Shannon Fable
Shannon Fable
Article Archive
The previous three installments of this column have given you a bit to think about regarding your current communication situation. As the group fitness manager (GFM), you must balance multiple streams of input and output. You face daily communication challenges with instructors, club members and upper management. There’s no doubt you could be more productive if you spent time revamping protocols. However, it’s hard to find the time to set up those spiffy protocols when you have the weighty administrative tasks associated with being a manager.
Regardless of how big or small your role is as group fitness manager (GFM), your success depends primarily on how effectively you communicate with a diverse audience. Each employee has a need to hear you, understand your message, store the information and act on it. Keeping employees informed can eat up a lot of time and may prevent you from getting to initiatives that could grow the business.
As we discovered in the previous installment of this column, group fitness managers (GFMs) are the communication hub connecting instructors, upper management, owners, members and others. This can leave you, as a GFM, overworked and misunderstood. It can also lead to major issues with instructors—issues that, if not addressed, can have a significant, negative effect on your program.
Finding the key to effective communication within a fitness facility is a conundrum. With so many employees to manage, so many customers and potential customers to serve, and so many events to organize, group fitness managers may feel concerned that some information gets lost in translation.
Kettlebells, while not new, are quickly becoming the go-to training method for elevating functional workouts for a wide variety of clients. As long as both trainer and participant receive proper instruction, kettlebells can provide a safe, effective, time-efficient workout that engages multiple muscle groups, including the core. No muscle can escape a “swing” workout, so pick up a kettlebell when you have a chance!
Kettlebell Safety
Group fitness has an amazing capacity to provide enthusiasm, instruction, camaraderie and fun all in one place. But if our mission is to Inspire the World to Fitness®, our teaching must reach beyond the front row and speak to the impressionable newbies in the back corner. With a few subtle adjustments, a group exercise class can become a safe haven for even the most novice participant.
Let’s break down the BEGIN Strategy, consisting of five simple ways to prepare for any participants, whatever their level.
B: Beginner’s Frame of Mind
The new year usually brings with it people eager—yet again—to start their yearly quest for health and fitness, after waistlines have expanded and fitness levels have dropped between Thanksgiving and the end of the year. Whether these participants are coming back from weeks (or, in some cases, months or even years) of inactivity, have a tremendous amount of weight to lose or are true beginners, many of them go to the gym to seek the advice of qualified fitness professionals.
Our past three columns provided base knowledge of budgeting and showed you how to create a C.A.S.E. in order to move closer to getting what you want and need. One thing you must understand and track diligently to support any request for budget changes is cost per head (CPH). In this column we’ll dive into this formula and show how you can use it as objective support when interacting with upper management.
In the January 2009 issue, this column uncovered ways for you to research new programs and products and use the information to make your C.A.S.E. (Consider, Analyze, Strategize and Evaluate) for adding a session or piece of equipment to your group exercise offerings. Now that you’ve built a case that will convince the “big boss” to say yes to your idea, it’s time to check that you understand the basics of budgeting, so that you can be sure the money is available.
Group fitness instructors and personal trainers: are you looking for the next step in your career? If so, you might be interested in moving into management. This move could very well increase your earnings and provide the chance for professional growth in the fitness industry.
Group fitness managers: before you beg your general manager (GM) for new products or programs, gather the financial facts to back up your request. Quite often we lack the tools to present our argument in the way that the person controlling the budget needs to hear it. Gain your GM’s respect by speaking his language: money. You need to view the group exercise department as a crucial vehicle for increasing club membership, retaining current members and building a community within the facility.
Have you ever taken a step back, stumped at someone else’s success in the shadow of your failure, and wondered, “What does she have that I don’t?” Many fitness professionals have thought about the best way to pack a room or retain a client, and everyone has a unique perspective. More often than not, the theories focus on our methods: exercises, equipment, music and cuing…
Every time we turn around, there’s a new
piece of equipment to master and throw into our already overflowing fitness toy
boxes. Whether you are looking for new programming ideas sans equipment because
the well (money or mind) has run dry or whether you want to provide alternative
workouts for equipment-phobic participants, a “no …
Millions of people around the world participate in prechoreographed group fitness programs. The popularity of these classes can’t be ignored, and the instructors must be doing something right. A debate is currently waging as to which instructors are better—those leading the prechoreographed programs or the die-hard “freestylers.” While prechoreographed content may garner differences of opinion,…
Indoor cycling’s popularity is due to a combination of many factors. Almost anyone can do it—regardless of fitness level, age or body type. Recreational cycling’s popularity fuels interest in the indoor option. And indoor cycling allows you to work extremely hard (at a high intensity) with very little impact, which provides a great alternative to other, higher-impact workouts such as running.
One solution is to view your group fitness department as a business. Review your definition of teamwork and develop your team’s belief in the greater good. Learn how to harness talented egos so you can move in a common direction and encourage commitment to a fundamental purpose. The “Integrate to Elevate” success formula is based on The Winner Within: A Life Plan for Tea…
A properly designed indoor cycling program can enhance cardiovascular health, regardless of age or ability level. But you must integrate various intensity levels to get the most from participants. Ideally, cardiovascular training should provide a mix of the following intensity zones (as used in the Schwinn® Indoor Cycling Program):
Zone 1 (easy/comfortable)
50…
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