I became interested in cardio exercise routines and memory several years ago when my older students began to tell me that their memories seemed to improve after they took my class. I was teaching mostly cardio exercise routines in those days. I started with simple steps and built up to a pretty complex routine. There has to be a connection I thought, between the physical movement, making your brain learn this routine, and improved memory.
We know how important it is to manage and control our body weight to remain at the recommended weight for our health. But did you know that if you’re a sedentary adult who weighed the same today compared to 10 years ago, could actually mean that you’ve gained fat mass? Physically inactive people can lose as much as 3% to 5% of their muscle mass each decade after the age 30. Even if you are active, you’ll still have some muscle loss. As a result, if your weight has remained the same for the past 10 years especially when you’re not physically active, you’ve probably lost muscle mass and gained fat mass instead. This progressive loss of muscle mass is called sarcopenia.
You and your business are probably spending too much time competing in the “red ocean”.
You need to get out of the red ocean and head to safer waters.
I know what you are thinking… What is a red ocean vs. a blue ocean?
This concept comes from the book, Blue Ocean Strategy, and it is important to understand for career growth.
“Red oceans represent all the industries in existence today. This is the known market space.”
This is the market for generally healthy, “fit” clients.
“As the market space gets crowded, prospects for profits and growth are reduced. Products become commodities, and cutthroat competition turns the red ocean bloody.”
Sound familiar in your journey to find clients?
“Blue oceans, in contrast, are defined by untapped market space, demand creation, and the opportunity for highly profitable growth.”
“In blue oceans, competition is irrelevant because the rules of the game are waiting to be set.”
So what does this mean for you?
The red ocean in health and fitness is going after the 15% of the population who is generally healthy and looking for fitness solutions to get fit or lose some weight.
This 15% of the population is looking for great glutes and great abs and benefit from any basic fitness program…
…AND EVERY SINGLE FITNESS BUSINESS IS MARKETING TO THEM.
Hence, it’s the red ocean.
So, What’s the Blue Ocean?
The blue ocean, on the other hand, consists of the millions of people with existing conditions like arthritis, Parkinson’s, or Multiple Sclerosis, for whom the great glutes and abs programs aren’t appropriate
This group is not currently being bombarded with marketing messages about fitness.
These people are in need of fitness services delivered by a specialized professional (which you can become) who understands their condition AND knows how to make programs specific to their needs.
It’s time to start swimming in the blue ocean and get away the “cutthroat competition that turns the red ocean bloody.”
Learn more about the “blue ocean” by watching this free presentation from MedFit Classroom, The New Blue Ocean: Capitalizing on the Opportune Space Between Fitness and Medicine. Industry veteran Phil Kaplan discusses this important topic and how you’ll benefit from targeting this untapped market.
Several years ago, I was enrolled in a school program where we looked at the relationships between fitness, education, and leadership practices, when combined, can help further the role of health adherence and outcomes in our society. It was during one of our cohort modules that we studied something called Attribution Theory, which fundamentally explored why people BLAME their inability to do something on nearly anything but themselves. I immediately thought about my personal training clients and why they may not be doing exercise on their own outside of our training sessions. The myriad of excuses was diverse and came with the ease of well-rehearsed prose.
“I didn’t have enough time.”
“I would have but my laundry wasn’t done, and I didn’t have any clean clothes.”
“I had family in town.”
“…a work thing…”
“… an after work thing…”
“…travel”
“…shopping”
“…busy”
“…my kids…my husband…my wife…”
My goodness!
Blame is a protective mechanism that allows us to fail at a directive and to attribute it to something or someone other than ourselves. It’s a way of massaging the ego a bit by diverting attention toward something outside of our control. These attributions are not limited to the person providing personal reasons for not doing something. Onlookers in this person’s life may have an attribution of blame from a different perspective that explains why someone else did not accomplish an exercise task.
“She’s too lazy.”
“He just isn’t prioritizing this.”
“It must not be that important.”
According to Bernard Weiner, the father of modern-day Attribution Theory, that may not be true. Weiner suggests that the individual’s belief for not doing something may be more important than the actual reason. Their perception of why they cannot achieve something is valuable for the medical fitness professional to understand and address.
For instance, a client may state that they do not have enough time to do their workouts outside of your personal training sessions. That is their attribution or what they blame as the reason they cannot make it happen. However, you as a fitness professional with a different set of values and life contexts may think that we all have the same number of hours in the day, so the “no time” excuse doesn’t cut it with me. You would never be so blunt, though that may be a dialogue that you likely played out in your head. It is well researched and cited that guilt and shame do not work, so what are some ways that the fitness professional can help to elicit constructive behavior change in their fitness clients – especially outside of your time together?
I did my doctoral dissertation on Attribution Theory, and more importantly, Attributional Retraining. I was not only interested in learning why and toward what people attribute blame, but how I could help someone see their attributions as fluid and not fixed. It is one thing to understand motivations behind blame. It is another thing to recognize those limiting attributions, deconstruct them, and develop strategies to retrain the blame.
In an upcoming webinar, I discuss attribution theory and break down original research on the attributional retraining process. There are four major components that support attributional retraining. We will discuss these components and the peer-reviewed research that supports fitness professionals by identifying and readdressing BLAME. I invite you to join me and MedFit Classroom in our presentation of BLAME: The Excuses Clients Make for Not Exercising and Solutions to Retrain Their Behaviors.
