Fitness: Page 131

Market Watch

Amid unprecedented fitness industry growth, health club operators have had to refocus - and often retool - in order to stay ahead of the competition.

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Steady Beat

"Scoring big with consumers, heart rate monitors have rapidly become a fitness industry staple."

Put Things in Context

"The number-one rule guiding the specification and placement of park and playground equipment? Do what feels right for the site."

Novice or Expert: How Professional Are Your Trainers?

Knowing the educational and experience background of your trainers and instructors can help you to hire and train them.THE FITNESS INDUSTRY is maturing and growing, and continued change is inevitable. It was not too long ago that there were only a few organizations certifying and recognizing fitness professionals such as personal trainers. The work of teaching weightlifting techniques, exercise routines and personal training was left to "gym-rats." In those days, it seemed that the only relevant credential for becoming a personal trainer was a muscular physique. Much has changed since then. Biomechanists, physiologists, certified athletic trainers, and other experts on pathology, exercise physiology, nutrition, health and the body are teaching and mentoring the new generation of fitness practitioners.What is a professional and how is a professional defined? These questions have broad implications in the fitness industry, and become central factors when discussing the future of the industry and its standing as a credible and desirable field to enter. These questions are also critical to effective management. The answers influence how managers and owners hire new staff, treat annual performance evaluations, determine raises, determine continuing education needs and many other management-related issues.Classically, there are five levels that professionals progress through in their career. These five levels are novice, beginner, competent, proficient and expert.Experience is not simply the passage of time. An expert personal trainer can take a new client for the first time and immediately fall back to a novice level. For example, say an expert personal trainer with 12 years of experience working with obese diabetic adults is asked to head up a new fitness program for prepubescent athletes. Having never worked with that population, that expert is now a novice all over again, although the learning curve may be much shorter. Experience is based on the contact time, and based on how much refinement and how many life-learning lessons have occurred. FMWhen hiring new fitness personnel, what is it that is most desirable to you? A degreed candidate, experience, personality, leadership ability? As the fitness industry continues to evolve, degreed candidates will become the norm, and eventually will be the standard. So, how do you find who is best in a hiring situation? The answer lies in how they answer your interview questions. If they answer with the proverbial "textbook answer," chances are they are a novice. If their answer is, "it depends," chances are you may be getting someone with real experience. However, if the answer is "it depends," always probe deeper and ask how their answer would be applied in one situation versus another. This can help weed out the novices (if you don't want to hire a novice, that is).Experience is not merely the linear progression of time. Obviously, quality of that experience is a central issue. Even after 12 years of experience, if, for 12 years, it has been done the wrong way, that 12 years of "experience" is worthless. The first year may prove to be worth three years (or more) of normal experiences if those lessons are critically analyzed and learned from. This is where effective mentoring can enhance and accelerate the learning curve, making experiences and failure valuable.

A Friendly Waiver?

Waiver laws change, and so do waivers. Here's what you need to know to protect your facility.

The Gravity Factor

Looking at gravity and its effect on the human body from a different angle."BIG GUNS AND small buns" used to be the motivation behind starting a fitness program. Over the years, the focus has shifted from cosmetic to functional, which has changed the way people work out. One of the most important aspects that came from the "functional fitness" movement is the notion of optimal biomechanics. However, this is not a new concept. This age-old wisdom unites the body's form and function. In exercise, form precedes function, and both are affected by gravity.Gravity was once considered the enemy in the struggle toward fitness and looking younger, but the recent emphasis on body mechanics has helped fuel a re-examination of gravity's role in the functional fitness quest. Today's discussions examine gravity's constant molding pressure and how it can be employed to the benefit of exercisers.Life and motion are constituted through an infinite number of postures. Posture refers to "any position in which the body resides," and can be divided into three common categories: flexed (sitting), upright (standing) and horizontal (lying down). There are also three uncommon postures: extension (leaning backward), brachiation (hanging from the limbs) and inversion (upside down). In the past, extension was considered contraindicated, but it is now widely accepted and practiced. Brachiation has always been welcome in gymnastics, but only recently found mainstream refuge on climbing walls and other emerging off-the-ground equipment innovations, and inversion has found a home in yoga classes across the globe.Dr. Robert M. Martin writes eloquently in gravity's defense. He invented inversion boots and employed a variety of gravity-based innovations in the 1970s and 1980s. "We are living clay, and gravity is like the potter's hands," says Martin. "This is nature's unchanging relationship, so we must move ourselves in ways that allow us to benefit from it."

