Jim Adams - Technology Outpacing Education & The War of The Wearables

Hey everybody, welcome to the Future of Fitness, a top-rated fitness industry podcast for over two years and running. It is 2021, and I am your host, Eric Malzone. I have the absolute pleasure of talking to entrepreneurs, innovators, and cutting-edge technology experts within the fast-paced industries of fitness, wellness, and health sciences. Stop by futurefitness.co to subscribe and learn more. When you do what you love, running, racing, or simply enjoying the great outdoors, you want to do it for life. Insight Tracker can help. Insight Tracker was founded in 2009 by leading scientists in aging, genetics, and biometrics. Using their patented algorithm, Insight Tracker analyzes your body's data to provide you with a clear picture of what's going on inside you while offering highly personalized, science-backed recommendations for positive diet and lifestyle changes. Okay, time for straight talk. It's time that each single one of us takes responsibility for our own health. Personally, given the results of my Insight Tracker DNA and blood test, I now have a clear and simple game plan to lower my cholesterol and stave off my family's genetic history of heart disease. The best part is that the plan doesn't include any kind of pharmaceuticals, just personalized nutrition and natural supplementation. Possibly my favorite feature of Insight Tracker is the inner age score, a singular metric that shows me how my biological age compares to my chronological age. They just gamify longevity. It's crazy cool. For a limited time, you can get 25% off the entire Insight Tracker store. Just go to InsightTracker.com forward slash future. If you're a coach, trainer, registered dietitian, or any other health and wellness practitioner, you can now leverage Insight Tracker services to help your clients perform better than they ever have. And you can offer them discounts while you earn revenue. InsightTracker Pro is your gateway to offering your clients Insight Tracker, a science-backed, ultra-personalized performance platform trusted by elite athletes and top coaches. Just go to insight tracker.com forward slash future to get more information and enjoy deep, deep discounts. That is insight tracker.com forward slash future. This episode of the Future of Fitness is brought to you by our good friends at the Brand X Method. Kids deserve our best. Period. Full stop. Brand X has dedicated themselves to doing what is best for kids for over two decades. Here's the fact: all major pediatric organizations agree that youth strength and conditioning and fitness programs must be specifically designed for children and coached by those specifically educated in working with children. This seems like a no-brainer. Successful programs come from educated coaches who have all the tools to best serve youth. Brand X offers unequaled ongoing support through ever-growing relative content delivered monthly, plus the mountains of information leveraging their 20 plus years of experience. As the developers of the original Kids Functional Fitness Program certification with over 100 state and national record holders and recognize the world's leaders in youth fitness, Brand X not only offers the fully digital, take-it-your-own pace, professional youth coaches certification, but has recently added to their suite of custom education products to best serve educators and parents as well. Because kids deserve our best. So whether you are a gym owner, coach, educator, parent, or simply anyone who cares for the future of our children, Brand X is offering a 20% discount on all digital education products for a limited time. Go visit thebrandxmethod.com forward slash future to get your code today. Again, that is the brandxmethod.com forward slash future and claim your code. Please go check out our wonderful sponsors. And if you get value out of this show, I ask you to do three things. Please go subscribe, give us a favorable rating, and share this episode on social media or wherever you like to go chat with friends. I am your host, Eric Malzone, and once again, welcome to the future of fitness. Boom, we're live. Jim Adams, welcome to the future of fitness.

Thanks, Eric. Thanks for having me on. I know you were a guest on my show not too long ago, and we had a great time chatting, and so I'm looking forward to it.

Yeah, I love having the conversations with other podcasters, especially within the fitness industry, because uh, you know, we we're the ones who get to ask a lot of questions. We get to learn from a lot of different people, and uh maybe not always like the outward expert in a particular area, but we seem to know a little bit about enough to be dangerous. Exactly.

So yeah, we we we know enough to charge for with with uh with no abandoned, yeah.

Exactly. Um so yeah, man, I'm excited. I mean, you've you're uh you've been in the in the industry for a while. You have your own gym. Um, you've been in the trenches as a trainer and coach. You coach other trainers and gym owners as well. Um in the Masters in Fitness Business podcast, of course. People go check it out and subscribe. Um, so you've you've got a pretty firm handle on what's going on. And um, but you know, like the rest of us, we're like, what the hell is going on? Like, what are we doing next? Like, where everyone wants that crystal ball uh moment of like, hey, I know exactly which way to go, everybody follow me. But it's been really hard, obviously, without saying the last few years. So I'm excited to kind of dive into that topic. Where do you think the future of training and coaching and gym ownership is gonna be? But um, like always, if if you want to start, just give us your background, man. How'd you end up to be where you are now?

