Whatever happened to the good ‘ole days, when going to the club meant playing some tennis with your friends, or couples tennis with your spouse? Whatever happened to working with a personal trainer that gave you a good, average workout with a quality mixture of strength and cardio? What happened to the days when we didn’t have to worry about pushing ourselves to limits, but just being “active?”
Today, what is active? If I go outside and walk for 15-20 minutes a day, does that equate to an active lifestyle? For those living a sedentary lifestyle, I would argue that yes, it is considered an active lifestyle.
However, for many of those involved in fitness today, walking even 24 hours a day wouldn’t be considered an active lifestyle. Anymore, I’m not even sure those in fitness would suggest that light jogging is being involved in fitness, but it would probably come close to an active lifestyle.
No, today’s fitness definition has taken a drastic turn for the extreme. However, it’s not the extreme we saw in the film “Pumping Iron,” but instead it is an extreme lifestyle, involving a healthy diet and intense workouts. People aren’t looking to be big and bulky, but also they aren’t looking to be slender. They are looking for that chiseled appearance seen when watching professional sports.
I believe we are on the cusp of entering an era where the average man looks at the ultra-athlete and says, “If you can do it, so can I,” regardless if the average man is 35-45 years old, and the ultra-athlete is 23.
Today, age and previous lifestyle don’t matter. It’s all how you push yourself in the gym. And, a lot of people are moving away from a five-day-a-week routine with strength and cardio, to a more enhanced circuit workout.
Call it what you want, CrossFit, boot camp, circuit or small group training. Regardless, the exercises people are engaging in are no longer “typical.” They push people to the limit of what they thought they could do, and then they take them on to the limit of what they can actually do. The feeling of accomplishment from these individuals is astounding, and the ages of these people are even more impressive.
In the past few months, I’ve exercised alongside men and women ranging in age from their early 20s, all the way to their upper 60s. Age is only a number in our new world of fitness. Additionally, the results are equally as real as the sweat that is drenching the floor after every class.
How do clubs react to this new phenomenon? I believe there will be a lot of people out there that take it as a phenomenon, and simply don’t incorporate the workouts into their facilities. It’s just my hypothesis, but if the phenomenon carries on, we might not see those unchanging facilities any longer.
We are seeing some of the bigger box clubs, such as UFC® Gym™, jump on board. It has found ways to incorporate the circuit style HIIT training into its facilities without creating too much of a rift between normal gym goers and the new fitness individuals.
I don’t want to insinuate too much that we are on the verge of a complete overhaul of the fitness industry. However, what we are seeing from trainers and clients alike is very different from what I recall in my youth. The important thing to remember from the change we are seeing is that it is evident — change will occur regardless of the motions we set in place. People will continually discover new ways to get in shape, but it’s on us as an industry to provide them with those methods in a safe and comfortable environment.
Tyler Montgomery is the editor of Club Solutions Magazine. Contact him at tyler@clubsolutionsmagazine.com.
Are we seeing an uptick in injuries and negative events with HIT programs? If we push people to the limit of what they thought they could do, and then take them on to the limit of what they can actually do, are we potentially creating problems if we don’t know how to safely and effectivley work towards this outcome for all ages and abilities? What type of background do you feel a trainer needs to run this type of training? It seems kind of daunting to me to understand how to safely work with such a broad group of people in such an intense environment.