John Coffey of Colorado Fitness Equipment has over 20 years of experience in the fitness industry. He has a Master’s Degree in Exercise Science from Fresno State University and a Bachelors Degree in Marketing from New Hampshire College. His work experience includes Director of Fitness of a Metro Denver YMCA, owner of a personal trainer business, fitness testing with the Department of Corrections and years of successful sales consulting. John has been certified as an Exercise Test Technologist from the American College of Sports Medicine. Since launching Colorado Fitness Equipment in 2002, John has continued to expand his business while incidentally building a friendship with the owners of HealthStyles Exercise Equipment, Dave and Jeanne Sheriff.

HealthStyles Exercise Equipment has been serving Colorado since 1993, and has expanded its reach to Wyoming, New Mexico, and beyond in the last decade.  With 8 retail locations, a major warehouse and demo location in Denver, and contracts with many exclusive and well-known brands, HealthStyles Exercise Equipment offers a bigger playing arena and more support structure for John Coffey.

Regarding his joining forces with the competition, John Coffey said, “I believe this is going to be an extremely synergistic merger of knowledge, experience, and resources.  I am looking forward to being a part of a great organization, while representing a diverse assortment of high-level manufacturers.  Dave Sheriff agreed, “John is someone everybody likes.  He’s just a great human being and we’re thrilled to work together as a team.  In addition to the strengths of John Coffey, we also gain the talents of Kirk Bailey and Steve Buckley, both of whom bring many years of experience into our warehouse delivery and service divisions.”

A Rare Club Beckons the Obese – This club only admits people who stand to lose at least 50 lbs.

Health Care Service Corporation Incentivize Its Own Employees to Lose 30 Tons Through Innovative Wellness Program - This owner and operator of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico decided to create a best in class program to help alleviate the burden of billions of dollars lost in productivity and in healthcare costs on our society due to poor health and obesity.

Consumer Reports Tests Elliptical Machines to Find the Best - Octane ellipticals come up top!

A Psychologist’s Therapy Treats Mind and Body – This psychologist is also a fitness expert, and his office has two private fitness rooms.

Pro-Active Employers Encourage Workers to Get out of Their Seats – Trekdesk, the newest solution against long hours of sitting at the office.

Chiropractors, Exercise Better than Medication, Study Says - recent onset neck pain is most often treated with medication, but seeing a chirpractor or exercising would be a better choice according to this study.

Worries Mount over Lack of PE in Schools – Only 5 states require PE from kindergarden through 12th grade.

Let’s Get Physical! 10 Unlikely Workout Songs That Rock - Just for kicks…

Perfect That Workout: Bell Those Muscles – article on LiveMint, describing two great exercises to do on those kettlebells.

6 Exercise Tips for Cold Weather - A personal interest news piece for the season

Biggest Loser Star Bob Harper Shares His Motivation Secrets – if you know that some of your gym New Year’s Resolutions gym-goers are beginning to flag in enthusiasm, it’s great to print a copy and share this one with them. 

Reading specs of machines is not fun. However, it IS fun to analyze how they compare! Here is a thorough analysis of how Precor commercial fitness products compare against Matrix products. Our goal here is to keep you up to date on how our products compare with new changes introduced by competition, so you can make informed decisions. May the best products win!

Consoles:

Consoles, the screens on the commercial bikes, ellipticals and other gym equipment are evolving fast. As consumers want home equipment like the commercial ones with cool LED screens, commercial consoles have already jumped up their games with touch screens and integrated technology. Precor did a good job at its first step into integrated technology with the P80 console. However, it doesn’t measure up to the intuitiveness of Matrix consoles. In fact, Precor website claims that it becomes “more powerful the longer you use it” which means, if you read between the lines, there is a time factor in learning to use it and getting the most out of it. Matrix FitTouch is easier to use, as evidenced by customer reactions and testimonies.

The 15” consoles on Matrix are also self-powered, using electricity generated by users—and offers iPod and iPhone compatibility/charging feature. Precor doesn’t offer self-powered equipment let alone self-powered equipment with advanced consoles that seamlessly connect and offer added value back to the users like that.

