Why I Believe in Group Fitness

(I’ll admit to being biased, since I got my start in group fitness, but since I’ve gone on to be a personal trainer, I’m probably less biased than most of my peers.)

We’re just a couple days from starting BodyCombat technique classes at Gold’s Gym Edmond, and only a few weeks from launching it in earnest. I’m pretty excited. We’ve been talking about this class for months! I look forward to the changes people are going to see in their lives thanks to Combat.

But most of the employees at Gold’s are… less than hyped. This isn’t a huge surprise, as I’ve never seen the staff get excited as a whole for group fitness. The reasons vary from person to person, and there are some notable exceptions, but from trainers to front desk staff, the general feeling toward group exercise is one of ambivalence.

I am far from ambivalent, and I’d like to tell you why I believe in group fitness.

1) Accountability – Although there’s nothing quite like a personal trainer to get you to the gym (both the motivation of the trainer and the prospect of losing out on the fees you’ve already paid), the camaraderie I’ve see between regular class attendees is huge. They know who is coming and why those who aren’t coming have to miss. They save spots for each other. They pester each other on Facebook about their weekly group fitness schedules. It’s amazing how close they are. With friends like that, falling off the wagon is nigh impossible.

2) Affordability – At least with Gold’s, group fitness classes are included with your membership. No extra cost, period.

3) Affability - As a whole, our instructors are friendly and happy to be teaching. This passion is evident through their teaching and all but a job requirement. Personal Trainers can show up and take it easy while they work, but a group instructor is right there with you, working just as hard (if not harder) and sweating just as profusely (if not profuselyer).

4) Results – When the revolution comes, and the fight breaks out between loyal group fitness folks and hardcore freeweight lifters, put me down on the group side. Not only do they love each other, but a girl that does BodyPump three times a week is usually more flexible, more toned and has better cardiovascular endurance than a tattooed meathead. Plus, after a few months of BodyCombat, those chicks will be killers.

Put some group exercise in your current workout plan. One BodyPump and one BodyCombat every week in place of one weight day and one cardio day. I dare you to try that for a month and tell me I’m wrong.

Jonbarr – Lead Personal Trainer

I’ve been a Certified Personal Trainer at Gold’s Gym for just over a year. Much of that time has been characterized by my watching and learning from the other trainers. Whether they were new or old, male or female, respected or… not so much, I was, and still am able to learn something from everyone.

Lately, I’ve been getting more comfortable and doing a bit more of my own thing. It’s been a lot of fun to let my creativity run a little wild when designing workouts. Others have taken notice and been complimentary for the most part.

So it is with a mixture of excitement and humility that I accepted the role of Lead Personal Trainer this week. The responsibilities are confined mostly to weekends, when my boss (the Senior Fitness Manager) takes some time off. While she’s at home, I’ll be doing paperwork, keeping stuff organized and generally just staying out of the other Personal Trainers’ way.

More than anything, I am looking forward to taking a bit more active hand in shaping the gym into a more friendly and inspirational place. I believe there are barrels of untapped potential at Gold’s, and this new title is my license to drill.

End a blog post in a mixed metaphor? Don’t mind if I do.

The JonBarr Success System

One year ago today I was hired as a Personal Trainer at Gold’s Gym. The fella in charge of hiring at the time was, luckily, not all that good at interviewing. Well, that’s not fair of me. He might have been a phenomenal interviewer, he just decided not to interview me. Perhaps it was the fact that I’d been teaching group fitness for over two years, or that he’d seen me working out so many times. Maybe he was impressed that I’d gone out and gotten the toughest certification I could find.

I’d like to think he just recognized potential when he saw it.

Because a year ago, I was not the best personal trainer in the world. I learned early in my training that every personal trainer has to think they are the best just to survive. A year ago, with no experience, I was not that guy.

But over the past year, I’ve gotten really good. Maybe not the best in the world, but really good. Here’s how I did it, and how you can get really good at whatever it is you do:

1) Never stop learning – I can train people for 25 years and I’ll still be actively searching out new research, tools and methods to improve. The day you think you know it all is the day they bury you.

2) Ask everyone questions – I don’t really care about reputations. Chances are, I can learn something from everyone. Be sure you’re asking people questions relating to their strengths, but even the worst salesperson can teach you something about sales, even if it’s what not to do.

3) Be confident – My personal training business started making great strides the day I realized I was super qualified and incredibly driven. With those two traits, I knew I could be successful.

