By April Durrett
After serving in the United States Army as a medical specialist, Stephen Landrum transitioned to the civilian world of personal training. As owner, manager and personal traine...
By April Durrett
IDEA members everywhere go the distance to help their clients grow in mind, body and spirit. The IDEA World Fitness Awards put the spotlight on fitness pros who go above and b...
By April Durrett
Michael Massafra, CPT/NCSF, is the owner of Dynamic Fitness and Wellness in-home training in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. He also trains and teaches classes at Ellis Athletic...
By April Durrett
Karin Singleton has worked in the fitness industry since 1994, and she loves helping people feel and live better. She owns Fitness Personified Ltd., a studio in Raleigh, North...
By April Durrett
Sometimes referred to as the Academy Awards® of the fitness industry, the IDEA World Fitness Awards are given to fitness professionals who represent the very best of the b...
By April Durrett
Fitness professionals: Do your clients find it challenging to understand what type of foods to eat in what amounts? You may want to refer them to a new food icon called MyPlat...
By April Durrett
IDEA members around the world make a difference every day by helping people get fit in body, mind and spirit. The IDEA World Fitness Awards highlight professionals who consist...
By April Durrett
The IDEA World Fitness Awards highlight professionals who consistently give their all to motivate their clients, their communities and the fitness industry. Join us in celebra...
By April Durrett
As a fitness professional, you’ve read hundreds of articles on health and fitness—many in professional publications like IDEA Fitness Journal and others in general...
By April Durrett
As 2011 begins, we are proud to serve you as the world's leading fitness membership association. Why is IDEA such a top-notch organization? “We work hard to meet the nee...
By April Durrett
What programs are popular in Venezuela? “In the mind-body segment, yoga and Pilates are the strongest trends, with Yoga Plus, Neo Pilates, Yogashala and Zona Pilates the...
By April Durrett
People living in different regions of Spain have opposing views on fitness. “Talking about new trends in fitness and working out at lunchtime or after work are normal in...
By April Durrett
When Jessica Thomas became engaged 7 years ago, she frequented local bridal shows to find vendors who could make her wedding day perfect. She saw plenty of florists, photograp...
By April Durrett
In Brazil, with its long summer, beautiful beaches and warm weather, it makes sense that many exercisers want to enjoy the great outdoors. Numerous group fitness classes, mind...
By April Durrett
Dance is a key word on group exercise schedules in Mexico, as dance-based fitness classes are heating up gyms everywhere. Latin rhythms, hip-hop, salsa and belly dancing are p...
By April Durrett
There are a variety of approaches to race training, and the most appropriate will depend on the needs of your clients and your business. Discover how different trainers struct...
By April Durrett
Dedicated fitness professionals in Australia are regularly inspiring people to become healthy, says Ken Baldwin, fitness professional and presenter in Brisbane, Australia, who...
By April Durrett
Participating in running, walking or triathlon events can be a fun way to exercise and enjoy the great outdoors. However, while your personal training clients may want to do a...
By April Durrett
The most popular fitness classes in Israel are body conditioning, core training, stability ball, yoga, step and dance-based formats, notes Yoav Avidar, international fitness p...
By April Durrett
The French often participate in sports and other nontraditional “fitness” activities without joining a health club, notes Fred Hoffman, MEd, 2007 IDEA Fitness Instructor o...
By April Durrett
IDEA members everywhere strive to help clients improve their health and wellness. Whether they are working with older adults, children or athletes, they use their knowledge an...
By April Durrett
2009 will see a big boom for the Philippine fitness industry, says Cynthia L. Carrion, personal trainer to the country’s president, and undersecretary for the sports and wel...
By April Durrett
While fitness professionals are working at the grassroots level to help people in their communities get healthier, national legislation can make it easier for exercisers and n...
By April Durrett
A new study sheds light on why many adolescent girls are gaining weight. A decline in activity in the transition from childhood to adulthood could be responsible, according t...
By April Durrett
Maybe you find that after carefully
mapping out your career path, you actually want to travel in a different
direction. Maybe you discover that a career milestone you th...
By April Durrett
For Kathi Sims, RN, fitness has always
been a way of life. While she was working as a registered nurse in Chatham,
Ontario, she began teaching early-morning, evening and...
