The following is a guest post by Adam Bornstein.
So this is how Steve Jobs must have felt.
Doubt. Disbelief. Skepticism.
Those were the feelings of outsiders who described his first efforts at Apple. Before, of course, his ideas became industry standard; and the catalyst for a tech revolution.
Your clients often protest new and different things.
Our brains are hard-wired to seek comfort and familiarity. It's why people stay in bad relationships and largely determines why your clients get stuck in behavior ruts.
It's even why they continue to make bad fitness and diet choices, even though they might have failed at similar approaches in the past.
They go on another diet; even though the last dozen have failed. They join another gym; even though they rarely used their previous membership. They hire another personal trainer; even though the last two never really helped them reach their goals.
But what if there was a better way? What if a legitimately different option existed to offer your clients a better service than they had ever expected?
Best of all: What if it made things like losing weight, improving health, and living a better life easier than ever before?
Do you think they would you face it with doubt, disbelief, and skepticism? Or would they embrace the change and join the revolution.
What about you? Would you embrace the change? Or be content with the old way of doing things?
The New Fitness Has Arrived
Precision Nutrition wants you to join the revolution.
According to founders Dr. John Berardi and Phil Caravaggio, one look around the fitness industry is all it takes to recognize something big is happening.
You've probably noticed that fitness, specifically on the web, is exploding. Thousands of nutrition/exercise websites. Hundreds of apps. People sharing their success stories everywhere.
"And that's just the tip of the iceberg," says Berardi.
"What lies beneath the water is a fitness movement that's in positioned to change everything. At Precision Nutrition, it's called Fitness 2.0 and it's something all fitness pros need to pay close attention to."
According to Dr. Berardi, Fitness 2.0 is:
Web enabled
Access to a computer or mobile device is all your clients need to get involved, change their bodies, and change their lives.
Geographically independent
Your clients can participate from anywhere, whether they are in an urban hub, suburban community, or undeveloped nation.
Data driven
Programs are based on strategies that work in the real world, not on inapplicable academic research or amateur guesswork.
Expert driven
People now have access to the best coaches in the world, no matter where they live or social status; this is unprecedented in history.
Affordable
Since technology does the admin and management, world-class coaches can focus on helping large groups at rock-bottom prices.
Anonymous
It's all done on the web so clients can participate anonymously (or not); the choice is theirs and it won't impact the quality of the results.
Gym independent
Even if people don't want to (or can't) join a gym, getting in shape is completely possible.
Fully integrated
Training, nutrition, and lifestyle coaching can now all wrapped up into one, instead of having to pay separately for each service.
This is in stark contrast to the last generation of fitness, Fitness 1.0.
What Happened to Fitness 1.0
Fitness 1.0 is the only model of health that has ever existed, and it was exclusionary and expensive. The financial and psychological barriers to entry were extremely high.
If a client wanted to get in shape, it was mandatory for them to join a gym. And, let's face it, gyms can be scary places for people new to exercise.
Then, once they joined the gym, the next step was figuring out how to use all the equipment. After all, a gym membership doesn't come with free advice or even an owner's manual. As a member, an exerciser is essentially renting the equipment.
If somebody figured things out themselves, great. If not, they had the option to hire a one-on-one personal trainer. Of course, that service didn't come cheap. Just 3 sessions a week could cost more than $1,200 a month.
And, even once they hired a trainer, they weren't quite sure if the trainer was actually qualified to help. It was sort of a mystery. Did the trainer know what he or she was doing? Could somebody trust the trainer with his or her health?
Maybe the biggest flaw was the narrow approach. Personal training only offered exercise advice. Clients had to figure out other important factors--such as nutrition, stress-management, and sleep--all by themselves.
The result is a nation of over-frustrated, unhappy, and unhealthy customers.
"Fitness 2.0 is opening the black box," says Caravaggio.
"It's solving complex problems the industry has been saddled with for over 20 years. It's creating a new path where fitness coaching can be accessible for everyone. Where it can be comprehensive. And where you know whether or not it works."
"The entire process is becoming transparent," says Berardi. "What you see is what you get."
Of course, the old model of fitness isn't completely obsolete. Gym memberships and personal trainers are still a solid choice for a lot of people, and can play a role in the Fitness 2.0 movement.
In fact, Precision Nutrition, a leader in this movement, works very closely with hundreds of gyms and thousands of trainers to help them offer Fitness 2.0 services to their clients.
In fact, their professional nutrition certification has become the industry standard. It's for fitness and strength professionals looking to include nutrition and lifestyle coaching in their business.
Savvy trainers, sensing change in the industry, fill up a long waiting list for the Precision Nutrition Certification program, which sells out every time they offers it.
However, Berardi and Caravaggio are the first to admit that not everyone wants to - or can - join a gym. And not everyone who does join can afford a trainer.
For everyone else, Fitness 2.0 is absolutely game changing.
Why Fitness 2.0 Works
While many people struggle to figure out why they can't get in shape, research has shown than there's a clear determinant of success in any plan: Compliance.
Interestingly, the old model of fitness was completely silent on this topic. Personal trainers had long been known to "fire" clients who couldn't stick with the program. That is, if the clients didn't fire themselves first.
And, even for the clients who stuck around, there were no systems in place to monitor and track their food, sleep, and other lifestyle habits outside of the gym. Since health and fitness doesn't operate in a vacuum, this was a major problem.
"Exercise, eating habits, sleep, stress, they all need to be accounted for," says Berardi. "And focusing on any one without knowledge of or adjustment to the others is a recipe for failure."
This is a problem Fitness 2.0 is designed to solve. By integrating exercise, nutrition, sleep support, and stress management, a program must be structured in a way that helps people pursue fitness in an integrated and sustainable way.
In addition to a personal trainers own knowledge, they must connect themselves with the best nutritionists and doctors.
These experts must develop a system where they are actually on-call to foster accountability and keep clients on the right track, which improves compliance and reduces stress.
After all, sharing information is the smallest part of the equation. It's why so many books, magazines, and other programs fail. They provide great information, but those are just ingredients. You still need directions to make the recipe work.
"That's why Fitness 2.0 also includes the best practices of change and coaching psychology," says Caravaggio.
"Contrary to popular belief, most people don't fail because they're missing willpower or discipline. They fail because they don't have tools and support required to make fitness work for their lives."