Yeah. Um, well, I'm I started training. Um I first got when I was um when I was 18, I got run over by a hay wagon. And um I died from uh in the Midwest. Yeah, where we do hay hay wagons is a is a common occurrence around here. Yeah, maybe not in uh in California, but in in the Midwest, hey w hay rides are a common thing. Um, you know, the things we do for fun. But um so I I wind up I have my injuries were pretty severe and I wind up dying a little bit. And so I had this whole like afterlife experience. And and I like to tell you that I came back with like a clear sense of purpose and you know, got a message, and my life has been driven by that. But all I can tell you is that I had I came back with a greater awareness of um the gifts that I do have. Uh and one of those was uh my body. You know, I remember coming out and they said you're gonna be weak and frail. And I was all I was a skinny kid, I was an athlete, but a skinny kid, but um so anyway, so I started training and um started working out, and I was going to college, and so I would take all my elective courses in you know, anatomy, kinesiology, nutrition, things like that. So I really had a training bug, even though I was going to school for something else. And uh I wound up graduating from college, got a job in a couple of hospitals, um doing social work, and um, but I kept bodybuilding, and then I ran into this guy who was trying to open in a training studio. He said, You want to come on board? I said, Absolutely. And so January 1990, yes, a long time ago, um, me and Fred Flintstone, we started the second uh second training studio here in St. Louis. Um and yeah, and it's been growing ever since. We started, uh, stayed at that location for 22 years. We started with four trainers, about a thousand square feet. We were charging $35 an hour for one-on-one training. Uh, and that was back in 1990. And then through that, when I left 22 years later, we had almost 35 trainers and about 17,000 square feet. But the owner and I uh decided to part ways, so then I opened up my own studio and then uh quickly realized that I was a great trainer and a terrible business person. So then I jumped into I started looking at anybody who could help me with um making my my business more successful because I quickly realized I was a business owner and not necessarily a trainer anymore. Um so then I sought out Thomas Plummer, Frank Nash, Rick Mayo, all the the crew, the standard crew in the Secret Trainer Society, and uh and they helped me turn my business into um uh a profitable gym. So then after that, I started the podcast to help other trainers that were in the same shoes as I was. And so that's what the podcast is is um is geared toward is helping trainers be great trainers become great business owners so they can build a life, the life that they want from the fitness industry. Um and so that's what the podcast is all about. I took um 20 of my best uh episodes and turned that into a book. Uh it's more like a I call it more like a reference guide. So you can no matter where you are in the growth of your business, you can take something from it. So we have single uh location owners, we have um topic specialists, we have the giants like Thomas Plummer, Rick Mayo, those guys. And then we have the multiple location owners, and we even have a couple of franchise owners in there, too. So no matter where you are on that continuum of your business uh in acquiring business skills, you can uh walk away with something from the book.

Wow, man. So I'd be remiss if I just glossed over the uh I died for a little while comment. I think all that was excellent, by the way. But it was like I was just kind of waiting. I'm like, can we I want to go back to that for a second? Um okay. So what what do you remember? What happened? Were you was it like was it just like a taking a nap, or was there any kind of shock to it?

There there was a lot going on. Well, I wouldn't say there was a lot going on. I mean, you know, I always feel weird uh talking about it, and I don't talk about it a lot. Um but you know, because I always feel like people are thinking I'm a little crazy. But what I experienced, it wasn't like a white light or anything, it was more again, like I said, an awareness. Like I was aware of um, I was aware of my soul leaving my body. I felt it detach and I felt it leaving my body, and then I remember being acutely aware of individuals that were there even though I couldn't see them. Uh, and I remember waking up in the recovery room and asking, um, like, so was so-and-so here, was so-and-so here, and they were all there. And I just was able to recognize, I guess, their energy or their presence based on that. Um, and then I was in the presence of a of a being. I felt very comfortable. It was very um it felt great. I have to tell you, it was it was it felt great. It was like, I yeah, I couldn't hang out here. Um, and then there was some uh felt like there were some individuals on the other side who wanted to see me but couldn't. And then um then I just got a message that it wasn't my time, and then I woke up in the intensive care ward. You know, but so like now when people say like I I definitely think there's something beyond this life. Uh, and I think back on it a lot. Um I mean I don't since that time that was shit. Uh that was I was 18 when that happened, I'm 53 now. So and I still I don't think there's a week goes by where I don't think about it. Um, but um you know, yeah, I just became more aware of you know, kind of how we're all connected and the energy that people give up. So when people say that like that guts be on, or I just got a uh a feeling about that, uh, or I felt really good, you know, I d I've learned to trust that and go with it because there is something to that. Um and just so much of what we spend time and energy on here is really meaningless, you know, and so if you can um take your life and distill it down to you know just the initial essences of life and invest your time and energy in those, um then you know I think you'll have a much happier life. Um and so I mean that's kind of what I you know, my vehicle with that was first of all, it was to scratch my own itch, right? I didn't want to I felt like I had an obligation to take care of myself and my body, uh, and then it it it it went on and became it became a journey, right? So, but that's where it started. So um I that's where I chose to get back is through uh fitness, and now I choose to get back through um you know coaching other trainers through that because I remember I remember those days when I was so excited to open my business thinking, oh I'm a great trainer, all my clients love me, they're gonna follow me, I'm gonna crush it. I'm gonna be driving a Lamborghini in no time. And then right, and then uh the reality of you know running a business hit me. I'm like, holy shit, like I need to figure this out ASAP. So I just I just remember that, and so I just want to be a resource for other trainers because the it's really stacked against us, right? Because uh the barrier to entry to fitness is so low. Um, and so it's really easy to, I mean, 20 grand, you can open up a storefront and call it a gym, right? Start selling memberships. And so it doesn't take a lot up front. So as a result, a lot of people go in half-cocked, right? And then they wind up losing their dream. And so and that's discouraging, and I don't want that to happen to anybody. So um that's why I want to be a resource for those independent guys, because when you're going up against some of these franchise monsters, I mean you have no idea the resources that they the resources and the um systems and the structure they have behind them. I mean, it's massive, you know. I mean, because you've talked to a lot of them on your show, but you know, so I think it's more imperative for the independent operators to pool their resources so that we can um get our little piece of the pie too.

