HyperStrike-Partners

Dangling The Carrot: Rewarding Healthy Behavior

Dangling the Carrot: Rewarding Healthy Behavior

 

I recently read a review of a wellness program based on goal setting, progress tracking and social networking with monetary incentives to promote healthy behaviors. The concept was to pay people to make healthy choices.

 

The premise assumes that people will do better if promised a reward. The limitation of this assumption is that offering incentives, what is know as extrinsic motivators by Behavioralist, is usually more successful with short term or temporary compliance to change. There is limited research available to support the use of incentives to promote long-term behavioral change. However, this program does not seem to just reward healthy behaviors. Rather, the program could be viewed as enhancing goal setting and other behavioral change strategies with monetary rewards placed at incremental progress points. When we set up a goal-setting program, don’t we encourage our clients to celebrate benchmarks with rewards?

 

Who is using incentives?

 

Using incentives to promote behavior change is not a new concept. According to the Harvard Public Health Review, IBM, the State of Alabama and Scotts Miracle-Gro all use some form of an incentive program to encourage healthy behaviors and some use disincentives to discourage unhealthy behaviors. For example,

 

• IBM offers employees $150 twice a year if they complete an internet-based assessment and meet specific weight loss and fitness goals.
• Employees of the state of Alabama receive health insurance discounts for not smoking and meeting standards for blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose and BMI. Employees that use tobacco pay an additional monthly premium.
• Scotts Miracle-Gro refunds fitness center membership fees after 120 uses, and provides free health coaching, medical services and generic prescriptions. Employees that do not participate pay an additional insurance surcharge.

 

Do incentives work?

 

In 2007, ABC News reported positive results for a study examining monetary incentives for weight loss. Eric Finkelstein, a health economist, and researchers at the University of North Caroline-Chapel Hill recruited more than 200 overweight and obese employees in North Carolina and randomly assigned them to one of three groups: no monetary reward for weight loss, $7 for every 1 percent reduction in body weight, and $14 for every 1 percent lost. The participants were not giving a structured diet or exercise program. At the end of three months, the group receiving $14 for every 1 percent decrease in body weight lost an average of 5 pounds, the $7 group lost an average of 3 pounds and the group receiving no money lost an average of 2 pounds. Finkelstein concluded that the participants in the $14 group were more likely to lose 5 percent of their body weight, which is the recommendation for health benefits.  However, whether or not the participants could maintain the weight loss was not examined.

 

I must admit I still have reservations about the use of extrinsic motivation for successful behavior change. Still, there is evidence that incentives produce short-term results even though the long-term effects still need to be investigated. This does present an interesting idea; how can incentives be used to promote healthy behaviors in our personal training businesses? What carrot can we dangle?

 

 

Karen Moreno, MA Candidacy Kinesiology/Exercise Physiology

BA Social Science/Education

 

Reference:

 

Hand, L. (2009). Employer health incentives.  http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hphr/winter-2009/winter09healthincentives.html

 

 

Hellimich, N. (2007). Financial incentives can encourage weight loss. Abc News

            Technology & Science. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/TenWays/story?id=3585618&page=1&page=1

Celebrate Without The Weight

According to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, an average of one to one and a half pounds are gained over the holiday season. Although this holiday weight gain is less than the 5 to 10 pounds commonly believed, the researchers found this additional weight is usually not lost during the year and contributes to adult obesity. As most health and fitness professionals would guess, increased hunger and decreased physical activity during the winter months were suggested as contributing factors to this seasonal weight gain. Additionally, the holidays can be a source of stress and even depression for many people, which can lead to emotional eating.

 

Combat Seasonal Weight Gain, Stress, and Depression

 

Based on this information, maintaining physical activity and healthy eating habits during the holidays could potentially combat seasonal weight gain, as well as manage stress and reduce symptoms of depression. However, adherence to an exercise program and healthy nutrition is one of our seasonal challenges. It seems that family and social gatherings, travel and holiday preparations consume our clients’ time and schedules. Delicious foods and delightful treats tempt them to over indulge from Thanksgiving through News Years Day. Here are some ideas for keeping our clients healthy and active during the holidays.

 

Ideas for Healthy and Active Holidays

 

• Plan – encourage your clients to formulate a plan for maintaining physical activity when things get hectic and employ smart eating strategies for tempting treats and emotional eating.
• Events – coordinate physical activity events that include family and friends. For example, fitness walks, fun runs, or an aerobic-athon.
• Twitter – send weekly activity and smart eating tips.
• Groups – promote group support and motivation, provide a cost effective way to include additional workouts or manage a dwindling holiday schedule by offering small group training as an adjunct or alternative to one-on-one sessions.
• Challenges – promote activity challenges, such as completing a series of fitness classes, workouts or physical activity events over the holidays and offer small gifts for meeting targets.
• On-line Tools – develop on-line travel programs and go anywhere 20-minute workouts to keep clients active on the go. Use blogs and emails to organize support groups and inform clients about physical activity events outside the gym.

