Amanda Vogel's Articles

The new year is always a popular time to recommit to regular exercise or get into it for the first time. However, as a personal trainer, you know that many people allow their ...

Did you ever have to cue audiocassette tapes before teaching aerobics? (You might’ve heard about playing albums in class, but that was before your time.) Were you among ...

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Whether you just graduated from university with a health-related degree, recently obtained your first fitness certification or are contemplating how to get more out of your cu...

With the success of boot camps and small-group training, personal trainers are beginning to claim the group domain. These days, it’s more profitable for trainers to teac...

I once had $150 stolen from right under my nose, and I could have easily prevented it if I’d just listened to my intuition. It happened while I was eating breakfast wit...

As an instructor, you’re trained to teach fitness to groups, and you’re passionate about it. You faithfully show up to teach, and you probably get paid a modest fe...

Getting a blog up and running is not a monumental task, even for people like me who know very little about HTML code or the technical side of how the Internet works. The rew...

Core Fitnesswe can do this.Flip through this issue of IDEA Fitness Journal and you’ll be exposed to a wide variety of fitness business names and logos, each one telling ...

Photography: Courtesy of NBCWhether you love to watch The Biggest Loser or you find it offensive, you have to admit the primetime TV program has been effective in showcasing...

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You probably know on some level how your participants would describe you and your classes. Maybe they see you as highly dynamic, caring, safety-conscious, well-educated, fun o...

.subhead{} You probably already recommend health and fitness products to your clients. What if you could receive a cut of the profit when clients purchased stuff you to...

Successful fitness pros say it all the time: Write health and fitness articles for newspapers, magazines and websites to advance your fitness career by leaps and bounds. And t...

If you’re considering expanding your services into cyberspace or adding to your current online offerings, now’s the time. On an average day, 113 million adults look for he...

Until recently, franchises were most commonly associated with convenience stores and coffee shops, not gyms and fitness programs. Now a new crop of highly successful fitness f...

Beverly and Barb are best friends in their 40s who’ve hired 22-year-old Trainer Tom for partner personal training. Dur­ing their first session, Tom demonstrates how to do a...

Before I met Deidre King of Fitness Communications, I didn’t know any other fitness pros who offered writing and editing services specifically for the fitness in...

Have you noticed? The fitness job market is growing rapidly, yet our industry is still a relatively tight-knit network. Your supervisors and/or the company you work for might ...

25 Future Deliverables in the Fitness Industry By Amanda Vogel, MA A As an IDEA member, you probably have your finger on the pulse of this year's hottest fitness deliverable...

WHAT'S HOT IN H2O? Water fitness trendsetters share mainstream information about programming in the pool. By Amanda Vogel, MA If you want to stay on top of industry trends, t...

As a fitness professional with a busy schedule, you know that crossing important tasks off your to-do list every day is a major step toward greater personal and work satisfact...

January is a time when most personal trainers gear up for an influx of new clients and a welcome increase in business. But if you’re busy scheduling lots of free consul...

If you’ve ever looked into creating a product for fitness consumers, you’ve probably noticed that this market is saturated with weight-loss and shape-up to...

By Carrie Myers Smith and Amanda Vogel, MA buyer How to evaluate fitness equipment be before you sign on the dotted line. I wary waited with anticipation for the newest, ...

Whether you’re a new group exercise coordinator or a seasoned veteran, you may have aspirations to ascend the leadership ladder or grow your fitness career in new direct...

Are your primary personal training tools still the lowly clipboard and pen? Do you still schlep a stack of audiotapes to every group fitness class you teach? If so, you may wa...

One way to boost attendance, build excitement and promote a sense of community around your group exercise programming is to host special events. More and more group exercise d...

idea fitness manager“The Conflict Resolution Matrix” by Jim Gavin, PhD, and Don de Guerre, PhD, IDEA Health & Fitness Source, May 2003 Conflict Resolutio...

Keep the following qualities in mind when evaluating instructors. Cuing and Voice Projection: Does the instructor speak loudly and clearly? Is the cuing well-timed with...

Introductions: 3 minutes Recognition and highlights: 5 minutes New procedures for stereo and microphone: 5 minutes Recent schedule changes: 4 minutes Valentine’s...

If you've followed this column since January, you've read about how savvy managers increase efficiency and avoid burnout by establishing work-related boundaries for themselves...

Partnering With Clients Tapping into a client's expertise to fulfill your business dreams can reap rich rewards for both of you. By Amanda Vogel, MA If you have an idea for a ...

d discussion When are prepackaged programs effective? By Amanda Vogel, MA Ten years ago, group exercisers had the choice of either step or high-low. Today, most schedules of...

If a trainer on your payroll invited you to his 25th birthday bash, would you go? What about having drinks and dinner with your front-desk staff on a Saturday night or grabb...

The most obvious benefit of a newsletter is its marketing power: You can gain exposure by using it to promote your training services, advertise special events and sales, lead ...

Exercise Because the concept of what's safe--and what's not--has changed over the years, experts advise fitness professionals to focus on weighing the risks against the ben...

As a writer of promotional material for fitness professionals, I was recently asked to consult on an advertisement for a chain of fitness clubs. The ad’s headline referr...

Defining the Problem Instructors who field desperate questions from participants about spot reducing and calorie burning know firsthand about people’s preoccupat...

1Marketing Script for Staff Here is one example of a practice script and pertinent marketing points you may distribute to staff. Ask staff to practice with each other befo...

CORE CONDITIONING TAKES CENTER STAGE Today's core stabilization training programs are a far cry from traditional abdominal workouts. BY AMANDA VOGEL, MA An escalating interes...

By Amanda E. Vogel, MA Indoor Cycling: Guidelines & Safety Suggestions Editor's note: This article is the second of a five-part series on guidelines and safety suggestions...