Yeah, yeah, 100%. I and I was fortunate when I got into gym ownership because I had a bit of a business background, right? I was one of those kind of the the less percent that came in with from business and then had to learn how to train people, right? Um but the barrier to entry was low. I think we started with $30,000, right? And that was in Santa Barbara, California, and we just you know opened up a 900 square foot spot and um started training people, and then you know, you start doing the simple math too. You're like, okay, well, once we get to 100 members, we're we're rolling, man. Once we get to 250, 300, we're Lamborghini for sure. Right. And then and then you know, all of your members start doing simple math on you too. And then you realize, well, why is my margin 7%? Like what how is this happening? And it's because you you didn't build pieces or you didn't understand the things. And I I find so often you've probably heard this this story, some version of it. It's like a great trainer, great coach, you know, um, really valued at their gym, and or maybe not so valued by ownership. And then one of the clients says, Hey, you're a really good trainer. You should have your own studio. And they're like, ah no, I couldn't do that. Right. And then like that that seed's planted, and then months go by, and then maybe someone says, Hey man, you know, I could bankroll you if I need to get started. And then they do it, and then they get into it, they're super excited for six months, and then they get into it and they realize like I'm over my head, or I'm not really doing what I loved anymore. I'm not training or coaching, you know, figuring out all these other things. I'm doing the marketing, the business development, the counting, and you know, mopping the floors if I have to, right? Schedule. So it's yeah, yeah, all kinds of things that no one uh no one bothered to teach us. So it's it's uh there's I'm there's a lot of people out there I'm sure you can help um in that area because it's not I don't think it's slowing down. But I guess here's a question for you is over your career how have you seen the evolution of the I hate to use this term, I'm gonna use it, the business side of fitness, right? I mean, I remember when I first started, and it was 20 2008, there was only like one person I really knew of in my circles that did business device or business advice, and that was Andy Patronic down across from Los Angeles. Uh and then all of a sudden, five years later, there's all these companies that are you know sending out models. But what's what's been the progress you've seen in your eyes over the last 20 years?

Uh a tremendous amount. I mean, if you look at uh personal training back in the 80s versus now, I mean, it's unrecognizable. So there's been a tremendous amount of progress. And I credit the the fitness industry for for that, for for bringing up the competitive level and bringing up the level of service. But I guess the biggest thing that I've seen is is it's kind of the same mentality that uh what I call the turn and burn or that um uh non-use model. You still see that with some of the bigger box change gyms, and you see that with some of the the smaller studio franchise models too. They have a tremendous amount of uh churn, membership churn. Uh I mean they're churning people like every three to six months. That's a lot of churn. And so I I think that model is still around, that non-use and that kind of high uh turn turnover rate, but now they've gone to you know their trademark, whether it's you know, um you can take your pick. I can, you know, say we're gonna we're gonna climb a rope, we're gonna play tether ball, and then we'll finish off with dodgeball, and we're gonna call it tether dodge, tell the dead dodge rope, you know, whatever, and I'm gonna create a franchise. Uh you know what I mean? So they create, they take in these pieces of you know the fitness industry that were already in existence and put them together, and now they're claiming that this is their intellectual property or this is their model. And they've done it really well. They've done a great job with it when you look at some of the bigger ones. But they didn't really invent anything, they just really just trademarked it. So I think that's um, and now you know they're taking that to the next level with some of the design elements and the lighting, and you know, everybody's talking about the experience, uh, and so now they're uh everybody's focused on the experience industry instead of the fitness industry. But um as we were talking before we started recording, I I really think the the future moving forward is going to be somebody who can be a real health coach to somebody. And what I mean uh health coach, I mean everything, not just fitness. We're talking nutrition, sleep, stress, um recovery, as well as training intensity, all of those things integrate technology into the coaching so that you can get some objective metrics to use to guide them on their goals, things like that. I think the the the future of fitness and training is gonna be uh a holistic health coach, somebody who has um a wide knowledge base as far as like holistic health and how to improve that, has a large professional network so when they can encounter something outside their scope of practice, they can refer out, and vice versa. They're gonna have to integrate some kind of technology so they can get those biometric readings so they can use that in the feedback and in the coaching process. Uh, and then they're gonna have and then whoever can make that and scale it, I think that's gonna be the next thing. You know, that's gonna be the next invention, you know, instead of you know spinning bikes and and suspension trainers and rowers, it's gonna be um, you know, your sleep monitor, your heart rate variability, and you know, what you have for breakfast. You know, I think that's gonna be the next thing.