Rick Richey, DHSc, MS, LMT is a national and international speaker, providing solid evidenced-based education for personal fitness trainers, sports medicine practitioners, and strength and conditioning coaches to better assess clients, prevent injury, enhance performance, and reach goals for their clientele.
He is the owner of Independent Training Spot in NYC, where he provides personal training, wellness coaching and orthopedic massage, and the founder of ReCOVER, the world’s first recovery studio. He is a senior faculty instructor for the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) and adjunct faculty at the California University of Pennsylvania.
Being pregnant and having a baby is stressful on its own. Now imagine being pregnant and delivering a baby during a global pandemic. Being a mother myself and treating pregnant women and new mothers, I recognize this population struggles with support, proper healthcare (especially postpartum), isolation and they may have limited resources at their disposal. It is important to understand that for many of these women the unexpected turn of events, has left them disappointed and it has affected the entire pregnancy and postpartum experience affecting both their mental and physical health.
Believe it or not, eating a good sports diet can be simple. Yet too many athletes have created a complex and confusing eating program with good and bad foods, lots of rules, and plenty of guilt. Let’s get back to the basics and enjoy performance-enhancing fueling with these simple ABC’s for winning nutrition.
This showstopping dessert comes to the table with sparkling majesty. The key is to peel the pears in long straight strips, so the finished product shines like precious gems. To make an on-the-fly version, diced pears and quickly saute in wine, fruit juice and honey. Serve warm or chilled with the Vanilla Marscapone, ice cream or almond cream.
Poaching Liquid
Stir all ingredients together and bring to boil over medium heat. Reduce liquid by one quarter or until the poaching liquid thickens, slightly. Reduce heat to medium-low.
Pear Prep
While the wine is working: wash and dry four Bosc or Anjou pears. Keep stems intact. Peel with a sharp veggie peeler, removing long smooth strips of peel. Try to keep surface as smooth as possible. Cut a piece off of the bottom of the pears, so they stand up in the serving dish. Place into poaching liquid and poach 15-20 minutes, or until firm-tender. Turn pears occasionally to ensure even color. Cool at room temperature and store in liquid, in the refrigerator overnight.
Service
If serving warm, gently reheat in poaching liquid. Stand pear in serving dish and bathe with some of the liquid. Garnish with sliced Blood Oranges, Blackberries, Pomegranate seeds, and the Vanilla scented Marscapone (Italian Cream Cheese.)
Vanilla Scented Marscapone
This dessert is at the top of my heart disease eradication program. Resveratrol is a phytonutrient that plays a major role in our Ejection Fraction and keeping our heart’s vascular system strong and flexible. Resveratrol in red wine burns body fat without exercise, not that we would ever stop exercising! It’s also connected to longevity.
The spices are Mother Nature’s antibiotics and citrus zest contains Limonene, an antioxidant that affects every cell in your body, in a positive way.
The cream garnish assists in the uptake of these fat-soluble phytonutrients.
Get more great recipes from Tina Martini — her book, Delicious Medicine: The Healing Power of Food is available to purchase on Amazon. More than a cookbook, combining 20+ years of experience, along with her love of coaching, cooking and teaching, Tina offers unexpected insights into the history and healing power of clean eating, along with recipes to help reduce your risk of disease and improve overall wellness so you can enjoy life!
Affectionately referred to as The Walking Encyclopedia of Human Wellness, Fitness Coach, Strength Competitor and Powerlifting pioneer, Tina “The Medicine Chef” Martini is an internationally recognized Naturopathic Chef and star of the cooking show, Tina’s Ageless Kitchen. Tina’s cooking and lifestyle show has reached millions of food and fitness lovers all over the globe. Over the last 30 years, Tina has assisted celebrities, gold-medal athletes and over-scheduled executives naturally achieve radiant health using The Pyramid of Power: balancing Healthy Nutrition and the healing power of food, with Active Fitness and Body Alignment techniques. Working with those who have late-stage cancer, advanced diabetes, cardiovascular and other illnesses, Tina’s clients are astounded at the ease and speed with which they are able to restore their radiant health. Tina believes that maintaining balance in our diet, physical activity, and in our work and spiritual life is the key to our good health, happiness and overall well being. Visit her website, themedicinechef.com
Strength training prepares our bodies to do the things we enjoy doing without injury. It is the foundation upon which all exercise and activity are built. Without string muscles and joints we can’t perform – period. This article will examine the assessment questions prior to beginning an exercise program and provide a framework for developing a strength training program.
Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) appears to be on the rise in the US, with the CDC suggesting that the prevalence of GDM may be as high as 9.2%. The disease is defined as the onset of impaired glucose intolerance during pregnancy as diagnosed from a glucose screening test (also called a glucose challenge test or GCT) between 24 and 28 weeks. Pregnant women who develop GDM are at higher risk of complications during pregnancy and delivery, and the fetus may develop macrosomia, and neonatal hypoglycemia. In addition, women who develop GDM have a greater than 7-fold increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in life. There’s some suggestion that babies born to mothers with GDM have a greater risk of developing impaired glucose tolerance.