain a consistent fitness routine, their motivation to work out has dropped. They show up at the gym, fitness studio, or live session once, twice, and disappear. As a gym or fitness club owner, you can and should plant back in them the desire and motivation to return to a healthy training routine. However, motivating them is only the first step. If you want them to keep coming, you should hold them accountable for their fitness goals and workouts. A healthy fitness business is based on a loyal customer base, which in turn requires a long-term commitment and consistency from your members to themselves and their fitness goals. To succeed in that, you should keep your members motivated, online and offline. Their motivation is nurtured by accountability to their wellness, which means they take responsibility for the food they eat, how much they exercise, and how far they have progressed with their fitness goals.

In this article, we will review five ways to increase the fitness accountability of your members.  

 

#1 – Build your members a fitness plan

It is proven that having a fitness plan has a great effect on your members’ motivation and accountability. An academic study by Wells, Rupp, Martin & Anderson at 2020 showed that “individuals who utilized a fitness plan that included accountability and/or coordination would have a higher frequency of workouts.” Assist your members in defining their fitness goals and make sure these are achievable goals within a realistic timeline, so your members can see their progress.

 

#2 – Encourage your members to workout in pairs

Invest time and effort to find and connect your members with a matching partner for their workouts. Look for members with similar fitness levels, fitness goals, and social backgrounds and encourage them to work out together. Working out in pairs creates a support system for each one of the members and encourages accountability. Recent research by Michigan State University found that those who exercised with a partner continued twice as long as those who exercised independently. A workout partner helps maintain motivation and engagement and encourages your members to commit to their fitness routine. Aside from that, working out with a partner has a lot of other benefits. Check these 7 benefits of having a workout partner for additional information.

 

#3 – Use social media to boost your members’ motivation

Everything is being uploaded to social media today like if it was not documented, it didn’t happen. This is one of the best tools you can use to boost your members’ motivation and accountability. Sharing pictures, uploading posts and comments to Instagram, Facebook and Twitter will help you achieve two main targets: first, it will help your marketing and retention strategy, and second, it will increase the feeling of accountability.

Improve your members fitness accountability

 

#4 – Help your members keep track of their progress

Tracking progress has a direct effect on increasing motivation and accountability. Once your members stay on top of their goals, they can see their progress. Nyenhuis, Greiwe, Zeiger, Nanda, and Cooke (2020) found that “These interactive platforms use real-time personalized health data to encourage users to take a more active interest in their own health; but, just as importantly, they provide a social connection with friends and other users of the platform, which can make these types of exercise modalities enticing for those who need social motivation and accountability.” To show your members’ progress based on their workout data, you should implement a dedicated heart rate tracking software that suits your cardio classes. Additional levels of engagement and interactivity can be achieved by adopting an immersive indoor cycling solution for your cycling classes.

Help your members keep track of their progress

 

#5 – Initiate fitness challenges

Fitness challenges can do wonders for increasing accountability and motivation. Knowing a challenge ahead encourages positive competitiveness and boosts your members’ willingness and motivation to improve and achieve their goals.  

John Ford, certified exercise physiologist, who runs JKF Fitness & Health (a boutique training company) in New York City, says, “…wanting to keep up with those around you can make you push yourself harder than you would on your own. Seeing what others are capable of doing can inspire you to do more” (2018).

Fitness challenges can be total weight loss, distance running, healthy eating challenge, plank challenge, etc. With platforms such as Spivi, you can create fitness challenges for your members and keep them motivated by showing them live results of the challenge on the club level and the global leaderboard level.

 

Conclusions

Accountability is a major key in retaining your fitness club members. Whether they arrive at the facility itself or take their workouts from home, you should keep them motivated and accountable for their goals as a gym or fitness club owner. Reach out to them, assist them in defining the fitness goals and plan, connect them with a social support system, and constantly run fitness challenges to drive their motivation. These are all extremely important to build accountability in your members that will help them keep an orderly healthy fitness routine.