2024 Fitness Industry Trends

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Tyler 00:01

Ladies and gentlemen, happy 2024 I think this probably 2024 When you're hearing this right, I definitely will be so happy new year y'all. This week on the gym owners podcast we want to talk about our upcoming year. What we do is we do a little bit of lazy research. And so what we do is we just Google what the upcoming fitness trends are looking like for the next year. And we kind of see one, whether or not just those trends, those ideas are bullshit, and they're not really going to happen. And to kind of tell you how to prepare for some of them, how to use the ebbs and flows of some of these trends to your advantage, really, to help you connect with your consumer to connect with your market better, and to serve your people better. So big fitness trends 2024. Before we get started, follow the show at the gym owners podcasts on Instagram. That's the only platform we're on there. Follow me at Tyler Elphinstone, Instagram and John



John Fairbanks 00:52

can follow me on Instagram at J banks FL. All



Tyler 00:56

right, let's do oh, by the way, whatever platform you guys are listening to us on. Leave us a five star review. We always forget to do that. I always forget to ask. It's like when you're trying to build a podcast to be just just a standalone podcast. That's the only thing that matters. It's given the reviews you mean real soon so get up there. Leave us a review if you're listening for now if you listen regularly would really appreciate a five star review. Leave some words, kind words, please. Okay, we're honest.



John Fairbanks 01:25

But if we're gonna be honest, you need to be funny. Like it's to be like, these guys are assholes, but five star so



Tyler 01:30

we're running two lists right now, of upcoming fitness trends we're gonna kind of bounce around, some of these are just gonna be less interesting to talk about, so we won't. So I'm going to kind of jump right in right away. One we cover before being topped with this list is the top 10 upcoming trends for 2024. Number one on this list is wearable technology. And I fully agree, I don't particularly think that they're awesome or great, but people are wearing them. The thing about wearable technology is it's not necessarily going to make it to the market because the person wearing it needs it the most. Like these aren't becoming popular because they're the best for you. The consumer these are becoming popular because this is the biggest source of bulk data biometric data that's ever existed in humanity and this is the play this is more important than your your internet, your internet search your your cookies, your GPS data, all the data that your phone, your if your operating system harvests from you this biometric data is the biggest data play that's ever existed. So just know that there's plenty of businesses willing to lose billions of dollars billions and billions and billions of dollars to get these products on your body on your person to convince you to buy them to take a loss to get the market share simply so they can start to accrue that data and then they can sell it to anybody everybody. So that I think is the larger picture I don't believe that the real driving force behind the Apple Watch and it's heart rate monitoring and the way that your phone can see your pupil dilation while you're looking at advertisements and how it can tell when you what what emotions you're what emotional response you're getting when you're reacting to stuff you're seeing on your phone because of course they're all synced together. But that simply exists as a way to start to make marketing advertising more effective in the future and that's going to be really scary.



John Fairbanks 03:27

Well it's gonna be scary but it says it's gonna happen anyway this is always where my brain goes now yeah, it's gonna happen anyway right so this is gonna happen so like it's it's you can you can leverage a little bit of this it this is where it's like the evil of the world. Okay, so like being raised in a very religious household like the internet was always a double edged sword. I remember like when the internet really when we were still like you know you had like, crank it and then the robot yelled at you is it was like dialing up and coming alive like when I was happening and I remember my dad because it was like all all throughout the church right it was like every leader was like, this is going to be a place of like Sodom and Gomorrah is going to live everyone screen inside of your home because of this internet access. Remember that they were not wrong at all right? Like but warning like be aware because there's always like porn Right? Like Porn was like that was dangerous. before it even like the like, Listen, this is gonna be bad. But



Tyler 04:28

in the same pod, she had no idea.



John Fairbanks 04:32

You guys are just forgetting about Yeah, Ben over about, like Bush being shown. So it was like so now but at the same time it was also going to allow so much access to data and information for the good. They're like, it's kind of like the good and the bad outweighs each other. And it's one of those things that's gonna happen. So whether you chose to not participate, or then you also reap the benefits of the positive and so in the same vein, I mean, it's, they're going to harvest all of our data, and they're going to use it for nefarious purposes to the nth degree, but there is going to be some positive shit that we can pull from this. And if you're a gym owner, you can utilize this psychological fact for a lot of your people to,



