Summing It Up
• Fitness centers have become a top priority at many clubs and resorts. |
According to the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association (IHRSA), there were 41.3 million health club members in the United States in 2005—a number expected to grow even larger this year. Fitness has become a top priority for many Americans, and clubs and resorts are stepping up to meet this demand. Adding new fitness facilities, or tweaking existing ones, can produce a competitive edge and high member satisfaction.
“It used to be, if you had great golf and a good restaurant, you were in business,” says Chuck Feddersen, Senior Regional Manager for Mission Hills Country Club, Rancho Mirage, Calif. “Then the restaurant became as important as the golf. Now we’re finding that fitness is becoming just as important to the country club experience.”
One reason is a shift in focus to family-friendly clubs. “People are looking for a facility where the whole family can be taken care of,” says Michael Donahue, General Manager at Quail Ridge Country Club in Acton, Mass. With varied fitness options, everyone from kids to seniors is invested in the club.
Smooth fitness programs with widespread appeal, however, take plenty of planning. Determining appropriate fitness programs, and deciding where to house these activities, are crucial from the get-go. At the same time, fitness facilities should feature the latest in equipment and training programs, along with the high-quality service and comforts that are crucial to club life.
Making Fitness a Priority
Fitness and recreation operations are evolving to meet member demand. For instance, while Mission Hills Country Club had renowned golf, tennis and croquet programs, it lacked the sports and fitness element to take it into the future.
“We were finding that people were joining other clubs that had better and stronger fitness and social components,” says Feddersen. “We figured if we added that piece to the club, we’d have the full package.”
After adding a 17,000-sq. ft. sport and fitness center, the club has doubled its fitness memberships, with 2,300 of its 2,500 members having access to the new facility.
One way to decide whether or not to invest in fitness is by examining the club or resort’s surroundings. This motivated the fitness renovations at The Hills Country Club in Austin, Texas—recently named one of the “fittest cities” in the country.
“The original renovation was approved due to the amount of growth in the area,” says Athletic Director Justen Aranda. “People are moving from inside the city of Austin to the outlying areas. So [management] decided to put money into the club, because our membership growth is up so much.”
While the club’s previous fitness center had standard cardio and strength equipment, The Hills CC purchased all new equipment, enlarged its fitness area, and opened group exercise rooms as well as yoga and Pilates studios.
Knowing what needs improvement begins with member and guest feedback. Mission Hills kicked off its fitness renovation by surveying members and hosting focus groups to determine their needs and wants. Similarly, when Norwood Hills Country Club in St. Louis began planning its new fitness area, a member committee—with two of the members involved in the fitness industry—was formed.
“We had a good cross-section of members,” says John Wright, General Manager. “Then, coupled with these two people, we had a handle on what was necessary.”
Often, the planning stage begins with the floor plan. “[Location] is a big decision, because you have to live with it for the rest of your life,” says Feddersen. “You want to pick the right spot to begin with.”
Prior to adding a fitness center, Mission Hills Country Club had two clubhouses, one each for golf and tennis. During initial planning, the club examined its existing site map to determine where to put the sport and fitness center.
“We wanted to try to keep two clubhouses, because adding a third would not be operationally cost-effective,” says Feddersen. Ultimately, the club expanded the tennis clubhouse, to keep all sports activities under the same roof.
Similarly, the fitness center, locker rooms and lounge areas at The Hills Country Club occupy the clubhouse’s entire third floor. “Our goal was to make it user-friendly,” says Aranda. Cardio and strength equipment are positioned separately, to create a sense of privacy, and the strength machines are in a circuit training set-up, for ease of use.
Let’s Get Physical
From $4,000 to $5,000 per machine, exercise equipment can be one of the most expensive aspects of a facility, but also one of the most important pieces of the fitness puzzle. Based on member surveys and research on fitness trends, most properties offer treadmills, elliptical trainers, Stairmasters and stationary bikes in the cardio area, and weight machines and free weights for strength training.
While equipment sets the tone, specialized programs allow clubs and resorts to find their niche and cater to their varied demographics. For example, to attract more women, Gleneagles Country Club in Plano, Texas, created the Women on Weights (WOW) program—a weekly small group weight training class exclusively for women, allowing them to socialize and workout at the same time.
As clubs become more family-friendly, parents are also looking for fitness options for the kids.
“Kids are more sedentary than in the past, so their parents want to get them off the couch,” says Quail Ridge’s Donahue. “We try to cater to kids and change things up for them.” The club offers a popular teen yoga class, and last year created a well-received weight training class for 12- to 15-year-olds.
Don’t neglect the other end of the age spectrum, either. At The Hills Country Club, one trainer who specializes in geriatrics works with senior members to promote general fitness and golf techniques with non-weight-bearing resistance bands.
For members seeking customized personal training, Mission Hills CC has a free-movement resistance machine that offers Pilates reformer training and specific exercises for golf and tennis. If users want to work on their cores, they push an option on the machine’s screen, and the computer runs them through 16 core exercises, complete with video illustrations.
Athletes Welcome
One of the most popular trends in fitness is sport-specific training. Fitness and athletic directors are joining with golf and tennis pros to create programs that can enhance players’ games by blending basic skills with complementary exercises.
For its avid golfers, Norwood Hills CC purchased a cage where members can perform about 50 stretches, illustrated on the machine. One of the
club’s golf instructors also conducts weekly sessions with the machine. “It’s been the biggest hit of the fitness center,” says Wright. Other clubs are installing computerized swing-coach machines.
The Westin Kierland Resort & Spa in Scottsdale, Ariz., raises the bar in sport-specific training with a golf performance training program, FORE-MAX, that Fitness Director Steve Heller teamed with two golf pros to create. It combines exercise physiology with golf instruction to help players enhance their game, increase driving distance, and improve stamina.
“Most people who come to us want to hit the ball farther,” says Heller. “To get that, we combine flexibility and strength training.” To customize a program, Heller works with the golf pros to determine a player’s physiological strengths and weaknesses, and then selects exercises to improve his or her game most effectively.
FORE-MAX training typically begins with a half-hour of deep stretches, focusing on the muscles used for golf. Players are taught how to make and hold certain positions, to enhance flexibility and balance. The class then transitions into more active stretching, concentrating on the lower back, stomach and core, before progressing to cardio and golf-specific moves.
The program, Heller says, has helped players increase distance (15 to 20 yards), club head speed (eight to 10 mph), and tightness of the dispersion pattern of ball flight (60 percent). But while it was developed to improve players’ golf games, the fitness benefits have also been staggering—some players have lost up to 30 pounds.
Best of all, the program is fattening up revenues by helping to draw more locals to the resort. Heller says 85 to 90 percent of his FORE-MAX clients are local—“and the key with locals,” he notes, “is I can get them to do my program, and then they come in once a week for a massage at the spa, and eat here at the hotel.” C&RB
Tell Us What You Think!
You must be logged in to post a comment.