Now through August 31st, teens between the ages of 14-19 can work out for free all summer long and PF is giving away $200,000 to high schools and students! Let Josh Gerber of Planet Fitness tell you about a summer of unlimited opportunity for young folks to work out and make it the best summer ever.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
planet fitness, summer, year, gym, ohana, crab cake, fitness, kids, health, victor, instill, sign, goals, life, month, give, josh, contest, week, spa
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Josh Gerber
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome back wn S, T, Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore positive you’re taking the Maryland crabcake tour out on the road throughout the month of June and into July and into August celebrating 25 years here wn St. in August. We’re going to be having a lot of fun around here all summer long and everybody knows the orals are making this a much more fun summer. But I’ve got a guest here and a partner here that has an offer for because maybe you have that, that young rambunctious, a youngster like myself that had idle time on their hands in the summer. Josh Gerber joins us He is our pal from Planet Fitness and the Ohana part because I gotta get into name and I went to Hawaii last month to examine what Ohana means. So I think we’re family now. He is the chief marketing officer for Planet Fitness. We have them I wish I had you on more often. But sometimes I call I say February March if you No, no, no, we got to come on in the spring. And in the summer because you do something that I think every year. And it’s been a couple of years going on now that I sort of wish I had, when I were of that age where I was joining the Bally holiday spa went even badly. So 1982 was the age I’m talking about where the there was the monkey bars at the playground and playing pickup ball. But there there weren’t gyms and friends of mine in the neighborhood as weights in the basement or whatever. Planet Fitness is stepping up yet again. And I want to give you the floor and just let you talk about because it’s it’s probably the most exciting thing your company does, right?
Josh Gerber 01:35
Yeah, it really is. It’s a great program, really to to get high school and teenagers moving. For both physical and you know, more importantly, their mental health. You know, 61% of US teens are facing mental health struggles. And that has skyrocketed since the pandemic. So this is actually it’s the third year we’ve done it. We did it in 2019. And then the pandemic happened. So we didn’t do it in 20. We didn’t do it in 21 Just you know, because of circumstances that that were out of our control with COVID. We brought it back last year, had 13 point 5 million teenagers sign up. That’s all it was. Yeah, that’s all. That’s all. In the first year, we only had a million. So it was really, really good. You know, we saw a was really eye opening because it was like, wow, I mean, there is a super need, you know, for this, you know, to get teens moving, you know, and really to give them a place to go where they feel like, you know, I can utilize, you know, and get myself moving and start to feel positive about myself. Because really, it’s become a major, major problem in the United States right now with teenagers, you know, and the D socialization that happened during COVID. And this is a place where they can go, they can feel comfortable, you know, we have structure, you know, we have very nice gyms that we have 2500 Awesome across the United States.
Nestor Aparicio 03:02
And there’s one in everybody’s neighborhood. I mean, I remember when you guys came online, and you gave me the old, maybe 15 years ago, you gave me one of this might be that old, I’m not sure. And I tried a lot of water out of this thing over the years but on the set, but I would say for for the growth of it and where are you are, you’re everywhere now like literally Australia everywhere. We are, you know, all over the world everywhere. But more than that for anybody in our area, if you’re canes for your town, your Whitemarsh, your Bellaire your golembo Wherever you are Dundalk wherever you want. Are, there’s a PF right around the corner and I fit a Coca Cola or something that’s not good for you. But I’m thinking for young people reaching out to being a ubiquitous brand that for the rest of their lives for the rest of the planet fitness, you’ve introduced them to this thing in the summers that can really change the trajectory of a young person’s life for not yet you mentioned confidence and but just health, just basic, basic education at an early age of what is good for you, and what is not good for you what you should be doing and what you shouldn’t be doing. I’m not sure and I’ll be honest with you, when I joined the gym and had the monthly everything and it felt like a life lock on. You know, my parents who wanted to buy me a membership. I mean, I remember going with my parents down to the holiday spa in 1983 how much money it was in like all of that and how serious and then really, did you get the training and the health benefits that we are adding 2023 That’s literally gratis, right? Like tell everybody how they can get there. They’re young, I don’t wanna say child because we’re we’re talking 14 to 19 year and that children, yes, but
