Latest Newsletter

Organising Healthy Breakfasts/Lunches and catering for Business P.O.A

Take a few minutes right now and sketch out YOUR funnel. See where the holes are, and start thinking about what products you can add to make it easier for your prospects to sample your expertise and buy from you. Remember once you have created a product it can sit on your website for years. I have DVDs that I made 10 years ago and they still sell regularly on choreography.

Setting up a Community class for Seniors

There has never been a better time to  set up a new ETM /Keep Fit class for older adults in your area. Good Specialised classes for older adults are few and far between so here are my top tips for set up and marketing.

1. Choose your venue carefully - It needs to be accessible, on a bus route, good parking, easy to find, it all needs to be warm in the winter.

2.Decide on a time slot - Mornings or afternoons can be good but remember many older adults still work part time or look after grand children so and evening would also work well.

3. Price - Decide whether you are going to offer concessions or have a 1 price policy. Many baby boomers in our society are the most affluent group but older adults do budget carefully whatever their income.

4. Name your class carefully - There are loads of ideas for class names on the forum. Mel Thomas calls her class Keep Fitness and advertises it for anyone, whatever age who wants a more gentle workout: Nice N Easy, Light N Low, Recycled Teenagers, Super Seniors, Prime Time, Active Seniors, Anti aging workout, Keep Fit, Simply Fit, Easy Does It, Young at Heart, Mature Movers, Activeage are some ideas you may want to try.

5. Advertise carefully - pictures of bright young things in skimpy gym stuff can be a major turn of. Use pictures and logos that reflect who you are trying to attract. Describe exactly who the class is aimed at.

6. Remember  we all know tons of 50 year olds who are stronger, fitter and more agile than those in their 20's but you may get adults that have joint problems, be very unfit, lacking in strength, stamina and coordination so offering loads of levels and options is an absolute must.

7. Include social time. For many older adults social time is as important as the class itself so make sure you build in some time after the session for a drink and chat, ensure the groups bonds and makes friends this will ensure your class members will keep coming back week after week.

8. Class content. Include a thorough joint warm up/pulse raise. A low or mixed/moderate impact cardio section, strength section, flexibility and relaxation. Us props like bands, weights, balls, hoops etc for variety.

9. Music is the key! Choose from Motown, 70's, 80's, Classics, Swing, Jazz, Singalong pop tunes, Abba is massive at the moment, try simple salsa, bollywood.

10. Seated doesn't have to be easy. Try making up a cardio workout whilst seated you can do seated jacks, lunges, side taps, arm lines, knee lifts. I have just filmed some seated cardio workouts that are really fun to do and teach and they will be online next week.

11. Promote your classes to W.I and other woman's business groups. Use google to find organisations  in your area or pop into the local library. Offer to do talks and lectures to groups.

Sue White wrote this article a while back and I thought you may find it helpful

"I don't like working in Leisure centres so I am going to set up my own classes. Points that I have found very useful from your
newsletters are;-

Target your clients - find a niche market - instead of the usual "suitable for all ages and fitness levels" I am targeting the 50+ age group (after all that's what I am so I should know what I'm talking about!!) Start afresh in September - mine start Sept 16th Think up something new - I am marketing my classes as "A NEW CONCEPT IN FITNESS CLASSES" and calling them "3-WAY FITNESS" - "ALL YOU NEED IN ONE SESSION" - I
have devised a 11/2hour session - 1/2 hour of aerobics, 1/2 hour of body conditioning using light weights, 1/2 hour yoga/Pilates. The reasoning behind this is that I live in a very rural area where everyone has to travel a fair way to get to the
classes and they want everything in one go Choose your hall carefully - I have always taught in small village halls, capacity about 12 - this time I've gone for larger halls for about 30/40 people - more expensive but hopefully more appealing.  Give people a reason to react immediately - I've put in my adverts that numbers are limited so they have to call me NOW to secure their place. I am contacting all my past class participants and I'm sure when I get started I shall be using some of your
other marketing ploys e.g. pay for a block booking and get a discount, bring a friend for free. I'm sorry if this letter is rather long but I am so excited and so enthusiastic about re-launching myself (I wonder if Madonna feels this good every time she
re-invents herself!!) Will report back once the classes have started to let you know how everything goes - keep your fingers
crossed for me. Sue White "

Are your classes soooooooooooo last season. Jayne Nicholls 

I was on holiday last week and my friend's father who does senior chair fitness told me that he could probably teach the class he had been doing it so long. Ivan, I told him, everyone who goes to class thinks that they can do what I do for a living and there lies a serious problem. Instructors have to face up to not just the lovely people who come to class but also the egos and personality disorders that feel they can say and do whatever they want when in our care. If Ivan had a point it probably means that I could fly the plane to Spain I’ve been on it so much, could probably wax everyone’s legs I’ve been that many times, good god the list is endless.  

