Reduce Risk of Liability in Your Fitness Center!

Before building your new fitness center, it's important address safety issues. This will reduce your risk of liability, save you time and money in the long run and, most importantly, provide a safe exercise environment for your clients.

Today we are starting a 5 part series on reducing the risk of liability in your fitness center. Over the next several days, we'll cover everything from equipment safety to flooring considerations and maintenance tips to security concerns. At the end of this series, you'll have a bullet-pointed checklist of all the items you should consider when first designing and furnishing your new fitness center to ensure you're providing a safe, exciting and user-friendly exercise environment for your clients.

Today's topic is the safety of your fitness equipment.

FITNESS EQUIPMENT

• All fitness equipment in your facility must carry a commercial warranty.
  If your equipment is not commercial grade and does not carry a commercial warranty, you are leaving your business open to great financial risk. If an exerciser is injured in your fitness facility, you may be charged with acts of negligence. In addition, if the equipment breaks down, you will need some type of recourse and accountability for the performance of the products.
  
  
• All fitness equipment should include prominent safety features.
  Cardiovascular machines like treadmills and ellipticals should offer prominent stop mechanisms. Strength machines should include weight stack shrouds, which are casings that enclose the weight stack during its travel up and down the guide rods, to prevent exercisers from getting their fingers or clothing trapped between the weight stack plates.
  
  
• Post instructional placards to ensure the fitness equipment is used properly.
  Each piece of fitness equipment should include an instructional placard (either on the machine or nearby) to help the exercise use the machine properly. This is especially important to do in unsupervised facilities where there is a greater risk of mis-use or injury.

Check back tomorrow to learn more about reducing liability exposure in your fitness center.