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.

Are you a generalist or a specialist?  Are you a ‘main-stream’ club that offers a variety of programs and services, or are you a boutique studio that focuses on one area of specialization?  If you know who you are and know what you are best known for, and you are delivering excellent service on that front, you will thrive through these very disruptive times.  If you are trying to become something that you are not, converting your business from a high cost, full service offering to a low cost with less service business model,  you will potentially lose your identity and soon after your members.  Instead focus on your strengths, promote your personal trainers and group fitness instructors like local celebrities, and find ways to build value in what you offer.  The Millennials and Generation Z’s are value focused not price focused.  When you know who you are and know who you wish to serve, then you can focus on what and how best to connect, relate and build relationships with your members and your community.   The fitness industry could benefit further by finding ways to create fast addiction, instant pleasure and low intimidation, as well as find immediate ways to connect and build relationships with members.  The common theme here is speed at which we create impression and leave lasting impressions.   Consider offering your personal trainers opportunities to sell and serve their clients and on-line or even virtually.  Show your group fitness instructors how they can build a social media following of raving fans so that they can promote their classes at your facility.  Offer an on-line joining option for prospects and find ways to get consumers connected with you even if they do not buy a membership or service from you, yet.   Recently I attended the IHRSA European Congress and heard first hand that the average member is doing less at the club with active member participation down to about one visit per week, which is not enough to positively change member retention.  With this in mind I would encourage owners, operators and program directors to review and re-think their value proposition.  Having a 24/7, clean and safe environment is not enough.  As Europe’s leading authority Christophe Andanson shared in his presentation, “The Future of the Fitness Industry”, we must follow “ERIC” (Eliminate, Re-evaluate, Recruit and Create), to be different and to compete.   ERIC represents four things to focus your business on today:  Eliminate the services in your club that are no longer profitable or being used.  Re-evaluate so to simplify your membership and add-on services price options.  Recruit top talent and market them like celebrities; it’s a win-win!  Create social media and technologies to engage the new generations, move your business forward and remain competitive.   Be different to make the difference.  Cultivate a mind-set and business plan (and vision) for success!

In last month’s column I recommended that you take a look at the various fitness industry trends reports to gain insight as to what is influencing consumer behavior and your business.  These trends reports will open your eyes to the opportunities ahead.  Not only will these insights help you make sound business decisions moving forward it will provide you with new knowledge of what is disrupting the industry as we know it today.  Recently I was interviewed by a leading fitness magazine for their feature “Wellness Trends for 2018” and I feel obliged to share these ideas with you.  I feel the fitness industry is making a significant step forward and 2018 is going to be a year of great change, and disruption.  While some trends will remain as strong as they have been for years, others will fall down on the trends list and be replaced by new ‘up and coming’ concepts that will revolutionize the industry by 2020.  The following are three major trends I see for 2018:

Wearable technology and Apps to guide, support and connect exercisers with their workouts and their workout community will stay on the top of the trends list.  It is estimated that by 2018, seventy percent of healthcare organizations globally will invest in consumer-facing technology, including Apps, wearables, remote monitoring and virtual care. The wearables market will continue to expand massively and even those who work out in a formal fitness setting will use more than one App to support their fitness and wellness needs as well as their need to connect with other like-minded exercisers.

Group Fitness will continue to grow and diversify.  Within this group fitness space there will be more variety in programming and fusion-style or “mash-up” workouts will grow because it serves the interests of Millennials.  Almost any style of fitness can be integrated together to create a great fusion workout—Piloxing (Pilates and Boxing), Core De Force (MMA and HIIT), Yoga Barre (Ballet, Yoga and Pilates), NEWBODY (cardio and life-style strength training), BodyFlow (Tai Chi, Yoga and Pilates) and STRONG by Zumba are just a few examples.  Yoga will continue to diversify and expand and be accompanied by Meditation, Zen and Relaxation classes. High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) workouts will remain strong especially among the Millennials.  Almost all exercisers say they are more likely to work out when they work out in a group or with a friend. Over eighty percent of people who exercise say that working out in a group or with a friend makes it more fun.

Exercise prescription and ‘exercise as medicine’ will begin to take its rightful place within the exercise community.  Fitness professionals and health care professionals are coming together in order to meet the expanding needs of the deconditioned market.  As a physiotherapist and certified fitness professional for over three decades I’ve always believed this was possible and now it is no longer possible for health, fitness and wellness professionals to work independent of each other.  The time has come that we work as a team to help build and rebuild the health of all people.   People have the desire to live better.  We need to be prepared to connect, coach and care for them in new and engaging ways.  If nothing changes, then nothing changes.

