Guillermo Alves –Business Manager Telju Fitness.

Let’s be clear, sincere and direct:

Starting from the principle that most people who go to a sports center do it to lose weight, let’s delve into the process. Understanding by weight loss a healthy loss, based mainly on excess fat, let’s continue in a simple way with indisputable facts.

Since a gram of fat represents 9 calories, 1 kilo represents about 9,000 calories. Overweight in Spain amounts to 40% of its population while the prevalence of obesity is around 15%. In other words, this means that one in two adults is overweight.

So being clear, sincere and direct: Who does not have an excess of 5 or 6 kilos as an average and / or at least after 30 years? Let’s get on with reality: 5 kilos is about 45,000 calories. Knowing that no matter how much diet and exercise we do within healthy parameters, the loss of body weight is not going to be only fat or muscle volume or water, but a set of the 3, suppose that the average loss over time of a kilo of fat is given every 15 days. That means that each month you would be losing about 2 kilos approximately, being of them a very variable percentage of fat from one individual to another, since being clear it is not about losing 8 kilos in a month in any way and mainly of muscle volume. but, once again, body fat, because when one looks fat it is logically due to excess fat, that is, fat.

To achieve that loss you have to eat a healthy hypocaloric diet based on your body mass index, age, height and a few other factors that only doctors, nutritionists, personal trainers and coaches can handle. In other words, we would have a weekly loss of about 500 grams, it is always better to lose little and constantly so as not to recover what was lost than a lot at once and have to suffer the famous “rebound”.

Continuing with the gradual loss, the weight loss of 6 kilos would be achieved after a quarter, always assuming that the specific prescribed diet is respected from Monday to Sunday, exercising an average of 3 times a week as recommended the World Health Organization, combining cardiovascular training with muscle toning.

We could enter into technical evaluations such as muscle weight, since you can lose fat and increase muscle volume, which would lead to a certain increase in body weight but with a different composition, that is, healthier. So far for those of us who train, for the majority of managers, for whom we have some training in the field of health and training, there is nothing really new.

For most clients, let’s be honest, all this is not usually counted when it comes to informing what a club membership is worth, since it would have to be worth what this client represents the value that this loss represents for him / her in terms of health, aesthetics and emotional well-being.

Now, let’s keep other indisputable facts in mind:

The average life of a national client in a club is around 6 months, I speak before the Covid, but the reflection is still valid since 1 gram of fat during the pandemic continues to have 9 calories, not counting that the emotional aspect is passing bill because of the health situation, going to a sports center to relieve stress would have to be a medical recommendation. It would be another interesting debate that we will leave for another article of reflection.

Most centers focus their commercial efforts on attracting new customers and retaining them, however, turnover is still high in most national clubs; the average 6-month stay is a fact. This does not favor a long-term visibility of the club’s treasury and it would also be for another reflection of sports management. Interesting area.

So our client wants to lose those 6 kilos of overweight and it is after about 6 months that he realizes that, in most of the times, for not generalizing of course, he has not had any basic health check-up, with the appropriate questionnaire, defining some basic objectives, reflected in a truly personalized plan. That he has not been guided in the correct execution of the exercises, both at a cardiovascular and muscular level.

Technology attracts him, he sits on the bike, he knows that doing cardio is important and he starts pedaling until he gets congested, surfing the internet at the same time. He does it on Monday, the first day of his firm decision to change, on Wednesday everything hurts, he does not go and appears on Friday looking at pictograms of the isotonic machines to see if lifting a certain weight a number of times according to his criteria, it starts to change anyway her body composition… Her main references: the mirror in the weight room and the weight on her home scale.

The weekend is sacred and he does not go to the center, (always in general terms), his prize is given in the form of national food and drink, and on Sunday he does not know why his whole body hurts at the muscular level, as if a beating they would have given him evil ghosts during the night.

You get tired, bored, feel neglected, unmotivated and have even gained weight many times! He wanders around the gym when the desire pushes him to get off the couch, and after 6 months he has tired without doing anything, unmotivated for not having achieved real results so he postpones the good resolutions of the beginning of the year for the “summer operation” …

Let’s be honest and clear:

Our fitness sector is hardly going to be considered an essential health service if there are no related services as such within the facility, if there is more technology than real advice, if they are more like modern recreational facilities than healthy training places. This basic principle has been understood by the training studio model in any part of the world and of course the much criticized neighborhood gyms now called proximity gyms whose training philosophy is a true educational pillar.

With which reflection is falling, it is mandatory for our sector, in order to remodel services and achieve once and for all offer the proper and logical services that the client expects when signing up. Otherwise, muscle toning machines will not be perceived as very important elements of exploitation, as very serious tools with direct consequences on our muscles, our joints and on our main engine: the heart.

Without that humble conscience, let’s be clear, sincere and direct:

What experience are we talking about?