In the previous blog, we continued to explore different forms of value and highlighted the importance of matching one’s offering to consumer values. We can effectively do this in the stories we tell and the experiences we deliver.
The above means that content and context both have a huge part to play in the success of Interval Training for the facility, instructor or Personal Trainer (PT) as they grow their offering and become successful without a huge volume of end users.
The content is required to be as personalised as possible and in some cases, as varied as possible. The context has to be unique as possible and incorporate as many human scenes as possible, in a positive manner that affects the individual’s feelings, which in turn creates the experience.
Consuming the Interval Training offering has to be as stress-free as possible (reducing the sacrifices the end user has to go through in order to benefit from the service being offered). One way to do this, that supports the experience, is to utilise digital.
For example, digital services can assist with bookings, payments, reminders, session feedback, additional support, information and education. All of these elements add to the overall service, creating an individual experience.
These fundamentals in content and context help create the individual feelings associated with an experience. Experiences, according to some experts, are the only way to achieve economic growth, improved brand awareness, and business success.
Some of the fundamental factors to consider that would affect both content and context of an Interval Training session or series of sessions are current fitness levels, current skill levels, training history, current exercise frequency, facility visit duration, likes, dislikes, confidence levels, previous experiences with exercise, lifestyle, and an understanding of how to judge personal exercise intensity levels.
Let us not forget that exercise complexity and intensity have a massive effect on session enjoyment, as well as building individual self-belief. Enjoyment and self-belief support individual adherence to the facility, and this ultimately leads to greater retention rates.
Exercise complexity has a weighty affect on the success of any Interval Training session. If the equipment, exercise or exercises chosen are too complex and the exerciser cannot achieve them they may well feel a sense of inadequacy. This in turn may lead to a drop in self-belief, which may reinforce feelings that exercise is not for them.
There is also a fine balance between complexity and intensity. The aim of Interval Training is to achieve a high volume of high intensity work, which over time leads to a great deal of positive adaptations in the body. If exercise complexity is too high though, the intensity drops, decreasing the possible adaptations. Therefore, we then have to factor in that positive feelings turn a service into an experience. As an industry we must ensure the exerciser is upbeat about what they are doing.
As we can see, one interval training solution may be perfect to elicit both positive feelings and physical adaptations in one client, whilst another may hate the session and not achieve the physical gains they are seeking. This is why we must tailor our Interval Training experiences to the audience we are working with. A great place to start is to consider the exerciser’s confidence and competence – from here we can start using common guidelines to bespoke and personalise the offering.
In the final blog of the series, we delve a little deeper into what else may be required and to manipulate how we might wish to ‘stage’ our Interval Training experiences so they are suitable for all exercisers.
