Fitness, Business, Fitness Business, & Achieving Life Goals

Obviously one of the greatest challenges in getting fit is getting to the club. When you are someone who attempts to work out on your own, you have additional battles to fight. You may be missing out on the most effective program, guidance, motivation, accountability, and even fun when you try to go it solo.

Consider Personal Training, Small Group Training, and Group Exercise. The people that achieve the greatest success, reach their goals safer and faster, are those that are involved in these programs. That, of course, is not to say you can’t do it on your own. It’s just that more people need that direction and connection.

While Personal Training is the ultimate in personal attention and programming, training in small groups (usually 2-6 people) can still offer individual attention and correction.

Group Exercise is a whole other animal. While individual attention may not be as readily available, there are other benefits. When exercise is choreographed to music it makes the experience, dare I say, even more enjoyable. Actually. research has shown that people push themselves harder when listening to music. A well designed class should accommodate all levels making even the novice feel comfortable in getting started. There also is a big social component to the class setting.

This brings me to the camaraderie and friendships that occur in working out with others. Just this morning one of my class members was asking me where another class member has been. She was worried and hoping that everything was alright. How cool is it to have this person, that you only know through taking Group Exercise together, be concerned for your well being when you’re not in class? (the other member is fine, by the way) Knowing that you’re not alone in this journey is a great motivator and helps keep you accountable.

So, if you are not someone that is highly self motivated or if you feel unsure about what you should be doing, try these options: Personal Training, Small Group Training, and/or Group Exercise. They can make the difference of you reaching your goals or not.

FYI: If you can sit through the commercial, here’s a news piece on one of the Group Exercise classes that I teach. Click here to view. I love my job.

An article from came up in Facebook and struck a cord with me. It’s from glamour.com (click on the picture to read the article) The picture drove readers to write in applauding the showing of a beautiful woman, Lizzie Miller, that didn’t have “perfect, flat abs” and still happy about the way she looked.

There are many health reasons to not want to be overweight and/or obese including increased risk of heart disease and diabetes (to name a few). BUT, what does overweight mean? According to Body Mass Index (BMI), which is essentially a height/weight formula, a rating of less than 18.5=underweight, 18.5-24.9=normal, 25-29.9=overweight, and 30+=obese. Lizzie is 5′11″ and 175lbs which gives her a BMI of 24.4 – still in the normal weight category. So does she need to lose weight? Certainly not from a health prospective. At this point it is purely an aesthetic choice, HER choice.

Too often people, particularly women, tend to judge themselves based on how they look compared to the cover model “ideals” that have bodies that are too difficult and unnecessary to attain for optimal health and happiness.

On the other hand, if you think that the Fox show “More to Love” expresses the healthy “normal woman”, (as the producers would seem to want you to think) you’re mistaken. Most of these women have increased health risk because of their weight.  

 What’s the answer? What should we be shooting for with our weight? First and foremost we should strive to be healthy, happy, and keep the worries to a minimum. If you’re in healthy ranges and still find yourself obsessing about losing weight, you have to really ask yourself about what it is that you want to accomplish with the additional weight loss and why that is important to you.         

Click here to check your own BMI

*note: BMI is not the be-all, end-all” in healthy weight assessment. Because it only considers height and weight it misses the “is it fat weight or muscle weight” question. Body composition assessments would be a better choice for really knowing if your weight is at a healthy level.