By April Durrett
Throughout
childhood, most young girls are outgoing, self-confident, curious adventurers
interested in exploring the world and all it has to offer. Happy with
themselves...
By April Durrett
“Self-esteem isn’t everything; it’s
just there’s nothing without it.”—Gloria Steinem
Many women whom ...
By April Durrett
For some people, the time between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day is the highlight of their year. They look forward to cooking turkeys, buying presents, singing carols and s...
By April Durrett
Fitness trend watchers, take note: there’s a creative business model sweeping the personal trainer market, and it’s called partner and group training. At Body By Design pe...
By April Durrett
Both the IDEA Personal Trainer Code of Ethics and the IDEA Group Fitness Instructor Code of Ethics urge fitness professionals to “uphold a professional image through conduct...
By April Durrett
You wake up to the sound of an annoying alarm, you’re dead tired, and you just plain feel out of sorts. Ugh! How do you go out into the world—or even get out of be...
By April Durrett
Remember your college days? You may have been blessed with a close group of buddies straight out of the TV series Friends. Do you look around now, however, and notice that you...
By April Durrett
just for you
by April Durrett
Lessons Learned From Improv Comedy
Enhance your life by using principles from improvisational performance.
H
Have you ever watched in awe as ...
By April Durrett
Accompanying a famous actor to a red-carpet movie premiere. Jetting around the world to cities in a style you’ve only dreamed of experiencing. Mingling with Fortune ...
By April Durrett
Imagine wanting to help women take charge of their health. Imagine wanting to do so through an innovative gym format. Now imagine doing so when you are only 22! That&r...
By April Durrett
You’re constantly fine-tuning and progressing your clients’ workouts, but are you so focused on helping others that you sometimes forget to keep your own worko...
By April Durrett
Subject: Lisa Brisse
Company: State of the Heart Fitness (co-founded by Brisse and Nora Wallace Walsh), based out of the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel, Santa Monica, Califor...
By April Durrett
Most professionals understand the importance of networking, but what good is it if you lose track of the valuable contacts you make throughout your career?
Kathy Conant o...
By April Durrett
Troy Stewart Huggett, a self-employed personal trainer, wanted to obtain a master’s degree in physical education. However, he faced a stumbling block: Running his own bu...
By April Durrett
Subject: Dave Parise
Company: Results Plus, Hamden, Connecticut
Types of Clientele. The majority of the company’s clients are in their 40s–70s. “When yo...
By April Durrett
Subject: Shawna Kaminski
Company: Kaminski Fitness Consulting, Calgary, Alberta
Types of Clientele. Kaminski has a variety of clients ranging in age from 12 to 70. The ma...
By April Durrett
Are your weeks filled with all work and no play? Do you find yourself being serious all of the time? Are you seeking new approaches for finding joy?
Learn how other fitness ...
By April Durrett
Talk to William Malmskog, and his enthusiasm for life leaps out at you. Although he’s weathered his share of challenges, his joyous energy and passion for helpin...
By April Durrett
Strengthening Your
q
Creativity Muscle
p
q q
By April Durrett
"C
reative thinking requires an outlook that allows you to search for ideas and play with your knowledge and e...
By April Durrett
Subject: Timothy J. Callaghan, CPT, LMT
Company: Libe...
By April Durrett
Subject: Lisa Lynn
Company: Lisa Lynn Fitness, Norwal...
By April Durrett
Subject: Joe Stankowski
Business: Absolute Fitness Personal Training, Wilmington, Delaware
By April Durrett
Subject: Lisa D. Bell, RN, MBA
business: Bell Bodies Fitness, Newburgh, Indiana
Her Clientele. Bell specializes in training beginners, women and deconditioned individual...
By April Durrett
What’s one way to lower the number of stressed-out adults who have hypertension? Help teenagers with high blood pressure.
A study of 156 inner-city black adolescents in...
By April Durrett
Do you have pregnant clients? If so, you may want to let them know that body massage by a significant other can reduce stress hormone levels in pregnant women. The reduction i...
By April Durrett
Are you looking for a mind-body technique that can increase the success rate of your clients? If so, you may be interested in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). Personal trai...
By April Durrett
Do you ever find yourself promoting wellness but not feeling all that well yourself? Do you sometimes feel you’re trapped in a concrete jungle? Do you need a change of s...
