One of the largest trends we’re seeing in the fitness industry right now is recovery. It’s been here a while and it is here to stay. You have generations who have grown up understanding the importance of recovery and as they become adults and fitness consumers, they’re demanding it. The best part? They’re willing to pay for it too!

In most articles I’ve read about recovery trends, you learn of modalities that you can use at home or recovery businesses that are standalones outside of most health clubs. What if more fitness business operators focused on recovery INSIDE their health clubs and associations? What if instead of one of your members going down the street to pay for stretching, massage, sauna, cryotherapy, physical therapy, etc. they were able to get all of (or some of) these recovery modalities and classes within your fitness business (and paid you more money each month to do so)?

The first (and easiest) area that can be evaluated is your group fitness schedule. Is your schedule currently full of strength-focused and high intensity classes with one or two yoga classes a week? Or does it incorporate the high intensity classes with an equal amount of recovery, deep stretch and yoga classes? When you look at the type of classes that SoulBody offers – you have the strength focus you’d expect from a group fitness class coupled with the opportunity for resetting the body. The team has heard firsthand how, SoulBody Restore, has helped marathon runners recover from their training and that it’s a class members choose to quiet their mind from their busy lives. What if you incorporated some yoga slow flows or peace classes? Sound baths or workshops are fantastic to incorporate as well. Something that members can look forward to as a ‘special event’. When you shift your focus to strength + recovery, it’s a way for your members to train smarter, not harder!

We can take it a step further and dive headfirst into addressing mental health within your fitness business. I realize that you’re not likely to have licensed counselors on your payroll; however, one of the top reasons fitness consumers work out is to reduce stress and anxiety in order to better their ‘mental well-being’ (so we’ll use mental well-being from here on out). What if instead of marketing slogans around ‘getting strong’ at your gym, you advertised they could ‘get mentally strong’ there as well. It would completely change the game for how and where fitness consumers expect to receive their exercise, their recovery, and mental well-being support. I recently had a conversation with Victor Brick, who operates over 100 health clubs between his Planet Fitness locations around the US and in Australia, and Brick Bodies clubs in Baltimore, Maryland. Victor has a personal connection to being a mental health champion and I knew he would be the perfect person to discuss this topic with – please check out the John W. Brick Mental Health Foundation if you have yet to do so. We discussed the medical side of mental health that the fitness industry simply is not qualified to address, but we also discussed the intersection of mental health & self-care, which is mental well-being, and that my friends, is what the fitness industry can address in a health club setting.

Here are some ways you can promote ‘mental well-being’ in your fitness business:

• Marketing: Market your fitness business as a place where someone can come to reduce the stress and anxiety of everyday life before you market it as a place to ‘get fit’ or ‘get toned’.

• Social Hub: Address ‘the epidemic of loneliness’ and explain the social benefits of exercise (or member socials you plan at your club!)

• Group Fitness Schedule: Offer classes that focus on recovery and self-care (think yoga, Pilates, meditation)

• Recovery Focused: Incorporate recovery like percussive/trigger tools, massage, sauna, and cryotherapy into your fitness business offerings.

• Embrace the Space: Enhance your spaces to be mentally pleasing – do you have the space for a quiet room or journaling station for before/after class? Could you refresh the paint color of your locker rooms to be more tranquil? Could you make certain areas ‘phone free’ to foster the sense of community? Could softer lighting be introduced in certain areas to be more peaceful?

• Educate Your Staff: Did you know moderate to vigorous exercise is more effective in improving depressive symptoms? This is because moderate to vigorous exercise stimulates the happy hormones of Dopamine, Oxytocin, Serotonin and Endorphins.

Victor calls it a D.O.S.E. of Happiness. On the other hand, someone with anxiety, whose body is in a state of stress, should seek out mind-body activities like meditation, yoga, and recovery exercises to give the body the rest it needs. How powerful for your staff to know the difference and be able to make educated fitness recommendations! Victor and I discussed the ‘effort reward model for mental well-being’ in depth and it truly makes so much sense. Think about it like this: if someone is trying to lose 30 pounds – that could take them months of effort, followed by a slow reward. If someone is working out to feel better mentally, the reward is instantaneous – they could walk out of your health club feeling better than when they arrived. Marketing & selling fitness on the mental well-being effects, when done correctly, could generate satisfied customers quicker than our old tactics. This should be what we are ‘selling’ our fitness consumers!

Again, you do not have to claim to fix or address mental health – you can just be a safe space, where someone feels comfortable working on their ‘mental well-being’. Joan Gebhart, VP of Sales for Creative Surfaces shared with me that, “Every brand is incorporating some recovery modality into their business. It’s a necessity at this point”. Joan and I discussed the importance of training your staff on the recovery tools you bring into your business – “they shouldn’t just sit, unused in the corner so you can check a box that you have recovery in your club. Your team should know the benefits of the tools and how to properly use them.” When you think of the perfect recovery offering, what if your trainers ‘prescribed’ recovery modalities for injuries or soreness? Not in a medical sense, but if they had general knowledge about the tools available and how it would help with common aches and pains that were fitness related.

