At the 2012 IDEA World Fitness Convention in July, attendees were introduced to the new Client Challenges tool powered by ChallengeLoop. With this tool, fitness professionals can challenge their clients to achieve their health and fitness goals while having fun at the same time! To show how the tool works, IDEA challenged all attendees in the Expo Hall to take the TRX® S.T.A.R. Challenge. The challenge consists of a series of 7 exercises involving the TRX Suspension Trainer™, TRX Rip™ Trainer, and a Kettlebell.
Everyone who went through the challenge got a goodie bag and the two lucky grand prize winners (Shelly Graham & Kevin Cross) got prizes from sponsors including IDEA, TRX®, Subway®, Reebok®, SPRI®, and G Series FIT®. Check out the full challenge here: http://www.challengeloop.com/challenge/2caeun
- IDEA FitnessConnect Team
P.S. IDEA is hosting another challenge right now called the "IDEA Inspire Photo Challenge". The winner receives an iPad and free 2013 IDEA World Registration! Take the challenge now: http://www.challengeloop.com/idea-inspire
Have you tried the new Client Challenges tool on IDEA FitnessConnect yet?
Improve the health of your clients by challenging them to anything you want. Don't know what to challenge them to? Use one or more of these great ideas below:
- TRX® S.T.A.R. Challenge: Test your strength and power with these 7 exercises, using the TRX Suspension TrainerTM, TRX RipTM Trainer and kettlebell.
- SUBWAY® Super You Challenge: Combine exercise, healthy eating and fun competition.
- Reebok® Reinvent Your Workout: Spice up your routine with a workout you've never done before.
- Gatorade G Series FIT Challenge: Show everyone how you get the fuel, fluids and nutrients you need during your workouts.
- The SPRI® Performance Challenge: If you want to challenge your body and take it to the next level it is time for you to take the SPRI Performance Challenge.
To see all of the ideas, click here: http://www.challengeloop.com/ideas
Did you know that if you commit your goals to writing you are 40% more likely to achieve them? And if you tell someone else you are 60% more likely to achieve them. Help your clients adopt healthy behaviors and achieve their goals by using the new Client Challenges tool on IDEA FitnessConnect!
Starting July 5th, you can get started by going to your "My Account" page on ideafit.com and looking under "Quick Links". Powered by a new iPhone app and website called ChallengeLoop, the Client Challenges tool makes it easy to challenge your clients to stay on track with their health and fitness goals.
Imagine challenge your clients to take a picture of every meal for a week, exercise at the gym a certain number of times a week or cook a vegetarian meal. Not only can your clients can post photos of themselves and update you on their progress using the Client Challenges tool, but you can root them on, give them advice, and keep them on track with their health and fitness goals.
If you want to challenge your clients but aren't exactly sure what to the challenge them to, you can get some challenge ideas from sponsors including Subway, Reebok, Gatorade, SPRI Products and Casall here: www.challengeloop.com/ideas.
Feel free to email us at fitnessconnect@ideafit.com with any questions you have regarding the Client Challenges Tool.
Do you have a certification or training from one of the following agencies? If so, you're in luck! They are now verifying on IDEA FitnessConnect. We now have over 130 verification partners.
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IDEA Member Karin Singleton caught our eye a year ago with her ability to take advantage of IDEA FitnessConnect and leverage the connections that she's made through the system. We got a chance to interview her in the April issue of IDEA Fitness Journal about her success. Below is an excerpt from "Spreading The Word About Pilates And Melt" (Idea Fitness Journal, April 2012):
What tools do you use on your profile? “I use most of them,” she says. “I like the function that lets you list classes, and the blog tool, where I make about two or three entries per month. I like the way the blog headings show up on the monthly IDEA FitnessConnect Client Newsletter, which is another favorite tool of mine. It gives me an extra opportunity to discuss a wide variety of subjects. I often have certain people in mind with my blog entries, as I did when I [blogged about] my observations of MELT’s effects on MS. I have had a lot of positive feedback from clients and friends about the e-newsletter.”
Why do you participate in IDEA Answers? “I have been in this industry for almost 17 years (after 18 years of corporate life) and have a lot of experience with a variety of situations that may stump a novice trainer,” Singleton says. “[The situations I draw from range from] business to interpersonal communication to the many aspects of training itself. I enjoy sharing what has worked for me.
“I like the fact that [fitness pros and potential clients] can see the answers. My answers can inform other people about me much better than a profile alone can. IDEA Answers has also given me exposure to a wider audience. After all, being ‘out there on the Internet’ is the way of the future, and this is my cyber shingle.”
What do you do to promote your profile? “A line item under my email signature links to my IDEA profile, and I use the IDEA FitnessConnect logo on the home page of my personal website.”
How have you benefited from being on IDEA FitnessConnect? “The greatest overall benefit is that it has raised my profile in the fitness community and beyond,” she says. “To give an example, I was contacted by a publishing company to be one of the reviewers of a book on exercises for older adults.“In addition to having my own studio, I am employed at the Rex Wellness Center. The exposure through IDEA FitnessConnect has been of benefit for me in that working relationship as well.”
