Rolling Green Country Club Arlington Heights, Illinois, USA
A VIBRANT FITNESS CENTER
RG Fit has the look and feel of a premium fitness center. A regular day in the busy facility features middle-aged exercisers putting in miles on a treadmill, a teenager sweating through reps on an Insignia Series chest press, two women stretching on floor mats after a personal training session. The fitness center is bright, smartly laid out and vibrant.
The catch is that RG Fit isn’t an everyday health club. It’s actually the fitness area in the basement of Rolling Green Country Club in Arlington Heights, Illinois.
General manager Brian Silver saw the value of having a great health club experience at Rolling Green, and so he installed one in the clubhouse.
TRANSFORMING A STANDARD WORKOUT AREA INTO SOMETHING SPECIAL
Silver turned a cozy 1,600-square-foot existing workout room into a 4,000-square-foot gem by expanding into office space and relocating a boardroom. Silver removed a claustrophobic drop ceiling, added nonintrusive light fixtures, and allowed natural light to stream in through ground-level windows. He created a private nook for sessions with the club’s two personal trainers and installed a large group training room, separated by a stylish tinted glass wall.
“It feels like a health club,” said Silver. “It’s used all of the time. My big thing was to make it feel like they’re not at the country club anymore. We’re truly trying to provide the best experience.”
The results are evident. The 900-square-foot group training area hosts 20 classes each week. The cardio equipment—an array of Life Fitness Elevation Series equipment that includes treadmills, bikes, a PowerMill Climber and FlexStrider trainer—gets plenty of use, as does a SYNRGY360 unit in the main room. It’s a smart mix of equipment that appeals to the membership base.
“We’re thrilled with the equipment we have, and the members are using it,” explained Tim Cherwin, membership director.
THE DIFFERENCE IS IN THE DETAILS
One seemingly minor detail that Silver intelligently handled is the name. He decided against the referring to it as simply “the fitness center” and instead branded it as RG Fit. By naming it, and referring to it, more like a health club than an afterthought, the area is more inviting and has more cache than a standard golf club fitness room.
“If I can build an exercise facility here, I’d rather have our members stay here, rather than go to another health club,” added Silver. “None of us refer to it as the fitness center. The more benefits we have at the club for our members means that they’ll be members longer.”
Square foot
Classes each week
Personal trainers