Tyler 05:14

I think, I think, I think integrating some of this stuff with your stuff, whether it's simply challenges, things like this, or just like a little bit of education, or there's places that sell them and track them and things like this, you know, some of the 24 hour places have a, you know, you can either use it with your Apple Watch, or they have the band that you can wear, and you get to go in and puts up your, your heart rate and your whatever your percentage of your outputs all the time. And some of that stuff I think is, it's good, it's fine. It's a good way to track your workouts. And like really, if you're going like it was at Orangetheory is the one where it's like, you want to be right in that area of your heart rate. And that's how I know your zone, the burn zone. Just reminds me of on Twister where he's like you're in the sucks. You're in the suck stone. But then I think I think it's solid. One of the most interesting products that I've seen for this that I'm looking at integrating it to one of the 24 hour gyms that we work with is and as you and I start to tinker with some more physical locations, for our own products, there's Technogym has a thing called Technogym Vizio. And it is essentially like a big touchscreen, touchscreen screen. So imagine all of the things that a peloton has, like instructors or workouts and maybe it's not just an instructor walking you through the thing. Some of them are our met cons that maybe are just prebuilt like imagine your CrossFit programming are your your standalone functional fitness programming that's got kettlebells med balls, some dumbbell stuff, and body movement shit, just theoretically Hear me out one one out, if you want a theoretical exercise, here you go. And you pick that workout because you like it, right? You go okay, but hit that button. It'll show you demos of each video. And so you'll know exactly what you're doing. And you're it'll run the timer for you. So you hit a button and it goes 321 And that runs the timer or countdown. So if you're doing rounds, do this for 60 seconds and rest for 60 seconds. It's like your coach, okay. And this specific product, which I mean with them here this week to talk about how it can get fully integrated, is really kind of cool, because with your own coaches, you can build a portal through your coaching platform as well. So now your coaches in your facility can offer maybe less time, what's the word less time consuming, less laborious service, and run it directly through this thing. So now you can be your coach there with the demo video or your coaches workouts going out to that specific client. So now remote programming and things like this that can normally be done on some of these other apps, your trainer eyes and your whatever else is out there. Like it's now done in your gym for your gym on a touchscreen. I really liked the idea. I've been to some places in Europe that had versions like this. And there were like in the functional fitness room, there were like two of them. So two different people could use them in the aerobics room. And you'd have some down there by the open space as well you get three or four of these in your joint, especially if you're not constantly Selling Coach products. It allows people to be semi independent and, and they can still log their workouts and track their way, all this stuff through that if they want to. And I think it integrates with an app that they can take with them at home. And this is really, that is really, really, really cool. And it's my thought as a personal trainer. I want people to do my workouts in my gym if they want, right? Once they go, hey, I want to see what Tyler's all about. And they can go on and instead of having to just pay me they can kind of try before you buy, if you will. And I can throw out some freebies there and they go in and they check and pick out this guy stuff is kind of cool. Like the way he does, it was fun. That workout crushed me like it was really good stuff. And in my opinion, I don't have to then do a bunch of what some of these places want you to do like a free session or a discounted session. It's like not all you try my stuff and the ones that are about it. You know, this is a perfect leader into getting the one on one coaching business. But it's also a great way to focus on getting your clients results. Because again, the centerpiece of your business should be getting your clients results. And this now is like they can they're not wandering in the gym not knowing what to do. They can track that you can be you can say just do four workouts a week on that thing. One of them should be cardio. And they'll do it and they have a chance to succeed. They don't wander in bored, sit around, pull on some fucking cables ineffectively and leave.



John Fairbanks 09:48

The one thing that is crucial is what we're talking about, like the nefarious Big Daddy data that's going to take this over from whether it's a Fitbit or Apple Watch or whatever. They're going to be different wearables but the idea is that If you can now get the data from your people, because you now have them fully integrated into your, your system, your coaches, your workouts, your movements. And that does come with a wearable. It does come with an app where they are tracking it all within that system where your coach lives, your system lives, you now get to see that data. So now you get to know what the reps, what the rounds were, what the weight was, like the ability to now have, what I always thought was like what that hybrid, what a hybrid service really is when you say that word hybrid. And I also love the idea that it's something where that group class is a workout for people that can't make that group class time.



Tyler 10:39

How great is that also, for people who want to train with a friend, you don't want to just stand there and take snaps for everybody. By the way, me and my dudes, we're gonna bench or squat, we're gonna rip some dumbbells and do some bro stuff. I don't need a three to one go stuff because we're men. But there is. And I'm just joking, mostly. But there is a lot of use, I think for people who want to come in and train with people. Yeah, that having this thing to be like a focal point. And such as this guy, Tony, how much did you like, now let's just go through this thing. And there's a timer and you can take turns, I just think that that's really, really, really sweet. You know, we do certain things that we did on Christmas, my wife and son and I and to work out well, we're not going to go through like a regular workout. You know what I mean? Like, I'm not gonna just do my normal thing, because we never really worked out together. So Right. There's six teams strength machines, like the stack, metal stack, cable, stag strength machines in this gym, eight, upper body, eight lower body, somebody 40 reps on every machine, that's what that's the type of shit you kind of want to do is like, alright, this is the silly thing that we're going to do today. And I think that having something like that as a focal point on the wall is really cool. So wearable technology, I think just integrating technology into your gym, is important. You don't have to break the bank to do it. But I think you need to recognize the opportunities. And the one thing to do is be a bit mindful of the popularity and, you know, risk with some of these things, because some of these companies will just go tits up, and they'll never support them again. So you do have to be careful about that. So the next one, I think, is really interesting. worksite health promotion, also known also, you know, corporate fitness, or just, you know, fitness promotion is being integrated into the workplace, it's, frankly, represents more than a third of my personal training that I do right now is if it's not directly that from from people doing it through their workplace, it's the leads I've got from people that are coaching their workplace and their kids and their families. So that is not going away. I think that's a priority that insurance companies want and are going to start to gradually incentivize, but that back through the business via discounts, etc. I also think that businesses want healthier people who feel better, look better, perform better, and think better. You just cannot tell me that if you're 200 pounds overweight, that you're as ambitious and that your brain is firing as well. And that you're just performing as well as if you were just a little more disciplined and treated your body better, and had that track record under your belt for a long enough timeline. I just I don't I don't believe that. And your employer doesn't either. I'm sorry, it is one of the things that people need to understand. We're preaching to the choir here, because you guys are all fitness people. But if I have to hire somebody, and they come in, and they're way overweight and slow, like, you know, they don't take care of themselves at all, like no effort, versus somebody that comes in and just looks like they're in shape. It would have to be insane. The actual conversation for the in shape person to fuck it up. I mean, they'd have to be so bad for me to not allow me to choose the other parts, because it's like, what are you? I can't even I don't want to say this. But some of them are out of shape and disrespectful to their own body. What are they going to forget, you know, leave the place unlocked? Are they going to steal things like you got no fucking idea when somebody has that. And frankly, I just believe it's a mental illness. When you treat yourself like that, that poorly and I don't need to hire fucking people that are that close to being unhinged and bring them into my system. I want someone who performs well, and is assertive, and is confident and has discipline and has character and can be consistent and can do things that are difficult because they pay off in the long run. Those are the types of people you want to hire.



