Since 1978, the Newtown Athletic Club (NAC) has been making lives better by “creating the ultimate recreational, social and healthy lifestyle experience to their members and their community.” They do this through their exercise classes, their wellness project, and community partners.
NAC offers more than 200 group exercise classes ranging from easy to intermediate/advanced, and provides a wide range of options to exercisers. They partner with Aria Healthcare to provide members with a comprehensive wellness program that includes free wellness services for the member’s lifetime. They also partner with several community members who support the NAC and their mission.
In addition, NAC offers several high-end amenities that most gyms do not provide. These include a full service salon and spa, complimentary training assessments for new members, a 40,000 square foot turf premier training center, and three outdoor pools with two 25-foot water slides.
Kate Golden, Fitness Director at Newtown Athletic Club, was looking to add value to club memberships by increasing the breadth of group exercise programs. She also wanted to increase secondary revenue for the club’s personal trainers.
Although NAC joined the functional training phenomenon, Kate and team wanted to add something more efficient, functional, and adaptable to keep members coming back. She looked at other functional fitness units, however was more impressed with the adaptability of Queenax™ Functional Fitness by Precor. The ability to remove aps and open floor space was important to her. “I chose Queenax because of the ‘wow’ factor. All of the other functional fitness units looked the same. There were exercises we had never seen before. It also provided a way to better utilize our training space.”
Kate worked with Territory Sales Representative, John Caissie, and after seeing and experiencing Queenax first-hand at two other locations in Connecticut, had an X3 1000 Queenax Bridge Unit installed at NAC. The bridge unit was installed in its own studio space and provides another functional area for members. Several different classes are currently offered on the Queenax that are fee-based. Class sizes range from one-on-one personal training to groups of six. One of these classes is a boxing technique class called BRAWL. This 30 minute class focuses on all aspects of boxing. Previously, this class was difficult to implement due to set-up of the boxing bags; however, with Queenax, trainers are able to easily store equipment and begin a different class.
After The Queenax unit was installed the first week of January, NAC held a soft opening for members. The next weekend, Master Coach Hayley Hollander delivered a full day training for 20 personal trainers, which focused on generating movement design and fitness progression using various applications. This provided the personal trainers with a better understanding of how to utilize the unit and how they could create new programs for their clients.
Queenax has allowed Newtown Athletic Club to double the amount of training offered during peak hours. Prior to its installation, they could only support one team training and one personal trainer working at a time. With Queenax, they are able to have two team trainings and two personal trainings simultaneously. When Queenax classes are not in session, NAC provides free demos for members on one-on-one training and group training, and encourages members to use the equipment on their own. Kate said, “We wanted to ensure members were encouraged to try out functional training on Queenax and feel comfortable using all of the aps and options.”
Newtown Athletic Club plans on adding more classes to their library with a focus on team training, SuperFunctional™ and TRX®. This will allow them to continually re-energize their members and give personal trainers a way to refresh their workouts.
