2024 Celebrations & Welcome to 2025!
Thank you to everyone who joined us for our Christmas party late last year! It was a fantastic turnout, with a wonderful spread of food brought by the community to bring us all together. We’re already looking forward to future social celebrations and more opportunities to connect!
We hope everyone had a fantastic start to the new year and enjoyed the recent Australia Day long weekend! As we step into 2025, it’s the perfect time to set new health and wellness goals, and we’re here to help you achieve them. Whether you’re aiming to build strength, improve mobility, or simply stay active, our team is ready to support you every step of the way. Let us know how we can assist you in making this your best year yet!
Christmas Giving Tree Update
A huge thank you to everyone who contributed to our Christmas Giving Tree last year!
The toys were donated to the Canberra Hospitals Giving Tree, where they were delivered to the wards, bringing joy to children in need. All remaining items were donated to Woden Community Services’ Little Pantry and their Christmas hampers.
You may have noticed the framed certificate of appreciation from the WCS team in the gym, along with a heartfelt message we received directly from them. Thank you all once again for making a meaningful difference in our community. Stay tuned for our next initiative!
Streamlining Membership Pricing
To improve efficiency and increase access to our services, we streamlined our gym pricing last year by eliminating separate concession and non-concession rates. Now, everyone has access to our most affordable rate of $22 per week with a recurring weekly or fortnightly membership.
We have however identified some administrative inefficiencies with non-recurring memberships and will be making a slight pricing adjustment. A non-recurring membership is a gym membership that is paid manually via the EFTPOS terminal each week or fortnight rather than being automatically debited through direct debit or a stored credit card. From March 3, the weekly rate for non-recurring memberships will be $26 per week. These changes only affect a small number of members whom we will be reaching out to discuss further options with over the coming weeks.
Our recurring membership option has no lock-in contract, allows for flexible pauses, and provides secure payment processing.
Group Fitness Timetable Changes & Additions:
New: Monday 10:30 AM – Hi Ever Active Circuit (starting 17th February) – A dynamic, circuit-based class incorporating higher-intensity training principles, exercise prescription, and a variety of equipment—including the group fitness cardio machines. Led by Steven, this 45-minute session includes regressions to suit all fitness levels and help build capacity over time as is a great progression from our Ever Active classes.
Removed: Monday 3:00 PM Yoga has been removed for the time being.
New: Clinical Group Exercise Classes (starting 3rd March) – Our first class, Strength for Life, will focus on building strength in a supervised setting within the group fitness room.
Call for Interest: Men with Guts – We’re exploring the return of a Men with Guts program— a joint exercise and diet-focused class run twice weekly on Monday and Thursday nights. If you’re interested, let us know!
Clinical Group Exercise Classes
To join our clinical exercise group classes such as Strength for Life, members must first complete an initial assessment for pre-exercise screening and initial program development. This allows us to track your progress over time and tailor the program to individual needs.
The assessments are covered under our standard exercise physiology rates and can be funded through private health insurance, Medicare, private payment, or other schemes (please speak with the team for more details). The classes themselves are included in our standard membership or available as casual visits. These classes will be highlighted in yellow on the schedule.
We’re planning to offer future clinical classes tailored to conditions such as Parkinson’s, osteoporosis, and falls prevention. We’d love to hear your feedback on preferred timings and areas of focus (please see the feedback link later in the newsletter).
Group Fitness Availability and Instructor Changes
A friendly reminder to check our live website or members app for the most up-to-date timetable, including availability and instructor changes. If you haven’t reserved your class online, we won’t be able to notify you of cancellations or changes.
https://equipd.pushpress.com/landing/calendar
We still are not enforcing the need to reserve classes prior to attending, however as classes grow this requirement may change, and we may need to be stricter to manage class numbers.
