Facilities of all shapes and sizes can benefit from outstanding group training programs. Group training is on the rise and it’s important to embrace it to retain the traffic in your campus rec center. In order to start increasing engagement, your core programming must be structured and solid. At Matrix, we guide our customers to focus on five key areas to maximize campus involvement when launching a new program.
Content
To deliver the experience your students and staff are looking for, you need to implement high-quality programming. Replicability is a core value in both pre-designed and homegrown programming. This means all your trainers must teach a particular class format with consistency to provide quality experiences where participants know what to expect, regardless of who their trainer is on any given day.
Keep in mind your target demographics and cater your exercises to their needs—whether that means time allotted for a class or integrating specific movements.
Promotion
To catch the attention of a college student, it’s important to emphasize results-based messaging in your promotions. Students and staff could be looking for results regarding fun, fitness, weight loss, etc.—and your programming is only effective if you reach them. This means you must be wise in how you choose to use your media. Does your campus have an engaging online presence? Are you currently reaching your campus through strategically-placed posters on bulletin boards? Encourage your current employees to ask their fellow students how they engage with your rec center.
Experience
Keep in mind that you want your group training to be in an inviting and exciting space—use any and all resources to appeal to participants. During the delivery of your group training, encourage your trainers to keep a professional mentality while also connecting with participants. It’s our goal at Matrix to help schools create environments that facilitate student connection and that inspires them to nurture community wellbeing inside and outside their walls.
Talent
You can find passionate students motivated to take on leadership roles on any campus. Give them the opportunity to grow into that role as trainers and they will be even more driven to produce quality results. As a campus rec professional, have a consistent plan in place to keep growing your new and experienced trainers’ knowledge, skills, and abilities.
Schedule
When designing a schedule for your new program, evaluate the traffic patterns at your rec center. Schedule your growing programs during the high-traffic times for your target audience. Your faculty, staff, and students have varied time commitments, so be mindful of their schedules to maximize attendance. Designing the schedule to cater towards the attendees’ availability will add more value than if you build your schedule around your instructors’ availability.
Boosting engagement at your campus rec center could be made easier with our group training offering, the MX4 Training System. MX4 is a customizable, turnkey solution that is based on Matrix-exclusive equipment. Exercises are balanced around cardio, endurance, power, and strength.
To guarantee consistency, we provide workouts—ensured to be safe and effective—as well as initial and ongoing training for your team. Our added marketing assets also relieve you of having to create a strategy on your own. This leaves the focus on offering the best programming possible for your faculty, students, and staff.
About Matrix
Matrix is among the world’s premier—and fastest-growing—commercial fitness brands. Leading clubs and fitness facilities around the world choose to partner with us because Matrix delivers. Matrix is a Diamond Partner of NIRSA and we have been an associate member since 2004.
- For more information, please contact Matrix Group Training Business Solutions Manager Rebecca Cofod.
Rebecca Cofod is currently the Group Training Business Solutions Manager at Matrix Fitness; she can be reached at Rebecca.cofod@matrixfitness.com.
