Industry Issues/Trends
Elevate Your Career and Live Your Passion
Your purpose as an impassioned personal trainer, manager and owner is to deliver life-changing fitness experiences for your clients. It is also up to you to invest in yourself so that you can become the fitness leader your community deserves. The best way to do that is to surround yourself with people who have already succeeded and can show the way.
Find success for your personal training business
If you want to know how to become a successful personal trainer and influential leader to your clients, you need to invest in yourself as a professional. How? Seek out resources, people and a personal training business plan that will enhance your career. The good news?
Gender Equity in Fitness: Are We There Yet?
Is there an issue with gender equity in fitness, where women represent more than half the frontline workforce? Let’s investigate.
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.
On This Day in Fitness History
On November 7, 1869, the first cycling race to cover a distance between two cities—123 kilometers, or 76.4 miles—was held between Paris and Rouen, France.
People Are Talking About . . .
. . . how more doctors are writing park prescriptions or urging
participation in “Park Rx” programs to encourage physical activity and promote outdoor recreation in public lands;
. . . Halotherapy, a form of dry salt therapy that involves sitting clothed in an enclosed room and breathing salt air for detox and recovery;
. . . the rise in biohacking, a session in a cryotherapy chamber (with freezing temperatures), followed by lounging in an infrared sauna.
IDEA World Fitness Award Recipients
Experienced fitness professionals know that the exercise experience is not just a set program of squats, pushups and lunges. It’s key to consider each client as a unique person with unique needs. Fitness pros who truly listen and connect with their clients are better able to guide them toward a fit lifestyle.
IDEA Member Spotlight
Tasha Edwards • Member Since 2013 • Madison, Alabama
2018 IDEA® World Scholarship Recipients
In partnership with ACE, IDEA co-founders Kathie and Peter Davis have established the IDEA World Scholarship Fund, which provides selected recipients with a registration for the event as well as financial assistance for related travel expenses.
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.
The Importance of Exercise for Addiction Recovery
Substance use disorder can wreak havoc on people’s lives. Fitness activity can be a
transformative way for those in recovery to heal, rebuild their lives and find a community of healthy supporters.
According to a study published in Mental Health and Physical Activity in 2011, patients with substance use disorder who exercised while in recovery reported feeling greater strength, improved health, a sense of accomplishment, and increased confidence about staying clean and sober.
Comprehensive Research Project on How to Create an Exercise Habit
24 Hour Fitness® is partnering with the University of Pennsylvania Behavior Change for Good Initiative [BCFG] to support research into what works best for creating lasting exercise habits. With an interdisciplinary team of world-renowned researchers, the BCFG addresses the broader question of how to make positive behavior change stick in aspects of life related to health, education and savings.
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.
Strong Starts
The warmup. Is it simply a time for small talk while people trickle in, or is it an opportunity to ignite attendees’ best efforts? This may be the class section that fitness instructors plan the least, yet devoting some time to designing the warmup is really worthwhile. Why? Because starting on a strong note significantly affects the outcome of the entire workout. We want our participants to get the most from our classes, so let’s set them up for success.
How to Help Participants Find Flow
For a moment, think about your own workouts. Tap into that feeling of being completely absorbed in your favorite fitness routine. Everything else fades away, and your entire focus is on the present moment. You feel confident in your body’s abilities, you’re challenging yourself, and you find great meaning in what’s happening now. You’re in the zone. Before you know it, your workout is over, and you can’t wait to do it again.
Pilates for Recreational Athletes
Professional athletes of all kinds have discovered that adding Pilates to their training can improve performance, reduce injury, speed recovery, and help their hardworking bodies stay balanced and healthy (Caple 2016; Knowlton 2016; Saxon 2016). Pilates—a whole-body exercise system that can help you develop strength, functional flexibility, coordination and balance—can offer those same benefits to recreational athletes. A well-rounded program, particularly one offered in a fully equipped Pilates studio, can do wonders for athletes of almost any age, ability or sport.
The Group Dynamic
clients: Ben, Pat, Jacob (trainer), Jeanine, Tania, Jennifer | personal trainer: Jacob Trione, CEO and Founder, Triaffect Fitness | location: Clear Lake City, Texas
Phytoestrogens and the Safety of Soy
Are phytoestrogens safe? The growing popularity of soy products in U.S. and European diets has raised considerable controversy.
2018 IDEA® World Convention: An Epic Explosion
While life may not always be a highlight reel, thousands of the best personal trainers, group exercise instructors, fitness entrepreneurs and nutrition/wellness professionals added significant footage to their lives at this year’s IDEA World Convention, where everyday actions became epic adventures in education. At the 2018 event, held in San Diego, June 27–July 1, more than 14,000 like-minded pros converged to learn from more than 350 workshops and workouts taught by the industry’s keenest minds.