 

These are just a few ideas to keep your clients healthy and active throughout the holiday season. The key is to make it simple and make it fun.

 

Karen Moreno, MA Candidacy Kinesiology/Exercise Physiology

BA Social Science/Education

 

Reference:

Yanovski, J.A., Yanovski, S.Z., Sovik, K.N., Nguyen, T.T., O’Neil, P.M., and Serbring, N.G. (2000) A

                prospective study of holiday weight gain. New England Journal of Medicine, 342,              861-867.

 

 

Get Noticed

Get Noticed – Six Tips for Self-Promotion

 

For some people self-promotion comes naturally. They appear completely comfortable meeting new people and seem to converse with ease. They contribute in meetings and are viewed as competent and even influential by colleagues. It’s one thing to develop a professional relationship with a client or teach a group exercise class, but physically promoting yourself can be daunting and even painful. You might be thinking, “I am not a salesperson; I am a trainer”. I know I did not get into this industry to sell. However, generating a client base is a must for a thriving business. I recently read an interesting article in Psychology Today that gave six tips from Nancy Ancowtiz, the author of Self-Promotion for Introverts, on how to get noticed.

 

1. Sell Yourself –  Ancowtiz suggested effective self-promotion starts with discovering the overlap between what your target audience wants and what you have to offer. How do you find out what your target audience wants? Here are some ideas:
1. Use a survey – www.surveymonkey.com is ease to use and FREE!
2. Checkout on-line forums and read magazines and newspapers that are directed toward your target audience.

 

2. Write – start a blog or forum. Twitter or use Facebook. Contribute to your gyms newsletter. Write articles for fitness websites and publications. 

 

3. Host – organize an event and become the go to person. The holidays are a great time to arrange group activities and promote charitable organizations.

 

4. Public Speaking – prepare and present a topic of interest to gym members, corporate wellness centers, community centers and public health out reach forums.

 

5. Network – Ancowitz suggested preparing some opening lines and practicing using open-ended questions for networking events. The focus should be easy, simple and friendly.

 

6. Say Hi – make yourself visible by regularly exchanging niceties and showing interest. I make an effort to ask how members are doing and remember to inquire about special events and family members. Sometimes just a friendly smile and greeting can make a difference.

 

 

Karen Moreno, MA Candidacy Kinesiology/Exercise Physiology

BA Social Science/Education

 

 

 

Reference:

 

Huston, M. (2009). Psychology today. Self-Promote (The Introvets’ Edition) Fight Your Nature and Get Noticed. 42(6), 25.

Do's and Don't of Exercising When Sick

Your client calls describing a little scratchy feeling in their throat and a runny nose and asks whether or not they should cancel today’s exercise session. What recommendations should we give to our clients about working out when sick?

 

Mild to Moderate Exercise for the Common Cold

 

Based on current knowledge, if the cold is confined to the head, such as a runny nose and sore throat without a fever or body aches, exercising is fine. Studies have shown people engaging in mild to moderate exercise, such as walking, while sick with the common cold did not experience any more sever symptoms, longer cold duration or negative effects on exercise performance. In fact, some researchers suggest that mild to moderate exercise could speed the recovery of a minor cold by stimulating immune defenses. However, you don’t want your client to overdo it. Exercise seems to have a curvilinear effect on immune defense. Mild to moderate exercise supports immune defense responses, while intense or prolonged exercise results in immune defense suppression. Exercise intensity should remain mild to moderate while experiencing cold symptoms. Intensive exercise can be resumed a few days after the cold symptoms have cleared. 

 

Rest for Systemic or Symptom Complex Illness

 

If your client’s illness is systemic or symptom complex, such as respiratory infections, fever, swollen glands, extreme fatigue, and muscle aches and pains, rest is recommended. Exercise can be resumed after adequate rest and recovery. The actual length of recovery can depend on several factors, such as the severity of the illness, quality of rest, levels of unmanaged stress, very low calorie intake and rapid weight reduction. Once your client returns, ease back into their training program. It may take 2 to 4 weeks to gradually resume intensive exercise. 

