Exploring Design and Experience in the Urban Environment - Research Paper Example

?24 Hour Fitness Derek Jeter Club Almost anyone can serve themselves by doing physical exercises. The advantages are significant as the benefits include strengthening muscles, flexibility, strong bones etc. Apart, from physical benefits, science also proves some psychological benefits as well. A survey demonstrates a common fact that states ‘People are not active enough’. Likewise, the American heart Association attributes about 250,000 deaths a year in the United States and about 12 percent of deaths are due the paucity of regular physical exercise (Health benefits of physical fitness). In order to eliminate health hazards and to maintaining better health, various gymnasiums or fitness centers are operating within the country. The revolutionary ‘Derek Jeter 24 hour fitness club’ is located in New York. Derek Jeter was the most prestigious shortstop in the Major League Baseball (MLB), for the entire career, he played for New York Yankees. The characteristic of Derek Jeter contains a dominant and prominent player. Furthermore, his achievements throughout his career are as follows (Signature clubs): “Sixth overall player selected in the 1992 baseball draft 1996 AL Rookie of the Year Four Gold Gloves (2004, 2005, 2006, 2009) Five World Series championships Eleven All-Star appearances 2009 Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year Lifetime batting average of .314 (through Sept 2010)” The collaboration of Derek Jeter with the 24 hour fitness club added new value. In fact, the club enjoys the company of 3.5 million club members along with 20,000 team members globally with a 27 years history. It is the largest privately owned club in the country. The most notable aspect of this club involves 24 hours availability. This means that members can join anytime they want, round the clock. In general, people with tight schedules and work time have the freedom to customize their workout schedules whenever they are available. The Derek Jeter 24 hour fitness club welcomes all age type males and females members. More than a thousand male and female members visit the 24 hour fitness club during the weekdays. Members of almost all ages are encouraged and wear a comfortable outfit for easy expansion of body parts and perform cardio, yoga and strength gaining classes. The trainers at the club are smart, supportive and encourage members a lot. Moreover, they are all well dressed having fresh faces and communicate effectively with members. Furthermore, a member operates on cardio exercises, yoga, and strength training etc. on cardio equipment consisting of treadmills, stationary bikes, elliptical trainers and stair steppers. The club is the first to provide Nike + iPod experience where members can track and monitor workouts. History The ’24 hour fitness club’ was founded in 1983 and operated as a single club operation located in San Laendro, Calif. Moreover, in the past 27 years, ’24 hour fitness club’ has unwrapped the most clubs in the United States that any other exclusive operator and is at present, the largest private fitness club chain. Accordingly, the introduction of innovative variety including the 24 hours fitness club and online memberships, the company is broadly recognized with the modifying industry landscape. In addition, the 24 hours fitness club has introduced a new concept of creating fitness opportunities easily accessible, affordable and flexible. In 2003, the ‘24 hour business club’ turn out to be the first official fitness center sponsor of the United States Olympic team and has rehabilitated support via London 2012 Olympic Games. The sponsorship was a granted memberships to U.S Olympic optimistic and consist of equipping the three U.S Olympic Training Centers in Colorado Springs, Colo., Lake Placid, N.Y. and Chula Vista, Calif. Furthermore, in 2010, the ‘24 hour fitness center’ sponsored five Olympians, Hopefuls and a Paralympian. The team of ‘24 hour fitness center’ consists of Athletes including Rockne Brubaker, Gretchen Bleiler, J.R. Celski, Tucker Fredericks, Chris Devlin-Young and Julia Mancuso. The 24 hour fitness has also developed strategic partnerships with leading consumer brands including ‘Evarlast’ and ‘Coca-cola’. In addition, for the past nine seasons, 24 hour fitness club is in partnership with NBC popular reality television show and the biggest loser. In the same fashion, the ‘24 hour fitness club’ inaugurated the fourth club in September 2009 in New York with the signature of Derek Jeter (About us). Club Types and Amenities The Derek Jeter club offers various types of club types and amenities. However, Members can choose the best suited club types and amenities. The variety includes weight training equipments, cardio equipments and other distinctive equipments to facilitate and achieve fitness goals. The club types and amenities include ‘Ultra Sports’ that provides high-end fitness amenity in a prime location and enhance the workout routine with group cycling with a dedicated personal training zone. Moreover, ‘Super Sport’ provides towel service and variety of equipments. Apart from the functional training areas, the ‘Super Sport’ club provides personal viewing screens on selected cardio equipments. Furthermore, most clubs also provide whirlpools, saunas, basketball and swimming. ‘Sport’ provides comprehensive group exercise schedule along with a broad variety of fitness equipments and classes. The club also offers a variety of amenities including spa that facilitates relaxing tired muscles, sweats and toxins and reduce stress. The club members can avail these facilities before or after workout by steam rooms, whirlpool and sauna. Kid’s club enables parents to bring their kids to a safe and organized environment where they can play during exercise. Personal training extorts the guesswork from the fitness plan, in order to get fit more rapidly. The professional