"Without a fitness card, I feel as if I am out of the times." As an old customer of the gym, Mr. Hu, a Shanghai citizen, works out at least three times a week.
As early as October 1st, 2009, the State Council’s National Fitness Regulations came into effect, and August 8th of each year was designated as National Fitness Day. With the gradual improvement of people’s living standards, fitness has gradually become a popular lifestyle, and gyms have mushroomed.
According to public information, the number of gymnasiums in China has maintained a high growth since its appearance, from nearly 3,300 in 2010 to more than 5,000 in 2017. It is estimated that the number of gymnasiums in China will reach more than 5,800 in 2018, and the number of members is expected to further exceed 10 million.
Some experts believe that the "National Fitness Regulations" has been issued for 9 years, but the supporting implementation rules have not been formulated at the national level. For fitness activity sites and sports clubs, the regulations only provide principles. Up to now, only the Beijing Municipal Sports Bureau issued the Safety Management Standard of Beijing Gyms more than ten years ago (for trial implementation), and gymnasiums in other places are basically in a state of no compliance. "Due to the lack of laws, the seemingly prosperous fitness market contains hidden concerns. The operation of many gyms can be described as chaotic, and the qualification certificates of fitness instructors are also varied. "
Salesmen sell cards and get commissions.
"There is a new gym near the community, which costs only 1600 yuan a year. It’s a good deal!" Xiaomei, a white-collar worker in Guangzhou, happily shared the good news with her colleagues.
Because of her busy work, Xiaomei often doesn’t eat on time, overeating at every turn, and her figure is completely out of shape. Looking at the dynamics of a big wave of show figures in the circle of friends, my heart is inevitably lost. This time, Xiaomei made up her mind to start the road of fitness, and readily paid money to become a VIP member of the gym.
"Intelligent equipment, beautiful environment and rich courses can be experienced for three days for free … …” Looking at the leaflets handed over by the health card salesman, I feel that I have "picked up a big bargain". However, Xiaomei was happy for a few days, and a message from WeChat group broke her inner peace: "Members of the gym pay attention, the annual card of 1,600 yuan is only a junior member, and she can only exercise from 3 pm to 4 pm every day, and no other time." Surprised, Xiaomei called the gym and got the same answer.
"Why didn’t you say it at the time of payment and didn’t write it in the contract? Isn’t this cheating consumers?" Under Xiaomei’s questioning, the salesman told her that if she wants to exercise all day, she must be upgraded to a senior member, and the senior member is 3600 yuan a year.
"I wanted to exercise, have a good body and a good mood. This is good, and it will be blocked if I can’t exercise." There are more than 100 fitness enthusiasts who have the same experience as Xiaomei. However, considering that the money has already been paid, many members choose not to care, just as a lesson.
The reporter learned from Xiaomei that at the beginning of the card, the salesperson did not clearly tell her these restrictions. "When a member proposed to return the card, the salesperson only suggested that there was a small line on the back of the contract, which said that 30% penalty would be charged for returning the card. I didn’t notice it before." Xiaomei has a feeling of being fooled in an instant.
The reporter found that subway entrance, shopping mall entrance and residential area … … But in densely populated places, you can always see some gym salesmen handing out leaflets from time to time.
"If you want to sell your fitness card, you must be persistent." Xiaoqiu, who started to contact the fitness industry three years ago, is a salesman. Through these years of close contact with the fitness industry, he has become familiar with all kinds of hidden rules in this industry. From the beginning, he had nothing to earn more than 10,000 yuan a month, relying on selling fitness cards. At the peak, he persuaded nearly 100 people to apply for cards a day.
Xiaoqiu also revealed that some fitness clubs will engage in false propaganda, and the actual situation in the store is not as glamorous as the publicity materials. Many effect pictures are found from the Internet, and the designers make typography and beautification, giving people a feeling of "being tall", which in turn induces consumers to apply for cards.
Insiders told reporters that a fitness club has been open for 30 to 40 days, and its sales can often reach 2 million yuan to 3 million yuan. For such high sales, the credit goes to the salesman. For salesmen, the basic salary is very low, and their income basically depends on the commission from selling cards, so they will use high discounts and exaggerating the quality of publicity services as bait to attract consumers to apply for cards, so as to get high wages. "90% of the fitness clubs have access control, members need to punch in, and some will take a camera photo to verify whether the cardholder is a member himself or not to prevent someone from lending it privately. This is to protect their way of making money, so that more people can get cards, and they will earn more. "
Unlicensed operation is widespread.
It is understood that the traditional gym has existed in China for twenty or thirty years, but the business model has not changed much. At present, "membership card+private lessons" is still the main source of gym income. The reporter found that as the main force of selling classes, the performance of coaches directly determines their income. Therefore, many coaches have turned into "class sellers".
