How COVID-19 is threatening the fitness industry
I don’t think anyone could have expected such a predicament.
Yet here we are.
The Coronavirus (or COVID-19 of which it will be referred to in this article) is the extremely serious health pandemic that has swept the globe. We are all in a spot of bother and we are all equal in the scenario. The rich and the poor, the celebrities and your everyday person. The disease does not discriminate.
Things have heated up very quickly and here in sometimes-sunny Melbourne and across Australia we are feeling it. As of this week as per government requirement, most businesses have shut down resulting in mass redundancy and long welfare lines. My industry (the fitness industry) has never faced more uncertain times.
The grim reality for fitness in the COVID-19 era
Before delving deeper into the impact of COVID-19 on the fitness industry, allow me to paint a picture.
I am a personal trainer of five and a half years experience. I work out of a big box gym in the Western suburbs of Melbourne, Australia and have a modest client base. I took time off being a trainer to travel the world and have been back in Australia for 18 months rebuilding the foundations of my business. I am far from an industry leader but like to think I am well respected within my local space and can offer perspective from the “grassroots” of the fitness industry.
The big box environment is where you cut your teeth as an entry level trainer and it can be absolutely ruthless. I’ve probably seen close to 100 trainers in and out in my time as a PT across the gyms I’ve worked at. It’s well known that the lifespan of a trainer isn’t very long to begin with, let alone with a global health crisis trying to kick us all in the guts. As trainers and coaches we are in a very serious situation and I’m going to do my best not to beat around the bush with it. Hard truths need to be spoken. There will be a bunch of trainers who have coached their last PT session and there will be personal training businesses who will never be able to recover from this disaster.
We still don’t know when gyms might re-open, it could be in three weeks or it could be in six months.
It’s literally sink or swim out here.
During this time, mindset is EVERYTHING
Personally, I’m in good spirits. I recognise the situation that we find ourselves in and am trying to take the “glass half-full” rather than the “glass half-empty” approach. This is just the way that I approach business and the fitness industry in general.
I’ve been at the bottom. Coming back to Australia with physical and mental health issues I jumped straight back into work in the middle of a facility renovation and very quickly racked up thousands of dollars of debt to the point where I was prepared to cut the cord on my career as a trainer and suffer a mid-life crisis aged 26.
Reaching out to more experienced heads, my friend (who was later to become — and is — my coach) Ben Scott of STCfit put me onto the book Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink. I don’t do much reading these days, but I opted for the 10 or so minute Ted Talk on youtube. I’ve only watched the video once but I’ve thought about it at least once every few weeks since watching it.
The message behind the Ted Talk is simple; you are in control of and are responsible for your own destiny. It’s easy to blame the things that are happening around you for your shortcomings, but you have a choice to adapt and make the best of a bad situation.
COVID-19 is a bad situation that the most savvy of trainers will adapt around and overcome.
The reality is that our incomes are going to take a hit. As the weeks of gym closures go on, the higher chance of clients dropping off. It is what it is. But it’s how we adapt to the situation that will separate the devoted from the defeated.
Productivity is paramount
I understand that keeping a positive mindset is easier said than done and that each of us individually have a lot on the line. As the days, weeks and potentially even months roll on, the time at home in quarantine is going to take a toll.
But it also gifts every one of us something that we don’t have enough of. Time.
Speaking for myself, I haven’t had time off in six months. I chose to work through the Christmas and holiday period. I had an unusually busy social period during the early months of the year and spent long hours out of the house which means most of my time of recent was been spent working in my business rather than on it. I’ve recently changed powerlifting federations and as such went into back-to-back competition preps. This has meant any mental energy has been focused on being present at work and in training.
This mandatory quarantine period has gifted hours I’ve been wishing to spend on my business that I can’t conjure up out of thin air. Unfinished courses, podcasts, content creation have suddenly become possible. Hell, I haven’t written in over six months, without this current time out you probably wouldn’t be sitting here reading this.
As trainers we now have a lot of time on our hands to upskill, create and provide value to our clients. The natural adaptation to the scenario has been online and home programs, skype and zoom sessions and virtual PT. I’m not going to touch on that too much, it is the logical first step to combat the pandemic.
But the COVID-19 downtime also presents each fitness professional the opportunity to reflect on their practice, to grow more knowledgeable and to be able to hit the ground running when gyms re-open.
As a business are you offering sessions or are you offering outcomes? Nutrition and adherence need refining? You now have time to study and develop systems.
Programming a weak point? There’s plenty of free online content to dissect and apply to your business. I strongly believe without fully understanding the principles of strength training, progressive overload and RPE (rate of perceived exertion) that my client base and business would be in a far worse position than it is.
Been meaning to write? Start blogging. Maybe infographics are something you’ve been meaning to put out? Start creating. Been too shy to put out video content? Start gaining confidence through practice.
I’m very fortunate to be surrounded by a team of hungry trainers where I work. In the time I’ve spent as part of the Taylors community we have never had a better group of trainers and during this time it is showing.
Accountability chats have been set up where we are outlining tasks that we intend to do on a daily basis. At least 5 comprehensive at home training programs have been distributed for free in order to help people.
We’re helping each other plan ahead and keep each other on track so that we all have the best chances possible of our businesses making it out alive. If you’re a trainer reading this, I’d absolutely recommend linking up with fellow like-minded coaches to bounce positivity off because right now you don’t want to be alone and fighting a losing battle.
Be the change you aspire to be
We all have a choice to make. As fitness professionals we want what is best for our clients with the services we provide but at the end of the day we are trainers and coaches and not babysitters. It is expected of us that we provide our clients with enough value, knowledge and accountability to which they can grow and prosper in the non-contact hours of training.
The same can be said of our businesses in their current states. No one is going to be there to spoon feed you a new client base or the maintenance or daresay success the proactive will achieve during this period.
Make no mistake, the COVID-19 pandemic is threatening all of our businesses but it’s not the end of the life if you don’t allow it to be. It’s all on the individual. It’s all on you.
My understanding is that this isn’t the zombie apocalypse and that with the massive current downtrend for fitness businesses there will be a massive upswing once this is all said and done. I plan to be there to see it.
Glass half-full.