To read more of this article, visit: http://www.ideafit.com/fitness-library/spreading-the-word-about-pilates-and-melt
You have probably filled out your individual profile, but may not know that there is another profile out there that is just as important. Do you own or manage a fitness facility? Your IDEA FitnessConnect facility profile is waiting to be claimed! Do you work at a fitness facility? Be sure to ask the manager or owner to claim their facility profile!
Facility profiles allow you to easily track staff credentials with the staff management system (using the "staff" tab), receive free club referrals, send out a facility newsletter, include classes & events held at your facility, and much more. Everything that you do with your individual profile, you can also do on your facility profile.
Going through the claiming process is easy. You can claim your facility profile by clicking on the "Get Listed Now" button on the bottom of this page: http://www.ideafit.com/fitnessconnect/signup/club. Once you find your facility, you will be given a 4-digit code (this code will also be emailed to you). An IDEA member will call you within a few days to confirm your claim.
How do you manage your clients and leads? IDEA FitnessConnect's Client Management System makes it convenient for you to manage and grow your clientele directly from your profile.
By having your clients and leads in your FitnessConnect account, you can easily:
- Invite them to the classes & events you create
- Subscribe them to your client newsletter
- Share your profile, any content from ideafit.com or from across the web using the "Client Share" button
Just log into your ideafit.com account and click on "Clients & Leads" in the Quick Links box under your profile photo. Once in your Clients & Leads, you can either add contacts manually by clicking the "Add Contacts" button or you can click the "Import Clients" button to import clients from a spreadsheet or from a 3rd party email client. We currently support AOL, GMail, Live/Hotmail, and Yahoo!.
Once clients and leads are added, you can use the settings icon on the far right side of each contact to subscribe them to your newsletter, convert their status (i.e. from a lead to a client), edit their information (name, email, phone number, address, notes), or delete them.
Sending an e-newsletter to your clients and leads is a great way to keep in touch with them and give them quality information that they can use. In fact, the 2009 Advertising Effectiveness Survey by Forbes showed that marketers identified e-newsletters as the second most effective online marketing tool for generating conversions (first was search engine optimization). With IDEA FitnessConnect's client newsletter, you can easily send out your own health & fitness newsletter each month to your clients and leads for free!
Sent on the 1st of every month, we send this free e-newsletter on behalf of you, the fitness professional, with consumer-focused health and fitness content. The content of each issue is a combination of IDEA's award-winning editorial content (three articles written for the fitness consumer, a healthy recipe, and and an instructional exercise video) and the data on your profile. Your profile picture, contact information, social media links, blog, and upcoming events are automatically copied into the newsletter. You can also brand every issue with your own logo, title, introduction and website if you wish. Note: Some professionals change their newsletter introduction each month, but many choose to write a standard introduction and keep it the same for every issue.
We hear from fitness pros that this feature has become one of their favorite tools, so why not try it out? Just log into www.ideafit.com, go to the left-hand side of the page under "Quick Links" and click on "Create Client Newsletter". This link will take you through the steps of creating your client newsletter.
As always, please feel free to contact us at fitnessconnect@ideafit.com if you need any help setting up your client newsletter.
Great news! We officially have 100 IDEA FitnessConnect Verification Partners, with Twist Conditioning rounding us out as the 100th Verification Partner!
Our newest partners include:
- Alberta Fitness Leadership Certification Association (AFLCA)
- American Academy of Health & Fitness (AAHF)
- American Academy of Personal Training (AAPT)
- American Fitness Professionals Association (AFPA)
- American Sports and Fitness Association (ASFA)
- Batuka
- Body Training Systems (BTS)
- BWI National Health Promotion Training Institute (BWI)
- C.H.E.K Institute (CHEK)
- Chi Running & Walking
- Combine360 (C360)
- Core Fitness Roller
- Cycling Fusion
- Dragon Door
- Drums Alive (DA)
- FallProof
- FitTour
- Fit Pro's Academy (FPTA)
- Functional Diagnostic Nutrition (FDN)
- Functional Movement Systems (FMS)
- Gray Institute
- Healthy Steps
- Heart Zones (HZ)
- HOT HULA fitness®
- Interactive Fitness Trainers of America (IFTA)
- International Sports & Fitness Trainers Association (ISFTA)
- Keiser Corporation
- Ken Baum Mental Edge
- KRANKcycle
- LeMond RevMaster Indoor Cycle (LeMond)
- Life Fitness
- Muscle Activation Techniques (MAT)
