The KickStart Files

It’s a question we get quite a bit at KickStart.  How much space do I need? One needn’t be the proverbial Rocket Scientist to realize this question has a lot of different answers.  I’ll try to recap what we generally tell our customers.

Will the facility stand alone (e.g. a commercial kids gym) or will it be part of a larger facility, e.g. a school fitness center or a youth section of a commercial health club? If the facility is going to stand alone, then your space requirements include a lot more than just exercise space: office and administration space, storage, toilet/shower facilities, lobby or waiting areas.

For a stand-alone facility, we recommend a MINIMUM of 2000 sq ft. Ideally, you’d have twice that or more. One of our spotlight facilities, New York Kidz Fitness, is about 6000 sq ft in size.  Don’t worry about filling the space up with equipment, remember that open space is easy to use and is visually appealing.  A good youth fitness/activity program should have plenty of non machine-based activities, and a wide open space in the middle of the room is ideal for this.  Also, if you have large equipment such as selectorized weight machines, Makoto, ellipticals, etc, then a little extra space between pieces provides a nice safety buffer.

New York Kidz Fitness - about 6000 sq ft.

If your facility is part of a larger entity, then you have a lot of flexibility in terms of space. We recently put in a kid’s center at The Fitness Institute of Arizona, in Scottsdale (founded by former Mr. Universe and current fitness authority Lance Dreher) that occupies about 800 sq ft.  This may sound small, but in fact, it’s a very well-rounded space featuring a six-station TuffStuff Kids Stuff weight machine circuit, Concept2 rowers, a Makoto 8 ft arena, GameBikes, DDR, and a couple of plyometric/trampoline features. It’s an efficient, practical use of available space offering a wide range of activities. Of course, the existing facility already included office spaces and training rooms, restrooms, etc.

The Fitness Institute of Arizona (and intrepid installers) - about 800 sq ft.

For schools, space options are often limited. A basic Portable building is around 900 square feet and you can actually put a pretty nice fitness facility into this space.  We installed a facility in a Portable at Marvin Elementary School in Los Angeles, CA, and it included several hydraulic resistance machines, DDR and GameBikes, some aerobic equipment including Moonwalkers and rowers, and a wide variety of fun and useful accessories such as Balance Bows, fitness balls, lightweight dumbells, steps, etc. All in all it’s a great space for Elementary kids, given their smaller size, but even a Middle school/Jr. High can make great use of a portable space.

The facility at E.V. Cain Middle school in Auburn, CA is located in a standard classroom roughly the same size as a portable (actually, it’s a bit smaller).  This room includes 6 weight machines, GameBikes, a couple of ellipticals, a skier, a rower, some GameBikes, and a variety of accessories, giving the PE Teacher (our good friend Therese Stack) enough variety to keep her fitness room classes interesting and fresh.

E.V. Cain Middle School - great use of a traditional classroom space

So…how much space do you need? If you’re putting in a stand alone facility (e.g. for your kids gym or sports training center), plan for a minimum of 2000 sq ft, but try for more.  If you’re building into a larger facility, you’ll want a minimum of 800 sq ft in order to have something you can call a “Fitness Center” as opposed to a “Fitness Corner” or an “Exercise Nook”.  We’d recommend at least 1000 sq ft, though, to give your program some flexibility and room for non feature-based activities.

One other thing it’s important to think about are the local building ordinances and fire codes in your area. If you’re filling a small space, make sure to contact the fire department and make sure that what you’re thinking is up to code BEFORE you start making investments!

We have a variety of sample room plans ranging in size from 900 to 6000 square feet you can browse here.  These incorporate sample plans for both commercial and school-based sites, based on actual, real live facilities, so they are a good place to start brainstorming.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 21st, 2008 at 4:02 pm and is filed under Equipment and Gear, Fitness Room Nuts and Bolts, Floor Space, Room Planning, Youth Health and Fitness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.