By April Durrett
Subject: Lynne Greer
business: Healthy Wishes in Bishop, California
Her Clientele. Greer works with a range of clients in her town, including older women whose activities ...
By April Durrett
Yoga for Scoliosis. Yoga Union, located at Lila Wellness in New York City, offers the only
regular “Yoga and Scoliosis” class on the East Coast. Taught by regist...
By April Durrett
When clients are feeling stressed or down, they may want to pet their dogs—or borrow their friends’ canine companions! In an ongoing study, a University of Missour...
By April Durrett
You pride yourself on your dedication to helping clients maximize their health and fitness; but to continue helping clients, you need to stay engaged and enthusiastic about yo...
By April Durrett
As a fitness professional, you dedicate your career to helping other people take care of their health and wellness needs. Are you taking care of your own needs? Are you gett...
By April Durrett
Subject: Chad Marschik, CSCS, IDEA member since 1992
Business: Body Symmetry in Springfield, Illinois
By April Durrett
In the
mid-1990s, corporate
fitness was on a roll. With a strong economy, companies were competing to hire and keep
the best
employees. Corporate fitness programs were...
By April Durrett
According to “Boomer Coalition Reality Check: When Boomer Optimism Becomes Denial,” a new survey conducted by RoperASW on behalf of the Boomer Coalition and the Am...
By April Durrett
According to “Boomer Coalition Reality Check: When Boomer Optimism Becomes Denial,” a new survey conducted by RoperASW on behalf of the Boomer Coalition and the Am...
By April Durrett
A new service will allow personal trainers to customize workout programs for clients, recommend how-to videos for specific exercises and track their clients’ pro...
By April Durrett
By now everyone knows that lack of exercise and unhealthy eating can cause health problems. A new study released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HH...
By April Durrett
Springboard to Success
Fitness professionals share how World has bettered their careers.
By April Durrett
P
eople from around the globe attend IDEA World Fitness Conve...
By April Durrett
Do you want to provide your clients with every possible tool for preventing cardiovascular disease? You might point them to research showing that a multivitamin may help.
A s...
By April Durrett
Do you have clients with severe osteoarthritis (OA) who want to improve their strength and function? You may want to encourage them to exercise in the pool, according to a stu...
By April Durrett
governmentPrograms aimed at helping prevent childhood obesity got a big boost when the U.S. Senate passed the Improved Nutrition and Physical Activity Act (IMPACT) last Decemb...
By April Durrett
On one hand advocates for children’s health wish that schools didn’t sell soda and sugary drinks at schools. On the other hand schools often desperately need the a...
By April Durrett
If you suspect a client has an eating disorder, it’s important to refer him or her for help. Why? Your client may also have a drug or alcohol problem. Up to 50 percent o...
By April Durrett
As a trainer you’re always looking for the most effective exercises. That’s why you may want to use the physioball when training new female exercisers, according t...
By April Durrett
government
By April Durrett
Four popular diets all appear to lower the risk of heart disease equally, according to research by Michael L. Dansinger, MD, of Tufts University New England Medical Center in ...
By April Durrett
Although many personal trainers are well educated and provide clients with safe, effective training, the same cannot be said for all trainers. You may even work with s...
By April Durrett
There’s good news for trainers who are promoting kids’ fitness. Now The California Childhood Obesity Prevention Act of 2003 (California SB 677) may mak...
By April Durrett
Even pro football players are making time to Inspire the World to Fitness™.
By April Durrett
You may have found that the Food Guide Pyramid serves as a handy tool to explain the basics of healthy eating to your clients. But note that the times are “a’chang...
By April Durrett
Now there’s a program to help your female clients improve their heart health. A national campaign called The LifeWise™ Heart Truth Pledge encourages participan...
By April Durrett
Are any of your clients interested in supplementing with creatine? Then they should know about the new testing done by ConsumerLab.com, an independent evaluator of product...
By April Durrett
As personal trainers, you know how important it is for obese adults and children to lose weight. But is the general public aware of the importance of this issue? Yes, for the ...
By April Durrett
Do your clients frequently skip breakfast or lunch and then get hit with snack attacks during the day? Are you guilty of avoiding meals in your rush from client to client?...
By April Durrett
When personal training was a new industry, many trainers did not have mentors because they were the pioneers. Now, times are different. Savvy personal trainers know th...
