As fitness professionals, many of us find it is exciting when a member asks us for fitness related advice… but are you making the proper recommendations?
Do you really understand what she/he is asking?
Do you have enough information to respond in a way that will be motivating?
Or do you have the tendency to just launch into a long response, hoping that some of it sticks?
As a long-time sales guy, I've tried to learn the importance of asking the right questions, before offering a solution. Actually it's often a series of questions, before I'll consider responding. Last fall I talked about a total fail I had early in my career, when I tried to empress a potential customer with all my product knowledge, in this post.
Now that I finally have a device (my new iPad) to download ebooks, I'm putting it to good use. My latest read is The Psychology Behind Fitness Motivation: A Revolutionary New Program to Lose Weight and Stay Fit for Life by Health Psychologist Dr. Kim Chronister. In the book Dr. Kim describes the concept of a Motivational Interview – which sounds exactly like what I suggest you use, whenever you've been asked for help or advice from a member.
Motivational Interviewing for Exercise Motivation
An optimal technique that is supported by the research for exercise motivation is motivational interviewing (MI). When you are seeking the motivation to gain results (for a better body, sharper mind, etc. from regular exercise) motivational interviewing falls into the “what you need” category to get you “what you want”…results.
MI has been shown to be enhanced when MI is combined with other effective treatment methods such as cognitive behavioral therapy (which was discussed in the previous chapter). The technique of motivational interviewing can be used to improve a person’s motivation to change and it can be effective in facilitating behavioral change.
In a clinical setting, motivational interviewing is used by a therapist or other mental health or medical professional to help promote positive change in a client’s behavior. MI exercises are designed to help people recognize the need for changes in their behavior. As a first exercise, let’s say a motivational interviewer (i.e. psychologists, nurses, social workers, medical practitioners, physiotherapists, and dietitians) is meeting with a client trying to lose weight to alleviate chronic health problems. The motivational interviewer would emphasize the importance of the change, current information about why the client should make the alteration in his/her lifestyle, including many benefits. The motivational interviewer would then provide the steps and action plan to make these lifestyle changes. At the end of this chapter, you will be given tools based on the technique of motivational interviewing to help you in your personal fitness goals.
Near the end of the interview, Dr. Kim and I discuss her thoughts about a question I had; should Instructors take an active role in sales and marketing, especially Instructors who teach at a small studio?
What do you think? Should (or would) you be willing to sell/market/promote your studio's services to your participants? I'm not referring to you simply reading a few announcements before the start of class here. I mean communicating with members with the purpose of building rapport, suggesting upgrades, encouraging purchases, recruiting new participants… you know, selling what your studio has to offer.
Would you do that if you were rewarded financially?
I read this from ICI/PRO member Bill Jenks and clicked the donate link when I got to the end.
Hi Friends
A few weeks ago I shared a bit of my history with you. I wrote about meeting Laura, getting married and having a wonderful life together. I wrote about being each others best friends. I wrote that things changed last December. I wrote that on January 22, 2014 Laura was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). I shared our love for each other and our commitment to each other. I mentioned our marriage vows “to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part”. Today I am writing to tell you that Laura passed away on Monday, June 16 at 7:00pm.
Today I am writing to tell you about the disease that progressed through Laura's life and how it caused her death. In December we new something was wrong. Laura began to stumble a bit when she walked and her beautiful handwriting became sloppy. In January the doctors told us Laura had Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. ALS is also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease.
So what is ALS? The definition of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or ALS, is a “progressive disease of the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that control voluntary muscle movement”.
But what does that mean? It means that when you want to pick up a glass of water your brain sends a signal down a nerve telling your arm, hand and fingers to move. To reach for the glass. To wrap your fingers around the glass. To pick up the glass. Someone with ALS wants to pick up a glass of water too but their nerves are failing and over time those nerves loose the ability to transmit the signal to the arm, the hand and the fingers. Someone with ALS can no longer pick up the glass of water. They progressively become paralyzed.
By mid January the nerves controlling Laura's tongue began to fail and her speech became slurred and she began to have difficulty chewing and swallowing food. The nerves controlling her legs and arms continued to deteriorate. In March she lost the ability to take even one step and the ability to even reach for the glass of water. In April she lost the ability to stand – to support her own body weight. By May she could no longer move her arms, her legs, speak or swallow anything solid. The nerves controlling her core muscles were failing too and she could no longer hold her self upright in a seated position.
