A huge congratulations to Martyn Jones at Walsall Wood, Rich Lenio at Wolverhampton, Kim Burton at Wednesbury, Samantha Griffin at Solihull, Sallyann Wilkinson at Wednesbury, Tracy Davies at Wednesbury, Amanda Reeves at Wednesbury, Annemarie Lamond at Wednesbury, Katie Bowater at Wednesbury, Jim Pearson at Walsall Wood and Penny Randhawa at Wolverhampton!

By Lisa Jones

On Friday 9th December 2011 a pilot group of 6 Health and Fitness and Member Service Managers became the first team members to complete their 12 week Bronze Certification journey and become certified in their role! The celebration workshop day was packed with further skills building sessions, the opportunity to feedback and share their experiences in club over the 12 week journey and after an element of assessment, all team members were awarded their Bronze lapel badge and global certificates. Congratulations to Rob Preston from Kidderminster, Dave Cross from Brierley Hill, Paula Sinfield from Luton Ladies, James Crew from Bristol Cribbs, Ruth Burton from St. Albans and James Clegg from Brentwood.

By Lisa Jones

Working within the community!

Raising awareness of not only FF but the charity Sport Relief!

As part of a normal school day we gained entry to one of Jerseys top schools and during there day took part in taking Zumba classes for over 300 students!

Top day and teachers loved it!

By Mark Stewart

We organised a BIG Clean in club today to raise the standards and make the club SPARKLE for our members! All of our staff got their rubber gloves on and mucked in! Head Office also got involved and helped us out enormously, dropping in to us in shifts- no one was afraid of the rubbish jobs! We not only had loads of fun, spent some time team-building and showed our members how much we care for their club but also made the gym sparkle and shine! Well done Poole!!!

By Georgia Lambert

Immortal Challenge was a four day event, we came up with the idea as we did a Personal Trainer Challenge in the middle of the gym. Members were really interested and started asking if there was anything like that for members and here it is. The Immortal Challenge we had 20 participants 6 female 14 male. This was a great way for us to show members we want them involved in everything we do, they looked at it as a free training session, and when they completed the challenge they felt great about themselves. They are asking for these to happen on a weekly basis. Watch this space!

By Mark Stewart

For International Fitness Week we decided to create a sports week for our members.

This was a great way to take them back to their school days and make working out fun!

Members loved it as they were having fun and working out. Plus our members were meeting new people in the process.

Members were really excited this week.

By Mark Stewart

All smoothie day!

As part of IFW and healthy eating day! we made smoothies for the members who loved them.

They loved it that much they requested it to happen on a regular basis, it helped us talk to our members as they drank their smoothies and hear the members thoughts on how their gym experience is going.

Money raised for Sport Relief!!!

Over 150 smoothies made!

Cost £40 set up and made over £200!

By Mark Stewart

Fitness First Crewe Team with Lord Mayor and then running the Sports Relief Mile run after taking the Warm ups.

By colum kelly

We went the whole hog on friday for Sports Relief and took all 20 bikes from our studio out into the sunshine where Danielle the SEM taught 2 back to back classes. The afternoon was a great way to raise money for Sports Relief and promote our club at the same time.
The excitment in and out of club was superb and all members enjoyed their experience.
Quote of the day from a member:
‘I DONT LIKE CHANGE BUT THIS WAS A GOOD CHANGE’
On top of that we gave out free Fruit Kebabs and water bottles as appreciation in helping out…

By Danielle Fontaine-Ohene

Tom and Ben cycled 185 miles today and they managed it in 8hrs 54 minutes. They raised over £1000 for Sport Relief, which is an outstanding achievement.

Tomorrow we have more Cyclists preparing to do the same and will hopefully raise even more money for charity. We will be there supporting and giving guest passes to people who donate with PTs giving mini workouts, on vipers and med balls, to customers as well.

By Marcus Astley

An 80′s fancy dress Spinathon (very cheesy and much singing!!) in aid of Sport Relief arrived at FF Bath on Tuesday 20th March and has so far raised a massive £400. A big well done to all those who took part and thank you!

We will also be running various other Sport Relief fundraising events during the week, including the Sport Relief mile and 3 Mile Challenge. All of our up to date Sports Relief activities and gym floor challenges can be found by following @FFBath on Twitter.

We will be taking donation’s all week, plus please come along and support us as we join forces with Sainsburys Green Park this Friday and Saturday.

By Lynnsey Rowan

We like to help everybody celebrate St Patricks day and get in the Irish mode even if its just for a day! Our decorations brought alot of compliments from members which helped the club interact and get feedback. St Patricks day put a smile on every members face!

By Mark Stewart

The Bath Half Marathon was held yesterday with the runners going past Fitness First and around Bath.

Mahmoud and Morgan took the opportunity to get into the community and support the runners and also get the brand out into the market place by talking to runners and giving out water bottles and leaflets!

Bath was absolutely packed with people taking part or just coming along to show there support.

It was a great effort from the guys and is showing all of our competitors that we are part of the community.

By Marcus Astley

As the 29th of February is the only day that a woman can propose to a man, Jersey decided to celebrate this with Ladies day. All staff where dressed in pink and paid £2.00 to do so, all ladies received free entry to the gym, and our members give generously to sport relief. It was great fun and we raised a massive £116.00 for sport relief. It was a great way to end the month with an amazing buzz throughout the club.
Well done to Mark our new Fitness consultant who put alot of hard work into ladies day, and for inspiring our members.

By Rachel Quigg

Over a 6 week period members of Clapham Fitness First were taught the whole Thriller dance break by Matthew Shannon the current Studio and Events manager. With the hard work of everyone involved this music video was made!

No members were harmed in the making of this music video it was just SO MUCH FUN!!!

Darkness falls across the land, the midnight hour is close at hand!

Enjoy!

By Matthew Shannon

WITH THE INTRODUCTION OF WEIGHT LOSS YOUR WAY, WE HAVE HAD A HUGE UPTAKE TO THESE CLASSES, HUDDLE AND ONE TO ONES, THE SUCCESS RATE IS GROWING AND SO ARE THE NUMBERS IN THESE CLASSES/HUDDLES AND MEETING.
THE MEMBERS ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT AND THIS SHOWS IN THE ATTENDANCE FIGURES.
AWESOME JOB POOLE, WE’RE ON TO A WINNER HERE!!!!

By sarah yates

Brand New to Fitness First Bournemouth Nordic Walking.
We are always looking for new innovative ways to inspire more of members to join the world of group exercise.
Nordic Walking is a great class for ages and abilities and perfect for meeting new people.
We are currently offering techique classes and will be running regularly walks each week soon.

By Marie Elliott

Brand new to Fitness First Bournemouth Aqua Zumba. Looking to inspire more member to the world of Group Exercise by offering something different.

We have held two master classes so far and have received great feedback from the members. We are looking to offer another master class next month and will be hoping to add it to the timetable soon.

By Marie Elliott

100K 4 VALENTINES DAY!!!
could you do it?
We joined forces to raise money for Children with Cancer UK charity and Kirsty Birr, who is actually doing the 100k trek herself!!
We placed a treadmill at reception, surrounded by balloons and we all wore branded t-shirts, had cupcake sales, free chocolate hearts and love heart sweets, a DJ and an amazing atmosphere.
Everyone at the club, staff and members contributed to the 100k trek, the treadmill did not stop from 06.15-22.00, so we beat the 100k by miles/sorry kilometres!!
the club was on a huge high and the response and collection buckets were amazing….great work Fitness First Poole…awesome job xxx

By sarah yates

We held a Wellness day at Tesco Headoffice. The Membership team and personal trainers set up in the staff canteen. Staff lunch breaks were taken at different time of the day and every member of staff recieved a goodie bag containing a Class timetable, First club info, Mel B class pass, Bottle of Water and a breakfast bar.
The Personal Trainers were carrying out health checks, whilst offering training and nutritional advice as well as a complimentary Personal Training session.
We offered a guest pass to every member of staff and invited them to bring a friend with them. We had quite a few joiners from this at the end of the month.
We have a very good relationship with Tesco H/O and they constantly welcome us back.

By Vicky Miller

Receptionist Jemma Harvey celebrated her 5 years service with Fitness First. Jemma is a Fitness Firster through and through and after recently being qualified in ‘License to sell’ she looks forward to the next 5 years of service here!

By Vicky Miller

We held a high energy zumbathon in-club comprising of 2 x 45 minute zumba classes (back to back) – Our resident Zumba instructor was kind enough to bring 2 fellow instructors with her on the evening giving us a ‘team teach’ event…(this was at no extra cost to the club) the same instructors gave out a total of 200 complimentary class passes to users of their non Fitness First classes to assist us in lead generation…we opened up 2 booking sheets to members and non members for this ‘one off’ event and both classes were sold out….We provided non alcoholic cocktails (juices, fruit etc) and Fitness First goodie bags to all attendees which went down a storm…The double studio doors were held open during the event and the full Zumba effect was heard and felt throughout the entire club…

By Vicky Miller

January is the busiest period for new members joining and old members returning to begin their new years fitness regime. We at Fitness First Cheltenham feel that we must give every member a positive experience and make him or her feel valued. Therefore, two of our personal trainers (Mike Tredger & Wayne Bullock) set up a free fat loss analysis boot camp every Monday night. This helped members to gain the knowledge and support to achieve their ultimate goals, also providing an unforgettable experience they will remember for the rest of the year.

By Rick Adams

On January 21st Fitness First Cheltenham held a 3 hour vibe spin class which was set up by our SEM Jess McDonald. The class was held outside in the Brewery courtyard, in the bitter cold! Over 30 members took part but only the few hard-core members stayed for the whole duration.

Brewery shoppers were so intrigued by the spinathon that they started cheering and dancing along with the music. This created an amazing atmosphere and members were left with a great feeling of accomplishment!

The Spinathon raised a brilliant £100 for Asthma UK and was published in the Gloucestershire Echo. It was a fantastic event that not only raised money for a worthy charity, but also created huge interest in the club resulting in a new membership being signed.

By Rick Adams

Bognor Regis has gone Australian for the day to celebrate Australia Day! The whole team has dressed up and the club has been kitted out with lots of oz props! Themed gym floor class’s and fun had by all.

By Stacey Love

This is our weight loss your way studio based circuits class, we have had a great uptake on all three classes which go on each week and the members are raving about these classes.
the members gain valuable information about healthy eating, curbing their habits and sticking to a healthy regime.
this has been a glowing success for the Poole club and the uptake on the gym floor huddle and one to one meetings have grown 10 fold.
amazing work for all the team and our brilliant members

By sarah yates

Fitness Friday 100 workouts launched in style in Sunny Bognor Regis! Members loved it & were happy to be put through their paces. We loved it as they are quick, effective and a fantastic interaction………Bring on the next Fitness Friday.

By Stacey Love

Second week of our Future Leader course

By Albert Alfonso

In April 2013, I will undertake the biggest challenge of my life. I will be trekking 100km across the Jordan desert in aid of Children with Cancer UK.

The trek will take place over 8 days and will be in temperatures of approximately 40 degrees, there will also be a prevailing desert wind and sheer drops to contend with. At night, we’ll be sleeping under the stars where temperatures will drop to around 4 degrees.

This is going to be a life changing experience for me and will be tough – both physically and mentally. My training will need to be intense from the word go to ensure that I am strong enough to face all the challenges which lie ahead of me. However, I’m hugely excited about it!

I am doing this to raise vital funds for Children with Cancer UK (Formerly Children with Leukaemia) – a charity for whom I have been working with for about ten years and is very close to my heart.

Cancer is Britain’s biggest child killer. CWC are a self funded charity who’s work and funds go directly into the research and raising awareness of this awful and debilitating disease. Survival rates are much better today than that of 50 years ago, thanks to the tireless efforts of charities such as this. However, treatments can often leave long term side affects which can affect that child for the rest of their life.

I have to raise a minimum of £2500 – but I plan to smash this! I will be arranging a number of events throughout the year for people to come along to and get involved in. But for those of you who would like to help out by way of donation, please feel free to visit my fundraising site www.virginmoneygiving.com/kirstybirr – every single penny raised can, and will help make a difference.

So, on behalf of myself, Children with Leukaemia and the children who’s lives we can help make a difference to – thank you!

By Kirsty Birr

Coffee morning in Bognor reception!