Cardio Equipment:

Precor and Matrix both offer complete lines of cardio equipment. Matrix is better. As mentioned above, Matrix is ahead of the curve on sustainable design than Precor by offering self-powered aerobic equipment.

In addition, Matrix’s cardio pieces have constant rate of acceleration and greater weight capacity. These features insure ease of use for greater number of users. Matrix trainers and ellipticals are more compact, have rear entry, allowing side by side placement and greater floor space conservation and neater look.

Beyond those points, the proof of the argument breaks down into the details. Matrix ellipticals called ascent trainers appeal to everyone with an adaptive stride technology as opposed to Precor’s adjustable stride technology.  Basically, users can follow more intuitive elliptical path on Matrix ones but on Precor, they fall into a kind of stepping motion. More fluid motion reduces friction and irritation on the users’ joints, which translates to a better and more rewarding experience on the machine.

Ellipticals

On the trainers, Matrix has 9 inch step up offering much lower point of entry than Precor’s 21.5” step up where the users have to step over a bar. With greater number of seniors hitting the gym and aging US population, it is smarter to go with equipment that doesn’t preclude them. Likewise, Matrix has lower step-up on ellipticals, treadmills, etc.

Strength Equipment:

The problem with creating equipment with higher quality of materials and that are more durable is that they cost more. Here, Precor does offer the advantage of cheaper S Series strength equipment than Matrix G3, the standard Matrix equipment. However, if you observe even the upholstery, the Precor ones are softer, thinner, and the material used shows where they sacrificed to bring the costs down. It doesn’t stop there. The plastic construct-able pieces show blemishes at slightest manufacturing imperfections at the connection points. Chest supports, elbow pads, or foot plates that add comfort and safety of stabilization are out on many pieces.

You attract what you put out. If the first impression of your gym equipment is, “cheap,” that’s the kind of customers you’ll attract.

Aesthetic:

This is slightly subjective to consider, but 100% relevant to the subconscious part of our brain that tells us when something (or someone) is more attractive for reasons we don’t know why. Well, let’s try to examine why Matrix seems to appeal more to people because IDEA awards they won are proofs that some people at least think Matrix has great-looking products.

The Matrix strength equipment has a glossy, clean, metal finish with ergonomic, round and curved tops giving them a modern and “spa”-like feel. Precor stands square-cut at the top with tons of wordy instructions on the side for users to study.

Matrix Treadmills have great-looking, solid aluminum end-caps that last, since someone at the company observed people tended to step on them and they broke most frequently on treadmills in general. Precor hasn’t had this person on their staff, so they still have the cheap plastic that will inevitably chip off faster. That Matrix someone’s like Steve Jobs making sure iPhones had real glass and metal in them, to make a winning product. Brilliant.

Service-ability:

In a world where things aren’t perfect, the equipment is bound to bump into issues since tissues are bound to bump into them. The durability, quality of materials, warranty, ease in serviceability, maintenance monitoring capacity, and expense involved with setting up such asset management gadgets are all important considerations to our commercial equipment buyers.

So how does Precor compare with Matrix? Well, Matrix is better for reasons stated in other sections but also the following. The bikes and trainers have removable discs, making them easier to service. There is no need to tilt the machines for unscrewing pieces and stuff, because there are two levelers on the trainers.

On the recumbent bikes, Matrix has a single piece crank that is maintenance free. Precor ones have 3 cranks requiring regular maintenance. For top shape, Precor recumbent need monthly tightening of each one of those cranks per machine.

Also, the maintenance monitoring service at both companies perform similar functions yet Precor has made it a revenue item rather than an added value kind of service. Why do I think that? Because the Preva maintenance system from Precor needs routers, switches, and a dedicated server per facility and a special engineer to install it, costing $20-30K for a large facility with 50 units. Matrix could outfit the same facility with asset management service (which is integrated with monitoring on the consoles, by the way, alleviating much of the costs), for $3K. No wonder Matrix installed their asset management system for their customers about 16 times more often than Precor did so far.

Matrix warranties are better. Why? They can afford to give better warranties when their products are more durable and easier to service.

Price Points:

Finally, you may wonder about the prices of all the equipment. Matrix offers greater price points and ranges in the products than Precor. The verdict? Matrix beats Precor.

