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Mo’s Moves January 2019: Challenge Your Plank!
Here is a quick workout you can do anywhere!
Take a break and lean on your desk, windowsill or take it outside. This quick break will challenge your abs and improve your mood!
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Making Fitness a Habit
A habit is an automatic activity we do consistently in our daily lives without thinking about it, from brushing our teeth to walking the dog before work to having a coffee when we wake up.
We all know it’s difficult to kick a bad habit, but kickstarting a good one isn’t easy, either.
Knowing the science behind building a habit can help take the guesswork out of forming good fitness habits.
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Secrets to Aging Gracefully From Fitness Innovator Maureen “Mo” Hagan
We’ve all heard (or used) the phrase, “Age is [...]
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Embracing the Group Mentality
Group X has remained popular for health clubs for one [...]
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Introducing a Meditation Album just for Leaders!
Why You Need This Album
The Harvard Business Review sites Meditation as one of the top Success Habits for the 21st century Leader. Why? Meditation calms & conditions the brain and mind. Through meditation you actually build & strengthen Life and Leadership skills such as Focus, Clarity, Emotional Intelligence & Resilience, Creativity, Empathy and so much more. Top Leadership Expert Mo Hagan & Meditation Coach Angela Kontgen have co created this Album to help Leaders take their Mind, their Life and Leadership to new levels. Whether you are a Leader of an organization or team, an Entrepreneur or simply a Leader in your own Life
– You will love this album!
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What Drives You to Succeed?
As fitness professionals, we are motivated by a deep desire to help people achieve their fitness goals.
The research supports the idea that to succeed at something you must have a motive or a deep desire. Those who are wildly successful have heaps of motivation. While successful people may not always know what they are doing, they have a driving motive that is developed from an emotional state. They do not take no for an answer. When things get difficult, they push through and make things happen, negotiate or influence others as needed, and do not quit until they succeed at reaching their goal(s). That is what motivation is all about. Motivation is regulated by a part of the brain called the nucleus accumbens. This is a small region of the brain that regulates the flow of neurotransmitters between the brain and different nerve cells in the body and strongly influences whether or not you have the desire to do things like go to the gym, eat healthy, and prospect new clients for your business. One of those neurotransmitters worth mentioning is dopamine, because it is this brain chemical, released from this region of the brain, that plays a major role in triggering motivation and reward motivated behavior. Dopamine also influences memory, cognition, sleep, and mood. Behavioral neuroscientists and psychologists say that dopamine helps bridge the gap between inaction and action. Just as important as the hormonal and neurotransmitter factors that influence your motivation to succeed at something, there are social motives unique to humans that drive behavior. Social motives are specific to humans, while physiological motives are present in both animals and human beings. They are called social motives because they are learned, and the strength of one type of social motive or another will vary from one individual to another, which explains why some people have greater levels of drive to succeed than others. The more you understand the social motives you have, the greater the potential to learn how to harness motivation and take success to the next level. The three main social motives are power, affiliation, and achievement. These social motives are what compel you to your goals. If you do not use them, your emotional state will not be revved up enough (like putting your foot on the gas), and your progress will be slower, or you may not reach your goal at all. It is important to know that dopamine spikes whenever something goes better than expected – like feeling better than you expected after a tough workout or when you exceed a set goal. Unfortunately, your brain will get used to that feeling quickly and after a few experiences you come to expect the same “high”. Your dopamine levels will no longer spike quite as high and you will begin to feel less excited about difficult work tasks or different workouts, as examples. In order to keep your motivation high and dopamine spiking, you need to take on new challenges (in pursuit of new goals) every couple of weeks or so. Those who exercise, and those who teach and train, know that to keep motivation high they must switch up their exercises weekly, and their routines every four weeks. Remember if nothing changes, nothing changes.
Three Social Motives
POWER
People who are power motivated strive to exercise strong, influential action, generate strong emotions in others, and are concerned about reputation or position in the world. They seek positions of leadership, authority and status, and they are most often the leaders within their company. They make their life purpose to inspire others to achieve their best and to live a fulfilling life. This social motive is often called “influence motivation”.
AFFILIATION
People who are affiliation motivated strive to establish, maintain, and restore close relationships with others and they characterize group activities as social, friendly, and collaborative. The need for being connected with others, for working cohesively with others, while creating participation is key. They succeed in coaching, consulting, and managerial roles that require relationship building.
