Online fitness articles Archives

September 9, 2020 — Comments are off for this post.

The Best Yoga Poses for Desk-Bound Bodies Right Now

We spoke with one of our favourite yogis, Dylan Zukowski, about how we can get a little more yoga into our day!

Looking for yoga poses to ease off the aches and pains of the work day? Call off the search! We spoke with Dylan Zukowski of Yoga Infusion for her take on the best poses you can do. Dylan is a sun-obsessed, strong-willed, life-loving powerhouse based in Southern California - and she's generously shared her tips for helping you get more yoga into your every day!

From gentle movements to supported asanas, these yoga poses will have you feeling amazing in no time.

How could I incorporate more yoga into my daily routine?

"I like to advise that people schedule yoga in little increments. It could be 15 minutes, it could be 10 minutes! But make sure you put it on your to do list, and check it off like you would anything else.

Also, try to forget that yoga doesn't have to look like anything that you see on Instagram! It doesn't have to be a one-hour practice or a two-hour practice. Yoga can be three really intentional breaths during your workday, for example.

Whether you're doing a forward fold or taking a child's pose when you get the chance - that's still yoga!

Your yoga practice can be a series of brief restorative moments like that, and it will have huge benefits. The important thing to do is to schedule it in and make sure that you get it done."

What can I do to make doing yoga easier for myself?

"First up, try not to have any expectations of what that yoga looks like. Yoga for your body is going to look different to everybody else's.

Find a teacher or a style of yoga that resonates with you that you enjoy practicing. Doing this enables you to go to your mat and look forward to learning new things.

It looks different for different people, as your physical anatomy will have different needs to other people's. That means looking at yourself and your own practice with compassion.

The most important thing about your yoga practice is that you enjoy it. It's vital that you don't force yourself to do something that isn't working for you, because you just won’t keep it up."

What would the benefits be of doing a little yoga throughout my day?

"The benefits of doing yoga throughout your day are exponential!

We spend a lot of our days in the sympathetic nervous system which is the ‘fight or flight’ response. People are always going to a meeting, or are stuck in traffic or have to meet a deadline. We’re not supposed to spend all our time operating from our sympathetic nervous system.

We actually have something call a parasympathetic nervous system, which is our ‘rest and digest’ response. When your rest and digest system is functioning well you'll get more nutrients from your food, you'll sleep better, and you’ll have much more energy.

Relative to this, the benefits of yoga and meditation are cumulative. Meditation is especially important, and doesn't have to be anything too intense. It can just be a few breaths with intention which you can take at your desk.

When you do a few yoga poses throughout the day, even if it's just a little bit, the breath work and the restorative movement combine to balance the chemicals in your body. That way, you can spend more time switching between your two systems, which is really beneficial for you."

I sit at a desk all day, help! What could I do to move more? Do you have any tips?

"Number one, set an alarm. If you're at a desk all day, set alarms so you get up and move around for five minutes every hour. That reminder will help you to get some more steps in, get some stretches or do some jumping jacks!

Secondly, try clasping your hands behind your back and opening your chest, or maybe doing a forward fold or Child's Pose.

Squeeze in any gentle movement that gets you away from your desk for five minutes or even less – but make sure you do so every hour, as regularity is key.

Don’t be afraid to use your desk as a prop. For example, you can put your hands on your desk and then scoot your chair back as far as you can go whilst still keeping your hands on the desk. Then, allow your heart space to move towards the floor. Using gravity to help you, this yoga pose opens up the front of your shoulders, widens your collarbones and stretches out your pectoral muscles.

You can also try a stretch sitting in your chair. Take your right foot and move it up to your left knee, keeping your left foot on the floor. Intensify this by leaning forward over the leg that’s bent up on your knee, getting into the glutes. Think pigeon pose, at your desk!"

Yoga teacher doing a pose on the beach. — Dylan at home in the south Californian sunshine.

Do you have any top yoga poses for people who work from home?

"Yes! These are my top three yoga poses to counteract time sat at a desk."

Firstly, try a yin-style forward fold (Paschimottanasana).

"To do this, just sit on the ground with your hips up on a rolled-up blanket. Release through the upper back by allowing gravity to take your head forward for about seven to 11 minutes. This really opens up your posterior fascia line, which often crunches up whilst you're sitting at your desk.

We also hold our hands in such a specific way when we type that our shoulders start bunching up, creating a hunched over posture, so make sure you do a forward fold for sure."