- National Posture Institute (NPI)
- PHI: Performance Enhancement International
- Physicalmind Institute
- Polestar
- Power Pilates
- R.I.P.P.E.D. - The One Stop Body Shock
- Rolf Gates
- Shapely Girl Fitness
- Silver Sneakers
- Spencer Institute
- Tina Vindum's Outdoor Fitness (Outdoor Fitness)
- Trigger Point
- TRX
- Twist Conditioning
- VIVOBAREFOOT Training Clinic (VIVOBAREFOOT)
- Wellcoaches
- YogaWorks
Below is the complete list of verification partners:
- Alberta Fitness Leadership Certification Association (AFLCA)
- American Academy of Health & Fitness (AAHF)
- American Aerobic Association International/International Sports Medicine Association (AAAI/ISMA)
- American Academy of Personal Training (AAPT)
- Academy of Applied Personal Training Education (AAPTE)
- Agility Training Institute/ATN Associates (ATI)
- American Fitness Professionals Association (AFPA)
- American Council on Exercise (ACE)
- American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM)
- American Sports and Fitness Association (ASFA)
- Aquatic Exercise Association (AEA)
- Balanced Body®
- Balletone (BT)
- BASI Pilates (BASI)
- Batuka
- BioMechanics
- BodyBlade®
- Body Training Systems (BTS)
- Boxing Fitness Institute (BFI)
- Burn with Kearns
- BWI National Health Promotion Training Institute (BWI)
- canfitpro
- C.H.E.K Institute (CHEK)
- Chi Running & Walking
- Combine360 (C360)
- Core Fitness Roller
- Dragon Door
- Drums Alive (DA)
- FallProof
- Family Safety and Self-Defense Institute (FSI)
- FitTour
- Fit Pro's Academy (FPTA)
- Functional Diagnostic Nutrition (FDN)
- Functional Movement Systems (FMS)
- Gray Institute
- GYROKINESIS®
- GYROTONIC®
- Healthy Steps
- Heart Zones (HZ)
- HOT HULA fitness®
- Interactive Fitness Trainers of America (IFTA)
- International Fitness Professionals Association (IFPA)
- International Sports & Fitness Trainers Association (ISTA)
- International Sports Sciences Association (ISSA)
- Kathy Corey Pilates
- Keiser Corporation
- Ken Baum Mental Edge
- Kickboxing Fitness Institute (KFI)
- KRANKcycle
- LeMond RevMaster Indoor Cycle (LeMond)
- Les Mills
- Life Fitness
- Muscle Activation Techniques (MAT)
- National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM)
- National Council for Certified Personal Trainers (NCCPT)
- National Council on Strength and Fitness (NCSF)
- National Exercise & Sports Trainers Association (NESTA)
- National Exercise Trainers Association (NETA)
- National Federation of Professional Trainers (NFPT)
- National Personal Training Institute (NPTI)
- National Posture Institute (NPI)
- National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA)
- Nia
- P90X
- Peak Pilates
- PHI: Performance Enhancement International
- Physicalmind Institute
- Pilates Academy International
- Pilates Method Alliance (PMA)
- Polestar
- Powder Blue Productions (PB11)
- Power Pilates
- ProPTA
- PTA Global (PTA)
- Punk Rope
- Resist-A-Ball®
- Revelation Wellness Instructor Training (Revelation Wellness)
- R.I.P.P.E.D. - The One Stop Body Shock
- Rolf Gates
- Schwinn Indoor Cycling (Schwinn)
- Shapely Girl Fitness
- Silver Sneakers
- Spencer Institute
- Spinning®
- Stage 5 Cycling (S5C)
- STOTT PILATES®
- Stroller Strides®
- TEAM Pilates
- The Cooper Institute (CI)
- The Pilates Coach
- Tina Vindum's Outdoor Fitness (Outdoor Fitness)
- Training and Wellness Certification Commission (TWCC)
- Trigger Point
- TRX
- Twist Conditioning
- U.S. Career Institute (USCI)
- VIVOBAREFOOT Training Clinic (VIVOBAREFOOT)
- Wellcoaches
- World Instructor Training Schools (WITS)
- YogaWorks
Have you started answering questions on IDEA Answers yet? If not, it's time to start!
Launched in July, IDEA Answers is a real-time question and answer tool that gives all site visitors access to the collective wisdom and experience of the entire fitness industry.
Answering questions can set you apart from the pack and add significant value to your IDEA FitnessConnect profile. Not only will your answers appear in the IDEA Answers section of www.ideafit.com, but they will also be shown under the "Answers" tab on your profile and on the left-hand side of your profile so when potential clients view your profile, they are likely to see your thoughtful answers. If you would like to show your consumer-focused answers, but would prefer not to display your professional-focused answers, have no fear! You have the option of hiding any answer that you would like by unclicking the checkbox that says "Include answer on my public profile".
You can also use the Facebook and Twitter share buttons on the side of each question page if you would like to let your friends and followers know how you feel about a certain topic. They can even vote for your answer by clicking the green thumbs-up button next to it. And if you go above and beyond and make it in the top 10 top answerers, you'll be highlighted in the leaderboard on the main IDEA Answers page.
And did we mention that answering questions helps you rank higher in your zip code on IDEA FitnessConnect? It is one of 23 factors that the search ranking algorithm takes into account.
So what are you waiting for? Start answering questions now: www.ideafit.com/answers.
IDEA FitnessConnect Team
