As a professional in the fitness and health sector, it is always interesting to start the new year. My thoughts immediately go to what this year may hold. It is ‘like a box of chocolates’ in the true sense of Forest Gump, you never know what is going to unfold throughout the year and where or on what you should focus your energy. A good place to start is to look at the top fitness trends for the year ahead.

The ACSM complete a worldwide survey each year to see what the top fitness trends may be. Here are the proposed top fitness trends for 2018:

  1. High-intensity interval training (HIIT)
  2. Group training
  3. Wearable technology
  4. Body weight training
  5. Strength training
  6. Educated, certified and experienced fitness professionals
  7. Yoga
  8. Personal training
  9. Fitness programs for older adults
  10. Functional fitness

If you stay in the fitness sector long enough, you see everything come full circle. It is interesting to see functional fitness fall to the bottom and high-intensity interval training at the top with group exercise making a resurgence at number 2.

Programmes that have dropped out from the ACSM top fitness trends are worksite health, smart phone exercise apps, children’s exercise and weight loss programmes. Which is also quite interesting. When speaking to professionals in the sector I am not sure that the list would remain in the same order and whether it is that black and white. For instance, do a lot of individuals take part in HIIT sessions because they are also managing their weight? Is HIIT also part of group training?

I am sure the survey has many flaws and inaccuracies and whilst it is worldwide, it was only completed by 4100 professionals which represented only a 4% return rate of professionals it was sent out too. In the UK alone there are over 60,000 working fitness instructors and 23,000 PT’s. This shows you the size of the sample and how small it is.

The Evening Standard in the UK reports a different list and order.

  • BARRE
  • Group Exercise
  • Dance classes
  • Mat Work
  • HIIT
  • Stretching
  • Home workout

 

Fitness First report in their survey the following list, not in any number order:

  • Lower intensity workouts (LIIT)
  • Self-limiting movement (strict format exercises)
  • Smarter recovery – cryotherapy and infrared saunas
  • Virtual reality workouts
  • Food tracking
  • Team coaching
  • Group classes – pro cycling, freestyle HIIT, Yoga etc.

As a fitness professional, are you any the wiser on where to put your energy, development and investment for 2018. What services will you offer? What training will you undertake to help your clients or increases your business?

It is a tough one for most of us. My rule of thumb is to undertake some research yourself. Here are some tips to help:

  1. Analyse your numbers in your classes and or sessions for the last 12-month period. What are your numbers telling you? Where are your highest numbers? What time of the year and in what services?
  2. Analyse how many new clients you had last year and what services did they start with?
  3. Analyse how many clients used more than one service so that you can see which services they felt complemented each other
  4. Analyse your top spenders. Depending on the number of clients you have consider your top 20 or your top 100 clients. What services are they buying into? What are they spending the most on?
  5. Analyse which of your services gives you the most revenue
  6. Analyse which of your services gives you the most net profit
  7. Survey your clients and ask them what they would like you to offer for 2018
  8. Research your competitors and complete a matrix of what services they are offering for 2018
  9. Complete a SWOT analyse on your business and your skills. Analyse this fully to work with your strengths, develop your weaknesses, exploit your opportunities and eliminate your threats. Compare the outcome of your SWOT to the outcome of your research above and plug the gaps to ensure you meet your client’s or class members needs for 2018.
  10. Write out 3 plans. A business financial plan with targets and cash flow projections Operational plan for how you are going to get there and undertake your work flow in 2018. Last but not least, a marketing plan to communicate your message, business and services in 2018.

The tips are a good starting point to give you some information to work with and make some work decisions for this coming year. If you just want to talk your business ideas through with colleagues, please do give us a call, we are always happy to listen and discuss. Consider taking a business or a marketing course to help.