Bespoke gym design for the fitness professional
- Are you tired with commercially branded high street gyms charging huge weekly rents so you can use their facilities for personal training?
- Are you tired that you have to share equipment and space with other gym members?
- Are you tired that valuable attention and time is taken away from your clients sessions, reducing the speed and quality of their results?
- Are you tired with being micro-managed?
Benefits of using your own gym
This was certainly the case for me. So, I decided, after personal training for three years out of a large commercial organisation, to build my own private, high street, personal training gym. For the first time I felt that I was truly a self employed personal trainer and was free to make all my own decisions, such as, what pieces of equipment to install, what was the best use of space, what music to listen to, what uniform to wear and what prices to charge per session.
I think the greatest benefit though, was the personal touch that it gave to my clients’ sessions. They knew they were the only clients training at the gym at any one time, so were free to train without any restricting insecurities. This was a great way to attract new clients, who were new to training and may not like the idea of training close by experienced gym members.
Another equally amazing benefit to the private gym was I could use whatever piece of equipment whenever I wanted. This meant I could quickly adapt to my clients’ needs. If they came into the session with a specific injury, for example, I could go straight to the machines I wanted and train continuously, jumping from one piece of equipment to the next without having to join with, or wait for, other members. This meant I could cover more exercises within the same time frame thus achieving quicker and more quality results.
Also, the high street location and sharp shop front advertising meant that I had numerous daily enquiries either through walk-ins or by potential clients taking down my phone number or website when they drove by or were sitting on a bus. I did not need to spend vast sums of money on advertising. All I needed was my website and business cards, as the shop front drew the custom in for me.
If you can relate to these points then this is the service for you, a personal trainer who dreams of running their own gym or personal training studio, where you and your clients will not have to battle for equipment and where your clients can train in a private setting free from the thought of on-lookers’ opinions.
You may not have seen many personal training studios on your high street. The reason for this is there are not many shop fronts with D2 use, which will allow you to run your business as a gymnasium.
This is where I come in!
Extras that I can help with
In order to get a change of use for your premises you need to speak to your local county council. They will ask if you would like to apply for pre-planning advice or go right ahead and apply directly for a change of use. You will then be required to write a statement explaining your proposal. This must contain how the change of use fits in with local planning ideas for the area, how your gym will benefit the area in terms of street scene or local economy. Also you will need to explain if the gym will take away the chance for other local amenities that might benefit the local area better, such as local shops. Also, explaining the gyms impact on traffic, highways and the environment and how it would contribute to green transport. The list goes on and on!
On top of this you will need photos, and three scale maps clearly illustrating any proposed works or changes.
If the premises are a shop front then the likelihood of it having a residential property above will be high. Thus, you will have to speak with an environmental health officer who will ask you to commission a full noise assessment. They will check to see if the roof and walls are insulated enough against any noise, that you make, that could affect local residents.
If there are no further complaints a change of use will be granted. However, you will need to speak with your solicitor who will check the lease is up to standard and that there are no hidden maintenance costs. Also, to see if the lease if fully repairing or not and who picks up the bill for any works, you or the landlord. You will need to decide how long the lease will run for (usually 6 years) and if there is a break where you can exit the lease, usually after three years. You will need to negotiate rent, if there is any rent free period to be had, to help you get set up, and what instalments the rent is to be paid in.
If all this sounds like too much to take on alone, then this is where I come in!
Services and Fee
I have been there and done it, so know exactly what will be required of you. I found a suitable site on a high street that was great for advertising which, brought in a steady stream of new clients and helped generate interest. I was successfully granted a change of use after completing what was required, including the noise assessment.
I designed and built the gym. (See photos) An electric shower and cubicle had to be installed and a speaker system put in, so music played in all three rooms at the same time. Bespoke mirrors were also required. I sourced the equipment and built the equipment as well as designing the shop front, webpage, business cards, and the rest of the decor, i.e. seating area, water cooler, pictures and other finishing touches. So, I know exactly how much work is involved when setting up, what works, what is necessary and what is a waste of money!
I can also provide help when you are looking to sell your gym. I know all about negotiating a lease transfer, as well as knowing how to price the gym and how to negotiate good-will for your client base.
This template can also be used to set up a gym where you would have paying members and self employed personal trainers, that would pay you floor rent. I was asked many times if my gym was accepting paying members or would allow other personal trainers to work there. These ideas can easily be incorporated into your designs, and would take into account planning issues, like the size of your premises, available parking and impact on traffic and local residents.
