Is anybody listening?

Since Brad and I first opened the BAR in 2004, I have made a great effort to get to know each and every member who works out with us. Over the last year, I have not been as effective at meeting and talking with you all as I would like, and that is mostly because I have a couple of people, Kate (age 3) and Taylor (age 2), who keep me very busy and out of the gym. This winter, I also took a full-time faculty position at the Arizona School of Health Sciences where I teach in the Human Movement MS program.

Even though I am not in the gym as much as I used to be, I am more active than ever in the fitness industry and my passion for making a difference and getting people moving continues to grow. I work on daily basis creating programming and developing curriculum to teach fitness professionals to be more effective at what they do. Personal trainers tend to have a bit of a bad reputation, mostly because there are so many terrible trainers out there. As a result, we have to constantly work to demonstrate our compassion, knowledge, and ability to be effective at what we do. But, what is it exactly that a fitness professional should or does do? This is a great question. A lot of people would say (including those who work in this industry) that a fitness professional's job is to develop exercise programs to help people get in shape. What I teach fitness professionals is that their job is much more important than that. I work to get personal trainers to understand that they are responsible for inspiring people to change their lives.

Of course personal training is about fitness, that is obvious. But, a good personal trainer is going to teach you more than that. A good trainer is going to listen, encourage, challenge, build confidence, teach indepence, believe, and support. A good trainer will help you expect more from yourself.

The true skill at being effective is not in how much the trainer knows about exercise (while this is important), the true skill is in connecting and communicating with people. The more professionals I work with and teach, the more I am amazed about how few people actually focus on building relationships and making connections in their businesses. I absolutely believe that those of us in the fitness industry have a unique opportunity to help teach and inspire people to be healthy, active and fit and this is empowering people to live! Our health is ultimately the most important thing that we have and it is about so much more than sets and reps and body fat percentages.

I will continue to work, to speak, to write, and to teach in hopes that one person at a time who works in this important industry changes his/her philosphy and starts focusing on the people and the power to inspire change. In the meantime, let's keep moving!