• 
  
  • Membership Information
  • Multiclub Membership
  • Corporate Wellness
• 
  • Full Service Clubs
  •  Oak Park
  •  Halsted Street
  •  East Lakeview
  •  Gold Coast
  •  Union Station
  •  Old Town
  •  South Loop
  • Corporate Fitness Centers
  •  190 S. LaSalle
  •  111 S. Wacker
• 
  • News
  • History
  • Mission
  • Key Personnel
  • Training Academy
  • Charitible Involvement
• 
  • Personal Training
  • Nutrition
  • Rock Climbing
  • Marathon Training
  • Triathlon Training
  • Mixed martial Arts
  • Athletics
  • Pilates
  • Yoga
  • Group Exercise
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

A Personalized Fit Chicago health club chain Fitness Formula says it maintains strong relationships with members by encouraging social connections and customized workouts. By Genevieve Diesing   A favorite saying among employees at the Chicago regional network of Fitness Formula Clubs (FFC) is “members may quit a club, but they won’t quit a club relationship.” With that philosophy in mind, President, founder and CEO Gale Landers works to keep his members coming back by customizing their fitness plans, maintaining well-trained staff and developing social connections with members.       “We focus on creating a customized experience from the time a new member joins to properly integrate them within the club,” Landers says.       “We provide each member a personalized fitness program by establishing individual goals with the end game of insuring they get individual results.”       Landers founded Fitness Formula in 1984 and has expanded the private chain throughout Chicago to nine area locations, seven of which the company owns. Two are corporate fitness centers the company operates for major real estate developers in Chicago’s Loop.       The clubs have 30,000 members, most of whom are professionals between ages 24 to 60. A typical location is 50,000 square feet.       Trainers work with new members in the first 30 days of their memberships to customize fitness plans with member lifestyles and acclimate members to the club’s environment. Landers says employees also work to establish community connections with their customers by forming member book clubs, organizing dog-walks, providing educational grocery store shopping tours, and even touring special interests groups around Chicago.       “That customized experience goes back to our culture,” Landers says. “There’s an intentional method by which we build the soul of each club to create that cause-and-effect relationship.”       That method is supported by the company’s five core values, which Landers identifies as dedication to a friendly environment; superior customer service; constant improvement; integrity and a commitment to safety.       In order to select friendly employees with an aptitude for superior customer service, Fitness Formula practices slow hiring in order to choose the right people.       “We focus on being very thorough in the hiring process; we try to subscribe to hiring slow,” Landers says. “We put candidates through an online self-assessment program that will grade them based on various norms for the type of positions they’d be working in, so we have a pretty good sense from the beginning if they align with our core values.       “There is a direct correlation between staff retention and member retention due to staff to member relationships,” he continues. “It really boils down to hospitality.”       Members tend to stay for more than an hour, two or more times per week, he says, “so the atmosphere of friendliness, warmth and openness are critical. Our clubs are their ‘third place’ after home and work.”       Landers says the commitment to constant improvement can be seen in Fitness Formula’s continually upgraded equipment and adaptation to customer interests, such as certain exercises, equipment and technology.       To promote safety, Landers says his staff supervises customers at all times throughout each facility. Fitness Formula also puts its employees through safety emergency procedures and equipment maintenance training.       The clubs offer cardio and strength programs, personal training, nutritional guidance, rock climbing, marathon training, mixed-martial arts, basketball, Pilates, yoga and group exercise. The Old Town location in Chicago stands out as home of Carlson Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, a legendary family line originally from Brazil.       When planning a new location,  Landers says he aims for clubs to be “naturally inspired, organically grown, close to work and close to home.”