Fitness First has hit out at the lack of supervision in British health clubs, producing research it carried out with YouGov which claims Brits spend ‘up to 13,500 hours’ working out in low cost gyms unsupervised each week.

The research also states that 88 per cent of UK gym-goers (from a sample of 2,996 adults) believe having fitness-qualified staff in gyms is important, in a press release issued this week.

In a move that could be viewed as a dig against the 24-hour low cost gyms bidding to tempt away Fitness First members, the company has announced it will invest £10m over the next three years to boost staff expertise.

The money will support Fitness First’s specialist training syllabus – which deploys elements of behavioural psychology, sports-science, neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) and emotional quotient (EQ) training – with all 2,000 of its staff expected to have completed by the end of year. The company also pledged that the entire UK workforce will have an NVQ level two fitness qualification by the end of 2015.

“The UK gym industry has come a long way in the last few years, but gym-goers or not, the vast majority of Brits say supervision and fitness expertise are important to them, and we must go further to respond to that,” said UK managing director of Fitness First Martin Seibold.

“Gyms should be welcoming and there should always be fitness-qualified experts on hand to give advice, support and encouragement. Experience tells us that these factors are crucial in helping people stay motivated, and get the results they want.”

The 13,500 figure was calculated by extrapolating estimates on supervision hours in 196 ‘low cost’ gyms from UK Active’s 2013 State of the UK Fitness Industry Report. A spokesperson for Fitness First accepted that the actual figure was probably lower than this when contacted by Health Club Management, but said the quality and quantity of staff on gym floors across the country needs to be driven forward.

To read the March Health Club Management interview with Fitness First CEO Andrew Cosslett, where he outlines the company’s £270m global repositioning, click here.