Clubindustry

I spoke with Manny Butera this afternoon about his clubs and his December Chapter 11 filing. According to him, several financial backers backed out on him for various reasons, which left him high and dry with few options. The option that his lawyers recommended and he finally accepted was the Chapter 11 filing. He indicated that the industry seems to be reacting as if he’s the only club that’s ever filed for Chapter 11.

Butera had owned about 19 Total Fitness System clubs and had managed about 50 clubs. He was the largest World Gym franchisee. However, he is no longer with World Gym, and he made it clear that his World Gym license was not stripped from him. Instead, he met with Mike Grondahl, CEO of Planet Fitness, around the time that Planet Fitness purchased World Gym (October 2006) and it was a mutual decision that Butera’s gyms no longer be World Gym facilities, he said.

Now, Butera has renamed the remaining eight Total Fitness System clubs (he closed clubs in Georgia, Alabama and Colorado) as Fuel Fitness Clubs. He is focusing mostly on the clubs he owns and not on the managed clubs, whose numbers have dwindled since the bankruptcy filing.

We’ll have a full story on this in our March issue. -Pam

I saw something last night in my step class that was very disheartening. Now, I have to say that this was the first step class that I ever attended. I’m all for varying one’s workout, but step class had never appealed to me so I avoided it until last night when, inexplicably, an overwhelming urge overtook me to give it a try. Of course, I situated myself in the back of the room (who wants to look foolish in a room full of strangers?) beside two young women who also looked new to step. I figured the three of us would bungle our way through the class together.

I kept looking around at the other people in the class, about 25 women and one man. They all looked like step class regulars, many of them lifting their steps two or three levels. They were chatting with each other like a group of regulars often do. Looking at myself in the mirror, I envisioned a huge “beginner” sign on my forehead.

Not long into the throbbing music and staccato voice of our instructor, I realized that this was not a class for beginners and people with no rhythm like me (despite attending Jazzercise classes for almost two years in my early twenties, I never developed a feel for dance-based group ex).

Worse yet, the two ladies that I thought would be my compadres in bungleness were having even more difficulty keeping up than I was. One of them kept stopping, putting her hands on her hips and looking at the other. The other woman would shrug her shoulders and keep trying. About 15 minutes into the 60-minute class, the shrugging friend could no longer deny her hands-on-the-hips friend’s discomfort or her own. They picked up their steps, put them away and walked out of the class.

I have to admit that I had an urge to follow them, but I wanted to see this class all the way through. However, I had difficulty keeping up with the fast pace of the class, the T-kicks, the A-kicks, walking around the step with a turn and most especially, the step turns on top of the step (although thanks to my Jazzercise experience, I can proudly call myself an expert at the Grapevine).

As I tried to not look too foolish when the steps led the class to turn to the back of the room where they inevitably found me staring back at them because I never did figure out that turn step (How many times can you blush and smile apologetically during a step class? How about 15 times?), I kept thinking about the two young ladies who left. Both were very overweight. In fact, I would say that the shrugging friend could have been classified as obese. I thought about how much courage it must have taken for the two of them to come into this class. How they must have talked each other into doing it–as long as they did it together. Unfortunately, the class was too advanced, too fast paced for them and they felt that continuing was useless.

It’s too bad my gym doesn’t have a beginning step class. The regulars seemed to have the steps down pat, but then again, none of them looked like they had ever seen an extra pound on their frames. In fact, to make myself feel better about my own lack of ability, I decided that most of them had probably been on their high school dance squads or cheerleading teams.

I doubt that my two compadres had been on their high school dance team. They certainly weren’t regulars, and they didn’t know anyone else in the class. I doubt that they’ll ever return to a step class. Maybe they will give up on group fitness altogether.

Something is definitely wrong here when classes only seem to be geared to the already fit. Do we really want the overweight and obese in our midst? Sometimes I wonder. -Pam

I wanted to draw your attention to the online version of our first Executive Insights Q&A column. The shortened version appears in this month’s issue, which the subscribers among you should have received by now. However, because online offers almost unlimited space, we are running the full interview on our Web site.

The first executive to offer insights into the industry and his company is Howard Brodsky, CEO of New York Health & Racquet Club. The regional chain of 10 clubs is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year.

Brodsky was very open with his thoughts about expansion for the company and where he thinks some other club companies are going wrong in their expansion. He also talked about his opinion of competition and low-priced clubs. In addition, he seems tuned into the importance of the Web site for generating leads, but the company isn’t exactly on the cutting edge as far as using technology inside its facilities as far as entertainment options and online personal training. Instead, Brodsky indicated that they like to watch technology developments for awhile before jumping into them.

