Hey Fitness Pros,
Next week is St. Patty's Day. Plan something fun for clients. Encourage everyone to wear green, play some fun Irish music, give out some door prizes, plan some fitness challenges or Exercise Trivia with an Ireland flare so people can test their Irish luck, serve green healthy drinks...
Same old, same old is the sign of a dying business. Doing little things like this that don't take a ton of time or money to organize is a great way to add some excitement and fun to your normal way of doing things.
Yours in health, fitness and business,
Sherri McMillan
ps. Contact kari@nwpersonaltraining.com for 1 month FREE Personal Training Mastermind membership.
Showing posts with label northwest personal training. Show all posts
Showing posts with label northwest personal training. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Friday, March 5, 2010
Fitness Pros can vacation for Free!
Hey Fitness Pros,
Sorry it's been a few weeks since I've posted. I'm celebrating my 40th Birthday next week and have been enjoying a fun 40 for 40 day celebration. It's been a blast!
Anyways, today I wanted to let you know about an opportunity that exists for Fitness Professionals that I don't think enough of us take advantage of.
Put it this way - you should never have to pay for accommodations and food at a high class resort again. There are plenty of resorts that will give you free accommodations and food in return for teaching a couple classes like Yoga, Pilates, Aqua, Dance, Bootcamp etc per day. Plus, what a great way to meet people. So if you're like me and would workout and take classes anyways, why not teach them yourself and be guaranteed a fabulous workout and get to go for free. Plus you get to bring a guest and often up to 2 kids for free also. If you have more in your party, they often provide a very discounted rate for add-ons. It's a really great deal.
Typically, you just have to fill out an application and prove that you are a certified professional. Then you get to search the various resorts and availability. Options are available throughout Mexico and the Caribbean including Cuba, Costa Rica and more.
There are two companies that I know of that facilitate this process. Here are their websites:
http://www.fitnessprotravel.com/
http://www.nrg2go.net/index.shtml
Happy and fit travels,
Sherri McMillan
ps. Contact Kari Schunk at kari@nwpersonaltraining.com to sign up for 1 month of FREE Personal Training MasterMind group with me - guaranteed to increase your business revenues!
Sorry it's been a few weeks since I've posted. I'm celebrating my 40th Birthday next week and have been enjoying a fun 40 for 40 day celebration. It's been a blast!
Anyways, today I wanted to let you know about an opportunity that exists for Fitness Professionals that I don't think enough of us take advantage of.
Put it this way - you should never have to pay for accommodations and food at a high class resort again. There are plenty of resorts that will give you free accommodations and food in return for teaching a couple classes like Yoga, Pilates, Aqua, Dance, Bootcamp etc per day. Plus, what a great way to meet people. So if you're like me and would workout and take classes anyways, why not teach them yourself and be guaranteed a fabulous workout and get to go for free. Plus you get to bring a guest and often up to 2 kids for free also. If you have more in your party, they often provide a very discounted rate for add-ons. It's a really great deal.
Typically, you just have to fill out an application and prove that you are a certified professional. Then you get to search the various resorts and availability. Options are available throughout Mexico and the Caribbean including Cuba, Costa Rica and more.
There are two companies that I know of that facilitate this process. Here are their websites:
http://www.fitnessprotravel.com/
http://www.nrg2go.net/index.shtml
Happy and fit travels,
Sherri McMillan
ps. Contact Kari Schunk at kari@nwpersonaltraining.com to sign up for 1 month of FREE Personal Training MasterMind group with me - guaranteed to increase your business revenues!
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
What all fitness pros should be doing this December!
Hey Fitness Pros.
At Northwest Personal Training, it's Year-End evaluation time. Every December, I meet with our team members and we review their past year's performance. Did they hit their revenue goals? How was their client feedback and retention? We rate their dependability, initiative, team spirit, communication etc. Then we set goals for next year.
It's a great time to assess and set our focus for the new year. Kinda like what we do with clients!
If you are a solo trainer, do this for yourself! It's a great practice! And it's a good time to do it since you probably have some down-time since more clients are away during this time of year.
