DIN 33961-1
Fitness club - Requirements for equipment and operation - Part 1: General requirements
Fitness-Studio - Anforderungen an Studioausstattung und -betrieb - Teil 1: Grundlegende Anforderungen
Overview
This part of DIN 33961 specifies requirements and test procedures for the operation of fitness studios. This part of DIN 33961 applies to facilities whose access and supervision are regulated by the operator. Additional services such as sauna, childcare, solarium and so on are not included in this part. A fitness studio completely free of barriers for people with any kind of limitations is and will probably remain an ideal condition that cannot be achieved. On the other hand, the greatest possible freedom from barriers would be desirable; after all, it is precisely those people with disabilities who would benefit most from training. Despite this fact, no accessibility requirements have been formulated for the current version of the standard. The reason is simple: Accessibility requirements would result in a significant investment for a large number of fitness studios if these studios were to meet the requirements of the standard. However, in many cases, it is not up to the fitness studios to make such investments at all, as they rent the majority of their premises and such changes would have to be carried out by the landlord. The fact that this first version of the DIN 33961 series of standards does not contain any accessibility requirements does not mean that such criteria cannot be incorporated into future revisions and modifications. The topic of sustainability in fitness studios was also intensively discussed. Initially, there was even the firm intention to at least include appropriate references and comments in the standard. Sustainability and the careful use of resources of all kinds are important topics that will continue to gain in importance in the future. Nevertheless, there are good reasons why the current version of the standard does not contain any sustainability information or requirements. The DIN Standards Committee Sports Equipment (NASport) has had a special committee on the sustainability of sports products and services since February 2011. This committee has the task of creating general requirements for the sustainability testing of sports products and sports services. These are currently being prepared, with the "fitness studio training" service, as it is currently offered, being subjected to a sustainability impact assessment as an example. The knowledge gained in this process will be used to develop general requirements for sustainability impact assessments of sports products and sports services. It is therefore quite possible that the representative findings on the subject of sustainability of the service "fitness studio training" will lead to corresponding notes, comments or requirements on sustainability in future revisions of the DIN 33961 series of standards.