John Fairbanks 14:38

Now, if you zoom even further back, right is every time that a company a large company that has you know, let's say 50 plus employees give you the idea, even though it's still small business, but if you start to go into this arena, it's every time somebody utilizes their benefits for health insurance. it penalizes the company right? So they don't technically want you to have Have to go to the doctor, have to get surgery, or have to do those things this way, even larger companies may have really robust services for health insurance. But they'll have like surgical riders that are separate, like separate services, and that the company will literally invest in work with those surgery centers so that they don't even have to, you don't even go through insurance. It's all cash. It's all handled totally off books off insurance. And they will rather go through that and pay and cover you at 100% pay for you to fly their surgery stay at a hotel, because in the end, it benefits the company as a whole to not have their insurance get run.



Tyler 15:38

And if you're living outside of the United States, oh yeah, this



John Fairbanks 15:42

doesn't make any sense.



Tyler 15:42

We know that's crazy, whatever. No, turn this ship around.



John Fairbanks 15:49

But because this is a growing thing, and this is important. And there are a lot of gym owners that we've talked to over the years that have talked about, like, how can I get linked up, I want to be able to have a corporate program, I want to get my gym in front of these business because you see this, even if you are international, right, you see the benefit of getting linked up with a company. For all the reasons you talked about Tyler, where if you have they want a healthier populace, working for them less sick days, more, you know, less depression, and all those positive things. But in the States, there's very real benefits for them financially, there is a word of caution that I know is a bit in the back of my mind, because I've sent you a couple things over the last several months, about this whole premise of now of what I'm starting to see, especially in the CrossFit space with this with a company called what true med that's coming in. And helping gyms qualify to use, like pre paid tax dollars to go towards their gym memberships. Now, concept wise, I really dig this idea for someone to be able to be like, Well, I am already going to go to a gym or I would go to a gym and now I can lower my taxable income so that the government doesn't can't tax me money. Like I think that overall is awesome. My concern is for gyms and gym owners to start to view this as a viable, like, revenue stream. Because it's subsidized memberships through the worst fucking place on the planet, which is the US government. Yeah.



Tyler 17:24

Like, well, that's one of the things that worry like, when you start to look at that you go. What if they just pull the plug on this too? Or what if all of a sudden now there's more verification that needs to be done than the discount? Is it worth it? Yeah, yeah. Because you're not getting much other than just simply a membership. So it's really the consumer that has to decide to do business with them. Right. And so there's if they get stuck going through a bunch of these hoops now their relationship with you is tethered to this thing, this might suck. I'm all about trying these things. Like I said, I'd always try and I wouldn't jump in with you know, jump in headfirst. But that is very, you know, I have an uncle who was a dentist for long careers retired a few years ago. And one of the things he always said he was like, Listen, don't be a fucking doctor, be a dentist. And by the way, don't ever let a fucking dentist call themselves a doctor in front of you. It's like when a chiropractor doesn't fall off guys. Stop it. There was only someone like a professor at college with a PhD. Like, you can't just call your get that when they have a doctorate. like listen, you can't just say I'm a doctor and just call yourself a doctor. Fuck off. You're not your pretend doctor, you went to school for a long time. While we all understand that that's a certain class of degree. You're not a fucking doctor, you're a teeth repairman. Okay, let's be real. And so unless you're an oral surgeon, you're a fucking, you're not a doctor. But anyway, these are his words, not mine. So anyway, one of the things that he said he's like, you definitely should be a dentist, if you're trying to like he was always telling the kids the grandkids, like, be a frickin dentist. Because like, it's easy. You can set your own hours, there's almost never an emergency. And if you have partners in a place that you work out, like, you can leave and somebody else can handle an emergency client of yours if something comes in while you're gone. Like it's just not that big of a deal. Spent the last 15 years of his career working two, three days a week we said the best part about it was up to for the most of his career, the government's completely out of that industry. And insurance companies are almost non-existent in that industry. Because dental insurance really doesn't operate the same way that regular health insurance and you're still getting paid and you're not jumping through a bunch of hoops and it doesn't pollute the system. So be a dentist and tread lightly when it comes to the government being in your business. That's



John Fairbanks 19:35

all well, and we weren't dental examples. It's this thing that we're starting to see like just that with words of caution. It's talked to physical therapists, the Afghan people that are mired in just fucking meters and meters of of paperwork that's making it impossible for them to do their job. There's a reason why people are wanting to do away with that shit and Now it's starting to kind of creep into the physical fitness space.



