Hi All,
I would like to thank you for the wonderful comments I have been receiving about our Team members at the Green Apple. It always helps to hear what you feel, and think, about the people whom are looking after you day after day.
Every week we have a team meeting on Tuesday at 11am and sometimes we all get together for the whole meeting to discuss multiple issues, all related to making the experience you have here at Green Apple as special as we can make it within the constant “busyness”.
Some weeks we have a general meeting for 30 minutes to cover any urgent items and then break up into focus groups to work in small teams.
And some weeks we spend the whole meeting in focus groups when we are all involved in different projects. And there are many projects going on behind the scenes all the time.
One of the areas I really want to address at present is how to ensure you are all making the most of the services I have set up within the Green Apple over the years. We are still very much a place of physical activity for people who need basic help to manage their exercise, however we also have our medical department which is supported by a strong admin component to manage the doctors’ referrals we receive daily, to make the appointments we need to make for patients attending the Exercise Physiologists and the Dietitians, to make sure all reporting and billing is done strictly to meet any rules and regulations. This service is a hive of activity and it is there to make sure that there is a higher level of care available to any member when it is needed.
I believe strongly that everyone needs coaching if they are to do their program to the best of their ability. I am not talking about having PT to be whipped into action and coerced to do more than you can. I am talking about having one on one sessions for the purpose of checking that you are doing your exercise properly, helping tweak what needs to be done better, and to help inspire you to keep working towards whatever is important to you.
I would love to be able to provide this level of care for the $26 to $28 weekly fee members pay for membership however by the time we fund the group classes, the strength sessions, the facility overheads and, most important of all, the one on one programming every member is entitled to, the fees are well and truly used up. I explain this because I think so many of our member base deserve and need more support than can be funded by membership fees. That is why I have the next level of service which provides experienced trainers (Darrol, Loretta, Katrina, Petrina, Wanda, and now Charlie who will complete his Masters in exercise physiology), as well as exercise physiologists (Sunny, Bridie, and Charlotte) are able to provide medically based exercise for both metabolic and musculoskeletal dysfunction.
Yes, there is a fee to have the extra coaching but the value vastly outstrips the investment you will make. To put it all into perspective, I had a young woman here for an initial consultation recently, sent by her doctor on a Care plan, and she actually laughed when she heard the fees we charge to members for “personal training”.
“You have to be kidding!” she said to me, “do you mean if I am a member I can have PT for $40 with one of the trainers, or $60 with one of the exercise physiologists and I can get a rebate as well through my private health fund if I go with the ex phys?” Evidently she was paying $35 a session to go into a group class at a gym and a great deal more for one on one sessions.
So if you know you need to have someone check on what you are doing during the 8 weeks you are working alone on your set program, really consider investing more in yourself. Choose one person from the wonderful team we have available to be YOUR coach and mentor. It may be your programmer. When they set your program up they are designing your physical activity profile. When you engage them for coaching, their role is quite different with different outcomes. Programming is teaching you what to do. Coaching is bringing out the best in you. It is the same in any sport.
I think people in general spend more on their car, their house, their nails or hair etc than investing funds in themselves to get the best functioning body they can.
Cheers
