Thursday, March 28, 2024

More Than Muscle: How we Survived COVID-19 As Personal Trainers

Since the Coronavirus pandemic struck two years ago, people have faced some historic economic challenges. Running a personal training business in Surrey, UK was no different, we felt the same effects. 

The Initial Panic

At first, we had plenty of clients cancelling their memberships and this put the fear of God through us. Our worst nightmare as business owners was coming true. 

I remember discussing with my co-director, Natalie, how were we going to survive? 

What worked in our favour was this. 

The COVID-19 pandemic was a health crisis, and this gave us an opportunity to step up to the plate. We had to pivot and reduce what I called the “leadership gap”. At the time it was only me, Nat and our 1-1 personal training clients.

As the dust settled, and we all started to recognise the virus was here to stay. The population began to adjust to new ways of living. Working from home, Zoom meetings and fundamentally more free time. Free time that became available as the commute disappeared for most. 

During the early stages, people were enjoying the time luxury they always wanted. This came with excessive eating, drinking and a major lack of movement. In fitness, we refer to the word NEAT. Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis. This refers to the amount of movement output you produce subconsciously. Movement away from prescribed exercise. 

Now this was significantly reduced for the whole population. Gyms shut. Travel to work, gone. In some regions, you couldn’t leave your house other than for a walk once a day. So, people started to gain weight, excessively.  They were in desperate need of some social interaction, and that’s where our opportunity came in. 

The Pivot

I’m a firm believer in these two elements. 

  • Through hardship comes opportunities. 
  • You must be OK with your vulnerabilities to enable growth. 

I knew we had to reach out to our client base and ask them what they required from us. This information was pivotal in shifting our personal training operations around COVID-19 restrictions. People needed three things:

  1. Help to complete their workouts from home. 
  2. Advice and support on how to set daily habit-based accountability tasks.
  3. They needed to keep their physical and mental wellbeing in a good place. 

Ironically, this was no different to pre-pandemic times, just exaggerated tenfold. 

People had trouble with their earnings, but also found that their expenses diminished. Money that went on holidays, socialising and commuting now became available. That’s when health became more of a priority. With these things in mind, we had to find creative ways to deliver and serve the demographic we supported. 

We changed up our tech stack. Introducing video calling software (Zoom), live Google Docs, our training app and instant messaging. All became vehicles to deliver our coaching service. We modified our communications, and we were able to better support our clients through this tough time. We were ready to reduce the perceived leadership gap the pandemic created. 

That’s when things took off

I still believe COVID-19 was a blessing for the development of our business. Especially from an operational standpoint. The crazy thing was, we were now serving people all around the world, not only in Surrey. That wasn’t the only element the pandemic fast-tracked. My ability to help other trainers in a consulting role took off. 

Helping others

I knew there were a lot of personal trainers panicking about their business. I also knew that many of them weren’t running their business operations before the pandemic hit. Or were struggling to be proactive. This then became another arm to our services and allowed us to grow through the tough times. 

I’ve always had a passion for helping others grow and succeed. Trainer development was the perfect opportunity to rise and lead from the front. Again, reducing the leadership gap the pandemic created. I truly believe my industry plays an important role in helping the health services. So in this pandemic, helping trainers stay operating was also a mission of mine. 

How More Than Muscle looks today

Fast-forward to today, and this pivot of how we run our business has enabled us to double in size. We now have a team of 4 with a few others supporting us in the back end. Our service has benefited from the pandemic, allowing us to work a more hybrid model. We train people 1-1 at the gym in Guildford, but also via zoom and other online means.  Exactly how we did through the heights of the pandemic. 

We also use Zoom to continue training people when they are away on work trips or travels. This used to be something that put revenue on the back burner. Training would pause whilst people were away, but now it’s a key element that our clients love. 

The moral of the story is through hardship comes opportunity. Particularly true if you are willing to understand your vulnerabilities, and pivot to help your demographic win.

To continue following Andy’s journey or find more information about the services, visit the More Than Muscle website

Written by Andy Pilides MsC, PGDip, PGCert

Co-director of More Than Muscle Ltd

www.morethanmuscle.co.uk

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