All posts by roger

My pathway to yoga teacher training

Fitness and Yoga, , , , , ,

yoga teacher training

I had already embarked upon my journey to be a fitness instructor (whilst juggling the demands of my marketing day job) when I met a remarkable Yoga teacher. His name was Michael French and he held lessons at dawn and evenings in a pavilion overlooking Grand Anse Beach in Grenada.

He didn’t subscribe to a specific style of Yoga but mixed elements of pure Hatha, Ashtanga and Vinyasa. His teaching style was calm but motivational, with very clear instructional cues. There was also something quite spiritual about him, even though there was little spiritual emphasis to his teaching. He just had a presence.

Those classes on that holiday sowed some seeds. I nurtured a desire to become a Yoga teacher in the months and years that followed. And later as I qualified to be a Group Fitness instructor, the desire grew stronger.

I investigated the different Yoga disciplines. Unfortunately I encountered as much snobbery from some as I experienced help from others. As I went to more Yoga classes, and then later as I qualified as a Body Balance instructor, I realised that I did not want to be tied to one style. I wanted the freedom to explore, to experiment and to grow in myself but ultimately to reflect this freedom with my ultimate customers.

Eventually I found The Level 3 Yoga course through Group X Training – a modern NVQ course that lets you learn and teach as you develop. It more than fitted the bill and what’s more it is recognised by the Register of Exercise Professionals (REPS). It gave me advanced anatomy and physiology knowledge, advanced instruction techniques, and a general Yoga framework upon which I could develop a style that suited me and my customers.

As a result of this I am now offering a general Hatha Yoga class and a more challenging Power Yoga session based upon Ashtanga principles but not constrained by that repetitive format. But I have successfully taken Ashtanga classes and received appreciation from that ultimately challenging clientele.

The journey has only really just begun, but I often think about Michael French and I set out to find him.

The internet only revealed an old email address and one photo from a speech about Yoga he once made in Skegness. I wrote to the organisers of the speech (not knowing when the event had actually taken place) and waited.

Michael got in touch recently. He left Grenada after the hurricane and came back to the UK and carried on teaching Yoga. Unfortunately he almost died from a serious heart condition and his doctors thinks that it was only the fitness that came from his Yoga practice that got him through the treatment.

Although he lives at the other end of the UK – we will teach together one day.

Pippa’s posterior and the power of social media

Marketing, , , , , , , , ,

I saw a headline the other day proclaiming that “Yoga can give you Pippa’s Posterior”. This is just one of millions of references to this now famous rear, but one that attracted my attention more than most due to its link to Yoga and fitness.

Whether you are a fan of the monarchy or not, no one can deny the sheer spectacle of the Royal Wedding and the resultant media frenzy it created. With so much doom and gloom in the world at the moment – the endless talk of coalition cuts, natural disasters, wars and terrorist atrocities – the chance to have a day off work and indulge in some pomp and circumstance was for many the panacea to the winter blues.

The usual celebrities were on hand. Elton John lending his vocal talents to the hymns alongside Victoria Beckham who was actually thought to be singing live as opposed to miming. And as the Queen of PR and original wag she didn’t miss the opportunity to wear an outfit from her own collection.

pippa's posterior power of social media

There were fashion failures with some of the hats resembling rejected monster costumes from the latest series of Doctor Who. And there were fashion triumphs as well, with Pippa Middleton’s tight fitting dress creating a wave of admiration across the world. Many column inches have been devoted to her eligibility and to the quality of her attire. Facebook pages have even been set up in admiration of the shapeliness of her bottom.

I cannot actually believe the number of blogs and the pages of tweets that have been posted on the subject of the bride’s sister’s behind, some of which are incredibly well written and funny.

The power of social media

It has been like a viral marketing campaign beyond the wildest dreams of even the most accomplished marketeer, embracing multiple modes of communication, and once again highlighting the power of social media. It’s a fact that whichever industry we work in, we ignore this rapidly evolving and changing sector at our peril.