Tyler 20:03

Most of us, me, you guys out there, like you got into the fitness industry. Because there's really not a lot of bureaucracy between you and you starting your business and existing and you're doing your thing. Like, let's be real, the barrier to entry to getting this thing going, does not mean there's a lot of hoops to jump through government wise, it's pretty fucking easy for anybody with the want to to get into this business. So definitely don't just make it more complicated than it needs to be. I don't think so one of the next things here, we do have fitness programs for older adults. We've talked about that in the past. But yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, gyms for the last 3040 years are not built for an aging population, even if they're built in a way that can serve them. They're absolutely not branded and marketed for that. That is a huge gap that's going on in this industry. It's why you see the rise of programs like SilverSneakers, trying to help kind of like move some of these things forward and get people placed. It's a great opportunity for personal trainers and coaches. And I know it's not as fun maybe for your preference, if you want to just be working with shixin sports bras and dudes with ABS who want to fucking just get sweat and rip. But like, you know, are you concerned about public health? Are you do you really care about the people in your community and the health of your community and you want to make some fucking money because the one thing is there's an old people ain't got no money. But there's a lot of people that do. So they can pay, well, they need private attention very often. And they need some sort of level of service one way or another if there's going to be a kind of a helping hand, a holding hand in this process. So I think that's super important. I think it's an opportunity for you. If your gym doesn't have someone who is specialized in it, or who wants to, it's a great opportunity to find someone who does write, your gym may not have somebody who's like really tuned into youth sports performance. So you're probably not even in a situation where you can really push those types of programs or market those types of services. But find one, if that's something you want to be making money on, and we're just simply laying out opportunities for you. And I think that really definitely is one. Next one is, I think, obvious fitness for weight loss. No shit. I think that that's the thing dieting, culinary interventions, x-ray extra exercise routines, personal training, nutrition plans, those things need to be integrated together. And in my opinion, unless your gym is a performance first gym, which is okay, plenty of those exist. In a performance first gym, sometimes people already have their nutrition stuff dialed in. While I do believe a lot of them are willing to pay for services like that from you. If you are not a performance first gym, if you are just a gym where people are coming to get fit or to lose weight. If you're not attaching nutrition services to it, you're fucking up and you're screwing over your clients and you're really diluting them into thinking that they're just going to jog and lift the pounds off and then eat the way it's going to work. So don't don't convolute their impression of how this is going to go. And I want you to actually set these people up for success and exercising for weight loss is why people are going to your gym it's why the vast majority of Mr.



John Fairbanks 23:22

Can we talk about the fact that some gyms are going to be starting to include their memberships and services, some of the weight loss drugs are they Yeah, so like lifetime. I just pulled up an article because partnering with doctors Yeah, so lifetime is going to pilot a way to drugs for gym members. Nice. Yeah, so it said lifetime precedent if



Tyler 23:46

I push testosterone on my clients to get started getting better results. Like I would be such a supervillain, but these motherfuckers Epic's has been around for like fucking nine months, and these fuckers are going to just integrate it with their business which by the way, that's your call. I have no problem with the people taking it. We've talked about that in the past like if that's where you're at, yeah, go for I think the consequences, having it take three, four or five years to get the weight off physically, it's probably worse, depending on where you're at, but the crazy thing is you're gonna get people that got 20 pounds to lose that are going to go down this irreversible path and your business is kind of tied to that situation which is a bit weird. I mean, like, I'm not getting I'm not getting fucking like vaccinated every time some new version comes out simply because I It just ain't been around long enough for me to really trust the 20 year track record of such things. There's no fucking way I'm recommending my clients to get on that elite if a doctor does fine, but if I'm in that process at all, I just wouldn't feel good about recommending it. But you're gonna lose like, oh, like



John Fairbanks 24:59

so. So you get As the gym chain pilot, so this back in October said they're gonna prescribe weight loss injections for members. And it's that they'll bring medical professionals in house to deliver obesity drugs at their clubs and work with insurance. So what they'll do is that they'll have blood tests that meet FDA guidelines to show increased physical activity, because that's one of the requirements from some of the insurance companies, they'll cover the cost of the drug, so that they would be able to then have and then weight watchers so that's lifetime and then weightwatchers has recently acquired a telehealth platform that can prescribe those GLP ones so ozempic. And now that they have it now, people that are part of their program, can do that telehealth visit, get the prescription and then be able to have the axes are



Tyler 25:51

This is the boner pill ification of weight loss drugs now, because that was the thing once you could start ordering for again, him or two or whatever, just call a doctor. And they're like, Yeah, we're in, you know, that's really kind of funny. Well, that's interesting. The thing is, here's the problem. To the person who's got 30 or more pounds to lose, let's be real. People have been going to this place, and they all fucking lost the weight, dude. They all did it. And that's the service. And that service sounds like a shortcut. And maybe it is. But you know what it is as part of the value equation gives you a very high likelihood of success and will give you that success in a very short amount of time. So it's going to most likely work unless all of these people turn into mutants and die in five years, which will good happen. But it's going to work. So if you're at the gym, that's not addressing people's nutrition and you're letting people just come and want to lose weight you're telling me I just spent too much time on the treadmill. And you're you're if you're an ineffective gym that does not deliver results know that now, juice there's gyms out there that are thinking less about the client's overall lifetime well being that are going to be more effective than you they just will to the person in the perception of the customer these gyms are going to be fucking crushing it everybody who goes there is just dumping the pounds and they all so and so used to be just fat as fuck dude, and he looks great at the pool. I'm going there. And because built in knowing that it has the pharmacy stuff tied into it makes it feel like a shortcut. And I think it's going to make it work better.



