12/29/12
My training today:
Warm-up; Stretch bands, Indian Clubs, and joint mobility
2000 meter rowing, burpees.
Barbell power cleans; Start with dead hang for a few sets,
then 10 sets of 2 reps.
Dumbbell snatches sets of 3 reps 10 set. (love those single dumbbell
snatches; a lot faster than Kettlebell snatches especially using Oly style
bars.) Try them and you will like them!
Second session: WTF, its snowing so don’t want to venture
out.
Ring rows:
GHD situps
30 min on heavy bag; with some gear.
Trends, fads
and failures for 2013 in the fitness business.
Each year a
number fitness industry organizations list the annual new “trends” for the
upcoming year. I still get all the major fitness trade journals to keep up with
what is happening in an environment that I no longer involved in. Those
journals support the “globo Gym” industry, and most exclusively chain clubs as
well as the equipment manufactures that provide the club “machines”. ( Sorry folks,
I am not a big fan of fitness machines) In looking at the trends, you may want
to define trends vs fads. Trend in my vocabulary indicates a forward movement,
while fads come on strong, and flame out quickly. Lastly no one wants to talk
about failures as that is not good marketing.
Note this will be
a long Blog so if you don’t have the time, you will only see a small volume of
my critique of those lists and my trends of where it is going.
Of all the
annual trends prognostications, is the American College of Sports Medicine
(ACSM) Trends for 2013 is the best and most professional by review over 3,000
trainers. All the rest make lists but
with little supporting validation as to how they made their decisions.
Therefore, most of my review of the industry is based on their well defined
work and a minor inclusion of my perspective.
I believe
that the many instructors, coaches, personal trainers from other organizations
are really left out of all this edification of what trends are coming and what
fell in disfavor with the fickle fitness public. I am sure that those who work
the programs in the past were interviewed as to what in their opinion on future
fitness activities in the “globo clubs”, but how can that be valid, when the
floor people have a vested interest in maintaining those programs. An example
would be “spinning”. As a trainer you spend time and money going to a Spinning
certification, plus the recert programs so you can maintain your
certifications. Then it’s the music and attire you must have to complete the
promotion of your micro business. So when you ask a spinning instructor how it
is going, he or she will always take a positive approach. You ask the gym owner
the same question, and he will tell you the spin bikes are collecting dust and
taking up space.
Failures:
The prime
element in defining fitness trends and fads is its failures. The industry never
seems to critique its self very much other than lamenting that maybe the
profits are down. As an example, how well was the TRX program introduced
strongly this year and was it worth the time, space and equipment in terms of
tangible results. You would have to be sleeping under a rock not to know there
is an obesity problem in the country. Of all the health clubs, gyms and sport
clubs, we as a country are not making any progress in taking off the pounds. On
the other hand, it may be a little harsh to put all the blame in the fitness
industry for not slimming down the nation, but they don’t seem to hit on a
successful system as yet or have they and the public is not responding.
Pilates and
spinning are some of the big losers. High cost of these specialty programs that
don’t fit in with the rest of the programming and with the economy in the toilet,
these extra programs go by-by. People tend to follow the obsolete media lifestyles
of celebs that go to the latest fad so the gym owner has to comply to keep his
business. Don’t follow the fitness trends of the rich and famous as they are nothing
but a bunch of flakes that have more money to burn on anything that captures
their whimsical lifestyles.
I did not
want to bash the gym business as means to provide a foundation for recreation
and fitness for the general public. Most all chain gym and health clubs are a
great environment to lean exercise and pursue a fitness program without having
to purchase a lot of personal equipment. To me the list never seems to change
much and it just given a fancy name for exercise.
The projected trends for 2013 by the globo
fitness world.
Educated, certified, and experienced
fitness professionals
That’s always at
the top of the list as the organizations that put the list out certify those in
the business. Yes, we always need well educated
employees but that should be basic function, not a trend! If you don’t have
good people to manage, train your clients or customers, than you don’t belong
in the business in the first place. Case closed!!!
Strength training:
This should never
be a trend in the first place as strength training is the foundation of all
fitness. If you own a health or gym facility, and your program does not have a
strong strength program as a basic foundation, then what to hell are you
promoting? I know, give them a comfortable low grade fitness facility, wide
screen TV, and Zumba classes and membership will come back year after year like
lemmings to the sea.
Body weight
training.
