Tag Archives: fitness

Can you turn your NY fitness resolution into a habit you won’t break?

Fitness and Yoga, , , ,

As a fitness instructor I love the New Year. Loaded with resolutions to get fit and to eat more healthily, people flock to the gym and classes are jammed packed full of people desperate to burn calories.

Old hands stand alongside new members and all of them give it 100%. I love the sounds of exertion. The moans and groans brought on my a particularly tough abs routine, or the pained looks as the leg conditioning phase seems to last forever. Faces become beetroot red. Sweat pours down and off the end of noses. And most satisfying of all, everyone looks happy if a little dishevelled.

Body Combat as part of your fitness resolution

The problem with resolutions is that they don’t last. By February the frequency of attendance starts to dwindle. Eagerness is replaced by complacency. Which is a shame. If only that January buzz could become a year long habit rather than a resolution to be broken after a few weeks. I will certainly try and motivate my clients to stick to the January habit. In fact I like the word habit much more than the word resolution.

Calorie burn is the main focus for members during this time. The desire to shed Christmas pounds is strong. But I also encourage adding a holistic session to the cardio blitz. That’s why I love to teach the Body Combat and Body Balance double. One hour of high energy, fat burning martial arts mayhem, followed by one hour of deep Yoga based stretching and strengthening exercises. This is the perfect combination for it promotes weight loss and improves flexibility.

“Turn a fitness resolution into a habit.”

So let’s turn a fitness resolution into a habit. Stick with it all year long and combine your breathless cardio work with some Yoga based exercise as well. Just wait until you see the results and I guarantee the January excitement will continue throughout the whole of the year.

body balance as part of your fitness resolution

Over to you: What are you doing to keep your resolutions this year? How do you stick with it when the temptation to lapse begins? Please leave a comment.

Press Release Tips for Fitness Professionals

Marketing, , , , , , ,

The world of the media may seem like a scary place, especially with celebrity scandals, phone hacking, and high profile publicists mauling each other for column inches. It certainly doesn’t seem very relevant to personal trainers and fitness businesses. But away from the hyperbole of the National Media, local newspapers and radio stations are much less daunting. Most importantly they can be a useful method for raising your profile in your own area.

Press Release Tips for Fitness Professionals

Journalists and editors are constantly looking for interesting stories, especially something a little bit different or out of the ordinary. You will have already defined the unique services you offer, and may be advertising these via your website, blog, Facebook, Twitter or other media. Putting together a series of press releases highlighting these unique and interesting services can raise awareness and drive customers to your door.

The key is finding the hook that will draw the journalist’s interest. They may see many press releases every day, and ignore announcements about Bootcamps or Zumba classes. But one which also offers a Nutrition Planning Service may catch their attention. A release about generic personal training might be ignored but one focussing on new mothers regaining their figures following childbirth might stand out. Try putting together three or four stories that you can release over a month or two.

“Press release tips that help fitness professionals increase their local media profiles.”

Writing a press release is like any form of communication it needs to draw the reader’s attention and motivate them into a course of action; namely a journalist contacting you to discuss the story. Try using the following structure. Headline; Body Copy; Contact Details and Notes for editors.

For the release you need a powerful headline which sums up the entire story. “Local man and wife fitness team bring bootcamp and dietary planning to Worthington Park”, for example already provides a mass of information.

It’s outdoors in a park. A husband and wife team so it’s accessible to both sexes. Sounds like hard work but there’s dietary advice as well.

You should write the body copy of the release in a relaxed and informal style. It can come across almost as if you were saying it out loud. Provide some background about the service you offer then go into the specifics. You can deliver one or two pieces of information in the form of a quote which the journalist may well include in their article. “Fitness expert and local DJ David said, ‘Our bootcamps will improve your fitness and provided you take the dietary advice as well you will see changes in your shape'”.

Then include your contact details, mobile, website, Facebook and twitter. If you have any videos of yourself in action on YouTube provide links to these as well.

Finally prepare a notes section where you give more detail, such as your qualifications, the time of your sessions and the cost. Here you can invite the journalist to attend one of your classes. They may even send along a photographer as well.

Once you have drafted your releases, email them to your local newspapers (daily and weekly versions including any free papers) and radio stations. Google will reveal the contact details of most publications. Include your headline as the title of the email as well as on the release itself.

Sometimes the release may not generate any interest, or the publication may just copy and paste your words. Obviously the best result is for them to contact you to discuss the release. This is your opportunity to develop a relationship which could lead to more coverage later. You are the expert in your line of work so you could offer to supply more copy in future for feature articles, or just offer yourself as a spokesperson on fitness related issues. It could be the start of a very rewarding relationship – and maybe even a regular fitness column in the paper.

Thanks to the internet, even your local area is a clutter of information overload. But the media have a thirst for stories that stand out. Give them what they want and your fitness business will benefit from the investment of your time as more clients seek out your services.

Over to you: What do you think of these press release tips? What would your press release headline be? Please leave a comment and let me know.

A version of this article first appeared in FitPro Network Magazine

 

Is there a Modern vs Traditional Yoga argument?

Fitness and Yoga, , , , , ,

There was a fascinating article in The Guardian this week looking at the development of “modern” yoga classes which are abandoning the spiritual and the mental elements and focusing on entirely on the physical. The headline posed what seems like a simple question.

Is this still yoga? A new generation of teachers is replacing traditional spirituality with plain-spoken simplicity.

Of course the answer is far from simple.

Having qualified as a Level 3 Yoga Teacher last year – I experienced quite a bit of snobbery on my journey. There are those who insist that Yoga has to be the full Physical, Spiritual and Mental experience – and in extreme cases will not tolerate dissension. In answer to that view we know that from the success of Freestyle Fitness Yoga and Body Balance that there are many people who simply want access to the physical side of yoga. Indeed for those people the Spiritual and the Mental aspects can be barriers to them trying traditional yoga out.

modern vs traditional yoga

I’ve seen some church halls ban yoga classes because they perceive the spiritual side of it to be some affront to Christianity. This is wrong too because Yoga isn’t a religion despite its spiritual overtones. I’ve seen some people put off yoga classes because they think they are going to have to chant and ring singing bowls. So for those that predominantly want the physical experience why not give them that aspect alone?

In the end it is all about meeting the needs and expectations of your clients. When I teach yoga I do use the ancient names for the poses where appropriate, and provide more focus especially around meditation. If your clients are more into the full traditional experience then they will expect it of course.

But if someone is only interested in the physical aspect – does it matter whether it is a Virabhadrasana 2 – or a position in which one leg is bent at 90 degrees and the other is straight, the hips are forward and the arms are at shoulder height? Even if we use the English version of the pose names, does it really need to be a Warrior 2 or what I have just described.

I would like to make yoga accessible to all and if the entry point to that is the physical experience then fine. Personally I would like them to then consider the other aspects if and when they feel comfortable. But starting from the point of view that it has to be all or nothing is likely to keep the barriers up.

Ultimately modern vs traditional yoga can exist harmoniously and that has to be a good thing if it benefits the lives of more people.

Over to you: Do you practice yoga? Is it a traditional or modern variant? What do you prefer. Please click on “Leave a Reply” below and let me know your comments and thoughts.

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.