•    Prioritize
•    Set Goals
•    Plan
•    Take Action
•    Be Disciplined
•    Find a Role Model ~ Support Person
•    Self Improvement
•    Find your Inspiration
•    Emotional Commitment
•    Today

1.    Care enough for yourself and the people you love by making your health, fitness and well-being a priority.
2.    Goal setting is vitally important to being the best you can be.  Take a long range and short range view of diet and exercise.  Focus on your daily goals and take committed action.   When obstacles and challenges come up, don’t let short term failure get you down.  Remind yourself of your long term objectives and be persistent.
3.    Planning and preparation are the backbone of your success.
4.    Taking action and progressing toward your goal are what keeps you motivated.
5.    Discipline yourself to follow through on your commitments regardless of how you feel.
6.    Find a role model, support person, personal trainer, or workout buddy to support and share your success.
7.    Don’t compare yourself to others.  Focus on self-improvement.  Challenge yourself to set new personal bests.   With this strategy you’ll always turn out to be the winner.
8.    Seek and find inspiration within yourself.  The more excited and inspired you are about your goals, the more possible they become.   Believe in a bigger possibility for yourself.
9.    Changing your diet and exercise behaviors is going to require continued strong emotional commitment.  You may fall down, but get back up ASAP!
10.    Do something good for yourself today to keep yourself healthy and strong.

Thinking about becoming a personal trainer, or maybe gotten started with a personal training business recently? Here’s some advice:

Business Management

Being a successful personal trainer involves a lot more than working out. The business side of the business is what makes and breaks many trainers. Managing and developing the business is time consuming and, for most, not the part of the job they really like. Sure, we’d all like to make plenty of money at this while only training people. Problem is it won’t work.

Get organized. Keep good records, clients records and financial info. It is critical that you develop good habits in these areas right at the beginning.

Find an accountant and a lawyer. For those just getting started it’s hard to swallow the expense but trust me, it’s worth it. You might also want to get a business coach.

Sales

This is part of the business component but deserves separate treatment. Aside from actually knowing how to train people safely and correctly, this is probably the most important factor in personal training success.

Trainers who do well at this business are good at selling. That doesn’t mean you have to come across like an infomercial all the time. It does mean you have to be intentional. You have to market yourself and your services. You have to be able to make a good personal pitch. You have to ask for referrals.

Get some sales training. It will be well worth the investment. There’s no need to go looking for any super secret high powered techniques or tricks, just learn the basic concepts and best practices.

Training Skill

Could be that you’re great at the business component but if you’re not a good trainer, don’t bother. In fact, stop before you get someone hurt. (Perhaps an article on personal training malpractice would be helpful.) Unless you’re trying to sign up a few thousand people a year for a one time workout the only way you’re going to be successful is by retaining clients and getting referrals from those clients. Regardless of how good you might be at sales, if you don’t offer a quality service you will not be successful. Word gets out.

Professional Development

You must always be learning and improving, both in your coaching skills and your business skills. Read. A lot. Books, blogs, magazines, everything you can get your hands on. Go to conferences and seminars. Keep your certifications up to date and get more. Keep taking classes at a local college, maybe go after a graduate degree. Never stop being a learner.

Reputation

Most trainer’s brand is their name. Perhaps your business identity is your brand. Your brand reputation will become your most valuable asset. As is often said, it takes a lifetime to build and only a moment to tear it down. Develop it with a passion and guard it carefully, both in and outside the gym.

Set high standards of quality for the training you do. Make every workout count. Train people with passion and energy. Give your clients something to talk about.

Being a personal trainer in Indianapolis for more than 25 years has been a blast. It’s hard work, every day, but it’s also fun. A career that allows a person to help change people’s lives for the better is very rewarding. If that same career can allow you to make a good living, then even better. Being a personal trainer allows for both.

We recently re-discovered an old school exercise bike. The Schwinn Airdyne is a recent addition to our arsenal of tools for the fitness classes.

For those not familiar with how this bike works, it is similar to an elliptical trainer in that you push and pull with your arms at the same time as you are pedaling. The unique feature on this bike is the fan mechanism. As you pedal, with feet or arms or both, it turns a large fan. The harder you pedal, push, and pull, the greater the air resistance. The fact that it works your legs, torso, shoulders, and arms all at once makes this a great workout.