Body weight
training is what I use to call calisthenics or old school fitness methods. That
sounds first-rate to me as I always used body weight exercise almost daily,
however, what are the owners of the big fitness chains do with all the worthless
machines if this trend really takes off? If I was a newbie to a gym or health
club and did not want to throw weights around for my strength program, I would
sign up for a local gym for a month or two, learn all the body weight
exercises, quit the club and go to the local playground and do your thing. You
could even start an outside group to meet to exercise. Cost; your time. Worse
case is go to prison and there is always someone to show you how to exercise so
no one takes you “lunch money. I have a few great books on body weight exercise
like Convict condition, by Paul Wade, that can show you the body weight
exercise in a safe progression and become fit and strong. It’s all good!
Children and
Obesity programs.
This sounds
great and noble, but how are you going to pull this off as this is a real labor
intensive mission to be an effective trend. Children scare me as a trainer, and
if you don’t believe, just fuck up some one kid, then life as you know it, has
ended. Besides being a child, the kid is
also a fat ass. If anyone expects you to liberate 30 to 75lbs of fat off Johnny or Mary’s
asses, there is not enough marathons or body weight exercise to make a dent in
a child ( I am thinking a 100 burpees
daily is a good start) Without life style change, I suggest you get another
trainer.
My
suggestion, offer diet and nutrient programming to start as a service, then as
the weight come off slowly introduce low grade fitness elements they are so
good at and the parents should be happy. This surly a “special needs program”
that even for a skilled coach would be challenged to work with, if you can find
someone who will do this.
Schools are
a better fit for this program then the commercial fitness business, as they
have all the professional personal to handle the physical, but manly the psychological
aspects of growing youth. But don’t get me started on school physical ED
programming!
Weight Loss
Programs
Weight
Watchers and other weight management programs, which don’t even offer exercise,
are much more successful than the gym business is getting clients to lose a lot
of weight. This is not always a bad thing, as mental and social benefits
sometime are more important than having an Adonis physique in the gym culture. Where
the gyms are losing out is promoting sustainability once the weight is
off……..maybe a partnership with the weight watchers?
One example
of gym weight management. A gym I was working out of had a great spin bike
program. The instructors with their personality and programming kept a good following.
Even non gym members joined this program as a separate fee. It was a winner for
the gym owner. However, I notice that
none of the clients ever appeared to lose weight or gain muscle. However as a
weigh lose program this was not successful but as physical-social activity, it
was a winner to those who participated. A
young lady asked me off to the side, How come after months of spinning three
times a week I only lost less than 5 lbs, what am I doing wrong? I asked her
did she like the spinning program; she just loved the program. Then I told her
not to stop something physical she liked but address her weight as a separate issue
than the spinning. You see the spin instructor loved his ladies and rewarded
his class with bagels and cream cheese two times a week as a comfort food
reward for training hard. Therefore I enlighten her, that she can still lose
weight and keep her spin program, if she just stopped eating the 400 plus
calorie bagel each session and looked closely her nutrition program. You see
what your lean- mean instructor is not telling you, the 30 min in the spin
class will not ever burn off the calories in that bagel. Your instructor
however stays slim by having a calorie
requirement of doing 2-3 classes a day , training in road racing, expends more
calories than he or she can eat in one day. That is why he is thin.
Weight loss is all about your food management and the
fitness part is a very minor player unless you are a fitness freak or
professional.
Fitness for
older adults
What age is
being older? Is it 30,40,50,65, etc? I
have witness examples of 18 year olds that can’t do a single push up and 70
year olds that deadlift 500 lbs. Let’s
face it; the “globo” gym business is designed for the under 35year old
clientele, don’t bullshit me! Yet the
primary focus now is on capturing the very large ageing “boomer generation”
participation that has started a few years back, but it an abysmal failure . The
primary reason seniors are not going to join the globo gyms is, they don’t ever
feel welcome in an environments that makes youth as the primary client.
Personal trainers would rather train a hot 25 year old than a crusty 65 year
senior even though the senior will be a better client. Forget-about-it! Globo gym owners; the seniors
will not be saving you bacon!
Senior
woman will sometimes go into a “silver sneakers” program, but not men! It’s too low grade of fitness and there is
very little strength components in the program for being useful in helping
seniors. Most personal trainers don’t like to be involved in “special
Populations” clients as they are not profitable and very labor intensive. A small group of men will join a “power lift
club, or Crossfit box but stay away from
the globo gyms and opt for playing golf, cycling or swimming at a “Y” My advice
for a senior male is to join a power lifting gym or make your own “box” setup
where you will be welcome.
