It’s used commonly by some group fitness instructors and small group coaches, but it now seems to have made its way into all forms of cueing and coaching as well as posts on social media:  I can appreciate the fact that we’re using it to convey simplicity, but I invite you to remove the following expressions from your cueing and coaching: “Just use your obliques to power up this exercise.”  “To use your breath more mindfully, just inhale for a count of 3 and exhale for a count of 6.” “Just place your feet wider and you’ll gain speed.”   Two

Are you sitting down fitfam? A data-driven report attributes $23.4 billion as the total value of health savings generated by sport and physical activity in Canada in 2019, preventing over 2.2 million cases across a range of health conditions. $6.19 billion of that is attributed directly to the activity undertaken in health and fitness clubs. That’s BILLION, with a B! That’s YOUR contribution to the health-care system in Canada. The Fitness Industry Council of Canada is making this report available to us all and utilizing its data in government lobbying efforts. You can read more and download your copy of the

We have a personal trainer attrition problem in fitness. Most trainers leave the industry within less than 2 years. Too many certifications don’t prepare trainers for the real day-to-day work involved with being a successful trainer. It goes well beyond movement mechanics. Congrats if you’ve last longer than 2 years! It means you understood what longevity in a fitness career involves: The understanding that we must constantly sell the benefits of an active lifestyle. I get worried when I speak with graduating students from fitness certification, diploma, and degree programs and most of them tell me they really want to work

The proof we needed yet knew all along! Our health and fitness industry and services were “proven to have a profound economic and social impact” on countries worldwide. The Fitness Industry Council of Canada is sharing the results of a global report on the costs related to inactivity. As Vice President of FIC, I’m incredibly proud to provide the findings to you! We will continue to lobby federal and provincial governments with more substantiated proof of our impact on policies. To see how in Canada, a per capita investment of $2000 in activity would deliver a return on investment within only

Never before has our industry seen such a significant shortage in labor; recruiting the right talent to fill positions is the biggest and most immediate challenge clubs and studios are facing as we head towards our “back to school” season.  What does this mean for qualified fitness leaders?  You hold more power than ever before related to the workplace culture you choose, the clients you want to serve, your compensation, and the success of your career.  Here are ten questions to ensure you’re setting yourself up from a position of confidence in choosing an employer:  Your Potential Compensation This goes well

Enough with the nickel and diming of group fitness! We were making $25/class when I first started 25 years ago so I’m tired of seeing posts with fellow instructors asking for “going rates” and watching comment after comment with abysmal wages. This is only going to change if we ALL WORK TOGETHER at shifting the value of what we offer by getting confident as employees and entrepreneurs. The industry isn’t going to take group fitness seriously unless we get serious about the qualifications, capabilities, and worth related to group fitness. There is lots of work to do, here’s a start: STOP

Real talk: the fitness industry must have a solid Fall season, or we will see even more closures. And let’s not kid ourselves; when gyms close and fitness professionals leave the industry, we ALL lose. It doesn’t mean the competition gets eliminated, it means the public loses trust in us as a whole. A thriving industry leads to confidence, and an improvement in our reputation.  In other words, the success of one means the success of us all. So what are you doing this summer while many clients are focused on leisure, travel, and soaking in the sun? Here are ways to

Are you hoping for longevity in your career? Being the “hot new instructor” or “trainer with huge influence and reach” is an excellent springboard. Still, I’ve unfortunately seen thousands of outstanding fitness professionals leave the industry because they didn’t have staying power. It can be tempting to jump onto social media trends that highlight what other trainers and instructors are doing wrong, criticizing others in an attempt to lift ourselves. It’s an illusion of leverage and sadly only seeds confusion in the general public.   WHAT THE PUBLIC HEARS Potential clients looking to choose a health and fitness professional see us

The fitness industry has a reputation problem. We realized that governments and health authorities don’t value our profession in relation to preventative health. It’s heartbreaking and incredibly disappointing. We have a lot of public relations and lobbying work to do to build our reputation, and we can start here: Want fitness to be seen as essential? Speak less about the bodies we sculpt. Speak more about the lives we save. In many provinces, states, and countries gyms were amongst the first business to close during the pandemic and the last to reopen. Through my work as VP of the Fitness Industry

A message to fitness instructors who are recently unemployed. You’re allowed to be heartbroken, please take time to heal. Then, when you’re ready, get curious and creative about what lies ahead for the fitness industry. Please trust me – NEVER BEFORE HAVE THERE BEEN MORE OPPORTUNITIES FOR QUALIFIED AND DEDICATED FITNESS PROS! I’m inundated each week with “if you know someone great” messages from owners and leaders.  These may look different than what you’ve been used to, especially if you were teaching pre-formatted classes. So that means change, which is uncomfortable. But helping people move past their comfort zones to better

Let’s get real fitfam; we have a relationship problem. Business owners and managers are struggling more than ever in finding the right staff and fitness pros aren’t working WITH them to build the compensation they want.  As the cupid of the fitness industry, I absolutely see both sides and am here to help! Let’s not waste a crisis and use the current employment climate to break away from traditional compensation models.  Fitness pros keep telling me they hate being seen as staff who just come in to teach their class or train their client, and then leave. They are paid as

I read a post by Cory Muscara that stopped me in my tracks last week. “Not being willing to let go of a life we like is often the reason we don’t have a life that we love.” Does that resonate with your current job in the fitness industry? I know the reason I stayed at a few jobs was because I “liked” it: the work, the people, the salary. The push to move away from those jobs just wasn’t enough and I didn’t have anything much better lined up. So, I stayed, sometimes longer than I should have for my

