Founded in 2017, BFT takes a sports science approach to group fitness. The brand has already opened 270 studios and is just getting started.
Boutique fitness is more popular than ever, but the industry is sometimes criticized for relying on fads and flash rather than sustainable and effective workout routines.
Body Fit Training (BFT) is a fast-growing boutique fitness company founded in Melbourne, Australia by Cameron Fallon, an acclaimed strength and conditioning coach and former personal trainer to Princess Diana.・Although it is a franchise, I don’t think anyone would criticize it in the same way.
Inspired by his time training professional athletes in the Australian Football League (AFL), Falloon brings strength and conditioning principles such as progression, periodization and program design to the world of group fitness. We founded BFT in 2017 to do this. Fallon said the idea behind BFT was to give the general public access to the same elite-level strength and conditioning tools as AFL athletes, tailored to their ability level and time constraints. .
“There’s a lot of sameness in the[boutique fitness]industry, and not a lot of consideration for periodization and progression, and not really spending time on things like personalized exercise selection. Elite athletes. ” Faloon told Athlete News about the market research he conducted before launching BFT. “How can I take[my]knowledge and experience and make it accessible to the mainstream?”
Fallon was on top of something. BFT has rapidly spread around the world, with over 270 studios opening and over 680 franchise licenses sold on several continents. Boutique fitness franchisor Xponential Fitness acquired BFT in late 2021 and began rapidly expanding the brand in the US, already selling more than 300 licenses in the US.
A lot of planning, technology, and time went into making BFT workouts effective, scalable, and appealing to our members. But ultimately, Fallon believes the concept’s popularity is rooted in its focus on results above all else.
“We’re so caught up in trends as an industry that we provide the basic fundamentals at a very high level,” he says. “Once we get that right, I think we can start exploring and maybe be a little more experimental.”
Inside the BFT workout
The BFT workout is modeled after the strength and conditioning program Fallon devised for AFL clubs such as Geelong, Port Adelaide and the Western Bulldogs, but scaled up to be safe and accessible to the general public. I’m making adjustments.
Currently, BFT offers 14 strength and conditioning classes. Each of his classes lasts 50 minutes and is scientifically designed to help members burn fat and build muscle while getting a full-body workout. Classes are held in groups of approximately 36 people and include a combination of compound weightlifting exercises such as deadlifts, bench presses, and kettlebell swings, bodyweight exercises such as box jumps and pull-ups, and aerobic exercises such as running, cycling, and rowing. Masu. The specific combination of exercises will vary depending on the class type.
Importantly, all BFT classes are structured in eight-week cycles, allowing members to measure their progress over time, much like professional athletes do during training. . The program for each 8-week training block is carefully devised by BFT at corporate level and a standardized program is sent to all his BFT franchise owners worldwide.
While this ensures consistency, Falloon says BFT also allows coaches to modify or replace certain movements to tailor training to individual class members’ ability levels. That’s what it means.
“If a member has limited shoulder range of motion or shoulder impingement, we’re not going to force them to do military presses like everyone else in the class is doing,” he explains. “We give (coaches) the tools to personalize it.”
Combining gamification and strength training
It’s not just our highly calculated approach to program design that sets BFT apart from our competitors in the boutique fitness space. This strength and conditioning series is highly innovative in that it uses heart rate tracking technology to gamify your workouts, including strength training.
Aiming to drive member engagement, Faloon and his team created BFT3is a unique heart rate tracking system that rewards members whose heart rate falls within specially defined zones based on the type of workout they did that day.
“There’s a lot of great heart rate measurement products out there, but they’re really missing the gamification aspect because they just reward you for a higher heart rate,” Fallon explains, adding that the gamification aspect of strength training like deadlifts is really lacking because it only rewards you for a higher heart rate. The goal is not to get your heart rate as fast as possible, but to get it within a certain range that is considered optimal for the weight you lift and the number of times you perform.
“We’ve actually been able to use heart rate to gamify strength training, which is a world first,” Fallon says.
During class, BFT members can see their heart rate displayed on the screen. At the end of the class, a leaderboard is displayed and members are awarded a gold, silver, or bronze medal based on how close their heart rate was to their target zone.
“It’s an instant reward that creates community and buzz,” Fallon says of BFT.3 And the approach to leaderboards. “I see people high-fiving as soon as they finish their session and staring at the screen to see if they won a gold medal.”
BFT also incorporates other gamification features into the app to encourage long-term engagement. For example, members earn status levels based on their accomplishments within the class, starting as rookies and progressing to immortality. It will take approximately six years to complete this journey.
Gamification features seem to be successful in driving member engagement. On average, BFT members attend her classes four to five times a week. This is significantly higher than average in the boutique fitness industry, where people attend classes about two to three times a week.
Global expansion plan
Fallon told ATN that when he launched BFT in 2017, his goal was to open 1,000 studios around the world. So far, the brand is on pace to meet or exceed that number.
Having sold more than 680 locations and opened more than 270 studios, BFT is located or will soon be located in countries including Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Spain. I plan to put it there. The brand aims to sell 900 studios and open 450 studios worldwide by 2025.
BFT is in talks to expand into Taiwan, Indonesia and South Korea, Fallon Stocks reports. He said the brand likely won’t enter many countries outside of these countries “for the foreseeable future.”
“It would be unfair to investors and voters to try to spread our network too thin, across 20 or 30 countries,” he says. “We could do that and we’re interested, but we don’t believe it’s in the best interest of companies or franchisees.”
In the United States, Bluefin is becoming a household name in the boutique fitness arena. Since acquiring the brand in 2021, Irvine, Calif.-based is open.
Looking ahead, Faloon says he and Xponential share the same growth strategy in the U.S. and around the world.
“We have a common goal of putting no cap on growth, but at the same time not sacrificing our core product or the financial well-being of our franchisees,” says BFT’s founder. “If I can continue to grow fast enough and not get a speeding ticket, I will continue to do that.”