News & Features

With recent data revealing that a shocking 62% of UK adults are overweight or obese, ensuring your gym is welcoming and appealing has never been so important. But from cardio-crazy gym veterans to testosterone-pumping bodybuilders, gyms can be an understandably intimidating environment for out-of-shape newbies and atypical gym-goers.

So here, courtesy of Tom Brialey (the Founder and Director of Action Storage), are a few smart ways you can ensure your gym is fully inclusive, regardless of age, gender or ability.

Let’s take a closer look…

The changing rooms

As gym-users’ first port of call, your changing rooms require a thoughtful and c

Opportunities for women in sport and exercise are expanding rapidly, whether it is in leading a governing body, excelling in elite competition or simply participation for fitness, camaraderie and the love of sport. However, there is still much work to do to achieve a level playing field. Having started as an all-male event, women competed for the first time in The Olympics in the 1900 Games in Paris. According to the International Olympic Committee females represented just 2.2% of the 997 participating athletes, competing in just five sports at these Games. Significant progress has been made since then, with females now making up almost half of the athletes at the Summer and Winter Olympic games (Noland & Stahler, 2017). However, gender parity at the Olympic Games is not en

As we venture into another January crush in gyms worldwide, with people eager to run off that extra mince pie or lift their way out of the pool of brandy cream they waded into somewhere around the 28th December, fitness professionals come out of hibernation ready to feast on the influx of a new batch of novice health conscious humans.

These people are ready to spend their last remaining pennies on employing someone to get that beach body ready by any means necessary. However, increasingly these spare pennies are being spent on tech not trainers. In 2014 5 million units (Statista, 2019a) of smart watches were sold. This number increased by 380% in 2015 and in just three years it rocketed further still to 43.5 million in 2018 (Statista, 2019b). What’s more, the trend isn’t showing signs of stopping and industry predictions show that by 2022

Graduates of a new fitness qualification can now access the UK’s largest register of fitness professionals.

Pearson’s BTEC Level 3 National Diploma in Fitness Services meets the membership entry requirements for the Register of Exercise Professionals (REPs).

This REPs recognised qualification increases the employability of those pursuing a career in the health and fitness industry, which upon successful completion provides access to REPs’ level two fitness instructor categories, including Level 2 Gym/Fitness Instructor, Level 2 Circuits Instructor, Level 2 Exercise to Music Instructor and Level 2 Aqua Instructor*.

Pearson Sport Sector Manager Becky Laffan said:

"It's really important to us that learners are offered the opportunities to be the best they can be, which is why we'r

So, now that Christmas is a fading memory, I’m sure that you are back into the swing of things, all guns blazing, tires firmly on the tar and (hopefully) sticking to whatever goals and targets you set yourself both personally and professionally whilst welcoming in 2019 with open arms.

I’m sure you’re holding on tight to the fitness rollercoaster that’s trailblazing in so many different directions right now from budget to boutique, indoor to outdoor, not to mention the extremely exciting and dynamic digital space.

But before we look to the future I’d like to reflect a little.

The past nine years my family and I have resided in South Africa, so our annual trip back ‘home’ every December is one that we as a family really look forward to.

Of course, it’s all about reconnecting with family and friends but it’s the little things that trig

The International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association (IHRSA) and the European Observatoire of Sport and Employment (EOSE) are delighted to launch the first EU Skills Survey — embracing sport and physical activity across the EU — and we are asking for your participation. 

The two associations share a mission to build a more active society and ensure we have a skilled workforce to deliver a successful future.

Building on their memorandum of understanding signed in London at the European Congress in 2017, IHRSA is requesting all Clubs, Associations, Federations, Suppliers and other Industry Employers to support this survey below as part of the European Sector Skills Alliance for Sport and Physical Activity, a three-year project led by EOSE and funded by the EU under Erasmus Plus.

Detailed research and consultation is underway at a national

Online coaching is bang on trend right now and if recent years are anything to go by, it’s a trend that is set to stay and continue to grow.^{1, 2}

While many in the fitness industry aspire to take at least a portion of their business online, why exactly is this an area that fitness professionals should seriously consider moving into?

1. Flexibility and Freedom

As an online coach you have the flexibility and freedom to operate and coach clients no matter where you are. It’s a business model you can run from home, while on holiday and from anywhere in the whole world. With online coaching, gone are the days of losing money while on holiday because you couldn’t be around to coach your clients and teach classes in person. In addition, you no longer have to be dictated to by

The Register of Exercise Professionals (REPs) have teamed up with online training experts GymCube to help UK fitness professionals earn money online, as well as improve their knowledge and skills.

The duo have launched a brand new, innovative app developed by GymCube, that makes it easy to train clients professionally online and offers high quality educational content along with exclusive discounts.

As part of the partnership, GymCube will provide REPs members with exclusive access to the GymCube App, along with high-quality video content and customisable exercise plans, which REPs members can brand as their own.

GymCube Managing Director Kevin Foster-Wiltshire, said:

“Becoming an online coach in the past required start-up money and a daunting amount of technical work. We’ve built the GymCube App for instructors who are interested in coaching

Injuries to joints happen frequently among physically active individuals. In particular, those who are into running are more likely to have some form of ankle injury, writes Zara Elise.

Some of the most common are lateral ligament injuries. An article published in Elsevier stated that 77% of ankle sprains sustained in football involved the lateral ligaments. These injuries can be a recurring condition if the initial ankle sprain is poorly rehabilitated.

Ligaments are the strong fibrous tissues that connect bones to other bones. Those in the ankle help stablilise the joint and keep the bones in their proper position. When one sprains his or her ankle, the most commonly damaged is the anterior

Earlier this year British Weight Lifting (BWL) partnered with Women In Sport to create a campaign – Strong Is Not A Size – that used social media to explore women’s attitudes and experiences of lifting weights, with the ultimate aim of encouraging more women to lift weights as part of their exercise routine.

There were three hypotheses that the campaign was based on, writes BWL Partnership manager Kayleigh Richmond. The first stated that ‘society says weight lifting is for men and not women’. The second discussed whether ‘the environment is not welcoming’ and the third explored whether ‘women were not as knowledgeable as men in the act of weight lifting’.

It was agreed that the focus of the campaign should be around supporting women to gain the confidence to incorporate weight lifting into their routine and ask for help i