Help your ‘average Joes’ unleash their inner athlete

Everyone has the capacity to do better and to be more. By encouraging your members to tap into their competitive side, you can help them unleash their inner athlete and power their way to their goals, creating that all important habit loop.

This has been the experience of elev8 in Moultrie, Georgia.

“Our general type of member is the average Joe; the person who works at a desk job all day and works out on their lunch break, or the mom who had a baby six months ago and is trying to feel good about herself again. But Myzone makes them feel like athletes,” says gym manager and coach Emily Oliver.

And just like athletes, working out with Myzone helps members stick to a regular routine.

“Most of them come in five days a week and put themselves through our pretty rigorous workouts. They’re by no means easy, but our members just excel and you can tell that it genuinely brings them joy to feel as though they’re an athlete.”

Helping members push past their limits

Sometimes, the only thing holding us back from our inner athlete is ourselves. Tracking their effort in real time supports elev8 members in pushing past the limits they have imposed on themselves, helping them excel at even the toughest elev8 workout.

“I think some of them didn’t realise they weren't pushing themselves as hard as they could. But to be able to see their effort, calories and zones with their own eyes shows them they are much more capable of things than they realised.”

Then… when they do push those boundaries and hit their goals, that’s when the true magic happens, she says.

“It’s that ‘Aha’ moment where it just like clicks, when they achieve something they’ve been striving so long for. When they see how hard they’ve worked, they genuinely feel proud of themselves and it helps them work even harder,” she says, recognising the benefit of effort visibility in establishing the crucial habit loop, so many gyms seek to create for their members.

Embrace the competition

To really add to the upgraded engagement levels they’ve been seeing, Danielle and team have been utilising inter-club challenges. Which have proven a great way for elev8 members to connect with other members and staff.

“We love the community aspect of Myzone and the fact that we can do challenges and can get people really interested and excited. Honestly, the spark that it brings is just so much fun. It brings genuine joy to the gym. You can see the camaraderie happening,” she says.

Members went crazy for the first team challenge.

“We had six different teams with five people on each team. Some people would come and do three workouts in a day. It was insane. They were so intense about it but in such a fun way. That’s what I love about it - something so simple as a challenge was an excellent way to keep our members engaged.”

Keep evolving your fitness offer

“The world of fitness is always changing and if you’re not evolving, you can easily get left behind. What you’re doing can become boring and kind of mundane. I want to create workouts for my members that they love, that makes them feel good about themselves and gives them a great experience away from their busy lives. I can genuinely say that Myzone has made our workouts so much better. There’s not a day goes by that we regret deciding to incorporate the technology into our programme.”

You can learn more about the effects of effort visibility on member motivation here, or hear how another club has been effectively using challenges here.

@elev8moultrie