Shoulder-opener (twisted cross pose)

"Another pose that I love if you’re sitting at a desk is a shoulder opener. Begin laying prone on your belly on your mat, stretching your arms out to either side of you. Roll to one side so your left hip and shoulder open up, as though you're opening up a book. Keep your right arm stretched out, so you’re opening up your chest and making space there.

You can always do this against a wall if this isn't accessible for you from the ground. Place your arm and leg along the length of the wall and then turn your body away from it. It's a huge shoulder and chest opener feels amazing."

Fish pose (Matsyasana)

"Supported fish pose is a third great pose. Taking a block or a bolster, lying on your back, place it underneath your spine towards your upper back.

You can have a blanket over the block so it's more comfortable, too! Open up your arms and hang out here for as long as you can. Make sure you allow gravity to take over and really open things up.

All these are amazing heart openers, which is something that we should all work on, especially if you work at a desk all day!"

Thanks Dylan!

Huge thanks to Dylan Zukowski of Yoga Infusion for guiding us with these great suggestions. Dylan helps women find strength, health, and happiness by (re)discovering the joy and beauty in their bodies through the daily practice of interval infused yoga classes.

You can find more of Dylan's great advice, classes and more via her website. And if you're looking for more fitness inspiration? Get in touch via Facebook, and Instagram, or ping us an email here!

Published by Eloise Leeson in Fettle culture articles, Online fitness articles, Wellness

Tags: company, office, team, yoga

August 27, 2020 — Comments are off for this post.

How To Completely Fail At Teaching An Online Fitness Class

Fancy an online fitness class?

Nah.

The quarantine fatigue hit us hard this week. Monday sees the opening of gyms in our native Scotland (hooray!), so we figured we’d salute everyone out there crushing the online fitness classes.

Or…you know. Not.

Man leaning against a wall in frustration

Here we present our top tips for offering a truly horrendous class, in one unhelpful blog post.

Teach every single online fitness class in 360p

HD? What HD? Nah! You need to record this on your youngest sibling’s hand-me-down phone with the cracked screen and the Ribena in the camera!

The blurrier the better – ideally your students won’t be able to tell the difference between savasana and you just taking a quick mid-class nap.

Think 1960s Eurovision entry video, uploaded 60 years later on YouTube.

Unsync your audio

Have movements match your audio? Heck no! What a wild proposition.

What you want to be is so unsynced with your movements that your class are caught halfway between a orders for a jumping jack and a push up. We call ‘em jump-up-push-jacks (or WTFs for short).

Remember when you’re working out, it’s important to keep the body guessing – but go one step further and keep your client’s noggins guessing too!

Leave everyone in a waiting room

One of our personal favourites – make sure you use a software that glitches regularly, or comes up with obscure passwords that literally no one can remember.

The goal is to make sure everyone spends the first half of their class in the waiting room!

Think of it as an endurance game – how long can you leave students alone in a digital waiting room before all of them rage quit and go off in pursuit of a coffee?

Only present in half the screen

Simple really – make sure you’re demonstrating workouts in a live streamed set up, (when you can best ignore people’s pleas for you to centre yourself) but only let them see half of you!

Which half?

Doesn’t matter! One foot, 50% of your torso, or your left eyebrow – the choice is yours.

Forget to schedule an online fitness class ahead of time

This one’s a classic – if you really want to frustrate your clients, organise a much-anticipated class, and then completely forget to add it to your own calendar!

Compound your forgetfulness by showing up to teach a class no-one actually knew about. Extra points if these two classes happen back to back.

There’s nothing like being an hour late to the Zumba class you asked people to come to!

Set your entire class to your OWN music

Ah, music! We can’t be the only ones who think the world needs a bit more music that’s really indie, can we?

One of the best ways you can irritate your students is to rock up with your own keyboard, turning their sweat session into a jam session.

And if you really want to test their patience, may we suggest that you make a kazoo remix of popular tunes so they can really feel the beat?!

Permit entry to your online class only when people have signed over their firstborn child

Look, we’re not saying that Rumpelstiltskin would be an amazing PT, but he definitely had the right idea when it came to asking for payment.

To give yourself one of the best stress-headaches out there, make sure you set up the most awkward, frustrating sign up process, requiring people to sign a deed to give you their firstborn child and or family assets before taking your class!

Or, y’know, do that weird ‘Er. So, eh, has everyone paid? No? Oh. Okay. Um. Guess…we’ll just get started, then.’ thing.

Nothing like teaching for free!