Yeah, there's a lot of tech out there that people can harness. And I'm um with all the conversation you've had term holistic, for some reason it doesn't ever sit well with me. I kind of think of like a woo-woo. Have you heard of another term for that to describe it that we can use in conversations, or is that still the best description of what we're talking about? Because I get it, I'm 100% with you.

Yeah, it's not that word. Yeah, like whenever I hear the word holistic, I just start smelling patchouli right away. Yes, yeah, right. So I I I get what you're saying. Um well, I would just think like just complete, just whole health. I mean, when you're when you're talking about um, and we talked about this when you were on my show. It's like when you like say if you're a trainer and you have a client coming in, right? You have Bob coming in, and Bob has been he's got three young kids, three kids under the age of five. And his youngest is a newborn, so he's not getting a lot of sleep. He's got a big project, do at work. You know, he's like, I, you know, I need some stress relief. I want to really come in and hit it. No, you're gonna tell Bob, look, you're running on three hours sleep, you crank, you're burning in both ends, maybe we should dial it back. I mean, you would do that naturally anyway. But now you want to take it up a notch and be a little bit more professional by having those things built in. So you don't have to ask, you just come in and say, hey, let's look at your sleep last night. Let's look, let's see where your heart rate variability is, you know, and any other biometrics or things that you want to incorporate that into the coaching session, you know, where you're taking them through and training him or her. So I think I think that's where it should be headed.

Yeah. You know, it's gonna be interesting. Uh, and I totally agree with you. Uh we had um Rob Wolf was on with Joel Jameson and I on the the Morpheus Radio podcast, and we were talking about I love your show.

You have such big, big ballers on there. Go ahead, I'm sorry. Thank you.

Yeah, yeah. It was fun. It was really fun, man. And uh we asked Rob, um, you know, what do you think is like the next thing in nutrition? And he's like, nothing. You know, nothing. Here's what you're gonna see. You're gonna take the the same principles, and he gave like the whole life, the whole 30 was a great example. They took paleo, right, which no one could brand, right? They found something they could trademark, brand, write a book on it, and then pump it out, right? Sell food and pre-planned meals and all these things, right? And it just became this beast. And um, same with really, I mean, you could probably say the same thing with Mark's System in the Primal Blueprint. And now what he's doing, you got a new book that came out called uh, I think it's like two meals a day. Well, cool. He's just rebranding intermittent fasting, right? Right, exactly. He's uh he's putting it out there and something, then he's telling meal plans behind it, which is so funny and ironic that you're telling, you know, pre-packaged meals for intermittent fasting. Um but I'm wondering if that's gonna happen in the fitness center because it has. I mean, even CrossFit was just there was nothing new about high-intensity uh barbell training, gymnastics, all this stuff. In fact, if you go to like the uh national fitness, you know, from the that was government dictated back in the 60s, it was it looked a lot like CrossFit, right? I think it was the Kennedy administration that came with it. And so it's it's all these rebranding of ideas. But what I'm leaning to is are you seeing anybody taking this concept, rebranding it under their own name, and putting it out there? I mean, you could probably say, like, you know, alloy personal and Rick, right? Like they're doing a really good job with what they're doing in their personal training, and they kind of adapted their own style to it, but he's been doing the same thing for decades. Right. Um, so yeah, who's doing it well? Yeah, that's the question.

