Gym Operations: Preventable Injuries in

Fitness CentersExpert Article

Date
April 03, 2014
Practice Areas
Fitness Facility Operations, Sports & Recreation Contact an Expert Share Article
The experts at Robson Forensic have investigated many incidents involving injuries,
deaths, and sicknesses associated with gyms, sports clubs, and other fitness
facilities.

This article looks at some of the most common causes of preventable injuries that
occur in fitness centers as well as the industry standards that are designed to reduce
the prevalence of injury.

Injuries in Fitness Facilities

Modern fitness facilities have grown in size and complexity, many providing a broad
range of exercise and fitness options, including high-tech equipment, guided fitness
classes, and one-on-one training sessions. When run properly, these facilities can
offer tremendous services to their clientele, but when these facilities are not run with
appropriate attention to safety, they can also contribute to injury, sickness, or even
death.
In order to safely provide a complex range of services, modern fitness facilities must
employ qualified personnel, invest in employee training, and commit ongoing
resources to the inspection and maintenance of facilities and equipment.

Preventable injuries in the gym environment typically fall into one of the
following categories:

1. Workout Tactics
2. Supervision by Trainers/Management
3. Equipment Maintenance and Inspection
4. Emergency Response Training

1. Workout Tactics

Improper form and failure to follow an appropriate workout routine are two leading
causes of injury. Improper form can lead to a variety of injuries, potentially
overloading joints, muscles, or ligaments, sometimes resulting in falls or crush
injuries. Additionally, people who choose a workout that is too aggressive for their
level of fitness or those who fail to change their workout regimen overtime are
susceptible to injuries; both can overuse specific muscles, resulting in injury.
Workouts should always be developed according to an individual’s current abilities
and modified with time to target different muscle sets, and reduce the likelihood of
overuse injuries.

The popularity of high intensity fitness routines has made it increasingly popular for
those who are new to fitness to engage in workouts that exceed their skill or physical
ability. It is the responsibility of trainers/fitness instructors to evaluate their clients
properly and avoid placing them in unsafe and dangerous positions. All
trainers/instructors should receive training on how to implement safe program design
with the proper progression of exercises in order to decrease the incidence of injury.

2. Supervision by Trainers/Management

Supervision of a facility requires qualified personnel to oversee all exercise areas to

ensure the effectiveness of training and proper use of equipment. Supervisors must
move about the floor and answer questions and assist clients. Particular care is
required in the supervision of trainers in order to recognize ineffective or unsafe
practices that may require prompt intervention.

Safety is universal within fitness facilities. Therefore, it is important that fitness

managers and directors convey the use of safe practices within their facility as
outlined by the NSCA and ACSM.

3. Equipment Maintenance and Inspection

The responsible management of a fitness facility requires the systematic inspection

and routine maintenance of the facility and all equipment. Regular inspection and
maintenance can identify equipment damage, normal wear and tear, and missing
parts, thereby minimizing the incidence of injury or death. Fitness management
should implement routine inspections on all equipment, including but not limited to:
cardio equipment, resistance equipment, physio-balls, and Automated External
Defibrillator (AED) units.

4. Emergency Response Training

Emergency Action Plans (EAPs) provide a course of action for individuals and
organizations when faced with calamity. In the fitness industry, a well-developed and
executed EAP can be the difference between life and death for participants who are
seriously injured or suffer other acute health conditions. For more information on
EAPs, see our article on Emergency Action Plans and Automated External
Defibrillators.

Standards for Prevention

The ACSM has specific guidelines and standards that should be followed in order to
keep fitness facilities safe. It is the responsibility of the gym to hold orientations for
new members, educate staff, and post signage as part of running a safe and
effective facility. Many facilities do an adequate job of ensuring safety, but when
facilities fail to meet their responsibilities, the results can be devastating.

The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) has developed standards that are
the performance criteria established by leaders in the fitness industry. The guidelines
they created are recommendations that ACSM believes the health and fitness
operators should follow. These standards and guidelines are suggested best
practices in order to create and sustain a safe facility.

Fitness & Training Forensic Investigations

Within our sports and recreation practice you will find experts who specialize in the
operation and management of fitness facilities, the inspection and maintenance of
fitness equipment, and the latest trends in fitness and personal training.