Josh Gerber 04:51
adolescents,
Nestor Aparicio 04:53
young adults, what do they need this literally just come in and they think
Josh Gerber 04:59
they can do it. You know, they can go to the website and sign up, they can download really the easiest way. And the best way to do is to download the planet fitness app, download the planet fitness app, click one, click on the high school summer fitness tab, and you can sign up right there. And then you just come over, come over, assess, or come into the gym, you know, with your parent or guardian, you know, we can get you signed up that way as well. So it’s your
Nestor Aparicio 05:22
responsibility to parent guardian. That is a really important question, I would say, because I, I’ve already admitted to you, I had to take my parents to the gym. And I remember walking into the little sales guys, you know, like all of that. I mean, that’s the beauty of Planet Fitness is that that’s not your brand. That’s not what you are,
Josh Gerber 05:38
right? Yeah. And everything is done through the app. So everything is done through the app, it takes care of everything their parents can go on and take care of everything through that it’s a seamless process, you know, we get them to sign off on everything, and then they’re able to come in and work out. So it’s very simple. Everything is through the app. So it’s a seamless process.
Nestor Aparicio 05:55
I remember back during the plague when we were worried about touching each other and your gyms being open, whether any of us were going to survive that radio station to crabcake tour, some funds, you know, some life after all of this, give me where we are with Planet Fitness at this point, that if somebody hasn’t been to a gym, for whatever reason, they fell in a different routine. They went walking in the woods, and now it’s summertime. And they you know, they want to get back into getting really healthy and and certainly for me, you know, I had a back ailment a year and a half ago. I mean, I’m appreciative I ran into Justin at the Preakness the other day, and I said thanks to you guys. And just every one that’s motivated me and you guys were doing work ins, not workouts and all that. It’s about the equipment and what we’re going to find because I know during the down period, you guys did a lot a lot a lot of things to make every part of the experience rethought and better once we did get open and get normal again.
Josh Gerber 06:50
Yeah, I mean, so you know, we have all facets, you know, what you’ll find in any health club in the United States, you know, with you know, the Planet Fitness touch, you know, the planet fitness experience, you know, so you’re gonna have your your your full range of cardio, from ellipticals, to treadmills to recumbents, you know, to stair climbers, and really, then you’re going to have a full line of your strength, you know, dumbbells, pin loaded equipment. On top of that a lot of functional training, we’re seeing a lot of pickup in our functional training. So we’re actually adjusting some of our gyms, where we’re putting less cardio in and putting more of these functional training areas,
Nestor Aparicio 07:25
functional training, hold on, everybody understands functional, you’re coming at me at the doctor level here. jasha What is functional training?
Josh Gerber 07:34
So, you know, it’s really, you know, the different types of, you know, when you’re working with either, you know, some, some, some ropes, some bands, you know, again, I’m not the personal training expert, yeah, when it comes to that, you know, but it’s areas where you have stretching, where you’re gonna have TRX you know, you’re gonna have BOSU balls, you’re gonna have, you know, ropes, you’re gonna have things where you can do calisthenics, you know, and then we also have our 30 minute circuit to, you know, what your 30 Minute made a circuit is our red light, green light, 60 seconds on 30 seconds off, you know, and you literally follow the stations all the way around. So it keeps it very simple, very easy for the consumer very judgment free, very comfortable, you know, for for that environment. You know, it’s always
Nestor Aparicio 08:19
been that way, like, I think about the gyms I went through, whether it was about the pool, or about looking good, or about like, Planet Fitness, this message from the beginning has been about health, and about being healthy and being about being inclusive, to anyone of any age of any weight have any place in their life, to say, this is this is a safe space and the place I’m going to go when to get in shape, and to feel better about everything I’m doing in the live longer, live happier and healthier.
