Business of Group Fitness
Virtual Group Fitness Classes
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.
November 2019 Question of the Month: Is Social Media a Nutritional Black Hole?
Nutrition advice from social media “experts” is best viewed with a huge grain of Himalayan pink salt, says new research presented at this year’s European Congress on Obesity. British researchers at the University of Glasgow recently combed through popular U.K. nutrition and weight loss blogs to determine how much of the advice being dished out was trustworthy. The social media influencers were graded on transparency, nutritional soundness and use of research-backed references.
To Break the Sugar Habit, Dial Down the Blue Light
Being glued to your smartphone at night may not be so smart if you’re trying to stick to a healthy diet. In research presented at the 2019 conference of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior, in the Netherlands, rats exposed at night to just 1 hour of blue light—the same type of light emitted by many digital devices like smartphones—consumed more sugar afterward than when they were not exposed to blue light at night.
Could Gaming Help People Eat Better?
As we become better informed about the potential pitfalls of too much screen time, findings in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine suggest that sitting in front of a computer to play a diet-focused game may drive people to trade in their candy for cauliflower!
Overcoming Pain to Stay in the Fitness Game
More and more people choose exercising at gyms and studios to stay healthy. The trend is occurring across the age spectrum, from baby boomers to millennials. Americans choose the convenience, expertise, and comradery found at gyms and studios to stay at their fitness best.
How to Make First-Time Gym Clients Feel Welcome
Your gym should be a welcoming space.
First-timers should feel comfortable—and wanted—walking in and working out or taking classes.
Not only is being welcoming an important part of the human contract, but it’s doubly important for your business. First-time customers, of course, can become repeat customers and even members. Making sure their first experience at your gym or studio is positive is important for your bottom line.
How to Prepare for Shopping’s “Busy Season”
As the holidays approach, so does the three-day Super Bowl of Shopping.
Black Friday (Nov. 29), Small Business Saturday (Nov. 30), and Cyber Monday (Dec. 2) are all circled on any good bargain-hunter’s calendar.
Enticing them can mean a chance to bolster your retail sales. AND, if you present the right deal, you can earn a customer who will return again and again.
Providing Excellent Customer Service in the Digital Age
Outstanding customer service has always been the number-one way to attract and retain customers, clients and members. In recent years, the notion of great customer service has changed as a result of high expectations from informed consumers. This switch has occurred in large part because people can “connect” with a company easily and quickly through a multitude of channels, both offline and online.
Get Out of the Red!
Is your fitness business not performing as well as you’d like? Maybe your fitness facility is experiencing too much turnover, so you’re constantly training new staff instead of taking time to grow your business. Or perhaps your clients are leaving, and you’re losing money because of it. Challenges like these are tough for a business owner. The good news is that you can turn things around. The first step is to determine exactly what your problem is. The second step is to create a plan for change.
Embrace the Future of the Fitness Industry
The fitness industry has never been so exciting, and there is so much renewed interest in wellness and our collective desire to seek optimal health. The concept of a “traditional gym” has slogged it out for about 50 years, starting in community halls and evolving into big-box gyms, budget clubs and boutique studios. Adjacent industries—such as entertainment, health, athleisure, franchising, food and hospitality, social media and gaming—are investing money.
The World’s No. 1 PT & Coaching Software
IDEA has the pleasure of introducing to its valued members the world’s number-one personal training and coaching software, My PT Hub.
Since 2015, My PT Hub has grown to become the No. 1 software tool enabling Personal Trainers to manage their entire fitness business. The software has a vast and extensive set of features that have been carefully designed and crafted by personal trainers, for personal trainers.
Optimizing Your Fitness Site for Sales
Nowadays, a top item on an entrepreneur’s to-do list is building a website. It’s no secret that consumers do their research online before making a purchase decision. They search for information about fitness services and then weigh their options, comparing what you offer to what your competitors provide.
So, yes, your business needs a website.
Get Your Fitness Business Ready for the Holidays
Whether you’re getting your first frost warnings or temps have dropped from 100 degrees to a balmy 95 where you live, summer is just about over.
That means it’s time to plan for the holidays at your fitness business and the ensuing new year’s rush.
Minimalist Shoes and Stronger Foot Muscles
Minimalism is trending in many areas of life, including athletic shoes, with many fans touting numerous benefits. But does the evidence support the hype? Yes, according to research findings published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise (2018; doi:10.1249/MSS.0000000000001751). Walking in minimalist shoes is as effective as foot-strengthening exercises and may result in better compliance than doing specific exercises.
Social Media Influencers Give Inaccurate Health Advice
Have you been frustrated by bad health and fitness advice doled out by social media influencers? You’re not alone, and if you sense that much of the popular online health information is wrong, you’re right! A recent study of key U.K. social media influencers’ weight management blogs—presented at the European Congress on Obesity in Glasgow, Scotland, in April 2019—showed that most influencers were not reliable weight management resources.
Put Down the Phone While You Grocery Shop
It’s not a good idea to be a distracted driver when pushing your shopping cart. A study with modern-day relevance found that people who used their phones for “shopping-unrelated” tasks—like scrolling through a social media feed or volleying text messages with a friend—purchased more unplanned items than people who didn’t use their phones while grocery shopping. And were those items a head of broccoli or a pint of blueberries? No, the purchases were mostly nutritionally poor, packaged foods.
3 Ninja Client-Boosting Strategies for the End of Summer
It’s the end of summer, and either your clients are returning from hiatus—wanting to reconnect with you and their fitness programs—or you’re looking for ways to keep the wellness momentum going as fall approaches and the start of school and cooler weather threatens to throw schedules off-kilter. You’re in the thick of it now, and this transition is a prime opportunity to offer unique strategies to keep people fired up.
5 Steps to Better SEO for Your Website
Search engine optimization—SEO—isn’t black magic. It’s all about creating readable, searchable content. That way people can easily complete their tasks and learn what they need to learn from your website.
If you do that well enough, your business’s website should rank more highly on Google and other search engines.
Increase Income by Diversifying Services
Do you worry about the financial impact of getting sick or injured? Does taking a vacation mean a financial loss for you? As a studio owner or fitness entrepreneur, you have only so many hours in the day to market and run your business and focus on your own professional education and development.
Retention: 5 Tips for Group Fitness
If you’ve been teaching group fitness classes for any length of time, you’ve likely experienced the dreaded student walkout. It’s the end of class—and time to stretch—and a portion of the class members start putting away equipment and heading for the door. Participants in certain classes are guiltier than others (cycling instructors, are you nodding in agreement?).