Human performance specialist launches bespoke corporate fitness service to improve staff physical and mental health
As the government looks into ways to stem the rising tide of health problems caused by physical inactivity, a sports performance specialist has launched a service aimed at helping improve the nation’s wellbeing while boosting business performance.
Game Changer Performance, which works with some of the nation’s top sports stars, has created both a digital and a physical service aimed at enabling businesses to improve the health of their workforce.
As well as a digital profiling programme, it has created a service offering workplace fitness spaces and made cutting edge physical fitness programmes. Remote workers can carry out their exercises at home using bolt-on equipment bundles
Derbyshire-based Game Changer Performance has, for the past three years, been working alongside the Football Association and the Professional Footballers Association at England’s national football centre in Staffordshire, St George’s Park (SGP).
And it is the experience of preparing sports stars for competition which was the inspiration for its profiling app Curve, and its bespoke workplace fitness solution, Train.
GCP’s multi-disciplinary team wanted the corporate market to benefit from the same unique ‘movement, mindset and lifestyle’ profiling system it uses for to help elite sportspeople prepare for competitions.
Game Changer Performance director Jake Keeling explained: “Elite sports have been using a preventative approach for years. Ensuring that athletes and teams are eating right, conditioned properly, recovering correctly, and managing their training loads sensibly ensures that they are better prepared for competition than ever before. It seems like a natural fit to take this approach into the corporate health market. If elite teams and athletes have access to all this knowledge, equipment, technology, and success then why shouldn’t progressive businesses as well?”
GCP has partnered with gym design specialist Indigo Fitness to create the bespoke spaces. The two organisations have just created a showcase facility at GCP’s Derby HQ which, as well as being used by its own staff, offers a taste of what companies can enjoy on their own premises or consumers can create in their own homes.
The space contains four ‘pods’ focusing on different pillars of health – strength, conditioning, mobility and cardio – and can be used in conjunction with GCP’s Train programmes or independently. The pod system can be scaled up or down and branded with corporate logos.
“Our Train programme is of huge benefit to employers, both in terms of attracting and retaining talent. Mental health and exercise are intrinsically linked in creating a healthy lifestyle. The government is now recognising the importance of preventative health. It is not just the obvious factors like smoking and obesity which it needs to tackle,” said Jake.
“Many people will continue to work from home over the coming months and years. For progressive companies looking to give their people more support when in the office, then providing them with a space to train in is a superb and timely concept. Many companies will have much more redundant space now, so why not convert an existing meeting room into a functional fitness space? The great thing with Train is that we can also provide people with home exercise bundles to continue their training from home, backed up with programmes and access to our specialists via our digital platform. It is a hybrid solution that works perfectly with the situation we currently all find ourselves in. GCP Train truly has the ability to change the corporate health game for the better.
“In a recent survey, two-thirds of employees believe it’s an employer’s responsibility to support their physical wellbeing. HR professionals recognise the benefits. Three quarters agree that physical activity reduces absenteeism, yet almost half are not considering investing in physical activity provisions for their workplace. Seems somewhat crazy doesn’t it?”
Tom Rooke from Indigo Fitness added: “The combination of leading design, equipment, facilities and combining them with GCP’s range of expert physical and digital performance services is something the corporate and consumer health market is crying out for. We are excited to be involved.”