Just because functional fitness is completely different from MMA and martial arts in general, this doesn’t mean your facility cannot benefit from offering these types of classes. In fact, there are four good reasons for you to consider adding fitness classes to your facility.
#1: Functional Fitness is Growing
The U.S health and fitness sector generates more than 30 billion dollars per year, and the industry is only getting larger every year. The U.S. is the single largest market for this industry in terms of revenue and total number of people who frequent health and fitness clubs.
This number is only growing. According to the latest IHRSA Global Report, the fitness industry grew by a rate of 2.6% globally, and the U.S. alone saw growth of 7.2%. The industry currently serves 162 million people, and this only takes into account health clubs.
#2: Your Customer Base Can Grow, Too
With more and more people visiting gyms on an annual basis, MMA and MA facilities, as businesses, can benefit from tapping into this marketplace. Not only does offering functional fitness classes help you add another stream of revenue to your business, it can also bolster your primary membership rates.
Many martial arts disciplines seem intimidating to people who have never tried them. Functional fitness classes act as a gateway to these disciplines and help you sell how your classes and the martial arts you practice helps them grow.
The more people you bring into your business, the more growth you will experience.
#3 It Helps Your Students
Functional fitness classes are not just a means to grow your business. They can also your current athletes out, as well. Weight training, interval-based workouts, conditioning and other fitness-related workouts can help MA and MMA athletes become stronger, faster, and increase their movement and range of motion. Cross training opens them up to new workouts that will increase their skills and allow them to train harder on the mats.
#4: You Likely Already Have the Equipment
Your facility is more equipped for functional fitness classes than you know. Your martial arts and MMA mats are already primed to be the perfect flooring for these types of workouts, and the bags and bag racks many facilities have can be incorporated into fitness routines, too. The only (small) investment that some facilities will have to make involves select fitness equipment and weights (depending on the fitness classes you want to offer). In all, you should have almost everything you need to get started.