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Programming

Exercise Programming for Breast Cancer Patients

I vividly remember the day, 4½ years ago, when my best friend learned she had breast cancer. It seemed completely unbelievable—she was only 36 and still nursing her 7-month-old baby! The subsequent weeks and months were a labyrinth of doctors’ visits, tests, treatment decisions, surgery, chemotherapy, radiation and ongoing drug therapies to prevent recurrence. I had heard much about breast cancer, but watching someone close to me undergo aggressive cancer treatment made me wonder if anything could be done to mitigate the challenging side effects.

Don’t Be That Manager: High-Turnover

Many personal trainers are promoted to manager or director solely on the basis of their success as a trainer and not necessarily because of their management skills. Now it’s your turn: you are the new personal training manager. You’re finding out how different being the manager is from working with clients on the floor.

Don’t Be That Manager: The Yes Person

Many personal trainers are promoted to manager or director solely on the basis of their success as a trainer and not necessarily because of their management skills. Now it’s your turn: You are the new personal training manager. You’re finding out how different being the manager is from working with clients on the floor.

Planet Fitness® Eliminates Personal Training

According to the 2010 IDEA Fitness Programs & Equipment Trends report, personal training is continuing to show significant strength and growth potential as a profit center. Despite the promising data, however, the franchise company Planet Fitness has decided to eliminate personal training from its facilities. “The decision to end personal training has been long and arduous,” wrote Planet Fitness CEO Mike Grondahl in a letter to franchisees late last year. “It goes right to the essence of our business model.

Don’t Be That Manager: Micromanager

Many personal trainers are promoted to manager or director solely on the basis of their success as a trainer and not necessarily because of their management skills. Now it’s your turn: you are the new personal training manager.

Don’t Be That Manager: Are You Invisible?

Many personal trainers are promoted to being the manager or director of their departments based solely on their success as trainers and not necessarily for their managerial attributes. Now it’s your turn: you are the new personal training manager. You’re finding out how different it is from being on the floor working with clients.

Incorporating Wellness Into Your Business

My goal as a fitness professional has always been to educate. When I first started personal training I had bosses who told me, “Don’t teach your clients anything—keep them dependent on you for ideas and they will keep coming back!” I believed the opposite to be true, and it was not long before I started my own business.

Turn Your Gym Into a Playground

Personal training can be a demanding occupation. If you are anything like me, after a few years of sustained 40- to 50-hour weeks it’s easy to fall into a rut. When our passion loses its fun, adventurous aspects, it can become a job; one where all we want is to get through the day, hoping that clients don’t notice our lackluster attitude. But ask yourself this: “If I am stale, is it possible that my clients are, too?” Could our clients sometimes be in as big a rut as we are?

Empower Your Evaluations

Welcome to part three of our five-part “Crash Course in Excellence” series with takeaway strategies. This article explores performance reviews in the fitness environment, especially the often overlooked piece of the puzzle called “bilateral evaluations.”

Where Have All the Men Gone?

I must agree that tapping into the male market is trickier than tapping into the
female side (see “Missing the Male Demographic,” Making News, September 2009 IDEA Fitness Journal). I don’t think it will remain a hard sell for the next few decades, however. Having been a trainer for 29 years, I have seen the industry go through a lot of changes. We must not forget that this industry was [populated mainly by men] when it first started. Most of the men joining gyms were tough guys strutting their stuff and intimidating anyone who was smaller and weaker.

Create a Positive Corporate Culture

Retention, membership, sales, customer service–these terms are used frequently when describing the various aspects of running a successful fitness facility. One term not heard as often, yet of equal importance, is corporate culture.

Screening With Meaning

Group fitness instructors are key players in building a successful fitness center. They touch more members in 60 minutes or less than any of your other staff. This quality time can set a strong foundation for program growth, increased revenue, new-member attraction and, most important, member retention. When you consider an instructor’s impact on member experience, the need for a comprehensive …

Decisions, Decisions!

The job title “group exercise director” is becoming more clearly defined as facilities recognize the value in having a strong leader for their programs. Owners and managers know that without a focused principal who is passionate about group exercise, there may be little growth, organization or direction. The instructor team may lack cohesion and accountability. The importance …

It’s a Family Affair

The challenge: The President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports reports on its website that between 1980 and 2002 the number of obese children and teens in the United States tripled. During the same period, health conditions traditionally associated with adults&m…

An Industry Investment

High-quality group fitness classes invigorate participants, members and staff. However, as a fitness director, you know well-trained, motivating instructors can be hard to find. You may have thought about developing your own in-house program to recruit, train and mold future instructors. But how do you get started?
The first step in developing a successful instructor-training pro…