The “NASM-CPT Podcast” spans the globe as Rick Richey made the 9,500-mile trek from New York City to Singapore for this very special road show.
In this episode, Rick deep dives into key points of discussion from the FIT Summit where he is serving as a panelist. He details fitness changes he sees in the coming decade, specifically the environment, the task, and the individual.
He’ll also discuss the trendy rise of boutique gyms, the evolution of different future business practices, and several other fitness news and notes from around the world.
Rick Richey is a NASM-CPT, CES, PES, and Master Trainer.
Transcript
Rick Richey 01:09
Hey, y'all, welcome to the NASM CPT podcast, my name is Rick Ricci. And today, it might seem a little different, the sound might be a little different, because I'm not at my home doing my setup with my microphone and my lights. I am actually at a conference in Singapore. I am so excited to be here.
And I'm going to be going through a few topics today about what I've been invited to Singapore to talk about. But before I do that, for those of you listening, you just kind of follow along. But for those that watch on the NASM Facebook page or YouTube, I am going to just give you a view from out side my window. So I am staying at the Fairmont Hotel in Singapore.
And that, right there's the Marina Bay Sands. So it looks at these three buildings with a giant boat across the top of it think in the scene from Crazy Rich Asians. And there's the giant Ferris wheel looking through the arena with a retractable roof in the background there. The Bay, the ocean, Singapore is a small island country, it's about 30 miles long and 30 by 20 miles, it is a beautiful place to be I'm staying at the Fairmont. And right across from it is an incredibly old colonial hotel called the Raffles Hotel, which is another beautiful place here in Singapore.
So thank you to NASM and to the Fit summit for having me for bringing me here and for providing me the opportunity to speak.
So for a lot less money, you get a lot less information, but a highlight of what I'm going to be talking about today. And I think it's interesting, because what we have done here, why are we here? Why? Why do we do anything that we do as fitness professionals, and I gotta be honest, I think that we are here to solve problems, problems for ourselves. And certainly, as fitness professionals, we're here to solve problems and to obtain outcomes for others.
So we're looking at this particular conference, some of the things that have come up that I want to share with you, not necessarily what I'm speaking on. But what I've listened to the first two days, it's the third day of the conference, and I'll be speaking on two topics. So here's some of the things that have come up one, the first one I think, is probably the most interesting and it we're looking at what is the future of fitness?
So what does 2032 look like? I mean, let's let's outshoot 10 years from now, because it's easier to say, well, three years and five years, but 10 years, legitimately long time to think where are we going to go and also legitimately a short amount of time, that if you don't put the steps in place to identify what your outcomes going to be, then 2032 is gonna sneak up on you.
So I can tell you that a lot is going to be changing. And the some other things too, is that a lot isn't like picking things up and putting them back down will look very similar. Now how you do it and the machines and the tools maybe what you do it with might be a little different, but the human body isn't going to change. The human movement patterns are not going to change how the body moves when men come up with new exercise to implement, but the movements not going to change. So it's like what surrounds or as we talk about when we identify movement parameters or movement parameters are, are limited or constrained by our environment, and that's what fitness is looking to do.
They're saying, Well, what is the environment at which in which we move? What are the tasks in which we are trying to accomplish, but the individual organism, us, we're not really going to change. So those are the three things that we look at, when it comes to movement is the environment, the task and the individual. So what task and one environment will change. I think the other thing that's come up a lot, and it's called the fitness and wellness Summit. And so one of the things that keeps being brought up is the inclusion of wellness in fitness. And so that's, that's starting to expand greatly, and they talk about the states are doing a really good job of bringing in wellness and we're gonna see a worldwide shift in what's going on by adding wellness into it.
And I want to shout out NASM, who have done a great job by seeing this coming and implementing the wellness coaching course. So excellent job to NASM on that and we will see a big shift towards that not just in the States but internationally as this is a topic that's come up at this world conference here in Singapore.
The rise of boutique fitness is also there and how they've disrupted and changed fitness So shout out to boutique fitness and I will say my gyms, our boutique gyms, the recover that we had the brick and mortar recovery facility, that's boutique but we're also talking about cycling studios and rowing studios and the personal training gyms and, and the rise of those things, these boutique fitness so you don't have necessarily where everybody was going to was a centralized a large gym that had multiple offerings, and that's still there, and it's still great.
