Almost seven years ago in 2015, Alex and Romano founded Happy Bodies Lifestyle Clubs. In doing so, they gave a completely unknown interpretation to the gym concept. Not a huge room full of shiny bodies, large mirrors, exciting equipment and exciting music, but a special fitness formula for people with little time and where attention, customer experience and results come first. There are now 26 locations throughout the Netherlands from Alkmaar to Eindhoven. In this blog, general manager Romano explains what drives him and why Happy Bodies works.
Upside down
Alex and I both come from the fitness industry where we started as fitness coaches. We saw around us that the threshold at the average gym is quite high for most people and we thought it would be a nice challenge to change that. Enticing the people who need it most to come to the gym would never be possible with the traditional concept. That's why we've completely turned things around. Instead of huge sports halls, we opted for small-scale boutique-style fitness clubs. We exchanged the exciting music for quiet background music and the large mirrors made way for a homely atmosphere with a cozy coffee table. This way we created a completely different setting.
Effective training in 35 minutes thanks to the Milon circle
There was one more obstacle we wanted to deal with. Not everyone has the time and desire to spend an hour and a half in the gym four times a week. Then we discovered the Milon circle. A fully automatic circle with fitness equipment on which you train your entire body in six 35-minute workouts every month. Before you start working with us, we do an intake. During that intake, the innovative Milonizer scans your body in a few seconds based on biometric markers. This ensures that all equipment is automatically set correctly during every training session, even for people who are older or have physical complaints. For example, someone with knee complaints will never be given exercises that overextend the knee, and someone with shoulder complaints will receive exactly the range of motion that the shoulder can handle.
From lifeguard to personal lifestyle coach
All these ingredients were enough for us to open our first location in Amstelveen in 2015. It became such a success that we soon opened more locations, first in Heemstede and in Overveen, Alkmaar and later in Amsterdam-Zuid, Haarlem and Hoofddorp. We noticed that the coaches were also very happy with our concept. Helping people through personal contact and sincere attention instead of fulfilling a kind of lifeguard role in a large, cold gym, that also appealed to them. When we looked at ourselves, it was mainly the further expansion of the Happy Bodies formula that made us happy. This made us decide in 2017 to further expand our success through a franchise formula. This way we can also help people who dream of their own club, but who want something other than the massive, low-budget gym, to spread the Happy Bodies virus. At the beginning of 2022 we opened our 26th branch in Aalsmeer and in April this year we will have existed for seven years. We look forward to getting many more people to exercise in a fun way.
Knowing more?
Curious how you can work on your body in two times 35 minutes every ten days, under the guidance of your own personal lifestyle coach? Even if you have physical complaints? Then do the free one membership test and sign up for a free personal introductory meeting and tour of the club. Want to bet that you are immediately sold?
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