I'm super excited to participate at IHRSA 2015 next week – this is the largest fitness equipment/programing and services show in the USA. Our industry is continuously changing and many manufacturers launch their latest and greatest at this huge event.
Amy is joining me again this year and we'd love to meet you! We get into LA Tuesday 3/10 morning and will be there until noon friday.
Here's the IHRSA promotional video – highlights from last year. I need to comment that Callie Bowling (a past guest on the podcast) picked out Amy and me registering last year @ 0:26 – recognising us both before she'd ever met us in person 🙂
First, who I'm excited to meet at IHRSA
I've know him “virtually” for years, but at long last I'll get to meet David McQuillen of Sufferfest video fame. He is traveling from his home in Sufferlandria (which is on the opposite side of the globe) and will be there – booth #2554.
Cameron Chinati, Laurel Mylon and of course Dennis Mellon from Stages Indoor Cycling – they were notably absent last year – booth #2735
Both of the Display Training companies; Shay Amir with Spivi and Tae Yoo from Performance IQ.
Candice Mason is the Director of Commercial Sales for Mad Dogg Athletics. I've had the pleasure to talk with her by phone and I'm keen to learn what studio owner resources they'll be offering at the show – booth #1135
My friends from Keiser; Darrin Pelkey and hopefully Dennis Keiser. Amy and I had a great conversation with Dennis last year and I'm very interested to get his insights on the state IC technology.
And now what I'm looking forward to seeing
Star Trac / Spinning® is displaying their new “Fusion Drive” belt drive option for the NXT and Blade Indoor Cycles. I'm hoping design engineer Justin Kleber will be there to give me all of the technical details.
I'm hoping that Les Mills will be displaying their new IMMERSIVE FITNESS video presentation system. I've heard nothing but, this is totally awesome, from anyone who's been to their Santa Monica 24 Hour Fitness club.
MINDBODY is launching MINDBODY for Box, which they say offers workout and performance tracking. I've got no idea if this is targeted at their boutique studio customers, or (as the name implies) it's only for Big Box studios… but then that's why I'm going.
Wearable Technology like the Pulse ON watch that can read heart rate optically, without a chest strap.
And there are always surprises.
I'm not sure why, but ICG isn't showing as an exhibitor this year – although they may be part of the Matrix display. And Schwinn/Stairmaster isn't listed as a vendor either… UPDATE: Thanks to an email from Merrill Richmond I now understand that Schwinn is exhibiting along with the other brands owned by Core Health & Fitness, LLC – booth 1135. Merrill is now the Vice President of Marketing for Indoor Cycling brands Schwinn and Star Trac.
Stay tuned – I'll be live blogging during the event. If you have anything you like me to look at for you, please let me know.
I had an awesome phone call from the Better Business Bureau (BBB) today. The nice man told me that because of our sterling (we've never had a complaint) reputation, the BBB had upgraded our company's rating to A+… their highest rating 🙂
Like many other business, our actual name (Deep Breath In, LLC) is different from how we are known publicly – indoorcycleinstructor.com and ICI/PRO. The only place you'd see our name is on your credit card statement – which has to be listed as Deep Breath In, LLC vs. ICI/PRO. This has, at times, created some confusion; “honey, what's this charge on our credit card from Deep Breath In, LLC?”
Of course that wasn't the only reason why he called – the BBB offers a special “Accreditation” (which would remove the “This Business is not BBB Accredited” notification) for an annual fee of $490.00. I thanked him for recognising that we take very good care of our ICI/PRO members, but I would pass on the additional expense.
Is your business BBB Accredited? I don't know for sure, but I'll bet that it's more important for higher ticket products or services. I am curious to know if you feel it's worth the $500.00 a year cost.
I love helping startup companies like Kalara Kelly by promoting their products! Amy loves these non-slip headbands and wears the samples she was sent in every class she teaches.
Owner/entrepreneur Melissa Sherwood emailed me about a new Brand Clan Ambassador program. They are hoping to outfit some influential Instructors to show off their headbands. Click that link for more details.
