Club Improvement Activity

March 1, 2020

A couple of  months ago, I wrote about looking into ways to improve our Club facility.  We are now being more active in that regard and I wanted to report on what we have been up to.

To start with, we have engaged the services of Jeff Nagel of NagelSport.  Jeff is a renowned gym designer and has designed or consulted on the design of several independent health clubs in the Seattle area and around the world including Olympic Athletic Club, Flow Fitness, Soul Fitness, Harbor Square Athletic Club, and Zum Fitness. Jeff and his team are helping us with everything from suggesting floor material for Studio X to ways to rearrange our training, cardio, free weight and functional fitness areas in order to make the most of the space we have and make those spaces more inviting to use.

Most of our cardio equipment is made by a company named Precor which just happens to have its main headquarters about 25 miles from us in Woodinville. Precor is one of the largest fitness equipment suppliers in the world and their treadmill and elliptical equipment design and manufacturing are all done at their Woodinville plant. Jake Burkey, our BHC Facility Manager, and I recently spent the day at Precor checking out the latest in their equipment and reviewing a program they have made available that will train selected staff to perform maintenance and repair of our own equipment. This plan would reduce repair time on Precor equipment and reduce the cost of maintenance and repair labor by using our own staff.

Later this month, Jake and I will go to San Diego to attend the annual IHRSA convention. The IHRSA (International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association) convention is the premier fitness business event in North America and will be showing off all the latest equipment and club improvement ideas. 

All of these activities I’m writing about now will combine into an overall club improvement plan for BHC. The staff and I are jazzed about getting these plans firmed up and into action and I look forward to reporting back on just what our overall plan will be. 

Thank you for being a part of Ballard Health Club.

Sincerely, 

Pat Gilbrough
Owner, General Manager
pat@ballardhealthclub.com