1. Interactive
2. Interesting
3. Informative
4. Considerate
5. Real, live humans (Robots need not apply for the Follower position)! 
   
   Add comment (0)

Here we are heading into the last few weeks of summer. These days are often referred to as the “Dog Days of August”! This phrase made me start thinking about the goals our family set for ourselves this summer. It was not as ambitious a list as our New Year’s Resolutions, but it was a decent list of things that my family and I could do together over the summer to better ourselves. We are still working our way through the ever evolving list as a family. We have achieved many of our family goals, like going on an overnight camping trip, going fishing, competing in running/walking events, teaching the kids to swim, and to play.  Although it was pretty rainy here in New Jersey earlier in the summer, the weather has been great recently for spending time outside with my kids at the beach or at the park playing, exercising and doing as much as we could before weather turns and summer ends. We accomplished a lot, but the family and I still have a few things left to accomplish before the kids head back to school. The main thing being that we need to get ourselves a new dog!

This has been the first summer we have not had a dog in our home in MANY years. It has been very different around our house this summer without our usual four-legged friends around to keep us on our toes.  We were blessed to have one dog, an American Staffordshire Terrier named Snoop, for 15 years.  He traveled and ran with us all over the country helping us train for many races and even helping to prepare us for parenthood.  Snoop, who was basically our first child, had to be put down a little over a year ago due to his declining health, and we have not been able to find another dog quite like him.

With the growth of the internet and video technology it has become relatively easy to put personal training on auto pilot these days.  A person can find workouts on a host of sites ranging from still photos of exercises to animated stick figures to YouTube videos of actual workouts. Video conferencing technology allows personal trainers to actually watch their client’s workout over long distances and allows real time interaction between trainer and client.  Personal training has expanded from your basic 1 on 1 training session to large group sessions like Boot Camps and spin classes made for the masses.  Having learned valuable lessons about expanding clientele through group classes it was only a matter of time before trainers started using the internet to expand there reach and client base.  The emphasis has shifted to quantity of clients and away from the quality of the workouts.  Trainers are focusing on creating workout plans and training programs that are meant for mass consumption and not for any individual client in particular.  I don’t say this to disparage personal trainers for the job they do, but to give them a quick heads up on some alarming information I have been reading and hearing about recently.

Clients are not being handled with the same individual attention they once were given by personal trainers.  The personal aspects of the client/trainer relationship have also been strained due to the emergence of group classes and online training programs.  The emergence of e-mail as a main source of communication has also lead to less personal interaction between client and patient.