Where Technology Is Taking Fitness Management

Technology has improved fitness center operations with better tracking methods, and convenience for members and managers.NOT SO LONG ago, the majority of fitness centers made the transition from paper-based accounting and client management to a computer-based system. The next step, already being used by many, is the transition from PC-based software packages to Internet-based, or "hosted," online services. This transition is in step with the general increase in public demand for businesses to offer web-based services. In the last 10 years, people began using the Internet to shop, pay bills, purchase plane tickets, reserve hotel rooms and much more. In fact, a 2004 eMarketer study indicated that 101.7 million Americans shop online. That number is expected to reach 120 million by 2006.Rick Stollmeyer, president and founder of MindBody Online (www.mindbodysoftware.com), credits the move toward web-based solutions to the need for fitness centers to satisfy members. "The clear trend is toward web-based solutions, which allow fitness club management and staff members to connect in real time with members and clients, focusing on their needs and making their experiences more enjoyable," says Stollmeyer. MindBody Online's web-based program, called PT Manager, allows fitness members and personal training clients to schedule classes and appointments online, as well as pay for services.Fitness center members and the public are not the only forces driving web-based solutions. More fitness facility owners and operators are beginning to recognize the benefits of using "hosted" business management tools as opposed to packaged software programs.Jai Lewis, program director at 360 Health Club (www.360healthclub.com) located just outside Los Angeles, Calif., lends a unique perspective with a background in IT and previous work as a computer consultant to San Francisco-area start-ups. When he began working in fitness, he was surprised by the lack of technology in use. 360 Health Club uses a two-system scenario, applying two different products to cover all the facility's needs: Aphelion's PC-based software package and MindBody Online's web-based product. Lewis sees the software industry getting closer to developing one perfect-fit solution. Lewis also believes that web-based programs that allow member interaction will become the norm for all facilities.Software and Internet developers are constantly seeking new innovations and ways to advance business-management programs. One emerging factor that will affect the fitness industry is the pressure for health insurance companies to cover activities deemed to be "preventive health" measures, such as exercise.

Weight Machines vs. Free Weights

Weigh the pros and cons of training with machines compared to free weights by using the following guidelines.WHEN I WAS in eighth grade, I broke the school record for chin-ups. I still have the certificate of achievement from the school's principal proudly displayed on my wall. Heck, I still brag about the accomplishment to others. It doesn't matter that it was so many years ago, or that some tough kid has probably come along since to break my record. At the time, I had the strongest biceps and forearms in junior high. I used chin-ups to show off to the girls in class. My mother even bought a chin-up bar and attached it to my bedroom doorframe so I could train at home. I did chin-ups every day. What I learned from doing those hundreds of chin-ups is this: There is more than one way to train a muscle.Weight machines. Most traditional weight machines allow only single-joint exercises, with movement occurring in a single plane. Since weight machines guide movement, they do not recruit muscles other than those specifically targeted by the machine. This apparent lack of freedom does confer one advantage: Weight machines allow lifters to isolate specific muscles or parts of muscles, which is of interest to bodybuilders and others who want to shape a specific body part.Weight machines. Since the assessment of strength requires the use of either weight machines or free weights, the outcome of any experiment comparing the two types of weight training will likely favor the kind of training that uses the same type of equipment as the strength measurement. Studies testing strength (one-rep max) using equipment or a type of exercise different from that used in training have found similar gains in strength between weight machines and free weights.3, 4, 5Weight machines. Weight machines do not provide much flexibility in designing or performing workouts. For example, while manufacturers of weight machines try to accommodate as many different body sizes as possible, there is still a limit as to how many adjustments can be made in the seat or arm settings, rendering the exercise to be performed in a relatively fixed position. Since each traditional weight machine is designed for a specific exercise, only the intended exercise can be performed with each machine. In addition, training progression is often problematic, as many weight machines are restricted to 10- to 20-pound increments.Weight machines. From a management perspective, weight machines obviously represent a greater expense than free weights, including both their initial purchase and their maintenance. For a given cost, fewer people can be serviced at a given time with weight machines. Plus, you get a lot less for your money, with members only able to use the machine for one or two specific exercises.Despite the inability to alter their resistance at stronger joint angles, and the slightly greater risk of injury, free weights still have the overall strength-training advantage because of their training specificity, workout flexibility and superior stimulus for increasing strength. Possibly the most important reason for using free weights is that, while weight machines allow lifters to train muscle, free weights allow them to train movement.

