Archive for April 2019
Creating a Client Base for Your Fitness Business
Who do you most want to work with? Since you can concentrate on so many populations or specialty areas as a trainer, it can be challenging to pinpoint what you really want to do. However, if your focus is not clear before you create your fitness business plan, you won’t know who to reach out to, potential clients won’t understand what you do, and your business may be less successful than you want it to be.
Read MoreMedia Multitasking: Another Link to Obesity?
Do any of your clients struggle with weight gain? If so, let them know about new research that has found that media multitasking has now been linked to obesity.
Research from Rice University indicates that mindless switching between digital devices is associated with increased susceptibility to food temptations and lack of self-control, which may result in weight gain (Lopez, Heatherton & Wagner 2019).
Read MoreSelf-Massage Techniques for Exercise Recovery
As a fitness pro, you no doubt value the restorative properties of professional massage. However, finding time for a massage may sometimes be difficult. That’s why it’s helpful to use self-care massage tools for preventing or treating pain or imbalances in the body. While these tools don’t provide “massage” as such (and can’t replace a professional therapist), the best ones offer some of the same benefits.
Read MoreOutdoor Workouts Without Equipment
It’s that time of year when springtime reinvigorates clients and participants, coaxing them to come out of hibernation and play. Why not leave the fluorescent lights behind and take class outside? Parks, fields, even parking lots are great places to lead outdoor workouts. There are options for everyone—and you don’t have to lug around a bunch of equipment, either. Maximize your time and space by incorporating simple, effective body-weight exercises that improve strength, speed, power and flexibility.
Read MoreHow to Improve Tennis Performance
Tennis is one of the most popular sports in the world. In the U.S. alone, there are almost 18 million players, with another 14 million expressing interest (TIA 2018). Unfortunately, the dynamic, forceful twists and turns of the game pose ever-present injury risks to players (Roetert & Kovacs 2011).
Read MoreLonging for Lung Facts
We do this every moment of the day; it can help us relax, and it speeds up when we exert ourselves—all without so much as a thought. Inhale. Exhale. Breathe! This important gas exchange, which keeps us alive, can only happen thanks to the miraculous work of the lungs.
Read MoreMeet an IDEA Team Member: Kathleen Ferguson
It’s no surprise that Kathleen excels in her role as an IDEA brand activation strategist—she is living the dream through a lifestyle dedicated to holistic wellness and positivity. She genuinely gets excited about the products and services she helps IDEA clients bring to market, often using them herself or sharing them with friends and colleagues.
Read MoreResistance Training: A Physical Elixir
When I first paid for personal training sessions many years ago, I remember specifically telling my trainer that I wanted to focus only on my upper body, with maybe a little core work sprinkled in.
Legs? No way!
Read MoreKickin’ Cooldown: Post-Kickboxing Stretches
Kickboxing is an empowering class that builds confidence and improves balance, cardiovascular endurance, proprioception, strength and dynamic flexibility. It’s an effective total-body workout, especially when taught correctly, with key tenets in mind. Some say kickboxing is on the downswing; however, it’s possible that any decline in popularity is due, not to the format itself, but to how it’s being taught (or mistaught). It continues to be a staple in many facilities.
Read MoreSample Class: Mindfulness and Strength
If you teach high-intensity classes, you may have noticed that many of your devoted students don’t take advantage of gentler options, such as restorative yoga, foam rolling or low-impact classes. Cross-training is necessary for peak fitness and reduced injury risk, yet persuading participants to try something new or different is not so easy. This class, Mindfulness and Strength, prioritizes mindfulness and flexibility.
Read MoreCareer Advancement for Everyone
Thousands of fitness professionals consider the IDEA World Convention to be the best investment they can make to further their careers. That’s largely because the event delivers robust, multilevel education covering all facets of the industry. But there’s more to it than that, according to fitness industry veteran and this year’s IDEA Jack LaLanne Award recipient, Jay Blahnik.
Read MoreIDEA Member Spotlight: May 2019
Ray Boyd
Member Since 2015 • Stamford, Connecticut
U.S. Life Expectancy Continues to Decline
U.S. life expectancy has declined 3 years in a row, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). The average American life expectancy was 78.6 years in 2017, down from 78.7 years in 2016. While that drop is small, it’s significant in that it represents the third consecutive year of decline. Experts attribute the trend to an increase in accidental and unintentional deaths from drug overdoses as a result of opioids.
Read MorePilates Helps Adolescents
6-week Pilates program improved core muscle endurance and hamstring flexibility among adolescents between 9 and 19 years with a history of back pain. Research findings from a preliminary study published in Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice (2019; doi:10.1016/j.ctcp.2019.01.006) showed that a 6-week Pilates mat exercise program with two 55-minute sessions per week can improve conditioning in both young males and young females.
Read MoreMaternal Stress and Overweight Girls
The number of children with overweight or obesity—especially among kids younger than 6—is rising in modern societies. Being overweight before preschool increases the likelihood that children will develop obesity as they grow older.
Read MoreFitness Training Reduces C-Section Risk
Women in their third trimester of pregnancy who are highly physically active are less likely to have an acute cesarean birth than women with low physical activity levels, according to findings from the Norwegian Fit for Delivery study (a randomized controlled trial).
Read MoreBigger Belly, Smaller Brain?
Excess body fat stored primarily in the abdominal area has been linked with lower gray-matter brain volume, according to a report in Neurology (2019; doi:10.1212/WNL.0000000000006879).
Read MoreQuestion of the Month: May 2019
Have you or the policymakers at any facilities where you work shared guidelines about positive body talk or about language that could contribute to body shame among members or clients? Share your best practices and illustrative stories on how you or your facility management promote positive body image in staff and fitness participants.
We want to hear from you!
Read MoreMore Long-Term Aerobic Fitness Benefits
New research adds to growing evidence that current cardiovascular fitness levels affect heart disease risks as far ahead as 9 years in the future. “Even among people who seem to be healthy, the top 25% of the most fit individuals actually have only half as high a risk [of heart disease] as the least fit 25%,” said principal investigator Bjarne Nes, PhD, of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.
Read MoreFitness Pros Influence Body Satisfaction
Women in a group exercise class experienced greater body satisfaction and better moods when the instructor made motivational comments related to strength and health instead of weight or appearance.
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