Covid-19 Updates
Help Parents Help Kids Get Healthy
We know that the right home environment can lay a strong foundation for health and fitness. Help your clients improve their kids’ health with these suggestions from IDEA member Jennifer Salter, director of Lifeline Personal Training in Toronto:
Rest & Recovery
Are you training for a race or a run or exercising for health benefits? Did you know that recovery from training is actually more important than the training itself, as repair and rebuilding of damaged muscle tissue can occur only during a recovery period.
Charlie Hoolihan, director of personal training for the Pelican Athletic Club in Mandeville, Louisiana, talks below about two crucial steps for recovery:
A Break From Intensity
There’s no denying the growth and popularity of high-intensity interval training. HIIT classes— which also ride on the coattails of CrossFit®—sometimes use fast paced, complex movements against external resistance. While this type of training can yield impressive physical and mental results, it can also lead to injuries and burnout. Why not end your sessions with a mind-body-cool-down designed to calm the nervous system and potentially lessen the chance of injury?
Tribal Fitness
We all want to belong to something. We all want to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. A group. A club. An association.
To reach our highest potential, we need to go beyond thinking of our “customer base” and our “employees” and start thinking of our tribe. You may have a group of clients or a number of employees, but that is not a tribe. In a tribe, people feel a deep affiliation with— and take pride in—your fitness business.
Sleep and Exercise
?Did you know that getting enough zzzzzzs may actually improve your exercise performance? If you regularly cut sleep short, you may want to reconsider this practice.
Why is sleep so important for exercise, and what can you do to sleep longer and more deeply? Mike Bracko, EdD, FACSM, director of Dr. Bracko’s Fitness and of the Institute for Hockey Research, examines these questions.
Why Sleep Helps
Saving a Sinking Ship, Part 5: The Relaunch
The “Saving a Sinking Ship” series has profiled a flailing business called Jacked Up Fitness. Part 1, “Bringing Your Business Back From the Brink,” covered an initial assessment I did that revealed several core issues needing improvement. In response, the facility’s owners made aesthetic changes, improved their systems, revamped leadership structure, added a set of policies and organized their financial infrastructure.
Saving a Sinking Ship, Part 4: Understanding the Financial Structure of Your Business
When you’re looking to build a successful personal training business, having a sound understanding of finances is a must. Most fitness experts possess exceptional interpersonal skills and are able to transform lives. But they often lack the ability to effectively manage and balance a budget and to use it to forecast and take advantage of financial trends. Financial mishaps and misunderstandings can lead to business failure in no time. In this article, I will share several simple strategies that you can implement today to get your business on track to financial freedom.
Saving a Sinking Ship, Part 3: Achieving Excellence in Customer Service
With the recent fluctuation in the economy, businesses have become acutely aware of the need to provide a high level of customer service. Businesses that can create a competitive advantage through the service they provide will find themselves one step closer to success. Those that ignore the value of service will find themselves falling toward failure. In this article, I will share sound principles for creating a culture of excellence in customer service.
Sample Class: Kids’ Kickboxing
Kids naturally love to move. Why not take advantage of their innate urge to wiggle? This kickboxing class not only helps kids strengthen their muscles and hearts; it also teaches body awareness, coordination and balance. You’ll even provide an environment that builds self-confidence; however, students won’t know that! They’ll just remember how much fun they had and will spend the rest of the day showing everyone the cool moves they learned in class.
Saving a Sinking Ship, Part 2: Sprucing Up Your Studio’s Aesthetics
Operating a business can be challenging. Success demands innovation and creativity, and business owners must learn to develop strategies that will separate their business from all the others. What will customers appreciate about one personal training studio versus another? You can distinguish your venue in multiple waysunique equipment, greater square footage and desirable amenities are just a few. However, while these accommodations alone may be effective, they don’t guarantee success and they can be quite costly.
Where’s Your Data?
Suppose your fitness facility is served with a document request. This could come in a variety of contexts, ranging from a government audit to a sexual harassment investigation.
Saving a Sinking Ship, Part 1: Bringing Your Business Back from the Brink
Owning a personal training business can be very rewarding: you can train clients as you see fit, set your own schedule and be your own boss. But being a business…
Join or Start a Walking Club
Do you want to encourage your clients to walk more so they can live longer? According to an American Heart Association (AHA) press release, “Regular walking is one of the most effective forms of physical activity that delivers substantial health benefits and improves heart health.” To make it fun and easy to get moving, the AHA has created the opportunity for walking clubs. The organization has a website where interested individuals can join or create a walking club in their area.
What Do You Think a Trainer’s Role Should Be in Helping Kids Get Fit?
I think the biggest role a trainer has in helping kids is leadership. Lead by example, lead by educating and lead by making exercise fun and enjoyable. The statistics are scary, [indicating that life expectancy for today’s children could be shorter than it is for their parents, because of obesity]. It is our duty as fitness professionals to recognize that children need our help in a lot more ways than we can imagine.
Starting Your Child on a Lifelong Fitness Adventure
Most children are born with a love of movement, but many kids lose this zest for activity as they grow older. Why does this matter? Because research has shown that being physically active is one of the most important things your child can do to stay healthy when he or she grows up.
In light of this, what can you do to nurture your child’s love of movement? Here are some ideas to steer y…
The Walking Workout
Recent research results could hardly be clearer: Taking a walk is one of the best ways to take charge of your health. A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (February 11, 1998) showed that walking briskly for half an hour just six times a month cut the risk of premature death in men and women by 44 percent. A study in the New England Journal of Medicine (January 8, 1997) report…
In Case of Emergency
Whether you call it a disaster plan, an emergency response plan, a crisis management plan or something entirely different, you must put in place a contingency plan for your business—with the hope that you’ll never have to use it.
Setting the Foundation
Start by taking care of some simple foundational elements….
Heart-Opening Breathing Practice
Welcome to Inner Idea. I’m Kelly McGonigal, and today we’ll be practicing a heart-opening breathing exercise.
The intention of this practice is to dissolve restrictions of the heart—both around the physical heart center
Guided Relaxation Script: Breathing the Body
Whether you teach a group or one-on-one, the following guided relaxation script is a great way to lead a full-body awareness exercise.
Moms Take More Than a Walk in the Park
Stops to retrieve fallen rattles don’t slow these mothers’ strides. Stroller Strides, a business specializing in prenatal and postnatal fitness, has its first Arkansas affiliate in Little Rock.
Stroller Strides aims to help mothers achieve and maintain fitness before and after childbirth, according to Lisa Druxman, the national founder.
The basis is a unique …