John Fairbanks 27:42

Of course because I am thinking about this too. It's leveraging what we already know about buyer psychology when it comes to supplementation. But guess what, these are actual supplements that work. So the CWA is right like this and the principles of things will matter. And I'd say it's our spot Tyler, our spot, we have the highest level of service. We help you get your blood test, get you the proper amount of TRT prescribed, get you on like get you some of those basic things and get your blood work right. In combination with what we're going to do on the training side. It's like you're about to get a bunch of dudes between the ages of 35 and 55. Fucking jacked by



Tyler 28:28

they're all gonna go bald and they're all going to have purple skin. But man, are they going to be jacked? Yeah, man, welcome to the trend factory. I think just going the distance with this is just tied in with just straight up steroids.



John Fairbanks 28:42

We got to call up guys at Dustin and got



Tyler 28:45

If it's telehealth, are people prescribing anything? Uh huh. Yeah, except the horse stuff. Just trend is not really for humans to transit horse steroid, but everything out there everything shorter that they can read, all the



John Fairbanks 28:58

gym needs is a stable, like you could just



Tyler 29:03

one horse freezer full, it's fried and a bunch of angry men fucking and fighting their way through town. The trend factory might not be my best gym, my best effort



John Fairbanks 29:14

will be short lived, but boy will be awesome while we do it, get the MMA. So



Tyler 29:18

next on this list exercise for mental health. And I think that this is the first time in the top 10. And I believe I've shit on this as a branding as like a centerpiece for your brand. Because I think frankly, it's a secondary benefit. However, it is absolutely crazy for people to not know what's the word and not address the fact that being in better shape, looking better, will make you feel better. And it's just and I think that some people get the cart in front of the horse with this thing and you start selling mental health. Hate to break it to you bitch ain't nobody going to you for that. They just think they're gonna go to the doctor, you're not on the top 10 list of places or people they'd rather fucking call their high school teacher who they hated, than just go to some fucking stranger with their fucking mental health shit. That's not an actual real mental health professional. But if those of you that want to have an impact on the mental health of your community, and what mental health to be one of the primary benefits of working out in your place, and that it's okay to have a welcoming environment and all that good, warm, fuzzy shit, get people in fucking shape, yet people are getting in shape and they are losing weight, they will feel better in their mental health comes along, people start to they get you get such narrow tunnel vision. When people are trying to make their training and their coaching so much about mental health, that what they do is nobody gets any results. And everybody stays in kind of a piss poor condition while training is very thoughtful. And then guess what? So and So still depressed fucking two years, they still have anxiety two years later,



John Fairbanks 30:58

because they're still fucking fat and



Tyler 30:59

can't do shit, dude. So get them the physical results that they're there for. And I promise you mental health will come along. But you're sometimes so many people they get tunnel vision, you're just aiming for the wrong target. Okay, it's just it's, it's like it's like the corner shooting the movie, shoot the fuel tank, and the car explodes. Okay, you know, kind of shoot out all this stuff and just just shoot the fuel tank, the car explodes. Okay, everything's fine. But that's my take on us. That was I think it's super important. I think this I think is one of the most important needs because I think when we found with the COVID lockdown the pandemic stuff is people being static and people kind of just ordering takeout a decline in a person, the decline in public physical health that happened over the pandemic, a very serious negative effect on the public's mental health. But that doesn't mean we run out straight at the mental health program from a branding standpoint, and from what the training is, the x the physical health problem, and you will fix the mental health problem. You don't get to be such a fucking moody dork about all your shit, you still need to be okay. That doesn't want people to hear this thing on here, like mental health. Oh, perfect. Let's be the fucking emotions place, get the fuck out of here with that shit.



John Fairbanks 32:12

And I think you're opening besides it being kind of gay, it's you're opening yourself up to there's too much litigiousness that you're going to open just like you guys like God, you're not you're not



Tyler 32:26

if you're marketing, that stuff, you market that stuff. And my kid goes to work out at your place, because he's a bit of a head case, and they go to work at this place. And I think this coach is working with him, and something doesn't go right or something, and the kid fucking kills himself, you're going to eat a colossal plate of shit, because you started treading in those waters colossal and it will shut you down, that also those outcomes will fucking be very damaging to your mental health as a coach. So fucking take on responsibilities that you're actually equipped for. And I promise the outcomes that you're chasing, you will get. But again, people who can't deliver actual physical results tend to just adopt some guru shit, because it's the best way that they can do to change the goalposts for you.



John Fairbanks 33:09

Now, because it's in the top 10 We know that like what everyone is starting to identify as this is going to become increasingly important and just what you call that Tyler, big fucking surprise for years post pandemic, that mental health is now a significant problem that everyone's focused on. Right? So because we know this is growing, there's so many things that don't know shit, right? Old people are gonna continue to matter more and want to know why? Because there's fucking so many of them. No one's dying, running out of them. Now getting all right.



Tyler 33:38

By the way, we do want to solve the old person health problem, either ignore it completely, it'll all go away to



John Fairbanks 33:45

spite or get on board



Tyler 33:47

and make some money in the process.