Yours in health, fitness and business,
Sherri McMillan
ps. If you are a part of our Personal Training MasterMind Group, you get access to all of these evaluation forms and systems. No need to reinvent! Contact Kari Schunk, our Fitness Education Director, for more details at kari@nwpersonaltraining.com
At Northwest Personal Training, it's Year-End evaluation time. Every December, I meet with our team members and we review their past year's performance. Did they hit their revenue goals? How was their client feedback and retention? We rate their dependability, initiative, team spirit, communication etc. Then we set goals for next year.
It's a great time to assess and set our focus for the new year. Kinda like what we do with clients!
If you are a solo trainer, do this for yourself! It's a great practice! And it's a good time to do it since you probably have some down-time since more clients are away during this time of year.
Yours in health, fitness and business,
Sherri McMillan
ps. If you are a part of our Personal Training MasterMind Group, you get access to all of these evaluation forms and systems. No need to reinvent! Contact Kari Schunk, our Fitness Education Director, for more details at kari@nwpersonaltraining.com
Friday, October 2, 2009
What are you doing this weekend for YOU?!
Hey Fitness Pros,
TGIF! I have a question for you. What are you going to do this weekend to give back to YOU!
In our industry we give and give and give. We have to be positive and upbeat at all times. And at the end of the week it can be exhausting. The burn out rate in our industry is high so you have to figure out what it's going to take to keep you fresh and excited for what you do. For some trainers, all they have to do is take a short holiday once every 3-4 months to just rejuvenate. Others make sure their schedule is balanced so that they only say, work early mornings 3x/week and evenings 2x/week and they take the weekends off. Others refuse to work split days. Some trainers enjoy a massage once a week to help them relax. Others meditate or pray. Some stay excited by attending workshops or conferences. Figure out what it's going to take for you and do it.
For me, I'm going to go for a short run on Saturday morning with the kids. Watch Brianna's soccer game in the afternoon. And then take the kids to my friend's house Adrienne for dinner and some great friendship time. Sunday I've got a 12 mile run planned with my girlfriend Toni. Then soccer game with the kids. A massage to help recover from the run and then some downtime in the evening. Notice - there's no work scheduled. Yahoo. Just a nice mix of exercise, time with the kids, time for myself and time for friends. Now it doesn't always happen that way on weekends but I definitely try to find balance in my days and weeks.
Take a moment to think of the things you need to do to avoid burnout and then this weekend, try to do at least one of them.
Yours in health, fitness and business,
Sherri McMillan
TGIF! I have a question for you. What are you going to do this weekend to give back to YOU!
In our industry we give and give and give. We have to be positive and upbeat at all times. And at the end of the week it can be exhausting. The burn out rate in our industry is high so you have to figure out what it's going to take to keep you fresh and excited for what you do. For some trainers, all they have to do is take a short holiday once every 3-4 months to just rejuvenate. Others make sure their schedule is balanced so that they only say, work early mornings 3x/week and evenings 2x/week and they take the weekends off. Others refuse to work split days. Some trainers enjoy a massage once a week to help them relax. Others meditate or pray. Some stay excited by attending workshops or conferences. Figure out what it's going to take for you and do it.
For me, I'm going to go for a short run on Saturday morning with the kids. Watch Brianna's soccer game in the afternoon. And then take the kids to my friend's house Adrienne for dinner and some great friendship time. Sunday I've got a 12 mile run planned with my girlfriend Toni. Then soccer game with the kids. A massage to help recover from the run and then some downtime in the evening. Notice - there's no work scheduled. Yahoo. Just a nice mix of exercise, time with the kids, time for myself and time for friends. Now it doesn't always happen that way on weekends but I definitely try to find balance in my days and weeks.
Take a moment to think of the things you need to do to avoid burnout and then this weekend, try to do at least one of them.
Yours in health, fitness and business,
Sherri McMillan
Thursday, October 1, 2009
It's time to close out the month...
Hey Fitness Pros.
It's October 1st. If you're like me, you're wondering where the heck did September go?
On the first of every month, a reminder pops up in my Outlook to perform a variety of month-end tasks to close out the prior month. This is so helpful for me to keep the pulse on our business. So whether you're a solo fitness pro or you manage a number of other fitness pros, it's a good idea to assess how you did last month. It's the best way to determine what works and what doesn't.
