Solid Body Fitness Opens New Facility in Boston
I had the privilege of attending Jason Zagami and Daniella Bitto’s grand opening of their newest operation in Boston…Solid Body Fitness in Hyde Park, Boston. The event was a great success and it was a fun filled day where members, friends, and family came down to try out some the routines and techniques that have made Jason and Daniella so successful, not to mention meet a local radio celebrity. What really stands out with these guys is that they get it. They understand the power of community building around leading a healthy lifestyle. In this day and age, there is no shortage of facilities and trainers who are obviously just interested in taking your money regardless of the results you attain, but when you come down to Solid Body it’s a obvious that they have built a community that fosters positive reinforcement, communal fitness, but with a personalized regimen that will take you as far as you want to go. I spoke to a number of Jason’s clients and they told me stories of early morning phone calls because of missed sessions. Excuses didn’t cut it. If you work with Jason, you were signing up for results. I think as a testament to this novel approach, people made it a family day to come down on a weekend to promote and celebrate this new opening.
2,500 square foot facility
The Facility
The facility is 2,500 square feet and provides the standard health club amenities of cardio machines and free weights. But very quickly you’ll note the strip of astro turf, kettle bells, climbing ropes, rings, punching bags, weighted bars, and various other tools of fitness. The layout is unique in the sense that everyone can see everyone at all times and it allows for boot camps, interval/circuit training, as well as a traditional gym.
The Approach
In addition to the community based motivation that sets Solid Body apart, the owners take it upon themselves to keep the workouts constantly changing and fresh. If you go to their site, you’ll see weekly exercises posted as well as you’ll note that the routines entail full body workouts with a mix of cardio and strength training. During the workshop, trainers were demonstrating proper technique on various exercises. No doubt that “plyometric” type exercises are very popular today. Now the nature of these types of exercises require a base level of fitness to do the motions and not all exercises are created equal nor for the novice. In the workshops, I was impressed with the delivery and choice of exercises used with those not used to this form of fitness. People got a chance to see how simple it was to get a great workout and do it in a safe and fun fashion. Just in case you were curious, here’s an excerpt from wikipedia on what plyometrics means:
Plyometrics is a type of exercise training designed to produce fast, powerful movements, and improve the functions of the nervous system, generally for the purpose of improving performance in sports. Plyometric movements, in which a muscle is loaded and then contracted in rapid sequence, use the strength, elasticity and innervation of muscle and surrounding tissues to jump higher, run faster, throw farther, or hit harder, depending on the desired training goal. Plyometrics is used to increase the speed or force of muscular contractions, often with the goal of increasing the height of a jump.
see full wiki on Plyometrics
One of my favorite features of Solid Body was the “Cool Table”. A little friendly competition goes a long way in motivating you to push yourself. It’s not much different than getting a star for good behavior in grade school and getting it
Solid Body rewards hard work by letting you sit at the cool table
posted up on the wall of good behavior with your name on it. Instead, you get your name and picture posted for achieving the “fastest mile” or “most reps” or putting up the “most weight”. If you can’t find anyone to give you competition in your athletic feat of choice, then try and beat yourself. All kidding aside, you can see that the emphasis is on measurable gains and constant improvement.
Connect with Solid Body
Definitely check these guys out and make sure to reach out to them. At a minimum connect to Solid Body via Facebook as they are always posting and sharing good content.
or just shoot Jason an email:
Jason@SolidBodyFit.com
Some more pictures from the day:
Simple but effective exercises
Jason with Billy Costa from Kiss 108
Fitness and fun for everyone
Set of these can go a long way
Ready to workout?
My First Yoga Experience
After years of perching on my personal wish list of cool things to try out – I finally was fortunate enough to try yoga this weekend. The experience prompted me to do a little research into the history of this fairly recent national fitness phenomenon.
Yoga (Sanskrit, Pāli: योग yóga) refers to traditional physical and mental disciplines originating in India.[1] The word is associated with meditative practices in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.[2][3][4] In Hinduism, it also refers to one of the six orthodox (āstika) schools of Hindu philosophy, and to the goal toward which that school directs its practices.[5][6] In Jainism it refers to the sum total of all activities—mental, verbal and physical.