The other point here is that many of us now are not just instructors, we are business people on either a small or large level. What us and our clients often seem to forget is that fitness is business. With that in mind it is important that we also brush up on our business skills. Any retailer changes what they do or sell on a seasonal basis, if they didn’t we would all still be wearing the same clothes year in year out. Just like fashion can be soooo last season, so can fitness. Do you think that people think they can do what we do because it seems easy? Because we say the same things and do the same things all the time? What if we started to throw something into the mix that makes them think we are skilled and that only a few people could do this at our level. The key to setting ourselves above other instructors and out of the reach of the people who think ‘I can do that CHANGE.  

We are all creatures of habit and in order to make change you run the risk of annoying a certain few people. I have been studying many of the people who come to my classes and their reaction to change. The positives are that they love it, appreciate it  and they see the results, the negatives are that people can be lazy and change scares them, especially when they are the ones who have to make the effort. They like to do the same things in the same way because they expect little else from life. 

It is our duty to introduce change in a positive and businesslike manner. If you study the whole wheel, they initially come to us to make changes therefore it is our responsibility to provide results and the only way to do this is to change what we do on a regular basis. 

MAKE CHANGE - NOT WAR 

J a y n e www.groupxtraining.com

Marvin Burton

Summery of now and next

Hello to the world of fitness. This week I added my week 10/46 video blog to facebook and YouTube (marvinburton2007) you can see me doing crazy stunts like: being on big brother, visiting 10 Downing Street and making an omelette. This is some intense entertainment folks.

Next week I will be in Lanzerote at the international dance and aerobics week so my video will include some footage and some hill running and sea swimming.

Saturday 11^th September is the Big one North, already I have over 100 people booked into my boot camp and F in Fitness class. Places still available for the day and at for access to over 40 fitness classes you’d be mad not to join in. Barnsley is the location and chrysalis promotions is the place to book. Recovery

This week I have been discussing recovery and the things people do to aid/speed up recovery. Some interesting feedback. Although there may be different theories of what is best I thought I would share with you some of the most common ways to speed up and help eliminate DOMS

Ice bath - to be honest I can't see people jumping in a bath of ice after an aerobics class, more like after a 25 mile run. Athletes at top level choose to use ice baths to reduce the swelling of the muscles caused by blood pooling and lactic acid after high intensity events. Although I have tried this and it does work. It’s a big shock to the system when you get in.  

Foam roll  - the myofascial release technique is very popular for home recovery. The benefits are minimal if you don’t use the foam roll often. I would recommend rolling immediately after exercise to help the process although it does hurt and be careful not to “over rollthough bruising and soreness is common in some people, it works for me. Sometimes I will roll while watching TV and can last for over an hour on different areas of the body.  

Compression suit -  research into compression clothing has proven to show some signs of faster recovery (at elite level) compression suits retail at around and adidas seem to have an extensive range although I chose the under armour suit because I liked the feel and have seen more research on their products. Skins and samurai are other brands of similar products but you do need to be wearing the suit often to feel and kind of gains. Top tri athletes wear their suits for 3 days, to have the benefit of the equivalent of 1 day extra recovery! Runners wear the trousers often and calf suits and cycling shorts are also available. Don’t get your compression or recovery suits mixed up. They are not the same as heat clothing, cool clothing or training skins. They look the same but the materials are different.   

Light exercise - lactic acid drain is very common in sports. If you wake with stiff joints then often going for a light jog will loosen you up and make you feel better! The circulation will flush lactic acid from muscles and often make you feel better.

Sports massage - if you have access to sports therapist then getting a sports massage I recommend to all fitness professionals at every level. We are often the ones that over train don’t rest and need to keep and stay active. Looking after your body is essential to our jobs. Get yourself sorted before it’s too late.

Swimming - ua therapy (going for a swim) is a nice way to start recovery. The gentle swim and soak offers a non weight baring exercise alternative and often people associate the relaxing feeling of laying in a giant bath...

