New Mexico Sports and Wellness, Albuquerque, New Mexico
“Our membership is more focused and goal oriented now. They expect a more organized cardiovascular workout from the instructors and this helps them accomplish their goals.”
Debbie Webster
Albquerque, New Mexico
Red Jersey Master Trainer
In November, 2002, Heart Zones received an inquiry from Debbie Webster, Regional Cycling Director at New Mexico Sports and Wellness in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Debbie had read about Heart Zones and wanted more information on the Heart Zones Cycling Blue Jersey Level I qualification to provide to her Regional Wellness Director. After much research and discussion, Debbie required all of her cycling staff to be qualified in Heart Zones Cycling.
It has been three years since the first Heart Zones qualification at that facility, and Heart Zones has been back several times to deliver both Green Jersey Level II and Blue Shirt Personal Training Level I. Today, about 98% of the cycling staff is qualified in Heart Zones and almost half a dozen have gone on to Yellow Level III.
Debbie’s initial goal was to provide a heart rate monitor based cycling program to the membership. She started by putting one class on the schedule and participants needed to take a sub max heart rate test and have a heart rate monitor prior to the class. This led to two revenue opportunities: one, sub max testing, and two, sales of heart rate monitors.
Extending the reach with Sub-Max Testing
Debbie made a decision to make sub max testing so affordable that participants absolutely couldn’t balk at the cost. The facility charged $6 per person to be sub max tested. This was just enough to cover their costs. Using this strategy, over 800 people have been sub max tested at New Mexico Sports and Wellness in three years.
The facility sold a variety of heart rate monitors, but eventually settled on the Sports Instruments Fit 1 and Fit 2 heart rate monitors. Because of the low cost of sub max testing, nearly all cycling class participants knew what their maximum heart rate was, what their zones were, and why they should be using a heart rate monitor. In two years, all of their cycling classes were Heart Zones Cycling and all of their participants wore heart rate monitors. This even had a trickle down effect into other formatted classes, as trainers were seeing more and more of their participants wearing heart rate monitors in step and kick box classes, for example.
Fee Based Classes
An even better strategy that was born out of Heart Zones was a plethora of fee based specialty classes. Instructors were encouraged to create different formats such as threshold, endurance, climbing and time trialing classes. Classes typically run 8-10 weeks and cost anywhere from $150-$250. In fact, one trainer, who is a time trial specialist, made over $4,500 one year just from offering this special format class. The club splits the revenue 50/50 with the instructor.
Results are in
“Our membership is more focused and goal oriented now. They expect a more organized cardiovascular workout from the instructors and this helps them accomplish their goals,” says Debbie.
Visit the New Mexico Sports and Wellness website