Improving the member experience by laying on coffee morning in reception with chocolates, tea & coffee for our hard working members!

Magic!

By Kris Moyse

I first started to train with Julia in October 2011. Julia has been with our gym for quite a while but found herself at a bit of a dead end. Motivation was a bit of a problem and she only attended once a week. Then….. we started training. Julia mentioned she enjoyed running outside so that was our target. We went for a small run (2km) and had to stop a few times to rest. From then Julia was getting very motivated and we started to run every wednesday morning early. Each week we would do the same route until we could run the whole way then change for a longer route the following week. We continued this and now we have a great session every Wednesday and also have become good friends. Julia has lost a good amount of weight and her fitness has gone sky high. We have gone together from her first 2km run to now running 10km without stopping and even under 1hr. She has achieved massively and is still going forwards!!!!

By Lawrence Masters

Hey
Just a quick inspirational story. Helping out the membership team with a member on a 5-day pass he had downloaded. A chap called Dave who is not a regular gym user and had no intention of joining. However after an induction with myself & a date set for a game of squash he decided to take the plunge and become a fully fledged member. Our 1st squash game is this thursday and as im the ‘fitness professional’ im praying im not defeated! Dave has already been in using the gym and has thanked me several times for taking the time out to make him feel welcome, and he is very much looking forward to our game!

By Lawrence Masters

Fitness First Jersey had a really successful wellness day @ the Royal Yacht for Royal Bank of Canada. Our amazing sales team took part along with a few of our wonderful PTs whom offered on the spot advice and health checks.

Sales managed to take from this event 287 new leads by way of a free raffle – prize being 4 month membership plus 2 x Personal training sessions – GENIUS! Possibly why we are top of the region for sales as of today. ;}}}

By Rachel Quigg

We kicked the new year off with a bang with the launch of the brand new Les Mills Choreography. We began with the calmness of balance and then straight into our Rocky Balboa themed combat class. Finishing the week with a hip hop inspired Body Attack and Hard Core Body Pump session.

The focus of the launch was to inspire as many members as possible to join the Group Exercise experience and make exercise a habit not a chore !!

By Marie Elliott

Paul Ludkin is setting the standards for the healthiest manager competion, Paul trains every day, and has now decided to help shed those extra pounds with a shimmy and wiggle and a hoola style Zumba class.
Our members loved seeing him shake his booty with them all. Go Paul!!

By sarah yates

Height:157
2010: 17 stones
Now: 10 stones
Lost: 7 stones
Inches lost in total: 41!!!

After moving to UK from South Africa, Angeline works hard to be able to help her family financially back home. She is always thinking about others. Everyone around her sees her as a very bubbly person. Her breakthrough moment came when she lost her mum as she was not able to afford a ticket and funeral in the same time in such a short term. Her work colleagues put money towards funeral for her.

When she came back, she decided to make a change in her life. She joined Fitness First Uxbridge in 24/09/2010 and started to exercise, however, she was not seeing the results she expected. Then she met Laura Flann – Personal Trainer from Uxbridge. With Laura’s help, Angela started putting diet & exercise to next level. Her goal was to get to 9 stones from 17 stones.

Angeline trains every day and fitness has become a great part her life. She has lost 7 stones and went from a waist-size of 22 down to a size 10. Burning massive 2000 calories a day. If you look at her picture, you will see the big changes she has achieved since March 2011.

By Agnieszka

We held a staff and members party where everyone was to dress up as a smurf as it is Fitness First colours. The fun began in club with a bit of Smurf Fitness then continue on to town for a fantastic night out. Members loved getting involved and everyone felt like we were in a big Smurf/Fitness First family!

By Vicky Miller

Pictures from South Division Business, do you know anyone in them?

By Helen McCormack

Pictures from South Division Business, do you know anyone in them?

By Helen McCormack

Pictures from South Division Business, do you know anyone in them?

By Helen McCormack

More pictures from South Division Business, do you know anyone in them?

By Helen McCormack

WOW!!! after only one day after Weightloss your way was intorduced, both these Father Chrismas’s (members)have shed an amazing 4 stones each!!
Can you believe the result this new programme will have on the rest of the members!!!!!!

By sarah yates

The Poole club launched the brand new Weight loss your way programme to our members today!
we have had some very very very positive feedback and great uptake of the new class, as you can see!!
we wowed the members and had a few staff members attending to to help their knowledge of the whole experience.
there will be 3 classes going into the new years time table, so watch out Poole, we’re coming to get ya!!!

By sarah yates

our lil zumba peep, decided to dress up last week to help get everyone in the Christmas spirit, even Claire dressed like a lil elf and jingled her way through the santa special, and Christmas songs!!!

By sarah yates

We held a members party which started off in the club lounge area at 6pm. All staff were dressed as Santas throughout the day to get members into the party mood. We had mulled wine, mince pies and other treats dislpayed for members to help themselves to.

We also had maximuscle displays where our new personal trainers were giving away a complimentary personal training session to everyone who purchased a maximuscle tub.

Everyone then headed to Tiger Tiger around 8pm where staff and members combined had a… ‘Merry ol’ time’!

Merry christmas everyone!
The Cardiff Team x

By Vicky Miller

Pictures from South Division Business, do you know anyone in them?

By Helen McCormack

Pictures from South Division Business, do you know anyone in them?

By Helen McCormack

Pictures from South Division Business, do you know anyone in them?

By Helen McCormack

Pictures from South Division Business, do you know anyone in them?

By Helen McCormack

Children in need at Jersey was a brilliant success, we raised over £900.00 and had fantastic coverage on BBC children in need and on the radio. All our members and a few of our local celebs had a great day taking part in our sponsored row-a-thon and fancy dress day.

Thank you to all our members for giving so generously to this amazing cause.

By Rachel Quigg

Hot mulled wine, mince pies topped off with some fresh cream, what a treat for our members, and the fun doesn’t end here. Throughout the next few days we have Christmas spinning classes with the best christmas remixes, complimentary pt sessions with our excellent FC Ollie and we may have a surprise visit from someone very special if everyone is on their best behaviour.

Fantastic member experience and great feedback from all our members.

Merry Christmas and a happy new year from all at Jersey Fitness First

By Rachel Quigg

Santa Stroll – Sunday 4th December

In aid of Sport Relief, Fitness First Manchester Central were delighted to be asked to warm up the crowd at Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium for the second year of the Santa Stroll.

As you can see from the photos the event was a huge success and despite the adverse weather conditions the warm up definitely raised everyone’s spirits dramatically! The attendies where Myself (Hayley Thomas) leading the warm up Andy Burgess – a die hard city supporter, Marc Warren Sales Team Leader and Coleen a new Personnal Trainer. We are now hoping to attend the March Sport Relief event to do that warm up too.

By Hayley Thomas

20% CHANCE
SUMMARY

I RETURNED TO LONDON ON THE AFTERNOON OF SATURDAY 13TH MARCH 2010,
OBLIVIOUS TO THE FACT THAT A CLOCK WAS TICKING AGAINST ME, THAT THINGS WERE ABOUT TO CHANGE AND WITH THE CHANGE WOULD COME NEW CHALLENGES AND A NEW SET OF AIMS. I WAS 20 SOON TO BE 21, MY DAYS AS A CHILD SOON TO BE DONE, BUT NOT BECAUSE IT WAS MY BIRTHDAY, THAT WAS STILL A MONTH AWAY. THE CLOCK WAS TICKING FOR A DIFFERENT REASON AND IT WAS COUNTING STEADILY DOWN, BECAUSE IN 24 HOURS THE COSY WORLD THAT I KNEW WAS ABOUT TO HIT THE GROUND…HARD!
• WAS IN A COMA FOR SEVEN DAYS
• DOCTORS GAVE ME A TWENTY PERCENT CHANCE OF SURVIVAL (AT BEST)
• HAD TO GO THROUGH A SIX WEEK REHABILITATION PROGRAMME
• LOST MY SENSE OF HEARING
• HAD TO RELEARN TO WALK, TALK, AND EAT
• I GOT MYSELF MASSIVELY IN DEBT
• WAS CHARGE WITH DRINKING AND DRIVING
• GOT ARRESTED FOR DRUG DEALING AND POSSESSION.
ALL IN THE SPACE OF THREE MONTHS (MARCH 13TH TO JUNE 29TH 2010).
I ALSO WENT FROM BEING AND 19 STONE AND A FAST www.fitnessfirsters.com.auD EATING MACHINE, TO A MUSCULAR 13 STONE FITNESS JUNKY AND HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FITNESS INSTRUCTOR.
TODAY I HAVE A CLEAN DRIVERS LICENCE, NO CRIMINAL RECORD, MADE A COMPLETE PHYSICAL AND MENTAL RECOVERY, HAVE NO DEBTS, A SUCCESSFUL NEW CAREER AND AM A WEEK OR TWO AWAY FROM COMPLETING MY VERY FIRST BOOK.

By CALVIN GREENE

children in need pyjama combat special by the Monday evening Body combat crew!!! check out these night attires hey!!! sexy…NOT

the staff wore pj’s all day long, yes even sales and reception, we offered members refreshments in return for a few pence to help towards the collection buckets we had around the club.

members loved the enthusiasum of the staff and joined in with our fundraising making it a great event!

By sarah yates

We had our awards ceremony on Halloween, we rewarded those who had achieved so much over the year, those who had great fitbrit scores and those who had over come many obstacles to be where they are now.
The staff and members all dressed up and the awards we presented to the members with great heart felt praise.

By sarah yates

Just a few pictures of what we can do at Fitness first Poole

By sarah yates

Friday 18th November was Children in Need day, and what a day it was at Bath!! We had numerous events in club and raised a fantastic £1601.17 For Children in Need.

Firstly we had 2 autographed Bath Rugby shirts up for auction and presented by a Bath player, this raised £320

Secondly our HFM Scott Mackay had his hair cut in our members lounge by a local hair salon raising £320.17.

Thirdly the PT’s, HFM and SEM put themselves up for auction in a “get your own back train the trainer” auction this raised and amazing £750.00 With Lynnsey the SEM going for £200 and Scott the HFM going for £150.

Yes there is more, number 4 “Zumba Special” in the complex, Instructor Jess and our SEM Lynnsey put on a special Zumba class and raised £150.21. Fitness First Goodie bags were given out to watchers and participants raising our profile and attracting new members to the club.

Finally we had a bucket collection in club and raised £60.79

GRAND TOTAL £1601.17

YIP YIP WOOOOO!

Fantastic feedback from all members on all of the activities on the day, we are awaiting certification awarded to the club from BBC Children in Need in recognition of our fund raising efforts, this will be displayed in club, something the members can be proud of, as it was their donations that made it possible!

Bath’s members truly pushed out the reCipe “Community” card with their efforts for this great cause, and all the staff got involved in a truly fantastic, fun day!

By Scott MacKay

What do you get when you get 20 members together supported by our Sales team leader Chris Murphy and MSM Bex fellows pushed on by myself and our G.M………..1 good game of tug of war with our new freestyle equipment:-)

By Lee Adams

By Vicky Miller

Our SEM and Zumba instructor, “Lynnsey & Jess”, took Zumba to the atrium of the complex on Wednesday 16th, there were loads of participants and great onlooking crowds due to it being ‘Orange Wednesday’, the club profile was hugely raised and everyone participating had a great time. The whole complex was buzzing about it!!

By Scott MacKay

All our events this month have been well received and it tells us from one month to the next what we shall do again and what the members really thought was Wednesbury giving over and above.

Lots of people feeling the vibes and excitement as we had that much going on. All events and classes went down really well and were well in demand.