Josh Gerber 08:48
Exactly, yeah. And really, for, you know, these teenagers, you know, we want to create the fundamentals for healthy habits in their lifestyle. And when you do that, at an early age, as you know, as we get older, you know, it’s harder to teach an old dog new tricks, getting them involved in fitness at an early age, and really, you know, stressing the importance that there is no finish line to fitness, there is no finish line to your health. You know, it’s a lifelong process. And if you can build these habits early on, you know, you’ll will have, you know, a longer, healthier life from that standpoint, but also the mental side of it. I know, you know, specifically just for me, I know the reason why. One of the main reasons I workout is so I can say mentally sharp on top of, you know, wanting to be physically, you know, able to do things I want to do with my kids, you know, and everything else I want to do in my life. But the mental side of it, you know, specifically for these kids now is is a huge proponent, you know, and right now, you know, two thirds, two or three US teens admit they sometimes struggle with having energy throughout the day, you know, and 61% of them genuinely struggle to stay energized. You know, so really giving them Something now to allow them to get energy that will allow them to increase those endorphins that help with their mental health, help with socialization. And, you know, at the end of the day, we’re trying to help create productive members of society, you know, for this Gen Z, you know, really the next generation, which is like my daughter, which my daughter’s Gen a, you know,
Nestor Aparicio 10:21
well that we run in the world 1015 years now we need, you know,
Josh Gerber 10:26
my daughter seven, she’s already she already thinks she runs the world. So, but hey, I love I love her confidence. But that’s, that’s what we want to instill in these kids today, especially these teams right now that were part of this pandemic, you know, and really got, you know, their lives got kind of halted. Everything got put on hold at probably the most critical time of the development of them physically, emotionally and mentally. You know, so what can we do to help them kind of break through that barrier, give them the fundamentals that they need to really set them up for future success.
Nestor Aparicio 11:00
Josh arbors here he is our partner with the Ohana party group. They represent Planet Fitness here locally, I ran into so many of the Ohana folks over the weekend at the Preakness. And all of them telling me about this incredible summer pants, I’m gonna give you all the details, students, high school students aged 14 to 19 you get the workout for free, absolutely free more than 2400 Planet Fitness locations. It’s all summer long started back on May 15. It goes through August 31 You sign up at Planet fitness.com/summer passes get the app get and once the kid signs up on the app, just they gotta throw the phone away for the rest of the summer. Right. So I know that’s not possible. But you know, everywhere I go everybody’s like their heads down and I you know always sees the top of their head top of my heads looking better with the hair right? But but all they do is look at these phones to kind of get them out is that you also have like there’s a contest going on in this thing. Right? There is
Josh Gerber 11:53
there’s two parts to it. One, they are going to award 510 $1,000 scholarships to five teams nationwide nationwide, to $50,000 total and they will be selected be Tik Tok submission contests. So to enter teens, you are asked to post a video on Tiktok tagging Planet Fitness using hashtags hashtag contest hashtag high school summer past 23 us that describes their high school summer past experience. The contest submissions period runs through the program on August 31. And then the second part of it, which is new this year, is the top five schools with the most students signed up and we have a leaderboard, they will each receive $10,000. So a total of $50,000 that can be used. And this is the school getting funds for athletic equipment, field renovations, physical fitness classes, health and wellness. So again, really, you know, bringing it back full circle, one side for the kids and the other side for the actual school. So it really kind of creates, you know, that engagement on both sides, you know, and and getting the kids moving back into this program. Again, we we’ve already had, you know, a outrageous turnout. We had pre registration. This was the first year we had pre registration that started the first of May went to the 14th program started the 15th 15. You know, just our clubs alone, we have over 10,000 kids that signed up before they can even walk into the gym.
Nestor Aparicio 13:26
I like that that’s that’s healthy local kids. That’s
Josh Gerber 13:28
good. That’s what it is. Yep.