Did I tell you we happen to sell Matrix?

-Misheel.

What does this mean for your business in 2012? How does this benefit your market?

Gyms, clubs, and recreation centers:  As a flashy new trend “Zumba and other dance workouts” shoots up from rank #31 in 2010, rank #24 in 2011, up to #9 in 2012, we don’t know if this is here to stay. But, you can’t go wrong with adding a class or two of this high energy, fun trend.

Hotels and hospitality: Take advantage of the current trend toward fitness programs for older adults, strength training, and outdoor activities, by upgrading to easier workout machines for older adults, getting more strength equipment (not just cardio) and kettlebells (been the rage last few years), and by offering bikes or for a more unique fun and fit option, Elliptigos for guests.

Corporate gyms: With growing trends for “comprehensive health promotion programming at the worksite” and “worker incentive programs” for healthier lifestyles, it is no wonder that a lot of more innovative and forward-looking corporations have upgraded their gyms and beefed up on offering incentives for biking to work, etc. Incentivized weight-loss programs run by corporate offices are more popular than ever to help the employees lead more balanced, productive lives.

As a testament to this growing trend for fitness awareness in the workplace, some executives have moved their treadmills right up to their office while others experiment with the new Trekdesk that allows their treadmills to become a desktop work area. (Please see the article on industry news.)

Apartment buildings and multi-housing management: The demand for personal training and educated, experienced fitness professionals has been growing every year. For those looking to reach certain goals or to just begin, having an experienced professional getting them started on the right track is absolutely essential. So, here is an innovative and inexpensive way to deliver high value to residents—partner up with a local physical trainer to come do individual sessions for free for a day. The physical trainer stands to gain new clients. Residents gain more awareness of how to use the gym appropriately to their personal needs, and the management—you—look like a hero for putting them together!

Police and fire departments:  The need for strength training and Stairmasters was always clear to the service personnel in police and fire departments. The trends of the consumers hardly apply. Still, there are a couple of new products with proven results on the market that may be of interest. Vibration plate training has been adopted by most of the professional sports teams due to the effectiveness. In fact no matter which team wins the playoffs, Power Plate will win because all four teams use it for their training. It shortens the time needed for exercises by stimulating the muscles to engage them to the fullest, and offers 57% improvement in weight loss compared to conventional exercise and diet, helps to increase blood circulation leading to greater oxygenation and decrease in toxins in the body. So, the acceleration training from Power Plate would be a strong contender for adding to police and fire department gyms.

Schools: Obesity epidemic in children has headlined the national discourse for the last six or seven years yet school funding cuts have made it difficult to address the need for physical exercise at schools. Moreover, physical education teachers are being forced out of their jobs or forced to double up duties with other subjects. While the problem continues to compound, many exceptional schools are stepping up to upgrade their facilities and equipment. Even if programming currently flags, if the funding can be found and used appropriately, getting quality commercial grade equipment and service will guarantee that students will have years of access to physical training and sports equipment, enabling continuation of physical education.

Universities: The universities play a pivotal role in society, often forwarding innovative ideas and become the forefronts of trends rather than followers. So, it is not surprising that universities have been jumping on self-powered eco-friendly cardio equipment as well as adding on electricity-generating system to their gyms, harnessing the energy of the students to give power back to the grid.

Hospitals, Chiropractic, Rehab, Physical Therapists: “Functional Fitness” has continued to stay strong, hovering right around #7-#10 for the past five years. While many of these functional fitness activities do focus on older age groups for obvious reasons, in the hospital, chiropractic and physical therapist’s offices, these represent to some degree, almost all of their clients. In fact, this may be the reason behind another interesting trend—that of “physician referrals” to exercises. A lot of physicians prescribe pharmaceutical solutions to their patients, but increasingly exercises and physical activity seems to be the best prescription for a lot of patients with tremendously positive side effects. In fact, some physicians have begun to buy gym equipment for their offices and partner up with physical trainers and therapists to facilitate recovery of patients. (See Industry News Jan 2012 for more.)

Senior Facilities:  As more baby boomers hit retirement and seek healthier paths to aging gracefully and living actively, the demand for fitness programs that cater to them has jumped up from #6 in 2010 to #2 in 2011, and stays strong at #3 for 2012. It helps also, that they have more disposable income than the average population and time. So, this market will continue to expect dynamic growth and higher quality of programs and equipment.