Here are some of the things that you might want to measure and review:
*# of initial client sessions & # who purchased - then calculate closing %
*# of clients who renewed - therefore retention ratio
*# of clients who canceled
*# of phone call/web inquiries - calculate closing % to appointments scheduled
*Where are all your new clients coming from (phone, ads, facebook, google etc)
*# of outgoing motivational and sales phone calls
*# of referrals asked or gift certificates given out
*# of cross promotions and business alliances developed
*Revenues generated (total and for each department)
*Expenses
*Profit and cash flow
*Class participation numbers
Hope this helps you analyze your business and create a plan to success beyond your wildest dreams.
Yours in health, fitness and business,
Sherri McMiillan
It's October 1st. If you're like me, you're wondering where the heck did September go?
On the first of every month, a reminder pops up in my Outlook to perform a variety of month-end tasks to close out the prior month. This is so helpful for me to keep the pulse on our business. So whether you're a solo fitness pro or you manage a number of other fitness pros, it's a good idea to assess how you did last month. It's the best way to determine what works and what doesn't.
Here are some of the things that you might want to measure and review:
*# of initial client sessions & # who purchased - then calculate closing %
*# of clients who renewed - therefore retention ratio
*# of clients who canceled
*# of phone call/web inquiries - calculate closing % to appointments scheduled
*Where are all your new clients coming from (phone, ads, facebook, google etc)
*# of outgoing motivational and sales phone calls
*# of referrals asked or gift certificates given out
*# of cross promotions and business alliances developed
*Revenues generated (total and for each department)
*Expenses
*Profit and cash flow
*Class participation numbers
Hope this helps you analyze your business and create a plan to success beyond your wildest dreams.
Yours in health, fitness and business,
Sherri McMiillan
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Start planning now for Winter Sports programs - help your clients and cushion the bottom line.
I know you probably don't want to hear this (unless you're a winter sports buff) but winter is on the way. So it's time to start planning for any Ski Conditioning or Winter Sports Conditioning programs/clinics that you are going to host.
Here's some tips to designing a private or group program for any Winter sport. If you manage a group of trainers, forward this to them to file and use as a template for all future program design.
You don’t need to be an expert at a sport to train someone to excel in that sport. You just need to understand physiology, anatomy and ask a lot of the right questions. Here’s a system for designing a Winter Sports Conditioning program for any type of activity:
1. Define the goals of the client – how you train a recreational versus highly competitive athlete will be very different. Your expectations will be different as well as the types of movements you incorporate. Obviously a client who wants to be able to ski the greens without getting exhausted by the end of the day will require a different approach than one who wants to aggressively ski the diamonds, moguls and jumps.
2. Define the commitment of the client – Find out how long, how frequent and how hard your client wants to train before designing the program. Adherence will falter greatly if your expectations fall outside of what the client is willing or able to do.
3. Define the demands of the sport/activity – avoid the “one size fits all” approach – See more info below.
4. Identify strengths and weakness of the client related to the demands of the sport – This is where the ‘personal’ in Personal Training comes in. Customize your program based on the client and any imbalances that you assess.
5. Design a program to increase muscular strength and endurance, cardiovascular fitness, agility, power, balance and flexibility – avoid overemphasizing one area when another area may be more important. Most athletes will benefit from addressing all fitness components with a primary focus on those specific to that sport.
6. Avoid overstepping your boundaries! Avoid exactly mimicking a certain sport movement with a heavy resistance which can be detrimental to performance and cause injury. Work in combination with the coach if possible.
Let’s review a system for easily defining the demands of the sport/activity.
Step One: Start by determining the predominant metabolic energy system and CV needs. Does the sport utilize primarily the Creatine Phosphate, Anaerobic glycolysis, Aerobic glycolysis, or Fatty acid oxidation or a strong combination of all systems. Ask yourself questions such as for how long will my client have to perform at any given time – is it seconds, minutes, hours? Are there Intervals, Periods, Shifts or a consistent energy output? This will determine how you design the cardio program and any intervals you incorporate into the training program. If the sport requires intense bursts of activity lasting about 45 seconds, guess what you’ll be doing in the training program?!