ACHIEVEMENT
Achievement motivated people enjoy setting and achieving challenging goals, and they strive for innovative and unique accomplishments. They are very goal oriented and they perform best when they are given deadlines to achieve. To get to know which social motive drives your performance, you need to first tap into your emotions to really see what drives your behavior. Then you need to take daily action to keep your drive revving high. Visualization is an effective way to tap in. Think about a situation in which you are at the centre of attention, such as when you are giving a presentation. Focus on everything—from what you are wearing, what the room looks like, and how many people are sitting in front of you in the audience. Then ask yourself “how do I feel?” If you have a positive emotional response to this situation and you feel confident and strong, that is a sign you are driven by power. If you feel comfortable or somewhat anxious you are motivated by affiliation or achievement. If you were imagining how you could network with the people in your audience, your motive is affiliation. If you are driven by achievement, you envisioned getting over your fear of public speaking or imagined a standing ovation following your presentation. Which motive did you relate to the most in this scenario? If you are eager to learn your dominating social motive then I encourage you to check out my recent book, co-authored by Nathalie Plamondon-Thomas and Tasha Hughes. It is called Think YOURSELF™ Successful-The DNA System To Reprogram Your Brain & Wire Yourself For Success. It will provide you with more insight on this area of motivation as well as a self-assessment so you can determine your dominant social motive.
Wayne Huizenga
Some people dream of success while other people wake up every morning and make it happen.
Think Yourself Successful
Once you have tapped into your primary social motive, you can use this knowledge as a powerful tool to feed your motivation on a daily basis. I have created a 15 Minute Morning SUCCESS Routine, a simple 7-step routine that you can put into practice first thing upon rising each day. This will ignite your motivation spark by changing your state, both mind and body. SUCCESS is an acronym for this 7-step method: Sit in Silence (five minutes of silence and/or meditation to become mindful of your breathing, your thoughts, and your feelings). Understand and identify one strength that you will bring to your success today. (Spend one minute and complete the following sentence “I am………………….. today”.) Construct a picture in your mind of the future and how things will be and feel when you reach your goal. Spend one minute visualizing. Create a mantra or affirmation (positive statement beginning with “I am…”) and recite this statement out loud five times to confirm your belief in achieving your goal (for today or in the future). Spend one minute reciting this statement (best to be recited in front of a mirror). Energize your mind with personal reading or audio listening for five minutes. Scribe in a journal what you are most excited about, proud of having achieved or grateful for on this day, for one minute. Stretch and move to energize and power up your body, with rebounding (aerobic movement) for one minute followed by one minute of “Power Posing”. Perform the following power poses in front of a mirror for one minute while reflecting on your strength, visualizing yourself having succeeded and reciting your mantra out loud (in each pose).
If you are motivated to make SUCCESS a part of your daily life then I will encourage you to embark on a 28 day SUCCESS challenge. Make a commitment to do this 15 Minute Morning SUCCESS Routine for the next 28 days. *Disclaimer: Your mornings will never be the same after 28 days. Join Mo and Nathalie Plamondon-Thomas at the canfitpro world fitness expo in their session “Think YOURSELF™ a Leader”.
Download the Self Assessment
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Jump Start Your Summer!
June is the springboard to summer; a time to reveal ourselves to the world as we take off the layers of clothing and excess weight gained over the winter months.
This is the most popular time of year for people to engage in exercise and a weight loss program. People join fitness clubs, running clubs, group fitness classes and hire trainers in the desire to shed this unwanted weight so that they can look, feel and perform their best, and become the best version of themselves. While 80 percent of the population knows that they need to move more and eat less, the majority of this group do not know where to start and, or they struggle to make eating healthy and moving more a priority in their daily life.
I encourage you to leverage this time of the year to set out a plan for the next three months. Begin with the end in mind. Choose your goal date to accomplish your goal. Make a list of all the reasons why losing weight, getting fit, becoming healthy and achieving your fitness goals is important to you. Visualize this goal being achieved and identify with the emotions that will accompany you achieving that goal—joy, bliss, peace, happiness, pride, etc. Ask yourself why achieving this goal is important to you? Dig deep to establish a “why” that you can get emotionally motivated by. You need to have a strong, emotional reason for wanting to achieve any goal in order to take action on a daily basis. Without a strong and emotionally based “why”, you will most likely struggle to stay on track with your plan and without a SMART plan written down, broken down into weekly and daily goals, you will struggle even more. Consistency is KEY to achieving any goal. As I always say in the fitness classes that I teach, “it is not how much you do, or how hard you do it, but what you do and how consistent you are, that will make the difference long term.
Those who are successful in achieving fitness and health-related goals do three things:
- THEY MAKE NO EXCUSE! Nothing stands in their way of achieving their daily, weekly and monthly goals. They prioritize what’s most important and to ensure they succeed they do the following:
- They have an ACTION plan (with SMART goals written down-Specific, Measure-able, Achievement, Relevant and Timely). They report their progress on their activities to someone who asks to be accountable to, on a daily or weekly basis. Having a coach, trainer or ‘accountability’ person to report their progress to ensures that they achieve the following:
- They are CONSISTENT! Those who achieve their goals are consistent over time. They exercise 5-6 days per week to achieve their fitness goals. They invest in makes needed to support them on their journey to achieving their goal. They prepare their meals and snacks for the week on Sunday (ahead of time). They build their exercise and healthy eating into their life, as a ‘lifestyle. Those who are consistent find a way to fit their pro-actions into action every day. They proactively choose and prioritize their day versus react to the day in front of them.Take action and achieve your fitness and health goals this summer.