And I This isn't my soothsaying, my Harbinger moment where we're going to see big shifts in the pendulum. I think, I think people are going to do boutique fitness for a while. And then people are going to look back and be like, Man, that gym over there allows me to do any and everything that I want in one place, and that will be appealing.
So you'll have people going back and forth people leaving to do each and then certainly is to do one or the other. And then certainly people with enough money are going to say, well, not only am I going to be at this large gym that has multiple offerings, but I'm going to do a few classes at the boutiques because I love this instructor.
And I'm also going to have a peloton at home and I will utilize that. But for the rest of us we got to pick and choose you know. So I believe that that's what we're going to see. There's also a lot of talk about business and conference at the conference, then no idea what's going on and never heard so many words like what's going to be changing in franchising, and what does tech look like and the tech conversation of the future of fitness is Ungers, you're gonna be seeing a lot of cool stuff coming out. But I've heard things like mm M and A I'm like MMA I know about but m&a And they're like mergers and acquisitions. I'm like, oh, yeah, I knew what that was.
I didn't know. suppliers, distributors, sub distributors, providers, regulators, regulations, international regulations, so we can put content together but it has to fall within regulations have multiple international regulations. It's it's a lot. It's a lot of stuff out there that I don't know, y'all. It's just I, it's so foreign to me. And it has been such a very cool learning experience for me to be here.
But I want to speak just briefly about what I'm going to be speaking about today. There are two different topics that have arisen that they wanted me just to provide some insights to now I'm not getting up and speaking, I'm actually on panels. So when they were like, We want you to come out and be on a panel. And I thought, That's crazy. That's a long trip to be putting me up for me to spend an hour with four other people talking. And they were like, alright, we'll put you in a second panel. And I was like, Oh, well, that's worth it. So
Rick Richey 09:12
let's do it. So the first topic, and I'm gonna read this directly, is connecting with underserved populations and demographics, how can we build new services and businesses to meet their needs? Now, I know immediately we look at underserved populations and we might be thinking about there might be things like race that come up, right underserved populations, like financially and fitness deserts we don't hear the food deserts.
What about fitness deserts, the outlet and outcomes for people to have any type of structure thing, but but I don't feel like that. That was my that's not my place. That's not where I feel strongly, not strongly about but it's I'm not the guy to be giving the insights on that. So I wanted to talk about something else that, that I feel like I made good strides when I was managing and hiring people is the those that are obese and overweight. And you tell me that, that they're not an underserved population and fitness because I go to the gym.
And when I go there, I look at the gym, guess who is either generally a lot more fit people than fat. And why is that? Because the fit people go there, because they're already fit. And they like working out. It's part of their lives. And then overweight and obese people go there. And they don't feel comfortable. Because they feel like maybe this is not the right place for them.
That they're going to be looked at and judged and whether or not that's true. And I will say in many cases, yes, it is. But many cases it may and it may not be, but it's how you feel. And those feelings are going to put up the barriers that disallow people. And here's the problem, fitness industry is not doing a good job at being inviting. They're not doing a good job at being welcoming to people that actually do want to come in and they would like to start fitness and they would like to lose weight. And they are overweight or obese and we don't do a good job being inviting.
I don't see a lot of commercials with those faces and those bodies being presented. I don't see that. And so what I've done in the past, I was very fortunate. I came across a friend of mine from college when I was in New York City. And I was in route to go to the Hilton Hotel.
There was a fitness conference at the time. It's called ECA, and I was going there. And she was I saw her on the street. I didn't even know she lived in New York, she was an opera singer. And she looked the stereotypical part of obese girl. And I saw her and I screamed, and she screamed, we ran, we hugged each other. And I was like, What are you doing here? And she goes, I'm just coming from a fitness conference.
Now I as a fitness professional, look at her, and I go, what? And she goes, You wouldn't think this fat girl would be at the fitness conference. But I've been teaching exercise classes. And I immediately was in love with her again, I said, Please tell me who comes to your classes? And she said, Well, at first there were a lot of skinny via girls that would come to the class and then snicker and laugh and say no, and I don't think it was the class for me. And this girl is such a trip that she wins them over with her personality and her ability to move.