If you can create something of interest that grabs people’s attention, then the internet and the social media channel could take over and do your promotion for you. So whether you work as a fitness instructor, or if you sell widgets, as you strive to promote your business, ask yourself a question.

What is your equivalent of Pippa Middleton’s bum?

Over to you: What is your favourite example of something that has gone viral thanks to social media? Maybe it is a YouTube video or a funny photograph. Please post a link to your favourites by leaving a comment below.

Review of Body Combat Release 47

Fitness and Yoga, , , , ,

I’m very late with this review of Body Combat release 47 – so late in fact that I have started to mix in preparation for the next release in a few weeks time. But I stayed with the full 47 line up for quite a few weeks due to popularity of this workout. Whilst it might not be as focused on leg conditioning as its immediate predecessors, it more than makes up for it in the upper body department, delivering a blistering cardio burnout and an absolute guarantee of sore shoulders.

Upper Warm Up (Dynamite): An uplifting song with catchy lyrics that participants can sing along to, this is a brief but enjoyable warm up for the upper body keeping the moves nice and simple as you would expect. The mid-track kata is necessitated by the structure of the song rather than by the need to offer a rest so early on, but it does give the opportunity to learn a move which will crop up in various guises in four tracks in this release.

Lower Warm Up (Love the Way You Lie): A good track to coach the basic kicks and knee strikes with the welcome return of the hip roll (or outer leg block as it doesn’t seem to be called anymore). The music is pretty dull however with the rap verses really hogging more than their fair share of airtime. And the final travelling sequence with roundhouse kicks lasts for ages inviting looks from the participants along the lines of “will this ever end?” This track might have been mixed out earlier had the upper body warm up it is fixed too not been as uplifting.

Combat 1 (Let me Hear You Scream): This is a great combat track with almost every line of lyric useable to create atmosphere. “Let me hear you scream like you want it” – Do they really want it? How much do they want it? And for all those people who come to Body Combat to excise a bad day in the office here you have the opportunity to “Push them right back in their place” and “Wipe the smile right from their face”. Nice simple combos allow the people to master the kicks without pressure so that they are well prepared for the final section where the exertions increase with the travelling sequence added in. Best Track 2 for me for quite a while.

Power 1 (Make You Mine): A very solid power track which begins the annihilation of the shoulders early on and is relentless with almost no break for nearly 7 minutes. It is a massive combination of punches which benefits from the build up in each layer until everyone is absolutely bursting to power up the full sequence. One slight niggle – the music in the track contains some missing drum beats – and this took a while to get used to and sometimes knocked me off pace.

Combat 2 (Fire): The return of Scooter – Body Combat’s most prolific artist, and a return for a piece of music first used in release 7. Now sadly I can remember the original – it was a power track – and it’s easy to do the maths – 40 releases ago means it was 10 years ago. Great combo with the jumping knee in the guitar chorus, the double knee and side kick butt blaster, and of course the step over kick. Now this step over kick was extremely challenging to teach. For some reason this track comes with the built in ability to mess with people’s heads. Despite demoing it first, despite cueing it to death this took weeks for people to get it. Perhaps it is because they are so used to doing front kicks with their lead legs. Ask them to step on the lead leg and kick with the back leg turns the brain into liquid and seems to introduce endless confusion. And once the main crowd gets it you then have the new people next time who go through the same long learning process. Despite this rather hilarious issue, this is a fantastic combat track and the standout of the release for me.

Power 2 (The Warrior’s Code): Internet gossip had already pretty much written this off as the worst track 5 ever before I even went on the quarterly workshop. Okay it is very simple, but I just turned the music up very very loud and went for it and actually it isn’t bad at all. Not the worst track 5 but in fairness not the best. The speedball running sequence is exhausting if you really push the participants. This was the first track to be mixed out though, not because the participants complained – simply because I replaced it with “Crashed the Wedding” from BC22 to celebrate the Royal Wedding in the UK – and it proved to be so popular that it stayed.

