Equipment Articles

Whether you’ve been in the fitness industry since the ’70s or you’ve done ’70s-style workouts with borrowed outfits from your mom’s closet, you know that the trends in fitness footwear and fashions are always exciting and evolving. newsletter_teaser: Whether you’ve been in the fitness industry since the ’70s or you’ve done ’70s-style workouts with borrowed outfits from your mom’s closet, you know that the trends in fitness footwear and fashions are always exciting and evolving.

If you don’t already have one strapped around your wrist, you probably know someone who does. Smartwatches and wearable activity trackers are stepping up in popularity, and so are fitness-related mobile apps.

Suspension exercise combines body weight and anchored, seatbelt-like straps to provide an alternative to free weights and machines. The question on a lot of trainers's minds is whether these strap-based training systems work as well as more traditional resistance training tools. Though research into this question has been somewhat sparse, studies are starting to paint a picture of effective ways to integrate suspension exercise into a workout program.

Is stable or unstable training superior for improving physical adaptation? Recently, researchers compared the two modalities to see which was better for developing strength, power and velocity.

Research on resistance training design finds that the chief variables include intensity, volume, recovery between sets and exercises, workout frequency, equipment and speed of movement (Simão et al. 2012).newsletter_teaser: Research on resistance training design finds that the chief variables include intensity, volume, recovery between sets and exercises, workout frequency, equipment and speed of movement (Simão et al. 2012).

Asymmetrical bar training (ABT) can help clients enhance their sense of balance while improving their core strength and rotational power.newsletter_teaser: ABT uses a rigid bar with resistance on only one end to create an unbalanced—or asymmetrical—load that introduces the transverse (rotational) plane of motion into the exercise.

The BOSU Balance Trainer is the perfect accessory to complement a wide range of authentic Pilates exercises. In this article, you’ll learn to incorporate the BOSU ball into traditional mat and equipment exercises. Regardless of how experienced your clients are, this workout will give you dynamic and fresh content to use with them, both in one-on-one training and in group settings.

Check to see if other parts of the club are having similar problems, or call your friendly audio tech.Found it–phew!Does it sound like . . .

The ways of the sound system often seem mysterious. What do all those knobs do, anyway? Why does it sound great one day and terrible the next? Most group fitness instructors are simply content to find the “on” switch. Yet we all know that an audio breakdown is frustrating (and embarrassing), not only to us, but to our participants.

This is a great question and one I get all the time. Different parts of the body respond to different degrees of pressure and firmness. Similarly, individuals respond in different ways to the firmness of the self-myofascial-release (SMR) tool they use. No matter whom you are working with, though, it is always a good idea to start them out with a soft ball (e.g., a tennis ball) so they can relax and ease into the new sensations of performing self-massage.