Archive for November 2015
Cycling Class: Thrill to the Hill
Who doesnโt love a hill? If you want to add interest and attention to your next cycling class, make climbing your focus. The thrill of a hill can be any combination of challenging climbs and fast, fun downhills. The goal: to reach the summit!
Read MoreGroup Fitness: Maximizing Options
Group fitness has experienced massive change over the past three decades, and now itโs the main value proposition in membership pitches. If you doubt this, take a look at the rise in the number of boutique studios. Fitness facility managers are acutely aware of this proliferation, and some may be concerned about competing with studios that offer fitness enthusiasts an โexperienceโ at a premium price. People will pay for a fitness community they enjoy. Understandably, even instructors are being drawn to studios that pay a premium for teaching to a packed room.
Read MoreStandards of Care and Utility for New Personal Training Directors
New managers arenโt always accustomed to looking at the big picture. They may know a lot about the fitness industry, and even a lot about business, but there are core issues relevant to running a personal training department or studio that must be solidly understood. Even veteran directors can benefit from taking a step back and reviewing the basics. This article discusses the main areas of safe practice that managers must address in order to create a sound environment for their facilityโs members, clients and staffโand to protect their business.
Read MoreHow to Handle Burnout
โThe studio is too hot.โ โThe music is too loud.โ โMy trainer was 3 minutes late.โ โWhy does she teach all the best time slots?โ โI didnโt like the substitute.โ โWe need more kettlebells.โ And so on and so on.
Read MoreFitness Managers: Add Power to Your Purpose
For the past several years, personal trainers, training managers and entrepreneurs have attended the IDEA Personal Trainer Institute to learn from the industryโs top change agents and to gain the inspiration, insight and purpose it takes to enjoy a fulfilling and financially rewarding career.
Read MoreSMS Marketing for Fitness Managers
The tasks of managing and promoting a fitness business require a multipronged skill set and the ability to do many things well. If youโre savvy, efficiency is important to you. Perhaps youโre looking for new ways to tell the world about your stellar services. Youโve got a lot to do each day and not a lot of time to do it, and you need to generate leads. You must have systems in place to convert prospects into paying customers. But once youโve done that, what happens next? Itโs imperative to deliver a world-class experience that produces results.
Read More5 Fascinating Facts We Learned on IDEA Fit Feed This Week
It is essential for fitness professionals to stay up-to-date on the latest health and fitness news. You never know when your clients are going to ask about some new workout or fad diet theyโve heard about; donโt let them catch you unprepared. Use IDEA FitFeed to stay in the know. This inclusive tool collates health, fitness and nutrition news being shared by fitness professionals around the web and posts the top trending news items in one convenient location.
Read MoreLetter From the Editor
My love of food, cooking and nutrition runs deep and is very personal. Few people know the
journey I took to arrive at what I consider my blessed, but hard-earned good health. The bottom line: It was shaped by my awakening about 20 years ago to the power and possibility of food. I learned to cook; I rediscovered exercise; I turned my life around and dropped from almost 200 pounds to where I am now and have never looked back. For me,
success was above all about learning how to feed myself and understanding that
what I had been eating for many years was not really food.
Inspire by Example
Mind-body personal training is about more than fusing yoga moves or other mind-body exercises into a training session. Mind-body trainers support their clients in developing greater well-being in body and mind. In this more comprehensive training paradigm, trainers draw on concepts from traditional Eastern healing disciplines as well as modern science.
Read MoreHow to Teach Posture on a Deeper Level
Why is it hard to stay on track while traveling? Start with the distractions. If itโs not a smartphone diverting your attention, itโs a book or laptop, fast food or your travel companion. Distractions are not bad, mind you. Theyโre simply inevitable.
Thatโs why itโs so important to shift your priorities. Instead of checking social media and email the next time you sit down on a plane or train, how about tuning in to posture and body awareness?
Read MoreResearch Supports Benefits of Integrative Training
Mind-body personal training is not a new concept, and yet the demand for programming that includes mind-body practices and holistic approaches seems to be increasing. This trend reflects the growth of integrative medicine and comes from consumer demand, marketing, and emerging evidence that the benefits of complementary health approaches are real or meaningful (NCCIH 2015). Is the personal trainerโs role changing, or is this more holistic approach simply another niche training style?
Read MoreHosting a Community Dinner on the Gym Floor
A lot of trainers are tiring of standard solutions for fixing our broken
relationship with food. Yet if you look around the industry for examples
of gyms winning the long-term food battle, youโre likely to come up
short. The more you search, the more you find the same answers:
supplements, bars, shakes and fixed meal plans. Some gyms offer a โfree
nutrition consultation,โ but few pay much attention to the long-term
educational process required to change behavior and get people eating
real food.
10 Steps to Ease Tension on Any Seat, Chair or Bench
Why is it hard to stay on track while traveling? Start with the distractions. If itโs not a smartphone diverting your attention, itโs a book or laptop, fast food or your travel companion. Distractions are not bad, mind you. Theyโre simply inevitable.
Thatโs why itโs so important to shift your priorities. Instead of checking social media and email the next time you sit down on a plane or train, how about tuning in to posture and body awareness?
Read MoreA Teaching Kitchen in Your Studio?
Those of us who know how to cook typically learned by helping our
parents in the kitchen when we were growing up. We picked up on little
pointers, burned some toast, learned how to eyeball a measurement and
prepared recipes passed down through the generations. Developing a
comfort level in the kitchen requires practiceโspending time there
planning, preparing and serving meals (and washing the dirty dishes!).
15 Personal Training Predictions for 2016
Personal training has become a powerhouse in the fitness industry.
With $10 billion in annual revenue and a projected 2.5% growth
(IBISWorld 2015), this profession has planted deep, strong roots.
Despite being a comparatively new industry (it got its start in the late
1980s/early 1990s), personal training has seen its share of change over
the past several decades. What was once a luxury for the wealthy has
become increasingly accessible to those with less disposable incomeโand