Tuesday, August 11, 2009

The New Age of Group Fitness

I went into great detail last time about the fact we have to evolve or perish! That means everything from our training methods to our business models. As renown strength coach, Alwyn Cosgrove, states, the future of fitness is in group training. How you structure your group training models can vary greatly. Sure, lots of methods work from large bootcamps to smaller semi-private training models are all means to help both the clients and instructor enjoy the coaching processes that much more. Let's face it, coaches and trainers get into the industry to help people, but if you are so exhausted from the extreme long hours of one on one training, how much benefit are you providing your clients?

It is great that many coaches and trainers have found that group training is the way to go for longevity, however, just as with one on one, group training can be good and very bad! Planning far ahead and having a strong training philosophy is key in making these programs a long-term success. That is a major reason that I love The Ultimate Sandbag so much. The challenges that face a coach working with a group are numerous. From working with various ability levels to teaching fun and innovative exercises, the work is actually much more, fortunately so is the payoff!

I find that educating people on the versatility and power of these programs is of the utmost importance. That is why two weeks ago I was in Long Beach for the Perform Better three day summit. With some of the top names in attendance (Mike Boyle, Robb Rogers, Alwyn Cosgrove, Eric Cressey, etc.) you couldn't help but learn something helpful.

I did as well especially when I got to speak with many of the coaches, both who were lecturing and those in attendance. One in particular was Cameron Hedges of Results Fitness. Cameron is the head of group fitness at Results Fitness and has been implement our Ultimate Sandbags for some time. Listen to how Coach Hedges implements our Ultimate Sandbags and get a sneak peek into my presentation on the proper use and programming of sandbags.

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