Technology
Question of the Month
What is the leading trend in your fitness facility? Are wearables, group fitness and HIIT programs the leading fitness activities among your clients?
Share the top fitness activities in your facility and why you think they are successful.
We want to hear from you! Email executive editor Joy Keller, jkeller@ideafit.com.
Wearables Lead 2019 Fitness Trends
Wearable technology—like fitness trackers, smartwatches, heart rate monitors and GPS trackers—are the top fitness trend for 2019, according to the American College of Sports Medicine’s 13th annual survey among industry professionals.
Nutrition Technology Optimization
Can technology improve people’s eating habits? This is the multibillion-dollar question challenging developers. Consumer applications and integrated digital solutions for food tracking, menu planning, grocery shopping, eating out, and nutrition and lifestyle coaching are proliferating. Innovations include scanners that identify nutrients, wearables that gauge real-time calorie intake and breathalyzers that measure metabolism.
Question of the Month
dietary apps or food trackers to your clients?
Please share what apps you’re working with, whether you prefer one app or device to another, and any successes you’ve had with clients.
We want to hear from you! Email executive editor Joy Keller, jkeller@ideafit.com.
Question of the Month
Do you make a point to limit social media use? If so, how do you think that has affected your personal and professional life?
Send your responses to Joy Keller, jkeller@ideafit.com.
Cutting Facebook Lowers Stress Levels
Need to cut some stress out of your life? Researchers from the University of Queensland in Australia say that taking breaks from Facebook can help.
Their study included 138 active Facebook users who were asked to either take a 5-day fast from the social media platform or maintain current usage. Each person self-reported on their well-being and stress levels and underwent salivary cortisol tests before and after the intervention.
Creating Blog Content That Drives Traffic to Your Site
If you own a fitness website, chances are you write a fitness blog and post it on the site. This is crucial for gaining new followers, new prospective customers and, eventually, new paying clients who will help your business grow.
Twitter’s Former CEO Shuts Down Fitness App Startup
Unable to solve the challenge of how to support positive behavioral change, Dick Costolo, former CEO of Twitter, decided in February to shut down Chorus, a social fitness app that began beta testing in April 2017. The app was designed to use a “chorus” of friends as team members and have them support each other in achieving self-proclaimed weekly fitness or other health-related goals.
Question of the Month
When you offer training advice to clients, are you discussing the significance of sleep? If yes, are you using sleep trackers and monitoring results? Please describe how you are educating clients regarding the role of sleep in effective training and weight management and share any success stories you have had.
Share your responses with executive editor Joy Keller, jkeller@ideafit.com.
Exergaming May Improve Independence Among Older Adults
Maybe you’ve thought about integrating exergaming—exercise combined with video games and other elements of technology—into some of your classes or sessions. Don’t forget to include older adults. A recent study found that seniors with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a precursor to Alzheimer’s, showed significant improvement in certain complex thinking and memory skills after exergaming.
Wearable Heart Rate Trackers: Which Works Best?
How accurate are the latest wearable heart rate trackers?
That’s an important question amid the flourishing demand for wearable fitness devices and wrist-worn heart rate monitors. Approximately 1 in 6 consumers in the U.S. uses some type of wearable technology, such as a fitness band or a smartwatch (Piwek et al. 2016). Industry research from 5 years ago predicted sales of 110 million wearable devices by 2018, but shipments of 115.4 million in 2017 have already outpaced that projection (Piwek et al. 2016; IDC 2018).
“Hearables” Are Here!
If you’re a fitness technology geek, here’s something to geek out on: By 2022, more than 285 million “hearables” could be in use worldwide. According to a Juniper Research report, shipments of hearables plus clothing-based wearables are expected to increase more than 60% every year between 2018 and 2022.
Activity Tracker Usage Improves
The initial finding—that people stop using their fitness trackers after the first 6 months—seems to be evolving. In a new study by insurance company Humana, 80% of participants in a structured program were still using activity trackers after 6 months. Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia found that game design elements—such as points, levels, badges and financial incentives—helped to keep users active.
Where Your Career Goes From Great to EPIC
The IDEA World Convention means a lot of things to different people. For some, it’s primarily about updating their skill sets and knowledge to maintain a competitive edge. For others, the connections and relationships they build at the fitness event are priceless in advancing their careers and enriching their lives. Whatever stands out for each individual, one thing unites allIDEA World attendees: an intense desire to create a career that thrives.
Making Connections That Boost Career Success
Question of the Month
What apps do you use to improve your productivity?
Helpful Productivity Apps
Do you struggle to stay focused or cross off items on your to-do list? There are apps for that. Here, five successful business owners share their favorite apps for getting things done:
9 Simple Ways to Keep Your Clients
The success of your business relies solely on your ability to attract and keep clients. Use these tips to enhance the client-trainer relationship so that you can focus more on providing quality service to your current clients and less on finding new ones.
7 Keys to Creating an Unforgettable Onboarding Experience
Do you want to strategically and consistently educate and motivate your new clients so they feel like they’re getting incredible results—and so you’re getting a steady flow of referrals and earning positive social proof? Are you ready to not just deliver but over-deliver? If your answer is yes, then one of your most important next moves is to create a step-by-step onboarding process.
Selfies, Weight Loss and Virtual Support
Social media and selfie photos can play a positive role in helping people achieve weightloss goals, according to a study published in the Journal of Interactive Marketing in 2017.
Learn, Connect and Thrive at the IDEA® World Convention
Education is the foundation of the IDEA World Convention, but this fitness event offers plenty more than stellar instruction. For Jonathan Bernath, publicist-turned-personal-trainer, it’s where he discovered the “fitness family” that would guide him in his new career.
