Best Fitness Equipment for Gyms, Fitness Centers and Clubs

Top Cardio and Strength Trainers for Health Clubs

Successful health clubs and personal training studios earn loyalty with friendly service, clean facilities and state-of-the-art fitness equipment. Keep your fitness center busy by providing ergonomic equipment that meets all skill levels and keeps people motivated! This article can help you get started.

Maximizing Your Fitness Facility’s Floor Space and Budget

The best commercial gyms feature beautiful blends of open space and fitness equipment. Trainees have options for solo training, but flexible equipment and room layouts also support group exercise. Cardio trainers, strength trainers and cross-trainers (cardio plus strength) are all represented.

Read on for basic tips about choosing commercial cardio trainers and strength equipment. Feel free to contact us for tailored advice based on your facility’s square footage and other specifics. Careful planning can help your gym meet a wide range of needs with an attractive floor plan and without stressing your budget!

Cardio Trainers for Health Clubs

Treadmills are centerpieces of health club cardio sections and aren’t inexpensive, so careful shopping is especially important in this area. Whatever your budget, a critical consideration is size; the difference between standard and compact commercial treadmills could make the difference being fitting another trainer and not having enough room. Commercial treadmills compared with residential treadmills generally have extra-large decks, but sturdy compact versions are now available too. For the smallest personal training studios a light commercial folding treadmill might be the best solution.

It’s also essential that treadmills in your fleet support high speed running and interval training as well as power walking and rehabilitative strolling. This means they’ll have about 60-inch long belts and at least 4.0 CHP motors. The best health club treadmills have automated power ramps as well, with maximum slopes being at least 15%.

Other popular cardio trainers that members expect at clubs are elliptical trainers, exercise bikes and rowing machines. Less common but very desirable are specialty machines such as incline trainers and arc trainers. All commercial cardio machine types are available with a wide range of features (basic through luxury) to meet different commercial budgets.

Group Cardio Training Equipment

The routine and sense of community fostered by exercise classes encourage people to become longtime active members at their health clubs. Some top types of cardio equipment for group training are indoor cycle trainers and rowing machines.

Indoor cycle trainers and rowing machines both have wide fan clubs thanks in part to CrossFit. They also appeal to health club management because they’re low-maintenance and demand relatively little space. Exercise bikes and rowing machines are both built with caster wheels for portability, and rowing machines can be stored vertically to free up space after class.

Various manufacturers offer fitness machines with special console programming for group training and competition. With rowing machines this technology lets trainees virtually row with one another or compete with other rowing machine users around the world.

Digital Features on Health Club Cardio Equipment

Digital connectivity distinguishes some of this year’s best new fitness equipment from older models. Favorite treadmills, ellipticals and other cardio machines make it easy for members to track their exercise stats with popular mobile apps. Top new consoles also make behind-the-scenes management easier with mobile access to maintenance messages and usage statistics.

Digital features on luxury club treadmills range from iPod/iPhone compatibility to customized home screens and facility-specific programming, high definition TV screens, web browsers and virtual reality workouts. These features definitely help keep members motivated… but when budgets make such perks out of reach, you can still choose equipment that will hold a magazine, tablet computer or MP3 player. The longer a person can be entertained or multitask, the longer they will train.

Strength Trainers for Health Clubs

Club-quality strength training equipment is extremely varied. Some of the cardio trainers mentioned above do double time as strength trainers: ellipticals, indoor cycle trainers and rowing machines all count as cross-trainers. But some classic strength trainers for health clubs include free weight sets, kettle bells, and machines that accomplish upper body and lower body exercises such as leg presses and chest presses.

Some gyms have room to offer separate stations for leg work and arm work. Others maximize floor space with all-in-one mini-gyms. In any case, be sure to offer equipment that lets people work on muscle toning with lighter resistance as well as bulking up with heavier weights… and if you need to choose between free weights and cable weights, then choose the latter for safety’s sake. Cable-based weights reduce the chance for accidents since equipment can’t be dropped.

Get Customized Advice

Every workout center faces unique challenges to make the most of its resources and appeal to the community. Drop us a line to get expert input on fitness equipment choices and your facility’s best possible layout.