Hey everyone, Leo here. Let's get one thing out the way—this was an eventful week and one to remember.

As some of you know from my previous articles, I've been spending more time lately with researching different fitness industries, and hoping to find practical tips and data points to inform you— the personal trainer and fitness professional.

The fitness industry is still hurting, especially for runners.

The Boston Marathon was postponed again in 2021, and virtual races have only returned half the expected participation numbers.

Sadly, more gyms and studios have recently filed for bankruptcy.

Companies that filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy:

Town Sports International (parent company of New York Sports Club and Boston Sports Club)
24 Hour Fitness
Gold's Gym
Flywheel Sports
YogaWorks
Cyc Fitness

🚨📖 Notable Headlines

Under Armour sells MyFitnessPal at a loss after acquiring it in 2015
Apple Fitness+ will launch coming this Fall. I think this launch will be the definitive inflection point in the history of digital fitness. Please read and start thinking about content creation on services like YouTube if you haven't already.
Peloton is crushing its quarterly sales, but struggling to meet its surging demand.

🔥 Who's Hiring

Chelsea Piers (New York, NY) - Personal Trainer

Lifetime Fitness (New York, NY) - Personal Trainer

The Future of run coaching

I mentioned in my post, Coaching Runners Part 1, that if marathons continue to cancel in 2021, the run coaching economy will suffer greatly because private run coaching is interdependent with race prep.

This relationship is not the same in personal training. Strength and general fitness goals aren't as limited to annual fitness events like a marathon; people seek personal trainers with a much broader set of reasons.

In case you missed it, I spoke to Precision Run coach Elizabeth Corkum on the future of run coaching.

There's so many brands and coaches right now that are like, "Oh, happened to my Zoom class for five bucks or 10 bucks." And you're going to need a lot of people to join you for that, to really make much of a profit for your time.

... I think Spring 2021 is probably not going to happen in terms of many in-person races. I'm not saying there won't be any anywhere, but I think the amount that will be able to happen safely are going to be few and far between, and I think runners who sign up for any of those races are going to have to go into it emotionally prepared to have it taken away after putting in all that hard work.

Other suggestions from Coach Corky:

Be professional and create a website
Be a "Yes" person when first starting out. Build your early network to gain pricing leverage in the future
Consider digital coaching - (Precision Run offers audio coaching in Equinox's Variis app)

I love the first point the most— Corky began her website in 2015, and she is now benefitting from organic search traffic to her website. Visiters can follow her blog content and learn about her coaching services. I'll be sharing more detailed tidbits from my lengthy talk with Corcky in an upcoming post.

Health & Fitness Recovery Act of 2020

Last month, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick and Mike Quigley proposed a $30 billion bill called the "Health & Fitness Recovery Act of 2020". The bill has not moved out of committee as the Senate was occupied with Judge Amy Coney Barrett's Supreme Court hearing and the Presidential election.

From Front Office Sports:

“A measure like this should be included in a larger [stimulus] package,” Quigley said in a conference call with reporters. “I can’t tell you what’s going to happen before the election. We have passed [other] measures on the House side. You know, my bags are packed, I think most members will go back in a minute.”

Regarding the proposal:

The 11-page bill — which hasn’t been entered into the Congressional Record, but was obtained by Front Office Sports — would only cover gyms that have suffered a downturn due to the pandemic through year’s end. Fitness businesses wouldn’t be eligible for the funds if they received assistance from the Small Business Administration already.

Additionally, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell continue discussions over the size of the next coronavirus stimulus package.

How are you handling your fitness business in 2020?

I'd love to chat with on anything fitness. And in case you haven't already — SuperFit is a free workout builder to help you easily track clients and groups. Give it a try and share the app with a coach you know - I'd appreciate it!

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