The Workout Is No Longer the Product

For much of my career, I believed the workout was the product. That probably makes sense. I am a strength coach by trade, and when we started Varsity House in 2006, much of our competitive advantage came from the quality of our training. We cared deeply about programming, coaching, exercise selection and results. We still do.

Twenty years later, however, I see the business differently. The workout is still very important, but it is no longer the entire product. In a premium personal training business, what we are really selling is the experience surrounding the workout and, ultimately, how that experience makes the client feel.

That distinction matters because the fitness marketplace has changed dramatically.

Consumers now have virtually unlimited access to training information. They can download programs, watch coaching videos, follow world-class trainers online or ask artificial intelligence to build a workout in seconds. Information that once differentiated a knowledgeable coach is increasingly available to everyone.

What remains difficult to replicate is genuine human connection.

Great Training Is Now the Price of Admission

A premium training business still has to produce results. Hospitality cannot compensate for poor coaching, and a friendly staff cannot overcome an inferior product forever. But great coaching has increasingly become the price of admission rather than the entire competitive advantage.

The businesses that stand out are the ones that combine professional coaching with an environment in which people feel known, welcomed, supported and appreciated.

At Varsity House, we describe that goal simply: Deliver the Best Hour of Their Day.

That does not mean the workout has to be easy or entertaining. Some of the best hours we give people are physically difficult. What matters is that a client leaves feeling better about themselves than when they arrived. They should feel that someone knew they were coming, understood what they needed that day, coached them with purpose and genuinely cared whether they succeeded.

That is hospitality.

Through the Business of Strength, we have organized this idea into what we call the 5-Diamond Hospitality model: a warm welcome, professional coaching, personal connection, overdelivery and memorable experiences. The objective is to combine predictable operational excellence with genuine personal connection.

Hospitality Has to Be More Than a Value on the Wall

One of the biggest mistakes owners make is telling employees to provide great service without defining what great service actually looks like. We tell coaches to be energetic, engaging, professional and caring. Those are good qualities, but they are difficult to manage because they are subjective.

If hospitality is going to become part of the operating system, it has to become observable.

At Varsity House, one tool we use is called SWIFT: Smile, Work the Room, Instigate Success, Foster Friendships and Thankfulness.

The acronym matters less than what sits underneath it: a measurable standard for delivery.

Smiling means eye contact, names and positive energy.

Working the room means actively moving through the training environment and engaging everyone instead of standing behind an iPad.

Instigating success means looking for opportunities to coach, correct and celebrate.

Fostering friendships means helping clients build relationships with one another instead of making the coach the center of every social interaction.

Thankfulness means making sure people understand that we appreciate their decision to spend their time and money with us.

The management principle is straightforward: If you cannot observe a behavior, you cannot consistently coach it.

“Be more engaging” is vague. “Speak to every member during the session” is measurable. “Deliver multiple direct coaching interactions to every person” is something a manager can observe and reinforce.

The Experience Begins Before the Training Session

Gym owners often think about the customer experience only during the workout. In reality, the experience begins well before the first exercise.

What does a client see when they arrive? Is the facility clean and prepared? Is the music on? Does someone acknowledge them immediately? Does the staff know their name? Does the environment communicate that the business was expecting them?

Those details may seem small, but premium businesses are often separated by small details executed consistently.

The same principle applies after the session. The final few minutes matter. So does the text message after a difficult workout, the call when a member has disappeared, the recognition of a milestone or the handwritten note after an important life event.

We have learned that great coaching lives in the follow-up and follow-through as much as it does in the program itself.

Hospitality Is a Revenue Strategy

None of this should be dismissed as a “soft” business skill. Hospitality has direct implications for retention, referrals, reviews, attendance, upgrades and lifetime client value (LTV).

That is why we measure it. Our own hospitality scorecard looks at behaviors such as greetings, active coaching, personal connection, memorable moments, follow-up and missed-session recovery. We do not measure these things because we want to make the gym feel corporate. We measure them because anything important enough to become part of the culture should also be important enough to coach.

Technology will continue to improve. Programming will become more accessible. Fitness equipment will continue to get better. That makes the human side of the business more valuable, not less.

After 20 years, I believe one of the biggest opportunities for independent gyms is to stop thinking of themselves solely as exercise businesses and start thinking of themselves as hospitality businesses that happen to deliver world-class training.

People can get workouts almost anywhere. What they cannot get everywhere is a place where someone notices when they arrive, understands when they are struggling, celebrates when they succeed and cares enough to call when they disappear.

That feeling is difficult to automate, difficult to copy and incredibly difficult to replace.

The workout matters. The way you make people feel is what makes them stay.

Joe Riggio is the founder and co-owner of Varsity House. He started training when he was 12 years old, and it has been his passion ever since. He holds a Masters Degree in Biology and has been Anatomy & Physiology Professor at Montclair State University for nearly 20 years.

For the past 8 years Joe has been turning his attention to helping other gym owner turn their passion for fitness and strength into a profitable business they love. His company Business of Strength provides private boutique consulting, workshops, and seminars to help other grow their fitness business and live the life of their dreams.