The US, in recent times, has seen an increase in population that suffers from heart diseases, obesity, diabetes, arthritis and other such longstanding health conditions. There is also a rising need for health programs that are cost effective and help in Medicare qualifications of adults. All these factors have given birth to a new branch in fitness learning called specialized populations training.
The certification is usually structured in collaboration with healthcare experts and enables the fitness trainers to work with individuals with diverse fitness and health needs. These specialized trainers become distinguishable in the fitness industry by being able to scientifically design effective and safe preventive exercise programs for your fitness center members with unique needs.
Trainers with Special Populations Certification are professionals who use individualized approach to educate, motivate, assess, and train their clients among the special population. These include people with chronic as well as temporary health conditions. These conditions are categorized by body systems and psychological implications and involve cardiovascular, pulmonary, metabolic, immunologic, musculoskeletal, neuromuscular, cancer as well as behavioral/psychological impairments.
Special population also includes people who are not necessarily affected by disease conditions and can include women who are menopausal, pregnant or postpartum. They could also be older adults, adolescents, or children.
Visit my blog, Gym Business Insights, to read the full article and more about choosing the right trainer!
The look and feel of Insight V2 is brand new! If you have ever tried the old version free of Insight, it was merely a 30 day demo. Insight V2 management system is unlimited free usage.
What makes this management system different the rest?
The management system allows the user to register completely online with releasing very limited information.
- To start your free account with us, all you have to provide is your name and a verifiable email. Once your email is verified, the program will ask you for a password and gym name. That's it! Within seconds you will be entering members and on your way to seeing more Insight into the daily production at your fitness facility!
How does Insight make money?
We offer for purchase applications including payment processing, sales tools, and 24 access security systems. All of these applications can be fully integrated and are customizable with the free management system.
Try out Insight now!
There is nothing to lose!
No one will bug you!
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Developing a risk management strategy for your fitness facility, health club, or personal training studio involves three basic steps:
- Identify the potential risks;
- Evaluate the severity of the potential risks;
- Develop strategies to mitigate the potential risks.
Taking a cold hard look at your facility from a risk management point of view is the first step in developing a risk management plan. Take some time to tour each area of your facility and imagine what possible hazards could possibly arise in each area.
Find out the areas that I explored at my home blog, Gym Business Insights!
Group training involves a fitness trainer from your gym leading a group of participants in their path of fitness. Participants, apart from group camaraderie, also benefit from access to a knowledgeable fitness professional at shared costs. These basic benefits of group training are making more and more fitness enthusiasts go for it in today’s world. It is therefore essential that gyms look at this trend and provide an avenue for such people in order to stay competitive in the fitness market. The effectiveness of group training is mainly because social interaction, answerability, financial viability, and promotion of healthy competition.
What the trainer should keep in mind?
What do gyms and fitness centers need to do?
I give Insight to these questions in the full article located on my blog about gym business insights.
Since Valentine's Day is quickly approaching, I wrote a post on my blog about couple promotional ideas for my gym. The post specifically deals with promotions that will help resolve the issue of keeping couples together on this romantic holiday when only one person in the couple is a fitness enthusiast and the other is, well..., not so enthused about fitness. Here are just a few ideas...
- Salsa dance class. What could be more invigorating than hot Latin dance moves, powerful percussive music and red-hot Valentine’s Day lighting?
- Partner yoga. This is a great way to stretch, relax and connect with someone on a very basic, non-verbal level.
- Couples spinning class, for couples who like to get competitive, get hot and get sweaty together.
- Couples strength training. This is a clever way to get her involved with your regular strength training routine, and show off your muscles at the same time.
- Assisted stretching is yet another great way to communicate and interact, while improving flexibility and loosening up muscles at the same time – great for before or after a strength-training workout.
For the full blog post, please go to "Love Among the Cardio Machines."
Happy Valentine's Day (week)!
Most Common Costs Associated with Personal Trainers:
As a continuation of the series, “Which is better…”, Part IV touches upon the most basic cost and liability issues that should be considered when a fitness facility hires a personal trainer. As a gym owner or manager, it is your responsibility to provide your members with access to a number of services, including those of a professional personal trainer. However, you do have to decide whether you are going to place your personal trainers on the payroll or if you are simply going to use a series of independent contractors to do the job. There are inherent costs and liability that you need to assess before you make your final choice.
