Seniors Gym

Why you should cater to older adults in your gym

Since there are few over 50s gym facilities, catering exclusively to older adults in your gym is a great way to gain more clients. Recent years have seen an increase in the number of older adults joining gyms and health centres. This is likely due to better access to gyms, the fitness zeitgeist, and studies that show that a lot of physical and mental deterioration can be slowed or avoided with exercise. This means that older people now make up a large portion of gym attendees. Here are some reasons why you should cater to older adults in your gym.

Tap into loyal customers

Most gyms target younger customers since they take an active interest in their fitness and body image. It therefore makes sense for them to be a target market. However, young people are not yet settled. They move to new homes regularly and have less money to pay for gyms. This means that they are fickle in terms of brand loyalty. This means that they rarely go to your gym for the long run and do not form a secure membership base.

Reports say that people over 50 years are more likely to pay for gym membership compared to younger people. This is because most of them are settled in one place and they have a more stable income and more time to spend at the gym. Since the health effects of exercise are acute for older people, their drive to visit the gym and get healthier and fitter extends beyond appearance.

There is a bigger prospective client pool

In some countries, the over 50s make up more than half of the population. This means that starting gyms nearby for seniors will get a lot of clients. It is wise to start marketing your gym to older people so that if the population becomes dominated by seniors, you are in a great position to capitalise on the target market.

Encouraging fitness at any age

Exercising frequently in your old age can do wonders for your overall health. Some of the benefits of working out in your older age include reduced risks of falls, improved quality of life, reduced risks of degenerative illnesses, weight loss which has a lot of benefits to the joints, reduced risk of injury, and potentially reduced chronic pain, social interaction and more. Gyms are more concerned with fitness and health and this means that it will improve your brand image to encourage these habits among the older members.

Older people thrive at the gym

Seniors can more than keep up with the rigorous training of a gym session, as long as the necessary safety measures are put in place. One of the top trends in fitness for this age group includes strength training and cardio.

At one point, this was seen as only suitable for young people, but recent research has shown the benefits of strength training for older people. When older people visit an over 50s gym, they gain better stability, joint support, reduced injury rate, reduced risk of heart disease, reduced muscle loss, reduced back pain, improved posture and so on.

Written by Mark Potter