The point is…

That all this should make you cold with horror!

Fitness app downloads have rocketed by 67% since March* – so giving a great online class is crucial if you want to reach the two-thirds of people who want to work out remotely.

Digital is here to stay, and if you want to make money, you need an online offering.

Fettle is here to help. Get in touch for your demo now! Fancy saying hi instead? You can mosey over to our Facebook, and Instagram pages, read some more blog posts, or send us your fave meme. We won't judge.

*https://www.mobilemarketer.com/news/fitness-apps-see-67-jump-in-installs-during-pandemic/583914/?utm_content=137993697&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkedin&hss_channel=lis-nGfZ4WZSLt

Published by Eloise Leeson in Online fitness articles

Tags: hybrid model, online fitness

May 26, 2020 — Comments are off for this post.

Seven Great Reasons to Offer Home Workouts

Learning yoga poses at home — Working out at home has some serious hidden advantages!

With lockdown in full effect, home workouts have become the ‘new normal’ these past few months.

Along with it, there’s been an undeniable shift in people’s perceptions of just what is achievable when there’s no access to fitness facilities and having little (or no!) equipment to utilise.

Home workouts have often been seen as a last resort, more a way to keep things ticking over, rather than a viable way to make progress in your fitness.

Now though? That’s all beginning to change.

It’s no longer a choice of go hard or go home, but simply, go hard, at home.

With the help of fitness professional across the globe, sharing their living room and garden-based workouts online, people are starting to realise the advantages of getting fit in the “comfort” of their own homes. We’ve compiled our top 7 to share with you, so you can share it with your clients and communities!

1. Home workouts are time efficient

One of the most valuable resources we have is time, and with home workouts, we’ve been saving a whole lot of it recently.

No longer do you have to waste valuable time packing a gym bag…sitting in traffic…searching for a parking space…waiting around for equipment or hoping there’s a shower free, so you can get out of your sweaty kit as soon as possible.

At home, you just fill up your water bottle and you’re ready to smash out your workout in record time.

2. No judgement or social pressures

Low self-esteem can affect anyone when exercising in a public space and it’s often a real hindrance.

For people who want to up their fitness goals or try new exercises, fear of looking “silly” can hold them back.

In your own home however, there’s no such social pressures. You can experiment with exercises and workouts at a pace that suits you, without feeling judged (except from your pet, maybe).

3. Your body is a great piece of “equipment”

It’s easy to believe we need access to the latest fitness equipment to get results.

We often forget that our own body, in and of itself, is also a terrific piece of “equipment”. It gives us access to endless variations of effective exercises.

In fact, a study by The American College of Sports Medicine's Health and Fitness Journal discovered that bodyweight workouts are an efficient way to lower body fat, improve VO2 max and increase muscular fitness.

4.The world is your playground

The great thing about home workouts is that they can be done anywhere.

They don’t have to be confined to the indoors! When you realise your health doesn’t rely on a dedicated health or fitness facility, the world becomes your playground.

Simply move your workout out into the garden, take it further afield to the local park, or try a run around town.

We think that beats staring at a blank wall whilst on the treadmill any day of the week.

5. Be part of a community

Fitness brings people together like nothing else. Training at home doesn’t mean you have to give up that sense of community and belonging!

You can connect with people online, with the same fitness interests, from all over the world.

Keep it closer to home and set virtual challenges with your friends, or meet up, for a partner run or workout (keeping to social distancing rules, of course).

Online, you can also have access to your favourite instructors, studios and coaches, to help guide your fitness journey year-round.

6. More flexible

We’re not talking yoga here (although that is a great home workout choice). Instead, let's consider the flexibility that you get from being able to work out - whenever you want.

No more are the days when the only training you could do was when your on or off-peak membership permitted, or in one hour blocks.

Now you can train whenever you want, with the freedom to split up your workouts throughout the day.

7. Back to basics

With all training facilities closed, we’ve been forced to go ‘back to basics’ with our training. Despite potentially being perceived as a setback, we think it’s actually a blessing in disguise.

You can use this time to remaster the basics of training that you might have previously overlooked.

Think handstand holds, pull ups, planks, press ups, unilateral work! You can take the time to stretch and improve your mobility.

Focus on these and you’ll come out the other side of lockdown with an even stronger physical foundation.

Digital home workouts are here to stay. If you want to make money, you need an online offering!

Published by Eloise Leeson in All posts for Fettle, Fettle culture articles, Online fitness articles, Wellness

May 7, 2020 — Comments are off for this post.