 

Summing Up

 

• Do exercise at mild to moderate intensity if the cold symptoms are from the neck up.
• Intensive exercise maybe resumed a few days after the symptoms have cleared.
• Don’t exercise with fever, extreme fatigue, swollen glands, muscle aches and pains.
• Ease back into exercise training and allow approximately 2 to 4 weeks to gradually resume intensive exercise.

 

 

Karen Moreno, MA Candidacy Kinesiology/Exercise Physiology

BA Social Science/Education

Reference:

 

Nieman, D.C., Weidner, T., and Dick, E. Exercise and the common cold.

http://www.acsm.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=current_comments1&Template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=8635

 

American College of Sports Medicine. (2009). Protect against colds with exercise. http://www.acsm.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=About_ACSM&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=13537

 

 

 

Physical Activity Bill Guidelines Applauded from ACSM

 Interesting information about this proposed bill:

ACSM led call for creation of federal guidelines in 2006; members served on scientific writing team 

INDIANAPOLIS — As debate continues over health system reform, a proposal with vast preventive power is drawing widespread support. Scientists, physicians, public health experts and others have rallied in favor of the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans Act of 2009. The measure (S. 1810 in the Senate and H.R. 3851 in the House), provides that the Department of Health and Human Services update federal physical activity guidelines at least every five years.

The bill’s sponsors reflect bipartisan support for healthy lifestyles as preventive medicine: Reps. Bart Gordon (D-TN), Mary Bono Mack (R-CA), Ron Kind (D-WI) and Zach Wamp (R-TN); Sens. Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Sam Brownback (R-KS).

“The first federal guidelines for physical activity, released in October 2008, were a big step forward,” said James Pivarnik, Ph.D., FACSM, president of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). “The American public would be well served by guidelines that are updated regularly, like federal guidelines for nutrition, based on the latest scientific and medical information.”

ACSM led the call for federal physical activity guidelines, and a number of its members lent their expertise to the process of developing them. In 2006, ACSM convened a broad coalition of more than 40 organizations, resulting in six key calls to action – including the creation of regular updates to federal physical activity guidelines. Another recommendation, a National Physical Activity Plan, is under development. Many organizations involved in the 2006 policy roundtable are among those who have endorsed the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans Act (click here for list).

Helping Americans of all ages and health status increase their level of physical activity can do much to cut health care costs, improve individual quality of life and boost productivity, according to research by ACSM experts and others. Physical activity and exercise have been shown to reduce the risk of chronic diseases and conditions including overweight and obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis and others. Recent research shows:

• Seventy-five percent of every dollar spent on health care goes toward treatment of chronic diseases.
  
• Estimates project that, by 2010, 20 percent of children in the U.S. will be obese.
  
• 52 percent of U.S. adults do not meet minimum recommendations for physical activity. Only 35.8 percent of high school students are physically active 60 minutes or more, five days per week; just 33 percent attend physical education classes daily.
  
• Those living in poverty, people of color, people with disabilities, and rural residents face increased obstacles to engaging in safe physical activity and suffer significant disparities in their overall health status.

“Given the low cost of exercise—as inexpensive as a pair of walking shoes—and its manifest health benefits, we need to do all we can to help people engage in appropriate types and amounts of physical activity,” said ACSM’s Pivarnik. “I hope that, while Congress wrestles with health reform legislation, they will pass the guidelines act with its potential for a huge payoff in terms of preventive health care and of dollars saved.”

The American College of Sports Medicine is the largest sports medicine and exercise science organization in the world. More than 35,000 international, national, and regional members and certified professionals are dedicated to advancing and integrating scientific research to provide educational and practical applications of exercise science and sports medicine.

Training with Partial Repetitions

Training with partial repetitions prepares your body to deal with really heavy weights, and are a necessary part of your program if you want to be exceptionally strong. This type of training will also add variety to your workouts.

What are partial repetitions?
Partials are a fraction of the range of motion of a traditional exercise: Quarter and half squats or dead lifts, bench press lockouts, etc. You stay in an abbreviated range of motion where you are very strong, i.e. the top quarter of the squat, not the bottom.

How does this prepare my body to lift heavier weights?
Since you are staying in a small range of motion where you have a lot of mechanical advantage you can use more weight than you can in the full range exercise. When you use more weight your body will be forced to adapt.

How do I do them?
My advice is to use a solid power cage. Set the safety pins on the cage to the desired height and move the bar from the pins to the end of your range of motion. For a squat this means that you will start at the bottom of the motion and stand up.

Since this is primarily for strength, you should stick to five repetitions or less. You can do full range and partials on the same day or you can alternate doing partials one day and the full range exercise the next workout.

Your abs and low back will definitely be challenged. Because of this you should start slowly and follow an intelligent progression.

