Friday 22 April 2016

Your Friendly Neighborhood Fitness Center ?

   In theory it all sounds so convenient. Instead of braving traffic and eating valuable time travelling to a place to work out, just go to your friendly neighborhood fitness center. Ideally this would be located in a fairly affluent urban area. Industrial zones or pedestrian challenging suburban shopping centers are less desirable. This is a recent trend in the fitness business. The business plan appears sound. There are a number of fitness chains now using this unique formula.

   Most such places are open 24/7. Members have an access card to obtain admission. They usually change and shower at home. Security cameras ensure that solitary patrons feel safe if they are working out during quiet hours. Supposedly jacked-to-the-gills muscleheads are discouraged from joining although I can't envision such clubs turning away anyone offering to pay the membership fees.  
   Many people are tired of the concept of mega fitness complexes with the high pressure sales techniques and the January New Year's resolution crowds! The corner fitness center  offers a viable alternative.     Your friendly neighborhood fitness center also offers the services of Personal Fitness Trainers.
   I actually worked at one such business for a few months, The problem was that I didn't feel that the management was giving the support that was promised in my contract, Free consultations were slotted at times that I was officially unavailable. The management in turn wanted me to give up all of my other fitness training related ventures. I was not even going to consider that until I had built up a significant client base from their membership. The head office was in a different part of the city. The lines of communication were minimal. Our expectations differed significantly.
   We mutually decided to make my contract null and void. There was no acrimony on my part. These situations tend to be the norm in the fitness industry.
   Now it turns out that my decision to not give up my other fitness ventures was the correct choice! This particular club has been shuttered by the landlord for being in arrears of the rent!  This also can be the norm in the cut throat world of the fitness industry. The city of Ottawa built a new sports complex for Canadian Football a short distance away. The complex had a mega fitness club as a tenant. This new center combined with possible head office neglect likely drained away many of the existing and potential members. I feel vindicated!
   
   I also feel concern for both the members and the Fitness Trainers. I can only offer some advice for someone joining any private fitness club:

  •  Don't pay for more than a month at a time unless you can afford to lose that money.
  •  If the fitness center goes bankrupt, into receivership or just belly up, your lost fees are low on the payback scale.
  • If you want to quit or sense that the business is in trouble, give at least a month notice or you will still be billed from your direct withdrawal.
  • If the club is part of a chain, your membership may be honored at another club. However it will be in another part of the city. Forget about the convenience factor. 
  • Read your membership contract carefully before signing.
   Fitness Trainers at a club that fails also have some concerns:

  • You may have a number of clients paid in advance with no workout facility.  
  • Another club in the same chain may accept you and your clients. Once again, the convenience factor due to commute time is affected.
  • Fitness Trainers sign a contract that prohibits them from working for a nearby competitor for a specified period of time if they quit or get fired.
  •  The contract may specify that you and your signed clients can only work at another club that is part of the chain.
  •  If not,  you may be able to entice another fitness center to accept you and your clientele.
  • Read your Fitness Trainer contract carefully before signing.
   For members or Fitness Trainers at civic or city run facilities, such concerns are rare.
Fitness is great.....but.....the fitness business can be a shark tank!

 Until Next Time,

 Little Bobby Strong

Your friendly neighborhood fitness center.
Convenient! Uncrowded! Always open!







What's this?  No more convenient club !
The small print below the picture scope reads
"FOR NOT PAY RENT - YOU EVICTED !



Links
schwabe27.uwmfatloss.hop.clickbank

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Thursday 7 April 2016

The Latest Performance Enhancing Drug - Meldonium

   Once again the sports world is rife with drama, scandal and alleged cheating. That's what makes it the best reality show in the world!  However ethics invariably takes a back seat to performance.
Every time I thought that I was ready to post this blog, another development regarding this drug hit the news channels.
    The substance in question is a pharmaceutical called Meldonium.
Meldonium is a drug produced in Latvia for treating heart issues such as angina and heart disease. Like many such medicinal agents, Meldonium increases oxygen flow to and from the heart. This can increase cardiovascular endurance.
   Surprise! Surprise! Outwardly healthy athletes have been using Meldonium as a performance enhancer. In most cases Performance Enhancing Drugs (PED's) were originally created to treat severe health deficiencies. However Machiavellian sports alchemists invariably discover that sometimes these miracle medicines can also improve certain aspects of sports physiology!

