Corporate Fitness and Active Aging

What Makes Cycle So Great?

Ready to switch up your cardiovascular fitness routine? Give indoor cycling a shot. A cycle class has the capability to give you an intense workout while keeping the impact on your joints at a minimum. The group environment of a cycle class allows you to feed off the energy in classroom and the instructor, while motivating your fellow participants.             

Indoor cycle is a great workout for all fitness levels. Each participant can determine their own desired difficulty based on the instructor’s cues.

For Your First Cycle Class

If it has been a while or your first time in a cycle class, arrive 10-15 minutes early to get assistance from the instructor setting up your bike. The instructor will be able to tell you how to adjust your bike and what cue the form so you can be set up for success before class has started.

During the class, the instructor will remind of this proper form we must maintain even during challenging portions of the ride. Along with this, you will be guided on how challenging the ride should be and what you are looking to achieve during the ride. This gives a teamwork feel to your indoor cycling ride, while pushing to be better during each segment of the class.

Hydrate! Make sure you bring plenty of water to cycle classes. Even with the use of fans, indoor cycling gets sweaty. Don’t be afraid to use active recovery portions of the ride to take a moment to drink some water and wipe of the sweat. You are working hard; you deserve a breather!

You should wear something that you feel comfortable in for cycle class. Due to the intensity of the workout, it tends to be a sweaty one. Wear a top that is made of a sweat wicking fabric. Tank tops can be great for temperature control and comfort. For bottoms, workout tights/leggings, biker shorts, or athletic shorts can all be suitable options. If the bottoms are comfortable and not loose enough to get caught on the indoor bike, you are good to go. Normal gym shoes are fine for cycle class, and you can strap into the cage pedals. If you attend cycle classes, more regularly, bike shoes that clip into the pedals are also an option.

What do you enjoy most about cycle classes? Share in the comments! 

The NIFS staff often find that employees will take time away from their desk to exercise, enjoy conversation that isn't work related, or simply decompress. Our staff are great at putting the FUN into Fitness which often results in laughter during classes, conversations and that sense of community in our client's onsite fitness centers.

When it comes to health and medicine, most people think about doctors, pills, or exercise. But more evidence is suggesting that laughter can also be a part of one’s treatment and can actually improve one’s health both in the short and long-term.

According to the Mayo Clinic, when laughing there are not only emotional and mental benefits but also physical ones as well. When you laugh, your heart, lungs, and muscles get stimulated more, and in turn, more oxygen is delivered throughout your body. Laughing increases the secretion of endorphins that are released by your brain which makes you feel happy. It also aids in muscle relaxation.

There are also long-term benefits to laughter, too: Positive thoughts can release chemical messengers called neuropeptides that help fight stress and improve overall immunity. Laughter may ease pain by causing the body to produce its own natural painkillers and can also make it easier to cope with difficult situations. As a result, it can help lessen your stress, depression and anxiety and may make you feel happier. Socially, it also helps you connect with other people since people like to be around those who have a positive outlook. Making more connections with people can also improve your self-esteem.

Laughter and humor can also have the following effects on specific illnesses:

• Lowered risk of heart diseases
• Decreased risk of type 2 diabetes
• Increased pain tolerance
• Improved mood and self-esteem
• Reduced hyperinflation of the lungs in people with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
• Humor therapy (watching a 20-minute humorous movie) can lead to improved cognitive function, including learning ability, delayed recall, and visual recognition in a study that included 30 older adults.
• Comedy improv training can lead to subjective improvements in symptoms for people with Parkinsons disease.

With all of these benefits in mind, it’s a good reminder for us to have a good laugh every once in a while, and to have as positive an outlook as we can.

Variety is the spice of life, and that’s what we’ll have in town this week at our annual managers’ meeting. Each year we fly our management team to our headquarters in Indianapolis for professional development, collaboration, and networking. Our passionate team arrives from across the U.S. from different client settings and with varying personal interests and backgrounds. Their one commonality is their passion for serving their members, and we love the dialogue and collaboration that unfold when everyone gets together.

3 Benefits of Collaboration for Fitness Staff

This connection and access to a wealth of resources is one of the strongest value elements we bring to our clients. They receive our onsite fitness staff managing their program and building relationships with members, plus the expertise of a national organization doing this work across the U.S. How does this routine collaboration truly elevate a fitness program?