Real Business Growth Takes Amazing Customer Service

Let’s face it, without our clients we would not have businesses. We may have the most advanced health and fitness programs, provide quality coaching and education, and posse engaging personalities and it still may not be enough to stimulate business growth or client retention. What will differentiate your business from the competition? Adding value with service.

 

The Wow Factor

 

The Ritz Carlton is legendary for their customer service. In fact, they are recognized as providing the “Gold Standard” for customer service. So, what is their secret? How do we become the Ritz Carlton of the Health and Fitness industry? According to Bill Lampton, it comes down to the “Wow Factor.” Clients walk away from their experience at any Ritz Carlton Hotel feeling “pampered”, “respected”, and “treated like royalty.” Now I know this to be true from personal experience. My husband and I spent our Honeymoon weekend at the Ritz Carlton at Half Moon Bay, and I must tell you we felt pampered and respected. We were warmly greeted by name at the front entrance by a professional looking woman with an openly friendly smile. How she knew who we were is still a mystery. It wasn’t like we were wearing a sign that said “Just Married.” Here is what my husband I surmised. When we drove up to the front gate we were asked our names and directed to the valet. Outstanding communication is one of the key components to superior customer service. From that moment forward, all employees seemed to know who we were, why we were there, and made our visit an Experience to remember.

 

Adding Value with Service

 

In my last post I discussed flexibility as the missing component of physical fitness and suggested that this could be a marketing opportunity, as well as an avenue for increasing client retention. Part of the Ritz Carlton formula for superior customer service is not just meeting client expectation, but surpassing client expectation. So how can we surpass our clients’ expectation of the personal training experience? Here are a few suggestions:

 

• Offer a complimentary 15-minute adjunct flexibility session. Take a moment to do something just for the client. Your client will walk away feeling pampered and come back for more.

 

• Use flexibility exercises for sessions when the client is struggling with injuries, sleep deprivation, or just experiencing a really bad day. This is an opportunity to show respect for your client. Saying, Yes, I understand you are having a bad time and let’s work on reducing some of that tension.

 

• Instruct a flexibility clinic. This gives you an opportunity to share knowledge and meet potential clients. Get to know each person by name and address with warmth and open friendliness each time you encounter them after the clinic.

 

• Offer to assist someone with flexibility. When you see someone stretching, make a point of asking if they would like some assistance. Pose some additional stretching exercises, and tips for improving technique while assisting with the stretch. A demonstration provides more personalized information.

 

These are just a few ideas to get the creative juices flowing. I am sure you will find other ways to Wow your existing and potential clients. For more information about the Ritz Carlton and Customer Service, check out the articles in Expert Magazine at http://www.expertmagazine.com/EMOnline/RC/cover.htm

 

Karen Moreno, MA Candidacy Kinesiology/Exercise Physiology

BA Social Science/Education

Flexibility the Forgotten Component of Fitness

Who should stretch? Individuals participating in regular physical activity, exercise, or athletic events should stretch. Individuals that spend a good deal of time sitting, working on a computer, or traveling should stretch. Individuals as they age should stretch. In other words, everyone can benefit from a regular stretching program.  

Flexibility is highly adaptable, which means it can be increased with regular stretching exercise and decreased with inactivity. The health of our joints is affected by the length and elasticity of the surrounding muscle fibers, tendons, and ligaments. Exercise, sport performance, and inactivity can all result in tight muscles and tissues, which place abnormal stress on joint areas and cause deterioration. For example: 

• running may result in tight hamstrings and tight thigh muscles (quadriceps), which may put excessive pressure on the kneecap, leading to pain in the knee joint.

 

• Sitting for long periods of time can cause the muscle fibers in the hamstrings to shorten and become tight resulting in undue stress on the hip joints and lower back muscles.

 

• Working long hours over a desk or computer, or driving for long periods of time may result in tight chest muscles, which places additional stress on the shoulder joint and muscles of the upper back.

 

The natural elasticity of muscle fibers, tendons and ligaments decrease as we age. Inactivity compounds this natural loss and reduces joint mobility, which may lead to movement laminations and restricted daily activities. Participating in a regular stretching program has been shown to diminish the amount and rate of decline in flexibility, lessen the adverse effects of inactivity, and diminish muscular tightness.  

How many times have I fit a quick workout in between clients and thought, oh I’ll stretch later? More times than I care to admit. This is the same with our clients.

Rarely do I see clients spending time after their training session stretching, and only occasionally do I see flexibility intermixed with training sessions.