In March of this year, Luo Xin set up a two-year fitness card in a gym in downtown Ningbo, which cost more than 4,000 yuan.
"When I went to the gym on the first day after I got the card, the coach enthusiastically helped me to test all the indicators of my body, saying that my constitution was too poor, so I had to buy private lessons if I wanted to exercise effectively." Luo Xin said that one private education class should be handed over to 450 yuan, while the general private education class is sold in 12 classes. According to this charging standard, the cost of private education class is higher than that of the annual card, so it was politely refused.
"I’m still short of 4,000 yuan this month, so you can help me finish the task!" Luo Xin made a rough statistics. The fitness instructor sold her private lessons for more than 10 times before and after, and finally he couldn’t bear to complain before he could stop.
However, when Luo Xin walked into the gym again, she found that many exercise rooms in the gym were occupied by private teachers and ordinary members could not enter. "When we applied for the card, we promised that all our equipment could be used, but now we treat it differently. We are also ridiculed for not buying private lessons." When Luo Xin proposed to return the card, the store tried every means to shirk it.
Many members told reporters that "if you don’t buy private classes, the treatment in the gym is obviously much worse, and there is a feeling of being left out."
"Fitness instructors are all committed to selling fitness classes. If they don’t buy courses, they will naturally ignore you. In fact, some coaches will gradually get worse after their members buy classes. Sometimes they play mobile phones in class and shorten the class time. It is common." Xiao Hu, who has been engaged in the fitness industry for many years, told reporters.
Wang Gang, who just graduated from college this year, is a member of a gym in Hangzhou. As a newcomer, he wants to improve the training effect by asking a personal trainer. After experiencing several private lessons, he found that the teaching method of private education was not suitable for him at all, and even fell down several times while guiding training, and his fingers and bones hurt for many days.
"When I proposed to drop out of class, the coach actually said that it was common to get injured during exercise. After a long time, my body adapted." Wang Gang looked helpless and began to doubt the real level of the coach.
For fitness coaches, the National Fitness Regulations classifies them as social sports instructors, which are divided into two types: "not for the purpose of collecting remuneration" and "taking fitness guidance as a profession". The former implements the technical grade system, while the latter implements the vocational qualification certificate system.
On September 12, 2017, Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security announced the Catalogue of National Vocational Qualifications, clarifying that among the "social sports instructors", only four high-risk project jobs such as swimming, skiing, diving and rock climbing were included in the access category of compulsory certificates; Other social sports instructors, including fitness instructors, aerobics, sports dance, equestrian, taekwondo and other 43 jobs, are included in the category of national vocational qualification evaluation without compulsory certificates.
A person in charge of a gym in Shanghai told the reporter of the Legal Daily that according to the new regulations, fitness instructors belong to the national vocational qualification of level evaluation, which is only the basis for employers to judge the recruitment of talents and promotion of professional titles. "The gold content is not as good as before."
The reporter went to the gym on the third floor of a large supermarket in Beijing, only to see that the hall was filled with treadmills, spinning bikes and other fitness equipment. Some members practice on various instruments, while several coaches in gray jerseys stare at them and occasionally come forward to demonstrate. The whole gym covers an area of about 3000 square meters, and it is divided into yoga area, fitness equipment area, spinning area and bathing area for male and female guests by glass. In front of several glass houses, there are signs that "non-private members are not allowed to enter".
The reporter saw in the publicity column that the main projects of this gym include aerobics, boxing, folk dance, jazz dance and aerial yoga. Among the profiles of 15 fitness instructors, there are 9 titles at most and 4 titles at least. According to field statistics, there are more than 20 kinds of qualification certificates, which can be said to be varied. Such as national professional qualification certificate of fitness coach, professional fitness instructor certificate of China Bodybuilding Association, AASFP Asian fitness instructor certificate, Pilates senior coach, EPTC extreme slimming coach qualification certificate, senior private fitness coach certificate, personal fitness coach vocational skills training certificate, sports nutritionist qualification certificate, China bodybuilding independent trainer certificate, social sports instructor certificate (fitness coach), all-round personal trainer expert certificate, IVT biological rehabilitation certificate, etc.
The reporter asked to see the business license of the gym on the grounds of getting a card. Liu Peng, a membership consultant, claimed that the business license was at the company headquarters, and added a reporter’s WeChat, saying that it would be scanned before being sent to the reporter. But since then, there has been no news from Liu Peng.