Major branches of yoga in Hindu philosophy include Raja Yoga, Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, and Hatha Yoga.[7][8][9] Raja Yoga, compiled in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, and known simply as yoga in the context of Hindu philosophy, is part of the Samkhya tradition.[10] Many other Hindu texts discuss aspects of yoga, including Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, the Shiva Samhita and variousTantras.
The Sanskrit word yoga has many meanings,[11] and is derived from the Sanskrit root yuj, meaning “to control”, “to yoke” or “to unite”.[12] Translations include “joining”, “uniting”, “union”, “conjunction”, and “means”.[13][14][15] Outside India, the term yoga is typically associated with Hatha Yoga and its asanas (postures) or as a form of exercise. Someone who practices yoga or follows the yoga philosophy is called aYogi.[16]
(source Wikipedia)
My instructor was Sammi Nguyen from Stop Drop and Yoga in Boston, MA. The name of the class was power yoga and there is no sarcasm when I say there was a heavy emphasis on the power part. The class spanned about 90 minutes and under the guidance of Sammi maintained an extremely well choreographed structure with a warm up period, build up of difficulty, peak, and a denouement that culminated into the venerated ohm.
As a first timer, I found the class incredibly challenging. I’m a generally fit guy who’s workout regimen typically entails a weekly ritual of 2-3 runs and intermittent sessions with free weights. What I found with this yoga class is that it challenged me in ways I hadn’t seen in years.
First and foremost, the poses challenge your sense of balance. So many of the moves narrowed your center of gravity to the point where you had to exert extreme concentration to stay abreast. Simply put, the reason why these tests of balance are a great fitness challenge is that they require a heightened interplay of the muscles across your body. Case in point, when we were doing the reverse warrior pose, I felt it in my lower leg muscles even down to my toes. And I mean, I really felt it. As a runner with chronic shin splints, this seemingly awkward pose is a great way to help develop the strength you need around your shin and calves to help address this runner’s blight. I’m a big proponent of heavy lifting exercises to jump start metabolism, to build strength and skeletal alignment. But I do believe that the balancing challenge yoga presents is the perfect companion to really get those secondary muscles that are really tasked with keeping your joints limber and aligned.
Second thing I noticed was almost all of my previous sports injuries from the wrestling, martial arts, and rugby – decided to rear their ugly heads during the class. I have this one knee that loves to talk back to me especially on cold damp nights. I can tell you exactly when and how I injured myself but in my normal day activities I for the most part have been able to compensate to continue in my weekly workout routine. What’s interesting is that when we tried to do some of the more challenging poses, I hit my limitations in perfect tandem with my wicked sports past. My instructor was great at keeping a tab on this (talk about multi-tasking) and made suggestions during the class to help me accommodate a little extra rigidity from some old scar tissue. But I can definitely see why so many people profess the healing aspect of yoga. The stretching (make sure you are warm!) and slow motion really increases blood flow and draws circulation to those areas most in need, much more so than my normal workout would.
The power aspect of this class came from the heavy reliance on iso-kinetic excercise. I’m not a feather weight and many of the poses entailed hold positions that really focused on core development and shoulder strength. I was drenched in sweat and it wasn’t because of the class heat. I was truly working out. When I typed in how long I did the yoga in the Quick Entry tool on fivi.com, it is estimated that I burned almost 500 calories.
All in all, I have no doubt that I will be incorporating yoga as part of my normal physical and mental maintenance routine. I am especially thankful to Sammi for introducing me to this wonderful experience and would encourage anyone to try yoga from the most stalwart gym dungeon rat to the forever couch potato. I have years of improvement ahead of me to really get the benefits yoga can offer, but in just one class I can say I was able to see it’s worth.
FiVi.com launches first release of its next gen online fitness platform
Social networking meets online fitness: FiVi.com allows runners and cyclists to map out routes using Google Maps, save them to their profile, log times, find running partners, exchange routes, log any workout indoors, all online.
Leveraging advances in web 2.0 technologies, FiVi.com has launched its first beta site targeting the web savvy active individual. FiVi.com uses the mapping technology of Google Maps to allow users to plot out routes they would like to save to their profile. As users map out their routes, they can see what routes other members have plotted out in the area. Each member will have their own profile where they can post their routes, blog about their progress, and allow visitors to download their routes or suggest new routes.
