Fitness Junkies: 3 Ways to Enhance Your Group Fitness Journey

Group fitness classes have become the new, fun way to workout. They are motivating, competitive, and lead to both, collective and personal success. Although some fitness junkies enjoy sweating on their own, the group fitness trend is in full-force with studios, boutiques, and group training sessions on the rise. As a fitness lover, learning about new innovations in the health and wellness world can help enhance your own fitness journey. 

Christine Van Dusen's article, The Cult Appeal of SoulCycle, discusses one of the leaders in the group fitness industry today: SoulCycle. SoulCycle is a group cycling class, lead by an instructor, that is meant to be a tribal, primal, and fun way to get a good workout in. They have gained a massive and loyal following, helping to explain Van Dusen's article title. 

 Image from SoulCycle located on Tampa Bay Business Journal.

Not interested in cycling? Check out this article from Brandi Kupchella, What's the Theory Behind Orangetheory Fitness?. Orangetheory Fitness, another leader in the group fitness industry, is an instructor-guided class that takes its participants through different cardio and weightlifting circuits, measuring their heart rates during their workout in order to track short-term performance, and eventually, long-term growth. 

Action Recommendations 

• 1. Trials Maximize Experiences – Most studios and boutiques offers free trials or a free-first class, so maximize your fitness experiences and use these to your advantage; you never know what new exercises and classes you might like until you try them!

• 2.  Your Body-Type Rules – Find a group training class that incorporates exercises YOU enjoy doing for YOUR body type that makes YOU feel good. 

• 3. Teams Create Success – Working out with others, whether they are your best friends or strangers, creates an opportunity for support and competition – use these to your advantage; they are great motivators for personal success.

Consider these recommendations when you're thinking about starting your group fitness journey and maybe even try out a new class - perhaps at SoulCycle or Orangetheory Fitness!

Liza Elder

I am pursuing a Masters Degree in Integrated Marketing and Communications and am a fifth-year student-athlete on the Women's Lacrosse team at Northwestern University. I have a passion for Health and Fitness, and am always on the hunt for new trends that help forge a better lifestyle. Connect with me on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Brand strategists: 3 recommandations on how to build a purposeful brand

As a brand strategist, you know that brand purpose and inclusion are essential aspects of building strong and authentic relationship with customer and developing a more human marketing over time. Currently an IMC student at Medill Northwestern, I am passionated about communication and inclusion and I found these two articles that I hope you will learn from. 

In his article Marketing’s ‘faux-feminism’ problem on International Women’s Day, global keynote marketing speaker and director of marketing and communication in the high-tech industry Samuel Scott points out the occasional marketing hypocrisie about feminism. Published last March in The Drum, the article relates a conversation the author had with Katie Martell, a former startup chief marketing officer and entrepreneur passionated about women in advertising. The conclusion of this discussion is that there is a major gap between the marketing campaigns of some companies and their actual daily practices towards women. According to Martell, these practices can be qualified as « faux-feminism » since it is the exploitation of these ideals for the purpose of advertising. Samuel Scott then uses a dozen examples to illustrate his point. In particular, he evokes the Secret brand of the famous group Procter & Gamble which had launched in 2016 an advertisement showing a woman about to ask his boss a salary increase. Still, Scott points out that at the time of the release, only 27% of Procter & Gamble's leadership team was women.

Source

On that same topic, CMO at Grey London and member of the UK’sAdvertising Association Front Foot Board Sarah Jenkins published last July a great article on Adweek. She explained that the word « feminism » is still the victim of stigma and negative connotations resulting from the fear of each other and difference. She denounces the feminist attempts of brands that she believes are often superficial and do not fulfill their purpose of promoting an equal image of genders. Just like Samuel Scott, she points out the hypocrisy of some brands and media using feminism as a superficial tool. She emphasizes the influence of brands and their power to change beliefs and behaviors, and thus encourages them to be more human. Finally, she takes the example of certain celebrities who have created their own personal brand and who show a behavior consistent with their feminist values such as Emma Watson, a source of inspiration for the GenZs who expect brands to portray women and people in general as they really are. Jenkins thus urges marketers to be more human, and more activist. 

From these two articles and my knowledge on strategy and social inclusion, I designed three recommandations that I hope will help you build more inclusive strategies:

• Avoid feminist stereotypes - to communicate effectively you need to communicate toward humans and avoid stereotypes and connotations 

• Authenticity rules - the new generation will not tolerate hypocrisie and stereotypes, they want authentic messages to themselves and their views of the world

• Be business consistent- your advertising should not contradict your business practices 

Brand culture and purpose are crucial attractive factors for consumers, especially for GenZ when it comes to purchase decisions. But brands need to engage in an authentic and human way to gain trust, build strong relationships and attract customers. 

About Lisa Gache: currently doing an exchange quarter at Medill Northwestern University in the IMC program, I will graduate in France from Sciences Po Paris in 2021 after my master of Communication, Media and Creative Industries.  You can find me on LinkedIn  or follow me on Twitter.