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.
As promised in this post, here's my interview with fitness equipment leasing expert Joe Schmitz from F.I.T. Leasing. During the interview Joe provides answers to many of the questions you might have if you're planning a new Indoor Cycling studio, or are considering an upgrade to any of the new Indoor Cycles with power; FreeMotion S11.9, Keiser M3i, Schwinn AC Performance or Star Trac Spinner® Blade Ion.
It was interesting to me that, depending on your financial situation & credit history, I might be possible to include some of the other component parts of your business (AV system, furniture, specialty technology, etc…) into your equipment lease.
Joe has provided some additional information that you can use for business planning and/or preparing to qualify for a lease.
Listen to our discussion below or contact us for more information on equipment leasing.
Here are a few questions about leasing we discuss during the interview:
When does leasing make sense for a new studio — or an existing studio looking to upgrade to new equipment?
When doesn’t it?
Should I lease my indoor cycles directly from the manufacturer?
What other costs can be included, besides new Indoor Cycles?
What is the approval process?
Is it more difficult to get approved for a lease vs. a bank or SBA loan?
What documentation will you need?
Is there anything you want to do, or prepare for, in advance of needing your lease funds?
How long is a typical lease?
What happens at the end of the lease?
Explain any tax benefits of leasing vs. conventional financing or paying cash.
You can use this contact form to submit your questions at any time.
The Scosche armband heart rate strap uses optical sensors to “see” the pulses of blood flow in the blood vessels in your arm. Groundbreaking technology and pretty cool stuff if you ask me. Anything to get rid of those monitor chest straps will be an improvement. I feel this will result in a greater number of people training more effectively. You can read an earlier post where I describe the Scosche as possibly the best heart rate monitor strap option for participants in our classes that include any of the new Indoor Cycles with power consoles – except the Keiser M3 or M3i.
The new Apple iWatch uses the same optical sensor technology and it will be interesting to see how the two match up.
Jon Ham is a fitness consultant to Scosche and has written a detailed comparison between what he sees as the differences between the Scosche and the iWatch. You can read it here. [Understand that Jon's comments about the iWatch are based on information provided by Apple – the iWatch isn't available for purchase yet.]
As a side note, I've been trading emails with a former Schwinn Master Trainer who's involved in the iWatch project and (fingers crossed) I hope to interview him about the fitness applications of the iWatch once it's released.
The part I found most interesting in Jon's article was the part about data collection
Is the Apple Watch Designed to be a Continuous Heart Rate Monitor for intense exercise?
The way I saw it, In Tim Cook’s presentation, the Apple Watch was shown to be an excellent Activity/Life monitor, where movement, lifestyle, and general health were emphasized, and not heart rate training. I could be wrong, but I think Apple knows heart rate is not going to be super accurate during exercise with the Apple Watch, therefore they built the Watch around making a great interface for activity monitoring – IE: how often you stand up throughout the day, pedometer information, etc. This will surely play out to be a thorn in the side of FitBit and other activity monitors, but I don’t think it poses a threat to serious heart rate training athletes.
Data Centralization
I think Apple knows their job is to centralize the data collected from accurate sensors, not to necessarily create the sensor itself – except for activity monitoring. For example, Health Kit will allow all connected apps to push data that has been collected from different sensors directly into Apple’s Health App. I don’t see Apple getting into the Blood Pressure monitor or blood glucose monitor business any time soon, but apps that monitor blood pressure and blood glucose can push their data to Apple Health. I DO like the way the Apple Health App will centralize that information into one health app, along with other health related metrics. It makes sense to have all that data in one centralized location. The bottom line is that you should be able to use other heart rate sensors to do your workout and gather accurate data, you won’t be confined to only using the Apple Watch to collect accurate heart rate data.
Time will tell if Jon is accurate about this and if so, there's a chance we'll want to be wearing both an iWatch and a Scosche armband when we exercise.
ICI/PRO is sponsoring a series of informational webinars, featuring industry experts from the leading companies in our industry. These live events will be invaluable for Studio Owners, managers and anyone planning a Indoor Cycling Studio.
Our first is entitled: Clients, new and old: How to keep them all engaged is scheduled for September 16th at 3:00 Pacific / 6:00 Eastern.
Clients, new and old: How to keep them all engaged
When it comes to attracting new clients, effective marketing is often the difference between surviving and thriving. Join us to learn how to develop a marketing plan that will bring new clients in all year long–and turn them into dedicated clients, too.
We’ll cover:
Strategies for every stage of client interaction, from the first visit to the first year and beyond
The numbers that matter when it comes to increasing your client base
Loyalty programs: how to create your own, and what to encourage your clients to do
Pre-registration is required and you can register here and we'll send you reminders so you don't miss the event.
We'll be recording this webinar and it will be available exclusively to everyone who's registered – so please register even if you can't make the live webinar.
Presented by Michael Goldsmith, Senior Regional Sales Manager at MINDBODY Online
Michael Goldsmith is one of two MINDBODY Senior Regional Sales Managers, leading a team of over 40. As a”recovering” attorney with thirty years of business experience, Michael relishes coming to work every day to help MINDBODY's fitness clients run their businesses more smoothly.
There's a lot of pressure on clubs and studios to upgrade to the latest technology… those basic, conventional bikes just don't cut it when there's a new competitor down the street.
So what does a struggling fitness studio do to come up with the cash (two grand or more per cycle) for a room full of the latest from Schwinn, Star Trac, Keiser or FreeMotion?
How about running an online fundraising campaign to raise the money? Could that ever work?
We will know next month when Ypsi Studio closes their indiegogo campaign on September 21st. They're running what they call SchWinning at Ypsi Studio. Owner Julia Collins is hoping to raise enough money to upgrade to new Schwinn AC Performance Indoor Cycles for her Ypsilanti, Michigan studio.
With clients looking to stay on track with the most up to date exercise equipment, Ypsi Studio owner Julia Collins has launched a Indiegogo campaign to help raise the money needed to upgrade the indoor-cycling bikes the studio is currently using.
“I’m a small-business person and I’ve been in this business for 10 years. Gradually over those 10 years I’ve expanded from a tiny one room place to a place with two floors and different classes and several employees,” Collins said. “Every time I was making profits, I was putting it right back into the business.”
However, those profits are not enough to upgrade the equipment for her customers.
Collins is hoping to raise $25,000 so the studio can purchase 13 new indoor-cycling bikes. Currently the studio has several bikes they’re using that are in good condition, but they’re nearly 10 years old.
According to the campaign website the bikes the studio is looking to purchase are comparable to bikes offered in other fitness studios in the area. They will not only allow the user to exercise, but also monitor RPM, calories burned, heart rate and how long you've been riding.
Didn't the author leave out the most important part? Power!
Good luck with this Julia! I've made a note to follow up with the results of her campaign. You can learn more and pledge your support here.
