The Best of Both Worlds: Instructing Freestyle and Pre-Chore Group Fitness

by Ryan Hogan | Friday, July 03, 2009

This post was written by international presenter and educator Rebecca Small.

Once upon a time, in a land called Oz there was a group of Freestyle fitness instructors at the top of their game. The land was a melting pot, producing some of the best freestyle presenters the world has ever seen, and some of whom the world never got to see.

Lexie Williams, Marcus Irwin, David Hatch, Michael Betts, Anton Scott, Lisa Osborne, Cathy Spencer, Michelle Dean, Mitch Gibson, Helen Harper, Lesley Gray, Susie Miller and many, many more were all leaders in their chosen field.  ...read more

Vibration Training, the new fitness frontier?

by Ryan Hogan | Sunday, May 31, 2009

The following post was written by international presenter and educator, Steve Schiemer.

Having lived in Europe for the last 12 years, I have watched this type of training explode onto the fitness and rehab scene. It first hit the fitness market about 6 or 7 years ago. Vibration training is the act of passing a vibration through the body to elicit a series of responses, in particular to activate the deep core muscles of the body, to stimulate the nervous system, increase strength and power, reduce pain perception, increase bone density, improve circulation and lymphatic drainage and improve proprioception. The two most popular ways to do this are to either stand on a vibrating plate, such the Power Plate, and allow the vibrations to enter the body via the legs, or to use a handheld oscillating device such as a FLEXI-BAR, which is a long flexible fibreglass bar with weights on the end and a handle in the middle that you push/pull to get the bar to swing back and forth, allowing the vibrations to pass into the body via the arms.  ...read more

Record industry tries to impose $100m tax on fitness

by Ryan Hogan | Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Fitness facilities around Australia are facing an unprecedented hike in the fees they pay for music – a huge increase of more than 4,000 per cent in many cases – if the Copyright Tribunal upholds a record industry claim to change the rate of music licence fees. If the record industry gets away with it, a typical fitness club with 1,300 members will be forced to pay $140,000 in annual fees, a massive increase on the $2,654 they currently pay. Many of these fitness centres are small owner-operators and this increase will have a disastrous impact on their businesses and on jobs – all because record industry bosses are looking for easy targets to plug the gap left by declining CD sales.  ...read more

Network's interview with aussie fitness industry legend Rebecca Small.

by Ryan Hogan | Thursday, February 26, 2009

This is a unique opportunity to get to know one of Australia's most respected and admired fitness industry presenters, Rebecca Small. Currently living in the UK, Rebecca has one of the busiest schedules on the convention circuit and we were very lucky to be able to have a quick chat about the past, present and future with her. Read on and enjoy...

Network: You've been in the fitness industry for quite a while now. What things have you done throughout your career and what are you doing these days?
Rebecca: I started teaching Group Fitness when I was 18, when we had to record records onto tapes and we used to teach single tracks, nothing was mixed and we used to teach routines to the verse and chorus. At 19 I took my first trip overseas to Hong Kong and started a job teaching 18 classes a week, which was a rude shock to my system and I had burnt out within 6 months - not physically - I was starved of creativity and inspirational music, so I had to come home.   ...read more

Get to know... Karen Bruk-Finucane, a woman who puts group fitness first

by Analee Matthews | Thursday, February 19, 2009

Karen Bruk-Finucane has been working within the industry for almost two decades now. But here are a few things you may not have known about her...

"I started my group fitness training 19 years ago while still at uni - thinking that it'd be a great part-time job while studying. And 19 years and three unused, non-fitness related degrees later, I'm still here and wouldn't change it for the world.  After all, how many people get paid to stay fit while helping others to improve the quality of their lives?"   ...read more

Extreme Heat and Exercise: Duty of Care.

by Ryan Hogan | Tuesday, February 03, 2009

The following post was written by Alisha Smith, Network's Education Manager.

With the recent heatwave smothering Victoria and South Australia, it seems a pertinent time to discuss duty of care to our clients. Did you know that in Australia there are no specific regulations regarding the temperature extremes at which to cancel fitness activities, both indoor and out?  ...read more

The results of Network's first ever Group Fitness Instructor Survey are here!

by Ryan Hogan | Monday, December 15, 2008

Lesser variety of programs, smaller and fewer classes seems to be the name of the game in the current Group Exercise world. In the recent Group Exercise Instructor survey completed by Network it seems that the current scenario for practicing instructors is that less is better! This is perhaps not surprising, as the variety of possible classes you can teach has never been greater and the understanding one must have to teach effectively and professionally has also never been higher.  ...read more