Nestor Aparicio 13:31
So as far as the contest is kind of, I’m just putting myself into, it’s hard for me to think like I’m 14 or 15 or 16 much anymore, but sometimes I try especially with the TIC tock thing and all that. But I’m setting a goal, right and saying by August 31, if I’m someone interested in winning this 10 grand, I say, Well, I want to lose five pounds, I want to gain these inches, I want to do this, I want to feel fit, whatever that would whatever the goal would be by the end, I hope we’re all set. And I hope we don’t just set goals on December 31 to January 1, you know, like I’m always sort of readjusting it with the holiday this week, Memorial Day and all that, hey, the Orioles have new goals this year. Why shouldn’t we write? So
Josh Gerber 14:13
meeting their goals as the first you know? Don’t Don’t don’t trust me. I’m not no I hear
Nestor Aparicio 14:19
I’m keeping October open for all activities. But I am including my birthday that month. And you know parade would be nice for my birthday. I’m just saying. But for goals and for in all sincerity. There are young people and I’m sure somebody won this contest last year and I haven’t seen it. They probably did some amazing things last year. But if you’re trying to win this 10 grand this contest at the highest level for people that really use the gym and did it all summer, I’m sure it’s well I can tell you for your company at the end of the year and these videos your
Josh Gerber 14:51
planet fitness headquarters gets the videos but we do get to see some of them the creativity that these kids bring out with it. You know and also Uh, just the real stories that you see from it, you know, we talk with these teams, and you know that it’s not all about I lost weight, or I did that, you know, but it’s, you know, I was able to, you know, feel comfortable in my skin again, things like that. I felt like, you know, I had a place where I met friends and I wanted to go here. A lot of kids don’t have places where they’re like, I want to go here, right? They sit at home there, they find, you know, solidarity in these tablets in their phones, you know, in front of screens, no real inner personal interactions, which for us, you know, really is what creates endorphins for me, you know, and you for sure, you know, but for these kids, you know, that getting them into that is huge, you know, the other side of it, we talk about goals, right? You know, we also have our fitness trainers. So every club has a fitness trainer, you know, and all the high school summer pass kids, you know, they will have access to those trainers that will help them with those goals. You know, we always talk about smart goals, right? You know, specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and trackable. Right, you know, so, again, this isn’t specific to the actual program. But that’s just something that you know, Lin and Victor instilled in us from the first day that I started with them. You know, 21 years ago, when I was an intern,
Nestor Aparicio 16:17
the way their horse won the Preakness that I ran into, they were very distressed getting to where they were going because it was late in the day in the animal and it
Josh Gerber 16:25
was a it was a nose finish to that thing just cut in there at the
Nestor Aparicio 16:29
way I want to give a shout out to Victor and Lynn to just for John W brick and what they’re doing mental health, it is mental health awareness month, I have been chasing Victor to get them on all month, but we’ll make June mental health July every month Mental Health Awareness Month. But um, but but, you know, the SMART goals and, but But teaching a 14 year old, this is my point that the information that’s available inside of the gym is a little different than maybe it was 40 years ago where it was, you know, it was like Schwarzenegger pump you up, you know, like, that’s not really that that’s not a modern health club and certainly not with Planet Fitness with the lunk alarm judgment free people of all ages, people helping each other and sort of neighborhood a neighborhood place where a bunch of young people we used to go roller skating right skate lands, they had a trouble, right. So, I would think if you’re going to the gym same time every day, or making it a routine, it is a great way to make friends be in equality. Right?
