The owner of an independent personal training studio says the implementation of the MYZONE heart rate wearable has transformed his business in just six weeks.

Mark Mayes, director of PT business New Life Training, launched Enjoy Fitness Studio in Warsash, south Hampshire in January 2016. Servicing 420 pay as you go members as well as a significant number of PT clients managed by five trainers, the facility offers a large exercise studio for PT and classes as well as a gym equipped with cardiovascular equipment, weights and functional kit.

After seeing MYZONE at an industry show last year and following detailed research, Mayes installed MYZONE at the club in February.

“With my background in sport and exercise science, I try to apply science to each client to ensure they gain the maximum benefit from exercise. Each PT session and class is based around the clients’ goals and fitness levels. All of my PT clients were encouraged to use heart rate monitors while training, but often they were not accurate or cut out. I came across MYZONE at FitPro Live 2015 and immediately fell in love with the concept,” says Mayes.

“Having the heart rates on a big screen not only gives me immediate, accurate feedback on the client, but also gives the client a visual response to their exercise. Introducing the system has allowed us to increase our level of service to clients. For example, clients with adrenal issues respond well to HIIT and with the MYZONE system we can use the colors on the screen as start/stop points for their training to give them the most effective workouts.”

Mayes is utilizing social media and the club newsletter, which reaches 850 people, to raise awareness of MYZONE posting results from classes and PT sessions as well as the league tables. This combined with the in-club marketing material supplied by MYZONE has helped to maximize the profile of the new technology.

“The interest from social media and the newsletter has been great, but the biggest uptake so far has come from clients’ trialing the product in one to one sessions. They quickly understand the benefits and almost immediately go out and buy one,” says Mayes.

He is also running challenges to engage members and staff, while encouraging some friendly competition.

“We’ve run two challenges so far. The first was an internal staff incentive, where PTs were challenged to sell five MZ-3's, hit 1,300 MEPs and watch the MYZONE explanation videos. If they achieved this, I paid for their MZ-3 and bought them a coffee. They also receive £5 for every MZ-3 they sell with their own unique individual code. This has worked really well and helped promote the system to clients.”

A second challenge helped educate members about the scheme and the club has just linked up with a club in Scotland to run its first club v club challenge.

“We have had great buy in to this challenge with nearly 90 per cent of our clients agreeing to participate so far,” says Mayes.

Thanks to these initiatives, MYZONE exceeded the club’s financial expectations after four weeks, but more importantly, it has proved in a short space of time to encourage and focus clients on achieving their fitness goals.

“The classes have been a huge success. MYZONE has made them much more competitive. We had a Tabata class last week where 10 of the 11 participants were using the MZ-3. It looked awesome on the screen and created a fantastic buzz in the class. Some clients were even doing jumping jacks during the drink breaks just to keep scoring MEPs,” says Mayes.

“MYZONE is a massive USP for us; there’s no other club in the area using it.  We’ve only had it for six weeks, but it’s significantly benefited my clients, my trainers and my business. MYZONE has taken my little PT studio to a whole new level.”