Um well Rick Rick is doing an alloy, and I'm a big fan of Rick Mayo. Um he's the smartest guy, one of the smartest guys I've you know I've ever talked to. Um and I I like his franchise model. He's doing like the the little pods of smaller studios and doing that. But I don't know that he's you know integrating, fully integrating the the wearables. I don't know that anybody is right now. I think um right now you have the the war of the wearables is what I call it. Everybody's coming out and they've got their own, you know, kind of leg up on the competition. Uh and so I think that's where that's gonna the war on the wearables are gonna be uh settled upon. Who uses them the best to get the best results? You know, because you can collect all this metadata, but if you don't know how to read it or interpret it or to use it to your benefit, it's useless. You might as well have no data. So I think it it's gonna come down to who can integrate it and produce results the best. And right now, I don't I I see a lot of people, you know, use adopting the the wearables as like a like a challenge or a program or or some kind of product, um, you know, to sign up for a 28-week you know program. Um, but I don't see anybody using it in an ongoing, you know, longevity type of way. You know, and I think because one of the things that I found about my clientele, and I don't have any other numbers other than the survey survey that we did when we were shut down during COVID, you know, because we always think, I always thought, and my staff always thought, oh, all my clients want to lose weight. Well, during COVID, we sent out a survey, you know, asking the same question several different ways. Do you want to lose weight? Do you need help with your nutrition? You know, are you satisfied with your weight? Things like that. We found that probably 60% of the respondents did not want to lose weight. They don't care about losing weight, but they do want to be healthier, right? So I think the the fitness industry, I think, needs to recognize that as well. There's a there's a big percentage of the fitness of the population that maybe don't necessarily want to lose, they don't want six-pack abs. They would like to trim down a little bit. They don't want six-pack abs, but they just want to feel healthy, feel like they can move, have energy, all of that stuff. So I think um if we can meet them in the middle with that marketing, marketing to that demographic, and then combine it with some the wearable information with some training program that produces real-world results, then I think but I don't, I don't really that I've known. I mean, you cut you talk to more, because your your show is the future of fitness. You probably talk to more tech people in the fitness industry than I do. I mean, do you see anybody doing that really well?

Not yet. And I have some theories as to why, because you uh you're spot on in the fact that we've sold fat loss as an industry forever, muscle gain, fat loss, right? Without kind of understanding the underlying markers that dictate longevity and health. Because now there is a shift. I think that was one thing we saw with pandemic, as it, you know, not that it's over, but uh, you know, people start shifting to health and starting to understand that, hey, I want to have, you know, more quality years of my life, right? And just like it's not just about lifespan, it's about health span. And that that's great. Um I think when we're gonna start seeing the shift is now that we have the data available, um, that we can start changing the conversation around different objectives, right? So maybe it is like, hey, you know, in my gym or my program, you know, we look at your rest and heart rate, we look at your long-term, long-term HRV stats, we look at your blood markers, right? Like two sponsors on this show, Morpheus and Inside Tracker. If you use those two services, you are far ahead of the competition. All you have to do is educate yourselves on a few things and what they mean. And that's the key part that really drives it all is the education. Um, as uh Morpheus launches into a gym, we're starting to realize like, okay, this is actually a little bit more uphill than we thought because we have to train all these trainers. We knew that was going to be a big thing, but we have to get them interested, right, and why this is important, why these are the factors that actually dictate how long your your clients stay with you and their success. And that's that's really important. So there's a re-education process that's coming, and it's just not coming as fast as the tech is evolving. And that that's a challenge. So you look at like um and most of these, you know, the war of the wearables, which I love that man, um such a good name, it's all mostly consumer-facing, right? So everybody is is getting to the consumer, and very few companies are feeding through um, you know, health coaches and professionals. And there are some out there, and there's some really good ones. But I think no one's fully adopted it and put a model behind it with, you know, objective measures, education. Um, so there's a huge gap in the market, which I think people are rushing to fill, but we have to get over the fat loss muscle building thing. I mean, those are great, but they're not what's really driving what people want now.

Well, I think to your point, you said there has been a shift where I think before the pandemic, people thought about when you said health and fitness, the thing, oh yeah, I tried that diet. Oh yeah, I tried that workout. And so it's is it was very short-term thinking, right? You know, I'm gonna go on a diet for uh uh a month and then I'm gonna go to Miami, we're gonna look great, and then I'm back to normal. So that's short-term thinking. But I think now with the pandemic, they realize that um the importance and the impact of their long-term health. So now they're making that shift to, like you said, to long-term health and fitness, not necessarily what they can do in 30 days before they have to put on a bathing suit, but what they can do to extend the quality of their life for as long as they can. So I think with that shift comes a shift in in focus and goals that the fitness industry has to make. Yeah, I agree with you.

Yeah, the other component, like the elephant in the room, too, is mental health, right? And how, you know, we're not in the fitness industry licensed to do that, and really we shouldn't. But there is a line to walk, right? As far as scope of practice, where we can actually talk about mental health a little bit more, because one of the things I think we saw too during the pandemic that was probably a good shift is people weren't commuting. Um, you know, they just had more time. There was more time. And when you're not busy, you have more time to think about shit. And when you think about shit, sometimes if you're not your head's not right, it goes south, right? And uh, we've seen that time and time again. So now there's also, I think, a little bit of activity and and you know, um, motion behind well, how does fitness, movement, nutrition, sleep affect our mental health? Because I think that's really at the end of the day, people just want to be happy.

Yeah. I agree with you. Yeah, I agree with you. Um, I'm reading that book, um, Greatest Salesman in the World. Have you ever read that one?

No.