Proactive Emergency Response

It is critical that your staff members know how to react properly, without hesitation, should an emergency occur.Your fitness facility and spa must have well-thought-out, written and rehearsed emergency plans. This is more than just making sure your staff members are CPR-certified or know how to call 911. It is critical that your staff members know how to react properly, without hesitation, should an emergency occur.Your exposure to litigation that may result from an unfortunate accident at your facility is greatly increased when you do not take thorough measures to ensure that all of your employees are well-trained on how to react to emergency situations. Make sure that you have written documentation showing such training and rehearsals for all of your employees. Many times, weekend or part-time employees are left out of monthly staff meetings, and do not have a full grasp of emergency procedures. Personal trainers, group exercise instructors, spa personnel, and maintenance and housekeeping staff may also be left out from these monthly meetings, or even from being trained at all in safety procedures. Spa employees, such as massage practitioners, may only be "on-call," part-time or contracted employees. Include them in your regular training of emergency procedures, as well.Your fitness and spa equipment need to be routinely checked and maintained to ensure that they are safe. Whirlpools, saunas and steam rooms need to be checked for proper operation, and to make sure that they are within safe limits of temperature or environment. Spa equipment needs to be placed on regular maintenance checklists, as well, particularly those items that involve electricity, such as skincare equipment or waxing units that could result in electrical shock.Keeping proper maintenance records and documentation on all of your training efforts for emergency procedures is not only important from a liability standpoint, but it is first and foremost your responsibility to provide a safe facility for your members and guests. Ignoring them or thinking that, "I have been in the business for 10 years, and I have never encountered a life-threatening situation," is not only naive, it is negligent. By not providing sound emergency procedures and training on how to react to emergencies places your members, guests, employees, company and yourself at great risk.