With all the benefits stretching provides, the priority of a regular stretching program is still placed low. Flexibility seems to be the forgotten component of physical fitness. However, this can be a great opportunity for the fitness professional. Look for my next post where I discuss ideas for how flexibility can be used as a tool for client retention and marketing your personal training business.  

Karen Moreno, MA Candidacy Kinesiology/Exercise Physiology

BA Social Science/Education

What Identifies You? Your Market Brand

When you sneeze, you reach for a Kleenex ®. When you have a cut, you put on a Band-Aid®. When you search the Internet, you Google®. Kleenex®, Band-Aid® and Google®  are impressive examples of strong market branding.

When you think about your services, what identifies you? 

Branding is the Cornerstone of Your Marketing Plan 

According to marketing experts, branding is the cornerstone of your marketing plan. It is how you are going to effectively and quickly communicate the value of what you have to offer to your audience. The ultimate purpose of market branding is to emotionally connect with your audience and create customer loyalty. Apple Computers is a perfect example of market branding (I am writing this on my MacBook). When my father wanted to purchase a user-friendly computer, I immediately suggested an IMAC over all other brands. And when my husband needed a laptop, we hit the Apple Store.  

What Will Your Branding Represent? 

Imagine what it would be like to have people automatically think of you or your organization first when looking for personal training, post rehab therapy, sports conditioning, or any other component of health and fitness. How do you establish yourself as an expert in your field?  

Before you can start a successful branding campaign, you will need to do some research to:  

1) identify your target audience,

2) understand the needs and wants of your target audience, and

3) define how you want to be perceived by your target audience. 

Additionally, having a clearly defined position statement will be imperative. A position statement defines and provides focus for your services or organization. Determining your strengths and expertise as well as identifying your competition, and what differentiates you will also be crucial to your branding strategy. 

The goal of branding is to have your target audience connect your service or organization with their needs and wants. About.com: Marketing has some interesting articles and is a good resource if you need additional information with the development and implementation of your branding strategy. Check it out at

http://marketing.about.com/od/brandstrategy/u/brandbasics.htm 

Karen Moreno, MA Candidacy Kinesiology/Exercise Physiology

BA Social Science/Education

Helping Clients Move From "I May" to "I Will".

Most of our clients come to us ready for change. They have identified the behavior they wish to adopt and our role is to facilitate the action. When a client is still thinking about change, our approach needs to shift from activities of doing the behavior to fostering deeper examining of the issue. Our purpose is to promote client movement from the “I May” to “I Will” stage of change.  

Five Stages of Change  

When coaching clients through the stages of change, it is important to identify and understand which stage your client is in. There are five stages of change, each requiring different approaches.  

1. Precontemplation - not ready for change “I Won’t” or “I Can’t”
2. Contemplation – thinking about change “I May”
3. Preparation – preparing for action “I Will”
4. Action – taking action “I Am”
5. Maintenance – maintaining the behavior “I Still Am”

 

Contemplation Stage – Self Discovery  

People in the contemplation stage are in the process of considering change. This is a time of self-discovery and information gathering. The appropriate coaching skills should:  

1. Help clients discover their strengths, what motivates them and gets them excited about change.
2. Help clients connect their values to the new behavior.
3. Help clients understand the positives and negatives of maintaining the old behavior and of changing it.
4. Help clients identify barriers to change and find solutions.

 

To move clients from the contemplation stage to preparation and then to action, we will need to help them develop strong motivators, a solid understanding of their challenges, and possible solutions to obstacles. The coaching activities should be motivating, supportive and provide opportunities to connect with the new behavior. Rather than asking clients to attempt the new behavior, encourage them to talk, listen, read, think, discover, and then decide.   

Coaching Activities for Contemplation Stage 

• Journaling - encourage clients to keep a journal to identify situations that support the new behavior and record the journey.
• Decisional Balance Work Sheet - encourage clients to explore the pros and cons of both not changing and changing the behavior.
• Encourage clients to watch movies and read books about other people with the target behavior.
• Encourage clients to imagine what it would be like after changing the target behavior.
• Encourage clients to create a new, positive self-image.
• Coping plans - encourage clients to brainstorm to identify possible obstacles and create solutions.

 
 

Karen Moreno, MA Candidacy Kinesiology/Exercise Physiology

BA Social Science/Education  

Reference:

Fahey, T.D., Insel, P.M., & Roth, W.T. 2009. Fit & Well. M. Ryan (ED.), Introduction to wellness,

      fitness, and lifestyle management (pp. 14). Boston: McGraw-Hill.

Moore, M., & Tschannen-Morean, B. 2010. Coaching psychology manual. In E. Lupash (ED.),  Coaching relationship skills (pp. 22-24). Baltimore, MD: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.