The classes at the moment are chokka and no one wants to miss out. We are turning people away in them as capacity is full to the brim

Sat 01st/sun 02nd – Open Weekend
Tues 04th – Scary movie night – We Offered popcorn, toffee apples and hot choc for the evening and we had a movie night watching horror movies and screaming in the lounge.
What a fun, friendly evening we had.
Wed 05th – Pumpkin crucifix, WOW what an event this turned out to be, this was meant to be a day event, but 4 weeks later its still running and so we had it for the whole month, 173 people took part and the winning time was 4 mins 23 seconds and they got a mention and a congratulations notice up at reception. the idea was to hold a pumpkin out in each hand in a crucifix position the longest
Thurs 06th – Smoothie day, We offered fruit smoothie’s all afternoon! All kinds of flavours
Tues 11th – Sun bed promotion – The reception team worked hard to sell sell sell the sun beds and offered a course to each and every member twice before they were allowed to swipe through! Nothing like a hard sell
Wed 12th – Red bull gives you wings, ALL staff were in wings and tutu’s and Kim our SEM made a stack of Red Bull that the members were challenged to guess who many there were, the correct answer was 47 and the winner had their name up at reception.
Tues 18th – Tasty Tuesday – fruit selection was on offer at reception and it went down a storm, who doesn’t like juicy fruit after a workout?
Freak week
Mon 24th – lucky dip starts, Apple bobbing – We asked lots of members to have a go at our apple bobbing challenge but some weren’t keen on getting their faces wet, we managed to drag some to have ago though.
Wed 26th – Happy Dialiwi, We bought some Samosa’s and made a sign at reception for this celebratory day (see photo)
Sat 29th – Kids club fancy dress – The kids club was full of kids all dressed up in different Halloween fancy dress and Kim our SEM taught them the Thriller routine which looked fantastic, the parents then went in and watched them perform the number.
Mon 31st – All staff in Halloween fancy dress and Spooky Spin Please see photos for this as some of the fancy dress costumes were amazing and there was a great atmosphere in the club all day with the members being extra extra chatty and laughing at us in our fancy dress.
SOME TIMES ITS JUST THE LITTLE THINGS THAT MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE

By Kim Burton

At Waterlooville we borrowed some viper bars from another Fitness First and had a “one off class” on the gym floor. We had 5-6 participants join in and we raised awareness of other activities and equipment you could use. We also followed up this session with a power bag and TRX gym floor class, to show members different exercises with our equipment.

All the ladies were very impressed with finding out new exercises and varying up their workout! they don’t just have to come in use the CV stepper, cross trainer etc.

At Waterlooville, South Coast we decided to gain some awareness about the club on Halloween. We did a zombie spin outside in the high street.

We got our FC, HFM, SEM, GM, MC’s together to be taught a high intense spin class on Sat of Halloween weekend.

We also did trick or treat in club and had a DJ for the evening splaying requests for our members.

We raised awareness through the uniform and leaflets handed out while the spin class was happening, as well as having an open weekend so members could bring any friends or family to try out the gym.

We had a ball.

Hang Tough & Plank Off

At cheltenham we are trying to push our daily exciters to increase the fun community feel. Members took part in a ‘Hang Tough’ challenge where their grip strength was tested against Serj Maksimov (our fitness consultant dressed as banana man). Members also took part in a ‘Plank off’ competition, where their core strength was tested to win a pair of cinema tickets. At Cheltenham we value our members and try to reward them for every success.

By Rick Adams

Ghouls Spin

Cheltenham club held a 2 hour halloween spin class. The room was decorated in cob webs, spiders, bats and skeletons to provide a spooky surrounding. Jess Mcdonald and Scott Mackenzie both took the gruelling class where ghostly music was played to add to the tense atmosphere.

By Rick Adams

Berkhamsted has the F Factor.

Take care & Stay Fit !

By Daz Mc Clinton

On Monday we attended Oceana night club. (The busiest student night of the week) A team of 9, all fully Fitness First branded attended. Our ideal set up was by the entrance to the club.

Using our eye catching, branded display we gave out flyers and mints to everyone who entered the club. 250 Names and numbers were collected altogether.

Oceana were very happy and gave great feedback. Due to the professionalism of the team they would like to invite us back again.

By Mark Welke

With a quiet day in the club and ViPR tubes screaming to be used we gave a gym floor challenge to all those who had forgotten their membership card, in the hope that they wouldn’t forget it again with ONE MINUTE ViPR!

One minute of seated oblique twists with a ViPR.

Great interaction with the member, great lead for PT’s and great introduction to Freestyle classes and explanation to Freestyle exercise.

Rather than a forfeit for forgetting your card it developed in to a gym floor class every 10 minutes.

By Erin

Why have Halloween only last 1 night when Stirchley can make it last all week!

Throughout the week we’ve been making sure our members are suitably warmed up with Pumpkin relays before the start of each class, given the the chance to trick or treat in club by giving them a FF sandwich bag and each time they attend a class get given a treat or cereal bars, fitness magazines, fruit.
All team members dressed up to give our members a giggle or a fright!

Members have loved the effort of decorating the club and even asked if they can have our decorations for their own party!
Class attendance has shot through roof and have kept people motivated to do a class again!

By Erin

MUD RUNNER 2011

15 staff and members came together as a fitness first Cheltenham team to embark on an 8 mile cross-country run through smelly bogs of thick mud that came up to our knees, and treacherous pools of freezing cold murky water. All the team completed the course in spectacular fashion and produced some fantastic times.

The day was a complete success with lots of new friendships created, even to the point that members had arranged to train together the next day.

By Rick Adams

Harry decided to show off a little!!!
Strong core is key for standing tall!

By Rob Christie

Our fun factor for today – zumba party!

As a big percentage of our members are Muslim they stepped out of the frame when we took the photos, but I think they still reflect the party atmosphere!

Check out our group photo ;o)

By Denise Morton

On Wednesday we had an appointment drive ‘Pass the Parcel’ every time someone made an appointment they got to unwrap a layer of the parcel and a sweet was under every layer.

Paula won the final prize which was a PT session as she set the most appointments on the drive.

By Denise Morton

Erica was interested in our one day guest passes and was toured by one of our Mc’s.

Erica wanted to get in on the action and make sure people came back for more so offered to help out on reception for a while….

Where will Erica’s first stop be??????

Stay Tuned!!!

By Tanya Constable

The last of Brentwood’s Fun Factor snaps!

By Marie

We had a fantastic Members party, with over 250 members attending throughout the evening, all of our staff worked really hard to make sure the evening was a success.

The evening kicked of with a DJ on gym floor, here is what we did for the rest of the evening -
5.30 pm – Super Spin Masterclass – 4 instructor team teach.
6.30 pm – Revolution! – Studio Masterclass – Ben, a Les Mills master trainer and myself put our studio members through their paces, with a challenge to finish.
7.30 pm – Zumba Masterclass
8.00 pm – Buffet, drinks in the lounge
8.15 pm – member awards ceremony – Gym member winner, studio member winner, PT client winner, staff member winner. We also gave prizes to the male, female and staff fit brit winners.
8.30 pm Champagne and cutting of the cake
9.00 pm – Coach from Aspects to The Pitcher and Piano in Bristol city centre. We had an exclusive area for fitness first members and staff for the after party.

I have had an enormous amount of very positive feedback from our members, they are all asking when is the next one!

By Lucy Ferris

Nat and Ni were on fire )And those firemen are coming in for a free 1-day trial. Yaaaaaaaaay!!

By Natalia Sumichina

Over Wednesday, Thursday and Friday all three departments (including HOD’s) have been competing against each other trying to come up with the most unexpected and original place to put up a Fitness First banner.

To share the fun, we made sure we involved our Members and we managed to get some quality leads in the process as well!

By Natalia Sumichina

Even involving our CMT!

More to follow later when we start getting the members involved in carving up the pumpkins.

Denise & Team

By Denise Morton

Brentwood Fitrness First part 4

By Marie

Marvin the Monkey has spent the last 3 hours in Stevenage town centre and has come across 3 Tigers!!!!!

Marvin also made friends with 40 new people, they all went away with a guest pass and a hug from Marvin!

Have a wonderful fun factor day!!

By Cheryal Leonard

Good afternoon Team Outer London,

So we just couldn’t help ourselves with some Monkey business around Stevenage. The northern monkey enjoyed some Zumba and working out with the members!!!!!

I think I encountered around 20 members with my monkey business!!!!

By Jo Woods

All week we have been holding fun filled Halloween themed events for our members to take part in including;

Apple Bobbing
Trick or Treat
Freaky Fruity Friday
Guess the weight of the pumpkin

and there is still loads more to come next week…..

take a look at the pictures!!!

By Lucy Owen

Good Afternoon Team Outer London.

With the success of Marvin the Monkey yesterday we have now ventured into Face Painting!!!

Members are loving our efforts and think that I look much better as a clown!!

Team are now on Outreach around Stevenage Town, dressed as a puppy, pirate and clown!!

Hope your clowning around.

By Cheryal Leonard

We went out and invited local businesses to come and join in some Zumba Fun with a couple of our regular members. They absolutely loved the lunchtime class run by SEM Debbie, and best of all, they’d all like to come back and do it again!! Result!

By Cath Hodgetts

What do you get when you get 20 members together supported by our Sales team leader Chris Murphy and MSM Bex fellows pushed on by myself and our G.M………..1 good game of tug of war with our new freestyle equipment:-)

By Lee Adams

Brentwood Fun Factor part 3

By Marie

We had our spin in the studio for a change, in the dark apart from fire exit lighting!! Even the instructor liked the novelty value!

In the meanwhile… the spin room had a floor wash, so 2 birds,1 stone!!

By Christel Shaw

Good afternoon Team Outer London,

We are up to our Monkey Business again!! Team on outreach with Marvin!!!

By Cheryal Leonard

More from the Brentwood Fun Factor

By Marie

More fun at work in Boggers, i grabbed a member off the gym floor and get her to do some circuits with me in the studio………to be honest i just don’t like training on my own. benefits, we both had a giggle and a bloody good work out, im happy, member is even happier.

Jaroslav took the piccys, he just wouldn’t join in!

By Stacey Love

Thursdays fun factor was sculpting pumpkins with the members, we dressed up and the members really enjoyed it, here are some photos.

By Denise Morton

We had a great day today with our ‘Fun Factor. We had a mini work in the gym, then hit the town/high street hard…there was no stopping us…running after people, chatting to people as well as making kids smile.

By Marie

The team have been doing MBWA’s in our new Halloween get up which has got some very strange looks from some members. Ryan has also been wearing the costume on reception to link in with our reception promo. This is a taster for actual Halloween on the day we are running a spooky spinathon for Asthma UK and already have lots of people signed up. We have goody bags with trick or treats. Jules is running a trick or treat sun bed promotion. We are doing ducking apples and are adding more events by the day. The costumes are great and are only £6 in Asda! We have face paints but are saving them for the 31st.

By Steve A'Hearne

Recognise the man in the picture?? You got it Jarolslav, playing on the WII with a prospective member….having fun lol!

And Jaro said he never has fun at work (that the life of an auditor….ha ha), by the way, that person joined whoop whoop!

Hope everyone else is having fun x

By Stacey Love

After a busy day yesterday Harry is back fighting today!!

Harry and his friends plan to talk to 100 people today and offer free Tea & Coffee to everyone in Godalming.

By Rob Christie

Here at Fitness First Bognor we’ve recruited a new member of staff, his name is Freddo and attached is an example of his day…

By Kris Moyse

Hey Outer London,

Please see my members taking part in a bit of Zombie Action!!

By Cheryal Leonard

By Richard Boon

By Richard Boon

The professionals from ALO Sports Injury Clinic based on London’s prestigious Harley Street were in club providing FREE consultations and physiotherapy advice to our members.

A sports injury can really hinder your performance and exercise goals…so we want to make sure that this isn’t the case for our members!

Missed this event? Check the Events Board in club for future dates…

By Jake Lee

Carnival comes to Covent Garden!! Summer is well and truly over but the carnival continues in our group exercise studio with our very own Cleo Oliveira spicing up the ever popular ZUMBA!!

The studio was decorated and the Zumba Crew were asked to wear red or blue…everyone had a blast dancing to special carnival tunes!! Take a look at the photos and let us know your thoughts by posting a comment below…

By Jake Lee

After the recent launch of Freestyle Training in our club we noticed that the Suspension Training Frame was a little underused – so in order to educate our members on how to make the most of this fantastic new way of training, we organised a special day with back-to-back classes running throughout the peak times.

Edwardo, our Health & Fitness Manager is pictured in the photos running one of the seven classes that day. We received excellent feedback from the 40+ members that took part and we plan to continue the success with a Gym Floor Class each week. Why not come along??

By Jake Lee

On occasions I am asked “What am I trying to prove with all this fitness stuff?” My answer is
always the same, I am not trying to impress anyone only trying to stay reasonably fit. I just don’t want to go into hospital anymore.