Strength for Life – Starting 3rd March
Strength for Life is a supervised group exercise program designed for those looking for a structured, lower-intensity approach to resistance training. Sessions will include the use of equipment such as exercise bands, hand weights, ankle weights, and functional movements, making them perfect for individuals easing into a gym-based environment or needing additional supervision. These classes will be run in the group fitness room for people to build confidence before progressing to the pin-loaded equipment and are run in partnership with COTA ACT.
Strength for Life will be run on the following days and times:
Monday @ 12:00 PM with Steven
Wednesday @ 2:00 PM with Sierra
Friday @ 1:00 PM with Kyle
Interested? Join our free information session on 12th February at 12:00 PM in the group fitness room to learn more about the program and required assessments before starting.
Welcoming Our Graduate Exercise Physiologists!
We’re excited to welcome Sierra and Kyle, our new full-time Graduate Exercise Physiologists, who will be starting with us on 17th February. They’ll be taking on clinical responsibilities for a wide range of clients and are now available for new assessments and reviews. In addition to their clinical work, you’ll also see them supervising the gym floor and leading group exercise classes. Keep an eye out for the next newsletter, where we’ll share more about them!
If you’d like to book an appointment with Sierra or Kyle, don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Exercise Science Services Now Available
Steve has been hard at work, and exercise science assessments are now open for booking! These objective assessments provide valuable data to track progress and inform treatment plans. Available assessments include:
- Major Muscle Assessment
- Lower Limb & Upper Limb Assessments
- Balance Assessment
- Concussion Assessment & Reassessment
- Team Profiling & Assessment
Each assessment includes immediate reporting and can be shared with your exercise physiologist, GP, physiotherapist, coach or other health professional. Whether you’re managing a health condition or working on performance, these assessments provide invaluable insights into your muscle strength and performance.
Grab a flyer from the gym for more details or talk to the team to learn more.
Foundation Membership & Membership Updates
As we approach our 6-month milestone, we’d like to take a moment to thank and acknowledge our foundation members. On February 29th, we’ll be taking a snapshot of all active recurring weekly, fortnightly, 3-month, 6-month, 10-visit, and 20-visit pass members. As a token of our appreciation, you’ll receive a small Foundation Gift to celebrate your support.
Foundation Members will be recognised for their loyalty long-term—just as future committed members will be. If you’re currently on a non-recurring membership or occasionally drop in casually, now is the perfect time to upgrade to a recurring membership for a more streamlined and seamless experience.
Considering a switch away from casual options or looking to transition from another gym? If you currently use visit passes, we can credit any remaining balance toward your new membership. If you’re in an existing contract elsewhere, and a previous member of the gym, please reach out to us; we may be able to honour your transition back prior to the 29th.
Grab Your Copy of The Senior
You can now grab a free copy of the NSW/ACT edition of the Senior newspaper next to the community book library. The Senior is a publication delivering news and views to Australia’s growing senior population.
To make sure our members have access to additional information, we’ve requested other publications as well. We’ll also be adding a community bookshelf upgrade to our to-do list to accommodate the increasing popularity.
Member Feedback – We Want to Hear!
We’ve launched an anonymous feedback form to gather your thoughts on what’s working well and where we can improve. Whether it’s about staff, group classes, equipment, accessibility, or new ideas, we value your input!
Feedback Form Link: https://forms.office.com/r/kBHZqqtMRv
For those who prefer to leave public feedback, Google reviews help others in the community discover us. If you’d like to share your experience, we’d greatly appreciate it!
Google Review Link: https://g.page/r/Ca4NqjYneEmCEBM/review
How You Can Help
Many members have expressed interest in offering extra support, and we’re incredibly grateful.
We encourage you to invite a loved one or friend to join our gym community. Growing our membership helps us maintain a sustainable model while ensuring we can provide support to those who need it most. Bring them along for a free trial of any of the group exercise classes or to visit the gym.
Onwards For a Big Year!
We’re looking forward to an incredible year ahead and can’t wait to see what 2025 brings for the community. As always, thank you for your continued support, we’re so grateful to have you as part of our family!
Stay active, stay strong, stay EQUIPD!