They offer Indoor Cycling Studio Owners a wholesale program so you can offer these at retail to your participants. You can request details here.
Kathy Helmuth and I have just received confirmation that our ACE approved Parkinson's Indoor Cycling Coaching program has been accepted by the SilverSneakers organization!
Now, Parkinson's Cycling Coaches will now receive reimbursement directly from SilverSneakers, through their FLEX Instructor Program.
I am planning an interview with the SilverSneakers National Program director that will explain exactly how the FLEX program works.
My short description: a FLEX Instructor can walk into any studio and teach a SilverSneakers approved class and it's free to SilverSneakers members. SilverSneakers then compensates the Instructor directly.
To become a SilverSneakers group exercise class instructor, one must:
Be at least 18 years of age.
Maintain current CPR certification.
Hold a two or four year degree in health, exercise science, recreation or physical activity related field or maintain a nationally recognized certification (for example, ACE, AFAA, YMCA).
Attend a SilverSneakers instructor training workshop for the specific SilverSneakers class one would like to teach.
SilverSneakers classes are available in 12,000 locations and the FLEX Instructor program allows you to easily (and at no cost) add SilverSneakers classes to your studio 🙂
I'm super excited to announce that ICI/PRO is teaming up with the owners of Full Psycle Indoor Cycling; Paul Harmeling & Shelly Scott. We are hosting our first Full Psycle/PRO Performance IQ Training on February 14th at the Full Psycle Studio in the Lincoln Park area of Chicago, IL.
1/20 update: There's just two open seats remaining.
I've taken over a dozen classes that incorporate PIQ Display Training – at studios across the country. In only one did I feel like the Instructor really understood how to effectively integrated PIQ into the class. That class was Paul Harmeling's and you now have the chance to learn from the person I see as the expert in teaching Display Training Indoor Cycling classes!
Can't make this workshop? If you would like to receive notifications of future events join this email list.
Listen to this short interview with Paul, where we discuss the details of the training we're providing February 14th.
This 6 hour, comprehensive training workshop will include two complete master classes. They'll be taught by Paul Harmeling & Shelly Scott – co-owners of Full Psycle.
To complement the Master Classes, we will be offering the following:
Understanding the basics of PIQ – presented by Tae Yoo
Troubleshooting and Best Practices
Training With Power for Indoor Cycling Classes – presented by Me John Macgowan 🙂
Maximising the functionality of Performance IQ and effectively class presentation using:
Power Screen/Race Mode
Heart Rate Training Screen
PTP (Personal Threshold Power) Screen
Watts/Lb – Weighted/Leveling/Handicapping Mode
Teams Screen
Building Entertaining Display Training Class Profiles
Creating Speciality Classes with PIQ
Get people excited about Display Training with Social Media
Using PIQ data to bring consistency to your Indoor Cycles
We are limiting attendance so we can include multiple opportunities for participants to demonstrate what they've learned. Instructors will need to conduct teach-backs throughout the workshop.
Tae Yoo is taking us all out for dinner Saturday night as the end of a great day of PIQ!
A recently published survey by ACSM about trends in fitness has spawned a number of articles; here, here and here. ACSM's top 20 fitness trends makes no mention of Indoor Cycling – going so far as to suggest its inevitable demise. My review of the survey finds it wanting > no, actually I see it as utter nonsense BS based on both sample size and respondents.
Pilates, indoor cycling, stability ball, and balance training again failed to appear on the list of top 20 trends in the health and fitness industry, which supports the theory that these were fads and not trends. [Really? 20 years of Spinning® is just a fad?]
Some of the survey respondents still argue that the persistent sluggish economy has influenced the results of this survey and that training programs requiring expensive equipment or technical instruction are not supported because of the increased cost. Still others argue that Zumba®, indoor cycling, and Pilates have run their useful course.
Where do I even begin?
