Woman of Fitness: Robbin U.

My name is Robbin. My life, for the last 32 years, has been divided between raising my two children and working as a nurse on a labor and delivery unit of a local hospital. I cannot remember a week that I have not worked at least 50 or so hours. Overtime always helped make ends meet. A little over 5 years ago, I went into management on the same unit. The hours remained the same, but the stress level went up exponentially! It was that same year that I decided to take care of me.

I had stepped onto a scale at the doctors office and could not believe what I saw. I had been on Weight Watchers most of my life and decided to add exercise. I took a Zumba class at the local park district and the instructor told me that she taught the class at Women’s Workout World as well, and I joined soon after. I never imagined that Zumba would take me where I wanted to go, but slow and steady won the race.

As I started losing weight I started new classes. I tried Turbokick early on, but I could not hang. 65 pounds later I was running back to Turbo because I wanted that challenge. Some of the weight crept back on, and I am determined to not allow that to happen. So at almost 60, I am going to kick it up and I started to take team training.

I have always been a strong-minded person, and now I am going to let the trainers at W3 help me to become strong in body as well! I used to say that I wanted to lose weight and get healthy for my kids. They are grown now, and I truly believe that when I really do it for myself, I feel better. I do not feel my age, and that is a great feeling!!

Oh… and did I mention that I am a HUGE Cubs fan??? 🙂

-Robbin

Shift in the Fitness Industry Toward Functional Training

Traditionally, health clubs have been known as a “big box” …. “rent a treadmill” …. “churn and burn.” But now, the trends are changing toward smaller gyms, towards results and programming and towards a huge focus on retention. Of course, you still have your big box players- those clubs that came into the market during the recession as the low-price competitors, but what are those gyms, really? They discount the price we should put on our health, and they don’t offer the services that the higher priced gyms do. Now, that’s great for those who are self- motivated and know exactly what they need to do and how to do it. But that doesn’t help the average American, and unfortunately, it sets them up for failure. Intimidation is a big factor along with the lack of knowledge, help, and in turn, the lack of results they’ll receive.

It’s unfortunate because these low price competitors have really changed the market. Less than 20% of the US population works out. When you take those out of the 80% who make the leap of faith and try it, only to fail, they are WAY less likely to ever join a gym again. It’s sad and frustrating, especially coming from a gym (we at Women’s Workout & Wellness 🙂 who truly care about our members. We have shifted our focus to learn new ways of helping our members and giving them service. We don’t want to be a ‘big box’ anymore, and we DEFINITELY don’t want to be known as the “churn and burn” club. We want our programs, especially our group exercise classes and group functional training, to be popular among our members because we know that’s how our women will get results. Group atmospheres for women make exercise FUN! And this dynamic keeps our members coming back to maintain the health they have achieved here at W3!

As mentioned, group exercise throughout our Chicagoland locations is a huge part of what makes W3 successful and what gives the Women’s Workout World (& Wellness) name strong brand recognition, even 30+ years later! We pride ourselves on excellent group exercise programs throughout our 5 locations. We know it’s a great bridge for the beginners and a great way to ease everyone into fantastic programs. However, also as mentioned above, we have looked for ways to better service our members and give them the attention they need to get fit, healthy, and see results. They need guidance and a GREAT program, and we have found a way to do that through our group training programs. Not only is it group training; it’s also functional training. Work on core, strength and metabolic movements- many times all at the same time! Much of our equipment is what you’ll see on the Biggest Loser show, too! For those who don’t want to fully jump into the program, we offer bootcamps to get a short-term taste of what success feels like!!! (and an awesome workout!) If you are thinking about functional training, ask to set up a fitness assessment where one of our fitness professionals/trainers will go over with you, step by step, what’s involved in the program, what you can expect, and then he/she will take you through a mini-workout so you can experience that personal attention first hand!

Girl’s Night Out Event at W3!!!

In honor of National Dance Day on July 28th, Women’s Workout & Wellness is hosting a Girl’s Night Out event! All 7 locations will be hosting this event on Saturday, July 28th from 7-10pm **Except Monroe St. location will be held on Friday night, July 27th from 5-8pm**

This event is for members AND non-members! It is FREE, so come on in and bring whoever you’d like! It’s a party, so get ready to shop and have a good time as we have various vendors coming to each location to pamper you. Some vendors coming are nail salons, massage therapists, purse vendors, tea vendors, and more! *varies per location*

Each location will be celebrating National Dance Day by having a Zumba class and others will have Hip Hop classes and a Piloxing demonstration. For more information, contact the location nearest you to find out the specific details for that location (each location also has a theme if you want to get involved and maybe win something from a raffle!)

Speaking of raffles, any money donated at the door will go to the Dizzy Feet Foundation and that person will receive a raffle ticket that will be drawn at the end of the night. Sample schedules are as follows:

  • 7:00- doors open
  • 7:30- class begins
  • 9:00/9:30- raffle drawings and vendor demonstrations

Again, the event is free and is open to all women. So get ready to party; we’ll see you there!

