Fitness Playground Entrepreneurs of the Year look to transform Australia’s fitness industry

Fitness Playground co-founders Justin Ashley and Serra Burmin were recently awarded Australian Young Entrepreneurs of the Year for launching new offerings to inspire change across the Australian fitness industry.

Despite months of lockdown and gym closures last year, the purpose-driven business owners were recognised for the business’s achievements throughout the challenging year, including:

• The launch of their education arm Fitness Playground Academy;

• The opening of the first ever Wellness Playground;

• For keeping members moving and staff working during lockdown through online and outdoor fitness offerings.

More importantly, the award recognised the impact the company is having on the fitness industry as a whole with Justin Ashley, Fitness Playground Chief Executive noting that Fitness Playground’s mission is to “inspire change” and that everything the company does is about achieving this mission.

Ashley advises “our mission isn’t just words, it’s not just lip service – everything we do is about inspiring change for both members and staff, and across the fitness industry as a whole, for the sake of a healthier Australia.

“We’ve transformed the gym environment and experience for our people – creating spaces that people actually enjoy spending time in, and a range of unique experiences that inspire all types of people to want to exercise, so that members actually use their gym memberships and get results.

“On the staffing side, we’re a people-driven business. We’ve proven that if we focus on our staff experience, they deliver excellent experiences for our members. We invest heavily in staff education, which benefits them and the members whose fitness journeys they support.”

Ashley adds “that’s why we launched Fitness Playground Academy (FPA) recently. We’ve always had a focus on internal education – we provide our fitness professionals with training and development well beyond the course they do to receive their fitness qualification.

“Now we’ve taken that a step further – through FPA we deliver a range of both free and paid fitness education courses to the general public. Instead of just teaching budding Personal Trainers to understand the body and exercises, in courses such as our Certificate III & IV in Fitness, we develop people skills in how to coach people to affect real behaviour change, and equip them with the business management and marketing skills they’ll need as a PT.

“We get them job-ready and confident enough to take clients’ health in their hands, so that we’re sending highly educated professionals out into the fitness industry, to lift the standards of the industry as a whole.”

Then there was the recent launch of the first ever Wellness Playground, in Marrickville, Sydney. This facility offers all the typical high-intensity gym offerings plus a luxury day-spa-like oasis of yoga, dance, pilates, reformer and barre studios and experiences, plus infrared saunas, calming hangout spaces, luxe bathrooms and powder rooms. All available for an affordable membership price of just $28.95 per week, so that the experiences are accessible for everyone.

Creating a new breed of gym like the Wellness Playground and launching Fitness Playground Academy are both about inspiring change, and the Young Entrepreneurs of the Year are excited to see these new offerings have an impact in 2022, and roll out new initiatives to continue their mission.

Image top: Fitness Playground co-founders Justin Ashley and Serra Burmin