Some other nerves were progressively failing too. As time passed Laura had a harder and harder time breathing. To inhale we use a muscle called the diaphragm. The nerves controlling the diaphragm progressively lost their ability to transmit the signal telling the diaphragm to move. Laura's body and brain continued to have the same need for oxygen that it had before ALS but now her failing nerves were starving her of that oxygen. For the last couple of days of her life Laura's breathing was labored and difficult. For the last 12 hours of her life she was gasping for air. She was unable to take in enough oxygen to sustain her life -she was suffocating. At 7:00pm on Monday, June 16 she died of respiratory failure caused by ALS.
ALS is a cruel disease. It takes your ability to move, to talk, to eat and even to breath. Through it all Laura kept smiling. She had ALS but it did not define her. She was always Laura with the beautiful quiet smile and big brown eyes. She made the most of her time. She spent time with friends. Time helping others finish some of her quilts. Time attending quilt classes. Time playing Canasta. She spent time with her family. Her sisters. Time with me. She will be missed.
Through it all the Evergreen Chapter of the ALS Association was there for us. When we needed information they were a phone call away. When we needed equipment it was there for us. When we had questions about how to manage some part of the disease process they had answers. They helped both Laura and I be less afraid. The Evergreen Chapter of the ALS Association provided the help and support we needed when we needed it. They were instrumental in Laura's comfort and happiness. They helped me to take the best care of Laura that I could. They provide that information, equipment, answers and support at no charge. They do it because the care. In order for the Evergreen Chapter of the ALS Association to continue to provide the support to families like Laura and I they need our help.
The Evergreen Chapter of the ALS Association holds the DoubleDay Bike Ride To Defeat ALS each July. The DoubleDay Ride is a two day non competitive bike ride on Saturday and Sunday, July 26 and 27. The ride will help raise funds to support people like Laura and I and to raise awareness of the need to find a treatment and a cure for ALS.
Laura and I rode in the Double Day Ride to Defeat ALS last year. That's us in the attached picture. We rode to honor Judy Marshall, our Team Captain Bob Vincent's sister. We rode in memory of Dr. Gene Berg (Laura's Dad) and for our friend Bob Ross. All three were taken by Lou Gehrig's Disease. This year we ride for Laura. Please join me and Team One Love to raise money to support people in our community with ALS and to spread awareness of the urgency to find a treatment and a cure.
It is easy to help the Evergreen Chapter of the ALS Association support families like Laura and I. Please follow this link to my personal page and click on “Donate To William” and follow the instructions. If you would like to join our team follow this link to the Team One Love page and click on “Join Team” and follow the instructions. In honor of Laura and to help other families like mine I will match, dollar for dollar, any donations made to Team One Love (up to $5000.00). Together we can make a difference. No donation is too small. Please follow the link to my personal page to donate today.
Together we can make a difference. Join us for the ride of someone else's life.
Bill Jenks
YMCA Group Cycle Instructor & Faculty
Spinning Star 3, Cycling Fusion & Keiser Cycling Instructor
Heart Zones Trainer Level 2
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Have any of your students ever told you they want to lose weight, even though you (and everyone else) think they “look fine”? What advice have you given them? This post is about the unconventional advice I gave a nutrition client when everyone was telling her the opposite.
The client, “Susan”, came to me and complained about being a size 6. She didn’t like being that size and insisted that she had to be a 4. Susan had been to several other nutritionists and fitness instructors, and had also talked to her friends about this problem. Everyone, professionals and friends alike, had drawn the same conclusion. They told her she looked great the way she was (which was true; she did) and just needed to develop a more realistic view of her body.
Some people, they told her, aren’t meant to be size 4, and you need to accept that.
Before I make any recommendations for a client, I always begin by asking lots of questions. So that’s what I did with Susan.
I took her unhappiness with her weight seriously, rather than dismissing it as some sort of character flaw. I’m convinced that someone who feels uncomfortable at a given weight may actually be tuning in to what her body’s telling her, not pining to look like her favorite fashion model.
It turned out that Susan’s eating was under control portion-wise for most of the day, although, in the evenings, she often binged.
But what made the strongest impression on me was the way Susan conducted the food journal review. When she showed me the log, she went through every single entry with me. She read the foods aloud and told me the story behind everything she’d had at each meal. I heard about cravings, the reasons for each selection, and more.
Obviously, Susan liked being in control. I decided that was the clue to this whole thing. No one likes feeling out of control when it comes to food and eating. That has been the source of self-esteem issues in many of the clients I’ve worked with over the years. The main difference for Susan between sizes 4 and 6 was not her appearance, but what it took to be a 4. As a 4, she had felt in control. Now she was bingeing.
