Of the many changes brought about as a result of Covid-19, one of the most positive has been the rise in family fitness. 

With healthy lifestyles front and centre, and households kept in lockdown, many families have embraced the benefits of spending time together by working out together. 

Whether that’s through online fitness videos – think Joe Wicks – sports and activities, or simply a nature walk together, keeping fit as a family is fun and beneficial. 

So how can your leisure centre cater to this? What does your family fitness offer look like, and can you improve it? 

1) Start young with regular kids’ classes

Children’s classes have long been a staple of many leisure centre timetables, as a great way to expand your offer within the community. The usual suspects include kids’ dance classes, swimming lessons, football classes, and other sports if you have the facilities for them. 

These are all still really important; many, like children’s swimming lessons, will be expected.

But on top of these, is there more that your centres could be doing to involve other family members? 

Why not consider trying classes like: 

• Mums and Tots Yoga

Or

• Dads’ Dance 

Any session which involves both adults and children is sure to extend your fitness offering and attract more families to your centres. 

2) Focus fitness with dedicated youth programmes

If you want to go a little deeper with your kids’ fitness offer, then move beyond ad-hoc classes and sessions to explore the different ways you can create kids, youth and teen health, fitness and wellbeing programmes. 

You may already have mini programmes that you run during school holidays – football, dance or tennis camps for example. But could you partner with local coaches to create year-round courses? 

Maybe you could run programmes for rewards and badges that kids work towards. This could be in a single sport or activity, or it could encompass a number of disciplines, introducing young people to all the different facilities you have to offer. 

You might even want to look at creating a dedicated kids’ club as part of this, branding the offer to make it your own and get children excited about the courses and classes available. 

It’s a great way to build a family community in your leisure centres. 

3) Build your own family workouts 

To take your family fitness offer one step further, you’ll want to make sure any classes or programmes you create are suitable for the whole family – not just the kids! 

Explore ways you can create dedicated family sessions that everyone can join in with. A good place to start could be a boot camp during school holidays. 

Perhaps you’ll have several activities to take part in, and families have to work together to complete each station? 

Or maybe you’ll have just one or two activities, with different exercises and challenges for different members of the family. Either option makes for some exciting and competitive family fun.

Not only will it help keep the whole family fit, it will promote your leisure centre to the entire family. 

How Do You Manage Your Family Fitness Offer? 

The biggest challenge with any family fitness offer – whether it’s a weekly kids’ class or a weekend family bootcamp programme – is the administration and management. 

• How do you control access when numbers are limited? 
• How do you manage a booking system?
• How do you deal with payments – one-off or for memberships? 

Finding an effective and efficient way to manage your family fitness is essential. There are several ways you can go about it. 

You’ll want to make sure your members can easily book their children onto a kids class as a starting point, so they can secure their place. This way you can monitor numbers and close bookings when the class is full. 

You might also want to open up bookings to non-members too. 

If your leisure centre runs regular children’s lessons and programmes, you may also want to consider different membership options – either a dedicated membership just for kids, or a special option for the whole family. 

Leisure management software like Legend lets members take control of their own membership. Parents can add children directly to their own membership, streamlining payment options and giving their kids instant access to classes and facilities. 

If your offer does include swimming lessons or other activities where children earn badges and develop their skills, you might want to think about a dedicated parent/carer portal to help grown-ups easily and securely track the progress their kids are making. 

Stand Out With A Simple, Effective Family Fitness Offer

However you choose to manage family access to your leisure centre, the key is making that process as simple as possible. You want the whole family to easily benefit from the classes and activities you have to offer, without any booking or payment hurdles. 

Get that right – with membership options for every family member and a quick, hassle-free booking system – and you’ll make family visits to your leisure centre fun and effective. 

And if you have some creative, challenging family activities for everyone to take part in, year round, your centres will truly stand out with that strong family fitness offer.  

Request a demo today to see how Legend can help you manage your family membership options.