Josh Gerber 17:31
Yeah, absolutely. You know, that there’s so many advantages, you know, to coming into your local gym and finding new friends. And really, it helps find yourself it really does at fitness. Like I said, it’s not a, you know, do this for a week, do this for a month do this for a year, it’s a lifelong journey, you know, and if we can instill the healthy habits in these kids today, you know, hopefully, they will instill lifelong fitness as part of their life, you know, that, again, it creates productive members of society as we move forward. And it you know, you look at what, you know, we’re doing and look at Victor’s are doing with the John brick Mental Health Foundation, you know, a lot of that, you know, is derived because, you know, mental health, you know, something, you know, 10 years ago, even so, it wasn’t really talked about, and really, up until the pandemic, you know, all of a sudden, a pandemic, well, these people, you know, are really suffered from mental healthful Mental Health’s been going on for
Nestor Aparicio 18:28
every one of us know, some hundreds of years. Yeah, everyone, and we, we’ve all had a very, very tragic ending somewhere along life’s highway, we never talked about it. Right,
Josh Gerber 18:39
right. And Victor always talks about the spectrum, you know, from, you know, the high end, you know, which is your schizophrenia, you know, which is your bipolar that stuff, you know, to the, to your low end, which is, you know, you know, seasonal depression, you know, those type of things, you know, we all struggle with somewhere in that spectrum, you know, throughout her life, or know someone who’s in that spectrum, you know, so having coping mechanisms, healthy coping mechanisms, you know, to help with that is what gets us through, it’s what gets us to the next day, the next week, the next month, so it’s what keeps a positive mind state in our life, regardless of whatever those obstacles are, you know, and being able to instill fitness with that, you know, to create those positive endorphins that are not, you know, your pharmaceutical drugs, you know, are not, you know, things that that are unhealthy for you that are things that are going to make you healthier, make you feel better, and hence, you know, really get your mind moving and staying positive. And, and, and really, that’s what we see with this, you know, with his high school summer passing, and why we’re so excited about it, you know, to be part of it again, you know, we have 75 locations across the United States. You know, we are spread from the southern most part of the United States and Broward County, Florida and Miami Dade, the most northern part in Seattle, Washington. So you know, we have them all over the United States, you know, and again, there’s 2500 locations nationwide. So, any team wherever they’re at can come into a club, sign up. It’s just a great opportunity. Do it again. It’s a it’s a great way to keep themselves moving throughout the entire summer.
Nestor Aparicio 20:03
There’s a really bad art modell joke about I feel like an 18 year old but I thought right enough to work out for free. I wish
Josh Gerber 20:10
I wish this was available because like I was in when I was a teenager I I never went to be honest with you. I never really worked out until I went to college and I was playing lacrosse and even when I was playing lacrosse, I spent more time in the training room because I had ACL surgeries than I did actually in the weight room. And it wasn’t until I started working for lidded Victor, that I started to incorporate these healthy lifestyles and working in the health and fitness industry like wow, there’s definitely a benefit to this. You know, and that’s what was instilled in me at a young age. And that’s what I’m, we’re hoping will be instilled in these kids at a young age. And then on top of it, there’s a lot of fun stuff with it. There’s things they can do again, you throw tick tock with anything in the video ever made
Nestor Aparicio 20:53
it tick tock video Josh I need to make a lot of video but not a Tiktok video. I have
Josh Gerber 20:58
not made a Tik Tok video either. I was just
Nestor Aparicio 21:00
our summer Dude, this is the summer we’re gonna do it. Josh Grover is here. He’s the Chief Marketing Officer for all things ohana, and our friends at Planet Fitness. You can find them anywhere that you see the big purple thing and the big gold thumbs up. Find them out on the app. And certainly if you have young people there, I say children 14 to 19. And maybe if you have younger kids that are running the bases now a couple summers from now they’ll qualify for this program, Planet Fitness doing the right thing by all the young people and a big contest and all that. Go out to the planet fitness app downloaded, take the kids, throw them out at the gym, get them in shape all summer, get them all shaped up, tell them to come on back on August 31 to make a video and get ready for school starts before August. I want you to grandkids
Josh Gerber 21:46
August 20. So Baltimore. My daughter’s in Baltimore County. She starts August 29. They went back a couple years ago where they went back after Labor Day, but
Nestor Aparicio 21:54