He had some interesting comments about hiring the right people and about the place of a general manager at a club. I hope you enjoy the interview. I’ll let you know soon who the next featured executive will be. -Pam

Sometimes we miss a story. It‘s a bit embarrassing, especially when it‘s a big story. I received an e-mail on Sunday about a big story that we missed: Manny Butera‘s Total Fitness Systems filed for bankruptcy in December. The company is a management company and World Gym’s largest club ownership group. The company was on our Top 100 list last July, moving up to 48th place from 70th place on our list based on their self-reported 2005 revenue (which increased 100 percent from their 2004 revenue). Last June I even conducted a short interview with Butera for the story. One would think that the possibility of bankruptcy might have been on his mind at that time. Of course, I can‘t blame him for not saying anything to me at the time. It might explain, though, why he didn‘t return my calls when I called him about the Planet Fitness purchase of World Gym in October.

So, mea culpa. We missed this one. But we are putting calls into Butera and others for a news item we hope to run about this in our March issue if we can get it completed before we go to press in a few days. If not, look for the story in our April issue.

If you know of some big news that we‘ve overlooked, please let us know about it. We‘re not here to just show the glossy side of the business (or just to point out where the worms are either). We want to present the full picture of the industry. To do that, we need your eyes and ears. E-mail me at pam.kufahl@penton.com with any news you‘ve heard that we should cover in the magazine. -Pam

After a beautiful three-day weekend (the staff was lucky enough to celebrate President‘s Day away from the office and Mother Nature was gracious enough to give us sunshine and 55 degree weather), I‘m back to working diligently on my articles for the March issue. Besides writing a feature on the upcoming NIRSA show in Minneapolis, I‘m also researching a piece on four-year fitness degrees. More specifically, degrees that cover more than just exercise science and focus on business and how to work with different kinds of people with different kinds of health issues.

I know that there has been a lot of discussion and conflict over the way this industry is headed in terms of accreditation, certification and national boards. And, no matter how it eventually plays out, it seems that more education can never be bad, right? Especially if that education helps fitness professionals garner respect from the public and the medical community. Not to mention, help us to do our jobs better.

I recently interviewed Jasmine Jafferali, fitness and wellness manager at the East Bank Club in Chicago. When discussing this, she quoted Thomas Edison circa 1902.

“The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease.”

Jafferali said that Edison was onto something over 100 years ago, and I think she‘s right. –Jennipher

After 10 years of sportswriting, my first blog entry as the new managing editor for this magazine had to be about sports, right?

OK, so this won‘t be a regular sports spotlight, but I did manage to glean some information related to sports while conducting interviews for my upcoming functional training trend story.

I‘ve had some good conversations with Bruce Carter, owner of Optimal Fitness Design Systems International and a regular contributor to this magazine. Bruce pointed out that ESPN (one of my favorite channels) doesn‘t air as many bodybuilding competitions as it once did. You would usually find these shows in the middle of the night when you couldn‘t sleep.

The body shapes of bodybuilders are unique to say the least, but to the average Joe or Josephine, they may be too intimidating. The fact that these shows aren‘t on as much, Bruce says, has something to do with the trend away from muscle building and more toward functional whole body training. We‘ll delve more into this topic in our March issue.

Also, during my conversation with someone else in the industry (let‘s just call him a well-fit “deep throat”), the name Arthur Jones - inventor of the Nautilus machines - surfaced. Jones‘ High Intensity Training methods revolutionized the 1970s. And that‘s when the 1972 Miami Dolphins popped into the discussion.

The ‘72 Dolphins are the only Super Bowl championship team in NFL history to go undefeated, capping a 17-0 season with a win over the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl VII. The NFL Network, through its series “America‘s Game”, recently counted down the top 20 Super Bowl teams of all time, and the ‘72 Dolphins were ranked No. 1. I highly recommend watching the “America‘s Game” series. (If you don‘t have the NFL Network, my new favorite channel, call your local cable operator today!)

Anyway, those perfect Dolphins were among the first teams to use Jones‘ training methods, and they put them to good use. Apparently, the old adage that practice makes perfect is not quite right. Perfect practice makes perfect. - Stuart

Yesterday was the first full day for our new managing editor, Stuart Goldman. He was fortunate enough to spend part of a day last week training with our former managing editor, Amy Fischbach. Considering Amy’s extreme efficiency, I know that he received thorough training.