Step Two: Analyze the lower body, upper body and torso movement patterns and determine the specific muscular strength and endurance requirements. For example, does the sport require Skating, Jumping (one or two legs), hopping (one or two legs), Squatting, lunging, rotating/swinging, pushing, pulling…Watch the body during the activity to determine where your focus will be. That said, most athletes are going to benefit from a full body program and a strong core.
Step Three: Analyze the object to be moved. Will the athlete be on a board, skis or sled? Will be they be required to push against an opponent? Addressing some of these demands will be very important in the program.
Step Four: Determine movement patterns, agility, speed and power needs. A sport that requires an athlete to move straight ahead from point A to Z as quickly as possible will require a different approach than an activity that has the athlete moving quickly side to side, backwards and forwards.
Step Five: Determine balance needs. Most winter sports incorporate a high level of balance – some more than others and some just in different ways that others. For example, how you train a figure skater will be different than how you train a bob-sledder. There are differences even within a certain type of sport. For example, the balance requirements for a solo skater are different than a pairs or speed skater. Or you’ll train a freestyle boarder different than a boadercross, alpine or slalom boarder.
Step Six: Determine flexibility needs. Clearly a figure skater will require a higher level of flexibility than a cross country skier.
Step Seven: Determine areas that hold a high risk for injury and associated strategies for minimizing risk. Find out how athletes in the specific sport usually get injured and program to accommodate that to lessen the risk.
Step Eight: Determine which exercises, tools and drills will address each need – be sure to assess your clients’ strengths and weaknesses. This is the fun part!
Here’s how we might approach a Ski Conditioning program:
• Energy system: Anaerobic Glycolysis/Aerobic Glycolysis
• Lower Body tucks and squats, Lateral weight transfer, torso stabilization and rotation, quiet upper body
• Moving the body on skis
• Requires linear and lateral movement strength, agility, speed and power
• Requires high level of dynamic balance
• Flexibility requirements low for performance (high for reduced risk of injury)
• Risk areas – knee, back
– Requires Hamstring/Gluteal strength, Core stabilization and flexibility
• Exercises/Tools/Drills
– Balancing on a ProFitter/Wobble Board, BOSU Trainer using two/one legged dynamic/static positions, Slide training, Squats, leg presses, lunges, plyometric leg training, Rotational throws with a medicine ball, rotation/pushing with exercise tubes, agility training through cones, one or two leg jump training, AT/sprint training, stepping while holding a full glass of water
Putting it all together. Here is what a workout template might look like for this type of athlete.
• Warm-up
• Compound lower body exercise
• Compound upper body exercise
• Compound full-body movement
• Upright torso movement
• Agility/speed/power drill
• Balance drill
• Repeat 6-10x with different exercises
• Cool-down and stretch
Here is a list of useful training tools for Winter Sports Conditioning:
• Cones/funnels
• Rope/tubes
• Coloured tape for agility marking
• Steps
• Wobble boards/Extreme Balance boards/Bongo boards/BOSU Trainers
• Foam Rollers
• Medicine balls/Stability Balls
• Profitter/Slide
• Stairs
• 2 x 4 balance board
Here is a list of effective agility drills for Winter Sports Conditioning:
• Stop/Go drill
• Right/Left/Backwards/Forwards drill
• Square drill - shuffle, sprint forwards, shuffle, sprint backwards 10xR/L
• Figure 8 running
• Carioca drills
• Good ole "Suicides"
• Lateral side to side drills
• Shuffling drills - add medicine ball
• Reaction Time catching
• Step drills
• Hurdling over Steps - one leg/two legs
• Jumping over the step - one leg/two legs/on the spot/moving
• Fast out and in
• Fast tap ups
• Over the step (1/2/3 fast)
• Ski jumps onto step - on the spot/moving forward
• T-Tape/Tube drills - one leg/two legs, out/in, jumping one leg/two legs
• Cone drills
• Bouncing balls in/out cones
• Jumping over followed by sprint
• Agility ladder drills
Here is a list of effective power drills for Winter Sports Conditioning:
• Vertical jumps
• Bounding
• Step Power lunges - forwards/backwards + adding lateral movement
• Power jumps up/down onto step
• Knee tucks
• Broad jumps
• Exercuff tube drills
– side to side steps
– side to side jumps
– hip extension
– knee lifts
• Treadmill running against tubed resistance
• Partner Resisted Runs/Pulls
Here is a list of sample balance drills for Winter Sports Conditioning:
• One leg drills - eyes open/closed/bouncing a ball/catching a ball
• BOSU Trainer / Wobble board drills - 2 feet/1 foot/performing exercises
• Extreme board drills - squats catching ball
• Bongo board drills
• Profitter drills - add medicine ball
• 2 x 4 drills
• Balance drills are effective as warm-up, cool-down or recovery exercises
Sample Torso Exercises for Winter Sports Conditioning:
• Throwing drills with medicine ball - forwards/overheads (single/double)/sideways
• Torso rotation with tubes/med balls
• Table top/Plank variations
• Tripod/Dipod variations
• Push-ups on medicine ball/wobble board
• Full sits with medicine ball
• V-sits with medicine ball with rotation
• BOSU/Stability ball torso exercises
I hope this provides you a system for being able to help any type of winter athlete.