Personal
training:
This is a
secondary income source for the globo gym business. If you are an independent
contractor or work directly for the gym, it’s an extra income stream, just like
the “juice bar”. The Personal trainer job title has been degraded so badly,
that I have dropped the name I use and no longer provide fitness services as a
general fitness trainer to anyone who contacts me. In my experience, the more I
become selective as to clients the more successful I become. Of course you are
not going to get rich that unless you as a trainer have a secondary income
stream like the gyms. Here is the sad news; the Occupational Handbook put out by the
Bureau of labor Statistics, notes a job growth 24%, therefore we can look
forward to 60,000 more personal trainers making money in a business with a high
failure rate and turnover.
It’s too
easy to become a so called personal trainer and any one can attend a weekend
seminar, take a test, and get your certification. You never have to prove your
ability to perform and have experience, to transfer the fitness skill sets you
are promoting. Licensing may help as long as there is an approved apprenticeship
and not just a new income stream for the government. This goes for all type of sport specific
fitness activities like Zumba, kettlebells, crossfit and spinning, where you
get certified over a 2 day seminar and now you can “teach” others and make an
income with just a few hours of training beyond those you are now training.
It’s a big fucking joke! Only I am not laughing. Good coaches and trainers are
usually ex-jocks, or military, who have a fitness experience in the trenches,
but now want to show other what they did to be successful.
Functional
fitness training:
I was
hoping this trend of functional training was going away as a separate process
like ‘core” training. Functional fitness was a trend years back by adding
exercise to equipment like stability and Bosu balls to enhance balance and
kinestic sense. You can’t really develop strength by just exercising on ball
that attempts to challenge your balance or the reverse. If these methods were
great strength builders than the Navy SEALs would be using them. Those
gentlemen are baddest people on the face of the earth and all they use in basic
exercise movements in a real environment we live in. What to hell does doing
squats on a bosu ball have to do with enhancing balance while walking down a
flight of stairs. Balance is degraded by the aging so to improve the
proprioception of balance you never put a client in a machine or chair to
correct this aspect. The body is too complex and individual attributes of
movement patterns require exercise in a national form, like body weight and,
using natural equipment and training in real environment. Crossfit is one of
the best programs for functional training, because they don’t really specialize
in any one exercise and attempts to cover all modalities
Core
training:
WTF, Here we
go again. I guess the media is the biggest problem, with fitness clubs and
trainers having to come up with a program for the public, to develop “six pak
abs”. Look at the sorry jerks of the Jersey Shore program. They all had “six
pak abs” smoke, drink and do a few curls, with a hangover Sex sells…..you know.
Core
training or training the abdominal or mid- section; which includes all the stomach
muscles and the back as well. If you
only focus on the abdominal area and not the posterior , you are probably looking
at back problems. Separate program for core training is not necessary really
all because that should be part of a
total exercise, nutrition and strength program. Here is where the Globo gym
finds use for the Bosu balls, fit balls, and of course, wobble boards.
They did
not mention TRX contraption, which I see in more gyms, or in my world, rings. Basically
you are executing body weight exercise using one of these pieces of equipment
which is not a bad thing at all, but once again, what are they going to do with
all those expensive machines. You may just get that abs, but it not easy
without a lot of hard ass busting training.
Group
Exercise:
Group
exercise will never go away, mainly it is a second income stream and keep turn
over down. Group training is actually not a bad thing as it is the main
foundation of the Crossfit movement, which trends never mention either. To compare the Globo gym group exercise model
and Crossfit, the globo gym separate the members in a dance floor setting with
little equipment and the Crossfit performs the exercise in the main floor gym
using all the gym equipment. Like
I said, group exercise can be a great program, but it highly depends on a
personal trainer or coach, with a good personality and skill sets to demonstrate
the exercise.
From the
gym owners perspective it a positive income programming, less labor intensive.
Its just good business. These programs can go from low grade Yoga to the “boot
camp” in-you face exercise routines. If you want personal training in a globo
gym it’s costly, but to save money, you can get a “small group” package and
spread the cost to a few other members.
You may not agree with all this shit, but give it some
thought when you signup to a club especially a long contract. Also the big
chain gyms are now owned by holding companies that focus on profit over the human element.
BEEP BEEP, that’s all folks!
Ken
“The mission is sacred”