Combat 3 (Feels Like a Prayer): A track that people cannot avoid singing along to. And another with lyrics that can be used to maximum effect. “When YOU call THEIR name – THEY say a little prayer!” But seriously do we all want to sound like “Angels sighing?” – certainly not we are fighters we want to roar not sigh. Great combos and the power of that back kick. If they stand behind you – “Heaven Help Them”.

Muay Thai (You’re Going Down): As Dan says in the video short and deadly. This one can have the participants exhausted if they push things really hard and the downward punches in just the right spot. In one class I noticed one lady hitting her imaginary opponent so hard, with such a look of hate on her face, that I was genuinely scared. She obviously knew who she was pummeling.

Power 3 (Release Me): I felt like changing the title of this track to Beast Me because that is what it does to the shoulders. The first few teaches brought out grimaces that revealed that it was working the shoulders into final oblivion. A relentless track with a surprising amount of variety for a track 8 and this certainly wins my support.

Conditioning (Beautiful Monster): A massively tough conditioning track that was a huge challenge for everyone. It was gratifying to see people go from doing only one rep up on their toes in week one to almost all of them as the weeks went by. Perhaps the most difficult moves we have had for a while – but a request fo Dan and Rach. Can we have a conditioning track like the one from BC22 (Let’s get it Started) – with lying down kicks. That was vicious as well and we haven’t had one like that since.

Cooldown (Just The Way You Are): An innocuous, if a little bland, cooldown which is probably just as well because by this strange those who have given it their all probably just wanted to collapse into the huge puddle of seat that had collected around their feet. Lovely tune and a breezy finish to an excellent release. Had the lower body warm up music been more uplifting and had track 5 not had to deal with death by internet gossip this might have been a 10 out of 10.

Over to You: Are you a Body Combat Instructor? What did you think of release 47? Are you a participant? Have you enjoyed number 47?

Brand You – a Lesson from a Fleet of Lorries

Marketing, , , , , ,

Keeping kids amused on car journeys is much easier in the DVD/Blu Ray and Apple iPad/iPod world than it was years ago when you had to rely on puzzle books and games of Eye-Spy! But there is still one activity that transcends cutting edge technology and that is ‘Spot the Eddie Stobart Lorry’.

You cannot avoid them as you travel up and down the motorways of the UK. Striking red and green haulage trucks each resplendent with a woman’s name painted on the front. Every name you have ever heard of from Jayne to Amelia, taking in double barrels such as Leah Caitlyn and Laura Flora. Children can download a list of the names and check them off as the towns race by. You can see Paige near Preston and Martha Alice near Manchester.

Eddie Stobart has made transportation ‘spotting’ cool. No more hiding on station platforms or on fields near runways. You can ditch the anorak and tick your boxes with pride.

The brand is so recognisable that it has its own fan club and a range of toys and clothing. This is incredible when you realise that unlike other well known brands like Tesco or ASDA, Eddie Stobart is not providing a service to any of the people who love the brand so much. The majority of us do not buy anything from Stobart directly. The nearest we get is buying something off a supermarket shelf that might have been transported in a Stobart lorry. But the company has successfully created a brand that has weaved itself into the social consciousness of the UK population out of something as mundane as a haulage firm.

The lesson we can learn from Eddie Stobart is that, in corporate land, one way to build a successful brand is to give it a strong personality. And you cannot get more personal than humanising trucks with real women’s names.

Some of my fitness friends have recently been looking to market their services and skills to a wider audience and want to create a brand of their own. It sounds like a tall order and an expensive one but it needn’t be. This is where individuals have a unique advantage over companies.

As a PT or a Group Exercise instructor you already have a great personality. You project your personality to your individual customers and your class participants and you can use Facebook and Twitter to project that personality into the local community.From that beginning your brand will develop.

Companies often spend millions trying to create a personality for their brands. You already have one! You have the relatively easier task of turning that personality into a brand.