Group exercise has turned into a commodity. The world has figured out that high-intensity exercise and eating real food leads to great results. The secret is out!
There are so many options now for gyms and fitness programs who have figured out a formula on how to cash in on that simple prescription. They charge rates lower than ours, have a fancier space and even have more classes on the schedule.
They have giant marketing budgets, great branding and massive classes with low overhead.
It really doesn’t bother me or worry me at all. Why?
Because we sell individualized coaching and results, not group exercise.
YOU are NOT a Commodity.
Orangetheory, FitBody Boot Camp, F45 and Jazzercise all have one thing in common: They are models built on low-paid group leaders (I won’t call them coaches) and choreographed workouts set to music.
They don’t need (or care) to know about Katie’s fitness background, what’s going on in her life outside the gym or if the workout they’re doing that day is a good fit for her goals. They just need to know if she’s paid her membership dues that month.
We coach individuals and mostly in a group setting where individuals have similar goals. For the most part, everybody has different wellness prescriptions.
That’s why we do one-on-one goal-review sessions with each of our members every three months. These goal-setting sessions are included in the cost of membership at Dark Athletics because we know goals change—and even if they don’t, the plan to achieve them is constantly evolving.
Fitness Isn’t About Sweating
If it were as simple as going to the gym to work out a few times a week and eating right, we’d all look like Channing Tatum or Gal Gadot. Honestly. Everyone knows what they are supposed to do, but we have no one holding us accountable.
We don’t sell hour-long choreographed fitness, we sell results. We sell Coaching. And results depend on two things: knowledge and ACTION.
Knowledge is cheap. Spend five minutes on Google and you can find 1,000 different workouts and 50 diet plans, all for free. Or you can attend a group workout on Zwift, or just show up to Orangetheory and let them tell you what to do.
But action—now that’s a different beast altogether. We may avoid action some days, because we’re just build to do as little as possible to survive. That’s just the nature of our evolution.
I want more than just survival. I want more than that for you. I want you to learn, achieve and grow from your experience at Dark Athletics. I want you to be able to do things that you never thought possible and I want to get you the results you deserve because going through the motions and getting nowhere is unacceptable. That means taking action when we don’t feel like it.
We’re here to keep you on course when the seas get rough. We’re here to hold you accountable.
The Relationship Business, Not the Fitness Business
Coming up with a plan, helping you implement that plan and holding you accountable to it when things get tough all require one thing: a trusting relationship.
When you have a tough day, we’re here to remind you that we care about you and your success. We’re here to tell you when you’ve done a great job and when you can do better.
We have your best interests in mind and we don’t want you to waste time or money. Sometimes that even means telling you to take some time AWAY from the gym.
You might be shocked to hear this, but there’s been more than a handful of goal-review sessions where we’ve told people they need to do take a step back for a minute to collect their thoughts and recenter.
Did that cost us money in the short term? Of course, but it was the best thing for the member at the time. And telling them what’s best develops trust, which means when we tell them it’s time to come back, they’ll do that too.
So the question you need to ask yourself is: Do you want to sweat, or do you want a coach?
If you’re ready for a coach to help you on your health journey, Let’s get started with a No Sweat Intro.
Inspiration provided by Jason Cohen at locomtionfit.com.