4) Listen – To the customer (client), to your boss(es), to coworkers… to everyone. The most annoying guy in the world is the one who wants to talk but can’t stand to listen.

5) Work to your strengths – In the book “Now, Discover Your Strengths” the authors explain that trying to develop your weaknesses will only result in making you average. Focusing on your strengths and making those even stronger will result in you standing out and being great. I know what I’m good at, and I spend my energy becoming excellent at it.

It’s not a fool-proof plan, but you’re not a fool, are you reader? It’s your life, get out there and own it!

One Year as a CPT

One year ago today, my half birthday, I passed one of the toughest tests of my life to become a National Academy of Sports Medicine Certified Personal Trainer (NASM-CPT). Just days later I started as a PT at Gold’s Gym. My immediate supervisor was unhelpful, my client list had zero names on it and my practical experience was nil.

There were times in the last year that I thought about giving up and walking away. Leaving behind the challenges of creating new and inspirational workouts. Trading in my trainer shirt for something more familiar if not more comfortable. At times, there seemed to be more hills to get over than golden valleys to strive for.

But I remember the turning point well. I was in the locker room at the gym changing into the clothes I would wear to bike home. I’d been at the gym for all of one hour and felt like I was wasting my time. I said (out loud, actually) “It’s time to stop fooling around.” At the time, I didn’t know if I meant it as “Stop pretending to be a personal trainer and just go sell cheeseburgers full time” or “Stop doing this halfway and OWN IT!” I knew something needed to change.

The very next day I was working out with a client who told me that with my help she was not going to need invasive knee surgery after all. Her weight had come down to a point that it wasn’t putting undue strain on her joints anymore.

At that point, my mind flashed back to the locker room. Selling cheeseburgers would be easy, fun and comfortable. Completely unchallenging. But as a Certified Personal Trainer, I could change lives. I stopped fooling around, got serious about my job and now, a few short months later, my client list is exploding, my creativity is expanding and my life has a clear direction.

I don’t know what challenges you are facing, but decide today to stop fooling around. Make a bold leap into what you are passionate about and never look back. Own your life!

Running Man… eventually

With the marathon creeping up on me, it has come to my attention that I need to run more. And by come to my attention, I mean I wake up every day and say “Wow. I really need to run today.”

Strangely enough, that has not resulted in a ton more running. With a rather intensely physical daily schedule already in place, I find the prospect of adding even more physicality into the mix a bit daunting.

So what’s a guy to do? Cut back on my BodyPump schedule? As it is part of my job and I love it so much, I think not. Stop riding my bike to work? Since the other option would be walking, I still think not.

Here’s my idea: once the weather warms up a bit (unseasonably warm Winter aside) I could start running to work and back. It might be a bit quicker in the long run (pun intended) as I could just take off once work was done and not mess with changing clothes. Plus, with a 7 mile round trip, it would add up quite quickly through the week.

In the grand scheme of things, it’s a nice problem to have. Stay in the fight, amigos!

My First Cumulative Goal Achieved!

I know it’s been quite a while. Sorry.

Now then, good news. I managed to achieve one of my cumulative 31 for 31 yesterday! Of the 31 goals I made, 13 are things that can only be achieved by steady progress. I’ve already knocked one out! Just yesterday morning I taught BodyPump for what was my 100^th group fitness class since turning 31 (Goal #5).

Now, when I made the goal, I was only teaching a couple classes per week. I had no idea that I would ratchet up to 5 per week. With that kind of schedule, 100 wasn’t really all that tough, but it’s still something to cross off the list. According to my spreadsheet (Goal #28), I’m on track to hit 200 classes before turning 32! That’s pretty insane, but I look forward to continuing to track it.

In other news, I’m falling pretty far behind in many of my other goals. One (Goal #7) was to post 100 blog entries. This one makes number 12, and I’m on track to post a mere 25 before August 26. Yikes. Time to step it up.

I’m compiling a list of future blog topics, so stay tuned. Big things are happening every day! BANG!

Another day, another goal.

Knocked out another goal today, and quite unexpectedly. As I was passing the church building that is my polling location, I saw the signs out that today was a voting day. I didn’t have time at the moment, but filed it away. Sure enough, I had just enough time after one of my jobs to stop in.

I played it cool, chatted with the ladies on duty and I think passed myself off as an experienced voter. All is well.