Choosing Nutrition and Fitness Software

Know what features are best for you and your members when looking for fitness and nutrition software.IF YOUR FITNESS center does not use nutrition and fitness software, you might be earning less than you could. You may be working too hard and serving too few clients when creating fitness and nutrition plans. Your work could be less accurate and less thorough than it should be. Without nutrition and fitness software, you may be less productive and less profitable.Nutrition and fitness software should allow you to calculate your clients' calorie and exercise needs for them to lose, maintain or gain weight. It should also allow you to perform fitness tracking (exercises, activities, calorie expenditures); intake analysis (analysis of food records); information tracking (body weight, body fat content, measurements, body chemistry, etc.); and recipe analysis. These functions help you to generate exercise prescriptions, a variety of informative handouts, detailed reports and professional eating plans.One type of report that is popular with fitness centers is the calorie expenditure report. This type of report may go by a variety of names, but, basically, it shows how many calories would be used for each individual in a variety of activities. The report has the client's name and their most current body weight at the top of the report. It then lists a hundred or so activities and exercises, and the number of calories that this person would use in performing any of these activities for 30 minutes. If you give clients a goal of using, say, 250 calories per day, they can look at their calorie expenditures report and determine which activities they want to perform and for how long. They can mix and match exercises to reach their daily goal.Like the calorie expenditures report, a customized assessment report is easy to produce. This report can be used as an incentive to join your facility or to hire a personal trainer. To create one, a "setup file" is used to control the contents and formatting. Information about the client (first name, last name, current body weight, desired body weight, daily calories to maintain current body weight, daily protein goal, etc.) is inserted wherever you want this information to appear in your report, and as often as you like. You can make your setup file as long or as short as you wish. Some products will let you create different setup files for clients who are losing, gaining or maintaining their body weight. Some products even provide "batch processing" so you can generate these assessment reports automatically for dozens or even hundreds of clients in a single pass.A fitness manager component is useful for tracking calorie expenditures from a wide variety of activities. Look for the ability to edit, delete and (especially) add new activities. Make sure that all calorie expenditures for added exercises are calculated based on the client's most current body weight. You'll also want the ability to enter results from workouts on different types of fitness equipment. Look for the ability to enter data from an indirect calorimeter (like the MedGem or BodyGem). Look for an override of calculated values (for instance, if a doctor prescribes a 1,000-calorie-a-day goal, then you should be able to enter this easily). Look for the ability to set up and track exercises based on target heart rate training methods. Look for packages that help you create workouts by combining exercises and scheduling them. The ability to organize exercises into categories is a plus. A "gym log" that lets you fill in exercises, reps, sets, durations, etc., and allows you to print them for clients is also a useful feature. Some nutrition and fitness software can graph your clients' exercise calories used over time, or exercise calories used compared to weight change.Look for software that asks you to provide a "beginning" and a "desired" percent body fat, then calculates the client's ideal body weight based on the assumption that all weight loss will be fat, and all weight gain will be lean body mass. It will be up to you, of course, to assure that the client's exercise regimen is sufficient to make these assumptions hold. Look for software that will graphically track your client's progress by plotting body fat content over time, body weight over time or both.A multi-day food intake report (also called "food recall" or "food record") makes it easier for you to make useful dietary recommendations to your clients. If you find that clients are taking in 57 percent of their daily calories from fat, and that they think nothing of eating cheeseburgers, fries, potato chips or milkshakes, your recommendations will follow logically from your nutrient analysis.Although most professional nutrition and fitness software place no limits on the number of clients you can track, they vary considerably when it comes to implementation and management of client data. Top products allow you to track exercise data and nutrition information, as well as information like name, age, gender, weight, etc. They let you assign your clients into folders so you can organize them by affiliation (trainer, company, group exercise class), special needs (weight loss, bodybuilding) or any other criteria you want to use to organize your client list. The better nutrition and fitness software products provide you the ability to track clients' contact data in an integrated database that you can export on demand into a format suitable for use with your email program for mass mailings (like a nutrition newsletter, fitness center newsletter or special offers).Look for nutrition and fitness products that have a nutrient database that is wide (many nutrients) and deep (many food items). Some products track only a few thousand food items, while others provide information for tens of thousands. The number of nutrients tracked range from as few as 20 to more than 150 (vitamins, minerals, amino acids, fatty acids, etc.). Look for a good representation of brand-name foods, restaurant menu items, supplements, and "sport nutritionals" such as exercise recovery drinks, power bars, shakes, bodybuilding formulations, liquid meals and weight-loss products. Look for the ability to add food items, and for the ability to track additional nutrients that your software may not currently track.You may also want to look for software that offers professionally prepared recipes. And make sure you can organize your recipes into categories (bodybuilding, weight loss, vegetarian, hypertension, etc.). It's a waste of time to have to manage hundreds of dissimilar recipes that are lumped together into one huge listing. Having a ready supply of recipes will help you to use them as building blocks for custom meal plans.The advice for recipes is also good for meal plans - choose a software package that offers a wide variety of ready-to-use meal plans. Meal plans are collections of recipes and foods that have been organized into three meals and three snacks (or more) per day for some time period. These plans are designed to address a variety of "special needs," like weight loss, bodybuilding, vegetarian, diabetic, healthy heart, low-carb, hypertension, vegan and so on. Professional meal plans for one special need at, say, eight calorie levels can take a registered dietitian many hours to develop, so creating all of your own from scratch may not be feasible for your business. Software can simplify the process. Be sure you can record a whole meal plan to a client's intake record, since this will save you hours of entering all of the foods and recipes for every meal and snack. Also look for packages that offer each meal plan at several calorie levels. And, finally, look for meal plan editing functions so you can modify any existing plan to suit the needs of any particular client, or use them as the starting point for new plans.Increasing numbers of fitness professionals are using email and the Internet to communicate with clients and market their services. This is a good reason to select nutrition and fitness software that takes advantage of the Internet and its capabilities. Look for software that allows you to save reports (like recipes or intake reports) in a customized webpage, spreadsheet, word processor or PDF format. (PDF files can be posted to your website as a page, or sent to your clients as an email attachment.) If your software contains an integrated client contact manager, look for the ability to export client names and email addresses into a format suitable for use with your email program. If your software supports a web-based questionnaire, you can use it as a marketing tool.The primary output from nutrition and fitness software is the report. Therefore, client reports are not the place to cut corners. Provide your clients with colorful reports on quality paper - let your report convey professionalism and value. Make sure your reports are easy to understand, useful, polished and comprehensive. If your reports are outstanding, you can improve your reputation with your clients. Professional reports will help you win your clients' confidence and trust, and the word will get out.Look at the purchase of nutrition and fitness software as an investment. The more the software can do for you, the more services you can provide to members. And, the more services you can provide, the more quickly you'll recoup your investment. There are a variety of factors (like the features and capabilities discussed above) that you should consider when selecting the ideal nutrition and fitness software package for your needs. Look toward the future and consider going for more capability than you think you need right now. But there are also a number of general considerations you should evaluate, no matter which package you select.Before you lay down your money, do your homework. Educate yourself. Visit company websites. As you learn about capabilities you believe will be useful, add them to your list of "must-have" features. Email questions to the companies who market the products that sound promising. Follow up with phone calls. Listen to the software maker's sales pitch. Get the answers you need. Take notes. Discuss your options with your associates. Then narrow your choices down to the single best product for your particular needs. If you've exercised due diligence, you won't waste time wondering if you made the right decision.