Yours in health, fitness and business,
Sherri McMillan
Here's some tips to designing a private or group program for any Winter sport. If you manage a group of trainers, forward this to them to file and use as a template for all future program design.
You don’t need to be an expert at a sport to train someone to excel in that sport. You just need to understand physiology, anatomy and ask a lot of the right questions. Here’s a system for designing a Winter Sports Conditioning program for any type of activity:
1. Define the goals of the client – how you train a recreational versus highly competitive athlete will be very different. Your expectations will be different as well as the types of movements you incorporate. Obviously a client who wants to be able to ski the greens without getting exhausted by the end of the day will require a different approach than one who wants to aggressively ski the diamonds, moguls and jumps.
2. Define the commitment of the client – Find out how long, how frequent and how hard your client wants to train before designing the program. Adherence will falter greatly if your expectations fall outside of what the client is willing or able to do.
3. Define the demands of the sport/activity – avoid the “one size fits all” approach – See more info below.
4. Identify strengths and weakness of the client related to the demands of the sport – This is where the ‘personal’ in Personal Training comes in. Customize your program based on the client and any imbalances that you assess.
5. Design a program to increase muscular strength and endurance, cardiovascular fitness, agility, power, balance and flexibility – avoid overemphasizing one area when another area may be more important. Most athletes will benefit from addressing all fitness components with a primary focus on those specific to that sport.
6. Avoid overstepping your boundaries! Avoid exactly mimicking a certain sport movement with a heavy resistance which can be detrimental to performance and cause injury. Work in combination with the coach if possible.
Let’s review a system for easily defining the demands of the sport/activity.
Step One: Start by determining the predominant metabolic energy system and CV needs. Does the sport utilize primarily the Creatine Phosphate, Anaerobic glycolysis, Aerobic glycolysis, or Fatty acid oxidation or a strong combination of all systems. Ask yourself questions such as for how long will my client have to perform at any given time – is it seconds, minutes, hours? Are there Intervals, Periods, Shifts or a consistent energy output? This will determine how you design the cardio program and any intervals you incorporate into the training program. If the sport requires intense bursts of activity lasting about 45 seconds, guess what you’ll be doing in the training program?!
Step Two: Analyze the lower body, upper body and torso movement patterns and determine the specific muscular strength and endurance requirements. For example, does the sport require Skating, Jumping (one or two legs), hopping (one or two legs), Squatting, lunging, rotating/swinging, pushing, pulling…Watch the body during the activity to determine where your focus will be. That said, most athletes are going to benefit from a full body program and a strong core.
Step Three: Analyze the object to be moved. Will the athlete be on a board, skis or sled? Will be they be required to push against an opponent? Addressing some of these demands will be very important in the program.
Step Four: Determine movement patterns, agility, speed and power needs. A sport that requires an athlete to move straight ahead from point A to Z as quickly as possible will require a different approach than an activity that has the athlete moving quickly side to side, backwards and forwards.
Step Five: Determine balance needs. Most winter sports incorporate a high level of balance – some more than others and some just in different ways that others. For example, how you train a figure skater will be different than how you train a bob-sledder. There are differences even within a certain type of sport. For example, the balance requirements for a solo skater are different than a pairs or speed skater. Or you’ll train a freestyle boarder different than a boadercross, alpine or slalom boarder.