Congratulations Louise Vigneault for winning canfitpro’s prestigious Participant’s Choice PRO TRAINER Award! Please join us in celebrating our phenomenal PRO TRAINER team member Louise who was selected by canfitpro thanks to her incredible mentoring and support of each and every student that comes through her certification courses. Here is just one example of feedback we’ve received from a former participant in her course: “Louise is a fantastic teacher having the knowledge, the methods, the talent to connect to people, and the patience to help her students overcome all the obstacles.  Louise is honest, friendly, and very pleasant. I know she will

Have you walked by your headshot at your gym or studio and noticed you changed your hairstyle 4 times since then? Does your LinkedIn bio still have you working at your old job? Not keeping up with all the in-person and digital places where we identify ourselves can lead to some serious confusion as to who we truly are and the fantastic services we now offer.  It can be a bit embarrassing. How do you consistently communicate the best of yourself to ALL potential employers and clients?   You need to attract more of the right career opportunities and build your

Do you have everything in place to get the most out of your fitness career this Fall? Here are my top 3 tips to use in the next 3 weeks of August to set yourself up for 3 phenomenal months of Autumn!  The last 6 months have been a whirlwind of adaptation and resilience and all indications are that Fall 2021 will be thriving in health and fitness. If you’re like me, you not only kept serving your clients and participants as well as staying agile to respond to new opportunities that came your way. The stage is set to thrive

We are perfectly poised for long and rewarding careers, as long as we understand key opportunities. Are you ready to adapt to trends in the $1.5 trillion wellness market? Your current and potential clients are looking for programs and services that are at the fingertips of savvy fitness professionals.  Here are three key skills that will have you serving your clients’ needs in the years to come:  Skill #1: Moving Towards Better Sleep With most adults stating that they aren’t getting enough sleep, we owe it to provide guidance towards better sleep hygiene. Its impact on productivity, energy, food choices and

As we enjoy the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere things are heating up in the fitness industry! Is your summer programming setting you up to thrive in your career in the Fall?  Some of us are jumping right into some new routines with our clients and classes while others, especially those who kept going the past 15 months, and taking some much-needed rest.  For me, I’ve adapted my planning from 2 seasons-ahead to 1 season-ahead in order to stay agile and be truly adaptable to faster-moving changes and needs of my clients and partners. I thought I’d

Depending on how long you’ve worked in the fitness industry, you’ve probably been through a few iterations of stretching versus flexibility versus mobility. We all want our clients and participants to benefit from pain-free movement and are drawn to theories, systems, and tools that can support it.  As a Yoga teacher, I constantly get asked which movement, or asana, helps “stretch” which muscle by my clients, and my answer is rarely as simple as they’d like it to be. My colleague Mai-Linh Dovan from Rehab-U wrote this comprehensive article that helped me reframe the concept, I hope it does the same

Do you have the desire to provide a motivational boost to your community? I have the perfect solution for you! National Physical Activity Day will be held on June 5th and I invite you to participate by offering an event.  While this is a Canadian event, I promise my fitfam around the world that you’ll be inspired and find great resources on these web site and apps!  It is my pleasure to be a part of it again this year along with you, my wonderful colleagues. This year’s National Physical Activity Day will also give you the opportunity to speak out

Are you spending hours trying to create the text and visuals for social media in the hopes of getting more clients for your classes, sessions, and services? Then getting discouraged by the few likes and comments?  It’s exhausting. How do you fix it?  You need to build your brand, as simply and quickly as possible.  The first step in knowing what to share and post is getting crystal clear on your “why” because people don’t buy a product or even service, they buy into what our brand promises to deliver. Ask yourself these three questions: What types of training or services

The fragility of health care systems all over the world have come to light in the past year and the fitness industry quickly realized how it is not seen as an essential service by government officials, medical experts, or the general public. We’ve been surprised and hit hard by this realization, but I don’t think most of us were shocked. Less than 20% of the population exercises in a structured environment and if we’re honest with ourselves, we know that we’ve spent way too much time and energy talking about the bodies we sculpt, and not enough about the lives we

This February 1st to 7th is National Health and Fitness Winter Week in Canada. In collaboration with canfitpro, Fitness Industry Council of Canada has created a 7-day schedule to promote fitness that is accessible to everyone. I encourage you to share this event with your clients in order to help bring awareness to the importance of physical activity, getting in 150 minutes of exercise per week, as well as what our industry has to offer.  We’ve learned over the past months that making fitness accessible in all forms is critical to continuing to build trust with government decision-makers and the general

So many fitness pros have launched 2021 with incredible enthusiasm and positivity, bravo! I’m hopeful that you had sufficient downtime during the holiday season to reflect on the right projects that will render the results for our industry and the general public. Are you focused on the right things in 2021?? Here’s what you need to know: 1. Never before has the general public been more aware of their health: The pandemic caused a tectonic shift in the way people think about their health. The concepts of risk factors and pre-existing or underlying conditions are now mentioned regularly in the media

To my fellow fit pros: feel free to share this blog and list with your loved ones Training and technology! The two themes that were omnipresent in 2020 as we adapted and pivoted our way around the fitness industry. Having enjoyed a 25 years fitness career I never thought I’d spent countless hours researching and re-engineering my bandwidth and wifi to optimize my AV streaming capabilities in order to provide my services!? But here we are, nearing the end of this oh-so peculiar year, having learned so much about ourselves and our capabilities that we should marvel at our resilience. As