To help you, I have created a JUMPSTART program to support you. Click here to learn more. I will personally send you my box full of products, which includes a 30-minute coaching session that will help you set up your plan. Learn More about the package HERE.
This amazing box full of products includes a 30-minute coaching session that will help you set up your plan.
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Awareness — The Power of Fit Relationships for Healthy Aging
My focus on the power of group continues this month as I keep finding research to support it. My latest discovery came out of the November-December issue of The Journal of Active Aging. According to a 79 year old Harvard Study of Adult Development, the world’s longest running study of the factors affecting health in later life, the single most powerful predictor of good health is positive relationships. This ongoing study evaluates a myriad of factors that affect how healthfully participants age. While factors including genetics, diet, exercise, drug and alcohol use, socioeconomic status and intelligence were measured, positive relationships stood out as the most significant; those who were most satisfied in their relationships at age 50 turned out to be the healthiest at age 80. Positive relationships with family, friends and community appear to better predict long, healthy, happy lives than all other personal and social factors. The opposite was also found in that those with absence of close relationships fostered poor health and decreased longevity. So what does this mean for our industry and for your business? By understanding the impact that quality relationships has on overall health and longevity, the fitness industry can promote this as one of the leading benefits of exercising in a group whether that be group fitness classes, small group training or a social ‘club’ within your facility. Dr Jeff Rossman, author of this ICCA journal article titled “Strong Relationships: A Prescription for Healthy Aging” shared his healthy tips for building strong relationships as we age and among them he recommended exactly that—to join groups. He also compared the benefits of positive relationships to the benefits of exercise and said “just as we strive to stay physically active in later life, we need to strive to stay connected with people, as the quality and quantity of our life depends on it”. Another big variable is positivity. Being around people who are happy, who choose to take good care of themselves, and choose to surround themselves with other positive, health-driven goals, is just one more way to develop and sustain relationships. So think about the opportunities you have to bring members together in your club or facility. Look for opportunities to foster healthy relationships with your members. While group fitness and small group training are two proven and powerful ways to accomplish this, think of ways to foster relationships with your new members as early in their membership life as possible. Leading in the front lines at GoodLife Fitness, as a group fitness instructor for the past 33 years, I am witness to the power that group has on people’s lives physically, mentally, emotionally and socially. With this new information I am more assured than ever that what I am doing for the participants in my classes is far more than providing them with an exercise response. It is providing them with a life line.
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A New Lens on Group Fitness—Group Therapy Prescription for Health
Would it surprise you to learn that exercising in a group setting can lower participant stress levels by an average of 26 percent compared to those who exercise on their own. Those in the business of managing fitness programs already know the value that group fitness brings to their club business however what they may not realize is that group fitness may provide even more positive effects for exercisers who experience high stress and anxiety levels. New research conducted on medical students at the University Of New England College Of Osteopathic Medicine supports the finding that group settings for exercise are better when it comes to the psychological and emotional aspects of working out (an unassuming benefit of exercise). A small group of medical students known for experiencing high levels of stress and anxiety and a self-reported low quality of life, were asked to join either a 12 week exercise program, either in a group setting or on their own. The results of this non-randomized study were published in The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, reporting positive implications for anyone with extra stress and anxiety in their lives. Students rated their levels of stress and quality of life across three categories: physical, mental and emotional. While those who exercised on their own, spent more time working out on average, they reported no significant change in stress levels and only a minimal improvement (11 percent) in mental quality of life, as compared to their group exercise counterparts. Those students who chose to work out in a group reported a 12.6 percent increase in mental health, a 24.8 percent increase in physical health and a 26 percent increase in emotional health. These findings not only support other research on the benefits of exercising in a group, it certainly will boost our confidence as leaders and business operators, that group exercise is beneficial for those solo exercisers who have difficulty staying motivated to exercise. Consider it group therapy if you like. I would even go as far as suggesting that group exercise be a prescription for health for many more of our members, not only those who naturally seek out the social camaraderie associated with group fitness but also those members who are looking for ways to better manage their stress and emotional quality of life. As a side note, the author of this study did state that “these findings should not be a condemnation of individual exercise” but rather “as an addition to one’s exercise regime as a solution to improving the well-being of medical students and physicians”. It is my passion to create MO’tion, and keep our industry moving forward in a direction that supports and serves more people. Moving our minds, with new insight like this, is just as important as moving our bodies with new innovation in programming.
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