Personal Trainers:  While personal training and greater demand for educated, certified and experienced fitness professionals are strong trends, the growing number of newly certified graduates is intensifying competition, too. This makes a stronger case for segmentation, specialization, and catering to more and more niche clients.

One good niche area is another growing trend—exercise and weight loss. Whereas caloric restriction and diet fads dominated weight loss programs in the past, mounting evidence for greater need for exercise and benefits of exercise is leading the “exercise and weight loss” to become an ever-growing trend since this survey began. There are even some boutique gyms catering to obese clients, that allow new members only if they stand to lose at least 30 pounds. (Please see the article on industry news.)

Another great niche to focus on is the fight against childhood obesity that Michelle Obama has highlighted. “Children and obesity” has stayed in the top 5 trends for the last 6 years.

Also, “group personal training” has moved up 6 spots from last year. This is discounted personal training to groups of 2-4, that allows for a creative way for personal trainers to abridge the economic downturn and growing demand.

(For the full pdf of the survey, please go to the ACSM website.)

Do What Works for You!

Is morning your best time of day? Then put your workout clothes on first thing when you get out of bed and get your workout behind you.

Do you like to workout on your own schedule? Get a piece of fitness equipment for your home, or put on your IPOD and head outside if the weather allows.

Are you motivated by having others around you? Take a group Indoor Cycling Class, Boot Camp, Pilates or other exercise class.

Avoid Boredom

Have a schedule, but mix up your workout so that your body and mind are constantly stimulated. Mix up your workout using different pieces of equipment. Alternate a treadmill with time on an indoor cycling bike or elliptical. Do interval training using a piece of cardio equipment alternated with strength training. Use a 20 minute Sprint 8 high intensity interval workout when time is tight.

Make a Goal

Maybe you have a warm weather vacation coming up in the spring. There’s a Moab 5k Run and Half Marathon in Moab in March, the Cherry Creek Sneak in April, the MS Walk/Run in May and the Courage Classic Bicycle Event in July. Climbing 14ers with friends might be in your plans for the upcoming spring and summer. No matter what it is, having a goal that you are working toward will increase your chances of sticking with your workout routine. And if you have a week that is interrupted with travel or other unexpected events, you are much more likely to get back to your exercise routine if you have a goal that you are working toward in the future.

The bottom line is make a plan, choose the workout routine that works for you, allow yourself to be flexible, and have a goal that you can work toward – and 2012 is sure to be a year of improved health and fitness for you!

Jeanne Sheriff
Owner, Healthstyles Exercise Equipment

And sledding is more work than you think! Every time you take a ride down the hill, climb all the back to the top – you can burn more calories by pulling a few kids on the sled as you go up! Try sledding for 30 minutes, and you can burn as many calories as a two-mile run.

Here, Life Fitness breaks down potential calorie burn* of outdoor winter activities you can try this season:

• Sledding for 30 minutes: 250 calories
• Ice skating for 30 minutes: 230 calories
• Cross-country skiing for 30 minutes: 300 calories
• Down-hill skiing for 30 minutes: 210 calories
• Snowboarding for 30 minutes: 250 calories
• Walking the dog for 30 minutes: 125 calories
• Shoveling snow for 30 minutes: 230 calories

And when getting outdoors isn’t feasible, hop on your home treadmill or elliptical trainer and indulge yourself in a favorite music playlist while sweating off some of those extra holiday treats!

*approximations based on an average 145 lbs woman for a 30 minutes of activity

Fit Tips are provided by Life Fitness, the leader in designing and manufacturing high-quality exercise equipment for fitness facilities and homes worldwide. For more information on Fit Tips and other fitness advice and expertise visit www.lifefitness.com or follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/lifefitness or join our Facebook fan page at www.facebook.com/lifefitness.

First, to avoid electric shock, remember to unplug the machines before cleaning. For treadmills, follow the manufacturer’s guidelines for cleaning the foot rails on the sides of the moving belt. The dust and debris that often build up on the rails cause friction and over time, burden the motor unnecessarily.