It was uh 10 scrolls and you live with the scrolls for 30 days, but uh it talks about um how you can act your way into a happier space. And so I tried one day I was in a bad space, and so I'm like, okay, I'm gonna move around, I'm gonna, you know, uh get my body moving, I'm gonna smile, even though I don't feel like smiling, and it and it works, you know, because it it creates a um a hormonal response. Your endocrine system kicks in and starts helping you. Um, so yeah, absolutely. I think uh exercise that needs to be a conversation that is had is people need to not only just the connection in the community, but movement too, you know, is so so important. I I tell you, and there was a lot of good you when you were talking about good things that came out of the pandemic, and I think there was a there was a lot. One was people had more time, but you know, God, I think probably that was the most that anybody's ever moved, right? You know, they got up and actually got off the couch and walked their dog or went out and did something, you know, because they had time, they had nothing else to do, so they would get up and move, yeah.

Well, the other thing, and we're we're seeing it, you know, the direct effect here in a lot of the western states. I'm sure on the East Coast too, but you know, like Montana, Idaho, um Colorado, a lot of people are like, well, hold on. You know, I can work from anywhere, and now I'm gonna go look for a better lifestyle, the lifestyle that I really want.

Yep.

Um, and for the record, Montana's full people. Uh Idaho's wide open. Uh eastern eastern Washington's fantastic, um, but I just think we're at capacity now. So it's it's one of those things you're starting to see. People look for like a healthier lifestyle and what makes them happy. And it's it's cool in that way. And we're talking as if the pandemic's over, but now you know everyone's starting to talk about mask mandates and things like that again. And we we can talk about that if you want. Um so yeah, it's it's uh it's been a it's been a hard year and a half, but I do think there's a lot of positives that came out of it and just accelerations, right? I mean, we all knew like technology was gonna, you know, this this virtual hybrid, whatever people are calling it nowadays, right? Of you know, in-person and uh online and on demand, like it's all it just happened much faster. And then, of course, these companies that were well situated, the Pelotons and the mirrors and the tonals, they were just like, Yeah, bring it. The market just came right at them, and they just you know, they just had to handle scale.

Yeah.

Um, speaking of scale, so you you said a really important thing. Like you you kind of planted the seed for what the future of fitness trainers moving into this, evolving into health coach, but you said the trick is doing it at scale. Uh dive into that thought a little bit. What do you mean by that? What do you think the challenges are?

Um the challenges are coming, um, taking that because the problem always with scale is that it becomes automated and dehumanized. If it gets too big, right? People feel like they're just a number or a cog and a wheel. And so, you know, they don't recognize my face. And you know, everybody wants to go into the the coffee shop. Hey, you know, Jim, how here's your regular coffee. Everybody wants that, right? And so when you get too big, uh, I read a book, they said I think maybe I forget what the the stages were, but when you get too big, you lose that. So I think the key is going to be um training systems and finding the right, well, getting the right training and onboarding systems for um for the for the trainers. Kind of what you were talking about is the education modules for educating the trainers. And then on the other side of that, I think is is what you may encounter also is the education modules for the trainers training the clients. Because a lot of times what I find, and I've been guilty of this too, is that when I talk to other trainers, we geek out on trainer speak, right? And then when I talk to clients, I try to impress them with my trainer speak, and their eyes just gloss over and I lose them completely instead of speaking to them like a normal human being. So I think there's a there's a uh a gap um in that um conversation between trainers and clients when they're trying to educate as well, if that makes sense.

Totally. Yeah. Um so you're you have a facility and how how's it going? By the way, today's date is uh August 9th, 2021, for people listening. Um what's going on with your studio? Do you guys do you guys reopen? Are you staying open? What and what changes have you made in the last year and a half? That's what I'm curious about too.

Yeah, so we closed um from March till June, mid-March till June, 2020. Um, and during that time, I I thought we were gonna go under. I really did. And uh, but the majority of our clients stayed with us. We made the transition online, we went to Zoom training, and we did all everything everybody else did that's still in business today. And we started doing trying to do online socials with the clients, and then when we opened up, uh we had a mass mandate, reduced capacity. Um, that was probably the hardest because um we have very few people coming in, but we had to service them, and then we still had a uh a majority of people that were doing online. And what I found is that the online we were basically losing money on the online when you uh uh added in the labor cost, the additional labor cost. Um, so um thanks to the you know the stimulus money, the PPP money is the only reason we made it through there, to be honest with you. Um but now that we're through all of that and we're back to full capacity, um right now we're not under a mass mandate, but since we uh they released the mass mandate, our business has gone up. Uh usually the summertime we're pretty flat and we've increased every month, and then we usually see a big uh bump in September. So, you know, fingers crossed, you know, we're gonna have that big bump in in September, but we probably lost total at the lowest point 60% of our members. Um, and then we've been slowly climbing up since then. Not slowly, I guess we had a big jump uh right at the first of the year, and then it's been slowly climbing. We've gained about two or three percent every month since then.

Is it the when you're looking at the people coming in, is it people that used to be clients that are coming back? Are they new clients?