Here’s the catch: there were only two questions on the ballot, both having to do with raising some money for schools. Without going into too much detail, I have a friend who is very much personally involved with the issue. Without knowing it, I stepped into a situation where my traditional fiscal conservatism was at odds with my desire to see my friend succeed at life.

Today I am thankful that voting is anonymous.

Goal number 25, CHECK!

A Surprisingly Easy One…

A brief excerpt from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/20/sports/olympics/20ohno.html

“A typical workout: eight sets of two repetitions at 1,000 pounds on the leg press, one leg at a time, holding the weight between each set. Then bench hops. Then one-legged hops. Then, in the afternoon, treadmill training, alternating each minute between 12 and 15 miles an hour for 20 rotations.”

That’s quite the leg workout, to say the least. My goal for the year is to leg press 2.25 times my weight (Goal #17). I’m currently hovering around 150, which puts my target at 337.5 pounds, a far cry from Mr. Ohno.

Well, we gave it a go last week and, to my surprise, I was able to press 350 pounds 5 times without much of a thought. Now, perhaps with my history of cycling (averaging 6.25 miles a day since my birthday), running and BodyPump, I should not be surprised, but I was anyway.

So, Goal 17, CHECK!

Two months in…

Tomorrow will make two days since I’ve been cranking away at these goals. I think that calls for a check up.

On the first 13 goals, I’m making steady progress, though some are going better than others. I’m on track to achieve the first five, with my goal to teach 100 group fitness classes (#5) already over 30% of the way done.

From there on out, it seems to be a matter of putting in the time. For the single set of 50 pull-ups and the set of 100 pushups, I’m getting in my reps, getting closer everyday. The single bench press and leg press are getting there as well, and I set a personal best benching more than my body weight for the first time just a couple weeks ago. Slow and steady.

Now then, let’s discuss Goal #29 – “Become a kettlebell expert.” And by discuss, I mean I’ll type some stuff and no one will ever read it.

I know better than to make such a poorly defined goal, don’t I? What does this mean? I know more about kettlebells than most of my personal trainer coworkers (I’d say all of them, but they might accidentally read this…) so does that make me an expert? I teach a kettlebell bootcamp. I train lots of clients with kettlebells. Does any of that make me an expert?

I fear that my certification background may only let me call myself an expert once I have a piece of paper from someone saying so. That’s no good, because I’m not in the market for another cert at this time.

Well, that’s it for now. All this talk about kettlebells made me want to go do some swings. Thanks for reading.

Business is About to Pick Up!

Life is about to get a lot busier. No, we’re not having a baby.

Starting next week, my group fitness schedule gets a bit tweaked and I’m starting three new bootcamps. Here’s what my week will look like:

Monday – Early morning bootcamp at Hafer Park. To the gym for clients, then Body Pump at 9 am. Clients for the rest of the day.

Tuesday – Clients in the morning, waiting tables over lunch, back to the gym for more clients, TRX bootcamp at 5:30, Body Pump at 6:30 pm.

Wednesday – Clients in the morning, Body Pump at 10 am, clients for the rest of the day.

Thursday – Clients in the morning, waiting tables over lunch, then, if all goes as planned, an evening off!

Friday – Clients in the morning, double shift waiting tables.

Saturday – BodyPump at 9 am, Kettlebell bootcamp at 10 am. Clients throughout the day as necessary.

Tack on top of all that riding my bike to all those places, working out whenever I can, training for a marathon and assorted other tasks (such as eating and sleeping) and I’ve got a pretty full schedule.

Now, I’m certainly not complaining. If I want to accomplish many of my goals, this new schedule will be of great assistance. I just hope I can stay healthy to see it all through.

You may have noticed a distinct lack of YRG on that schedule. Starting next week, for the first time since June of 2009, I will not have a YRG class on my schedule. The class at Gold’s Gym, which began March 5, 2010, has been wonderfully accepted by a few people, but never really grasped by the masses. With Gold’s having a 50% occupancy requirement to continue a class, it’s fading away. Tonight will be the last YRG with JDB at Gold’s Gym.

Well, that is until Saturday, when I get to substitute for a friend and teach it to a room full of people who are expecting basic yoga. Ha!

The departure of YRG from my schedule is why I made the goal this year to perform at least 3000 minutes of YRG. I need yoga to stay flexible, healthy and strong. It just means I’ll be shifting back to the DVDs for a while.

No fear, comrades, the YRG with JDBlog will stay active! Thanks for reading!

BANG!