Advertise Selectively
When you own or manage a gym, you’re flooded with pitches for
advertising opportunities. From spots on the local high school
scoreboard to radio ads, many organizations will approach you to
sell advertising; be prepared to say “No” most of the time.
Just because you’re offered the spot doesn’t mean it’s a good call
for your business, it’s just the salesperson’s job to ask as many
businesses as they can and sell ad space to any who bite.
Contrarily, it’s your job to be selective and only commit money to
ads that have a high return on investment.
Don’t be sold on how many people will potentially see an
ad, decide based on whether the potential viewers will be
high-quality leads for your business. Case in point, if your
potential clientele is a narrow group, broadcast advertising like
billboards or radio ads are likely a waste. Instead, you
should narrowcast by aiming ads only where you have potential
customers.

Leverage Professional Help

Gyms just getting off the ground or struggling financially need to
do as much free DIY marketing as possible but if you have the
room in your budget, getting the help of an advertising agency
can be a worthwhile investment. Before you think, “What can
they do that I can’t?” consider this
As a fitness professional, you can provide a superior result for clients
compared to what they’d achieve on their own even though many people
likely ask themselves, “What can a trainer do that I can’t?” They simply
aren’t aware of how much more you know about training than they do.
Now, the shoe is on the other foot with you as the client. Remember that
an advertising professional knows their game every bit as well as you
know the fitness game.
Find a reputable fitness marketing agency with a track record of
success, preferably one that has worked with fitness professionals
in the past, and do a consultation with them to learn what they
can offer you. In this day and age, online digital marketing is the
gold standard, and professionals in this arena can precisely target
your audience with ads and implement processes for turning
viewers into clients with much more control and sophistication
than any form of print media.
Represent Your Business With a Well-Designed
Website
Far more people will research your gym online than will walk in
your door to ask for information. It is highly likely that your
website will be where they get their first impression and it’s up to
you to make it a good one!
Because many small business gyms are falling far short of their
potential when it comes to the perception they create through
their website, you can quickly gain a competitive advantage by
investing more effort into yours. Your site should be visually
appealing, user-friendly, and clearly convey information all while
expressing your gym’s identity as mentioned earlier.
How do you make sure you have a website that’s up to par? You
can enlist professional help with advertising if your budget allows,
or, if you have an eye for design, take it on yourself. With
inexpensive, easy-to-use tools like Wix and Squarespace which
have great-looking templates to simply drag and drop your
content into, there’s no excuse not to have a respectable site that
makes a good impression.
Don’t Rely on Cheap Pricing Promotions
Free, Cheap, and Easy. You may expect these words to attract
people to your gym and sometimes they will, but what
happens every time is they lower the perceived value of what
your gym offers. Think about it: If you ascribe a cheap price to
something, what are you telling customers about the
value of it?
I’m not saying never give a trial class or a reward for gym
referrals, but don’t make it so often or so easy that people get the
impression it isn’t worth much. If you do that, particularly as their
introduction to your gym, it may be impossible to raise their
opinion or their price of membership up to the level it really
should be down the road.
What’s more, you need to consider who you’re attracting. Low
price or No Commitment advertising attracts people who
either don’t take fitness seriously enough to invest in it or
people who are already looking for a way out as soon as
they start. These members are of little value to your gym as
they don’t contribute to the community, don’t refer others, and
are the most likely to give you payment collection problems.
Particularly if you’re a small business, you don’t want to get into
the discount price war. That’s the battleground of big-box gyms
that choose the high volume-low quality strategy. The best way to
compete is to offer a premium service and make sure it’s
perceived as such.

Make Your Pricing Clear and Simple

In the modern marketplace for nearly any type of product or
service, customers are used to having instant access to
information. Giving them the run-around on pricing or making
them go through several steps to get information can lose them
before you even have a shot at making a sale.
You can avoid this pitfall by making your pricing and service
options easy to understand and remember. For example, rather
than tiered pricing for personal training sessions (1 per week –
$70 each, 2 per week – $60 each, etc.) decide on the single figure
your training is truly worth and charge a flat fee.
Gym owners and managers also must inevitably decide on
whether or not to make their prices public. I strongly suggest
you do it for two reasons:
1) It eliminates the risk of losing good prospects who just want to
know a price before coming in physically,
2) Anyone who sees the price and thinks it’s too expensive was
not a qualified customer for your business anyway. You’ve
allowed them to filter themselves out before any time is wasted
on a fruitless consultation.