Note from Rachel
It’s been an amazing week. Probably one of the best ever. Why? Several reasons. Firstly, it was the super duper Fitness Entrepreneur’s Bootcamp over the weekend, and if you have been following my Blog and my Twitter posts you’ll know how much I have been raving about it. It has changed my whole life and business outlook; the speakers and calibre of information was outstanding, so much resonated with me like never before. I really felt I took a big leap this weekend, I’m so inspired and enthused by the possibilities that lie in front of us all in the fitness industry it really is an exciting time, you can read more about FEB below.
The 2nd amazing thing is our Marvin Burton completed his first Ironman in Texas in the early hours of Sunday morning in a fabulous time of 11 hours and 40mins, to quote Marv
Marv pretty much has put his life on hold for the last 6 month. We finished our final tour date together in December and since Marv has trained and trained all winter in the freezing cold, in the snow and rain. It’s an amazing achievement and I am so very, very proud of him. You can still donate to Marv’s Charity Justgiving.com/marvinburton
And, of course, the new Choreographytogo.com is now up and running and it’s going like a steam train! The hits and visitors have dramatically improved and I’m loving blogging. The forum has returned to its feisty self with loads of great comment, debate and help. So come along and join us and get interactive. You can connect a million ways with me but probably you get me fastest on Twitter as it’s so easy to respond. Anything officey is best to go direct to Lesley@Choreographytogo.com
This week’s newsletter contains 2 brilliant articles from Sally Gharfoor, Jen Mercer, Jayne and Katie Bulmer. It’s a super inspiring read full of great personal articles and experiences.
New Fitness Business Builders List
I am starting a new section of Choreographytogo for Instructors and small fitness business owners who are looking for more specific business, marketing, coaching and PR information. If you would like to get involved please add your email address to https://www.choreographytogo.com/news/business-builder/#
Fitness Entrepreneurs Bootcamp – Event round up
This weekend has been a life changer in so many ways. I was actually only planning on going Friday and turning up just in time to do my talk at FEB and leave, but after the first session that was never going to happen. I was a bit conference jaded to be honest, since Jan I’ve toured all over the UK PLUS it’s been IFS, followed by Fitpro. Conferences inspire you like nothing else but the stress of presenting and preparing sets me on an emotional roller coaster. You are excited, nervous, frightened, then when it’s all over ,hyper (if it’s gone well) and then you come down. BUT, F E B was such a unique experience for everyone.
The event has really found its feet. The whole industry is sick and tired of the “Make More Money in 30 days” and “Follow me I’ll show you what to do” from people with no business and no track record, so this event HAS to be different, or it can’t survive and boy did it deliver.
The event kicked of f with Andy Wake – Let’s face it there is NO UK fitness brand that is as successful as Boxercise. Period. Boxercise is a proper household name. A nintell survey was done and 82% of people surveyed have heard of Boxercise. If you are going to listen to anyone that has such a proven track record who is clearly doing exceptionally well then this man is the man of the match. Quiet and unassuming with no big ego Andy talked of the challenges of running a huge business, about the problems he faced personally as his wife battled cancer and his baby daughter nearly died, PLUS a huge tax investigation to boot, he was able to deal with this because of the business systems he had set up from the outset. Boxercise the brand is bigger than Andy Wake the person and that’s exactly how he set it up from the get go. Truly inspiring and a lesson for us all. It ain’t easy! Plan for the future, plan for problems and brick walls and get it right from the word go.
This talk set the tone of the weekend. Every session contained SOUND and PROPER business advice, mind set information and how to look at your business with different eyes – there was no fly by night get rich quick schemes – we all know this is rubbish and doesn’t work.
I can put my hand on my heart and say I got something from every speaker. Dax Moy, The Cosgroves, Nick Nanton, Ken Ady, Paul Mort, Jon Le Tocq, Charlotte Ord, Tim Goodwin. I have written a note book full of ideas, quotes and plans and feel I have now crystallised where I want to go. In the end, I stayed for every session, loving every minute and now it’s time to see if I can step up to the mark and put all of my dreams and plans into action.
6. Identify your USP and turn UP THE VOLUME. Don’t be something or someone you are not. Be yourself and do YOUR thing!
It was a thrilling and exciting room to be in with everyone buzzing with ideas and plans and loving the whole vibe. I am chuffed to bits with the potential that now lies in front of me. You can read more information on my Blog https://www.choreographytogo.com/news/blog/
Jayne Nicholls
jayne nicholls
Group X Training
07989433969
Bootcamp Nutrition Sally Gharfoor
Bit of a minefield? Maybe you don’t feel confident enough to give nutrition information to people? I am hoping these weekly articles will help.
Nutrition and food really interests me, and weirdly enough it started not because I had become overweight (which by the way I had by around 5 stone) but because of the swine flu outbreak. We have all read what people like to call old wives tales about how Garlic and onions protect against colds and flu, and after doing a bit of research I decided that what we eat must contribute to how we feel and the illnesses we go on to have, so this led me on to doing an internship with the remarkable Phil Richards and it seems well selfish not to share the knowledge I have gained, not just from Phil but my own research as well.