Sauna - though heat has shown to increase swelling to muscles that have been damaged either through injury or training, the sauna is the place to sit and unwind. The sauna is most popular with athletes on their recovery days and don’t tend to be something they do straight away after training. Most gym users will train swim and sauna all in one visit because of the convenience. Spacing out your workouts and making the most out of your membership I would always recommend.

Recovery drink - don’t want to start on the nutritional route. I have enough problems telling people how Pilates works. Protein during metabolic window is crucial for me (no longer than 30 min after training) I buy my protein pure, unsweetened and unflavoured from myprotin.co.uk

Stretching - flexibility is one type of stretching and mobility is another. I have no intention of being really flexible for running swimming or cycling. I want to be conditioned to perform at high intensity. That means rapid recoil, contraction and the ability to be agile at the same time. Sitting and stretching for hours will not give me the same sports specific response. If I was training somebody who wants to feel loose, flexible and sit at their office desk all day, maybe flexibility. For me, I’m all about mobility.

My training each week includes a therapy and mobility session that I use a vibration plate for, 2 trips to the sauna and steam room, 2 sessions for an hour on a foam roll and 2-4 days wearing my recovery suit. I always cool down after each class or session and while doing this I have my protein drink. Each month I have a sports massage.

What do you do for yourself?

I hope you start to take care of yourself more often and make sure you give after training advice to your classes this week. Keep people interested and show them that fitness is not just about one fitness class every week.

Marvin 

We launched Infitnessmusic in April with the aim of  creating the best music mixes for our classes and presentations, since then and we have been looking at ways to make your music even more cost effective. Both Jo and I were desperate for original artist music that inspired us and motivated our classes and clients. We both needed the latest tracks, being played in Radio 1 plus loads of old favourites from the 60's,70's,80's and 90's - in short great music but at the lowest prices.  We created Infitnessmusic.com where you can download music in minutes and play it in class straight away. This week we launched our membership package which rewards those Instructors downloading loads of mixes from us the more you use are mixes then the cheaper your download becomes. You always get a performance track and a cool down on every mix.

 We are now proud to announce our new membership packages.

http://infitnessmusic.com/

By Rachel Holmes & Jo Parry

Join today for these amazing deals

Click the Youtube link for more info

We simply want to provide you with the best music, at the cheapest prices with no tie in or upfront costs. 

Remember all our mixes are ORIGINAL ARTISTS and you can choose your mixes at any time during the month. 

Infitnessmusic is the cheapest and best fitness music on the market. Every mix is created by Rachel Holmes & Jo Parry.

Here are the membership Options and prices. 

PLATINUM Membership -per month - 3 inclusive mixes making each mix only 33 each any additional mixes you purchase you get a whopping 32% OFF the full price (Mix Full Prices are 00)  

This membership is for Instructors who have been purchasing 3 or more mixes per month from us.  

Platinum ensures you ALWAYS get the latest mixes at the lowest prices. 

To Join as a PLATINUM member click here Join today and get 4 choreography DVDs of your choice by Rachel Holmes & Jo Parry worth /span>

GOLD Membership - per month - 2 inclusive mixes per month making each mix each. Any additional mixes you purchase you get 27% OFF the full retail price  

This membership is for Instructors who have been purchasing 2 or more mixes per month from us. 

To Join as a GOLD member click here Join today and get 2 choreography DVDs of your choice by Rachel Holmes & Jo Parry worth /span>

SILVER Membership - per month 1 inclusive mix per month any additional mixes you purchase you get 18% OFF the full retail price . 

This membership is for Instructors who have been purchasing 1 mix per month from us. 

For Silver membership click here Join today and get 1 free choreography DVD of your choice from Jo or Rachel worth /span>

Free Trial Membership Bronze membership - No cost to join. Gain instant access to Music Mixes.  

Pay full retail price without any discounts. Click here for Bronze All mixes are 00 if you‘re on the bronze trial membership. 

The membership scheme is totally flexible and you can cancel at any time or downgrade or upgrade at any time to different membership levels.

You can also still order any of your mixes on CD for an extra er mix. 

Downloading your mixes yourself is the cheapest and quickest way of getting your music.

So what do I do now?

Choose a membership and join up to start getting your mixes asap. Not sure which membership to go for? Join as a bronze membership and decide at a later date Click here for Bronze

Check out infitnessmusic.com by Jo Parry & Rachel Holmes

Love your Freestyle: Love your music

Have a fantasic week

LOve Rachel x