FiVi.com Founder, Nabil Aidoud likes to use the phrase “Active Networking” for the phenomenon where people want to share their active lifestyles with other like minded individuals. According to Nabil, “people have always sought to seek the collective expertise of the community, what’s really exciting is that with today’s web based social networking explosion – fitness and active living is an area that stands to reap a lot of benefit…as more people start tracking what they do collectively we can start seeing what works”. The site boasts such features as FiVi Updates where members can see a summary of all the logs people in their network have entered and make comments about them. FiVi.com has an aggressive launch schedule for this summer and fall and will be adding many more features to this platform including but not limited to video based wizards, customized personal workout calendars, and tools to collaborate with wellness professionals.
FiVi.com is owned and operated by FitVirtual LLC, a personal wellness development consultancy founded in 2008 and based out of Boston Ma. FiVi.com has numerous tools and articles for the fitness minded individual.
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For more information about FiVi.com, please visit our site or contact us at press@fivi.com.
Adidas Launches MiCoach
In line with their miadidas brand, Adidas has launched a great new device called miCoach. It’s a clear competitor to the Nike Plus+ offering. It is a web based service that offers downloadable workout programs that will talk you through your workouts. It is designed to work with a Samsung phone that will pair with a stride meter as well as a heart monitor.
In general, I’m incredibly excited about this new space. I think fitness related technology solutions are about to explode in the consumer market. We want it, and we expect it. What I like about this miCoach is that it is user customizable, that means you pick from a selection of options. It also partners with real professionals who know about training. That insta-credibility is so important in the fitness apparel world. What I don’t like is the fact that seemingly you are dependent on using this Samsung phone. I tried to find out where I could get the phone if I was so inclined to buy this product and no where on the site was it evident. It will be a hard sell to pry the iPhone from pretty much anyone who lives in a major urban environment. The layout and the usability seems top notch and satiates our need for data. But the next challenge comes with the question of what do you do with this data once you amass.
I believe that data and analytics is good and very pertinent for people who want to either achieve an athletic goal or just be healthier. But it has to be actuated by feedback. That feedback can either come in the form of automated technology (e.g. wizards) or from real professionals. As humans we need that feedback. I expect that solution to come very very soon. I love this stuff.
Why Logging Workouts and Exercises Works
Whether you are a competitive athlete or someone just trying to get into a more healthy lifestyle, logging your activities and workouts is a good habit if it’s done in a reasonable fashion with an appropriate goal in mind. There are many challenges with just getting active or getting enough workouts in and adding one more step seems counter intuitive but you’d be surprised how one can seem to increase the chances of success with the other.
Online tools have come a long way
Goal Setting
First and foremost, logging your workouts helps with goal setting. When you go through the motion of actually logging and writing down what you did, that extra step makes you think about what you are doing and it forces you to organize what you did into manageable chunks of “activities”. Productivity gurus usually will profess something along the lines of write it down don’t keep it all in your head, get organized, and set reasonable goals that are tangible. When it comes to life, many of us can be overwhelmed and we don’t know where to start. Being healthy or fit is no different. Whether your goal is to look better, feel better, run that 5K, get the title, whatever – knowing where to start can sometimes be very elusive. But the simple act of jotting things down forces you to think about things and organize them in a logical fashion. Even if you don’t have a specific goal in mind yet, this will help you determine what goals are really important for you. The more likely situation is that you may have a goal that is too lofty or unrealistic initially but if you do an effective job of logging your activities, you’ll invariably start setting intermediate goals which will give you that motivation and sense of accomplishment to continue and eventually reach the final goal. You may not be able to run that marathon yet, but if you start by setting smaller distances and see that over time you reach those intermediate distances and not only that – you start improving your pace, well then you are well on your way to Heartbreak Hill.