 The inventor of Meldonium claims that this drug does not enhance or improve stamina or endurance. It merely protects the heart from the strain and stress of endurance training!
Strange - I always thought that the strain and stress from training was what caused physical adaptation leading to improved function. This is known as the SAID principle.
Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands. Gradual progression leads to improvement.
Taking medication to protect from the physiological after effects of exercise seems to contradict this principle. 
   The World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) finally declared Meldonium to be a banned substance as of January 1, 2016. More surprise - since then world class athletes have been testing positive. Actually  130 athletes have had this drug turn up in their system. This tally increases almost daily.

     The growing list of positive testing athletes seems to take on some nostalgic patterns:
  • A long track speed skating men's world champion..... This Russian speed skater served a 2 year doping ban as a junior. Accidents can happen - more than once! 
  • A male short track speed skating  Olympic and world champion - also Russian.
  • A 16 year old Russian woman figure skater.
  • The biggest test failure - tennis star Maris Sharapova. She claims that she was taking this medication for 10 years for a variety of health ailments. She claims to be unaware that Meldonium became a banned substance on January 1. She lives in Florida but still has links to the Russian sports hierarchy.
  • Up to this time 130 athletes have tested positive for Meldonium.
  • So far 29 Russians have tested positive for this drug.
  • A wrestler from Georgia (part of the former Soviet Union) was one of those with the drug in his system. Amateur wrestling bouts can last as long a 6 minutes. An endurance boost could be an asset.
  • Just yesterday the news broke that 80% of the Russian under 18 hockey team has tested positive for Meldonium. The full team is being replaced by the Under 17 team before the world Under 18 Championships. This of course adds to the tally of 130 athletes and 29 Russians testing positive.
For some reason I remain skeptical. 
  • Is it reasonable to expect that young world class athletes should require heart medication?  
  • Is it possible that the sports communication system did not publicize well enough that Meldonium was recently placed on the forbidden substance list?
  • Are the remnants of the Eastern Block state sponsored doping programs still alive?
  •  Could all of these positive readings all be just a misunderstanding.
  • The Russian sports federation DID test and replace the whole Under 18 hockey team. Could this be a sign of a new vigilance and and a n honest attempt to come clean?
  • Since Meldonium is a recent banned drug it is conceivable that previous medals and championships will not be censured.
  • 2 prominent Russian doping control doctors were about to go public. Both recently died of 'natural' causes. Talk about cleaning house. 
   Meldonium apparently tends to stay in a user's system for up to a few months after it's last consumption. This is supposedly why many athletes are testing positive while thinking that all traces have been eliminated from the body. 
   As a die hard track fan I lived through the Ben Johnson saga where Canadian Olympic type sports federations got serious about getting rid of performance enhancing drugs. The United States Anti Doping Agency took down one of their own legends in Lance Armstrong. Some countries seem to approach the war on doping with a less fervent zeal. This can make for a very uneven playing field.
   I would hate to see full teams barred from Olympics and World championships. Clean athletes may suffer as well. However full teams under suspicion should undergo intensive unbiased doping tests for ALL hopeful competitors.. 
   Sports doping may be a war that will never be won ! The Olympics are coming up this year in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Throw in the  corruption that clings to every Olympics, Brazil's current political troubles, the water pollution at many sport venues and the mosquito borne Zika Virus and this summer could get hot and scandalous.There will also be some super athletic achievements.
I just may be spending a few evenings watching the tube for both sports magnificence and potential train wrecks!

If you are a fitness trainer and your client indicates that they are on a heart medication such as Meldonium, you should only continue working with them after receiving a PAR MED X form from a physician. Otherwise if something goes wrong you are liable. I wonder if some of these elite coaches got that memo?
                                       
Unlike steroids, Meldonium does not have masculinizing side effects for
women athletes.............. Or does it ??
Maria.........Is that you ???
(Picture compliments of apartment security cameras. Alcohol may have been a factor)
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