John Fairbanks 33:49

Right. And then on this mental side is because we know it's important. It's go find an actual professional in your fucking area, and then partner with them. And now you kind of can bring in some of the people who actually know what they're talking about. opposed to a bunch of motherfuckers doing rikey While you're doing bench press. And if you're having a hard time activating your shit, it's because your dad, like you, somehow has a bad relationship with your father. Like,



Tyler 34:10

yeah, it's not because your shoulder doesn't hurt because you got come over it and tore your fucking labrum. It's because of your relationship with your dad. Right? None of that shit. youth athletic development, huge opportunity highly recommended, in my opinion. It's because the public perception of health I think, I really think post pandemic and this younger generation has had some fucking lot of fat parents and fat out of shape people that they just really don't want to be, you know, my kid goes to school, man. You know, I mean, he plays sports and does things and he's not like a judgmental prick the way that I am. But he's like, he's like, there's a lot of people that are built like they're 50 and have diabetes that are detained, you know, and so he's just like, nah, nah, and I don't know that we necessarily had maybe as many of those growing up. But what it is, is you have a couple of generators. Patients have parents that don't pass any of that understanding along to their kids, you know, a lot of this food, these foods are new. I think that there's just a couple generations of stuff that has snowballed. And now, people know people, even parents who don't exercise, know that they need something because their kids feel better, their kids act better around the house, the kids do better in school, they behave better, they don't come home and rage or eat like shit. Like they, all of a sudden a kid that learns to take care of himself, like expend energy in a healthy way, is not doing shit that like I was doing when I was young, you know, breaking into cars, smashing windows, and you know, just out doing crime, because you're bored. You know, those are, those are not things that these kids need to do, because they have a healthy outlet. I think parents, even unhealthy ones, are willing to accommodate that, you know, I have kids that we worked with at the martial art studio, whose parents don't work out at all, like really don't at all, and they're like, really, really, really in really bad shape. But they bring the kids there every fucking day, because they know what's important. Parents won't move the move a fucking foot for themselves. But at the very least, if you can't salvage somebody who thinks they're too far gone, I promise you, they'll send their kids. And so it's a big opportunity for your gym. And I think, again, if your goal is to have an impact in your community, this is how you do it. It's absolutely how you do it. Catching the parents is great. But sometimes the pathway to the parents is through the kids, if you catch the parents, you will get the kids. But if the parents are too far gone, let's see if we can get your kids in because I know you're too busy. It doesn't work, but your kids need something. And it's super important. The next on that list, personal training. And that's obvious. And I think the reason personal training is on this list. Amongst all these other things, is because of the decline in public health first. Second, is the overall lack of effectiveness of the health industry for so long. The fitness industry, the fitness industry, right? The fitness industry has been so ineffective, that when people think of joining a gym and just going there by themselves, for all the reasons that going in there by yourself can be tough when you're new. That's daunting and sounds like something that is very unlikely to work because statistically speaking, it's unlikely to get people results. It may be about the people, but somewhere, if a professional intervenes and guides those people to do the right things and teaches them the right way and can fast track a lot of that learning process, the likelihood of success is much higher. That's why personal training is all of a sudden now going to be much more in demand than and by the way, this is personal training one on one stuff, I believe that is probably its own thing here on this list. But I also do believe that you will still continue to see, for the same reason, an increase in the interest in any sort of group coaching product as well. Whether it be CrossFit gyms, whether it be these new fragmented studios that are popping up from Nike to the cycle stuff to whatever that people want? Instruction, right? It just wants instruction.



John Fairbanks 38:06

And they want to customize you and I look at this shit, I think a year ago, we really liked the generational rights of what generations are looking at. And it was so overwhelming that everyone so from Millennial Gen Y Gen Z and then Gen whatever the fuck the it's it was customization was paramount. It was first and foremost. And this is where we started. See right like Burger King, like, pay attention to the large people out there. Right, the big dogs out there are BK habits your way. And then as you see large conglomerates allow you to customize your pizza with Blaze Pete, like all of these pieces that are leaning towards people will happily pay for customization. That is where you're going to see that it's every positive benefit. But people don't



Tyler 38:58

understand this because it's happened underneath their nose. And it's just that they kind of think that it's happening under the guise of convenience or service. But everything is coming to you in a way that allows you to pick your quote unquote, customized package. Go on Uber Eats right now in order to order food. Okay. Yes, there's certain meals that you go in and you are just assembling the things that you want. And what pops up when you order pizza. Would you like to add this to that? Would you like to add that to that? Would you like to move this thing? We have a five for five thing where you can go in and you can pick your five different items or three different items. That is the norm. When I look up Uber to get a car to pick me up John, what do I get? Choices? Right get a standard I get an Uber X I get an Uber Black and Uber van. I get to go in and I can pick which one I want? Now you may pick one and it's not actually there then you just get downgraded but, but that is but that we think that that's just the way that it works, because that's the way that it works. But it's not when I pull up Uber, okay, it's asking me to make a choice. And that is really just letting me move around in my buying habits, and some of them are going to be more profitable for them. And whatever it is, it's going to align my budget with my desired outcome and the experience that I'm trying to have. So if I'm a Money's no object guy, I'm just gonna get the nicest thing that's on that list. Correct. It's just the way that it is. So that allows that company to actually make more while me having a better experience that aligns with what I'm trying to experience. And I think that is super, super, super important. When it comes to your fitness offerings. It's just that customization and it doesn't have to be custom, this is the thing people don't get, it doesn't have to be custom. It just needs to be built around Choice. Choice. That's it. So give them a buck and choice. If it's a or b, fine. A, B, C, or D, I prefer, your B is going to work just fine for you.



John Fairbanks 40:55

And that is why we had to talk about this. That's why we build that out. So we build that out. We build that sales process out, we build out, take a look at a gym's offerings, take a look at a personal training with a trainer what they provide. And this is why this is what we build out into that app like functionality. So when our people are in a sales conversation, or in a basic conversation, and someone says oh, what do you do? Oh, I do this? Oh, well tell me about that. Like now I can immediately do this thing where I can show someone the choices that they have to work with me that all points towards them being successful. It's all built off of that psychology and for sure, that's what we're seeing as a large trend moving forward for personal training, because it gives people that more choice. They don't have to take whatever is just being offered to everybody. Yeah.