Something to Compare Against
If your head is anything like mine, it’s probably chock full of a 100’s of thoughts, to do’s, worries, and countless other things. If you do any kind of activity or training, you’ll never keep all the numbers and variables in your head. In line with setting goals, it’s nice to be able to compare what you are doing or achieving to a minimum past performance. But why stop there? With advances in web technology, you can now start to compare yourself against a broader audience. Whether it’s your friends, a local running club, or an anonymous body of participants…you can now see how you stack up against them. So what? Well if you are a competitive athlete, it provides that motivation as well as helps you tailor your workout strategy to move up to the next echelon of athletic prowess. It can also tell you if you are on a trajectory for injury too. You can also over do it and put yourself out of commission. If you are someone who is new to being active and healthy, it serves as a great barometer of how healthy you are and just how much of a priority being active needs to be in your life. Case in point, if you are a 35 year old and you are in the bottom quartile…you may need to re-evaluate how you spend your time or else you risk having some very serious problems later in life. Finally, and this probably will go for the majority of us…being able to compare your performance today to something may just activate that drive and desire to keep working out and usually that’s the most important thing.
Peer Motivation
Still remains the #1 motivator for many of us. You can find it in many ways. Whether it’s working with a wellness professional like a trainer, joining a running club, or simply making a commitment to a group of friends to log x amount of hours a week…all are forms of making us accountable to others and to this day remains one of the most effective training techniques. Your logging activity should reflect that reality. If you are going to employ the peer motivation technique, make sure that your group either does the same or that you have someone looking at what you write. Positive feedback is a great motivator. So is having a professional viewing your progress and making sure that you are not doing anything that can be harmful. In my case, I give rancid negative feedback (better known as talk smack) to my buddies if anyone falls off the wagon for too long. Whatever works for you.
What Makes for Good Logging
Whatever medium you choose for logging your active lifestyle, it needs to be flexible. You should be able to log practically anything and still be able to view everything together with some reasonable amount of analytics. At the end of the day it is about getting some kind of discovery out of that. Here is an example of what I mean:
day 1 – run a pre-planned route outside
day 2 – do circuit training indoors
day 3 – on the road, do calisthenics in hotel room
day 4 – run on a treadmill
day 5 – Crossfit
day 6 – play a sport for 2 hours
day 7 – dance for 2 hours
So, if you keep a pen and paper…you have to write it all down and calculate how many calories you burned for each activity. This is where online tools do make a difference. The trade off is that while most online tools will calculate calories for things they have in their DB, pen paper still gives you the flexibility to log everything that you can possibly do under the sun. Now across all these days here are some of the analytics I would use to see how I’m doing:
1. how many calories did I burn in total
2. how much time did I spent in these 7 days being active (how does that compare to my caloric burn and more importantly how does that compare to how much I ate)
3.whether I run outside or indoors, what is my pace and is there a difference (does it affect my training for a race that’s coming up)
4.how much weight, how many reps, and what is my average rest period
5.how can I tweak my workouts (like the hotel one) so that I get maximal caloric expenditure in the least amount of time when I’m on the road
These are just some ideas, but you get the idea. It forces you to think about what you are doing and invariably you start forming goals and habits that are healthy.
Considerations in Using Caffeine While Exercising
Legend has it that we discovered the wonderful affects of Caffeine from our furry friends. Supposedly Ethiopian herders noticed that their livestock became “excitable” and very lively after eating of a few of these beans. When the herders tried eating the beans themselves, they felt more alert. The rest is all history. It was later introduced to Arabia and hit the European markets around the 16th Century. Since then, we have come to love and hate the venerable cup of coffee. Though caffeine comes in many forms (soda, nuts, chocolate, teas, and so much more)…the piping hot cup of java seems to be our most common form of intake.
The amount of scientific scrutiny, the little coffee bean has undergone is on the range of 19,000 – 21,000 different studies. Most FDA approved over the counter or prescription drugs we consume can’t boast even coming close. That being said, there is a fair body of knowledge on the effects of caffeine and yet it’s still pretty much debated. Recently, there has been some interesting findings on the substance and exercising/athletic competition.
The Original Energy Drink
How it Works
In simple terms, what caffeine does is it competes with another substance that is naturally made in our bodies. That substance is called “adenosine”. Adenosine is used by our bodies to help regulate sleep and when caffeine binds to the neurons instead, it basically makes our neurons fire more frequently. The pituitary gland picks this up and the chain reaction starts to kick in throughout the body:
- blood vessels constrict (increases blood pressure and flow)
- heart beats faster
- airways open (this is why caffeine is in asthma medicine)
- liver will start releasing more sugar into the blood stream
Essentially, you are engaging your “fight or flight” response in the body. So if you are a competitive athlete, you can imagine that this may give you an advantage and hence this is why the Olympic governing body does test for certain levels of caffeine in the olympians. But recent studies have also gleaned some interesting new findings related to caffeine and muscle exertion.
