Pools and Gyms are Mandatory! 

Breakthrough research on Today’s Renters and research released  by Freddie Mac Multifamily finds growing segments of the population — Baby Boomers and Generation Xers in particular — showing much less interest in owning a home.

The survey finds half (50 percent) of Baby Boomers currently renting do not anticipate buying a home in the future, up eight points from 2016.

The latest “Profile of Today’s Renter” reveals that affordability remains the dominant factor driving renter behavior.

Multi-Family Rental Research:

50% Baby Boomers currently renting do not anticipate buying a home in the future

Of that 50 percent, 35 percent have no interest in owning

15 percent say they cannot afford to own but have some interest

19% of Gen Xers (aged 38-52) study respondents lacked interest in home homeownership

Read the whole Renters Report from Freddie Mac.

Rental satisfaction continues to run high across the country. A significant and growing majority of renters – 66 percent – are satisfied with the overall rental experience.

“America’s renters overwhelmingly see renting as more affordable and the right choice for them – right now,” said study author David Brickman, Executive Vice President and Head of Freddie Mac Multifamily groups.

Renting becomes a much more attractive option when the top three apartment amenities are met:

1. Parking
2. Pool(s)
3. Residential gym

To retain tenants, attract high quality consumers and connect communities, provide your tenants, clients and customers with well-branded well-designed fitness centers with the perfect wide array of amenities.

Keep Up With Demands for Wellness

The National Multifamily Housing Council and Kingsley Associates last year surveyed approximately 120,000 renters at 3,280 apartment communities nationwide to gauge their interest in specific communal amenities. While on-site parking is everyone’s first request, these wellness and safety offerings are common demands:

83% want a pool on property

82% request a well-equipped fitness center

80% demand safe security access

67% want community Wi-Fi

47% look for a business center

If locations are more or less the same between competing properties, wellness and fitness amenities have a big impact in competitive rent pricing as well as tenant satisfaction.

The National Apartment Association (NAA) is the leading voice for the rental housing industry and a trusted partner and advocate committed to serving 160 affiliates, 75,000 member companies and the 9.25 million rental housing units globally

Perfect for group studios, dynamic training areas, flexibility zones, multi-family fitness centers or anywhere you need extra functional training, there are TRX setups created for every kind of innovative fitness center. Highly customizable, a TRX Suspension Training system includes anchoring and storage units that boost exercise functionality and mobility for every fitness level.

Suspension workouts require extra attention to body position, and the parts (and handles) zero in on the core muscles of your abdominals, obliques, mid-to-lower back, and even the butt muscles.  When you work out and exercise your core on a regular basis, you do provide a strong and stable base for every movement in every other part of the body. 

Ask your favorite personal trainer to provide a suspension-training workout, and get ready to pump it up! 

Benefits of Suspension Training  

TRX Suspension Training Systems also utilize and adapt to every square inch of your exercise facility or personal training studio. TRX Corner Units, for instance, include mounted TV and self-guided straps and add-ons for functional training, upper body, lower body,and always your core muscles.  

Fitness Equipment to Boost Performance

Help develop your athletes’ speed, power and agility with top-of-the-line training tools and sport-specific resistance machines.

Here’s how to maximize every athlete’s potential with innovative and highly customized fitness choices in athletic training centers – whether they are in colleges or multi-family residential gyms – the optimal training environment is attractive, comfortable and inspiring. It might be filled with proprietary equipment and properly placed mirrors, free Wi-Fi and innovative exercise machines that publicize your brand and the inherent personality of the commercial fitness facility.

The workhorses of the modern-day athletic training center will probably always be top-of-the-line sports specific cardio machines and innovative weight training machines. Yet, even these more straightforward choices help move your brand forward.

Whether you are training professional sports teams or future Olympians, your commercial fitness equipment options should closely reflect your brand, messaging and target audiences. Choose your resistance exercise tools and customized training methods very carefully – and mindfully. Allow your athletes to see, feel and track their progress every step of the way.