Tyler 41:42

So well, I'm on to this next list, the EOS fitness list here, John. Number two on this list is recovery. And recovery. Now they say recovery is going to start to take center stage as the clicky title on here. But it really means recovery is no longer the exclusive domain of elite athletes in 2024. The fitness industry is placing a significant emphasis on recovery as an integral part of any workout, cryotherapy, infrared saunas, massage therapies are commonplace, as well as equipment to help them do so. Right? You have all your massage guns, your magic fucking water, leg bags, or whatever shit people are using now, like all the stuff that's out there, right? Yeah. And this ties in with what we're talking about with choice and buying habits. Okay, this is about investing in this part of your life, okay, if I'm going to invest in working out, guys, when I first started training, again, as an adult, like in my early 30s, it was like, I got sore. And I was really still obsessed about working hard. So I What would I do, I would buy shoes, I would buy workout clothes, I would buy supplements, all the things that we think that you should start to make sure that you understand as a gym owner, that people do when they're on the path, they're going to invest somewhere they should invest in you. And now that doesn't mean you have to offer all of these things. But every one of these things represents an opportunity for you to take it or leave it. Right but investing time and investing money in this process is a way to simply make the space that you're giving to fitness, health wellness in your life, you're making more room for that you're giving it more time it's for the same reason that I recommend when I have fitness clients that kind of start to get the bug I recommend like podcasts that talk about nutrition I recommend like watch this thing or this sport or people start doing some like strongman style training. You'll send them a video two, Hey, check this out. It's cool. It's the reason I get for my training partners in jujitsu. I get jujitsu, memes and fucking videos clips sent to me all day long. From all sorts of different dudes, it's just how we it occupies space in your life and you continue to give it space so know that like I'm sore, I want this I want all the hard work I'm doing the gym to be worth it I these are this is a part of the same buying psychology that works when people need to. Maybe they get stale in your group classes. Right? And they want to reinvest that back. I need to recommit to this. I'm gonna buy some brand new 200 dollar nobles, and then I'm going to show up with some, some hot shoes to class tomorrow, right? We're going to go buy some supplements. I'm going to buy this because people buy shit like fat burners and all this other stuff. This is why it's a great opportunity for you when people have not gotten stagnant in their regular stuff. It's a time to offer them a higher level of service not to be worried that they're going to quit. People don't quit when their stuff gets stale. When they feel like they've plateaued, actually they invest more. Because usually that's the first trap people fall into and they plateau or start training more often or training harder. But maybe they just need to invest more money. And so what they're doing can be guided and be a little more precise and be more effective.



John Fairbanks 44:54

As you do have responsibility to those people that are in your spot because this is As we talked about this all the time, which is the natural lifetime journey that a client has in fitness over the course of their entire lives. So as people first start getting involved, they're just going to be dipping their toe in the water. But as we know, as they start to dive deeper into a concept, it's like you go down these rabbit holes, so you don't even realize that BC double A's are super important. But because you accidentally come across a couple articles, and now all of a sudden your balls are deep and you're now looking to buy BC double A's. Well, if you don't have somebody that's been like, actually, your attention would be better here. So you don't make those mistakes, you can allow your people not to make the mistakes. And then because they are going to come into this brand new, wide eyed bushy tail not realize what they're walking into is a filthy, bloody ocean of shit. That's been hunting people for years on their desire to make themselves better or healthy. Because all this stuff overlaps. We talked about fitness wearable, well, how important it is to sleep and now tracking your sleep and heart rate recovery. And all these things will now that a higher level of recovery is now intricately programmed into these wearables. And now we



Tyler 46:11

have no idea what to do with the information they get from a wearable, or what the information they get from tracking their food. That's where a professional comes in. And that's the thing that isn't really going to be done by an app necessarily. There's too much information still for somebody to get to like a real precise starting point there. So your wearables Oh, stuff like well, now what I'm tracking my food kind of, generally, people track their food wrong. Like it's crazy, Megan and I are making a whole series of videos here hoping this weekend for her online coaching program. Because we did some challenging stuff, we put it out on Instagram, it's a fun little thing for you guys to know. She put about eight different plates together that she had eaten over the course of a couple of weeks. And she just asked people, How many calories do you think this is? Yeah. And dude, the amount of people that were picking like a quarter of the calories is nuts. Like a thing that's 1000 calories under 250 -300. And the gap, the people that undershot the most were the heaviest ones. Truthfully. And it's those types of people who you say track my food, I eat hardly anything. No really track it, put the shit on a scale, let's be fucking real here you need to know because you are not calibrated with reality, you do not get to be that overweight, and then still argue about what's right or wrong going on with the food thing like with obviously not just no expertise, but the opposite of expertise. Like a massive amount of naivety. And to be that off was fucking really, really, really eye opening to the point where when we started getting people on why they should start to weigh their food and understand it. We realized I don't think a lot of people even know how to do that. Not just weigh their food but like to scale it. For those of you out there out there not just your arm, what do I need to track it? Right so many times, here's a pro tip for you guys, coaches, you guys probably do this y'all are much smarter than me probably more handsome, better looking have better ABS than me. But one of the things to do is when you're teaching people to put food on a scale to track their food, don't let them use volume, liquid volume measurements at all. It's not what you use, don't do nothing, nothing gets entered in and quantities of cup, quarter cup, none of that stuff. half liter ounce, none of it gets measured in grams. Okay, because the amount of times I've seen people eyeball butter or say ketchup or a sauce, just put the we haven't put the whole plate on the thing. Okay, and then you zero it out, put the meat on. Now you know how much the meat weighs? Potatoes, you put one cup of mashed potatoes with the density. So we learned that with flowers, this thing started with making breakfast. If you just put a cup of red flour in there, there can be a crazy variance between how dense it is at that moment, right or how packed it is when you scoop it up. So you have to do everything by weight. So you throw your potatoes on and you see how much they weighed. So 100 grams of potatoes is what you entered in, and then you're actually accurate. And this is one of those traps where people can fall into and they start wearing their food and they think they're doing okay, and they still aren't. They're putting in all the effort. And it still isn't working and it makes you look bad. So you do need to be thorough in your guidance. And that's one of the ways that I think that a human needs to be involved in this because most people now can't even navigate the apps. If you guys use My Fitness Pal lately don't. It got so bloated with ads and other services and constantly requesting information and trying to integrate all this other stuff to just become a fucking big stupid tech company. They're like it's borderline unusable and super confusing for a normal person. So we don't even use it anymore. We use it as fat secret and so far is better, but all roads end to that level of fucking stupid complexity and opportunism on their part. And you'll end up moving to the next thing into the next thing until somebody, all I need to do is punch it in and know what it has. I'll write it down or give me the ability to make a law. But beyond that people don't need much more than that, because it is too much for them to figure out. Yeah. I derailed that whole thing. Anyway, Good job.