The insider told the reporter that in the past, to start a gym, you had to go to the sports department to apply for the Sports Business License, and then go to the administrative department for industry and commerce to apply for a business license. After the country later included fitness coaches in the national vocational qualification of level evaluation, only sports with strong professional skills, great danger and great social influence went to the sports department. "At present, in the national fitness market, only swimming is strictly regulated by the sports department. In general fitness programs, the phenomenon of operating without a license is still relatively common. "
Some experts believe that the national professional qualification certificate for fitness coaches issued by Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the Personnel Department of the State Sports General Administration is the only officially recognized authoritative qualification certificate for fitness coaches in the national sports industry. The state explicitly requires that social organizations such as trade associations and societies, enterprises and institutions carry out their own ability level evaluation activities according to market needs, and may not license and identify qualifications in disguise. Certificates may not use the words "People’s Republic of China (PRC)", "China", "China", "country", "national" professional qualification "or" personnel qualification "and the national emblem.
A personal trainer who asked not to be named said that the threshold for personal coaching is quite low. In some training institutions, it often takes only 5 to 7 days of training to get the relevant qualification certificate as a coach. "Only 42% of the people who are engaged in fitness coaching in gymnasiums are graduates majoring in physical education, and most of them only obtain relevant vocational certificates after one to three months of training. Although the illegal licensing and identification of fitness instructors’ qualifications is almost open, the regulatory authorities have never investigated it. "
It happens when gym owners run away.
Walking around the company twice every day after lunch, Ms. Wu in Shanghai is even exercising. However, due to years of desk work, many occupational diseases have fallen behind. At the beginning of this year, under the persuasion of friends, Ms. Wu walked into the gym. But it didn’t take long for trouble to come.
"I felt good in the first few months of fitness here, but since this summer, the gym has not even turned on the air conditioner, and the smell of sweat is suffocating. It is of no help to report it to the staff. And you can’t take a shower after the fitness. The staff said there was no natural gas. I want to complain, but I don’t know where to go? " Since then, Ms. Wu’s enthusiasm for going to the gym has been seriously frustrated, and she only goes once or twice every month.
Time flies in September. On the way to send her children to school, Ms. Wu suddenly found that the gym where she handled the card became a maternal and child shop. Ms. Wu entered the store and asked, and the owner of the maternal and child store told her that the owner of the gym had run away because he owed high rent and utilities.
The reporter followed Ms. Wu to the property company to inquire that since 2017, Boss Li of the gym has defaulted on the rent on the grounds that the capital turnover is not open. "Every time he is urged, he will pay one or two thousand yuan, which has never been paid." Manager Fan of the property company told the reporter that it is roughly estimated that the rent and tax owed by Boss Li should be around 500,000 yuan.
In the face of the boss of the gym leaving without saying goodbye, Ms. Wu hasn’t recovered for a long time.
According to relevant media reports, 60% of fitness clubs in China are losing money to varying degrees, and individual businesses maliciously circle money and run away, which happens from time to time in the fitness industry. According to incomplete statistics, the owners of more than 20 gyms in Beijing have run away in the past three months.
"A gym that was engaged in discount activities a month ago suddenly closed down after 20 days, leaving only a notice on the door, but the contact number written on it has been turned off." The gym that handled the card suddenly closed, which made Yang Li, a fitness expert in Chaoyang District, Beijing, feel at a loss. "In July this year, it was reported that the gym was going to close down. At that time, I still didn’t believe it, and now the gym really has a problem."
What makes Yang Li feel depressed is that since he can’t continue to exercise, how to deal with the fitness card? Fortunately, this gym is a chain store and there are other branches. So Yang Li and other members came to another chain gym to find the person in charge and ask what was going on.
"The boss is away, and the company has already informed all the members that the gym has been transferred." In the face of members’ questions, a staff member came out to explain. However, members have said that they don’t know about the transfer of the gym. When the staff saw it, they had to say that they would give everyone a satisfactory answer later, but they could not give a clear answer time.
Such a reply made Yang Li feel awkward: "I am afraid that the money for the fitness card will be wasted."
Some insiders have analyzed that at present, there are more gyms, but the survival rate is not high. There are two reasons for the closure: First, the gym has invested a lot in the initial stage, and if the funds are not fully prepared, it is easy to break the capital chain; Second, vicious competition. If several gyms are very close and there is not enough differentiation, they can only fight price wars in order to attract customers, and the final result is to disrupt the market.
Xiao Dongping, a lawyer in Beijing, analyzed, "The gym owner runs away. If there is executable property under the boss’s name, it needs to be auctioned by the court to provide compensation to consumers. However, from the past cases, it is difficult for consumers to obtain compensation through civil litigation, because the litigation cost is much higher than the advance payment lost by consumers, and it can only be lost in the end. "
Cartography/Li Xiaojun