• They don’t feel like they are on an island. As a fitness professional in a corporate or senior living setting, it can feel like you are isolated without resources or like-minded individuals who have similar goals and job duties. NIFS has routine meetings, workshops, and events like our annual meeting in Indianapolis to bring new ideas, resources, and inspiration to your fitness program, keeping things fresh and exciting for your members as well as your fitness staff.
• They can benefit from vetted programs and promotions. Sometimes it can be hard to execute a vision for a program or determine how to best reach a group of individuals because you aren’t quite sure how to get started or you are concerned about unanticipated road bumps along the way. NIFS managers regularly connect on a variety of platforms to discuss new ideas and ask for feedback among their peers. This provides members at our client sites with more finely tuned and professional programming.
• They are connected to the latest trends. Fitness is a trendy industry, whether you are working with children, the general population, or seniors. By having staff from the four corners of the U.S. and a little bit of everywhere in between, this broad reach keeps our team connected to not only what is trending but how to educate and market new programming to members in our client settings.

3 Tips to Garner Collaboration for Fitness Staff

So what do you do if you aren’t connected to an organization like NIFS to help keep your staff connected?

• Professional development: Provide funding to send your staff to workshops to help them stay plugged into the industry. Without an organizational connection they might still miss opportunities to learn how others are effectively implementing that type of programming in your setting, but it can certainly lead to some fresh ideas and keep staff inspired.
• Create a network: Do you have neighboring communities or businesses with staffed fitness centers with which you could encourage collaboration? Perhaps there’s a network of senior living communities in your town where the fitness staff could get together once a quarter for idea sharing. Perhaps your group fitness instructors, trainers, and fitness manager at your corporate site could meet once a quarter to discuss what they are hearing from members, share ideas to attract new participants, etc. Your network can be in-house with existing personnel or branching out, but creating space for discussion among like-minded individuals can be advantageous.
• Identify a strong contact: Whether or not someone at your setting is in-tune with the fitness industry, make sure your fitness staff has someone who has a good listening ear and an understanding of your fitness program’s goals. Fitness staff can feel less isolated in their decision-making when they have a partner at the site level who understands the work they are doing, and when they have someone in their corner for brainstorming or discussing member needs.

This collaboration is where the magic happens in taking a fitness program from good to great!

The benefits of providing an onsite corporate fitness center at the workplace are far-reaching and they may or may not have anything to do with reducing health care costs. For leadership, it’s easy to focus on this tangible measurement and lose sight of other reasons  to support employees in their health and fitness goals.

Learn how one member at a NIFS client location has found value in using her corporate fitness center as she strives to maintain a newly established healthy lifestyle.

Was there an “a-ha” moment or life event that led you to make a positive change for your health?

I’ve known for a number of years that I needed to improve my health, but always had excuses for not doing so. When my granddaughter was born in 2016, I knew I wanted to be around to see her grow up. I also wanted to be able to keep up with her energy so I could be active in her life as she got older. She, and the future grandchildren, have been my inspiration.

What has been a key factor in helping you stick to your new routine? What is your motivation?

Staying motivated is a challenge, so I set a number of small, fun SMART goals that I was determined to achieve. For example, when work sponsored a team to run the Indianapolis Mini Marathon, I decided to run the 5K race. Our NIFS fitness center staff provided a training program to follow. I finished in the top 10% of my age group. I have signed up for five more races, with the next goal being to win my age group.

[Related Content: Why You Might Be Wrong About Outsourcing Fitness Center Management]

How has the fitness center provided a supportive environment for you to work on your health?

There are a number of benefits of having the fitness center onsite. First, it is convenient. Employees can go before work, at lunchtime, or after work; that flexibility is a huge help. I also like the personal attention that is available to help build a structured exercise program that will achieve specific goals. In our corporate fitness center there's a huge variety of activities available, especially the group fitness classes. You can try something new each week.

I really enjoy the supportive atmosphere of the coaches and my coworkers in the center. They make exercise fun. I also feel that we're lucky to have the center as one of our corporate health benefits. The fact that our leadership supports the existence of the center signals that employee health and fitness is important to our organization.

What would you tell your coworkers who still haven't tapped into the benefits of the corporate fitness center?

I spent a long time feeling like I was too tired to put exercise into my schedule. I also told myself that I just did not have the time. But, now that I am exercising regularly and feeling better, I have more energy. I also am more agile and can do things around the house that I have not been able to do in years. It’s funny that one of my excuses in the past for not exercising was thinking I did not have the time or was too busy. Now that I am exercising and have more energy, I get things done faster. So by exercising, I have more time.

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To read other NIFS "members speak" stories, click here. If your'e looking for a corporate fitness vendor to start improving your employees lives, click here to find out how we support our clients across the US.