Caffeine While Exercising or Competing
In the article, “Caffeine Reduces Pain During Exercise“, University of Illinois kinesiology and community health professor Robert Motl did some interesting research on the perception of pain during exercise and the influence caffeine had on athletes. A former competitive cyclist, Professor Motl knows about the psychological impact of pain and discomfort on a training program. In summary, his study was done with college age athletes who were given caffeine in the form of a pill prior to intensive aerobic activity. The group was divided up into low consumers of caffeine and high consumers of caffeine. What he wanted to find out was whether or not, a person tolerance for caffeine (as some of us seem to have high ones) impacts the perception of pain. Test subjects were tasked high intensity aerobic workouts and oxygen consumption and leg muscle discomfort taken at various intervals. Regardless of whether the subject was a habitual coffee drinker or a low consumer of caffeine, their perception of pain and muscular performance about the same. According to Motl, “We’ve shown that caffeine reduces pain reliably, consistently during cycling, across different intensities, across different people, different characteristics. But does that reduction in pain translate into an improvement in sport performance?”
Caffeine After Working Out
In another study, see article (Caffeine Cuts Post- Workout Pain by Nearly50 Percent) a team of University of Georgia researchers finds that moderate doses of caffeine, roughly equivalent to two cups of coffee, cut post-workout muscle pain by up to 48 percent in a small sample of volunteers. Their findings seemed to suggest that it was even more effective than even taking pain medication.
Key is Moderation and a Little Pain is Good
I am an avid coffee drinker and have been using a little cup of joe to get my workouts started for years. I can attest to the impact of pain relief from coffee. My personal nemesis is shin splints which I get if I have taken a hiatus from consistent running (usually happens during the cold winter months). But remember that all of these studies involve reasonable amounts of coffee on the order of a few cups throughout the day. A Venti will not give you Venti sized benefits before a workout. Also keep in mind that coffee is a diuretic which can cause dehydration and fatigue. Please also be very careful about the real dangers of over-hydration (especially runners). I like a little pain because it keeps me honest and signals to me if I’m doing anything wrong. It’s how your body tells you things can be improved. Also don’t drink so much coffee you start to experience anxiety during workouts. Intense exercise creates its own high from adrenaline (see Trying Out Runner’s High), the amount you drink should be just to get you past that warm up phase. You should feel full of energy when working out but relaxed. I am encouraged by these recent studies but I would argue that weekend warriors still heed their body’s signals. Test subjects in these experiments are often already in good shape or competitive athletes. I would not recommend throwing back a latte and trying for a marathon if you have been couch potatoe for 10 years. In that case, it won’t be the coffee that kills you – it may be the couch.
Keep a Journal like Fit Blogs on FiVi.com
Use coffee to give you that little boost and make sure to log or keep a journal of what works best for you. I always suggest to people who use our site to use the Fit Blog section of their profiles not simply as a place to write random thoughts but also as a way to keep an online journal that can be shared with friends. Note down the various variables as you try a new routine. In the spirit of this article, enter how much coffee you drank and how much time passed before your workout. I would also note pain during and post workout. Try alternating between Tea and Coffee. Eventually, you will discover the right mix for you. If you have a coach or personal trainer, you can share your Fit Blog with them and they can make suggestions or enter comments directly on your entries. Be creative and find what the right combination is for you.