I have great admiration for some of the members in wheelchairs, men and ladies who always
have a smile on their faces, now that’s what I call guts!

I miss seeing my two very dear friends Ben & Elsie, a lovely couple who finally decided to call it a day. Ben 90 years old and Elsie in her late 80s.

Thank you Fitness First staff, all of you, too many to name who have always made me feel
welcome.

I hope this will continue for many years to come!

Jim Fellowes

Fitness First Bognor Regis Member

By Stacey Love

To celebrate 10 years of fitness first Bognor Regis, we organised a black tie formal sit down dinner & awards evening. I am proud to say have been at the club since the day it opened and wanted to mark the occasion with a special event. So, we got in touch with our local contacts and booked the venue, securing the entertainment, DJ and venue for FREE, it was all to be held at a small barn with a marquee attached, so we set to work with the planning. We advertised for the members to bring in testimonials so they could be nominated for an achievement award. We picked 3 winners to present the awards to on the evening, we sold 95 tickets and the event was a hit. We had a sit down 3 course dinner, during which we had a magician doing close up magic at the tables. We then presented the awards and read out the personal testimonials, we even had a few tears.

Then we had live entertainment from our very own MSM Kris Moyse, who did an amazing acoustic set for us, then on to the disco, dancing and drinking into the early hours. Feed back has been amazing, it really did mark the occasion 10 years of Fitness First Bognor.

By Stacey Love

TESTIMONIAL FOR PAV SAVVA, LEVEL 3 ADVANCED PERSONAL TRAINER AT FITNESS FIRST, WEDNESBURY
I can confirm that I have known Pav Savva for a year and a half as my personal trainer at Fitness First in Wednesbury. I joined Fitness First in March 2010, and after reading Pav’s personal training profile decided to employ him as my Personal Trainer. Pav specialises in the following as part of his personal training – Weight loss and general fitness, increasing muscle tone and size, improving overall fitness and posture, increasing self-confidence, as well as many other benefits.
As part of our PT and client relationship we both worked very hard in designing a health and fitness programme, after identifying certain personal goals that I wanted to achieve in terms of losing weight, improving my fitness and feeling good about myself. This involved a set, nutritional plan which balanced all the main food groups and controlled portion sizes, as well as weekly personal training sessions which incorporated all the major exercise types of core, resistance and cardiovascular. Some of the techniques that we used as part of Pav’s personal training were kettlebells, ropes, resistance machines, free weights, pure core exercises, etc.
During the time that I have known Pav as my personal trainer, I have found him to be a very kind, generous, optimistic and hard working individual with a highly professional attitude towards his role as a PT. He often goes beyond the scope of training given during the sessions that were booked as part of my fitness programme. He has a very conscientious attitude towards the training he delivers and is extremely passionate about helping his clients. He is also very flexible as he is willing to change his work patterns to fit in sessions, when needed. I personally have been very pleased with Pav’s personal training programme, as he has helped me to lose a total of 10 stone in weight and reduce my total body fat levels in the space of a year – I went from weighing 26 stone (size 56 inch waist) just before I joined Fitness First and am now 16 stone in weight (a size 38 inch waist). This has been one of my proudest achievements and with Pav’s help, it has inspired me to help and encourage others who are struggling with their weight. It has even earned me a feature and photograph in the Local ‘Express and Star’ newspaper, so thanks to Pav’s help I am also a local celebrity.
In conclusion I have known Pav beyond our professional vocation and as well as my personal trainer, I consider him a very good friend. He is an extremely trust worthy and honest person who will achieve very highly in all that he wishes to pursue both professionally and personally, and I have no problem or hesitation in highly recommending him to other clients. If there is anything else you need, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me.
Yours sincerely

Mr Jignesh R Patel BSc (Hons)
Biomedical Scientist, Haematology and Blood Bank, QEHB NHSFT

By Pav Savva

A group of ladies saw the end of a gym floor class at Waterlooville as they were coming in and they wanted to partake, as the abs class was ending we arranged for Ryan our fitness consultant to do a boxercise class for the ladies.
He set up a circuit boxercise class for the 4 ladies and they loved it.
We are going to make it a regular apperance on the timetable.

By Jenny Loaring

We have launched a challenge in Waterlooville. The challenge is named the “crucafix challenge” and is a true example of mind over matter.

You have to hold two bags, one in each arm weighing in at 3kg each at arms length. The person that can hold the position for the longest wins.

The prize is one of the maximuscle tubs hidden in the bag.

In one night we had 30+ participants, and within that there is a wide variety of men, women, big and small.
The challenge is growing everyday and most people completing want to try again.

By Jenny Loaring

Our Pumpkin Challenge is still going stronge with over 80 members names on our leader board sheet.

This is Mark one of our Maintainance guys…. always busy! so we asked him to have a break and try our challenge… he had a very serious face throughout even thou we were trying to make him laugh..
And this is Aiden one of our Work Experience guys having ago.

Weve decided to keep it running all the way through to the end of halloween!

Such a simple challenge but people stand and watch and then have ago themselves!

The longest so far has been just over 3 minutes but it was a slight cheat as the members arms were dropping slightly below shoulder line…

By KIM BURTON

Our event for the day…

Leading up to Halloween ….

Challenging the members to hold a pumkin out in each hand in a crucifix position for the longest!!

…….How long till one is dropped on the floor after a 2 minute hold and its pumpkin pie all over the floor….?

By KIM BURTON

The last event we held for the month of September was a 2 hour Zumbathon -
Members brought their friends with them and 40+ people partied the evening away in the studio with 2 hours of high energy Zumba all in aid of Asthma UK and we raised £40 too!
Everyone was very vocal and whislting and screaming during the 2 hours and the energy was going right the way to the end….
Everyone had such a fun time they want us to do another one very soon

By KIM BURTON

The focus of the event was to show the general public Fitness Firsts group exercise programmes are more then just a workout they are an experience that can make big changes to peoples lives!!

By Marie Elliott

Managed to convince Emma, Receptionist & Zumba extraordinaire to do the class for me and it was set! Managed to get about 8 people to start and then ended the class with about 15 people. Got 4 joiners out of the evening and great fun had by all for no cost whatsoever!

Feedback from the company was that they couldnt believe a health club would come and do an EXCLUSIVE class for them! My answer to that was “Well this is Fitness First, the WORLDS # 1 Health club!”

By Rob Morison

Members first prom take two!!
See how our members can wiggle, hoola and shake, party rock n roll!

By sarah yates

To help advertise the members firsts benefits we had a hoola luau day, fruit, cocktails, hawiian shirts, grass skirts, coconuts, pineapples, a special dance class all hoola related, hoola hoop classes in the studio and in the freestyle area. It raised so much interest and excited our members that I think we will do this again !!!

By SARAH YATES

Our early bird member Steve is 59 today. He had everyone in RPM this morning sing him happy birthday, 13 people to be exact, he had to wear a birthday badge, had balloons on his bike balloons and banners on the wall and a hard work out to boot!!!!

By Sarah Yates

We held a tug of war competition as one of our months events.

It was a busy evening and we did a tanoy announcment letting people know that we were about to hold a tug of war game outside.
We had a great response and lots of members stopped what they were doing to come and join the staff outside.
We had a massive rope and we split in to two teams!

There was lots of heev’ing and lots of ‘hoe’ing

Good time had by all……
Great laff and all the guys wanted to show their strength, including Matt Sutton our regional Health and Fitness Manager who got very competitive! As always!!

By Kim Burton

Team Jersey did a Spinathon with our members to raise money for one of our PT’s, Jenny, to run the London Marathon next year, to raise money for Asthma UK. We raised more than £300 and had a lot of fun doing it. Thanks to everyone who got involved or gave us money!

By Emma Edwards

Group Exercise Day, All the teams got involved in promoting group exercise, with taster sessions throughout the day and the SEM available all day to answer any questions.

By Emma Edwards

We had all the fitness team walking round the gym floor shaking fundraising buckets grabbing money off members to support some of the male members of staff getting parts of their body waxed all in aid of ASTHMA UK

Krish, one of our sales team was first up, making a few high pitched squeels as we tried to wax one of his legs, hes quite hairy but it came up as smooth as a babies bum…

Next up was Matt Sutton our Regional HFM, opting out of the chest wax as no one could persuade him we waxed his leg instead and was in quite alot of pain throughout the process…..all for a good cause though eh Matt!!

Next up was Thom our receptionist…. Being the brave lad he is he started taking his shirt off and got cheers from the members on the gym floor!! A chest wax is was then for our Thom!

All thoughout the event we were tanoying it out on to the gym floor so members could come and watch some of our blokes getting hurt by the females!!

After afew goes of Thom’s chest he got brave and challenged that if we got £20.00 straight in to our fundraising buscket he would get both his nipples waxed!!! So of course we tanoyed this challenge out over the entire gym … and let me tell you…. there are many members who wanted to see Thom get this done and so within a matter of minutes with our £20.00 challenged completed we set to work on Thom’s nips…… check out the photos for the results!!

Just within the first hour we raised £35.00!!!!!

All we can say is

OOOUUCCCHHHHH!!!

By KIM BURTON

Through-out the summer holidays we had children aged 4-14, took part in 6 week boot camp workout/sessions. We had a good turn-out with often 30 pupils. This also increased the amount of members using the gym during the hoildays, as they were able to bring the children in.

Due to the high demand of Kids Club we will continue this class on a Saturday afternoon at 2.30pm.

Many Thanks to all the children and there hard work (including those who were unable to be photographed). Keep it up….

By Chantel

Well all the kids went back to school and so we thought we would join them!!

All the staff dressed up in school uniform for the day and did all our normal duties and classes dressed as if we were in a class room!

Much fun and many funny comments from the members!

By Kim Burton

Most wednesdays we have our ‘Orange Wednesday’ day where the staff walk round the gym floor and go into classes handing out segments of orange whilst people are working out.
Its so simple and yet its shows that we like to go that extra mile for our members.
We also had a basket of full oranges that we were offering members as they left incase they wanted to have it later on in the day, some cheeky ones even took two! haha.

By Kim Burton

Pmazing numbers of our members and staff participated in our Zumba Fitness tasters on group X day, we had over 20 people attend!!!

By Sarah Yates

FUN FUN FUN!!!! Two hour long Zumba taken by fabulous instructors Seaneen, Paula and Carol. Very Enjoyable Afternoon with the Zumba Crew.

By Kerry Craze

As part of the MSM Evolution we organised a week of booking to train with myself, our MSM.

It was very successful over the 5 days it was run as I trained with 3 different members, 2 of which twice!

Great for their fitness, great for mine! haha and of course awesome for retention!

MAGIC!

By Kris Moyse

Celebrating the grand opening of our new in-club Beauty Salon we had staff dressed up in tuxedos and Necy organised to have an extra 10 people on hand to talk to members and hand out leaflets.

There was also a raffle organised and complimentary tasters treatments to show the members and non-members of course what they are missing!

By Kris Moyse

Any excuse for a party!!

With summer not being quite what we had hoped for, we decided to take matters into our own hands…

We offered “mocktails” to all of our members (cherry and umbrella NOT optional), dressed up and dressed the club up, and set up a few beach themed challenges…

By Crazy

Stirchley Fitness First now has the largest Freestyle Area in the Company, and we wanted to shout about how amazing it is!!

We invited members/non-members and members of the local community to come and get involved with *Champagne reception
* BBQ with the club Ambassador
* Gatecrasher DJ-ing upstairs
* Masterclasses on TRX, Powerplates, Climbing wall, Kettlebells, ViPR

The members and the staff had a ball… and I quote:

“This was my best day at work, ever!”

More of the same to follow!!

By Crazy

Group Personal Training with kettles bells.

By Emma Edwards

Three times a week during summer, the Jersey club are having a Kids Club where 4-13 year olds do, yoga, boxing and a dance, whilst the parents can train.

By Emma Edwards

Hi My name is John Groves, I am 70 years old. I came to Fitness First in Reading because my Doctor told me to lose weight. I had a look around and liked what I saw, the staff were all very helpful and friendly and introduced me to James who is now my personal trainer. Since seeing James I have lost over a stone and a half and I can now work most of the equipment. I enjoy being trained by James because he makes me work and not slack. So all I can say is ‘if you want to lose weight come to Fitness First’.
John Groves

By Tracey

Get legal advice with Fitness First.

