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Bringing Hope to New Orleans and Healing Our Troops

Additional body-mind skills training is available for wellness professionals who are
motivated to assist survivors of Hurricane Katrina or veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM) is developing a New Orleans Hope project to help Katrina survivors cope with the hurricane’s continuing mental and emotional toll.
Last fal…

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Researchers Offer New Definition of Quality of Life

Quality of life is a frequently used phrase, but it lacks a precise and consistent definition. Researchers from the College of Nursing, University of South Carolina, Columbia, have addressed this issue and identified a new approach to evaluating quality of life that focuses on a person’s “connectedness” in several domains. This definition contrasts with the tradit…

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Yoga Aids Computer Users

Yoga instructors may want to incorporate traditional vision exercises into classes in order to benefit participants who work daily at computer screens. Computer workers who practiced yoga for 60 days improved visual comfort and reduced “dry eye,” according to a study published in Head & Face Medicine (2006; 2 [46]; www….

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CAM Helps People Quit Smoking

People who are actively working to end their smoking habit may be prime candidates for body-mind activities. The Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minnesota, conducted a survey among 1,175 patients at a Midwestern outpatient tobacco treatment clinic about past use, perceived effectiveness and interest in future use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). The aim was t…

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Changing Your Clients’ Eating Behaviors

Have you ever tried to ride a bicycle with one flat tire? Chances are, you didn’t get very far. If your clients are seeking weight loss but focusing only on exercise, they too will have a difficult time making progress. Anyone can try to diet, but your clients will enjoy more success if you teach them how to change their behaviors for good.

Losing weight is not rocket…

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Exercise for the Breast Cancer Survivor

Imagine undergoing a year of breast cancer treatment, including surgery, lymph node removal, chemotherapy and radiation. Your body feels as if it were under siege. You are ready to take back your life and undergo a strict diet and exercise program. However, just as you are about to start, you find out about a condition called “lymphedema.” Between 200,000 and 400,000 of the 2 …

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Pilates Useful for Those With Parkinson’s

What specialty body-mind-spirit programs, if any, do you or your facility offer to help people with chronic conditions such as arthritis, Parkinson’s
disease or fibromyalgia? Alternatively, do you or your facility offer specialty body-mind skills programs for older adults or other special populations to provide support on multiple levels (e.g., social…

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Do You Offer Small-Group or Partner Training Options in Your Business?

I offer small-group sessions for my studio business. The setup is mutually beneficial for my clients and me because friends or relatives can train together, and each person receives a discounted rate. I earn significantly more at one time training two people versus one. Because my studio is small and I am the only trainer, group training is for no more than two clients at a time, and the …

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Projecting a Professional Phone Manner

It’s time to record a new voice mail greeting (you have, after all, had your current one for 3 years now). You dig out the instruction booklet and figure out which buttons to push on the answering machine. You’ve rehearsed what you’ll say several times. You take a deep breath, push the button, and . . . immediately trip over your tongue. Back to square one.
Does …

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Diary of an IDEA Convention Attendee

This year IDEA is thrilled to be celebrating its silver anniversary—its 25th year in existence. As part of the gala 25th celebration, the annual IDEA World Fitness Convention has many special surprises in store! Attendance at the event has grown from the original 600 to over 5,000, making it the world’s largest educational convention for health and fitnes…

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How to Succeed at the Business of Boot Camp

Boot camps have never been a hotter commodity in the fitness industry than right now. As the concept has grown in popularity, so has the need to come up with a viable business model to ensure that the quality of boot camp programming remains high. To stay competitive, you need to focus on delivering participants the results they want; generating referral business; maximizing your return o…

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The Fitness Facility of the Future

But now erase all that you know from your mind about how your club looks and what it offers. Replace the blank space that’s left with your new vision; that of the facility of the future. How far into the future you go depends on you and your imagination. Now that you’ve started to create, what is the physical structure of this new place? How does it feel when you enter? What s…

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Massage Reduces Arthritis Pain

Consider recommending massage to your clients with knee arthritis for an effective, integrative approach to reducing pain and improving function. In a small, randomized study of 68 adults with osteoarthritis of the knee, researchers at the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, found that subjects who received regular hourlong massage t…

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Resetting Your Success Thermostat

As personal trainers, we may tell clients that in order to adjust their calorie-burning capabilities, they need to reset their “metabolic thermostat.” In a similar way, in order to change the level of success in your life, you may need to reset your “success thermostat.” Chances are that where you are in your career at this moment is exactly where your success thermos…

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Spa Trends Include Fusion Fitness and Wellness

Wellness professionals should continue to keep an eye on the spa industry for business opportunities. More spas will offer specialty retreats that feature expert instructors and focus on specific aspects of care, such as wellness, spirituality, boot camp or arthritis, according to Spa Finder Inc.’s annual spa trend watch for 2007. Other important trends will include more spas provid…

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The Enduring Instructor

This is an exciting time for the health and fitness industry and for the professionals who coax it forward. Driven by both public necessity and professional integrity, the ever-evolving role of the group fitness instructor is poised to make its next big leap. That role started with a first-generation emphasis on simply enticing the public with a “be like me” approach. D…

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Being Sedentary May Be Genetic

A study conducted by The American Physiological Society has raised interesting questions about why some people seem to be born to move while others prefer to hibernate like sleeping bears. Apparently, being a couch potato may be hard-wired into the brain, according to the researchers’ findings, which were published on the society’s website (a href=”www.the-aps.org/press/journ…

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Harness the Power of the Outdoors

Almost every Saturday since last November, I’ve had a standing fitness date with IDEA membership director Annina Torri. We meet at about 9:00 am for a long, well-paced run at Mission Bay Park, one of San Diego’s main outdoor activity hubs. On any given weekend, we see runners, racewalkers, cyclists, kids on jungle gyms, moms on roller skates, people flying kites and dogs chasi…

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Aerobic and Resistance Training Sequence

Drummond, M.J., et al. 2005. Aerobic and resistance exercise sequence affects excess postexercise oxygen consumption. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 19 (2), 332–37.

Combining aerobic exercise and resistance training in the same workout session, a technique referred to as concurrent training, can be a time-efficient training metho…

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Safer Soda Drinking

We all know we shouldn’t drink too much soda. In addition to being chock-full of sugar, most sodas eat away at the protective enamel of our teeth, causing tooth decay. But we also know that many of our clients are hooked on the bubbly stuff. Here are a few pointers to share with clients who are always packing a can of Coke or Pepsi:

  • Always drink soda through a straw; this…
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