Here are some other blog posts on the topic:
http://absandflabs.com/2009/05/28/effects-of-caffeine-on-the-body/
http://benkazie.wordpress.com/2009/06/20/coffee-not-quite-a-health-food-but-better-than-you-think/
http://thedailyhabit.wordpress.com/2008/11/10/what-about-caffeine-after-exercise/
Dance Your Ass Off Raises Awareness on the Health Benefits of Dancing
First there was Dancing wth the Stars but what the producers finally figured out was that what people really wanted to see were people who had to lose weight do it with flash and on the dance floor. So what happens when Dancing with the Stars meets The Biggest Loser? You get Dance Your Ass Off! The new show airs on tonight on ABC and I wish it good luck. I hope it does well and becomes America’s new past time. No matter what, the show will hopefully bring attention to the fact that dancing no matter how bad or good you are….is actually a great workout! Recent dance fitness trends are all the rage and they are very effective. You get a cardio workout as well a phenomenal lower body strenghthening workout. Do Salsa for an hour and see how your legs fee. If you want to have fun, try the Quick Entry tool (click to see a demo of it) on www.fivi.com. You don’t have to register, it’s right on the homepage.
Open it up and select Dance from the Activity Type drop down and see how many calories the different types of dancing can burn. Then get out there and dance!
Related posts on the blogosphere:
http://dancemanila.com/2009/06/16/pole-dancing-fun-or-fitness/
http://greatsoulwellness.wordpress.com/2009/04/29/belly-dancing-for-fitness/
http://curekit.wordpress.com/2009/06/25/health-general-health-benefits-of-pole-dancing/
http://thenevman.wordpress.com/2009/06/29/the-top-6-exercise-excuses-and-how-to-beat-them/
http://trensnews.wordpress.com/2009/06/30/rapid-weight-loss-techniques/
Video Demo of Logging a Workout via Quick Entry Tool
FiVi.com launches new Quick Entry Logging Tool for Tracking Workouts and Activities
FiVi.com just launched the latest logging application in its line of tools for active people and athletes who want to track their active lifestyle. The Quick Entry tool is a welcome compliment to the existing FiVi Maps application (see How Create a FiVi Route and Logging an Activity on FiVi Maps) by allowing people to track their involvement in the widest range of activities. The tool is free and does not require a profile on FiVi.com to try. It is available on the homepage in the lower left hand corner, just click on the link “log an activity” under FiVi Quick Log Tool. Types of activities available include but are not limited to:
- Conditioning
- Yoga
- Calesthenics
- Cardio Machines (e.g. treadmills)
- Weight / Resistance Training
- Various Classes (e.g. bootcamps)
- Dancing
- Various Sports
- Hiking
- Water Activities
- Walking
(see a Quick Visual Guide on Using Quick Entry)
The Quick Entry tool has built in logic to determine the right input parameters for each logged activity or exercise depending on the activity type. Users can now track their workouts from start to finish in one journal entry online at fivi.com. The Quick Entry tool can track activities that are:
(examples of tracking capabilities)
- soley a function of time (e.g. stretching)
- time and distance (running, cycling, swimming)
- reps and weight (lifting weights or doing pull ups)
select from a growing list of activity types
each type of activity has a suggested set of activities or exercises
The Quick Entry tool even has optional fields like resting period to allow users to keep track of the time interval between sets.
If an exercise is not available in the drop down menu, the user can still log the activity or exercise by just manually typing it in and selecting the most similar exercise from a suggested list. This allows the user to track any time of physical activity and the system will still generate an estimate caloric expenditure.
if an activity or exercise is not available still log it and select the most similar
The versatility of the tool allows people of all levels to begin tracking their workouts for free with real analytics. Some suggested users:
- body builders
- personal trainers trying to calculate optimal workouts for clients
- cross trainers (e.g. CrossFit)
- dance instructors who want to position dance classes for fitness
- yoga instructors
- athletes who want to log interval training
- runners who want to track gym workouts when they cannot workout outside
- coaches
The tool is free and does not require a profile on FiVi.com to try. It is available on the homepage in the lower left hand corner, just click on the link “log an activity” under FiVi Quick Log Tool. Do please keep in mind that this tool is still beta and that we would greatly appreciate feedback and also any bug reports. We will be making a lot of enhancements in the coming months so user input is very important.
Lessons from the MySpace Job Cuts for Health and Fitness Based Social Networks
First there was Friendster, then there was MySpace, and now there is Facebook. Ask most people to name the top most recognizable names in social networking sites and if they were born in the 70’s you’ll probably get all three, born in the 80’s you’ll get the latter two, and if they make over a certain threshold – you’ll get LinkedIn added for good measure. Social networking is here to stay because it’s just so darn effective. At what though – the market is still trying to figure that one out and so that’s why sustainable revenue models are so hard to come by. Just ask MySpace about the recent news that they will laying off a third of their workforce (WSJ: MySpace Slashes Jobs As Growth Slows Down).