By April Durrett
Fish is a media darling lately, as two research reports tout its benefits. One says it blocks dangerous heart rhythms and the other claims it’s beneficial for di...
By April Durrett
The Great Abs DebateIf you’re up to snuff on your anatomy and physiology, you know that the rectus abdominis is a single muscle. However, you may have found yourself...
By April Durrett
Survey Says . . .exercise“Which of the following physical activities do people consider effective ways to stay fit and healthy?”
Online survey sponsored by W.L....
By April Durrett
Your clients are perfectly healthy if they have blood pressure readings of 120 over 80, right? Not necessarily. These readings now fall into the prehypertensive category, ...
By April Durrett
Let your older female clients know that the exercise they are doing with you today may give them many more tomorrows, according to a research report published in the Journ...
By April Durrett
Are you ignoring your own mental health by putting your all into your training business and never taking a break? Don’t put quality time on standby.
By April Durrett
If you own a PFT business, take advantage of free access to an online classroom of business courses, workshops, information resources, learning tools and counseling assist...
By April Durrett
Did you know that experts are noticing an increase in eating disorders among middle-aged and older people? The Remuda Ranch, a treatment center for females with eating dis...
By April Durrett
F“Fatty, fatty, 2-by-4!” “Tub of lard!” “Wide load!” “Blubber!”
By April Durrett
Your obese clients have many health risks, including potentially harmful blood clots. Fortunately, exercising can help dissolve potential clots, according to research ...
By April Durrett
Perhaps more help is on the way for personal trainers working against obesity and inactivity.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tennessee) and Sens. Jeff Bingaman (D-...
By April Durrett
Most kids travel in packs.
Cascade Athletic Club in Gresham, Oregon, capitalizes on this fact with its group sports training programs for kids. The programs have proven ...
By April Durrett
Your male clients may have dropped the ball in the fruit and vegetable game. According to a survey conducted for the National Cancer Institute (NCI), only 3 percent know t...
By April Durrett
As a fitness manager or director, you probably never have enough time. Your to-do list seems endless, and you may have to switch constantly among the many roles that you p...
By April Durrett
The Mentoring Pathway
Unleash the incredible power of mentoring and watch your skill set and business flourish.
B
By April Durrett
efore he could save the galaxy from the e...
By April Durrett
Winners of the 2002 IDEA Health & Fitness Awards challenge their clients-- and themselves--to push beyond perceived limits.
MOTION
Sometimes it's tempting to resist change. A...
By April Durrett
“I quit.”
Hearing these two words from a valued fitness instructor
or personal trainer inspires dread—or panic—in most fitness managers.
No boss wa...
By April Durrett
IDEA
Winners of the 2001 IDEA Health & Fitness Awards inspire people worldwide to improve their physical and mental health.
As we rush to crowd more activities into already ja...
By April Durrett
All in the Family
Build healthy families--and increase company profits--with classes that appeal to both kids and their parents.
Sneak a peak at life with the Hamiltons. A bab...
By April Durrett
industry watch: program trends
C R E AT I N G A S O O T H I N G S PA C E
The 2000 IDEA Fitness Programs & Equipment Survey found that yoga and Pilates continue to be two of th...
By April Durrett
specialties
Intergenerational Fitness
Intergenerational fitness programs-- BY APRIL DURRETT programs that engage persons of different generations in a fitness activity--serve...
By April Durrett
COPY AND DISTRIBUTE TO YOUR CLIENTS
client handout
Getting the Most From Cardio Equipment
Whether you exercise frequently on cardiovascular equipment or you are just startin...
By April Durrett
personal training goes global
From India, Italy and Israel to South Africa, China and Venezuela, personal trainers boost fitness worldwide. By April Durrett
P
ersonal traine...
By April Durrett
As amazing as it now seems, back in the 1970s we had to prove that aerobic dance could actually increase your heart rate. “Yes, cardio activity is effective,” our ...
By April Durrett
WINNERS OF THE 2000 IDEA HEALTH & FITNESS AWARDS MOTIVATE PEOPLE TO EMBRACE AN ACTIVE LIFESTYLE.
Building A Healthy World
Young girls. Active teenagers. Retired men. Elite at...
By April Durrett
careers
BY APRIL DURRETT
t the birth of the "aerobics" industry, many fitness professionals were in their 20s, blessed with abundant stamina, boundless passion for teaching c...