I’m blaming Johnny Oh, I’ll blame him a couple of weeks. He’s doing a crab cake with me. So Josh, hey, I appreciate you and everything that you guys do a Planet Fitness. And certainly this program is awesome. We’ll see Justin sometime down the road. I’m still chasing the Elin and Victor. Now I can say you know Preakness winning, you know. I’m sure there’ll be some great stories coming out of that as well. Anything else? We need to know that the throw in here just go to the app. And it’s simple, right? Yeah,
Josh Gerber 22:19
yeah, like you said, you go to the website, backslash high school summer pass, coming to the club, download the app. So
Nestor Aparicio 22:26
regular people, old people like me and my wife who just want to come work out. Give me black card gift give me give me the basic pitch just for regular. I really affordable, you know,
Josh Gerber 22:37
right? You know, we have our classic membership, that’s $10 a month, you know, but the one that is really great, which is the one that gives you access to all 2500 locations, allows you to bring a friend for free. Anytime that same friend come with you every single time you know access to the black card spa area, which is you know, the relaxes relaxation area, it’s like you know, walking into a spa, which has the hydro massage, which has tanning beds, which has red light therapy, it has, you know, full body enhancement, it has massage chairs, that is the 2499 You know, membership option. And again, that is really what is different between us and any other health club in the United States is our black card spa. It really is super nice. And this could take a month I tell you, I always tell people I say look, just go in, go lay on one of these massages, I’m telling you, it’s the closest thing to getting an actual massage. It’s water pressure. It’s not, you know, you know plastic rubbing up against your back. You know, it’s actual pressure. It feels so good. You know, at some of our clubs we’re actually doing where it’s not all of our clubs, but we have these cryo loungers too which has like a combination of hot and cold you know which cryo
Nestor Aparicio 23:49
been trying to get me with the Iceman into the ice bath and enlisted Tony Robbins is big into it. I’m at Tony Robbins guy and he’s like, hey man, and I’m like I just I’ve seen football play. I used to I hate cold water I don’t even do the even though I want to be supportive of you know of Special Olympics I just can’t I like I’ll do that well you know.
Josh Gerber 24:13
Yeah, and then we also have we have these wellness pots too, which are that we’ve added in again I got
Nestor Aparicio 24:21
to come and do this. I mean I haven’t done any of this is post played pre played me Not really. Alright, I’m going to come and see if I’m gonna come to see for sure
Josh Gerber 24:31
All right, sounds good. We’ll put you will put you
Nestor Aparicio 24:34
need to go to because there’s too many for me to decide right?
Josh Gerber 24:37
Anyone you want I mean like we have there’s there’s over 50 locations in Maryland alone. Yeah, so you got more than enough options you know that spread out between you know from Cumberland all the way out close to West Virginia. You know all the way down and PG County and
Nestor Aparicio 24:53
Cumberland Planet Fitness and I absolutely. I’ve had crab cakes with him crab, the calm versation was better than the crab cake that night. But everybody warned me don’t expect a great crab cake and Cumberland, you know, I mean, when I’m sitting there and Steeler fans are everywhere. I realized this is not a crab cake area. This is probably a cheeseburger type. You know?
Josh Gerber 25:16
I’m not privy on the food, you’d have to ask Letty, you know, I’m sure that he has his bias. Listen, I’m kind of a mirror there. So
Nestor Aparicio 25:23
Lenny’s a Packers fan. So I just, you know what I mean? And they don’t even have Aaron Rodgers anymore, so I can’t give him our time. All right, Josh. Josh is the Chief Marketing Officer cmo for all things ohana, and Growth Partners and our friends Planet Fitness here locally. Take the kids. I gotta get the hydro and the 2490. I got to figure all day. I did not know about redline. There’s some things you’ve mentioned that I’ve never done that I just want to experiment with to see Absolutely. How they worked for me. So I met all right. Fitness word. We’ll be telling you about it all summer long with the young folks and I’m going to probably shoot a video and go do something here in a couple of weeks. Because I’m gonna have a little bit of fun with this as well. We’re doing the Maryland crabcakes we’re out on the road. And all month long. We’re gonna be inhale Thorpe and a couple of weeks over Shannon’s we’re going to be spirits West over by Mount St. Joe. We’re at the local and fallston this week and then our regular circuit Pappas and Glen Burnie store Pittman account executive and Rhonda Kennedy gonna be joining us down there. Johnny is joining us at Shannon said a couple weeks we got things happening around here. Lots of very important conversations with a lot of different folks about a lot of different things. It’s summertime. The Orioles are good. And your kids can work out free at Planet Fitness. I’m Nestor we are wn st am 1570 TAs in Baltimore. We never stop talking. Baltimore positive