Each week I am going to take apart each section of the plan that I give to my bootcampers, as well as discuss food and disease, which you are more than welcome to use for yourself or on your bootcamps. I would love feedback, maybe you don’t agree with it or want to know more, then pop over to Rachel’s forum on C2GO and add your comments and we can have a great debate!
This week I just wanted to explain how it’s not just a case of telling people what they can and can’t eat and expecting them to comply.
We are a nation of overweight fast food, convenience food addicts. Processed foods have replaced healthy home cooked meals, so this means our bodies are full of toxins, which in turn make you feel like absolute rubbish. People are taken in by the clever marketing of giant food companies that claim eating a processed lasagne which has tomatoes in means you gain “at least one of your five a day”, not that it’s been so heavily processed that there are no nutrients left in the lasagne you’re eating.
Kids are growing up eating food full of monosodium glutamate and other nasty man made toxins. My middle son, Taylor, plays football to a high level. Last year we were sat on a coach on the way to play an under 10 academy match against Tottenham. The parents on the coach filled their kids up with chocolate bars, energy drinks, crisps, sweets, ham sandwiches, pasta and then wondered why they were so tired and unable to perform when we got off the coach. My son, well he had a huge pilchard salad with legumes, nuts and hydrated on water. Guess who got man of the match and scored the goals –yep my boy! The parents on the coach thought I was mad, and that Taylor would never have enough energy eating a salad and legumes, surely he needed some pasta and an aspartame filled energy drink to get him going and ready for the match, some starburst to hype him up for the game. These parents have been completely taken in by clever marketing to make you think what you are eating is healthy and will give you amazing energy, however the opposite is true. They are sadly misinformed.
When it comes to changing people’s attitudes on the food they eat it can be a hard task. This is what they have grown up eating, telling them that actually they shouldn’t be eating bread and pasta etc, seems alien to them. You need to know the reasons why certain foods are damaging to the human body, as when informed as to the reasons why, the ability to remove these food stuffs from their daily intake becomes easier and meaningful. If they still are not convinced then challenge them, get them to remove it for a week maybe two then tell them to eat it again, boy they will feel the difference, lethargy will kick in, stomach’s will bloat, diarrhoea or constipation will become apparent and just generally feeling down and yuk.
To me the biggest thing I have learnt is that although my bootcampers come to me to lose weight, what I am doing for them is giving them back their health. Sometimes you need to remember the reason we eat. We eat to fill our cells with the correct nutrients for growth and health, not for self-satisfaction. What we eat correlates to how we feel. If we fill our cells with toxins; neither our body nor mind can function correctly, we will become diseased in one form or another.
So if you get the old afternoon dip, if you’re tired and grouchy, feeling down, need coffee or an energy drink to get you through the day, grabbing a mars bar between classes to get a sugar rush, maybe it’s time to take a look at your nutrition and remember before you can start telling people how to become healthy and feel fantastic you have to be that way too, practice what you preach!
Next week I will look at the effects of monosodium glutamate and aspartame on your health which can be regularly found in many foods.
Sally Ghafoor
Well guess what guys – you’re getting it wrong.
Now, yes I am a Zumba instructor, but I also deliver hardcore Bootcamps and PT sessions. I take fitness extremely seriously, people come to me and I get them the results they want or as one lovely lady said to me I make their dreams come true, but I still think Zumba has a place and if you’re a fit pro that’s dismissing Zumba as a rubbish exercise fad then you my friend, are missing out.
The Feel good Factor – For me before people can begin to train effectively they have to be in the right mind space . How we feel about ourselves contributes to our health. There have been huge studies on how we think and feel about ourselves contributes to illness and disease. The music in Zumba is infectious, it makes you want to shake shimmy and gyrate, it’s fun, people come with their friends, they laugh they smile, they are HAPPY. So for me already as an instructor I am making a difference in someone’s life. For that 45 minutes/1 hour they are happy and having fun. Who knows what their life is like when they leave those hall doors. So one point to Zumba.
Can it help people achieve their goals?
I think it’s very naïve of fit pro’s to state that Zumba will not bring people closer to their goals. Do you know what their goals are? No you don’t. One lady came up to me after a class one day, she said” my goal was to do your whole class without stopping, guess what, tonight I did the whole class” Her next goal was to do 2 classes a week, then 3, guess what, now she is on my bootcamp. Zumba reaches out to people who would NEVER consider going to the gym, NEVER consider doing a bootcamp, would come to a LBT/Body conditioning class once and NEVER come back. It gives them the confidence to exercise and as they become fitter and lose weight, other harder fitness classes suddenly become achievable, because they ARE achieving their goals. So another point to Zumba.
So dear Fit pro’s Zumba is getting people off their arses and getting them sweaty, and that means they are exercising and potentially will want to take their fitness levels higher so that means they will look for harder classes/PT’s. So Zumba is good for us Fit Pro’s.
If you find the right Zumba class with the right instructor that is trained in not just Zumba but nutrition and fitness too, the results can be life changing for people. So I say stop slating Zumba, get out there, make friends with your local Zumba instructor, get to know the people in the class. A vast majority of my bootcamps are filled with people who first off came to a Zumba class.
I would love your comments on what your views are on Zumba. Hopefully I will be able to flip all of them to a positive
If I can do it..Anyone Can by Jenny Mercer
Have a fantastic Bank Holiday Weekend
Love Rachel xxx
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