Step Six: Determine flexibility needs. Clearly a figure skater will require a higher level of flexibility than a cross country skier.
Step Seven: Determine areas that hold a high risk for injury and associated strategies for minimizing risk. Find out how athletes in the specific sport usually get injured and program to accommodate that to lessen the risk.
Step Eight: Determine which exercises, tools and drills will address each need – be sure to assess your clients’ strengths and weaknesses. This is the fun part!
Here’s how we might approach a Ski Conditioning program:
• Energy system: Anaerobic Glycolysis/Aerobic Glycolysis
• Lower Body tucks and squats, Lateral weight transfer, torso stabilization and rotation, quiet upper body
• Moving the body on skis
• Requires linear and lateral movement strength, agility, speed and power
• Requires high level of dynamic balance
• Flexibility requirements low for performance (high for reduced risk of injury)
• Risk areas – knee, back
– Requires Hamstring/Gluteal strength, Core stabilization and flexibility
• Exercises/Tools/Drills
– Balancing on a ProFitter/Wobble Board, BOSU Trainer using two/one legged dynamic/static positions, Slide training, Squats, leg presses, lunges, plyometric leg training, Rotational throws with a medicine ball, rotation/pushing with exercise tubes, agility training through cones, one or two leg jump training, AT/sprint training, stepping while holding a full glass of water
Putting it all together. Here is what a workout template might look like for this type of athlete.
• Warm-up
• Compound lower body exercise
• Compound upper body exercise
• Compound full-body movement
• Upright torso movement
• Agility/speed/power drill
• Balance drill
• Repeat 6-10x with different exercises
• Cool-down and stretch
Here is a list of useful training tools for Winter Sports Conditioning:
• Cones/funnels
• Rope/tubes
• Coloured tape for agility marking
• Steps
• Wobble boards/Extreme Balance boards/Bongo boards/BOSU Trainers
• Foam Rollers
• Medicine balls/Stability Balls
• Profitter/Slide
• Stairs
• 2 x 4 balance board
Here is a list of effective agility drills for Winter Sports Conditioning:
• Stop/Go drill
• Right/Left/Backwards/Forwards drill
• Square drill - shuffle, sprint forwards, shuffle, sprint backwards 10xR/L
• Figure 8 running
• Carioca drills
• Good ole "Suicides"
• Lateral side to side drills
• Shuffling drills - add medicine ball
• Reaction Time catching
• Step drills
• Hurdling over Steps - one leg/two legs
• Jumping over the step - one leg/two legs/on the spot/moving
• Fast out and in
• Fast tap ups
• Over the step (1/2/3 fast)
• Ski jumps onto step - on the spot/moving forward
• T-Tape/Tube drills - one leg/two legs, out/in, jumping one leg/two legs
• Cone drills
• Bouncing balls in/out cones
• Jumping over followed by sprint
• Agility ladder drills
Here is a list of effective power drills for Winter Sports Conditioning:
• Vertical jumps
• Bounding
• Step Power lunges - forwards/backwards + adding lateral movement
• Power jumps up/down onto step
• Knee tucks
• Broad jumps
• Exercuff tube drills
– side to side steps
– side to side jumps
– hip extension
– knee lifts
• Treadmill running against tubed resistance
• Partner Resisted Runs/Pulls
Here is a list of sample balance drills for Winter Sports Conditioning:
• One leg drills - eyes open/closed/bouncing a ball/catching a ball
• BOSU Trainer / Wobble board drills - 2 feet/1 foot/performing exercises
• Extreme board drills - squats catching ball
• Bongo board drills
• Profitter drills - add medicine ball
• 2 x 4 drills
• Balance drills are effective as warm-up, cool-down or recovery exercises
Sample Torso Exercises for Winter Sports Conditioning:
• Throwing drills with medicine ball - forwards/overheads (single/double)/sideways
• Torso rotation with tubes/med balls
• Table top/Plank variations
• Tripod/Dipod variations
• Push-ups on medicine ball/wobble board
• Full sits with medicine ball
• V-sits with medicine ball with rotation
• BOSU/Stability ball torso exercises
I hope this provides you a system for being able to help any type of winter athlete.
Yours in health, fitness and business,
Sherri McMillan
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