Then she said as time went on, bigger and bigger girls started showing up to take her class because they felt like they were welcome there. Like they were invited there. There was somebody there. No, you only think about this, when you hear this phrase representation matters. And that's true. It does matter. It does matter. It makes a big difference. I remember I had a guy at the gym. I didn't hire him. But he was hired right before I came in.
And they were really concerned as to whether or not they're going to hire this guy because he was, oh, he trained more sessions than anybody in the entire gym. Because the old people that showed up to the gym were like, I bet that old man knows what I go through. I bet that old knows how these bones and joints feel. Not the 22 year old power lifter, who is trying to get me to lift heavy things, maybe this older guy I can really connect to because representation matters.
And so those are the topics I'm going to be discussing today. And why is the fitness industry taking out such a huge population and not marketing to and not making comfortable and not inviting people
Rick Richey 14:15
that maybe need us most the overweight and obese and the elderly who may be working through many different pathologies and contraindications and what are some of the ways that we can be providers for them. So that's Topic number ONE. Topic number two, I'll be speaking about rebuilding rescaling and re energizing industry talent pools equipping industry professionals for long term career success. Let's be honest, there's not many people who are long term in the fitness industry.
There's not many people that are long term in the fitness industry. I think the attrition rate is Though the trician, the rate at which personal trainers fall off and are no longer personal trainers is somewhere between six months and a year, where we see the vast majority of people have attrition taking place. People don't stick around. But now it's post COVID.
I say post COVID shoes. I wish that were true. But let's go with that for now. But after the big shutdown, the big lockdown what we're looking at right now, how can we refill that industry pools? And one of the questions are we need to we need to get more people? Or do we need to keep the people we have? And I was like, how is that an either or? We need more people. We need more personal trainers, we need more fitness professionals.
And then we need to keep the ones that we have that how do we keep the ones that we have. And and I think when I was studying in school, one of the things we talked about is andragogy. And that says adult learners and why they learn. And I think this list is good for learners. But and it's good for students. But it's also good for trainers that want to learn or trainers that want to progress. It's good for management that wants to manage it's good for clients that want to train. And Malcolm Knowles, who came up with this topic of andragogy versus pedagogy, which may be teaching youth and andragogy teaching and working with adults.
There's six assumptions that he came up with. And the first one is that adults need to know why they need to learn something. So my clients need to know why they want to do an exercise why I'm going to go to personal training. Well, me as a personal trainer, I need to know why you want me to do something management and management, they need to know why you want them to manage in a certain way corporate.
And what doesn't fly for adults is because I told you to that's an apt first of all, that doesn't fly for children, but we get away with it. It is very difficult for an adult to hear those words and say that's just what corporate ones. And we don't understand why it is very difficult for us to get behind something. Adults need to build this number two for Malcolm Knowles assumptions for the adult learner, they need to build on their own experience.
No adult person comes to the gym to the learning environment. As a fitness trainer comes in to be a personal trainer, and the interview process as a blank canvas. And nobody does that. Everybody has a story. Everybody has past experiences. Everybody who comes in has a different perspective because the life that they have lived. And then they can provide a unique perspective to clients because of who they are, and their background and their story and the way that they see and perceive things and the way that they implement things. Number three adults need to feel responsible for their learning and need to feel responsible.
We are self directed and self direction doesn't mean that we find all the answers self direction could be I find the mentor that I need to work with that self direction. And then I allow myself to work with somebody, and they tell me something and I'm an adult and I could say no or they can tell me something and as self direction. I go out on my own and they practice and rehearse those things. Number four adults are ready to learn if training solves an immediate problem. Why do people come to personal trainers? They want to solve a problem.
Rick Richey 18:54
What Why would a personal trainer do something at the gym? Well, well, first of all, why would I train people, because I want to solve a problem. I want to solve my financial problems, I need a job. I want to solve your problems because you're my client and your problems are my problems.
So I need to find out a way to help solve your problems. So I'm trying to solve several problems here. One, I'm trying to learn what I need to do in order to help my clients solve their problems. And then I need to solve my own problems. I need to pay my bills, I need to be able to go out I need to be able to live life. And I need to have the means in which to do that.
