November’s longish read: This is The Gym Group

“Clients now open up where before they never would have.”

~ Kirsty Daniel, Personal Trainer at The Gym Group

If you’ve never been in a Gym Group venue, you can easy guess what goes on inside. Machines, weights, classes, equipment, PT sessions. Usual, right?

Well, yes and no. Unfolding inside The Gym Group (TGG) right now is one of the most progressive and proactive gender mobilisation policies you’ll find at any leisure brand in the country.

TGG aspires to be gender-equal by 2030. This ultimately means a 50/50 split across membership, trainers, staff and even on the board. All-in it’s a huge ask in a space that’s traditionally male-heavy on both sides of the staff room.

Still, they’re only going and doing it …

Since the programme I’ve gained four more female clients. What we learned will 100% make it easier for me to train them.”

~ Michael Evans, Personal Trainer at The Gym Group

If TGG are to hit parity then the key demographic in the mix is women over 40. Midlife women’s lack of participation in gyms and sport isn’t a new problem, but it’s the problem TGG engaged TWHQ in early 2023 to address.

Into spring, The Gym Group and The Well HQ launched Female Health First, a pilot programme to teach, train and galvanise gym workers and ensure facilities and trainers genuinely meet midlife women’s needs.

The pilot put 50 trainers, males and females of all ages from across TGG’s UK network, through an intensive six-week course. Baz set lots of homework en route to all 50 PTs completing The Well HQ’s Menopause CPD.

The work was intense, and it had to be. This is new material that trainers never had to learn. It’s ground zero stuff. It’s a significant challenge to lay bare the midlife female experience for a crop of PTs that includes males and under 25s.

How do we make the content relatable? Comfortable? Workable?

“Honestly, I am so buzzing about this.”

~ Sharon Brodie-Churchward, Personal Trainer at The Gym Group

A successful pilot looks like The Gym Group now hosting new pelvic floor workshops that are increasingly popular nationwide. It looks like 329 Functional Female Fitness classes, custom new sessions codesigned by Baz, taking place across dozens of venues.

Success looks like Laura Travis, an assistant GM at The Gym Group, taking pelvic floor and Functional Female Fitness classes at Loughborough Netball, bringing two TWHQ pioneers together in the spirit of collaboration, knowledge, best-practice and sustainable change. Netballers now know TGG venues have in-house expertise that’s hyper-relevant to support their lifestage needs.

Lastly, success looks like TGG rolling out Female Health First much wider, and committing to train four new cohorts in the next year. By the end of 2024, 170 trainers and gym representatives will have completed the programme.

For more on TGG and TWHQ’s link up check out this new episode of The Cast podcast by CIMSPA.

“Where clients are going through the menopause, I have made adjustments to their programmes in order to better support and benefit them.”

~ Kyle Tait, Personal Trainer at The Gym Group

It has taken investment and commitment, but working with The Gym Group and seeing their dedication up close has been a privilege.

In fact, it’s difficult to overstate what a gear change this is. TGG now has personal trainers (male and female, younger and older) able to speak the language of menopause. The language of the female body.

Perhaps even more interesting, we could see TGG play a role in demedicalising the female body …

Because right now, female-specific problems are almost exclusively taken to doctors. If gyms and trainers can offer women exercise, nutrition and lifestyle-based solutions to their mental and physical issues then it really is a new day.

It’ll take heat off the medics and put her health on the high street; out in the mainstream where she belongs.

It’s an awful lot like progress, and we’ll see you next month for more …