Fitness News

By Kath Hudson

www.fittechglobal.com

Sandwell Leisure Trust in the UK has teamed up with Stronger Wellness to open a studio designed specifically for content creators.

The new Burn Lab at Sandwell's Wednesbury site features camera-friendly equipment and lighting, as well as providing light stands and portable lights to allow Instagrammers to film their reels.

“Over the last 12 months it's become a bit of an issue that content creators would spend about 15 to 20 minutes on one piece of equipment with all their recording devices and other gym users were getting fed up of waiting,” says Sandwell Leisure Trust CEO, Mark Braithwaite. “It wasn’t getting out of hand, but it was enough noise that we thought, okay we’ve got an opportunity here to redirect those users into a different space and use their social media followings to get some visibility.”

The club also had an indoor cycling studio which was being underutilised – only about eight classes a week were being run at around 50 per cent occupancy, so the decision was made to locate the bikes into a smaller space.

The Burn Lab is not exclusively for the use of Instagrammers. A number of women-only classes are run each week, as well as Hyrox classes now that the club has become an affiliate, but the Instagrammers can use the main gym during these times.

“After a couple of weeks, the space has been very well received,” says Braithwaite.

“Previously it was being used for between eight and 13 hours a week and was basically vacant for the rest of the time. Now we have three or four classes a day which are being fully maxed out and people are using it independently.”