“Strange game. The only winning move is not to play.”
If you are a dyed-in-the-wool Gen X’er such as myself, you are certainly familiar with the Matthew Broderick movie “War Games”.
And if the name Matthew Broderick doesn’t ring a bell, he played Ferris Bueller in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”.
And if you don’t know what “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” is, put down the goddamn Tik Tok and go watch a real movie!!!
Sorry, jumped into Dad-mode there for a sec.
Back to War Games.
In this Cold War-era classic, Broderick’s character hacks into a NORAD computer and essentially starts World War III. The only way to stop it is convince his out-of-his-league love interest and the jilted scientist who programmed the computer but lost all faith in humanity after the death of his son to help them break into the government agency and stop the computer before it’s too late and it starts launching nukes at the Russians.
I weep for you who are easily entertained by watching others play video games on Twitch. I really do.
So the way Broderick, et. al. get the computer to stop the launch is by convincing it that, like tic-tac-toe, nuclear war is an unwinnable game.
The quote way back at the top of this blog is what the computer says after it pulls the plug on launching the nukes.
Running a small business in a big city can also feel like an unwinnable game.
Between rent costs, landlord and building department fuckery, cost of living for employees, price sensitivity, competition on every corner and about a million other deaths-by-paper-cut, creating a training facility that doesn’t only provide a great product but is also viable does at times feel like the proverbial uphill battle.
But you can conquer this.
For us this means having amazing, empathetic coaches, a clean, well organized training space, tons of great customer service, regularly scheduled community events, solid and well-run operations and a very thoughtful and effective training program.
“But, Dan, no one buys training programs!”
The amount of times I have heard the “no one cares about the program” or the “people buy trainers, they don’t buy training” battle cry is higher than the number of times Jake Paul has paid to fix fights.
I hear it on the internet. I hear it from coaches I fully respect. I hear it from mentors that I’ve hired.
Perhaps they are right.
They’re probably right.
However, if people don’t buy programming, we are all in trouble.
Because while empathetic and knowledgeable trainers, well-equipped facilities, good customer service and a fun and friendly environment will always be absolutely mission-critical, without a good program what exactly are we providing?
For certain the vast majority of the public do not know what constitutes a good program. Which is why so many fitness experts devalue them. In the short term they do not help sales or provide the “this is going to fix my problem” feelings that come with effective onboarding and positive gym vibes.
But that shouldn’t mean programming isn’t important. It is. For (at least) 3 specific reasons.
The first is that a well-thought out program reduces the risk of injury. Someone showed me a crazy ass video this week of a popular exercise class (I won’t name names here but perhaps it has a military reference and perhaps the name is an alliteration and no, it’s not Barry’s Bootcamp).
The complete absence of measurable training parameters such as reps, sets, rest periods and load led to, what looked like, a bunch of meth-heads let loose at a trampoline park.
It’s not that a good program eliminates the risk of injury just like a seat belt doesn’t eliminate the chances of you getting hurt in a car accident. But it does reduce it. By a lot. And last I checked people who are injured don’t tend to train as often or get as good a result.
Speaking of results, this leads us to benefit number two. A good program will drive the desired outcomes. Which, last I checked, is why we are doing this in the first place. Not saying that training can’t or shouldn’t be fun. But I’m also saying it should get you where you want to go. And a good program will do exactly that.
And this leads seamlessly into number three. And this is particularly important for all you business-minded people out there. Most people resist paying for quality training because they’ve been burned by gyms too many times. They’ve paid the fees, they’ve upgraded to group fitness classes or personal training and they just never gained any traction.
And of course much of this is about experience and engagement and empathy but it is equally about programming. Because if the program worked people would stay longer and be much less skeptical about signing up for more of it. It's hard to keep coughing up cash when you have less hope that things will go the way you want them to.
Matthew Broderick used to train at the gym Kyle and I worked at prior to opening The Fort. A trainer actually called him Ferris one day (you should really see the movie!) which was not a great day for us.
And he was not pleased.
But awkward moments aside, he did show up consistently and trained three days per week.
And the program really did help him.
He found a game that he could win.