Dec 31, 2010
Well we’re on the home stretch of the 2010 holiday season. We ate a ton of candy on Halloween, stuffed ourselves on Thanksgiving, ate all the Christmas cookies we could handle, and now we’re down to New Year’s Eve where we drink ourselves into the new year!
A lot of really cool stuff happened in the fitness/weight loss industry in 2010. Zumba took off…we were introduced to the Shake Weight…The Brazilian Butt Lift Workout gained a ton of steam and will carry that over into 2011 for sure, and a lot more.
So what do we have to look forward to in 2011? What’s going to be the “it” diet? What’s the Boca Raton personal training scene going to look like? Will the miracle weight loss pill finally come save the day? Well with my last blog post for 2010, I decided to give you some insight on my predictions for the upcoming year of fitness and fat loss!
1. Death of the Big Gyms
In 2009, one particular big corporate gym slashed their membership rates from $50-$60 per month to as low as $10! They wanted to cater to families and the general public. Most people in the industry, myself included, said they couldn’t survive long-term and that within 24 months they’d shut down.
Their plan actually worked and brought in a TON of new members. Some other big name gyms followed suit and pretty much commoditized themselves making each other expendible. What they started to find out was 2 things:
a. They pissed off their loyal, high-paying members. Nothing aggravates a consumer more than making them feel unappreciated. Well what do you think happened when people who were spending $50-$60 a month were coming in contact with $10/monther’s taking up machines and weights, and space while standing around socializing. A lot of these folks jumped ship into smaller studios (which became really popular in late 2009/2010).
b. Their newly attracted clientele were wrecking the equipment, canceling their credit cards and giving phony phone numbers so they wouldn’t get harassed. Face it, a lot of times we get what we pay for and sometimes as a business owner you get what you offer it for.
Fast forward to today, and you find a ton of different options regarding where to workout. Here in Boca Raton and all over South Florida, there are specialty niche centers like Cross-fit, personal training studios, indoor and outdoor boot camps, yoga studios, pilates studios, and high-end fitness centers. They best clients that big corporate gyms used to have now split into smaller, more intimate scenes leaving them with high-overhead and low profits…not a formula for success!
2. Asian Invasion
2010 belonged to Brazil with hits like Zumba and the Brazilian Butt Lift Workout. In past years we’ve seen Core Rhythms: Latin Dance, belly dancing exercise videos, The Asian Diet, and a ton more I haven’t even thought of. So which nation do I think will have the honors of dominating 2011 in the native fat loss category?
That’s a tough one to call. Personally, I like the idea of The Singaporean Caning Workout. slogan: “We’ll Whip The Crap…And Fat Out Of Ya!“
This was the cleanest picture of "caning" I could find...sorry
Seriously, though, in true fashion things like Zumba and Brazilian Butt Lift are going to suffer the same fate as Tae Bo, 8-Minute Abs, and the hundreds of other flash-in-the-pan workout programs, and make way for new ones.
3. Go Hard Or Go Home
Gone are the days of doing 1 exercise X number of repetitions working 1 muscle group at a time trudging through a 2 hour long workout. No more doing 30 minutes of steady-state cardio, Curves, or Jazzercise, .
Thanks to hit at-home programs like p90X and Insanity plus the popularity of fitness boot camps and Cross-Fit, the masses are starting to really get that the most effective and quickest way to get whipped into shape is in the form of high-intensity interval training working multiple muscle groups at a time, constantly changing up the routine, and exhausting themselves in as little as 30-45 minutes!
2 years ago only insane hardcore workout fanatics did boot camps. Today they’re a dime a dozen, and then strongest ones provide all the elements you need for fat loss success: Challenging workouts, nutritious meal planning, and most importantly…strong support from not only your training staff, but from peers within the group itself!
4. Temptations, Temptations…
I just saw a commercial that showed a man’s gut with the narrator saying, “Do you want a flat stomach instantly, without exercising or dieting at all?” You’d think that this line would lose its luster after being used over and over and over again by weight loss pills and other gadgets, but obviously it still brings in the bucks..
The commercial was for a male version of Spanx, the name of which I don’t remember but it was a tank-top undershirt thats sucks in a guy’s belly thus proving that you can have a flat stomach instantly without dieting or exercising at all.
Of course, it’s funny to think what happens as soon as that shirt comes off….look out belooowwww!
The point is this:
2011, like the years before it, will bring brand new fat loss gizmos that will promise all the benefits in the world with no work necessary. And no matter how many times you find yourself saying, “Who buys this junk?” or “That stuff doesn’t work”, you find that little voice in the back of your head that wants to take you down the short-cut to success.
The 48 hr Hollywood Miracle Diet was and probably still is my all time favorite most extreme thing people will do to lose weight fast. 2010 brought us the Cookie Diet and The Full Bar. Who knows what 2011 will bring us.
Regardless though, I want you to make the transition from expecting immediate gratification with little to no effort, to long-term gratification with a ton of work in still a short amount of time!
I hope 2010 kicked as much butt for you as it did for me!
I promise to bring everything I got to make 2011 super successful for you!
Have a very safe and happy New Year’s!