Community, Choice, Connection – What Your Clients Really Need

Business, at its core, is about community and connection.

You’re part of the health, wellness and fitness community for a reason – and that reason is connection.

The best businesses are always those that focus on human interaction first, and transaction second.

Why? Because that’s the best way to forge connections, of course – by being genuinely interested in someone, and the things that make them unique.

But now we’re in a ‘new normal’, navigating lockdown, and suddenly, forging that connection seems much harder than it usually is!

We can solve this puzzle by going back to the focus of your business, though – your customer.

By anticipating and proactively meeting new needs during the pandemic you won’t just be supporting clients in the short-term – you’ll be setting up for serious business success.

So the biggest question now is…what does your client really need?

Freedom!

No Braveheart jokes, please.

Freedom has been shown to be the number one need of people living under lockdown. Now, that’s a bit of a no-brainer, but the need to be free is a human fundamental.

We’re used to being able to make multiple tiny choices a day.

It can be as simple as choosing to try that new Dalgona coffee, or to stick with your flat white. Whether you’ll go to this pub or that bar after work. Even pretending to peruse Pret’s Veggie cooler before snaffling that cheesy croissant is temporarily a thing of the past!

Your clients need to feel that they have some freedom – and you’re in a unique position to help them do just that.

How? We’ve got a few suggestions:

Proactively ask your community for their feedback

Who doesn’t love to give their opinion? We’ve all got so much time, that we’re in a fantastic position to really get to know our clients, and figure out what they want.

Asking for their input not only help you hone your offering, but it makes people feel special and valued.

Consider flexible payments

C-19 has definitely thrown a spanner in the proverbial financial works! What can you do to help someone feel free? It might seem scary in the short-term, but figuring out how you can make flexible payments work for your community could be key in putting your client back in the driving seat.

If you’ve traditionally offered a monthly subscription, think about pay-as-you go classes. Offer value to your clients and capture new ones by devising a quick, free workout template to keep people moving under quarantine.

Offer video on demand

How often have you said you’ll work out this evening, just like you did pre-C-19, only to find that you’re on the sofa at 6pm with a glass of wine, covered in crisps? We’re creatures of habit – but when our daily structures go up in smoke, we find it easier to make excuses.

We’ve all been there – no judgement. But if your clients traditionally got their sweat on with you at specific times, there’s room now for you to offer flexible classes through a video on demand service (VOD).

VOD is awesome – because your clients get to move, stretch, and sweat with you whenever they like. Their freedom to do that is more important than ever before – so make sure you’re meeting that need.

A feeling of control

One of the most crucial things we’re struggling with right now is our inability to control the situation we’re in.

C-19 is an invisible force. We can’t see it, so we have to take measures to rightly protect ourselves from the danger that we would never have had to consider a few months ago.

One of the best things any leader in the health, wellness and fitness industry can do is to help give people their power back, by supporting them to take ownership of their progress.

Guidance, trackable progress, and data tools aren’t very sexy, but they are crucial in helping people see how far they’ve come by working with you.

There are some great apps out there, but offering your clients a custom structure through your Fettle platform means they can track their progress and celebrate their results – all in the same place.

A sense of community

How often have we heard the phrase ‘humans are social creatures’? It’s a cliché because it’s true!

The feeling of mid-sesh high fives, sweaty hugs, a class exhaling together in savasana – these are some of the best moments during our fitness journeys.

More isolated than ever before, lockdown has put an end to physical community for the present moment. But what of our digital communities?

Offering live streamed workouts for your clients can help them rightfully feel like they’re part of a bigger community, that they’re connected with you and supported as they work to reach their goals.

You can also offer chat spaces in your Fettle platform, highlight members’ progress on your social accounts. Reach out to those you’ve not seen for a little while, just to check in.

Whilst these efforts might seem insignificant, this sense of authentic, heart-lef community will take your clients and turn them into customers for life.

We want to hear how these tips work for your brand! How are you navigating customers needs during C-19?

And if you want to understand how Fettle can help you connect better than ever with your clients, get in touch now at fettle.io/contact. Let's get your business thriving, despite the circumstances.

Looking for more fitness inspiration? Get in touch via Facebook, and Instagram, or ping us an email here!

Published by Eloise Leeson in Fettle culture articles, Fettle startup., Online fitness articles

Tags: community, covid solution, fitness, live stream, personal training, tech solutions, video on demand, vod, yoga