Pumpin’ up

Fitness centers: a growing trend

By Meg Cady
UNIVERSITY JOURNAL

Intense competition between Cedar City’s five fitness centers has created a struggle for survival, but the real winner is the consumer, said Clark Krause, director of economic development.
Although Cedar City has a population of approximately 21,500 people, there are five fitness clubs: Gold’s Gym, Curves, Spirit, Life Phase Fitness Center and the SUU Fitness Center.
Perhaps the number of younger people in the Cedar City area has helped create this health craze. Thirty-two percent of Cedar residents are between the ages of 15 and 24. The median age in the city is 23.
Russell Braiden, general manager for Gold’s Gym, said the business has approximately 2,000 members, although it fluctuates from month to month.
Kim Maxwell, a Curves employee, said it has some 400 members and is growing daily. She said business was a little slow during the summer but is picking up now that school is back in session.
Stephen Brown, owner of Life Phase, said his business has slightly more than 400 members.
Nancy Langman, a 2002 physical education graduate who works at the SUU Fitness Center, said the circuit weight training class has more than 600 students enrolled this semester. That doesn’t count the number of people who use the gym who are not in the class.
Lasse Bjerga, the owner of Spirit, would not disclose the number of memberships.
Krause commended the gyms for establishing and maintaining a business with such a fickle consumer group.
“The benefit, I think, to us, ...to the consumer, is amazing because they’re offering just an incredible product and because it’s so competitive,” Krause said. “So the real winner in this is the consumer.”
All the fitness centers provide some kind of student discount, flexible plans and timely deals.
Bjerga said he strives for a more personal approach with no marketing schemes or high-pressure sales.
“Something good has come out of this,” Bjerga said. “We treat people well; I think that’s one of our strengths. You know, go a little beyond the franchise.”
Brown renovated his fitness center after Gold’s Gym opened. The facilities now include cycling, racquetball courts and new weight equipment.
Krause said another plus is that people are spending money in Cedar City instead of outside the area.
Braiden said Gold’s is now giving cardiovascular fitness measurements twice a month. He said the measurements show how much oxygen is used and how much carbon dioxide is given off.
Maxwell said Curves will be adding a new exercise machine in the next few months.
Bjerga said he is adding more yoga classes this year.
Brown said Life Phase did not make any new additions since last spring.
The fitness clubs provide a medium for people to improve their

Nick Sidwell, a freshman art major from Salt Lake City, works out in the campus Fitness Center. In addition to the Fitness Center there are four gyms in town, all competing and looking for new memebers. All five of the gyms offer student rates, in an attempt to recruit studnets.
ERIN MADSON / UNIVERSITY JOURNAL

fitness level and a variety of equipment for different results.
Brown said in a world of increasingly obese people, it takes so little to change one’s circumstances. He said typically only 8 percent of the American population joins a gym, but he thinks that number is expanding as 20- and 30-year-olds are becoming more health conscience.He said there is more information available about exercise now, and the reputation of muscle-bound men in the gym is changing.
“I think that it’s good that we’ve got a little more consciousness in the area with health and fitness,” Brown said. “And hopefully that will carry on to continue to expand people’s understanding.”
Although the clubs provide a service to the community, business is becoming increasingly difficult.
Brown said although he didn’t know much about running a fitness club, business is not as he expected it to be.
“When we first started, we thought... we’ll get 500 members, and then that’ll be it; we’ll just take care of those members,” Brown said. “But that’s not the way the business works. It’s not the same kind of thing that I thought it would be.”
Brown said Life Phase is not making any profit, and that it hasn’t been for a while.
“There’s too many clubs, not enough people,” Brown said.
Bjerga said his club turned out to be a longer shot than he expected. He said that if he knew how difficult business was going to be before he opened Spirit, he probably wouldn’t have opened his club in Cedar City.
However, Bjerga said he loves Cedar City, and he thinks it’s a nice place to live.
“It’s so weird because five years ago there was nothing,” Bjerga said. “People think that it is much easier than it is...to get members and retain them.”
Bjerga would not say if Spirit is making any money, but he said he has been in “both the black and the red.” He also said his business does better in the fall than in the spring.