Communication
Reaching Millennial Moms
Are you leaning into the rise of millennial moms? These women are part of a generation that’s expected, as of this year, to surpass baby boomers as the nation’s largest age demographic. The 83 million 17- to 36-year-old “millennial” men and women in the United States—combined with Generation Xers—account for 80% of the fitness dollars spent in clubs (Lexington Law 2019; Les Mills 2017). Already fitness consumers, millennial women are becoming mothers.
Why You Need a Client Avatar
Remember the days when all you had to do to usher in a rush of new clients was run a Facebook campaign or a Groupon offer? Those days are long gone. The market is becoming saturated, and fitness facilities are popping up on every corner, each wanting a piece of the pie. Also, consumers are becoming more educated about fitness; they’re more cautious about where they spend their hard-earned exercise dollars—and for good reason!
Using LinkedIn to Generate Leads
Every business owner knows that consumers are spending more time on social media than ever before. If you want to reach prospective clients, you must have a social media presence. Be where your prospects are.
Keys to Motivational Interviewing
Do you want to be a wrestler or a dancer?
This question stands at the center of motivational interviewing (MI), which emerged more than three decades ago to assist people in making difficult changes like overcoming addiction. Health coaches can use MI to help people stop harmful behaviors and start helpful ones. Consider a likely scenario:
Health Coaching: Starting Your Business
Are you excited about helping people to transform their lives through health coaching? You’ve educated yourself, earned certifications, gained practical experience and are ready to start your business. What’s next?
Motivational Interviewing: Talking Their Way to Health
Do you want to be a wrestler or a dancer?
This question stands at the center of motivational interviewing (MI), which emerged more than three decades ago to assist people in making difficult changes like overcoming addiction. Health coaches can use MI to help people stop harmful behaviors and start helpful ones. Consider a likely scenario:
Creating a Client Base for Your Fitness Business
Who do you most want to work with? Since you can concentrate on so many populations or specialty areas as a trainer, it can be challenging to pinpoint what you really want to do. However, if your focus is not clear before you create your fitness business plan, you won’t know who to reach out to, potential clients won’t understand what you do, and your business may be less successful than you want it to be.
Question of the Month: May 2019
Have you or the policymakers at any facilities where you work shared guidelines about positive body talk or about language that could contribute to body shame among members or clients? Share your best practices and illustrative stories on how you or your facility management promote positive body image in staff and fitness participants.
We want to hear from you!
Fitness Pros Influence Body Satisfaction
Women in a group exercise class experienced greater body satisfaction and better moods when the instructor made motivational comments related to strength and health instead of weight or appearance.
The Mobile Health Map: Exploring Telehealth
Telehealth is a huge win for nutrition experts and other wellness professionals. Embracing this ecosystem of wireless devices, digital platforms and mobile apps can give you a competitive edge with clients, who increasingly receive care via telehealth tools.
The Link Between “Tip-of-the-Tongue State” and Cardio Training
It might be time to motivate your senior clients to do more cardio. Evidence suggests that aerobic exercise can improve language skills by positively affecting brain regions associated with language processing. A recent study found that fitness and language skills are related, with cardiovascular fitness levels in healthy older adults directly linked to the ability to retrieve words hovering on the “tip of the tongue.”
Generating Leads With LinkedIn
Every business owner knows that consumers are spending more time on social media than ever before. If you want to reach prospective clients, you must have a social media presence. Be where your prospects are.
The Rise of Virtual 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.
BlogHer: Through My Lens
Health. When you hear that word, what comes to mind? What about when someone says, “I’m living a healthy lifestyle?” What does that mean to you? What does it mean to the world? Today, when celery cleanses and keto diets are all the rage, it appears the meaning of health is directly related to one’s waistline. However, “health,” as defined by the World Health Organization, is “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” (WHO 2019).
East Meets West
If you read this column last month, you know that our team jetted off to Shanghai just weeks after the IDEA® World Convention to host the inaugural IDEA China, August 16–18. This absolute first for a major U.S.-Chinese fitness education event was a sold-out success! Over 1,500 enthusiastic Chinese fitness professionals packed every session over 3 days to absorb the most edgy and practical fitness information available today from a faculty of 28 standout IDEA subject-matter experts.
Can You Benefit From Failure?
Failure: It’s the problematic F-word that the fitness industry rarely cares to discuss. We’ve all experienced failure to one degree or another—and so have our clients. But you’d hardly know it. After all, this is an industry where being positive and motivating is our specialty. We push success, and we push it hard, leaving little room for clients to feel accepted and supported during periods of low success or even spectacular failure. Some people who fall off the workout wagon might simply feel safer fading away from fitness rather than answering to a trainer with a staunch #noexcuses attitude.
On This Day in Fitness History
On September 25, 1974, the first modern triathlon event was held in San Diego, sponsored by the San Diego Track Club. Prior to this, other three-sport events existed but did not feature the swim-bike-run combination. The first triathlon included a 6-mile run, a 5-mile cycle and a 500-yard swim. In 1978, The Hawaii Ironman Triathlon® debuted with a 2.4-mile open-water swim, a 112-mile bike race and a 26.2-mile marathon run.
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.
A for Effort
client: Kent Denver School Students | personal trainer: Laura Bordeaux, strength and conditioning coach, Kent Denver School location: Englewood, Colorado
A complete course load. Think of it as core curriculum—literally. The Kent Denver School, a college-preparatory institution outside of Denver, offers a comprehensive educational experience that emphasizes both academics and sports. That’s where Laura Bordeaux comes in.
On This Day in Fitness History
In June 1956, President Eisenhower called for a President’s Conference on Fitness of American Youth to be held at the U.S. Naval Academy. This meeting led to the formation of the President’s Council on Youth Fitness, later renamed the President’s Council on Physical Fitness. The conference convened in response to a study showing that American children were not as fit as European children in tests of muscular strength and flexibility in the trunk and legs.