SNEWS best fitness reads from around the web

What did the SNEWS team read that might be interesting to other fitness industry insiders? Read on to find out!

• These days all our friends are digitally contained by way of Facebook and Twitter — why not stick our personal trainers in cyberspace as well? That’s the idea behind Wello, a new fitness service whereby people can pick a one-on-one workout with a virtual trainer for only $40 an hour. Check out this USA Today story on the service.

• All this talk about how dangerous sitting is for us has us wondering. Not a week goes by that we don’t read some sort of article on the dangers of sitting, and this week was no exception. Check out this Chicago Tribune story about the creative ways people are taking a break during the workday to get in a workout, including going for a walk and doing some interval training on the office stairs. If we’re not at our desk on Monday around noon, you will probably find us running up and down the stairs.

• Flo Rida is the man who brings us crazy workout beats, like “Good Feeling” and “Low,” and now he’s planning on bringing us a crazy workout, period, by releasing a new DVD by the end of the year. Check out this story in the Versed for more information. 

• Thinking about selling your customers those wrist and ankle weights for their daily run, walk or jog? Think again if you want them to avoid pain or injury. This ABC News story said adding the extra weight burns extra calories but could also lead to injuries like shin splints and hip problems.

• As we’re dangerously sitting down, watching the Olympics and swearing off ankle and wrist weights for good, we’re thinking we might want to start this week-long Olympic workout created by the American Council on Exercise and Olympic Gold Medalists. It does require a few fitness accessories you could sell Olympic hopefuls, so check out this Everyday Health article to find out which. 

• Turns out baby boomers and senior citizens aren’t choosing crossword puzzles over exercise, according to this Herald-Journal article. In fact, they’re showing no signs of slowing down, leading to a trend in older adults working out, effectively increasing their quality of life and lifespan. We know a lot of you retailers are doing commercial work, supplying local schools and apartment complexes with their equipment, and after reading this, perhaps it’s time to go after some retirement communities and senior centers. 

• Speaking of older adults exercising, this Charleston Gazette Cindy Says column, exercise should evolve with aging. The article sites a statistic from IHRSA — that older adults make up about 23 percent of all fitness memberships — that made us wonder what portion of your business is from this demographic. Check out this story on what exercises to recommend for your older customers. 

• When we’re allergic to a food, we swap it out with a similar food that tastes nearly as good but doesn’t make us sick. Well, we may not be allergic to some exercise (not actually), we may just simply hate to do it. Good thing Shape Magazine has come to the rescue with this list of exercise swaps for commonly hated exercise we all might have some sort of allergic reaction to. 

• “I don’t have time to exercise,” is the most common excuse for people not getting a move on. Well, turns out that excuse can be squashed by these simple tricks from the Boston Globe: Plan the time, take the time and give the time are the golden rules. Check out the story for more on how to do this, and recommend it to your customers.

• There was a point in time when people thought the world was flat. When scientists and mathematicians said otherwise they were thought to be crazy. So is Craig Stephen Wise the one who’s speculating the fitness world isn’t flat with his new book “Force Mapping” which basically negates everything we know about muscle-building exercise? You decide. Check out this story about the topic.

Have you read anything interesting you’d like to share with us? Maybe we’ll include it next week’s column with a little shout out to you. Send a link to the story with the subject line “SNEWS Reads” to be considered.

–Compiled by Ana Trujillo