What's the what's the new clients, the new clients, the old clients uh for whatever reason? Because we used to um we used to service uh an older demographic, you know, because we do a lot of movement uh therapy, we do a lot of like prehab, rehab, kind of bridge the gap between rehab and and training. So we had a lot of older clients with movement issues, uh orthopedic issues, and so they were just naturally a little bit more cautious. So we couldn't get them to come back in. So I said, well, let's see who we can get to come in. And the demographic was younger. So then we switched and we started going after slightly younger. Uh, I'd say before our um average age was probably 45. Now it's probably closer to 35. So um, yeah, so I think it switched a little bit younger, but those are the only people that we can find that would be willing to come in at this time.

When you're looking forward, I I want to respect your time here today, too.

Um I I'm I'm good.

Okay. Um what has you like, what what what has you most excited when you're looking at like maybe technology in the industry or trends? What yeah, what what had what captures your eye? What are you most excited about? Um especially if it's something that no one else is really talking about.

What what excites me about what's coming up in the industry? I don't know, because I've been in it 30 minutes.

Let me let me focus it a little bit more for that for you because that question was broad. How about technology? What kind of what kind of technology are you most excited about?

Uh I would say um the wearables have been around and biofeedback and biometrics have been around for a long time, but I would just say the ability to interpret the um information in a usable way. So, like something like heart rate variability, I think, is is very key because um you can't fake that, right? I mean, if you're exhausted, if your nervous system's shot, if your body, if your endocrate system's shot, I mean your heart rate variability is going to show that, right? And that's a good indicator, it's a good objective indicator to tell you to slow down. And I like using the heart rate variability because it is objective versus like a person telling you to slow down. You're, you know, if you tell me to slow down, I'm like, F you, you know, where's the accelerator? Right? So, but if uh if there's just hard data and it says you need to slow down or, you know, then I'm more likely to listen to it here than that. But I'm just hard-headed. Most people aren't hard-headed as I am. But, you know, so I I think that's it. That's probably what has got me the most excited is being able to tailor not only your workouts, but your recovery and even possibly your nutrition. Because I've been a big believer in in customizing nutrition, because you know, I read that book, Eat Right For Your Blood Type, decades ago. Yeah. And I made some changes to my diet that I still adhere to today, and it's and it's still you know working for me. So I'm a big believer in that your genetic, genetic makeup has a big um uh effect on kind of what you can tolerate and how fast you recover, and all of those things. So I think the combination of those two, of being able to personalize that in a way where you can, if you follow it, you get like real results. That's that's really exciting. I mean, if you could I mean, if you can imagine how cool it would it be to you know hire this health coach and say, you know, I you know, I um, you know, I've uh I'm gonna I want to run this half marathon in six months. This is where I am. Uh what information do you need from me? What um uh biofeedback do you need from me during my running, doing my training session, how am I recovering, all of that? And then to come up with you know everything, your training, your recovery, your nutrition, all according to what's going on with your body. I mean, that'd be pretty fucking awesome.

Yeah, that's really cool. I agree. Uh really, really cool. And that's what I've always been really excited about, you know, even three years ago, or I guess four and a half years ago when I started the show, it was like kind of like that. I'm like, I want to see what's coming next, I want to get people's opinions, experts and things like that. And people always ask me what I was most excited about. I'm like, the real-time biometrics, right? It's just it's coming, it's almost here, it's almost at our fingertips, and now it's here. And with when you talk to personal trainers and you know, independent gym owners, how many people, if you had to just take a wild estimate guess, but how many people are grasping the concepts of HRV and um recovery uh in your in your conversations? And how many people are seeking out the knowledge?

Um, I don't see a lot of people, um, to be honest with you. And and and you know, I I suffer from ageism because I'm old, right? I'm that old Krabby man, you know, telling you, stay off my kids, grass kids. But but I think um I'm I know me as a younger trainer, I was more apt to just ignore that and just charge forward like go, go, go. We were gonna finish this. Yeah, I know, I'm tired. You know, and I would wear that almost like a badge of honor, right? Um, how much I could just grind myself into the ground. Uh, and I don't know how much of that mentality is changing um among the younger trainers, but I think as you grow older in the trainers who are able to separate themselves, like I don't know if you're familiar with uh Cal Deetz at the University of Michigan. No, he's he's a strength coach there, and he wrote a book called uh triphasic training, really smart guy, uh, and some interesting training concepts. But I mean, but here's a guy who um came up with uh this triphasic training that has shown like real-world, like he has force plates, graphs, and and results that you can read where it says, okay, after this phase of training for this long under this low, all of these. So he has those studies to prove it. And so it's to me, it's it's really fascinating. So I think the people who can separate themselves from the crowd by doing something like that, I think, uh lend credibility to the whole you don't have to go hard all the time. You know, sometimes recovery is the most important thing, not the work. So yeah.

