Jarod Cogswell, the co-creator and senior director for Spartan DEKA, shares strategies you can implement to solve exercise detachment.
Historically, a major challenge for the fitness industry has been finding solutions for the vast majority who find themselves constantly stopping and starting their fitness program.
And despite the vast knowledge we now have about the plethora of benefits that stem from a fit lifestyle, exercise adherence remains to be a threat to a healthy fitness business. The good news is with advances in technology and the evolution of industry programming, there are indeed solutions for all levels and genres of fitness that can help prevent this negative cycle.
What are the strategies to solve exercise detachment? Let’s take a look at the following tactics:
Focus on the Mental and Emotional
In addition to serving as fitness educators, it’s critical to reach the masses on a mental and emotional level for maximum engagement and exercise adherence. All staff and employees have the responsibility to influence, connect, motivate and inspire members to keep them coming back. Let’s face it: for those of us fortunate to work in this challenging industry, we are the lucky ones to get paid for our passion and purpose, which is to enhance and change lives through the power of fitness. As ambassadors of this mission, we must remember we have the opportunity to impact others every single day through every interaction.
Provide Training with a Purpose
As providers of fitness and wellness, we are sometimes guilty of relying on members and clients to simply show up. Put a class on the schedule, create a menu of personal training services, add a few extra amenities and hope people will come. However, we must dig deeper and assist our members to find their purpose to create a life fueled by fitness. This is defined as the internal motive which prevents excuses to take proper care of themselves physically, mentally and emotionally.
Our members must also discover their fitness “sport” — those activities they actually enjoy. And there is no greater feeling than being connected and surrounded by those that share similar pursuits.
Nevertheless, the true power comes by competing with one’s self and striving to become the best version of who we are. We achieve this with objective testing, establishing a start line/baseline, gamifying our performance, as well as consistently monitoring our performance and progress. This converts the negative connotations associated with exercise into training with a purpose — that intrinsic positive motivator to maintain maniacal focus on consistent fitness improvement.
Celebrate Fitness
As we all know, motivation is temperamental and unpredictable. It comes and goes, but when we put something on the calendar like a test or an event, it creates personal accountability and a clear vision to reach our goals. In this case, we test our fitness. We train for improvement, become consistent, elevate our perseverance, develop discipline and eventually when we look up at that internal scoreboard, it displays a big win and a reason to celebrate.
In the end, our physical performance transformation positively impacts our overall well-being. Confidence and happiness results, as well as validation for the services we provide.
In summary, to truly build a consistent healthy fitness business, we must instill healthy beliefs in others no matter what level they are today, and we can achieve this by nudging them to compete with themselves. Because aren’t we all athletes in this game called life?
