Fitness Move of the Year – Pivoting!
What was it like to run a fitness center during a worldwide pandemic? The staff at the JCC never had to consider this – they were singularly focused on leading a community center that offered expertise in number of areas, personal & community fitness among them. Deeply respecting its position as a community health partner, the JCC prioritized offering a safe and inclusive experience, and never sacrificed its values in its pursuit of serving its membership.
Always serving with that perspective, the staff and leadership of the JCC innovated its fitness, recreational, and aquatics programming throughout an evolving year.
Among the efforts and innovations:
– Launching an online platform for high-quality fitness recordings, ranging from yoga to Zumba and everything in between.
– Offering personal training over virtual services to ensure continuity of health and wellness, including small group High Intensity Interval Training.
– Creating outdoor exercise studios and spaces to support members’ physical health – and deepen the friendships built in a group fitness class.
– Ensuring physical distancing on the fitness floor and exercise studios and extending self-directed fitness opportunities into the gym.
– Innovating member-favorite programs (Commit To Be Fit, Couch to 5k, Burn) as hybrid experiences (home, at the J, and remote outdoor locations.)
– Offering a reservation-based system for lap swim and thoughtfully reintroducing youth swimming lessons as conditions warranted.
– Opening gym spaces for private, reserved use (family gym, basketball courts) in advance of full member accessibility.
Over the course of the year, members continued to return to their JCC – confident that their community center prioritized the health and safety of the members, and committed to the innovative spirit that delivered an exceptional member experience not to be found anywhere else.