Live by the Ad, die by the Ad
Everyone knows that the only way to make money via social networking is through ad sales….only problem is that it’s actually really hard to pull off. New media advertising sales (which is what online ad is considered part of) has seen record year over year growth as a percentage, but as a share of advertising spend is still dwarfed by the more tradiational forms of advertising (TV, outdoor, print, etc). And it’s not a question of just CPM (cost per 1000 impressions in ad speak), I would argue that the experience of an online advertisement on a busy webpage is significantly different than say a commercial on a big screen TV. It begs the question of quantity versus quality of the impression. It is not the intent of this posting to debate the pros and cons of online versus traditional advertising, but the point is being made to say that it is still a relatively nascent field and that it is a lot harder to make money as a social networking site solely on the basis of advertising revenue. I could not move to the next topic however, without giving credit to the real innovators in this space…those players like Facebook and Google that have really pushed the envelope and used technology to give very targeted ads as well as give users such feature rich experiences where the site seems to know your next move before you do. And it works great on me. I’ll be the first to admit that I click on those ads that are placed in my peripheral vision just because I’m doing a search or making a comment on a profile.
There is Social Networking and then there is Social Networking
Social networking is here and it’s only going to get better. It comes in many forms, shapes, sizes (blogs, forums, discussion threads, and of course those juggernauts listed above) and the variants of those who would use the social networking paradigm seem to keep getting more and more creative. But that begs the question of what is the value add in the social networking element on a given site. Very few can pull off the advertising play (and as we’ll get to in a bit, I think it’s even harder for health and fitness sites). The Facebooks, Friendsters, and MySpaces will get it and we’re starting to see the emergence of pay for premium service plays to compliment the advertising play but for the most part there are very few sites that will ever get the numbers these sites garner. Over time, these tier one social networking sites will become like a ecosystems or operating systems where other more specialized services or sites will integrate or plug into these sites, case in point the Facebook applications we get invites to use. But what about the rest of us. Specifically, what about the health and fitness world of sites?
Health and Fitness Folks Listen Up
Just go to Google to and type fitness, run, workout, supplements, sweat, tears…and you will be blown away by the number of sites vying for the attention of eyeballs in the Health and Fitness world. Yes, there are few (very few) heavy weights in this space who have been around for a few years and they are jumping on the social networking bandwagon as well but there are a few aspects of this space that have a big impact on implementing a social networking component to a site in this space.
1. This target audience doesn’t necessarily have all the time in the world to just sit in front of your site consuming your advertisements. Besides the fact that you’ll have a tough time pulling them away from Facebook, most people who take health and fitness seriously – sitting in front of the computer cuts into their workouts and doesn’t burn as many calories.
2. Advertising has a negative impact on credibility. I make a reference in my post “Culling the Fad from Reality in Personal Wellness Statistics” to a government study where the credibility of online health information is negatively correlated with advertising. I’m not saying that you cannot have advertising but you do need to carefully think about your placement and overall audience.
3. People who are into health and fitness are increasingly becoming a very tech saavy bunch. They email, blog, blackberry, iphone, GPS around town, and RF their heart beat onto PCs across the country. If you are a health and fitness professional – you need to keep up with them. Think about how you can use all of these great new mediums to actually add value to your customers. Make it easy for them to get results. Use the formal and informal social networks cropping up everywhere to help your clients get results. What you shouldn’t do is use social networking to spam. Get results for clients and the word of mouth will go a long way.
4. Mobile is important and in line with points 1 and 3 above. It will continue to be more and more germane to consumers in this space…but if you think about it a mobile device is a small screen. There is only so much information you can put on there and that cuts into advertising space.
So in summary, I think social networking is an incredibly powerful tool for the health and fitness world. It can be an invaluable tool in motivating people to achieve their goals and it can provide that peer based credibility that is very hard to build (so if your site has it guard carefully). But the traditional rules of social networking don’t all apply and this space is and will continue to become even more crowded…the best players will use the value of social networks to get results for clients not just get eyeballs for advertisers.