And here's, I mean, to encourage people who are listening to like the reason one of the great reasons that you should be adopting this type of tech, and then the education and the know-how behind it and the understanding is that um you get people in your gym more often, right? Like you know, if you're doing like CrossFit, right? We would always tell people, um, hey, two, two, maybe three times a week enough, plenty, right? The other day is just go, you know, maybe do something, go walk, or just you know, recover or whatever. We didn't and we had no idea about the tech behind all this. But nowadays you can have a five-day, even six-day a week training plan, right? As long as you're dosing it properly, and now you can do it and you can show people, like you said, objectively, that hey, today we're you're looking good, we're gonna hit it hard, you're gonna do you know maybe this type of class or whatever. You know what? Your your HRV recovery is down, you're in the 60%. You know, we're gonna come in, but come in. You know, we're gonna move, we're gonna breathe, we're gonna make you feel better, and you're gonna walk out of here feeling better and more energized and just in a better mood, right? That's key because that's the same.

Yeah, set the table for them, yeah, for sure. Absolutely, yeah. Yeah. I I agree. And that's I think that's a separator. I really do. I think that's a differentiator, you know, because you the a lot of times you what you will find more times than not, at least in the past, is a coach who just says, ah, you'll be fine. You know, you're not gonna die. Let's go. You know, instead of like, hey, maybe some light stretching, some movement stuff, or something like you said would be much better.

Yeah. Or even just coming in and uh, you know, shooting shit with your other gym members and you know, playing us a game, you know, getting on the bike and watching the Olympics or something like that, like gathering people together and and giving them that, you know, quote unquote third place is a really really cool thing. So um, yeah, man, I'm re I'm excited. I I think we're turning a corner here and it just got accelerated through the pandemic, and it's gonna be really um you know, I think the next five years are gonna be fascinating. Yeah, I think there is there is a lot of competition. I mean, we do have to understand, not compete with, but understand the pelotons and the tonals of the world and the connected fitness and see how we can fit in, not compete with that, because you can't you can't really compete with that.

Well, you know, two things you said that one I'm really excited about is that what you said, the shift in the the the goals for the majority of the population where they're thinking long-term health. So you can finally start to sell them or not sell them, but educate them on the benefits of training for the long term, which is you know the model that we've been talking about, where you take you know rest and recovery into that whole concept, into that whole model. Um I think that's I think that's um really, really refreshing to me. Another thing you said is that competition is high because yeah, a lot of gyms went out of business, and some of the even big players went out of business doing the shutdown, but what we're left with is the strongest survivors, right? So the people who are left are the strongest. So you still have to up your game in order to fit in with that crowd if you want to play with the cool kids, so to speak.

Yeah, well said, man. So um yeah, as we move forward, where where do people find out about all the things that you do, Jim? Like where do you send people online?

I I have too many. I have to centralize. So the the quickest way to get in touch with me is just trainergym.net, and it's J-I-M, not g-y-m, trainergym.net. And that's the the site for the podcast, and you can uh learn more about the podcast in the book. Uh you can reach out to me um on that site. And then I also started a site called Fit University online. Uh we're retooling it, but it's going to be educational modules for the business of fitness. So if there's anything that you need to uh learn, any skill set that you need to acquire in running your fitness business, then we want you to look into fitness university. So that you can be all the great trainers can become great business owners.

Awesome, man. I love that. Well, Jim, thank you so much for coming on today. All the insights, and it's like I said, you know, the beginning of the show, talking to people who interview a lot of people, you learn a lot.

Yeah, right. Yeah.

And uh it's it's uh it's a great vantage point. And you know, I didn't think we talked about near-death experiences, so that was a uh that was a carry on top as well.

Yeah, we can talk about that because like I get into, you know, like when I don't talk about it a lot, but I can talk about that realm more. But most people get uncomfortable with it.

So yeah, yeah, I'm I love it. So anytime, maybe we do a whole episode on that. Yeah. Um, cool. Well, Jim, thank you so much for the time, your insights, uh, very valuable stuff. And yeah, ladies and gentlemen, Jim Adams.

Yeah, thanks for having me, man. It's always fun uh chatting with you anytime, man. I really appreciate it.

Hey, wait, don't leave yet. This was your host, Eric Malzone, and I hope you enjoyed this episode of Future of Minutes. If you did, I'm gonna ask you to do three simple things. It takes under five minutes and it goes such a long way. We really appreciate it. Number one, please subscribe to our show wherever you listen to it. iTunes, Spotify, Catbox, whatever it may be. Number two, please leave us a favorable review. Number three, share. Put it on social media, talk about it to your friends, send it in a text message, whatever it may be. Please share this episode because we put a lot of work into it. We want to make sure that as many people are getting value out of it as possible. Lastly, if you'd like to learn more, get in touch with me, simply go to the featuroffitness.co. You can subscribe to our newsletter there, or you can simply get in touch with me as I'd love to hear from our listeners. So thank you so much. This is Eric Malzone, and this is the Future of Fitness. Have a great day.