*Don’t forget to join our event on Facebook! Go to our Facebook page and join the event titled: “Girl’s Night Out Event at W3”

Women’s Workout & Wellness Prospect Heights

An unfortunate circumstance has come upon W3 that we feel needs to be brought to the attention of all and addressed before any negative opinions or thoughts are formed. We have recently made the decision to close the Prospect Heights Women’s Workout & Wellness location. Please understand that this is not a decision we wanted to make, but we were truly left with no choice. We did everything we could to keep the club running, but in the end, our efforts that we put into all of our clubs just did not hold strongly to this location.

The area of the Prospect Heights location has changed throughout the years, leaving the market a lot different now than it was when we first built clubs in this area. The downturn of the economy has affected all of us as consumers and as businesses. The economy has not fared well with the landlord’s ability to fill the many vacant spots in this shopping center. Also, if you drive north on Rand Rd., you will see similar situations in many of the shopping centers. All of the vacancy in our shopping center has negatively affected our walk-in traffic. Due to the inability to renegotiate a fair lease in favor of both W3 and the landlord, we were left with no choice but to close this location now that the lease is up.

We know the extreme inconvenience it is when your routine health club is closed. We know that we have very committed members at this location, and we are sincerely sorry that their W3 experience has to end. We tried the same tactics, special sales and programs at this location that we did at other locations. They worked at the others, but for some reason, they just did not take to the demographics of Prospect Heights. We hope the members are able to transfer to another location, but if not, we wish them the best in their future fitness endeavors.

We also want to thank Megan and her staff. Megan did an amazing job at this location. We have fought for two years to try to keep the club running successfully, and Megan has made a positive difference in every aspect. She has built a staff that is very hardworking and loved by the members. We want them, too, to transfer to another location to continue working if the travel is possible for them.

We want to make clear that in no way is the closing of this location a reflection of any other W3 location. It is simply the fact that our marketing and sales efforts that have worked in all other clubs just did not work here, and we believe this is due to the many factors stated above. W3 is planning on expanding throughout the Chicagoland area and is in the process of remodeling various locations.

We regret to inform all viewers of this unwanted circumstance, and we are sorry this is happening. Thank you to our members, all employees, and the manager for making the club atmosphere so positive.

Happy 30th Anniversary W3!!!

Women’s Workout World, now Women’s Workout and Wellness, has been in business for 30 years! What an amazing 30 years it has been. A special thanks goes out to our long-time members who have been with us for the past 10, 20 and even 30 years! You have trusted us with your fitness goals and have been with us during grand openings, remodels, fitness trends, new classes, new instructors, numerous  promotions, special boot camps, breast cancer walks, American Heart Association walks, and now you’re here to see our newest, results-driven program- functional training. Your dedication has proven to us that W3 is succeeding in reaching women across Chicagoland in making YOU fit, healthy and happy. And of course, thank you to all of our newer members who are adjusting to our programs and putting their faith in W3 to motivate and help them achieve all of their goals. We, at corporate and at each W3 location, sincerely hope that we have made a positive impact on your health and life each and every time you walk into a W3, take a class, hop on a treadmill, or get your butt kicked in a group functional training! We are continuously educating our staff and trainers to be the best in providing you with the best workouts and information as possible.

Taking a look back, we have come a long way in fitness. It’s actually kind of funny… we used to think standing there with vibrating bands would help us shed pounds and going over a roller would roll the fat right off of our bodies! (Seriously- check out the pictures!) We used to lift 3lb weights because we didn’t want to “bulk up!” We did hours of never-ending cardio. Basic aerobics. Jane Fonda workouts. Jazzercise. The era of “skinny-fat people.” The past few years, we’ve seen new programs come in to play: Zumba, Turbokick, high intensity interval training, a push toward strength training and of course, our own W3-exclusive formats! (We didn’t always have our core-defining workouts of Kickin’ Core Ball and Body Sync…but HardBody has been with W3 for awhile longer!)

 And now we are on to the greatest thing we could possibly be doing in the fitness world. (And I guess we can call this the era of the toned, fit woman!) We are training our body the way it should always have been trained- functionally- to be functionally fit and perform everyday tasks without any problems, without an ache or a pain. It’s awesome! And we are pushing toward making everyday lifestyle changes and taking a proactive role in our health and in our lives. Of course, we could not accomplish any of our company’s goals without our amazing staff (especially managers!), motivating trainers, empowering instructors and dedicated members- new and old. Thank YOU!

We are so excited for the future and for the next 30 years of W3 as we continue to strive to be the best at what we do- the best group exercise programs, the best personal and group training programs, the best provider of results in Chicago! Cheers to the next 30 years and many more after that!

Only at…

The W3