We use it as a warm-up tool. The dual action of legs pedaling and the upper body pushing and pulling do a great job of increasing core temperature and heart rate. We also use it for interval workouts at high intensity. At a high effort this machine is nasty within 15-30 seconds.  When you sprint as fast as possible, it feels as if the machine sucks the oxygen right out of your lungs. You will be impressed and humbled by the effectiveness of this low-tech tool.

The bike can be used by just about anyone and is great for those recovering from an injury. If you have an upper body injury, then you can concentrate on the lower body and only work this part on the machine. The same goes for a lower body injury, just push and pull with the arm action to get a great cardio workout.

Schwinn’s Airdyne exercise bike is intense, effective and safe to use whether you are a beginner or an elite athlete. I highly recommend this machine.

Any progress or growth in your life requires change. To improve your health, fitness, finances, relationships, or any area of life or business requires some sort of change in activity. Doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results is a common definition for insanity, and certain path to NO progress or growth. Keep in mind that when something stops growing it usually indicates that thing is dead.

Some times the change required is radical. There are times when a completely different course of action or pattern of behavior is necessary. We work with clients who, for various reasons, have to make significant changes to their diet and activity levels. This radical change in behavior starts with a major shift in thinking. They have to acquire a completely new vision of themselves and their lifestyle. (Matt Hudson was one of those people. Read about his story.)

For some who are already engaged in a healthy lifestyle, radical change may not be necessary. If they aren’t experiencing any progress, they can’t continue what they’re doing but it might only take a few minor modifications in their routine to start seeing improvement and new growth. Perhaps they need to try a new exercise routine. Or maybe they need to introduce the concept of recovery to their current routine. Could be they need to rethink their nutrition.

As with those who need to make significant changes, even minor changes require a change in thinking and/or attitude. A person who’s fitness has stopped progressing or who isn’t reaching certain performance goals might just need a bit more specific education. Or it could be that they’ve been doing the right kinds of exercises but haven’t pushed themselves hard enough to get the proper effect. To reach the needed level of intensity will take a shift in attitude.

Again, the obvious application for me is with fitness but it does apply just as well to every category of life, personal and business. I’ve been talking about it with our trainers with regards to their own professional development, stressing to them the need to get out of their comfort zones. Change, even when it’s for the better, will always involve some level of discomfort.

One of our clients, Bill Bean, says “I want to be different. Problem is I don’t want to change.” That may be true for a lot of people. Most have something in their life or business they want to be different. That desire can’t be realized without change.

Are you still growing? Making progress? What do you need to change? Are you willing to change?

Spring is almost here and summer will be here before we know it. Everyone in Indianapolis is ready for the warm weather and sunshine, even those that like the winter months.

Many June wedding plans are in full swing and there’s no shortage of brides (not to mention grooms) who are trying to shed a few founds to help that wedding dress fit a little better. Plenty of bridesmaids are probably scrambling as well.

After a long a winter of comfort foods and less activity it’s time to get out the spring clothes. How did they shrink so much while they were packed away? Many of us add a few pounds and a couple of inches from fall to spring. Time to get to work.

We’re not advocates of quick fix fitness. Being fit is more than just squeezing in to a smaller pair of jeans. It’s a whole lifestyle that affects not only our appearance but also our mindset. Overall quality of life is better when we’re fit.

Stressed out brides-to-be are not in the mood for a lecture about how they should have been paying attention to what they were eating and exercising more. They are in a time pinch and need immediate results. Here’s the deal: if you promise to make fitness a long term goal, we will help you get ready for your wedding (or bikini).

You will need to strictly manage your calorie intake and plan on working out 4-5 days a week. Ladies, you’re probably going to need to limit yourself to something like 1400 calories. We’ll also recommend 2 days a week of strength training and 2 days a week of conditioning (45-60 minutes of real exertion).

A bridal fitness program does not have to be complicated. It takes diet and exercise to get good results.  This way you’ll lose fat and improve muscle tone. Any effective program will focus on both.

Losing 20lbs and a few inches in 10 weeks is doable. If you’re dedicated to the program. Depending on your current body composition, it’s realistic to think you could drop a couple of sizes in that amount of time. Are you willing to put in the work?

Whether you’re trying to fit in a wedding dress, swimsuit, or spring outfit, you can see real changes in a short amount of time (remember…it works both ways). Combine reduced calories with effective exercise. Grab a friend (or your bridesmaids) and join one of our fitness boot camp classes or a small group personal training class. Sign-up for the next Slim Down weight loss class or talk to one of our nutrition counselors to setup a program for yourself.

You can do this! There’s no better time than right now.