This month most people begin to return to their ‘normal’ routines following summer break, or at the very least, they begin to wind down their summer activities in anticipation of returning to their regular work-life schedule.  This transition back from summer break seems to be slower and more of a struggle for even your most committed members than in past years.  Typically just before or after the Labor Day long weekend (both in Canada and the USA), everyone begins their return to the gym but this is no longer what we are seeing.  More and more members are delaying their return to the gym and for some members it takes weeks or even months before they walk through our front doors.  So why is it so hard for so many members to get back into their exercise routine and what can we do as program directors to influence their transition back into our facilities and our programs?  Social and behavioral scientists who have been studying non-consistent exercisers’ behavior patterns say that we must make exercise relevant to our clients and members daily lives and connect the benefits to the immediate short term needs of person rather than the long term health benefits.  What if we were to associate immediate benefits to our programs like “boost in energy, mood, improved sleep or productivity”, would that help get members back to the gym and back into our programs faster?  According to the research this works to motivate exercisers as does the following:  choosing easier, more enjoyable workouts that are sustainable over time, making exercise social (working out with a close friend), getting competitive within the group (where people can keep track of each other’s progress) and working out in a group setting.  Once again the research shows that group dynamics have a lot of power over exercise behavior but the key to success is gathering people with similar interests then creating an way for members to track one another’s exercise efforts.  Keeping score in the game is not just for kids.  Think about ways you can incorporate this social and behavioral science into sound strategies for bringing your members back to your facility as soon as summer wraps up.  The sooner we can get our members back into a routine that is enjoyable, social and competitive, the sooner we have impacted their lives for the long term.  I invite you to think of new ways to promote your fall programs and events that will help bring more people back into routine, sooner than later.

The Millennial generation is for the most part responsible for the massive changes in how fitness is now being offered and being experienced.  If you are running a fitness business of any kind you should be aware of how these changes will impact your business both positively and negatively.  Budget clubs are among the fastest growing part of the fitness industry at the moment.  These low cost clubs help make it easy for people to get started and access fitness and while there is no service offered they do fill the demand for almost half of the exercising population at this moment.  Boutiques on the opposite extreme—being small in design and high in price—are also rapidly growing.  This group of exercisers belong to boutiques because it represents to them  a ‘lifestyle’ and they do not mind paying to get exactly what they want.  Virtual fitness classes has shown significant growth around the world and provide owners and operators with opportunities for members to ‘customize’ their own workouts and create their own communities.  Virtual classes (both in-club and via Apps) have been shown to engage members in ways that live group fitness classes do not.  They are available anytime and are less intimidating for members.  In addition to what is erupting as far as change within the club and boutique itself, even more is happening out-side of the bricks and mortar of your business. Today, more than fifty percent of club members have, and use, at least one exercise App and close to fifty percent of consumers, who are not fitness members, also have and use a fitness App.  Virtual coaching (on-line or through a App) is also demonstrating significant growth.  Finally, wearable technology is all around us and while nothing can replace the live, face to face connections that a personal trainer or a group fitness instructor can create, technology is.  Therefore it is time to pay attention and get connected.  Learn how to leverage technology to help support the member community that you have created already.  Get with your team of trainers and instructors and brainstorm ways that you get better connected with your members.  Help your training staff learn how to engage and leverage technology (including social media) so that they can connect with their clients and class participants and trust me they will win as will your business.

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Although you may not find these three trends at the top of this year’s Canfitpro ‘Top 10 Canadian Fitness Trends’ list, there’s something to be said about them. Body weight training, circuit training and boot camps and fusion style group fitness are the trends that stand out to me as a fitness professional. Body weight training is strength training that requires only your body as a weight; moving against gravity as the resistance. Movements such as push-ups, pull ups, squats, lunges and sit ups are the most common bodyweight exercises. Engaging in this type of exercise will help build a great fitness foundation so that you will have the strength and stamina to participate in functional fitness workouts and high-intensity-interval-training (HIIT) – this year’s top two, fitness trends. Once you become efficient and feel confident moving your body, you will be ready to take on more – more intensity, more challenge and more variety. This is the reason that circuit training and boot camps have remained strong in the trends for over a decade. They are both training formats that save time, are highly efficient for achieving results and are adaptable to all levels of ability. Boot camps and circuit training also offer a great amount of variety. You can do this type of a workout virtually anywhere from the home to the gym. The camaraderie with other participants in a circuit or boot camp workout is by far the highest over most other styles of fitness workouts and the coaching you receive feels so personalized despite being in a group. Like circuit training and boot camps, fusion-style group fitness mixes a variety of exercises to create a new workout. Changing up what you do helps you achieve results faster and for longer. There are more fusion-style fitness classes then there has been in years – from NEWBODY, BodyFlow to Piloxing, and SoulCycle to name a few. The large majority of people who exercise fall out of interest quickly and all three of these trend-setting programs offer great challenge and variety that will help keep you motivated with your fitness goals, especially if you are craving something different from your regular routine. Workout Let’s put these trends to the test in a ‘bodyweight fusion-style circuit.’ Repeat the circuit consisting of bodyweight based exercise in an interval fashion (one body weight followed by one aerobic exercise), 2-4 times, alternating sides when applicable, for a total of 20-30 minutes.