And are we in the fitness industry providing a good means for somebody to solve those problems. Number five adults what their training to be problem focus number six, which we kind of addressed already, that we're trying to solve an immediate problem but problems in general so problem focused, and then number six that we want to learn. adults learn best when motivation comes intrinsically So there are always going to be compulsory things that you have to do when you work at a company.
Meaning you have to do it, you have to do this, you have to do that. But where does? Where does it come in where as a management, gym management, corporate boutique fitness ownership? Where does it come in where I find not just the things that I want you to do, but I find the things that you want from yourself and help support you in that process, when it comes to fitness, or maybe a lot of things that in the grand scheme of things like, oh, I want to do this, and you're like, well, that doesn't really vibe with who we are.
Or maybe it doesn't vibe with our mission or vision or our values, and then that that's where you're just going to have to move on. But if if our mission or vision or values align, and I have somebody that is interested in something that we are not necessarily providing or the way that we're providing, and I can help motivate you towards that not steer you away from that, because it's not our thing. I can keep you longer, because I'm providing something intrinsically that you already want. And then we look at wonderful things like self determination theory, by DC and Ryan.
And it's a it's one of the most researched theories of motivation, autonomy, competency, and relatedness. And trainers like to have that autonomy. But it's a weird, it's a weird balance between autonomy and relatedness. competency. I think that that people are motivated by wanting to be good at what they do. And yes, some people want to do the bare minimum, right, get your certification, you don't have to progress.
You don't have to advance and sometimes didn't even check if you maintain your certification. And some trainers are happy with that. I don't understand that. Because I want to be good at what I do. I want to get better at what I do. So I don't understand the bare minimum, I'm I'm motivated by being competent. And so if I want to be competent at something, or as Dan Pink, so other researchers that are out there, they've all kind of taken Ryan and DCS self determination theory and put their own twist on it. So autonomy, competence, and relatedness. And Dan paint has autonomy, mastery and purpose was your purpose. Right? Like, What's your why?
And I think that's a really fair when Simon Sinek What's your why? Start with Why. And Simon Sinek pulling information from Ryan and DC as well, the researchers for self determination theory. But can I create a community in the gym environment and also create autonomy in the gym environment? And then can that move us towards greater competencies? And all of those things provide motivations.
And we're talking about that for fitness professionals. Same thing, when it comes to our clients, how do we keep them motivated? autonomy. We give them autonomy, which is I can't necessarily dictate all the time, everything because sometimes they just don't want to do that stuff seems like what do you want to do? You'd write your own program today, what would you write? What would you do?
Give them a little bit of autonomy? And then certainly they have the autonomy out on their own to do things. Are they doing the things you want them to do? I don't know. I don't know. But if they're working towards their competency, or their mastery, and yeah, because it's meaningful to them. And then the relatedness because they relate to you. They relate to you fitness professional.
Rick Richey 23:54
We need to keep relating with our clients. We need to we talk about fitness teams. And sometimes I remember in the past, I've been so detached from some teams where I'm like, we're a team, we work at the same place, I train my clients, they train their clients. And then we'd be forced to go into meetings, and I worked, you know, all of this stuff.
Like I felt like there's a lack of autonomy and there was always these mandates and compulsory things. And I worked at some gyms and all I wanted to do was hang out with the trainers there. We wanted to work out together. We wanted to go out together. We wanted to be we were we were a team. We're on the same team. And my gosh, we wanted to get better together.
We wanted mastery, competency, group growth. What are we doing to create that? I mean, everything else we look at where what's the evidence base? Wow, this is incredible. This self determination theory, evidence based Malcolm Knowles theoretical concepts for adult education which can also be made applicable Well, to fitness to us as trainers to us trainers with our clients on how to best relate with them. Let's stop and be talking about today.
And my goal today with business owners, for large corporations all over the world. My goal today is have the same conversation and just spark a bit of interest and a bit of understanding as to what it is that we know that we can do to make things a little bit better for our industry. Alright, I hope this was helpful for you as well. So thank you so much for listening, like, subscribe, share with other fit folk, and leave comments you get an opportunity to do that. It's always greatly appreciated. I want to say thank you to everyone that's listening. Keep inspiring people to fitness. Thanks so much. I'm Rick Richey.
