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Advice for getting tech-savvy and creating an amazing virtual fitness experience, from start to finish, for group exercise class participants.
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What are the benefits of attending someone else’s class, and how do you make the most of your experience as a participant?
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Whether you’re an instructor wanting to add a class to your schedule or a manager feeling pressured to find the right personality and the best fit for an opening, knowing how others handle this decision may guide you to that “perfect match.” Fortunately, experienced program directors from around the world are willing to share their strategies and suggestions.
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Group exercise instructors, take heart: Your leadership skills significantly influence participants’ attendance and effort. Australian researchers conducted a study to examine how an instructor’s ability to create a sense of community and group identity among class members affected both effort and attendance. The study examined 249 participants and instructors across a variety of group formats.
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Jack Welch, American businessman and former CEO of General Electric, once said, “Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” This is the reason the IDEA World Convention exists—to bring together some of the brightest people in the fitness industry so they can grow into greatness and inspire that growth in clients, students, athletes, co-workers and staff.
Comprising more than 330 sessions led by top coaches, entrepreneurs, and fitness, nutrition and wellness professionals, IDEA World offers the full spectrum of education you are seeking for instant and ongoing career growth, regardless of your position in the industry.
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Like many instructors, you may feel as though you’re expected to do it all and be all things to all people. However, you also need to ensure that you are sustaining your own physical and mental health. How do you keep your standards high and your teaching schedule full while also remaining healthy and injury-free? Read on to find out how three avid veteran instructors achieve balance. Their experiences and advice model best self-care practices for a long and successful career.
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Indoor cyclists who wore virtual-reality headsets experienced less leg-muscle pain during brief, high-intensity intervals than cyclists who wore headsets showing static images, according to a study published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise (2019; 51 [10], 2088–97).
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What activities or equipment-based program trends are you seeing in the new year? Are you boosting promotion of any particular programs like high-intensity interval training, indoor cycling, yoga or barre? Or are you offering shorter class times or opportunities for virtual training? Please share your success stories.
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Are happiness exercises part of your training program design? Does that question seem odd? As you embark on a new year of helping clients work toward their fitness resolutions, this is the perfect time to pause and consider how you can use every tool at your disposal to make sure people succeed. Your toolbox includes harnessing the power of positivity to promote physical activity.
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Do you have a 2020 vision?
Do you have a clear view of what you’re going to do in the new year to grow your business even more?
As 2019 closes, it’s important to take stock. What can you improve to ensure a higher-quality customer experience and more revenue in 2020?
Let’s take a look at four areas that impact your business going ahead so you set yourself up to succeed.
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As the health and fitness industry continues to evolve and grow, staff diversity and inclusion efforts are becoming increasingly important. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission mandates that job applicants and employees cannot be discriminated against “because of their race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity and sexual orientation), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information” (EEOC n.d.). However, making a conscious effort to diversify goes above and beyond following the law.
Discover what diversity means and what you should consider as you put together a diverse staff.
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You know the work it takes to get a new customer in the door. You’re spending money on marketing, time making sure your website listings are right, and energy on promotions and intro offers to get the word out. It’s not easy. But remember—it costs less to keep an existing client than it does to acquire a new one. Getting them to return again and again will help you keep your lights on and your business bustling! With that in mind, let’s look at three actions you can take to retain your clients.
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Text messages are a vital part of any good marketing strategy. Studies show us that 98% of marketing-related texts are opened—83% of those are opened within 5 minutes of being received. Those open rates far outpace even the cleverest email subject line, so texting should definitely be in your marketing toolkit. Text message marketing is a great way to retain customers by letting them know about promotions, discounts, and special events in the way they clearly like being reached. With that in mind, let’s look at some things to keep in mind when you’re crafting a text to send to clients.
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Picture yourself training clients or leading a class on a white sandy beach, poolside or in a gazebo overlooking sparkling blue waters. As a certified fitness instructor who travels to teach at a vacation destination, you will get all the benefits of a luxury holiday while inspiring and showcasing your expertise to new clientele. Here are 10 benefits to going beyond your club or studio and exploring opportunities that could lead you to some of the most coveted locations around the world:
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Instagram’s billion active monthly users and 500 million active weekly users demand your attention. If you’re doing any marketing for your gym or fitness studio, it’s a platform you can’t afford to ignore.
But, being strong on the 'gram doesn’t have to dominate your time.
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What has changed with customer service in the last decade, and certainly in the last five years? The intersection of customer service and technology. Nowadays, clients interact more with devices, apps and platforms than they do with a live person. In many instances, these online interactions make for rapid, efficient service.
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Has your program director been hinting that your participation numbers are down? It can be frustrating and challenging to keep your regular participants engaged while trying to recruit new fans. If you’re like a lot of instructors, you’ve probably gone from not having anyone to teach to maybe even having to turn people away due to lack of space! There are many things you can do to keep the participants you have, capture new ones and keep people exercising with you, year after year.
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Do you want healthier knees for your clients (and yourself)? Start from the ground up with IDEA’s latest free course (that’s right, free)! Learn how to program sessions that use the feet to get better results all the way up the kinetic chain and better understand the influence the feet have on knee health.
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Yoga teachers will already be well aware that the yamas are one of the eight limbs of yoga. According to Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, the word yamas can be translated as “abstinences”; in other words, these are things yogis should avoid doing (Satchidananda 2012).
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Exercising in front of a television, computer screen or mobile device is nothing new. Since the advent of VHS tapes, fitness programs have offered users an opportunity to get their sweat on whenever they choose in the comfort of their home. Over the past several years, however, fitness facilities have leveraged new technology to offer virtual classes on-site in hopes of luring exercisers out of their living rooms and into the group exercise room.
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IDEA Fitness Journal
Current Issue:
December 2019
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