If there’s anyone who knows about the best ways to keep motivated at the gym, it’s the father and son behind Les Mills International. The fitness brand was launched by former Olympian Les Mills in 1968, and when his son Phillip took over the company in the late 70s, he set about creating group fitness classes.

He was convinced they’d encourage regular participation in the gym. Phillip had worked out that if someone attends less than 1.5 times a week, they’re likely to leave the gym within a year. “But if they attend more than 2 times a week, they’re likely to stay for 2-10 years. So you’re after finding ways to motivate people and keep them working out.” 

And where did those classes start? In the early 80s with Phillip's Mum. She had created dumbbell classes that required stacks of weights to take part. Phillip made it less complex with a barbell than allowed different weights to be used easier, and the classes took off.

That class became Body Pump, which Phillip says is still one of the 2 or 3 biggest gym workouts in the world. People take the class at the 12 Les Mills clubs across New Zealand, but it’s also one of the Les Mills programmes sold into 20,000 gyms around the world. 

Phillip Mills also believes it’s the sense of community people find a the gym that keeps them going. “Life has become a lot more fragmented over the past 50 years. People don’t go to the corner pub after work like they used to, they're less involved in other communal activities like going to church.

“So unfortunately people have less and less ways of communing. I think after you’ve been going (to the gym) for a while you start to recognise people, and it does become a really nice sort of a social forum.” 

For more background about the Les Mills story, you can listen to their episode of HP Business class here