Be Fit With Biray

Fred Hoffman and I co-presented a session entitled “Embracing Interactive Technology: Positioning Your Group Exercise Department for Success in the Next Decade” at the ACSM Health & Fitness Summit this year in Atlanta, GA. Below is our session description and the abbreviated version of our presentation.

Session Description: Similar to the aerobics phenomenon of the 80’s, the coming decade will mark a turning point in group exercise with Interactive Technology playing an important role. Learn how these up-and-coming trends will affect your future programming, budget planning, staffing, and marketing. Discover 5 essential technology ‘must-haves’ that will guarantee success in the next 10 years.

Today, most group fitness classes are sixty minutes long. Some indoor cycling classes operate within a 45-minute format. In recent years 30-minute “power” or “express” classes have also become more popular. But in the future, class times will get shorter and shorter.

How short? Think anywhere from 10-minutes to the ‘30-second’ class.

Now, we already know that short bouts of physical activity throughout the day (however long) is effective in achieving health-related benefits. We hear fitness professionals talk about simple ways people can exercise at work, at their desk, while watching TV, at the grocery store while standing in line… and so on. So why not officially put similar classes on the group fitness schedule?

We are seeing the beginnings of these shorter formats on YouTube. On most video websites (such as YouTube), users are limited to a maximum of 10-minutes of video. Fitness professionals have already started to upload mini-classes and fitness workouts, accordingly. Granted, some videos are more effective than others, others just pure rubbish. But it won’t be long before the ideal 10-minute design is perfected. Les Mills where are you?

Exergames (video games + exercise), such as Nintendo Wii, have also shown that players can reach moderate levels of intensity by just getting their game on! In fact, games like Dance Dance Revolution and EyeToy: Kinetic have given a players a sufficient rise in heart rate within 3 to 10 minute bouts of game play!

A new concept is also inspiring the idea of shorter classes. Fellow fitness colleagues Scott & Angie Tousignant have recently created the format called Twittercise. As most of you know, Twitter is a microblogging platform where people write about what they are doing, at the time they are doing it, then submitting these thoughts to the web. (Think instant-messaging to the world.) Twittercise is based on the thinking that people who have a few seconds to ‘tweet’ something, must have a few seconds to exercise. The idea is still in its infancy, but it has certainly caused interesting convesations in the ‘Twitterverse’.

Whether it’s a 30-second class, a 3-minute class, or a 30-minute class, shorter classes will eventually prevail. The shorter design may inspire non-traditional ways of exercising, but the format will definitely reach newer audiences. It may not be for everyone at every studio (especially your hard-core fitness enthusiasts), but those whose time is inconsistently spread throughout the day will appreciate the guidance and support of these new kinds of micro-classes.

In my first entry in the ‘Future of Group Exercise’ series, I invited the online community to join in on a conversation about the next decade of group fitness. Kelly Coulter, fitness author and creator of the site FitClasses.com, was the first to jump in with this comment:

“The future of group fitness lies in pre-formatted, almost ‘franchised’ classes,” she says.

This idea of standardizing classes within the group fitness industry has always been a subject of debate in the instructor community. So I thought the topic would be a great second post in this series. Are branded classes really the wave of the future?

Branded classes (or sometimes referred to as ‘pre-formatted’ or ‘trademark’ classes) are designed to help group fitness instructors deliver consistent content to participants anywhere in the world. If you’re going to take a Spinning class from a trained Spinning instructor, regardless if you’re cycling at a club in Phoenix, AZ or in Guanajuato, Mexico, you will experience a ride based on the same basic design principles.

Over the years we’ve seen many examples of formatted classes that have found success by branding their style. Examples include: Bally Total Fitness’ Kwando (branded kickboxing) and Powerflex (branded muscle conditioning); YogaFit’s yoga certifications; Silver Sneakers senior programs; Zumba’s aerobic dance formats, and the most recent phenomenon, Les Mills fitness programs.

There is no doubt that pre-formatted classes are popular. Why shouldn’t they be? They are a turn-key fitness program coupled with recommended music or playlists; regularly updated exercises and choreography; and individual conferences or workshops. A one-stop shop for any instructor.

The question in this post is NOT whether branded programming is effective or if they are here to stay. This post is about HOW pre-formatted classes will evolve and WHY they will see more success.

The answers to these questions lie in face of our future group exercise instructors and fitness participants: the Millenials.

Let’s take a look at previous generations and figure out why branded classes may not have seen the success they are seeing today. Baby Boomers come from a generation that fought against institutional establishment, valued informality and independence. They worked hard to gain recognition in their jobs and among their peers. And believed in the “work now, play later” attitude. Let’s not forget their role in bringing life to the aerobics movement, at the time, in its infancy. Therefore, Boomer instructors may not have always been too favorable towards someone telling them what to teach, how to teach it, when to teach it, and to what music to teach it to.

Then there are the Gen Xers, living in the shadow of the Boomers. Full of creative energy, with unconventional or experimental attitudes. These are the MTV or the “me” generation, focused on self-discovery. Gen Xers value individuality. Branded classes are likely to put them in a box (which they’ll inevitably resent or break out of). However, Gen X instructors respond well to pre-formatted classes (at least, initially). Branded classes have given them a foundation from which to develop their own skills and drills. Isn’t it ironic, then, that it’s the Gen Xers who are now designing most of the branded classes we see today. (No wonder why they are pushing pre-formatted classes…LOL.)

But Gen Xers will not be the reason why branded classes will see exponential success in the future (although their enthusiasm may help). If you look at the generational trends of the Millenials, you will notice that they resent Gen X attitudes and don’t quite identify with Boomer values. In fact, they are much more sheltered than any other generation, and therefore more supportive of convention (social rules are respected). They are ‘team-oriented’, think in global terms, and are on track to “becoming the best-educated and best-behaved adults in the nation’s history.” Will they respond to pre-designed classes? Yes. Will they adopt the teachings of formatted classes? Yes. And the fact that they also outnumber the Baby Boomers and Gen Xers makes them the next powerful decision makers and trend setters of our industry.

Right now, Millenials have taken to the Zumbas and Les Mills of the health industry. But who knows if these are the formats that will make up the staple classes on future group exercise schedules. But whatever classes we’ll see in the future (a topic for another post), be it Avatar Abs or Cycle-In-Orbit classes, you can guarantee most everyone will be doing them the same way.

If my memory serves me correctly, I experienced my first group exercise class with my mother back in junior high. The class was Jazzercise and clearly the name was an indication of the ”70s/’80s dance-centric culture that existed.

It’s safe to say that group fitness formats have been representative of various cultural trends over the past three decades (and vice versa). I’m not a cultural anthropologist. And although I’d love to recount the ‘good old days’ of fitness, this post is not going to be on the historical journey of aerobics (you can find an overview here, if you’d like). This post is an introduction to a new series on this blog…

In this series entitled Future of Group Exercise, I’m willing to openly explore alternative ideas and discuss group dynamics as they relate to the millenial generation (digital residents). What health classes would the Jetson’s take?

Theories in group ex instruction and structure from staple formats (like step and cycling) will serve as our foundation for discussion. Perhaps somewhere through our dialog, I’m hoping we discover their derivatives, and then the derivatives of their derivatives…

Although Jazzercise still exists today, group exercise departments have evolved since taking my first class. Change is inevitable. I invite you to be a part of a conversation designed to challenge the traditional boundaries of group fitness…