(Editor's Note: Get more from Brent Gallagher by attending his two sessions at this year's Club Industry Show. Gallagher will present "Think Inside the Box: Making the Most with Less" at 12:30 p.m. on Oct. 8. He will be a panelist for the session "Creating a Crystal Clear Brand" at 2:30 p.m. on Oct. 7.)
If we all have the same amount of time in our day, why are some people more successful than others? Some people claim that if they just had more time in their day, they could reach more of their goals, but what if you were granted an extra hour in your day? What if you were granted an extra day in your week? What if you lived in a 25/8 world instead of a 24/7 world? Would that really make a difference? What would you do with the extra time? Would you:
- Call your mom.
- Take you kids to the park.
- Improve your finances.
- Take on more clients.
- Spend more time marketing on Facebook.
Most of our clients would love to live in a 25/8 world so they could use the extra time to fit in an extra calorie-crushing, 60-minute workout and spend more time preparing healthy foods. After all, they also have jam-packed daily to-do lists that make it difficult to comply with plans to create a healthier lifestyle.
But is more time the answer? People who are successful in a 24/7 world have figured out how to use their time more efficiently. We can help our clients do the same thing by helping them gain greater awareness of the time they already have and make better use of that time, especially when it come to eating, sleeping and exercising.
Think about it this way:
- If we train our clients to sleep better and clean up their eating habits, do they really need 60 minutes of exercise to live healthy?
- What does 60 minutes of hard effort in the gym do to an already stressed out body fueled by poor nutrition and six hours of sleep?
- How many clients would join your small group sessions if they only had to commit to 30 minutes?
- If nearly two-thirds of the population never step foot in our gyms because they are intimidated, don't have time or had a previous bad experience, do we need to take them from zero minutes of exercise to 60 minutes on their first visit or would a smaller step be better?
- Would training clients for 30 minutes make it financially possible for more clients to join your program?
The culture we have created in the fitness world is forever pulling us off center—go faster, work harder, stay busy longer with more miles. If we don't realize that more, more, more only leads to overcommitted, overstressed and underperforming clients (and staff), then we're leading our communities down the wrong path. We need to realize that the key to long-term better health and fat loss boils down to three things:
- Sleeping more
- Eating cleaner
- Training less but more efficiently (which means stressing our bodies less)
Time : we can waste it, spend it or invest it, but we'll never be granted more or ever get it back. Time is a valuable commodity. What would a 30-minute model do for you? For your clients? For your business?
Stop overcomplicating your training programs and business systems. Instead, concentrate on becoming better at the basics and challenge the basics in imaginative and creative ways. Then, communicate effectively with your members how they can be successful in the 24/7 day that they've been given.
Share in the comment section below whether you agree or whether you think advocating for 60-minute training sessions is still the way to go.