John Fairbanks 50:25

That's all right, what's next on your list?



Tyler 50:30

Yeah, that's pretty much it here. There's, you know, on the short thing, I do think that they're talking just as more tech



John Fairbanks 50:37

I have. So overall, for me, these things of you all being empowered with this information is that the most of your people, probably the majority, are getting a steady diet of fear porn on an everyday basis. Everything that they're going to consume from, from the news and what they watch, and what they listen to, for the most part is just going to be shit that has been developed to make them feel helpless and make them feel afraid. Whether it is that the avian flu is coming back, everyone is dying of RSV. There's brand new diseases we've never heard of popping up in Portland like, it's this huge wave of health crises, right? Childhood obesity is up, people are killing themselves, like there's all of these problems that exist. And the solutions that they're providing is dogshit. And this is one of the things where every one of you, all of your gyms, wherever you are in the world, you get to be a place that people can take back some control. And they have that control of their own life, they can be educated on what they want to eat, where they get that food, how they eat it, what they do with their bodies, like all of these things, it is so contrary to what everyone is consuming on a daily basis, that this is why we get so preachy about this idea where it's like, you guys have the ability to change your fucking communities and be the tip of the spear. Because nobody else is going to be fucking doing it. And if you're not willing to take up that mantle, and you're failing your people on a monumental scale.



Tyler 52:12

Yeah. And I also think that the other way we come up with that piece of data, John, is that we look up before we start some of these kinds of trend episodes as we look up the health industry. And when you look guys go on Google and look up health, and all you're gonna find is the opposite of it. And so I think that that is a thing that as gym owners, as fitness professionals, you're positioned to start to create fitness as a buffer against disease. It really, and I think that by the way, that when I took my CrossFit level one, that's the biggest takeaway, frankly, it's not any of the lifts, it's not any of the things that they do or teach, they teach a thing called the fitness, wellness, sickness, whatever continuum, right and it's just there's a, there just is a spectrum from being completely sick, right? And completely broken, damaged, whatever, whether it's injured, ill cancer, all of this stuff. And all the way to just being generally well right being okay. And even further down that road is fitness being truly fit like being strong, being immobile, having great cardiovascular health, having great work capacity, being able to do X amount of miles, what's your x, whatever fast mile being, you know, all of those markers of fitness. So all you do is you start running whatever your markers you have. And the goal there is in being fit is a buffer against all life is going to do is try to every once awhile, things will surprise you, and it's gonna knock you back a little bit. I get sick a couple times a year and fucking sucks. And I can't train and I get lazy and I just get crushed and you lose muscle and whatever. But if I was fat, or out of shape, or didn't train that fit like that may drag me to a realm in which I will not get back up to get back out of I've claimed to have open heart surgery this last summer, we lost 40 pounds before you had to have the open heart surgery like we worked really hard the year going into it because before he you gotta be laid up for two months for a month and a half. And like really, really be taking things slow. The recovery for that is intense. We are building wellness, to fit into fitness, so that if you get enough fucking car accident, it's not the absolute god damn end of your world, you have a better chance of not being weighed down on the bottom end of that spectrum. And I think using that as a perspective on how you can market your fitness, how you need to communicate what the real goal is, as long as you're against not for your performance in your fear and performance. It's like let's fucking go. You know what I mean? Like we'll just trade everything in for a faster 40 yard dash time who gives a shit? But that's not what we're doing. The general population doesn't want that. So Just know that I think that as the word as disease becomes the centerpiece of the health conversation, know that fitness is on the opposite side of that spectrum. And that's what we're selling here as fitness professionals. So that's got us wrapped up. Thanks for listening everybody. We'll see you next week for the show Jim Morris podcast and Instagram. go to gym owners revolution.com get in the gym owners revolution Facebook group. Tell a friend or foe John at Taylor effing stones, or follow follow me at Tyler Evans on Instagram follow Jason SFL thanks for listening