EMPOWER Trainer Eric’s response to Planet Fitness removing squat racks and other useful equipment at their gyms because they are too “intimidating”:
If you haven’t heard the news, Planet Fitness has decided to remove all of their squat racks. They have also removed heavier dumbbells, benches, and open areas to perform deadlifts and other functional exercises in certain locations.
We can’t say that we are surprised by this too much, although it may have come as a shock to a lot of you. When you look at the overall business model it might begin to make sense. Build large gyms and shoot for large subscription numbers at a very low cost. This only works if people don’t show up! They are literally banking on people not coming so they can get more memberships. If all 10,000 members did come in then you would have many more membership cancellations because people wouldn’t be able to work out let alone move in any direction.
Sure there are probably a few people who actually do work out consistently at Planet Fitness. These are probably some of the same people who understand training and how performing functional exercises like squats and deadlifts could be beneficial. What better way to eliminate this “problem” of people actually showing up and using their membership than to eliminate the most useful tools in the gym and blame it on “the people” complaining about it being too intimidating. Give the people what they want; gobs and gobs of machines and no fear of exercises that could actually help them out!
This may come as a shock to you, but at Empower we actually want you to show up! I know it sounds crazy but we are of the belief that if you come in and work hard(while using a lot of functional exercises that could include squats, deadlifts etc.), then you have a much better chance of reaching your goals and getting where you want to be. We want to educate you so that you know how to work out and why you are doing certain exercises. Working out doesn’t need to be intimidating, it should be empowering! Keep that in mind when you are trying to decide where you want to be by the end of 2014 and beyond.
Schedule your FREE Initial Session with an EMPOWER Trainer and check out our New Year Specials HERE: https://becomepowerful.com/newyearspecials/