Payday to Payday
Of all the different costs associated with having personal trainers in your gym, those associated with hiring your own trainers are likely to be the highest ones. Since in doing things this way, you are adding them to your payroll, you are going to be paying them an hourly wage or salary. This means that as long as they are on the clock, you will be paying them, whether they are working with one of your members or not. As long as they have a long list of clients you will be getting the most for your money, but when times are slow, you may end up paying out more than you are taking in.
On the other hand, if you use independent contractors, you never have to pay them unless you offer their services for free to your members as part of an introductory package. At which point you may have to pay the cost of the time your members use. Other than this the only other real cost on a day to day basis is in ensure that you have them covered under your workers’ compensation insurance.
For the full article, including a recap of the series, please visit my gyminsight blog!
A guest post on our blog shares his Insight on the growing pains of a small fitness business and what he found to help alleviate the pain and rediscover the excitement!
Here is a teaser... from Gym Business Insights: "Small Gym Management: From Pen and Paper to Nightmare to Software
I can’t think of one personal trainer, group fitness instructor, or even hardcore recreational gym goer that has not thought about, at one point or another, opening their own training facility. One of the best problems to run into when opening your own gym is the growing pains associated with selling a great product. Obviously, in a situation like this, organization is key to the long term success of the facility.
From personal experience, I was on board with a small new private training facility that started experiencing these exact problems. Early on, everything was handled via pen, paper, and excel. This worked very well with twenty and less members using the facility. Being primarily a personal training and small group fitness gym, the low number of members was easily manageable. All billing was done in person, each month. When members were late on payments, there were only two or three phone calls that needed to be made. Several class times were offered throughout the week that was under the assumption of “since people are paying, someone will show up at each time.” With no one signing up for a spot in the class beforehand, class sizes varied from one to fifteen people with absolutely no warning. Even with the larger class size, it was still pretty easy for one trainer to make sure everyone got their money’s worth.
Everything was working smoothly… until membership doubled...
Visit the blog to find out what happened next!
I have posted the full length article on my Gym Business blog at - but here is one section of it...
Gym Maintenance and Gym Owners
Gym owners are affected two-fold, legal liability issues and financial costs.
To prepare for the worst, legally speaking, it is always best to document EVERYTHING, including all preventative maintenance done to equipment and the steps taken after equipment is no longer in working order. Have all this recorded in one place (like a log book) and include receipts of equipment parts and pictures. Make the notice signs conspicuous and if necessary remove any potentially dangerous equipment from the gym floor! I know I might be sounding extreme, but a little of extra time now can save you a lot of time and money in court later. Make this log book a priority and enforce it with your employees!
Financially speaking, this can definitely be a source of controversy. I understand and empathize with anyone not liking fees on top of membership dues. So there are only really two ways to budget as a business owner for both the wear and tear of your facility AND also for those times when a total makeover is needed in order to re-energize your existing member base and/or to remain competitve with new and looming competition!
First budget suggestion (and I can thank my IdeaFit community for remaining Insightful suggestions), is to either have an extremely low membership price with a contract that conspicuously lays out a set fee for maintenance and enforce it from the beginning! I know that most major gyms budget yearly and in advance for these high cost business expense by including a maintenance fee within the membership contract and detailing what the fee will be used for to the members. Gym owners can reassure their members that these fees are being used appropriately by posting news to their social media pages or other announcement forums as to how these additional fees are being used.
The second budget option (which also seems to be the most suggested from other professionals in the community) is just to have included both the expected and unexpected maintenance costs in a higher based membership price.
The full blog post detailing these personality types can be found at http://blog.gyminsight.com/.
Here is a teaser of each personality one is likely to encounter at a fitness gym...
1. The Washed-Up Meathead- Be careful when making eye contact with him because if you show even a mild amount of interest, it may start him off on a diatribe of all of the accolades he received during his sporting career!
2. The Faux Trainer- No matter what exercise you are doing, he will loudly exclaim to you that you are doing it wrong.
3. The Over-Enthused Workout Lady- She is very easy to spot because she is everywhere at once!
4. The Contender- Always be on guard when he is in the gym!
5. The Miscellaneous- You can spot him because he wears a shirt with the least amount of sleeves possible...
Do you fall into any one of these categories?
If so, is there anything that can be added to develop the character more?
Are there any character types that are missing?
What are they and the details?
