RAISING THE BAR ON WELLNESS: Fitness Results Provides On-the-Job Fitness for Health Conscious Employers
Fitness Results' Upland, Calif., fitness center.
An Interview with Fitness Results owner Lance McCullough:
Fitness Results has been a longtime fitness advocate in the community, helping individual clients achieve their health and fitness goals through personal training. What’s the impetus driving your new Wellness Results campaign?
Well, it’s not necessarily new. We’re simply redoubling our efforts to promote fitness and wellness in a corporate setting. While we’ve trained thousands of clients over the years at our two beautiful facilities over, we realize many people, especially working traditional nine-to-five hours, can’t even carve out an hour or half-hour a day because of their busy work schedules. So we’re focused on bringing fitness to them.
Did you know that only 40% of the public exercises regularly? That means 60% do not. Of the 40%, only 7% to 8% exercise at the proper intensity level and duration to have significant health benefits. Lack convenience has a lot to do with that. That’s why we’re bringing fitness to the workplace.
What exactly are some of those significant health benefits you mentioned?
A consistent fitness regimen reduces the risk of premature death and heart disease, as well as developing diabetes, high blood pressure and colon cancer.
Moreover, it helps reduce blood pressure in people who already have high blood pressure. It also helps reduce feelings of depression and anxiety and it helps reduce a number of stress-related illnesses and diseases.
Plus, it helps control weight and helps build and maintain healthy bones, muscles and joints. It also helps older adults become stronger and better able to move without falling. Just as important, it increases energy and promotes psychological well-being.
Okay, you’ve convinced us about the benefits of working out regularly, but what’s the pay-off for businesses you’re reaching out to?
It is the only benefit an employer can give their employees and receive a positive return. For every dollar an employer spends, it receives $4 to $8 in return.
To receive the best return on investment, you cannot skimp on a wellness program. Over and again we’ve seen that the most complete and comprehensive programs produce the best rewards for companies resulting in:
· Increased company profits
· Lowered health costs
· Increased productivity
· Reduced absenteeism
· Improved employee morale
· Reenergized, less stress-prone workforce
· Reduced challenges and risks to the workday
· Decreased amount of sick days
Can you site an example of a pro-active and enlightened company that introduced an on-site fitness program for its employees and saw the benefits of the program outweigh (no pun intended) the costs?
Since 2003, Caterpillar has reduced health risks for its employees by 15 percent. It is projected that the company will save an estimated $700 million by year 2015 (as reported by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services).
Okay, let’s say a local company signs up for your Wellness Results program. What kinds of results do you promise to deliver?
We will really tailor the program specifically for your company’s needs and resources. Also, we will set up employees with Fitness Results Interactive (FRI). It is an online extension of Fitness Results that provides tools to help employees achieve their fitness goals. Using Fitness Results Interactive, employees will be able to better track their workouts, nutrition and results on an ongoing basis. Plus, employees can have custom tailored personal training just for them, all in one easy-to-use online program.
While all our programs follow a proven process and a natural progression, each step is implemented to produce the best fitness results for your company and employees:
Step 1, we organize a group meeting about wellness and discuss how the group can achieve its health and fitness goals with proper nutrition and exercise. We also discuss the myths of dieting and weight training that actually prevent people from achieving their goals. We will also set up employees with Fitness Results Interactive! Again, FRI is an online extension of Fitness Results that gives you some tools to be even more successful with your fitness. With FRI, you will be able to track your workouts, nutrition and results all in one easy-to-use online program. You will also be able to connect with other Fitness Results members and staff in the Fitness Friends section, and participate in fun challenges in the Fitness Challenge section.
Fitness Results wellness trainer Jill McAlpin
Step 2, we perform fitness assessments that include a lifestyle questionnaire, weight measurement, body composition, circumference measurements, DPA test check for cardiovascular health, sit-in reach test and follow-up discussion with the employee.
Step 3, to keep employees engaged and motivated, we recommend that the company start a rewards program. Rewards could include minutes off work with pay for every four hours spent in the gym. Or the incentive program might reward employees with points, based on time spent exercising. The more points they have, the more opportunities they would have to win gift certificates, a weekend getaway, etc., at the company’s monthly drawings.
Step 4, we start with a 30-minute exercise program three times a week, while the gym or fitness center is still in development. In the absence of machines, benches and free weights, we use exercise bands. We’ll incorporate their use even after the fitness center is completed. Our program combines strength and fitness exercises as well as cardiovascular exercises. At the same time, we’ll spot check their nutrition habits, constantly trying to steer employees toward making healthier eating choices. If some people need more assistance, we’ll weigh them weekly. To monitor success, you have to measure it.
Step 5, after the gym is completed, we train employees on the proper use of equipment. We accomplish this in small group sessions for the first three or four weeks or until we feel they are knowledgeable enough to exercise safely and effectively on their own.
Step 6, we begin expanding to larger groups. We can have a professional trainer on site to observe and assist employees on appropriate training techniques so they continue exercising safely and properly and maximizing their results. We’ll also be there to answer questions on nutrition and cardio.
Step 7, to keep challenging employees, we like to introduce group programs, such as a mat Pilate’s class, aerobics class, stretching classes and possibly spin bicycle classes.
Step 8, we continue to monitor each employee’s fitness program and help each individual set new goals.
Your Fitness Results Interactive Program, which you described in Step 1, appears to be very comprehensive while also being flexible enough to serve a wide range of employee fitness goals.
FRI makes available four different types of memberships. We offer Personal Training Lite and Advanced, which is our interactive personal training, as well as our online nutritional memberships (weight loss bronze and gold packages).
For more information, please go to http://www.fitnessresultsmall.com/categories/Fitness-Results-Interactive/
Why should I select Fitness Results for my company’ wellness plan?
We’re in business for the right reasons. Unlike the health clubs you hear about all the time, which really are membership mills that make money by people not showing up – in other words it’s a business model based on their clients’ failure to show up consistently – our success is based on the fitness results that clients achieve.
We’re accountable to your employees, and they develop that same feeling of shared responsibility. We’re in this together from the start. It’s really an ongoing partnership.
That aside — our business — customized and constantly refined from years of experience, is based on the latest science and innovative fitness research. Among the aids and programs we use are BodyGem Analysis, which helps employees establish their precise daily caloric intake, and Balance Log, which helps ensure employees are achieving their optimal nutritional balance.
Since 1994, we’ve seen the fitness results that thousands of our clients have achieved. Now, our mission has become even more urgent as more Americans are suffering from diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular and other health risks that can be largely reversed through a consistent, systematic health and fitness program.
In these economic times, companies are getting back to the basics. Nothing can be more basic than boasting a productive, highly energetic workforce that is positively prepared to drive the economic success of your company.
In closing, I would add that Fitness Results has always been about the basics. While we keep improving our equipment and technology, we have never wavered from our core purpose to help our clients enjoy healthier, happier and more productive lives through fitness.
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