Five essentials to start teaching fitness in parks

Clubbercise Boston with Chloe 'glows outdoors' in summer 2020  

Five must do's for setting up safe fitness classes in public parks or other public spaces...

Glowing outdoors can be a fantastic and unique experience for your Clubbers.

Jemma Richards, who runs Peachy in the Park, has kindly provided some helpful advice for you:

1. Check your Public Liability insurance covers outdoors

Slips, trips and falls are more common in outdoor settings than indoors. Check that your current insurance covers you to teach outdoors. If the documentation isn’t clear then contact the insurance company and get it in writing from them by email.

When teaching outside make sure you have a First Aid Kit with an ice pack. Check the area for things like potholes and dog mess before your participants arrive. Put a bright cone over any potholes. And now for the real unglamorous bit... dog mess on 'your patch'! It's rare but unfortunately this is something you need to prepare for so add a pack of poop bags and disposable gloves to your kit in case you have to clear it away. 

2. Register with your Local Authority

Unless you’re training a few mates for free, don’t just rock up with your crew and equipment and start! Public areas are owned by the local authority (your local council/parish) and you need permission or a license to conduct commercial activities on their grounds.

Every council has different rules for using their parks and spaces for fitness classes, including how much they will charge you and what the ‘code of conduct’ is for using their facilities. Councils began introducing fees in the last decades, although some councils may not charge you at all. To find out who owns the area you're looking at simply Google the name of the park or public space.

You will most likely be required to fill in an application form and a risk assessment. Once this bit of admin is done and approved, one of the bonuses of becoming a registered provider for fitness sessions in council spaces is that the local authority will usually list you on their website and may Tweet or post about you on their social media. You can also state in your marketing that you are “local council approved” to give customers confidence.

Another option is to find a privately owned outdoor space and make an agreement with the landowner.

3. Ensure your session does not clash with other activities

It’s vital that your session does not clash with any fitness or sports sessions, as this not only impacts space, it can also impact car parking availability.

Go to the council's website to find a list of current session providers or ask the council to advise you on this as part of the application process.

4. Weather

This is the biggie! There are two situations, the first is more likely than the second;

• Heavy rain or wind on the day before the class starts
• Sudden onset of bad weather during class

Whichever situation occurs, you need a “bad weather policy” as part of your booking process.

For cancelling the class before it starts... 
You need to give reasonable notice, at Peachy in the Park it’s a minimum of one hour. You need to tell people where they can find this information e.g. your social media or an email.

As for compensating people, refunds are not ideal from a business perspective, instead consider:

• Moving the class online (if there's time) that way they don’t miss their workout and you still get your income
• Transferring their place to a future class
• Giving them a free class pass that they can use within a certain time frame

For a sudden storm...
You must have a clear evacuation plan. Perhaps you risked going ahead with the class as the rain clouds looked far away and then, halfway through the class the heavens open over you. The UK weather can be hard to judge. Your evacuation plan should be explained to participants when they arrive. The best plan is to end the class immediately, send everyone back to their cars via the quickest route.

Do not advise people to shelter under a tree until it passes! You should pack away your equipment as quickly as possible, consider having a helper or two for this situation.

5. Ensure you have hay fever on your PARQ

Hay fever and grass allergies are big outdoor health considerations for sufferers. The point of a PARQ is that you are made aware of participants' conditions.

Hay fever usually starts from late March through to September. It’s worse on warm, humid and windy days as the pollen count is at its highest. People who have Asthma, as well as hay fever, are at more risk as it can trigger their Asthma.

If someone has answered YES to having hay fever and they are going to take part then a little tip you can give them is to put Vaseline around their nostrils to trap pollen.

And an extra tip... help participants find you with a visual map 

Providing a site map to participants clearly showing them where they can park, and where in the park they can find you, is a little bit of admin on your part that can go a long way to giving participants confidence to book the class.

The best way to do this is to take a screenshot of Google Maps Satellite view of the park and use digital drawing tools to mark it up.

Post it on your social media, perhaps as a pinned post, email it to everyone who has booked, or display it on your website/booking page.  

For more outdoor fitness inspo head over to the Peachy in the Park blog.