fbpx Skip to content

The Importance of Your Location

Whether you are an owner of a brick and mortar fitness space or an independent fitness professional, your business’s location can be a major factor in your success. According to a study conducted by New York based marketing firm distillery, using the data from cell phone location tracking logs, the average gym-goer has a short 4 mile drive to their gym. The distance will vary by style of facility but the longest distance reported in the study was only 6 miles.

Read More

A Nod to Scalenes

How much do you know about your scalene muscles? If you just tilted your head in confusion, you can attribute that simple movement, in part, to your scalenes, three pairs of muscular tissue that flank the sides of the neck.

Anterior scalenes, on the front side of the neck, connect the third through sixth cervical vertebrae to the first rib.

Read More

Correcting Misconceptions About Fat

For years, fat was demonized as dietary “Public Enemy Number One.” Despite the essential roles it plays in the body, including temperature regulation, hormone production and protection of organs, we were told it was also responsible for weight gain and other health woes. As a result, people stocked their kitchens with low-fat items.

Read More

Meet an IDEA Team Member: Joy Keller

A former IDEA editor once said that if Joy’s writing and reporting style were likened to a food, it would best be described as peanut butter. Why? Her work is “nutrient-dense,” packing a punch that sustains readers a long time.

Read More

Changing Behavior Changes Lives

In North America—and around the world—people are suffering or dying from the ravages of chronic lifestyle diseases that are mostly preventable. It’s troubling to write those words as a flat statement of fact, especially in an era of such astonishing medical advancements paralleled with a daily firehose of new health research that further pressure-washes what we already know.

Read More

Sample Class: Barre-Cardio-Core

When you take the strong, efficient movements of barre and mix in cardiovascular intensity and a comprehensive core routine, you get a winning combination that appeals to a wide variety of people. Traditional barre classes use small, repetitive movements from a standing posture to work on balance while strengthening the lower body. Simultaneously, the upper body receives graceful range-of-motion benefits. These movements prepare the body to progress to more intense cardio work, and the core section challenges the center from all directions.

Read More

Breath and Movement for Core Stability

When your participants ask about their core muscles, they’re most likely referring to the lauded “six-pack.” As a fitness instructor, you may think about transversus abdominis, obliques and pelvic-floor muscles. But almost everyone tends to forget about the diaphragm.

Read More

Creating Preclass Rituals and Routines

Do you ever feel nervous before teaching a class? While your main focus is to educate and encourage students—and you know your stuff—there’s also a performance aspect to your work, and that can lead to a case of the butterflies! Professional athletes, actors, singers and public speakers experience similar nerves, and many use routines and rituals to put themselves in the right mindset prior to performing or competing.

Read More

Stop and Smell the Daisies

CLIENT: Brenda Badish
PERSONAL TRAINER: Kelly Fletcher
LOCATION: KFit Studios, Brighton, Michigan

Brenda Badish had almost given up hope that she could regain her health. “I figured I was a few weeks away from pushing up the daisies,” she says.

Read More

Short, High-Intensity Weight Training and Diabetes Risk

Preliminary research on high-intensity training benefits may motivate people who prefer short training sessions and are concerned about diabetes risk. University of Glasgow researchers in Scotland found that 15-minute strength training workouts, done three times a week for 6 weeks, dramatically improved insulin sensitivity and boosted muscle size and strength among 10 young, overweight men.

Read More

Cardio Training and Weight Loss

A systematic review of 77 studies suggests that while both interval training and continuous moderate-intensity exercise are effective for fat loss, interval training may produce results in a more time-efficient manner. Researchers from Brazil and England conducted the review to identify what type of exercise—continuous moderate-intensity (MOD), high-intensity interval training (HIIT) or sprint interval training (SIT)—is best for weight loss.

Read More

Tracker Information Motivates

With the abundance of activity trackers on the market, deciding which product to choose can be overwhelming. New research suggests that the most important criterion may simply be how easy it is to access the data the device provides. Recent research conducted at the Atlantic Sports Health Research Department of Atlantic Health System in Morris?¡town, New Jersey, shows that people who wore a device and accessed data via an app were more active daily when compared with those who did not access the activity information.

Read More