Below, we pinpoint 10 ways to stand out from the cardio and weight training crowd with careful selections of your favorite and most effective sport-specific training tools and other athletic-based, exercise accessories:

Top 10 List Athletic Performance Tools

1  Agility training tools, such as cones, small weighted balls and hurdles

2  Weights and weighted barbells, dumbbells and kettle bells

3  Pilate’s tools for core training, such as Pilate’s rings and chairs

4  TRX Training and unique fitness programming

5  High-end vibration trainers like Power Plate stations

6  Strength benches and weight racks from sports-specific strength vendors

7  Battle ropes, jump ropes, training ropes and lifting straps

8  Boxing bags and other martial arts athletic tools and strength attachments

9  Yoga blocks, straps and customized mats and training ropes for mind-body programming

10 Agility sleds and speed ladders for coordination, speed and explosive power (or plyometrics)

Attracting top athletes to a college athletic training center or offering innovations to your multi-family residential gym members always comes down to ensuring program success and the top quality of your training room equipment.

Ask about Opti-fit’s athletic training centers and our free commercial facility assessments today.

Couples Who Exercise Together

Get strong and confident and engage with a partner, friend or family member by celebrating a special Valentine’s Day this year.

At the gym, you might try hot yoga and Body Pump classes together, or make a pact with your significant other to experiment with a new sport or exercise workshop once a month – and always together. Studies show, after all, that romantic couples that exercise together are generally happier in the relationship and more attracted to their partner.

At home, fit couples might set up cardio circuit training stations with weights and a treadmill or a stationary bike. Interestingly, research also shows that if you improve your own workout consistency, your sweetheart is 50 percent more likely to do the same. (That is a surefire recipe for a happier love life.)

Smart Workouts for Valentine’s Day

When you exercise, the release of endorphins, those feel-good hormones or feelings of pleasure that you release (in your brain) may create the perfect chemical mix for a vibrant and enriching love life.

Firm Up and Maintain Exercise Motivation 

– Take a golf or ski lesson from a pro

– Hire a personal trainer for two for one month of workouts

– Convert your dirty garage into a dreamy home gym

– Start a detox and diet together to support your exercise efforts

How to Make Exercising Together a Higher Priority

Set up a new home gym together for Valentine’s Day or take a wild fitness class at the new gym in town. Opti-Fit Fitness Systems can help brainstorm and create the ultimate fitness space for your school or college, or a residential fitness center.

Ask about our free fitness facility assessment and 3-dimensional gym renderings for your customized fitness space. We’ll make it your happiest Valentine’s Day ever.

It’s the busiest travel season of the year, and many folks are visiting over long holiday weekends. Whether you are hosting the celebrations this year or flying around the country to join in, you may not have access to your normal gym routine, and may also have to work late and entertain.

Don’t ditch your calorie and stress-relieving cardio workouts just yet. You need them more than ever.

And help is on the way: If you or a member of your family lives in a multi-family space with a fitness center, your holiday luck has officially arrived. Research the fitness centers class schedule where you’ll be and sign up for yoga classes or pay a day rate at a local rec center or YMCA.

When you can steal 15, 20 or even 25 minutes during the holiday exuberance, it may help keep excess calories (and holiday stress) at bay.

Slate Regular Exercise to Stop Holiday Stress

To avoid getting trapped into using eating or meal times as an emotional crutch, devise other soothing strategies for self-preservation. This may include:

• Building in time alone during the chaos
• Getting enough sleep and not over-scheduling
• Working out every day, even for 15 minutes
• Asking family for help baking, cleaning or shopping
• Giving exercise DVDS as gifts
• Hiring extra help to clean up after the festivities

So remember,  holiday celebrations have officially started! That’s a lot of opportunity to skip exercise and double down on Thanksgiving dessert. Don’t do it! It’s basically freezing all over the country so buy a day pass to a local YMCA or use that local multi-family fitness center to blast calories and stress. Try drinking more water during all your fat-burning cardio workouts – and save that spiked eggnog for later.

Do @CardioMachine  #LoseThanksgivingPounds.