Bespoke gym consultancy services for the fitness professional include:
- Free no obligation consultation by appointment or by phone or email
- Assistance with locating a unit
- Assistance with the application process for a change of use
- Assistance with gym design, sourcing materials and installation
- Personal training consultation - Assistance in how best to advertise to increase your client base or improve customer service, client retention, price schemes and teaching methods, all aimed at getting quick, noticeable and sustainable results with your clients and your business as a whole.
A price for the service would be calculated after the consultation, prior to any commencing research.
This price would be calculated on an individual case basis, factoring in the size of the gym to be designed, the amount of planning research and amount of assistance with equipment installation, gym set up and advertising.
High street gym design example: 888
This was the first high street personal training gym I built back in 2011. I needed a larger space to train my clients. Larger than my home gym I had previously built, (see photos) as my client base was increasing. Also, I wanted to advertise on a larger scale, so the shop front advertising, from a high street location, was perfect.
I had all the equipment necessary to complete every type of workout including 1-40kg dumbbells, bench press, incline/decline weight bench, Olympic bar and over 240kg of weight, squat rack, lat pull down and low row, seated row, leg press, cables, stability ball, boxing equipment recumbent bike and treadmill. For clients convenience I had private onsite parking, a kitchen, a private shower room and toilet, perfect if they needed to get back to work or just head out into town(Click here for pictures)
The gym was designed for my clients, using experiences from my own extensive client base and the successful running of my previous home gym (see home gym design). This allowed us to continue to train around any injury ensuring that their goals were still achieved and training remained consistent.
Room 1
Room 2
Room 3
The gym was split into three rooms which helped to keep training interesting and helped to provide a different focus during their programme.
Room 1
Room 1: Contains the dumbbells, squat rack, bench press, Olympic bars, Olympic weights and cable machine. This room is centred on powerlifting, muscular size and tone. There are belts, chalk and an area for deadlifts. The room is kept cool with fans and an air conditioning unit. (See photo gallery)
Room 2
Room 2: This is the cardio room and contains the recumbent bike and treadmill. The recumbent bike is great as it allows you to still increase levels of fitness with an injured back or knees. The sitting position means there is no impact upon these potentially painful areas. The treadmill is heavy duty and can take 180kg. There is a high incline which, again, allows you to train with little or no impact upon the lower back or knee joints. I have separated the cardio room from the two weight training rooms to give my clients an extra workout for no extra cost. If you arrive early you simply strap yourself up to a heart rate monitor, which is provided, and start your workout. This is great as you are already warm and flexible when you start your work out, so no time is wasted. Like-wise, when your session is over and you want to cool down or burn off some more calories you are more than welcome to continue your session in the cardio room, still with the heart rate monitor running, as I have two! These extra sessions of cardio all add up and that weekly calorie total soon looks very impressive! Max calories for a single session will go on the white board in this room! (See photo gallery)
Room 3
Contains the lat-pulldown, low row, seated row and leg press. These machines are vital for strengthening the upper back and correcting posture. The leg press helps to strengthen the legs independently even if the back is injured. I also have a heavy punch bag attached to the ceiling in this room and there are boxing gloves and pads available. I use this room for light boxing with my clients to keep the heart rate high in between sets. There is also a speed ball and floor to ceiling ball. Boxing is great to increase levels of fitness and to burn fat while improving balance and coordination. It also provides a change of focus from weight training and helps to keep your personal training programme varied and fun! (See photo gallery)
Clients could bring their own ipod or iphone to play their own music, as the stereo played in all three rooms. There was no need to bring a drinks bottle as I provided water via a water cooler which delivered cold, filtered water, the perfect refreshment for any hard training session! (See photo gallery) There was an electric shower providing instant hot water if clients need to freshen up and get back to work or head off into town. The kitchen contained a fridge, microwave, kettle, toaster and blender so clients could make their own protein shakes and any meal of the day. (See photo gallery) There was convenient private onsite parking and a secure area where clients could lock up their bike. Where possible I always encouraged my clients to cycle to and from the gym as the extra calories burnt during the journey all added up at the end of the week. (See photo gallery) I wanted to create a centre for fitness training which meant that a client cannot use any excuse not to train and burn off those vital calories that make you feel and look great!