For more than  25 years, Les Mills has been in the business of creating the world’s best programming for health seekers of all fitness levels. We develop safe and effective workouts that any one can participate in and enjoy. Every three months new music and movements are launched to keep your participants motivated, involved and excited about their fitness experiences. We provide superior coaching and consulting resources along with marketing and management tools via our online EClub system as a turnkey solution for YMCA customers.

A unique feature of the Les Mills system is the training, development, and continuing education offered to both those who participate in and to those who teach our programs.  What makes this feature so significant is that our class choreography, module trainings, and supplemental materials work in concert to arm participants and instructors with the knowledge to empower them to achieve consist results. This means that we provide your center with the resources necessary to allow you to build tangible bridges between your Les Mills programs and the goals Health Seekers are looking to achieve. Resources are available for all 8 Les Mills class formats.

One example of the many resources available is pictured to the right. BODYVIVE “Smart Cards” are one of our newest tools to advance the training of instructors and enhance the how they coach and encourage class participants. There are 22 BODYVIVE “Smart Cards” available addressing topics such as DiabetesLower Back Pain, Joint Replacement, and Fall Prevention.  This is just one example of how the Les Mills group fitness management system allows you to create and manage clear expectations for staff and membership.

Fitmarc and the Les Mills programs have definitely met & exceeded our expectations. At first, as someone who is investing in the program, all you see are results, statistics and feedback, you're not sure if this will really work... it's almost like you can't believe it until you see it. Once everything rolled out, with phone calls, questions and other forms of contact, the proof was amazing. Just announcing the arrival of Les Mills has helped the YMCA of Greater San Anontio in numerous ways.

Being a Health & Wellness Director for YMCA of Greater San Antonio for 3 years now, I would recommend other YMCA's invest in Les Mills and challenge the other YMCA's to become a believer and see how Les Mills works! What it does for your staff, your branch, community and especially your members is life changing.

The impact Les Mills has made with our preparation for launch has been phemnomenal. For the instructors, being able to see each one transition from a "great" instructor to an "outstanding" instructor still blows my mind. The way the staff engages with the practices has definitely made a difference, especially coming from a program director's position. I see that the instructors are "wanting" to be at practice versus "having" to be at practice. There is a BIG difference in how that is applied. This just goes to show that the information delievered at the module training is reaching inside each instructor and giving the instructors a great experience with LesMills. As for management staff, again, a large impact. Even though the YMCA's are consistently programming and engaging with members and giving members service they deserve, the preparation has kept the management on their toes. It helps to know what is needed to make the program "world class" and Les Mills has given us that boost. With the management knowing at hand what is expected, it trickles down to the staff who deliver, who are constantly engaging with the members, which helps create a successful event/program overall. As for the branch and community - marketing Les Mills Association wide has made its mark in the community. There have been a lot of phone calls, emails and questions about Les Mills and when will we (YMCA) get started with the program. Keeping the marketing altogether has created a positive, exciting atmosphere for the member services desk & members about the new "world" class program that is coming soon.

I would like to take the moment and thank the Les Mills South Central Company for all they have done for the Houston Association YMCA’s and especially the Trotter Family YMCA, formally known as the Post Oak YMCA. It has been and continues to be an honor to work with the Les Mills Company and partnership with the Les Mills staff team in turning around the vision and purpose of YMCA Group Exercise.

Over the first years of my career, I had witnessed at our association wide directors meetings YMCA’s with BODYPUMP brag about the program, the success with the members, how the members had to have it, but mostly the other directors were upset with having to pay the licensing fee’s and wanted more out of the program. They always said the music was great and the choreography was excellent but they wanted more.

During this time my career grew and my position progressed into the Chair of the Health and Wellness Champions, I grew more curious about BODYPUMP and the fee’s we were paying as an association and decided to do some investigating on my own. I was in this year that Les Mills reclaimed the administration of their program and the quality and leadership of the programs really began to shine.

I attended the Group Fitness Management Seminar at the Dallas Mania in 2004 and was blown away. I’m usually one who goes in and just soaks up the information through osmosis, but as the program started and the energy in the room built, there was something different about this seminar.

I was simply just awe struck… it was awesome! For the first time in my career, the Les Mills Company had put together a package and information on how to manage my Group Exercise program, how to turn it around and get my instructors excited and filling the studio’s up. They had produced a successful roadmap to creating your schedules, recruit the right staff, train them, evaluate them, coach them, mentor them, how to market to your members, but mostly, Les Mills raised the bar for what “excellence” is. The Les Mills Company uses the term “World Class” and the instructor training program is that… intense and tough and produces World Class Instructors. I started my trek to Dallas to see what all the hub-hub for Les Mills was about and I came back and asked if they would be willing to come down and educate the entire Houston Association! Since then, our Association has started to view the Group Exercise Program a little differently.

Since I had started in 1998, the Y had always kept stats… for what, I never knew. Now I know what I do with them, I use them a very strong tool in making my program better and stronger than ever. I use them to educate our members; the statistics allow them to create ownership of failing classes and in some cases have saved the class from being cut. I use the statistics to educate staff and now the instructors that have low attendance are coming to me to make changes to their class formats or time instead of fighting and creating excuses on why their class is not successful. Since then, many of the classes that were just on the schedule to take up space have moved off and our program has really taken off.

The Trotter YMCA Group Exercise program, in 2004 averaged about 115 classes per week with about a 35% utilization serving about 3400 per month. Since the GFM, the program has grown to 140+ classes per week and our 2007 summer trimester broke the 52% utilization mark serving over 6200 per month. Our focus: Better Class Schedule, Better Instructors, Better Focus. We still have a long way to go and the Les Mills group as been right there the entire time, always willing to help in anyway possible, always smiling, and always putting forth my goals as their number one priority.

The staff at Les Mills are just amazing. The company culture is warm, caring and extremely PROFESSIONAL. I have yet to run across any Les Mills’s staff who are just having a bad day or that did not say hi or Kia Ora! I have worked with them by hosting a Regional Quarterly, BODYCOMBAT Instructor Training and a number of specialty events. All I can say is that they recruit staff, train them and expect them to perform in their job just as they will do teaching a class. The work ethic runs through the company from Susan Tully down to the part time staff who is selling you the T-Shirts at the registration tables.

For YMCA’s, where does the dollar meet mission? Our membership, our connections, our relationship to our community is growing in the right direction. Our retention as a YMCA has continued to increase to now over 72%, as well as our overall membership units continue to climb. Just as in any business, we need to maintain the money so we can do our MISSION. The Post Oak YMCA was built and established in 1967 to work with the community and meet their needs. As an older facility that has added room on to room and wing onto wing, we are finally able to grow and renovate, again, to meet our growing needs. This time, there is intense focus on the Group Exercise Program, how it can affect our membership and our communities needs. The more members we can put into classes, the better community we can create, the more lives we can touch. The Les Mill Program is not just an investment in quality music, and choreography, but into an international business culture of excellence. It is a partnership in changing people’s lives and a partnership I have come to trust and respect immensely.

Thank you Les Mills for all you have done for my YMCA, the Houston YMCA Association and mostly… for my beloved YMCA members at the Trotter Family YMCA.

Yours in Health,

Don L. Alldredge
Sr. Director
Trotter Family YMCA
1331 Augusta Drive
Houston, TX 77057