So we addressed the bingeing and what Susan ate during the day that caused her to binge at night. If you’ve read other posts I’ve written, it won’t surprise you that the culprit seemed to be sugar. Susan’s night binges always occurred after she’d eaten sugar during the day. It felt intuitively clear that getting sugar out of Susan’s diet would give her back the control she really wanted, regardless of her weight.
Well, the results showed that my hunch had been correct. Susan’s cleaned-up diet didn’t trigger binges, and that was a relief for her. Yes, she did lose a few pounds, but she stopped obsessing about getting back to a size 4 and finally did what everyone had wanted her to do all along. She accepted her body.
As an indoor cycling instructor, you may be a logical starting point for a student who wants to lose weight. If she needs more help than you’re comfortable giving, you can always refer. But my hope is that, if she looks pretty good, you’ll consider her discomfort something more than an unrealistic expectation.
The Yellow Jersey Bicycle Insurance company is promoting their service with this very cool infographic about the Yellow Jersey, worn by the leaders of the Tour de France. As they are a UK company, it's fitting that they are highlighting past British riders who have worn the Yellow Jersey. If you follow professional cycling you're aware of how utterly dominate Team Sky / British Cycling has been over the past two years. More excitement will follow for sure 🙂
When you fit new riders to Indoor Cycles you tell them their numbers, right? You say; your seat is hole 6, seat slider is X, handle bar height is Y, etc… You may write these settings down on a note card and your riders depend on these setting marks/numbers being accurate, regardless of which bike they ride.
Their expectation is that they'll be able to pull out the 3×5 index card, with the position numbers listed and set themselves up properly – regardless of which bike they choose. Doesn't always work that way…
This past Thursday morning I set up my Instructor bike, jumped on and knew immediately that something was wrong. I felt like I was sitting way forward of my normal position. Jumped off and checked the slider position – It was exactly where I always have it. Jumped back on and still felt like I sitting too far forward… and I just lived with it while I taught my class.
I checked afterward to see what was causing my concern and it was as I suspected – someone must have switched out this bike and this saddle was installed in a different position, all the way to the front of the seat post = although I had adjusted the slider correctly the saddle was still to far forward.
You'll need a wrench to fix this.
Saddle Fore/Aft position of the saddle can be change in two ways:
How you're familiar, using the adjuster knob or pin and sliding position –
Or by loosening the nut that holds the two seat rails to the seat post – slider assembly. Here's where you need a 9/16 or 15mm wrench. Each saddle should have been installed in the same position – operative word here being should, they almost never are. You'll only need to make this adjustment once, preferably when you take each of the box.
Here's a video I made showing Spinner NXT's and how you can check that each saddle is installed correctly. NOTE: every Indoor Cycle and bicycle saddle adjusts on the rails the same way – how you measure the position, in relation to the slider, will be different between the various brands.
While you're at it, I suggest checking that each seat is level. Dead level is typically best for men and women. You're measuring from the high-points (not the center depression) on either side, to the nose of the saddle.
Christian Noni wants to hire you as an Instructor at Revelry Indoor Cycling and Fitness. But there's a catch to his interview process… he's looking for Instructors / coaches who've experienced inspiration from fitness, who have seen the light.. the proof.. (whether it be weight loss, winning a triathlon, or even had a wild twist and that’s how they met their wife or husband) and who lives to share and pass that torch in their classes.
I've been asked multiple times; “John can you help me with a problem I have hiring Instructors?” “I've never hired anyone before, what's the trick to bringing on only great Instructors who will fill the room?”
Great question. One that I really didn't have an answer for, before this interview with Christian Noni. Christian is the Fitness Director at Revelry Indoor Cycling and Fitness. One of his responsibilities to recruit, hire and train the Instructors who will make their studio successful. He has a wonderful way of interviewing potential Instructors… Listen to the interview to learn exactly what he's looking for from and then how they plan to train each new Instructor to bring consistency to all of their classes, regardless of who's teaching.
Christian's mentor is the excellent educator Lawrence Biscontini. If you haven't yet, I would highly suggest that you listen to both episodes of the interview we had with Lawrence:
Good stuff and these two interviews probably rank in the top ten of all the interviews we've ever recorded 🙂
Here's my interview with Christian.[wlm_private ‘PRO-Platinum|PRO-Monthly|PRO-Gratis|PRO-Seasonal|Platinum-trial|Monthly-trial|PRO-Military|30-Days-of-PRO|90 Day PRO|Stages-Instructor|Schwinn-Instructor|Instructor-Bonus|28 Day Challenge']
I'd love to hear if this helps you to select better Instructors. [/wlm_private]
