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

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.

Yes, we can set career goals for the New Year, with a steady dose of adaptability. One of the most impressive realizations of 2020 was how fitness leaders found creative ways to connect with their clients to continue to provide our much-needed services. Using new ways to serve participants remains critical to our success. As we look to varying the ways in which we can provide our services, here are three programming avenues that have become key markets for fitness: The Comfort of Our Own Homes  We know that about 20% of the population exercises in a structured facility. This creates

Here’s my favorite analogy to describe the roller coaster ride many of us end up in time of anxiety – we’re like thermometers. Thermometers internal temperatures rise and fall in reaction to what’s happening around them. They have no control over their temperature; they get pulled in whichever direction their environment dictates.  Have you had days like that recently?  Thermostats however regulate temperature. They pay attention to their surroundings, notice when things are moving too much in a direction or another and respond accordingly in order to maintain just the right temperature.  This fantastic analogy shared by Dr. Martin Luther King

On the latest episode of the WIFA Waves podcast, I share how collaboration leads to growth. I talk about soft skills and why getting in touch with those makes it so you can really excel. Learn about the power of a positive mindset and how that can truly change your life & career. I give many tips and tricks on how you can succeed through collaboration, soft skills, active listening, and a positive mindset. Listen here.

I fell out of my routine in July, and I fell hard. I’ve been feeling the consequences; I’m having “cortisol wake-ups” around 3:30am, my food choices haven’t been good, I’ve struggled to get back to my regular workouts, and I haven’t been handling stressors very well. Have you had weeks like that? Sometimes the root cause is easy to identify and sometimes it’s a series of little crises that accumulate and wear down our resilience. July had two big life events for me: First, our sweet 12 years of dog Andy had a complete ACL tear and had been limping most

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of presenting at my first conference since March – virtually, of course. It was so fulfilling to reconnect with my SCW MANIA fitfam and e-meet new fit pros from across the US. Throughout the event and in my own « Yoga for Healthy Backs » session, 1 topic continued to come up again and again: providing fitness experiences on a virtual platform. Particularly, people wanted to know about the tech set-up required to make music sound great. I’ve also been asked similar questions by education providers, studio owners, and fellow group fitness instructors. They

Yes, virtual fitness has become a permanent and significant fixture in our industry. I’ve heard my fair share of comments like “people are just fed up with Zoom” or “clients are SO happy to be back at the gym” and those are valid, but don’t negate the fact that online options for health and fitness are now part of our repertoire. Here’s why: 1. Habit-Forming Accessibility: in most of North America gyms will have been closed for more than 10 weeks which is long enough for our clients to form the habit of utilizing virtual fitness. It doesn’t mean they aren’t

Three weeks and 103 tests: that’s what it took for me to be able to fix the audio issues and teach a cardio class on virtual. I just could not get the sound right. Then this happened: have a look at the SLIVER of sound I managed to find between Mute and horrible; they described it as “perfect” and I crumbled to the floor in astonishment. Here’s what I learned from the trials and tribulations of teaching musically dependent group fitness classes on virtual: Different technology works for different situations: the common issue seems to be that Zoom is the best

My dear colleagues, I know we’re feeling anxious and sad about the future of the careers we’ve dedicated ourselves too. I’ve had so many of you reach out to me asking if you should forget about teaching and look for something else. It’s heartbreaking and you’re entitled to grieve. I just finished teaching my virtual Yoga & Training class and felt compelled to share some thoughts. I’ve had days this week when I felt I had to rush to figure SOMETHING out to create revenue for myself this summer; yet I know that’ never going to be the mindset that will