Brown & Co Solicitors in association with Fitness First was offering a complimentary legal advice to all our members and guests. One of Brown & Co Solicitor was attending on Monday 22nd August to provide initial free advice on an employment related problem.

By Marta

TRY YOUR LUCK

Peel back you card and claim your card. Each card is a winner. You can win anything from water bottle to 2×45 min session with PT.

Free lottery for everyone! And everyone wins! Our fantastic PT Trent decided to organise this great event. Members could win the health check, sunbed session, free towel, 30 min session, 45 min goal setting session, 15 min core class. Perfect opportunity to interact with your members and improve your service.

By Marta

We held a Gym Floor 2 Hour Fundraiser Spinathon from 17.30-19.30 and we have a full sheet of members booking in for the event each paying £2.00 per person per hour all in aid of ASTHMA UK.
The stereo was blasting out over the balcony and anyone who wasnt involved was stood watching!
This was a crazy sweaty event that we have done before and has been requested by members we do again very soon!
We managed to raise about £90.00 just in that 2 hour period as Kim our SEM was walking round the gym shaking the money tub shouting at people to give give give !! And we are still collecting!! Cracking event!

By KIM BURTON

Saturday 20th August 2011 We had a fantastic Zumba party with over 50 members / non members taking part.

Our location is not in a town centre, so we decided to showcase our club by doing a zumbathon in the carpark with the instructors teaching on our roof canopy!
WOW! we created so much attention, even the police and fire brigade were beeping their horns as they were passing.

There must have been over 3000 cars that went past between 12.30 and 2pm. We definitely put ourselves on the map.

To top it off we had a lovely summer BBQ!!

We had brilliant feedback from all that took part and the local businesses.

Thanks for all that made this such a fantastic event.

By Patrick Sinclair

Too all gym monkeys, we felt it was important that you should all be represented within the fitness industry, as we have felt for far to too long your hard work, grunting and posing in the mirrors for the receptionist has been ignored.

So here at Charing Cross we decided this can not happen anymore, we believe its time for a change and that you should be represented, hence we found a symbol, a rather buff monkey, however as we wanted him/her to represent you and that we live in a democracy we wanted you the gym monkeys to name him, after many focus groups and an internal poll of members we came up with the name CHIMPETTO, as I think you all will agree encompasses all those fine qualities in a gym monkey.

As a reward we at Charing Cross gave the gym monkey who named our hero 2 kilos of bananas, a free buffing session form a super gym monkey “PT” and the photo with autograph from Chimpetto. We are also holding a party this Friday in honour of him and fellow gym monkeys; this has brought the whole club that much closer.

Finally they have a voice. Three cheers for the gym monkey AND MONKEYS.

By Marta

Carol of Isis Dance was asked to do holiday cover for Dance lessons at Preston Fitness First and did free taster sessions for gym members – these lessons proved very popular. Carol will now be hiring the dance studio to run belly dance lessons on Wednesdays 8 to 9 pm from September 7th. Cost £5. She is really looking forward to making Fitness First a ‘home’ for her belly dance classes. Any age size or shape of lady can enjoy this form of dance. Belly dance is a low impact form of exercise that tones up all the muscles. No experience in any kiind of dancing is necessary.  I do provide jingly hip scarves for students to borrow for the classes. Shimmy Shimmy .

By Carol Menzies

Ahoy there me hearties!!! We decided to hold a Holiday themed week at Mere Green for all those members with post holiday blues. Monday was Pirate day. The staff all dressed up and put on their best pirate accents. We had a plank for the members to walk and a pin the patch on the pirate game. Winners of these challenges won a free PT session and there was lots of fun to be had, and there is lots more to come….We have an Ibiza day, A carribean day and an oriental day still to come. Look out for the pictures.

By Lucy Owen

Our SEM Kim held a Burlesque chair dance Masterclass this week and it went down really well.
With a full class of ladies and then a sexy warm up, Kim taught them a sexy pussy cats dolls style routine fit for showing their other halfs when they got home as a special treat!
We had some men stood at the door trying to watch too!

By KIM BURTON

Sunday 14th we attended a fun run in aid of George Thomas Hospice Care. The fun run was 3K as it was mainly for children with their parents to raise money for charity as well as show the children that exercise is fun!

Our class instructor Rachel took the warm up and everyone got involved warming up to the music from the live DJ.

We waited at the finish line and presented every participant with a goody bag and medal.

There was a bouncy castle, face painting, a pottery wheel and more for after the race for the children to enjoy whilst we chatted to the parents about our club.

The weather was poor but that didnt stop everyone staying in high spirits, having fun and donating to charity!

By Vicky Miller

On Saturday 19th February we had a 6 hour spinathon, all proceeds were going to Brenda who was travelling to Haiti on 23rd February to do voluntary Physio in a clinic near au prince, treating adults and children who were injured in the earthquake and also helping out in a local orphanage.

Our instructors took hourly classes and all for free and members participated and we had collection buckets for donations. In total Brenda raised £1642.50.

By Julie Stirling

Ian, our General Manager, decided to go back in time and have a rave spin, we gave a prize of a free months membership to the best dressed on the night.

Members had so much fun and everyone seemed go into the spirit of things.

By Julie Stirling

David Law personal trainer decided to take members out of the club and do an outdoor circuits class because of the rare fine weather we were having.

A change of scenary from the studio is much appreciated and also allowed more members to participate as there was more room to add variety to the class.

By Julie Stirling

In order to raise awareness for our Cash for Kids Challenge (all NI FFs are cycling the circumference of the earth, coving the 5 continents- Coleraine have been allocated South America) we had a fun-packed day on Tues 19th July. The day started off with a Zumba class ( with even our GM and cash for kids event manager participating), Downtown Radio came down to cover the event and we even managed to get one of the DJs – Owen Larkin in the studio for the Zumba class. After Zumba we had a coffee morning in our lounge both staff and members tested their baking skills and lots of treats were available. In the evening we had our 2 hour spin-a-thon with almost 30 members taking part, the studio was pumping with music, strobe lights and a smoke machine. To round off the day we had lots of Mexican themed snacks available to build up all the energy from the Spin-a-thon. We also had the club decorated with bunting and our staff dressed in Mexican attire.

So far we have raised almost £1000 and still counting……..

By Rachael Blakely

We had a fantastic and taste barbecue with member and community involved.

I ALMOST BURN MY ON MEAT, as you can see :0)

It was great!

*Next time you are our guest”.

By Andre Sacramento

12.30 Wednesday we have a circuits class in our freestyle area, lasting 30 minutes.
Look at these guys working their butts off, huge effort given by them all.great job!!!
Now next week, what can I have planned to make them work harder??!?!?!?!? mwahhhhhhh

By Sarah Yates

Staff made home made cakes, some good, some not so good, and we had them on offer to our members for a donation per cake. We had lots of different cakes from choc brownies to fruit swirly ones to fairy cakes and they went down a storm, making some more money for Asthma UK.

By KIM BURTON

Rocking the Red; was the launch of the les mills, New Music and New Moves. This was a great weekend event where all our instructor came together to launch the new les mills moves and music in Body Pump, Body Combat, Body Attack and RPM.

Look forward to our next launch the beginning of October.

By Chantel Murray

MOTIVATION, INSPIRATION & DETRMINATION

My aim is to improve my quality of life. My fitness levels have improved and my overall health is great. I feel less fatigue and concentrate better at work. My blood pressure is now normal. I attend to Frank’s Fit Club aerobics his Spin and Core classes.
(Benson Wachai).

Excellent classes, very hard but challenging! I love the music!
(Sarah Ponturo).

My aim was to lose weight and tone up! Franks classes combind with others and a healthy diet has helped me to lose 12kgs all together!
(Amelie Biau).

My aim now is to be able to complete Franks classes without having to stop through the class! I have lost weight and feel great and fitter!
(Les Bowers).

I was 10st,11 and i now weigh 9st,4, I feel much more toned and fitter and would like to see the Fit club class more!I love the music and would like the Fit club class to go on for an 1hr instead of just 45mins.
(Emma Brake).

I was 12st 9 and now 10st 11 I attend to Frank’s Spin and Fit Club aerobics classes. I love Franks classes and would like to thank Frank for inspiring me!! I am determained to keep it up.
(Diana Deans).

Spin and Fit club aerobics, I really enjoy the variety of Franks spin classes especially work on the arms. Its also good to alternate sitting and standing positions. More ”Dizzee Rascal” please! More stomach exercises on the Fit club class please! I have lost weight from 10st4 to 9st 12 and i feel pleased with it, I feel fitter and have better indurance than my fiancee who has always been fitter than me. I also enjoy telling people that i have acheived my goals by going to the gym which is much more fun than just dieting.
(Sarah Beale).

Fit club is excellent high intensity class that always gives me a great work out. I have improved fitness and enjoyed attending classes that put me to the test and make me sweat so i feel like i have worked out properly.Thanks Frank.
(Chloe Kantsas).

I attend to Franks Spin Classes.Thanks to Frank for giving me support due to his encoragement, I tried spin because of him ( Previously i felt too intimidated by the class) after braving it i have never looked back. I love working out in Franks classes, they are challenging. His vibrant personality just makes the workout go by quickly. He is a great assest to Fitness first . I wanted to change gyms as i needed a swimming pool due to my shoulder injury, but i didnt because i would miss Franks Spin cloasses.

I was 9st 8 and now weigh 8st10, Thank you Frank for helping me to acheive my goal.
(Mina Hayer)

On Tuesday 26th July we held a UV day at the club and all proceeds were donated to Cash For Kids. The day started with a breakfast morning for our members, followed by a UV step class at 9.30am, a DJ played music on the gym floor throughout the day. A UV spin class finished the day off at 6.00pm. All our members joined in with the fun by dressing in their UV gear and the day raised £420 for this local charity. Downtown radio where also at the club throughout the day helping to promote the event

By Lorna McDonald

To help keep all our staff fit and also for our FC to try out his new circuits routine we organised staff circuit training in our studio!

Hosted by Ritchie our FC, the GM, MSM, SM, Receptionist and MC took part in sweating their hearts out to the sounds of Katy B!

Great for staff morale and also to learn and use those techniques to inspire our members!

Magic!

By Kris Moyse

We held a big open weekend on the last weekend of the month to help relaunch our new refurbished club to the public.

We had a Superhero fancy dress theme. Superman, Robin and Captain America held an outdoor bootcamp and got everyone in the spirit of things.
On the Sunday we had a Gladiator pit outside the club, this got members wanting to compete against the Fitness team so see who was fitter and there was a real buzz around the club. The club was packed!

By Vicky Miller

We held a school style sports day with Egg and Spoon races, Sack races and 3 legged races. Much fun was had by all, mainly laughing at our HFM Matt Sutton trying to jump to the finish line in a pillow case!!

All good fun for our members and it ended up being a lovely sunny evening

By KIM BURTON

Independance Day at Wednesbury Fitness First.
Staff in Blue White and Red, Pretzels, Bagels and juice! lovely !

By KIM BURTON

With the weather being good but our hair being bad we manage to raise over a hundred pounds for Asthma Uk wash cars all day long… thank you to all the members at Fitness First Birmingham for giving so generously.

By Paul Foster

To celebrate the launch of the new BTS releases on the 4th July we linked in with the theme of independance day.

We set up a table outside the club to promote the BTS classes by displaying flyers and playing music to create a buzz. We also used the area as a meet and greet for members attending the launch classes

We created the theme by decorating the studio and getting the instructors and staff to wear red, white and blue clothing.

The classes were great fun with all classes full house! Members are looking forward to the next launch already !!

By Marie Elliott

Fitness in Line is an up and coming easy to follow exercise class that incorporates line dance with modern day dance moves. Forget country and western and think pop, hip hop and rock and roll!!

We arranged a free master class for the members, the class was a great success with over 40 people attending. Unfortunately many of the ladies did not want their photos taken.

We are now looking to arrange another master class for august and hopefully look at adding the class to the timetable for September

By Marie Elliott

At 14st 5 lbs (92kg) and borderline hypertensive, Denis came to see me. I reassessed his dietary intake, set out an exercise plan to reduce his body fat and increase lean muscle mass. I was there with him every step of the way and he has lost NEARLY 3 st (17kg)…and counting! In addition to his remarkable weight loss, Denis has impressed his doctor by reducing his blood pressure significantly! Denis now maintains his new lease of life by continuing training 3 times per week and eating healthy.

