“Just Do It. Just get it out. Just launch it. Just shout it out from the mountaintop. And then, start the process of making it an eventual masterpiece.” -Robin Sharma
Fitness Meme has been on my mind for almost 2 years now. Over that time I’ve been either too scared, too lazy, or too stupid to launch it. The layout has changed, the color schemes have changed, the icons have changed, the information to be covered has changed, almost everything has changed. The only thing that hasn’t changed is it being released.
Until today.
This Beta launch is partly inspired by Google’s famous beta strategy and even more so by Robin Sharma’s latest post on Launching in Beta.
What it all comes down to is getting the website out there and viewed by as many people in the fitness industry as possible. My vision for Fitness Meme is for it to become the go to source for fitness industry news, information, and education. It can’t get there however without launching and without feedback from those in the industry.
There will be more layout changes(professionally done) and the content will change drastically over the next few months. Some things will work, and some won’t.
With all that said here it is… As BETA as it gets.
We live in a remarkable time right now where technology has given us access to the best people in the industry and to a world of education with a few clicks of the mouse.
We can network with almost anyone in the industry on Facebook and Twitter.
Having discussions on membership sites and forums is run of the mill these days.
We can view Webinars when we can’t travel to seminars.
New/Old exercises and techniques are uploaded to YouTube everday.
Ebooks are delivered without wires to our phones, tablets, and E-Readers.
We can even get tours of some of the best gyms in the country without leaving our couch.
Think about how much we can do today that we couldn’t just 10 years ago or even 5 years ago.
Google is barely 13 years old. YouTube is only 7 years old. What did we do before we had Google to search for everything? or YouTube to bring us videos every day?
The point is that we have it easy as an industry today, and need to take advantage of this. There are no excuses to not being using these tools and trying to improve ourselves every day. There are no excuses not to be better!
Stop complaining about the attention Jillian Michaels or P90X gets, and make yourself better instead. The better we are as an industry the better our clients will be.
This doesn’t mean to believe every article you find on Google or every video you see on YouTube. Be selective about what information you learn, and who you learn it from. Luckily there are sites to help with this problem.
Mike Robertson has a great blog post for those who are always asking…
“How do I get bigger arms?”
“Is lumbar flexion ok?”
“How do I squat 600 pounds?”
“What type of diet is best?”
“Its never too late to be who you want to be. Theres no time limit, start whenever you want. You can stay or change the same. There are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or worst of it. See things you never saw, feel things you never felt, live a life your proud of. If your not then I hope you have the strength to start all over again.” -Brad Pitt in Benjamin Button
About a month ago I took a trip into New York to watch the Yankees, and have a good time with some friends. Usually good times at baseball games involve hot dogs, french fries, peanuts, and beer. This nights trip to the game still involved a couple of those items, but not without quite a bit of guilt to go with it. Having spent the last 5 years in California I was unaware of the law that New York had put into place requiring restaurants and food vendors to list the calories on their menu. My first thought was that I really didn’t want to see this information at a baseball game where the whole point was to eat and drink too much while watching the Yankees win. I must admit though that waiting in line and letting the thought sink in of eating over 1500 calories of food in one sitting seriously affected my choice. This my sound humorous, but instead of chicken fingers, fries, and a beer I limited myself to just the chicken and beer. While that was still pretty close to half of my daily calories I did manage to avoid another 800-1000 in just the fries alone.
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*Obesity and Economics:
A study done by the University of Washington discusses the economic impact on obesity in the Seattle area. The article mentions the impact of “food deserts” on a populations ability to buy healthy food. It would seem that not having an abundance of options around where you live limits your options and increases the prices…go figure. The most alarming part of the study was the mention that the obesity rate of Whole Foods shoppers studied was only 4% while those shopping at regular grocery stores was 25% in the county studied.
*Parents, Kids, Activity Levels, and Television:
It seems that the activity levels of parents doesn’t have as much of an impact on the activity levels of their children. A University of Bristol Study concluded that while active parents don’t necessarily lead to active kids there is a bad ratio to how much television they watch in relation to their parents.
“For girls, the relative risk of watching more than four hours of TV per day was 3.67 times higher if the girl’s parent watched two-four hours of TV per day, when compared to girls who watched less than two hours of TV per day.
For boys, the relative risk of watching more than four hours of TV per day was 10.47 times higher if the boy’s parent watched more than four hours of TV per day when compared to boys who watched less than two hours of TV per day.”
Tagged as:
Obesity,
Studies
For those of you that keep up with the coming’s and going’s of the fitness industry then you’ve surely heard about Coach Michael Boyle being banned by the National Strength and Conditioning Association from speaking at their events. This was pretty shocking news because of all that Coach Boyle has contributed to this industry and the respect he has among his peers. Now there is more news coming out about how the NSCA has actually decided to stop approving courses by Boyle and therefore not honoring the CEU’s that a professional would earn from these courses. Now to me not asking someone to speak at conferences anymore is one thing, but deciding to not honor courses that 3 months ago were held in high esteem is ridiculous.
[READ MORE…]
Tagged as:
mike boyle,
NSCA
A new study in the American Chemical Society’s semi-monthly journal Environmental Science & Technology has shown that just 5 minutes of exercise outside in a green area can lead to a boost in mood and self esteem. Green physical activity was described in the study as “in the presence of nature” such as hiking in the woods, frisbee at the park, or working in the garden.
The study noted:
Every green environment improved both self-esteem and mood; the presence of water generated greater effects. Both men and women had similar improvements in self-esteem after green exercise, though men showed a difference for mood.
Source: APA: American Chemical Society (2010, May 1). In the green of health: Just 5 minutes of ‘green exercise’ optimal for good mental health. ScienceDaily. Retrieved May 5, 2010, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2010/05/100502080414.htm
Tagged as:
Well Being
