Welcome to Community Voices, a platform for voices of the community recreation industry.
In Episode 6 of the Community Rec Magazine Podcast, Justin Dominick, the senior director of fitness at the JCC of Greater Baltimore, joined to share his insights on changing the narrative about working out to belonging to a community, the impact on well-being and how others can start creating a fitness community in their centers.
Show Notes:
Why It’s Important
Humans are social beings by nature. The last three years have tested everyone and likely uncovered the need for connection. The relationship between community and fitness is knowing socialization has a whole host of health benefits very similar to exercise and fitness.
Ideas for Creating a Fitness Community
- Lean on staff to introduce new members to older members – both in longevity and age.
- Staff should also set the expectations that everyone can coexist in the fitness community while also doing their own thing, even if that thing is different than your thing.
- Consider hosting seasonal challenges to get members together inside and outside of facility walls.
- Don’t forget to offer non-fitness related programming as well. Thinking outside the studio box can connect members who might not meet otherwise.
- Other non-fitness related programs can help connect your future fitness community members as well. It’s all about creating and offering the space. Consider happy hours or coffee breaks in community spaces, and connecting parents of campers and youth sports.
- It never hurts to survey your members and ask what they want to do. If they have input and feel heard, they’re more likely to be invested.
“As fitness professionals, we understand the value of exercise and we understand the value of nutrition,” said Dominick. “The idea of community is fairly new to the game. It was always fitness, nutrition, working out, how are you eating, etc. But community was always there, just in the background. Because how do you get people coming in your door? How do you get people to stay? You’re engaging them, right? When you’re engaging them, what are you doing? You’re creating community.”
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