• Warm up with 1 minute of light cardio exercise (rebounding on the stop with a light up and down jumping; with feet remaining on the ground), shadow skip or jog.
• Begin the circuit of exercises (1 through 5 listed below) and insert 1 minute of high knee jogging, jumping jacks or skipping on the spot between each of the bodyweight exercise and at the end of the circuit.

Lunge Touch Down
(1 leg) 15 repetitions

Plank Push-Up
(hold plank for 10 seconds, do 5 push-ups)
5 repetitions

Crunch get-up 10 times alternating toe touch (5 each side)

Squat power press
20-30 repetitions

Single leg hip bridge
15 repetitions 

*When you first begin any exercise program, first check with your health professional to ensure you are healthy enough to start an exercise program, and start with the recommended number of repetitions as outlined.

Try these three key poses that will help you [...]

Five poses designed to help relieve stress and tension, [...]

‘Tis the season when stress rises to the top in people’s lives and for good reason. There are many factors that contribute to high holiday stress, the most common include: lack of money (and increasing holiday-related debt), the hustle and bustle of the season, commercialism, family drama, the pressure of giving and receiving gifts, staying on a diet and taking care of children. There is a strategy for managing holiday stress and it is three-fold: “self, save, serve”.

Self

Take time for self-care.  When you are feeling overwhelmed, reflect on aspects of your life that you have control over and that gives you joy. Also, schedule 5 to 20 minutes in your day to get physical.  This includes maintaining a regular exercise routine as best as you can or use physical activity (such as walking), yoga and, or meditation.  Give yourself a ‘time-out’ with physical activity of any kind for as little as five minutes.  Give yourself five minutes at the beginning or end of your day (or when you feel overwhelmed) to try this stress-busting yoga practice. Yoga is a joyful expression of physical movement, breathing, and mindfulness.

Save

Save money and calories by not overspending and overeating.  If overspending is a stressor, set a budget and learn how to track your spending.  Shop with a prepared shopping list and purchase a prepaid credit card to put controls in place for yourself. Avoid overeating by practicing moderation.  Avoid skipping meals (for the sake of conserving calories) and instead, eat as healthy as you can. Do not skip breakfast as this will only increase cravings throughout the day (which will lead to emotional stress, moodiness, and overeating).  Downsize your plate size and your glass size so that you consume less food and drink. Avoid going to holiday socials hungry and drink a glass of water before you consume alcohol or sit down for a meal. This will reduce your hunger.

Serve

Serve others as best you can, recognizing that this doesn’t require perfection on your part, it only requires the best effort. If you are a perfectionist, recognize that everyone else may not be, so do not expect others to meet your standards.  Accept that their standards are for them.  This awareness will help reduce stress for both you and them.  Serve others by performing an act of kindness, perhaps to someone you know who is alone or struggles with the holiday blues.  When you give to others you receive so much in return and it doesn’t have to cost you anything. If you doubt me, try it.

Stress-Busting Yoga Routine

These poses can be done in comfortable clothes, just remove your shoes and anything restrictive (a belt, jacket etc).  Each yoga pose is designed to help relieve stress and tension in your body, calm your mind, center your focus, and help you become aware of your breathing.  You will benefit from performing each pose as outlined in order 1-5 here.  Once you arrive into the pose, spend 30 seconds to one minute in the pose while focusing on your breathing.  Take slow inward breaths (through your nose), pause (to hold your breath for 1-2 seconds), then exhale slowly. Pause then repeat.  As you breathe in, visualize energizing, white light entering your body in your breath. As you exhale, visualize letting go of the tension, tightness and negative feelings you may be holding onto, as grey mist. Give yourself permission to let go. Do not rush through the pose. Spend at least one minute in each pose (30 seconds each side in Eagle Pose). If you have 10 minutes, repeat the sequence again or repeat each pose twice.  Incorporating this 5 minutes stress-busting yoga practice is an effective way to manage stress, boost immunity and beat the seasonal blues.  What a winning prescription for stress management all winter long!

Helps to ground you physically at the same time focuses the mind on a single focal point.  This pose helps to physically release tightness around the hips and shoulders. Helps to quiet a busy mind and bring about a feeling of calmness and letting go, while at the same time releasing tightness in the back, hips, and legs. This flowing yoga vinyasa brings a gentle massage to the spine and abdominal organs and helps to calm the mind, relieve stress and tension in the back and bring back a sense of emotional balance. Helps to bring your body back into alignment by stretching the calf, feet, and toes and lengthening (realign) the spine and provide the perfect pose to bring attention to your breathing. This pose stimulates the heart, diaphragm, and abdominal organs and stretches the tight muscles around the shoulder and chest; is a great pose to help you feel stronger and more grounded. Helps to improve circulation and energize the entire body while improving focus and concentration.

Down Dog

Child’s Pose

Helps to nurture both mind and body, and bring both of them back into balance, helps to lengthen the back of the body, open the front of your body, build strength and bring awareness to your breathing.