Organise Your Own Fitness Days

While I was in Cheltenham, Gloucester, I supplemented my business for over 10 years running successful fitness days at my local leisure centre.  I started with 40 people, but that soon grew to over 180 people in 2 rooms doing a variety of classes.  I was lucky enough to have presenters such as Steve Watson, Rachel Holmes, Ceri Hannan, Cherry Baker, Lorna Malcom, Michael Betts, Julio Papi, Hippo Lipkin, Danni Gonzales, Coco Johorn and loads of others that helped me build a pretty extensive data base for the south west, provide fun and motivation for initially my class members and then ultimately to people from further afield, and also earnt me a substantial income on top of my presenting, and instructing money.

The thing is that it is really easy to do and set up and here are a few tips to get you started.

Start small to educate your members what a masterclass is. – You need to “teach” your class members the difference between your normal class and a masterclass.  Ways in which to do this is to maybe link your event with a charity, to then make the class more “special” (you can also get media coverage for this as well).  Also get other local instructors involved.  They will love the chance to show their skills to a different crowd AND you can get them to bring some of THEIR class participants along so that you get more numbers.  Unless people have not been to a fitness weekend, they will not know the difference between Rebecca Small and a local instructor, so I would advise against spending loads of money initially in getting big name presenters

Get EVERYONES’ contact details!  This is a biggie, whoever comes to your fitness day must give you their details so that you can let them know when the next one is.  This can be in the form of a booking form which they fill in and enter their name, address, email and mobile number.  Then there are ways that you can send out emails to your entire list to keep contact.  I have used vertical response, which is a pay as you go email service and has been really good for me.  Also there are loads of mobile texting services where you can let people know about your event or other things that you have going on.

Choose the right venue – I was really lucky to be teaching large classes at the local leisure centre and I was given a good rate to hire half the hall.  They also had 80 steps, so I knew that I had everything that I needed to fill half a hall.  But if you are starting out try to find a large studio that has 35-40 steps and a GOOD SOUND SYSTEM.  You want your day to be special so the last thing you need is rubbish sound. I actually used to hire my sound system for my masterclass days, which were invaluable to me. Also you can negotiate your payment against giving away free places for instructors of that centre.  This can lower your hiring charge. Also choosing a venue with parking is critical.  If they have a map that will make your life loads easier as you can send this out with your confirmation letter/email.

Get to know other well known local instructors – The quickest way to get numbers increasing to your event is if other instructors promote the event for you, and bring their class members to your event.  Of course you will give them free places for the event, and you can even give them a commission based on how many people they bring. As my event grew larger, I was indebted to 3 instructors who each had 30 of their own steps, which increased the amount of people that I had in those classes.

Get one “big name” presenter to headline your line up – To start of with you could have 1 established presenter that will be the main attraction. This may then bring other people from outside your area to come to your day.  Now I know how much I charge and other more established presenters, which may be outside a lot of people’s budgets, BUT there are a lot of presenters that are looking to increase and improve their portfolio, who maybe more reasonable with their fees.  If you need help finding these presenters then please let me know.

Plan your date and TAKE ACTION- Just do it as NIKE says.  You will definitely learn as you go along and will always look to improve and refine your days.  Choose your dates wisely.  Too near a bank holiday weekend is a nightmare.  Also find out when your half terms are and avoid those weekends as well.  Finally find out if there is anyone touring your area, and try to schedule your day away from them.

Bonus Tip is try to have something different on the day – A masterclass day that will just offer hi lo and step, may not be the interesting hook that people will look for to come along as they may feel that they can get that from their local classes.  But if you had a unique class that was not available in your area eg kettlebell circuits, zumba, salsasize, ceroc, house aerobics, to name but a few, then people will be more inclined to come and try it out.

Another bonus tip which is probably the most important – make the day fun!  I cannot stress how important it is that you make the day about fun NOT choreography! If people are coming to your event for the first time you have to be the hostess with the mostess, and schmoozing your way around making sure that everyone is happy with the sessions and generally networking.  I always used to introduce the day, making sure everyone knew what the timetable was, and also if they had any questions they come speak to me direct.  People want to feel welcomed and that they are part of something fun, and not leave feeling inadequate because they could not do any of the routines.

There are loads more tips that I could give out, but from my experience these are the most important.  If you have any questions about the above, then please just email me at