A photograph of Obama strolling shirtless along a Hawaii beach has riveted international attention. Odds are it will encourage couch potatoes to "shake their booties" and make the apparently recession-proof fitness industry grow even bigger during the coming year. The photo could not have come at a more opportune time. The Christmas-Chanukah holidays are when people traditionally eat and drink too much. Who knows how many decided against a second helping or another drink after it? The whole thing could have been a clever marketing ploy for the fitness industry. Obama is certainly a hot brand.
While some may rush to buy exercise equipment or dust off what they already have, most will join health clubs. American Fitness in its May-June 2002 issue wrote that the fitness club industry is hardy during tough economic times and, in 2007, the Minneapolis-based Mercanti Group found that health club membership topped 41 million in the United States and revenues exceeded US $17 billion annually. Since 1983, the business has grown by 8 percent yearly. In 2008, worldwide memberships topped 85 billion.
Necessity Rather Than A Luxury
Research by Roper Starch Worldwide indicates that an aging population views such memberships as a necessity rather than a luxury but that older exercisers feel intimidated by the jocks, spandex and competitive atmosphere in many gyms and want their own workout spaces. Also, they are bashful over knees, back and hips shot from running. To accommodate them, gym owners wait eagerly for the next elliptical training machine that offers an intense but low impact workout.
However, the vast majority of gym users are as driven as the President Elect who is not above exercising for 188 minutes at a time. He explained, "Most of my workouts have to come before my day starts. There's always a trade-off between sleep and working out." Actually, many would-be athletes train together as part of a community on websites such as introplay.com. It's enough to make a respectable couch potato reach for the ice cream tub before, of course, rushing to get a gym membership.
Niche Gyms
Catering to different segments of the population is leading to niche gyms. In some, women want to work out without men, while in others, the environmentally-aware can do so in green gyms like Adam Boesel's in Portland Oregon. Exercisers sweat to help power the air conditioning and so forth.
For gym newcomers, Pat Barone writing on Run Washington explains the maze of equipment can be as daunting as the unwritten rules and unseen territory of users' workouts. The smart gym owner should take note.
Equipping A Gym Is Not Cheap
The interest in fitness was reflected at an October 2007 show that had gym owners and corporations rushing to buy the latest machines during the financial meltdown. Employers see the money invested in equipment as well spent because workers who exercise are more productive and less likely to have sick days. Executives climbing the corporate ladder believe looking sleek equates with being in the running (no pun intended) for a bigger job.
Equipping a gym is not cheap - a lowly exercise bicycle, for instance, costs well over US $1,000. The financial outlay involved in just buying machines is heavy, especially when gym users want the latest equipment. Then there are the costs of salaries for the mostly female shift workers and for installing amenities like showers, whirlpools, saunas and, sometimes, pools. Having said all that, a gym is a good investment. One unfinished suburban Toronto fitness center filled its year-end membership projections several months before it opened.
Buoyant Business
The buff appearance of the new US president is likely to encourage more people to exercise in gyms and thereby boost an already buoyant business. With an aging population, it makes sense for equipment designers to make machines that do not stress injured joints. Converting a gym to run on sweat and solar power will not only help the environment but will increase profits.
Ann Berkeley - Over some years, I covered major news events - the capture of James Earl Ray, Martin Luther King's murderer, the hippie phenomenon, the ...
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