Recovery modalities Joan has seen be incorporated in health clubs recently include, but are not limited to:

•  Infrared Saunas

•  Cryotherapy

•  Red Light Therapy

•  Halotherapy (salt therapy)

•  Massage

•  Compression tools

•  IV drips (require an RN)

•  Hyperbaric chambers

•  Lounging spaces with HydroMassage beds

•  Areas for cold plunge, pools, and/or hot tubs

At the end of the day, there are so many ways you can promote mental well-being in your fitness business. Even if you implement just one of these, I know it would make a huge difference for you and your mental health-conscious members would be appreciative. Busy professionals do not have time to workout and then go elsewhere for recovery and mental well- being support. When put under one roof and make recovery accessible, you’ll be helping your members, further educating your staff AND helping your bottom line – that’s a win, win, win if you ask me!

If you are overwhelmed juggling everything in your life and feel you must have to do it all, you could be taking on too much. We call this “Superwoman Syndrome.” This is a condition when a woman neglects herself and her needs to fulfill all the roles and responsibilities in her life.

As women, we want to do it all so we play multiple roles: businesswoman, mother, spouse, daughter, sister, homemaker, caretaker, coach, homework supervisor, taxi driver, chef, meal planner, or some mixture of these and more. 

Don’t forget to hit the gym, eat healthy and get those roots done. It is never ending.

With all of these roles we are expected to do it with a big smile everyday and complete each one perfectly. I am sending this message to women everywhere to be aware. Taking on these multiple roles can take a lot out of us and it starts to catch up. Many of us are striving for these unrealistic goals that have a serious cost. Instead of feeling fulfilled, you can find yourself feeling stressed, chronically fatigued, depressed and can lead to serious health conditions.

Don’t let the pressure of our world wear you down. You will not get a medal to be the most burnt out and stressed woman on the planet. But it will impact your relationships, your happiness and health.

If you feel you need to untie your cape, check out these tips:

• MAKE THE SACRIFICE- Something has to give. Time to focus on your needs and what is important. Make a choice, take something off of your plate.

• PERFECT DOESN’T EXIST- The house doesn’t always need to be clean 24/7 and the to do list can wait. 

• SAY NO - Let it go, it will be liberating. Practice saying this word and stop trying to please everyone else. 

• SET THE PACE - It is a busy world, but you can decide how fast you go. If you need to take a break from any of your 999 jobs, then do it! Put that phone away. Don't forget to practice self-care and slow down.

Unfortunately, we have found ourselves in a society that encourages women to aspire to a level in everything that we do that is not attainable. It’s madness. But I’ll tell you this from experience, once you take the pressure off of yourself, prioritize and dig deep to know what is important in your life, you will be free from the costume.

Lyndsay Syverson
SoulBody Master Trainer
Master Trainer Coordinator & Training Scheduler

We are so lucky that we have the choices and opportunities that we do today. To be clear we are all superwomen in any role we take on, but it is ok to hang up that cape now and then. We are all bad ass women taking on the world, but let's make a pact to be sure we are still taking care of ourselves. You don’t have to be everything, to everyone. 

So take control girls, restore balance in your life! Unleash all your amazing superpowers and show ‘em how it’s done. 

As Group Fitness instructors we are very passionate about our jobs and personal health. We are individuals that definitely “talk the talk” and “walk the walk.” We pour our hearts and souls into our classes for our members because we truly believe in what we do. 

So since we are walking the walk and talking the talk, we definitely listen to our bodies as health and fitness professionals right???? You would think. We LOVE fitness, but unfortunately most of us overdo it. Sure we are all in pretty good shape and our bodies thrive from our healthy lifestyle, but that doesn’t mean we are immune to injuries. 

How many of us have been injured?  

How many of us ignore the signals but teach anyway?

We all do it because this is our passion. 

• Group fitness instructors perform with participants, plus we practice and prepare for classes, which in turn can lead to major injuries that we do not address. 

• Overuse injuries occur from exercising too much and too often without giving our bodies adequate time for rest and recovery. We teach a lot and we train hard. 

•  We always show up for our members. No matter what. Doesn’t matter what kind of injury you have or even what kind of day you are having. We are motivators, and we do it for them, every single class. 

Lyndsay Syverson - Master Trainer

Does this mean you should stop teaching? No of course not. But it might be time for all of us to realize that our bodies are only capable of so much. We should come to terms that rest can be productive for our body, not a waste of time, especially in our industry. 

Continue to inspire others, but also be the role model of self care. When we take the time to recover or to reassess how much or what programs we teach, it will allow us to be stronger long term for our members. This will in turn enable us to continue teaching for years to come, which we all want. 

This is what we do. We live it, we breathe it and can’t imagine a world without it. So take a moment and pay attention. Your body is like the quiet talker, with the most important thing to say.