By Neil McDaid

One if the PTs in Jersey organises a White Collar boxing event which is where 12 members (and PTs) are trained by him over 12 weeks on how to box and then they flight each other at a black tie evening that raised £25K for various Jersey charities, including children’s cancer research. this was an amzing night out attended by hundread of our members.

By Emma Edwards

A massive thank you to all the Southampton Fitness First members for attending the Frank fitness classes. The list shows true dedication towards your own lifetime changes. I am overwhelmed by the commitment and belief you’ve shown towards my classes and i am sure that you will acheive your fitness goals if you keep it up.

”Calories will continue to burn, The vibes’ will keep on pumping, the energy will expload the place and together we will take it to the next level”. A big thanks to all you great people.

Frank Fitness

William’s Gym Floor 7am circuit class Tuesday’s & Thursdays.

William not only put a smile on my face but also on the 12 people that took part.

I found that this was the community aspect of our recipe and that he poured this into the members by introducing them to each other by first names and after the class I could not believe my eyes when I started seeing members training with each other where as before they trained on their own I can not stop thinking about how unbelievable this was.

By Danielle Fontaine-Ohene

Round up of our Tour DeFrance
We have know completed our journing of the Tour De France here at Lewisham. It consisited of a warm up spinathon with three instructors team teaching with a live DJ, a Tour de France Breakfast morning for members & staff and the 21 stages of the Tour de France covering a total distance of 3430.5km. This has been a very great success within our club enoyed by all who took part including members and staff.

We raised a total of £407.19 for Asthma Uk.

To see more on this event check out our stories and pictures previously posted this month on fitness firsters.

By Danielle Fontaine-Ohene

By dressing up as Bananas we were able to draw more attention and fun to our smoothies that we’d made, with Sculptress protein, for members to taste. It was a great interaction tool and awareness for the product that hasn’t been a big seller in our club. 90% of the members who tried the smoothies agreed that they tasted good and we have made extra sales on all protein lines since.

By Dan Parsons

One of our daily gym floor classes/activities.

Members did various exercises and played games which focused on their abdominal area.

By Ruth Hodgetts

This was one of our weekly staff verse members games. We chose a different game/activity every week and keep a running score.

This week we had football over on the near by park as the weather was nice.

By Ruth Hodgetts

Our Harry Potter day was to raise money towards our rowing event which will be happening next month to raise money for the air ambulance.

All Staff were in fancy dress, all classes on the time table were adapted to fit the theme.

To raise some money for the air ambulance to start us off for next months big event we were selling hot chocolate drinks with cream, 5 minute massages, a lucky dip and raffle tickets.

By Ruth Hodgetts

A fully refurbished free style area has been introduced in Portsmouth. We have TRX bands, Bosu balls, Kettle bells, Vipr bars, Plyometric jumping stations, Power bags and many more functional exercises available. Our gym floor classes for tutorials on how to use the equipment start on Mon 25th July 2011, Come on down to try out our new style of training.
“The freestyle movement, you were born to move”

By Jenny

A new Urban Funk class has been introduced in Portsmouth on a Fri evening 7.30-8.30.

This class has the same concept as Zumba as it is a danced coreographed class, however Urban Funk has got a strong street vibe.
Get your hiphop shoes on and come dancing on a Fri night.

By Jenny

Our quarterly BTS launch was in the theme for Summer holidays.
We had packed classes and really pushed it for the mums and dads who are looking to get fit throughtout the summer holidays.

We had full classes for each one and a great atmosphere was created.
We also had a lot of members attend that had never attended classes before

By Jenny

Mickey Mouse was having a quiet night in with Minnie last week and she decided to tell him all about the recent events at Fitness First Pontefract. Mickey said “That sounds like my kind of operation….!?” and they both decided to pay the club a visit. Some of their friends also decided to come along to see what all the fuss was about and along with the full club team and the clubs enthusiastic members had a fantastic day on the 18th July helping to collect much needed toys for underprivileged children on behalf of the NSPCC.

By Gill Wake

HI EVERYONE!!!!!!!!

WE’VE CHANGED OUR SUNBED LIGHT BULBS.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO TRY THEM OUT THEN COME DOWN TO TOWER HILL…WILL BE HAPPY TO SEE YOU…

TOWER HILL IS WHERE THE SUN IS AT…

By Zivile

It was an early morning, Kim our SEM was on the open shift and one of our regular members knew we were having the Charity car wash and so decided to come to his regular spin class in his work Vehicle to get it washed by Kim!!
Shes the smallest member of staff and had a big job on her hands but she definatly rose to the occasion and was cheeky enough to ask the member to throw more money in to the ASTHMA UK charity pot for washing such a large vehicle…. it put smiles on everyones faces and so far have raised £100.00

By Kim Burton

Just to share our recent challenge here at Pontefract!

One country – One Challenge – Two teams (Red/Blue)

Each team consisted of two fitness team – One team started at John O’groats the other at Lands end, the distance 1200km (750miles) the race was to the centre of the country, approx 600km (375miles) per team, for asthma uk.

Members pledged their allegiance to there particular team by spinning next to us at a set time to distance conversion, blue team members racked up an impressive 215km. The red team members blitzed the competition with 265km. A massive total of 36 members joined us over the three day period.

Red team smashed the 375 miles in two days 10 hours cycling a piece, blue team after suffering an injury and calling reserves finished the distance in three days.

The total raised by team Pontefract for asthma uk – £230

Go team Pontefract

By Howard Avins

During the Wimbledon time we wanted organize a charity event links to the tennis and the Table Tennis tournament seemed to be the greatest idea. We charged non/members £5 per registration or £1 per bat per game as a donation to ASTHMA UK. After very successful tournament when everyone loved it and enjoyed the game, we have decided to keep the table and made a contribution across members as well as staff. It shows how simple idea can be a fantastic retention tool.

By Mili Pilatova

Sophie one of our New PT’s ,took three of our members and beasted them with a group out doors circuits class, they absolutely loved it and felt the whole benefits of working within a team.

Well done Sophie!

By Sarah Yates

Each week the fc’s are challenged to see who can interact more with our less frequent users!

Last week Steve managed to go head and shoulders above everyone and received his amazing crown, trophy and more importantly his chocolates!!!

By Sarah Yates

Two Jersey PTs have set up a Bootcamp which is based outdoors, three times a week, with nutritional advise and one to one help with the training.

By Emma Edwards

The Jersey Team all doing the FitBrit Challenge and getting the members to join in!

By Emma Edwards

Thursday circuits class now being taken in our freestyle area!
All areas of the body being worked and high usage of the area.
Awesome class!!!!

By Sarah Yates

Our Tour de France breakfast going down a treat with all our staff & members, the breakfast included fruit and croissants.

At present we have completed 1823.83 km only another 1606.67 km left to cycle over the next 11 days. So far we have raised £342.89 for Asthma uk.

Our very own member Eileen has been a great help cycling every time she is in and so far has completed 18.86km.

By Danielle Fontaine-Ohene

Myself and Emma, our superstar Zumba instructor went down and held a 25 Min ZUMBA Session for them. I didnt do it, I just supplied some stress ball type dumbbells and a free 1 day Class Pass for them to come down to the club, and took the photos! Feedback was fantastic and has opened up some more opportunities to do something similar at other companies.

GREAT FUN and everyone had a great time!
ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!

If you want to check out the video, it can be seen on our Fitness First Bournemouth FACEBOOK page;

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Fitness-First-Bournemouth/105970572769618

Dont forget to hit “like”

By Rob Morison

On the 1st July we held a Family Active Day free of charge for all of our members and their families. Non members were also welcome. This event was held in our carpark and included face painting for the kids, a magic show and Hip Hop dance demonstartions from our local dance troope. Dinky Doughnuts also supplied delicious food for the day. The day ended with an outdoor Zumba class where all the kids and parents joined in. The sun was shining and we all had a fantastic day.

By Lorna McDonald

OUR VERY OWN TOUR DE FRANCE HERE AT LEWISHAM ALL STAFF AND MEMBERS INVOLVED IN COMPLETING THE TOTAL DISTANCE 3430.5 KM RAISING MONEY FOR ASTHMA UK.  WATCH OUT FOR MORE UPDATES SO FAR COMPLETED 383 KM IN TWO DAYS

By Danielle Fontaine-Ohene

To get all our members warmed up and ready for our Tour De France Event we hosted a spinathon to raise money for Asthma UK.
This involved 3 back to back classes each class with 3 instructors team teaching and a DJ mixing the music.
This was a big success within our clubs with 51 members and 3 top instructors.

By Danielle Fontaine-Ohene

All the staff dressed in american flag colours or as cowboys and girls.
We offered pretzels and donuts and bagels and they went down a storm!

By KIM BURTON

The team organised a summer social with the members, we organised with a bar in the local area to host us.

By Lynsey

Ryan one of our FC’s holding his regular gym floor class – core workout. Was quite a popular one!

By Lynsey

As part of a local Fitness week in June we were offering free health checks and Nutritional information so they could track their achievements and help them to keep achieving.

By Lynsey

Team Cardiff East have been out flyering all morning and lots of people have phoned in already!

A real buzz in the club today with this event.

By Vicky Miller

The Challenge was to climb the height of Mount Everest which is 29,029ft (8.8km up). We did this using the gym stairs which worked out to 58,993 steps, or 2,682 flights on the stairs in the main gym.
The Team did this in an amazing 19 hours starting out at 12 oclock midnight and finishing at 7pm the following day. We had a dj playing thoughout the whole thing and had snacks on for all the members.
We raised over £1000 for a local charity in Birmingham and we spent nothing!
This event built up an amazing atmosphere in the club and the support from the staff, members and outside community was phenominal.

By Ruth Hodgetts

As part of Bournemouth’s Mind and Body Month local nutritionist Barbara Cox from Nutrichef spent the morning in the club promoting the Nutrichef products and offering nutritional advice to the staff and members.
Due to the success of the morning Barbara is looking to set up similar events in the future and is keen to work more closely with Fitness First as a whole.

By Marie Elliott

FF Cardiff East welcomed the regional qualifier for the UK Strongman competition on a very warm Sunday in June. An awesome turnout from members and non-members to support such a great event, and encourage all participants during each heat. A 4% retail day also accomplished – great work from the FOH Team. BOOM!

By Lee Drabble

Lucozade – A great interaction between members and staff to promote the new range of products in club.

By Hannah Creamer

FF Cardiff East welcomed the regional qualifier for the UK Strongman competition on a very warm Sunday in June. An awesome turnout from members and non-members to support such a great event, and encourage all participants during each heat. A 4% retail day also accomplished – great work from the FOH Team. BOOM!

By Lee Drabble

This month all of the staff at FF Wednesbury dressed up as Hippie’s in order to raise money for Asthma UK. The members were very generous in their donations! Thank you x

By Emma Johnston

In club member promotion by Cardiff based, The Travelling Runner UK. Luke Evans works closely with various gyms and running clubs, selling running shoes and offering gant analysis to ensure the correct footwear is purchased.

By Vicky

TEAM TOWER HILL Friday meeting about H&S.

By andre bressan

All of our classes are very important to us at Portsmouth and our members. While all of our classes have a wide range of people, skills and abilities we realised that the same people were attending spin classes.
When you think of spin you prob think “not fit enough for that”! and you will be the same for many of our members. However it is not the case, spin is a great workout and although it is hard and will push your cardiovascular capacity it is a class for the masses.
Therefore we decided to put on 20 min spin taster session throughout the day and evening for non spin goers.
It was great and lots more people are confident in going to the spin classes and with 2 new early morning classes Wed & Fri 6.30-7.15am a few new names are cropping up on the spin booking sheets!

By Jenny

Zumba Party was a huge success with two classes during the day, we had great member participation, lots dressed up in bright colours and skirts. It was Kelly’s Birthday that day and we got her a sash and badge to wear, we also had nibbles Zumba style with salsa, bread sticks, tortillas and fruit kebabs.
During the class there was a dance battle and the winning side received zumba wristbands, the club was alive and everyone had an amazing time and can’t wait for the next !

By Donna Reed

We organised a Mind and Body Month for June as part of the event representatives from Forever Living came in to the club offering aloe vera supplement and skin care tasters to the members.