On elliptical and bikes, the pivot points, bearings, chains, and pedals may need occasional lubrication. Generic lubricants like WD-40 will often cause build-up and swelling. So, use the manufacturer-recommended lubricants, like Teflon or silicone.

When wiping sweat and grime off the equipment, do not use harsh chemicals like Bleach or ammonia.  A mild antibacterial soap and warm water will usually do the trick with a damp, soft cloth. If your cloth is sopping wet, excess moisture getting into the unit could damage your equipment or burn the console.

Finally, you can use a compressed air and a shop vac to keep the motor control board, foot rails and the area beneath them clean. When your machines last longer, you do not need to purchase new equipment as often. So, knowing how to keep the exercise machines clean and in good shape is ultimately about controlling business costs.

The wish list for Director Julio Flores and the kids includes a new multi-stack gym, new benches and weights, a treadmill and possibly an elliptical trainer, and assorted other accessories. HealthStyles has pledged a percentage of our profits during November and December, along with some time and energy, to make this happen.

Director Julio Flores shares the vision for the new Cope Boys and Girls Club fitness room.

So far we have removed the old weight machines and benches from the exiting room, and taken what cannot be used, to salvage. The room has been painted and brightened with pictures and mirrors by the Boys and Girls Club Staff and Volunteers.

The old weight room at the Cope Boys and Girls Club in Denver.

We have added several multi-angle benches and have identified a multi-stack gym that will hopefully be installed this week!

Our Give the Gift Campaign is what is allowing this to happen. We are encouraging all of our customers to purchase gifts that will enhance the health and fitness of their friends and loved ones, and when they purchase equipment or accessories from HealthStyles Exercise Equipment during this Christmas Season, we are donating a portion of the profits to the equipment that is on the wish list for the Cope Buys and Girls Club.

We would like to encourage all of our customers to continue your generosity by supporting our Give the Gift of Fitness Campaign between now and Christmas.

HealthStyles Exercise Equipment has some great gifts for fitness enthusiasts in all price ranges!

Whether your gift is for an avid runner, a Cross-Fit or P90X junkie, or a friend or loved on who is trying to firm up or lose weight, here are just a few of the many possible gifts you can put under the tree for those important people in your life.

Everyone knows how busy this time of year is. There are decorations to put up, gifts to purchase, parties and events to attend, along with the regular daily schedule of work and family responsibilities. For me, when life gets rushed and I can’t fit it all in, the first thing to go always seems to be my workout routine! The crazy thing is that this is the time when we really need the exercise routine, both to keep our life in balance, and to burn those extra calories that we may be taking in over the Holidays.

This is the time of year when remembering the Sprint 8 Workout really makes sense! If you have 20 minutes, 3 times per week, you can get a great workout in a short period of time, and experience some great benefits.

The Sprint 8 Workout, developed by exercise physiologist Phil Campbell, consists of a 3 minute warm-up followed by 8 segments of anaerobic exercise lasting 30 seconds followed by 90 seconds of active recovery, and then a cool down after the 8 segments. That 20 minutes is a short, but definitely not an easy workout! The 30 second sprints need to be so hard that you get really winded and want to stop after 10 or 15 seconds, but hang on for 30 seconds before ending the sprint.

Of course anyone beginning this type of high-intensity workout needs to do so with approval from a physician, and with a slow, progressive buildup period. Individuals beginning this workout may start out by doing only 2 or 3 sprint segments and gradually working up to the 8 segment, 20 minute workout.

At HealthStyles Exercise Equipment, we feature Vision treadmills, exercise bikes and ellipticals that have a pre-set Sprint 8 program built in to their programming, but Sprint 8 workouts can be also done on any other piece of cardiovascular equipment.

For more information on the benefits of the Sprint 8 Workout and the research behind it, take a look at the attached video featuring Phil Campbell.

So don’t give up your workout during this busy season, just abbreviate it to fit your life right now. A Sprint 8 workout is a great way to do this, and once you get back to a more normal workout schedule, you will want to incorporate the Sprint 8 workout as part of your overall routine as a way to add intensity and interval training to your cardio workout!

Jeanne Sheriff, owner

Healthstyles Exercise Equipment