The purpose of this survey is to: guide health fitness programming efforts for 2015 – and – developed a systematic way to predict health and fitness trends
During the last 8 years, the editors of ACSM’s Health & Fitness Journal® have disseminated this electronic survey to thousands of professionals worldwide to determine health and fitness trends. The survey in this issue of the Journal helps to guide health fitness programming efforts for 2015. The first survey (1), conducted in 2006 (for predictions in 2007), developed a systematic way to predict health and fitness trends, and surveys have been done annually since that time (2—8) using the same methodology. As this was a survey of trends, respondents were asked to first make the very important distinction between a “fad” and a “trend.”
The potential benefit to commercial health clubs (those that are for-profit) is the establishment (or maybe the justification) of new markets, which could result in a potential for increased and more sustainable revenue. Community-based programs (typically not-for-profit) can use the results to continue to justify an investment in their own markets by providing expanded programs serving families and children. Corporate wellness programs and medical fitness centers may find these results useful through an increased service to their members and to their patients. The health and fitness industry should apply this information to its own unique settings.
OK, So exactly who, and how many did they survey?
Using Survey Monkey ( www.surveymonkey.com), the online survey was sent to 28,426 health fitness professionals….
After 3 weeks and 2 additional notices, 3,403 responses were received, which represents an excellent return rate of 12%, which is very similar to previous surveys.
While 3,400 isn't a small number, I don't know that I would be too proud of a 12% return rate. I get that people are busy. That often means that the people who do respond could have some additional time on their hands.
Here's the breakdown of survey participants. Notice anything strange?
If you thought (as I did); that's a lot of personal trainers (23%) – I wonder if they could have skewed the results to personal trainer-ish activities?
I added the red “X” next to each “trend” that would apply to personal training. Twelve of the twenty “trends” identified are what I would expect a personal trainer to list. Really?
The summary of the survey includes this observation:
Pilates, indoor cycling, balance training, and use of the stability ball continue to exist in the health and fitness industry but with not as much popularity according to the ACSM trends survey.
I'll leave you with this pearl of wisdom from one of ACSM's INTERNATIONAL EXPERTS
Yves Vanlandewijck, Ph.D., professor, Faculty of Kinesiology and Rehabilitation Sciences and program director of the Education Board of the Erasmus Mundus Masters in Adapted Physical Activity, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
During the last 9 years, the ACSM Worldwide Survey of Fitness Trends has been established as the primary mechanism by which the fitness industry has set its standard for the coming year. Around the globe, owners of clubs look forward to the survey to have a better understanding of market direction and emerging trends. That was true in the past, and it continues to be that way today. The survey was sent to thousands of health fitness professions, with 12% responding. That is a remarkable return rate for a survey of this type, demonstrating beyond any doubt that it reflects an accurate picture of the industry. Owners, operators, fitness staff, and sales professionals should pay attention to the results of the survey.
Good Grief… the only thing beyond a doubt is that you're clueless 🙁
No Ms. Vanlandewijck, owners, operators, fitness staff, and sales professionals should pay attention to what the 75 million participant/users of the MyFitnessPal App are doing for exercise.
We were curious to see what fitness trends we could see among the 75 million MyFitnessPal users, so we sat down with our fitness and nutrition experts to take a look at the hot workouts from 2014. The mission: to predict what 2015’s hottest workouts will be.
We took the total number of minutes logged for each of these activities and divided by the number of active users on the app over the period of Jan-Nov of 2013 vs. Jan- Nov 2014. We did have a growth in our database over that time, so we corrected for the number of daily active users.
Here’s what MyFitnessPal’s coaching lead, Glennis Coursey, and our Registered Dietician, Elle Penner, have deemed the workouts to watch in 2015:
Although there are fewer than 40 studios in the US, it’s undeniable that there’s a tremendous buzz around SoulCycle. We anticipate this class (and cycling workouts inspired by it) will be in big demand in 2015. The celeb fave is up 78.3% since 2013.
So to answer ACSM's question; What’s Driving the Market? Participants are, not Personal Trainers.