By Marie Elliott

We wanted to do something different for our members and educate them on a variety of core exercises.

So, dressed in a fat suit to get their attention, I rallied round to get some members together for a gym floor core class which was instructed by Sean.

The class was a hit…and even after the class had finished there were a new set of members on the mats trying out the exercises they’d just seen! Hopefully next time they’ll join in…

By Chantelle Foster

Throughout the month of June we have been running weekly ‘Breakfast Mornings’ where we treat the members to a healthy breakfast compliments of Fitness First! It was nice to see members socialising in our Lounge Area and perhaps meeting other gym-goers who they might not have spoke to otherwise. It’s been a massive success so we hope to continue it going foward…

By Karolina Kasprzak

Great opportunity to talk to our members about nutrition and Maximuscle products. We had two flavours of Sculptress and we served to our members. All receptionist wore purple clothes.

By Marta

We organised a full on BBQ, disco and party. The venue was a hotel/restaurant not far from our club called The Robin Hood.

Tickets were £6 which included all the BBQ food and disco, these were sold in club at reception. The Robin Hood staff kindly supplied and cooked all the BBQ food and we secured a disco completely free from a friend of the club!

In total we had a MASSIVE 180 members turn out for the big night!

The pub had already put in an additional beer order due to amount that was consumed last year PLUS they even had to send someone out for more food!!

A really fantastic night was had by all, great atmosphere from the members and all the staff. Lots of embarrassing stories the next day and many sore heads but every one who came commented on what a great night it was and urged us to do a Christmas event this year too! Great for retention as no other health club engages and socialises with their members like we do. Great magic’s as staff got to know our members more and even better the members got to have a drink with us and get to know us! MAGIC!

By Kris Moyse

I like to hear why you put your Fitness First?

Rob Valentine
General Manager
Fitness First Monument

By Rob Valentine

We all dressed up to celebrate start of Wimbledon (tennis outfit), we gave away strawberries and cream.
We played lots of games as catching the tennis balls, juggling tennis balls, guessing the winners etc.

By Iva Zemanova

16 males contacted the club stating that they were riding from Bristol to Paris for CLIC Sargent for children with cancer.
Their route passed Portsmouth Fitness First and Portsmouth was scheduled to be their first stop off point. They asked if we could provide the use of our showers and changing room facilities. We of course said yes and they rolled in used the changing rooms, refuelled with a few lucozades and made tracks.

By Jenny

In Portsmouth we have lauched “gym floor classes” we have everything ranging from abs classes to stretching classes. From power plate sessions to swiss ball workouts. We have 11 running every day and they run on the hour by our fitness team. They are completely free and are great if you do not have loads of time, just fancy a bit of variety or want to learn more about a particular exercise.

By Jenny

It was a sunny afternoon, so we decided to take our weekly staff versus members game outside again. Non stop cricket gets every body running continuously. Its a great way of working out with a bit of fun.

By John Hemmings

We held a 2 hour Zumba masterclass with 4 expert instructors and 30 of our Zumba ladies.

Participants made a donation to take part in the class and all proceeds went to Asthma UK

We then treated our ladies to a glass of wine afterwards

By Nicola Roberts

Gym Floor classes, a 15 minuite blast, summer is coming guys!

By Neil Currey

The Camberley team offered to wash cars for £5 a car with all proceeds going towards our national charity Asthma UK.

Fun day had by all, and we raised money for charity…

We raised £40…

By Helen Phillips

Charity International Fitness first Tower Hill Convention

Kris J. Mrozek – SEM and Tower Hill TEAM

By Kris J.

Free Special Spinning Classes for you with Kris

Kris J. Mrozek – Studio and Events Manager Fitness First – Tower Hill

By Kris J.

Amazing Modren Dance with Kris

By Kris J.

Amazing and creative dance for you with Kris.

By Kris J.

Strength, Endurance, Interval – “The Power” – Absolutely Free Marathon Spinning

I invite you!

Kris J. Mrozek – Studio and Events Manager Tower Hill

By Kris J.

THIS WAS A REALLY WELL RECEIVED EVENING WITH LOTS OF CHAT AND CONVERSATION TAKING PLACE IN THE LOUNGE AREA

By KIM BURTON

Myself (MSM) and several other members did the Race for Life of the 5th June

By Emma Edwards

Every monday we have a staff versus members game. This week was non stop cricket. It is a great way to interact with our members, plus a great workout rather than just being on the treadmill. Everyone has fun, and gets involved in the community at the club due to playing games together.

By John Hemmings

Red Bull promotion and all the staff wore wings and tutu’s for their shift.
Lots of chatter and questions about the promotion and it was enjoyed by all the the club… members and staff.

By KIM BURTON

20 DAYS OF FITNESS GYM FLOOR CLASS

By KIM BURTON

ITS THE SIMPLE THINGS WE OFFER OUR MEMBERS THAT CAN MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE

By KIM BURTON

We decided tp put on a meet the manager night. We have a new msm in the business so we wanted to let the members know the new team.

It went down very well, and we got some good positive feedback.

By John Hemmings

We were pleased to work in partnership with 3 of our members and their children who raised money for cancer research UK. by holding a Toy sale inside and outside our club on the high street.

By Andy McEwan

We have launched gym floor classes in Portsmouth, we have 11 running each day ranging from abs blast to functional workout.
These are taken by the fitness consultants, are absolutely free and take between 20-30minutes. So this is great if you want to vary up your workout, OR do not have enough time to complete an hour class/workout

By Jenny

We wanted to raise awarness for the birminghams childrens hospital cardiac unit appeal, so we thought we would try a nice endurance challenge. 128,986 steps, Everest!! It took just under 19 hours of going up and down the main stair case in the gym. In the process we managed to get into 3 local papers before and after the event, gaining free publicity for the gym, but more importantly, it helped us raise just under £1000 for the childrens hospital. We have started training for the next challenge, so watch this space…..

By John Hemmings

It was a quiet thursday afternoon, so we decided to get the members involved in a game of handball. We rounded up all of the members in the gym, and played for 30 minutes. Just making there training fun, interactive and helping them to become part of the community at Walsall Wood.

By John Hemmings

I am very happy to continue the practice of sport that has been my life and at the same time developing the next generation to realize their dreams

By Reinel

Richard Callendar (the biggest loser guy) holds work out events this one was at the Harrow Leisure centre and was a sold out event with over 300 people. It was from 10am to 4.30pm. the classes there were Armageddon Circuit, Zumba, TKO, Total Body Work Out (Michael Jackson tribute dance), Urban Funk, Soul Stretch and Pilate’s.

16 Members went from our club after our SEM announced there were a few spaces left to go.
Sam The SEM again got Fitness First T-shirts and printed names and Luton Crew on them so they could stand out from the crowd. There was over 300 people and FITNESS FIRST LUTON CREW were the biggest group of people there.
Impact on the club is that now more people want to be booked onto the next one that he is holding which for HARROW is Sep 4th 2011 with over 20 members booked on for that already and SAM the SEM has also managed to get him to hold a class here at LUTON which he is now doing on the 11th June 2011.

Posters are up in the club advertising both advents. And members are amazed at how Sam managed to get him to come here.

By Hayley

We held an outdoor Zumbathon for asthma uk and hired a stage & DJ we also had 2 instructors at the event which attracted approx 90 people some of who were not members. We had loads of free gifts for people who donated money to the event. Great day had by al! Outside the gym looked well as we had it decorated with lots of banners and helium balloons.

Raised excellent awareness around the community for the gym the atmosphere around the gym was awesome and everyone was on top form we also joined up 6 new members on the day. Total amount raised on the day of event was £300.

By Michael

Heather the club SEM arranged a charity bike ride to Hornsea which is 30 mile round trip in aid of Red Nose Day. They set of at lunchtime and stopped in Hornsea for fish and chips and came back to the club as a group at 4pm. The club raised £300 for Red Nose Day

By Trevor

On Sunday 27th March we held an event for staff and members to run 10k, the route started at the club to and around Sutton park and then back to the club. It was £5 per person to enter and the money raised all went to Asthma UK.

Good staff & member interaction
Raised money for our supporting charity – Asthma UK

By Nicola

We organised for members to have the opportunity to donate toys for the Bristol children’s hospital. We asked members to participate in gym floor work outs and reach a certain goal i.e run 4k on treadmill in 20 mins etc and donate a toy – the winner for the best run got a few complimentary sunbed sessions – the event went down very well and we received lots of donations.

Good effort by all members of staff to make awareness of event and importance of fitnessfirst involvement with local community. Received excellent response from members and we had 20+ toys donated by the end of the week.

Childrens hospital was very grateful for our help and we left some marketing in the waiting room to hopefully pick up some new guest passes from central town way.

By Natalie

This was set thought-out the whole of the region to really get members engage with what is happening in our club. We had loads of gym floor classes going on a pts doing different things. We had competions and challenges for members and also for staff. We had a different theme for each day giving us something else to focus on these were things like the top 20 programme cards to nutrition and supplement advice. There was something for everyone.

This really had a good impact on the club. Members got involved and with the help of our pts really made the week worthwhile. The gym floor classes were full and with many members not even aware that we had these classes they are now returning each week to take part. A lot of fun was had by everyone involved

By Rebecca

Reading Fitness First took part in annual pancake race, which takes place every pancake day for charity. Being that are team name was fitness first we would have felt very bad not to have come in at least the top 3. Due to determination and passion of our team we managed to beat 4 companies in different legs to get to the final. In the final was the oracle (winners of last year), a local church and of course Fitness First. Although the final was very tight, we managed to pull through and WIN the race! As a price we won a trophie, a ingraved pan, vouchers and a cake from the charity, the british heart foundation. Oh and also received the title ‘Best Flipping Tossers!’

By Laurie Springate

World Challenge provides educational expeditions in the developing world which teach life skills and expand minds outside the classroom. Their bespoke 3 to 6-week student travel itineraries foster team spirit and leadership skills. The programmes are designed with the students’ personal development in mind. Young people are involved in planning and fundraising their way to the experience of a lifetime. The life skills they learn will not only aid personal growth, but can help secure university places and impress future employers.
Fitness First Reading were proud to be invited to one of the races at Wellington Country Park where Sasha one of our PT’s joined forces with Atlas the Ape on stage to warm everyone up and the rest of made sure everyone was well hydrated

By Tracey

This was our International Fitness Week:

Monday – Body Pump challenge in the studio

Tuesday – International Spin at 6pm with 2 instructors team teaching

Wednesday – 3 gym floor classes! Fat Burner, Balance, Core

Thursday – Health Checks all day with our 10 PTs

Friday – SHAPE with team Kingly ST….XBOX KINECT Gym Challenge

Almost every member has got involved in our IFW, it was amazing to watch how they were enjoying different ways of workout

By Iva

As part of International Fitness Week Fenchurch St held a gym strength challenge. All members enjoyed the class and since then they all keep coming back.

By Jaga

One of our PT’s who has a massive amount of expertise in a range of areas, held a fat loss seminar in the studio. There were about 20 attendees and they all gave really positive feedback.

It enabled the members to realise how much knowledge and expertise the PT’s have. This bought in new leads for the PT and demonstrated that we care about all aspects of the members’ health and well being.

By Kara

We screened our members using the latest PULSE WAVE TECNOLOGY which shows real time cardio gram and CASP (central aortic systolic pressure) .
In a nut shel this gives a very accurate indicastion of arterial health. Many people dont know they have heart problems until they have a heart attack. This is very exciting stuff and happening in our club right now.
4 members went away knowing they have to take action. fantastic!!!!

By Hamish Harrington

On the 14th of April we organized the 1st ever Headsets & Mindsets event to bring together the Membership Exchange, Talent Exchange and Membership Services.

The event was a huge success with great input from all departments and a fantastic amount of energy during the afternoon.

We would like to thank the days Headsets and Mindsets winners:

Maggie Quick – The ‘Headsets & Mindsets’ Fitness Firster Award
Amanda Walton – Talent Exchange Award
Richard Gawlicki – MSC Administration Award
Jason Little – Credit Control Award
Jordan Hopkins –Retentions Award
Beverley Smith – Customer Services Award
Linda Travers – PT & Beauty Award
Daniel Hawkes – Membership Exchange Award
Mike Coombes – Membership Exchange Award

We look forward to seeing you all again for the next Headsets and Mindsets.