training program with diet plans makes goals easier and quicker for the club members. Moreover, the club presents weight training equipment to work every part of the body in an efficient way to shape the body by curling, squatting and benching. The cardio equipment is essential in any body fitness program. The club is crammed with advanced cardio machines and several other types to assist the members lose weight, and develop cardiovascular health. Furthermore, group exercise classes are always exciting and motivate club members to participate (Gym fitness equipment & amenities). Technology Utilization The club also shares unique features with the club members in terms of technology. The club members can locate clubs while in a remote location. Moreover, they can review club amenities, modify the class schedules and can also access various fitness tools provided by the club. As the vice president, of ’24 hour fitness club’ Bill Quinn says “The target and focus of the iPhone application and mobile site is convenience for our members”. “If that’s the information our members want, why not build an app?” he also said. “Why not give them that information at their fingertips so they can find classes and clubs while on the go?” (24 hour fitness pumps up mobile initiatives). The club also provides ‘iPhone’ application and website accessible on mobile phones. The website is designed with the concept of 24 hours fitness members that may access the site anytime. However, the website is also available for the general public who can login without credentials. The ‘My24iPhone’ application consists of a ‘Club Finder’ feature that relocates club location by entering a ZIP code or city name on their handheld device. Furthermore, the ‘iPhone’ application provides details of classes. The members can auto locate clubs by global positioning systems (GPS) via ‘iPhone’. Moreover, the club members can retrieve available amenities, club photographs, location by ‘My24’. Furthermore, the ‘Class schedule Finder’ provides information for upcoming classes at specific clubs along with details, including names of trainers and formats of the class. The club members can specify a default club to get immediate access to their preferred club information, class schedules and contact information. Apart from providing information, ‘My24’ also facilitate access to health tools names as Body Mass Calculator (BMI). BMI is used to indicate and calculate the overall fitness. It also monitors the changes occur with time. Calorie Burner facilitates members to monitor workout timings and concentration to calculate the amount of calories burned. Moreover, the Resting Metabolic Rate feature tracks the consumed calories in a rest-state. Members can monitor calories burned apart from workout. Furthermore, the ‘Daily Calorie Calculator’ facilitates users to evaluate their estimated calorie requirements pedestal on their activity levels (24 hour fitness pumps up mobile initiatives). Club members can refer the website of the club to their friends and colleagues via the club’s application and mobile website. As Mr. Quinn stated “We wanted to have mobile covered, so whether our members have an iPhone, a BlackBerry or another smartphone, we want them to give them access to info however they want it, so that was why we built the mobile Web site”. He further said “The iPhone app is an added benefit, because the iPhone dominates the market and most of our mobile traffic comes from iPhone users,” he said. “We do want to continue to produce a better iPhone app by reading people’s comments and making upgrades and adjustments accordingly” (24 hour fitness pumps up mobile initiatives). The trainers at the club, works on rotating shifts. As the club never closes, employees and trainers are rotated on shifts. As the club provides aerobics, boot camp, cycling, dance, kick boxing, les mills, mind / body, senior, strength training, water exercise and zumba, independent trainers are associated with each exercise type. Conclusion As there are numerous advantages, physical exercise is essential for everyone. The 24 hour fitness club providing 24 hours opportunity to work out is something new and modern in terms of flexibility. Occasionally, people do not get enough time for a workout or they lack to develop routines resulting in improper and poor exercise which may not affect on their body effectively. A good quality club with all proper machines and affordability embrace value. For adding confidence in people, the 24 hour fitness club in New York is a signature club by Derek Jeter who was a popular shortstop in the Major League Baseball and played for New York Yankees. The club maintains its quality by clean and tidy exercise machines capable of integrating iPods. Some of the qualities of the club include the lockers, paper towels and showers with neat and clean washrooms, body and muscles supplements, and good quality equipment, spacious and clean environments with bright lightings. Bibliography Health benefits of physical fitness - lifeclinic.com [cited 2/22/2011 2011]. Available from http://www.lifeclinic.com/focus/nutrition/fitness-benefits.asp (accessed 2/22/2011). Signature clubs | find a derek jeter signature clubs at 24 hour Fitness [cited 2/22/2011 2011]. Available from http://www.24hourfitness.com/health_clubs/signature_clubs/jeter/index.html#video (accessed 2/22/2011). About us | 24 hour fitness [cited 2/22/2011 2011]. Available from http://www.24hourfitness.com/company/about_us/ (accessed 2/22/2011). Gym fitness equipment & amenities | gyms with weight training & cardio equipment at 24 hour fitness [cited 2/22/2011 2011]. Available from http://www.24hourfitness.com/health_clubs/amenities/ (accessed 2/22/2011). 24 hour fitness pumps up mobile initiatives - mobile marketer - content [cited 2/22/2011 2011]. Available from http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/content/4787.html (accessed 2/22/2011). Read More