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Health before performance: How holistic approach of ex-UK rugby star helps everyone attain wellness goals
UFIT’s Will Skinner designed the Circle of Care programme for clients to thrive, whether it is for personal training or pregnancy management
Former British rugby player Will Skinner is an advocate for prioritising one's wellness. PHOTO: UFIT
If there is one thing British rugby player Will Skinner, 39, could change about his 11-year career as a professional athlete, it would be to put his health before performance.
At the height of his career, the former English national team captain focused on gaining muscle to grow stronger and faster. Tragedy struck when he suffered a serious neck injury in 2013 at the age of 28, forcing him to retire from the sport.
“I really didn't think about the knock-on impacts of not focusing on my health enough. For example, I now have an arthritic shoulder,” says Mr Skinner.
“Through the years, I underwent 11 surgeries which taught me a lot about resilience and the importance of health.”
As UFIT’s chief executive, Mr Skinner is now helping other athletes and fitness enthusiasts avoid his mistake through the Circle of Care programme, which espouses a “health before performance” mantra.
UFIT is a fitness chain led by coaches and clinicians, who provide an integrated health, fitness and sports community to those seeking to attain their wellness goals.
UFIT’s Circle of Care programme, which was established earlier this year, aims to help clients reach their fitness and wellness goals holistically.
It offers the level of care usually enjoyed by professional athletes to everyday people, from trained athletes managing a chronic injury to fitness enthusiasts preparing for a marathon, or simply those looking to lead a healthier lifestyle.
“A world-class tennis player like Novak Djokovic would have an entourage of people looking after him and I would imagine he pays a lot of money for that,” Mr Skinner says.
UFIT offers “a very similar care and support network”, through the Circle of Care programme for people who want to take charge of their fitness and lead a healthier, happier life.
“People go through different stages of their lives, and whether it's menopause, having a baby, or dealing with injury and illness, we want to be a support network that's able to help them cope with that. We're not just a fitness brand that's looking to achieve weight loss,” Mr Skinner says.
Innovating to help meet long-term fitness goals
Since launching the Circle of Care programme in February 2023, UFIT has seen more than 50 per cent of its clients consistently attending their sessions, which reflects the programme's strong appeal to health- and fitness-focused clients.
UFIT’s all-in-one approach to health, fitness and wellness is rare in the industry. Clients in the programme can access a range of fitness programmes as well as one-to-one consultations with UFIT’s diverse team of experts, including personal trainers, nutritionists and physiotherapists.
While such high-quality service does come at a premium, it has been a major boon for clients, especially those with specialised needs.
Mr Huang C M, a long-time UFIT member who has been participating in the programme since suffering a spine injury in May 2023, is one example.
He began having consultations with a sports doctor and weekly sessions with a physiotherapist while working on strength and mobility with his usual personal trainer.
“There was dialogue with information exchanged among the three professionals, and each one is aware of what is needed at every step of my rehab journey,” says Mr Huang.
“Now I am focused on exceeding my pre-injury strength, regaining and increasing my range of motion in parts of my body that were affected by the injury, and attaining a better body composition.”
How technology helps the team focus on its clients
UFIT’s 120-strong team serves both individual consumers and corporate clients. For example, they manage and run LinkedIn’s in-house gym and fitness classes at its Asia-Pacific HQ office in Singapore.
With many moving parts working together to provide a variety of offerings at once, UFIT’s operations today are more complex than when the company first started, Mr Skinner says.
UFIT has adopted a variety of tech tools to help manage its considerable administrative load and ensure things run smoothly so that it can focus on serving its clients.
“Our aim has always been to maximise the time our trainers and physiotherapists spend with clients by removing administrative burdens from them,” says Mr Skinner.
One of the first tools UFIT adopted in 2016 was Xero, a cloud accounting solution for managing operational costs and cash flow.
Xero turned out to be a game-changer for UFIT. As a group of 20 companies, UFIT needed a solution that allowed quick navigation between ledgers while maintaining a standardised chart of accounts.
Before Xero, bank transactions needed to be manually imported using its old accounting platform, says UFIT's chief financial officer Colin Purchase.
According to him, Xero’s support for bank feeds, which allow transactions to be automatically imported from banks or financial institutions, led to a much more efficient month-end closing process within the first few months of implementation.
“Visibility of bank transactions within the account has been highly beneficial,” he says, highlighting Xero’s Bank Reconciliation feature, which allows users to quickly match bank transactions with company transactions like invoices.
“Xero gave us better insight into our cost centres on a group basis and enabled us to make better, more informed decisions on resource allocation across the group. The management team then had more time to grow into other revenue lines and locations,” Mr Purchase says.
He adds that Xero also helps UFIT maintain operational transparency and credibility, especially when dealing with corporate partners like LinkedIn.
When UFIT acquired tennis coaching company Savitar in 2020, its integration into UFIT’s services was made easier partly because it was already using Xero.
The smooth experience with Xero has given the UFIT team confidence to continue exploring and adopting other digital tools, particularly those that can be integrated with Xero.
For example, the company is currently working on implementing an automatic sync between Xero and its CRM software in order to automate more transaction flows and further improve efficiency.
Mr Skinner also sees Xero as a crucial part of UFIT’s expansion plans.
“People are becoming more educated about their health and wellness, moving beyond short-term trends. They are looking for more sustainable, long-term options and taking a more holistic approach to their lifestyles,” he says.
“We are focusing on scalability and growth. Xero's capabilities to adapt across various business types, locations and regions are crucial.”