Stuart spent yesterday setting up his computer and phone system. It’s hard for me to remember my first day at the company since it was almost 15 years ago, but I always feel like a first day is never spent very efficiently. There’s so many small items to take care of. I’m sure you face the same things at your clubs.

However, Stuart is up and running today with his first assignments. He is writing a story about functional strength training for the March issue. It details how the popularity of functional strength training is changing the layout of some health clubs. He’s also working on a story about the women-only health clubs in California that are being sued for discrimination by the state of California. If you have comments to share with him on either subject, please use the comment button below or e-mail him directly at sgoldman@prismb2b.com.

Stuart will assume all of the managing editor’s responsibilities, including overseeing production of the magazine, writing and reporting stories for the print and online products, editing print and online stories, and representing the franchise at trade shows. He also covers the for-profit and university beats.

Stuart has 10 years of experience in the newspaper business primarily as a sportswriter and sports editor. Most recently, he was the sports editor at The Emporia (KS) Gazette, where he worked for four years. Stuart won numerous awards in the annual Kansas Newspaper Association contest, including best sports feature, sports story and sports column. He also served as a sportswriter at The Kansas City Star and continues to contribute as a freelancer there. In 2000, Stuart published a book about Kansas City‘s Ban Johnson Amateur Baseball League. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism, one of the highest-rated journalism schools in the country. He’s a huge sports fan, but he’s also a big fan of his wife and his very adorable 18-month old daughter.

We’re excited to have him with us, and I’m certain he will provide you with some well-written and informative articles in the future.

Stuart will join us at the IHRSA show in late March and both Club Industry shows so if you are attending any of these shows, please stop by our booth and meet him. - Pam

Just one more day before our managing editor, Amy Fischbach, leaves the magazine to have her second child and become a stay-at-home mom. We’re going to miss her efficiency in overseeing the production of the magazine, in handling multiple stories at one time, in her Web site work and, most importantly, we’ll miss her kindness and professionalism.

However, I’m happy to say that Amy won’t be far from us. Once she’s back on her feet again, she will become our freelancer. Until now, we’ve used very few freelancers, but I’ve found that I need to step away from some of the writing to focus on long-range planning, and Amy’s journalism background and expertise in reporting and writing is the combination we need to continue with our stellar reporting on the news and trends in the industry. Amy’s writing skills have won her more than one award–a Maggie Award finalist for her steroid story and an ASBPE award for her coverage of Bally Total Fitness.

Amy played an integral role in the redesign of our Web site. She had valuable Web experience that we will miss. One of her main projects has been the Step by Step columns, which have proven to be some of the more popular articles on our Web site. Jennipher Shaver, our associate editor, will now handle that department.

Amy also helped tremendously with the redesign of our Newsbeat e-newsletter more than a year ago and with our magazine redesign last summer.

We’ll miss seeing Amy every day in the office, but we’re happy to continue working with her in another capacity.

I’ll introduce you to our new managing editor next week. -Pam

Recently, I wrote about how the Navy introduced the option of sailors using an elliptical or stationary bike to complete the cardiovascular portion of their physical readiness test (PRT). The 12-minute test correlates to the 1.5-mile run sailors usually do for the PRT. Basically sailors can get on and pedal or “elliptical” their hearts out, burning as many calories as possible, during the test. Officials say the new exercise modes encourage fitness and give sailors more options to get in shape.

I‘m pretty impressed with the Navy‘s approach to fitness. I‘m sure hopping on the elliptical for 12 minute is much less daunting to many people than going out and running 1.5 miles (especially those who have problems with high-impact exercise).

What do you think? -Jennipher

Last week, I spoke to a New York Times reporter for a story she was writing about how clubs are doing more hand-holding of their clients to help retain them (assigning them a workout buddy or a cheerleader, calling them if they miss a workout). When she asked why clubs would do this, I said that the majority of club owners and staff want to help people and they know that providing more personalized attention could be the key to making a member feel comfortable and, therefore, retaining them so they meet their fitness goals. She said in a surprised voice, “Do club owners really want to help people? Really?”

I was a bit taken back by the question. I guess it goes to show that although the industry has become more professional, many people in the general public (and in the skeptical press) still think that most clubs exist to simply take the public’s money and run. Granted, making money is an important part of operating any business, including a fitness facility, but no one would put in the long hours and hard work required to keep a fitness facility going if they also didn‘t get the non-monetary reward of seeing how they are helping people live healthier lives. More than one club owner and general manager have told me that all their hard work is worth it when they are approached by a member who tells them what a difference the club has made in their health or in the health of a loved one. It‘s too bad more people don‘t see this side of the industry. -Pam