Identify Your Talents, Build Your Strengths

Clearly and accurately identify your talents by looking at your top-of-mind reactions, yearnings, rapid learnings and satisfactions.Have you ever found yourself in a job that didn't use any of your strengths? If you did get back into a position that used your strengths, it is likely because you acknowledged your talents and refocused your life around them. If you're still off your "strength path," the key to getting back on is to identify your talents and find ways to use them. Clearly and accurately identify your talents by looking at your top-of-mind reactions, yearnings, rapid learnings and satisfactions.Monitor your spontaneous, top-of-mind reactions. Observe the way you react in situations you encounter. While reactions under extreme stress reveal dominant talents, thousands of situations in your daily life provoke revealing reactions.Yearnings reveal the presence of talent, especially when felt in early life. At an early age, did you find yourself drawn to certain activities and repelled by others? Childhood passions are created by various connections in the brain. Weaker connections have weaker pull, while the strongest connections are irresistible. They have a magnetic influence, pulling you and igniting a yearning. Yearnings reflect the physical reality that some of your mental connections are stronger than others. No matter how repressed the yearnings are, they will keep calling you.Rapid learning offers another trace of your talents. In some cases, a talent doesn't present itself through a yearning; it is silent. To discover a silent talent, something needs to spark it. Once it has been ignited, the speed at which you learn a new skill provides the tell-tale sign of the talent's presence and power.Satisfactions provide the final talent clue. If it feels good when you perform an activity, there's a good chance you're using a talent. You either feel it or you don't. Identify positive activities that seem to bring you psychological strength and satisfaction. Then, look deeper. For instance, if you've had a satisfaction at work due to overcoming an obstacle, challenge yourself to identify what specifically gave you the satisfaction. Did you appease an angry member? Did you develop and implement a creative and effective marketing program with a decreased budget? Did you increase new member sales without undercutting prices and in light of a downswing in the economy? Pay close attention to the situations that bring you satisfaction. Identify them, and you will be well on your way to pinpointing your talents.

Immunity and Physical Activity

Does exercise strengthen the immune system? It helps to have an understanding of the immune system and immunity.To answer your client's question, it helps to have an understanding of the immune system and immunity. Your body provides resistance to pathogens such as bacteria and viruses in many ways. Scientists classify the components of immune function into two basic categories that make this enormously complex system easier to understand: nonspecific and specific resistance.As usual, whether the effects of exercise are good or bad have to do with the question of balance. In general, regular physical activity strengthens both nonspecific and specific resistance. However, too much exercise, especially prolonged exercise such as running a marathon or suddenly increasing training volume, can decrease both nonspecific and specific resistance. Studies have observed less activity in several types of immune cells, including natural killer cells, phagocytes, and the B and T cells, after prolonged training. This may explain why many athletes find that they get sick after a big competition.

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