By Jonathan White

Jemma and I decided to take on the challenge of the London Marathon this year in aid of Asthma UK. Having only ever run two half marathons before it was going to be tough but we knew that with a bit of hard work and determination we’d have no problems… or so we thought! The training started off well but with a knee injury, a leg injury, a couple of colds, numerous blisters and the endless early morning runs we started to doubt if we’d made the right decision! It was only the support from friends, family and work colleagues not only through sponsorship but through their kind words and advice that kept us going.

We had entered ourselves into the Bournemouth Bay half marathon run which took place two weeks before the big day and with both of us achieving new personal bests our confidence was restored and we were ready and raring for the 26.2 miles ahead!

The day arrived and we were surprisingly calm. We found our starting point and we were away along with the 35,000 other people! The run itself went really well, we felt great until about 21 miles when the legs started to feel the strain but the crowd were amazing so there was no way we would let it beat us! We crossed the finish line in great time still feeling pretty good considering what we’d just done – maybe we should have pushed ourselves that little bit harder!

So far we’ve raised £2,200 for Asthma UK which is a great effort but we aim to raise £3,000 so if you’d like to help us support this great charity visit our JustGiving page www.justgiving.com/Vicky-Jemma

Thank you to all those that have supported us, especially those who bravely allowed us to wash their cars!!

By Vicky Montague

The helpful bunnies at the Support Centre took part in a ‘Great Big Easter Egg Hunt’ to raise money for Asthma UK today.

The event was a great success with another £79 raised for the charity…It’s amazing what the promise of chocolate can do!

Thank you everyone for taking part and having fun:)

By Tracey Bethell

The Membership Exchange took to the streets of London on the 17th of April in a bid to help Andy and his team from the Highbury club to generate some fresh leads and create some excitement about the new Black Label club opening at the old Arsenal football grounds.

Outreach was planned around the Arsenal/Liverpool game and was split into 2 parts. We set up an hour before the game right out the front of the Emirates stadium and entered the crowd as thousands of people descended towards the game.

We were handing out bottles or water, Fitness First branded mini footballs and offering people the chance to play guess the goal with a prize of a football shirt!

After a break for lunch we headed back to the stadium armed with bags filled with water and Highbury flyers to hand out to fans leaving the game. We had Dave ‘Capt. America’ Cox and Mike ‘The Hoff’ Coombs in the middle of the crowds to lighten the mood while the rest handed out water.

Well done MX and good luck Team Highbury!

By Jonathan White

On 25th of March the UK Membership Exchange, along with PT Talent Coordinator Marcus Atkins from the Talent Exchange and PT Jamie Vandersteen from the Poole club attended the Vitality Show at Earls Court.

The aim of the day was to generate new leads for the business and raise brand awareness.

During the day we had ‘Power Hours’ running where we would compete to get the most leads. Also going on we had Personal Training demonstrations and press up competitions to get the public involved and excited about Fitness First!

While all that was going on we were also handing out bags filled with water, lip balm and wrist bands… they were so popular we were handing them out faster than we were making them.

Overall the Vitality show was a compete success, in total over 1600 new leads were collected at the event for clubs all around the country and around 600 bags were handed out with Fitness First goodies.

Well done guys!

By Mike Coombs

Over 1,000 Personal Trainers and the Fitness First Senior Management teams enjoyed this year’s PT Conference in Loughborough on Thursday 7th April 2011.

Headline speakers included the likes of Scott Atkins, Paul Chek, John Hardy and Bobby Cappuccio. The presentations provided a mix of practical, interaction and business ideas which kept the audience stimulated and engaged throughout the day.

Congratulations to our male PT of the Year winner, Steve Cole from Berkhamsted who showed great dedication to his job and a huge passion for fitness. But a special congratulations to our female and overall winner of PT of the Year, Katie Ford from Sheffield Hillsborough who impressed the judges with her innovative training approach and her involvement with local charities.

Watch this space for next year’s line up!

The National Fitness Team.

By The National Fitness Team

Alperton Fitness First was a gym that was forgotten about…until 2011!!!

look at our sales team in action at the local sainsburys!
not only promoting health and fitness by doing a live demonstration of spinning but also helping the staff at sainsburys raise money for comic relief!!

C for COMMUNITY and also collecting leads of course

By Yola Konieczny

Nicola led a fantastic members Zumba Marathon. 2 hours back to back and all involved had a fantastic time. We’ll be doing one next month for those who missed out. All the fun of the circus.!!

By Zumba Marathon

I just wanted to say a huge well done and thank you to our amazing Fitness First UK Talent Exchange Team (TX) Helen, Jackie, Rachel, Marcus, Rachel, Jo, Naomi and Amanda for their achievement in becoming finalists in the ‘Best Corporate use of Online Recruitment Award’ at the 2011 Onrec Awards. We were up against some stiff competition from the likes of John Lewis, BBC, Staples and BP Retail to name a few and although the BBC was the overall winner we were delighted to have been in the final selection. I would also like to thank Gavin and Nick from Culture Bank for there involvement in helping make this happen and also for partying with us late into the night. Also thanks to Jason – Head of Ops for keeping us on track with the wine and song! and Neil Tune for his ongoing support and guidance. As the picture shows we all had a great time.

The Onrec Awards acknowledge the hard work of companies and individuals in the online recruitment industry. The awards aim is to recognize the impressive efforts made by companies.

By Daniel Selmon

As a club we are always working with the local community to help promote health and wellbeing. The membership team along with the fitness department took part in a spin event held at Whitechapel Sainsburys.

The feedback was fantastic and we will now be holding regular events so that the community around Bow Wharf can get involved.

By Bow Wharf charity spin

Good to see the team doing boxing out side

By Jason

Over 300 Fitness First staff and freelancers made the trip to the Winter Gardens in Blackpool on March 24th to take part in the Fitness First Group Exercise Experience.

The event was an enormous success and the feedback has been extremely positive.

Thanks to all those who attended and we look forward to next year’s event being even bigger and better!

The National Fitness Team.

By The National Fitness Team

On my journeys around the UK, I am sometimes able to get a PT session in

with a new PT.

I did this at Southampton with Frank.

Frank arrived at the start of the session full of promise. He strapped
my wrists and then proceeded to put me through my paces thoroughly.
Keeping my heart rate up through a mixture of cardio and boxing, and
getting me in positions I haven’t been in before!!!!

We went through a variety of different exercises and I was exhausted at
the end of the session.

Thank you Frank!!

Gabrielle Brownlie.

By Gabby Brownlie

March / April see’s the start of the next group of Future Leaders and ALP (advanced Leadership programme) candidates to start there ongoing development journey towards top flight management.

We wish them all the best for the future and look forward to supporting you all on your journey.

For more info on both development courses, speak to your RBM or HR Business Partner.

By Mark Bowering

We had draw for our members and they could win bottle of Jameson and Baileys.

By Anna

The Reason4 training with Frank at Fitness First.

a.. Life’s been a whirlwind since we appeared on the X Factor series 7. The moment we got back from Simon’s house we threw ourselves into our music and were quickly signed by Sony ATV. Since then we’ve been crazy busy writing, recording and gigging up and down the country and we admit that at first the gym became a distant memory! That was until we met Frank, a wicked personal trainer who helped us kick our bodies into shape between our hectic schedule. Read what we all thought about it below…

Marc Higgins

a.. Being a singer/songwriter, personal image is of the utmost importance and that’s what really made me decide I wanted to work with a personal trainer..

I wanted to gain muscle mass and muscle definition. It was important for me to keep lean as I had a lean physique before I started training with Frank.. My goal was to gain better overall fitness and have an athletic build.

Frank put me on a six-week training and diet plan; the diet was low fat, high protein, which included three meals a day and only snacking on citrus fruits. This was brilliant for me as I was previously on a low carb diet and the introduction of carbohydrates was greatly received!

I needed structure to my training and Frank put together a very intense muscle fatigue training program, mixing short but high-level cardio with medium weight ,high repetition muscle training. For example I would train back, arms, legs, shoulders, chest and abs all in one session, 3-4 days per week.

I would arrange to meet up with Frank 1 day each week for a personal training session. This is where Frank really beasts you!! He put me through my paces, constantly changing the exercises so that I kept my body guessing. I have to admit that I never looked forward to these sessions beforehand, but after I was really proud of myself and the effort I put into each of them.

Overall I found that working with Frank gave me a better level of fitness and a great foundation to build on. It has changed my outlook on training because I used to train only two muscle groups per session and didn’t see the results. From Frank’s training, my cardiovascular fitness has improved and I have a greater understanding of my body.

Glen Vine

a.. After a mental end to 2010 and a lot of service station junk food while gigging and in studio, it was looking as if i was going for contender for a heavy weight boxing match, so I decided that it was important to sort myself out.

Before I met Frank I was the kind of guy who would go to gym train a certain muscle each day and then try to put a bit of cardio in my training if I could be bothered. That all changed when I met Frank! He put me on a personalised six-week programme which meant I did 40-45 minutes of cardio a day, combed with weights to keep my heart rate up and to burn fat.

I would combine a session of squats, chest, arms, back and core muscle with a run, cross trainer, row and bike. I would do this 3-4 times a week as well as having a personal session with Frank once a week. This was when he would put me through my paces and push me to the limit. And when I say limit I mean it, it was that day that I hated every week! It was hard but I knew while I was singing I had to keep in shape.

He helped me to get disciplined in what I eat on the road. My diet consisted of citrus fruits, protein, lean meat and veg and I would only eat 3 meals a day, keeping my crabs at a minimum.

In regards to my body type I already had quite good upper body so my goals were to get fit but at the same time hold a little size but reduce my body fat to look more lean and athletic. I have noticed a big difference, not only in my body but in my health and wellbeing. Although training is a big part of getting into shape the main thing is getting your body used to eating right and getting yourself in the right mental attitude.

Scott White

a.. Like the other guys, a big part of my reason for wanting personal training with Frank was because of the fact we’re in the public eye and need to look good. They say the camera puts on a few pounds and I didn’t want to end up in Heat magazine’s Circle of Shame section!

I have always been into fitness training, but more the weight training than the cardiovascular work. I was not prepared for what was to come next!! By training with Frank I wanted to improve my fitness levels and tone up all over. I tend to look at food and I put weight on the hip area so that was first on the list to hit. Training with Frank gave me a new hunger for training and also made it fun. It was very tough to start but as my fitness improved I found myself pushing even harder in sessions.

Sometimes it can be easy to stray from a diet but the one Frank put me on was personalised so it was easy to stick to. Plus I knew that if I cheated I’d only be cheating myself!

I definitely feel a lot more confident in my shape and a lot fitter since training with Frank. Overall I’d recommend him to anyone!

Nathan Rawlings

a.. As the other lads will testify, I’m the laid back one in the band and although I used to keep fit through lax gym sessions and mountain biking, my diet and training was nothing like it should be for what we do for a living!

Through my work with Frank I really wanted to push my body to the limit – both in terms of my diet and training. I wanted to feel better about myself inside and out so the high heart rate intensive training and strict diet Frank used for me was perfect!

After just a few weeks of hard training I can run further, ride for longer and lift for longer. I’m no Jason Statham or Brad Pitt but if I had Frank and Fitness First behind me for my whole career I see no reason why I can’t be in the future! Cheers guys!

Kind Regards,

Frank Mangna

By Frank Mangna

The members have all commented on the buzz in the club on Red Nose Day….

The full team dressed in red and held a bake sale on at reception .. We had a member waxing hairy legs, backs and chests for charity, a School Sports Day Circuit in the Studio, and a penalty shoot out for a signed Stoke City Football.

All in all, a good day was had and we raised around £150 for Comic Relief!

By Crazy

By Alick Mighall

RAISING MONEY FOR RED NOSE DAY

By COMIC RELIEF

We also offered PT sessions for £3 per person all day from 6am – 9pm!

By Connor McAlister - HFM Whitefield Manchester

Blaine Buttery, Daniel Buttery, Nikki Kirkham, Debbie Ellis, Catherine Liggins and Luke Stace, from Member Services in the Support Centre Poole smashed the Fitness First sponsored Southbourne Fast and Flat 5km race. Spot the person who only got in from a night out at 4.00am that morning!

By Luke Stace

All departments working together at Fitness First in Old Street! Bringing even more people in to make the world a fitter place!

By Eugenia