In this episode, Matt Maloney, from the Above and Beyond Leadership podcast, interviews Rick Mayo on the wellness journey and building the Alloy Personal Training Franchise system. The evolution of personal training and the fitness industry has come a long way.
The fitness industry, perhaps more than any other industry, keeps evolving. There are always new fitness concepts, techniques, technology, and fads that give rise to all the niche concepts we see today. Most fitness-oriented clubs were just general service health clubs that appealed to a small group that like to exercise. Now, fitness is good for anyone, regardless of age or fitness level. People realize how much they can benefit from paying attention to their health and fitness.
Personal training, as a concept, started sometime in the early ’90s and really gained traction in the 2000s. Personal training started out going into the client’s home. You could also work at a general health club as a personal trainer, but the opportunity to create a full-time career as a personal trainer or coach was difficult.
Rick was among the first, if not the first, to put four walls around the personal training service and provide some customer experience around it. Rick Mayo opened a personal training center in 1992 when he was a junior in college. It was the first ever personal training center dedicated to just that service, and it was the first one to have four walls and a customer experience around this really high-end service.
Boutique fitness studios became more popular offering smaller facilities, fewer members, and more focused fitness concepts. Now the Alloy Personal Training facilities have become a viable solution for general health and just getting yourself to a healthier place.
Wellness is a key trend for fitness now. Wellness can be viewed as a wheel, and the spokes in that wheel should include fitness, strength, mobility, recovery, sleep, nutrition, and supplementation.
As a personal training coach, you approach each person individually and work on blending all the spokes of that wheel with a complete exercise, fitness, and wellness approach.
Exercise on its own will help you, but if you aren’t treating the entire problem, you won’t make as big an impact if you address the whole solution.
Your metabolism is affected as you get older. This can increase obesity and affect your balance and cognitive functions. It’s also harder to get lean tissue and muscle back, and it takes twice as long to gain the same amount. But there is no combination of hormones or supplements that can replace exercise.
Lessons Learned From The Alloy Wellness Journey
1. Move More
Overall, we recommend moving more. It is easy to start with more movement. Try to move three hours a week. Think of your heart rate zones as effort zones one through five. Spend the bulk of your time in zone two. Every now and then, get your heart rate up really high.
2. Strength Train
If you want to start exercising, strength training three to four days a week is the best use of your time. Strength training is one of the best exercises to help build lean tissue and muscle, burn more calories, and challenge obesity. One day a week, do something sustainable that gets your heart rate up really high.
3. Eat More Protein
According to nutrition and exercise research, you need more protein as you age. Most people are under-eating their protein requirements to a certain degree, so a good rule of thumb would be to eat a gram of protein per pound of desired body weight. This will help maintain lean tissue and muscle mass even without exercise. Protein also increases your satiety.
Just keep it simple, move more, get your heart rate up every now and then, and eat more protein.
In this episode, Rick shares top fitness & nutrition practices and encourages anyone to take control of their health, regardless of their physical stage.
- The advent of personal training in the ’90s (01:05)
- How fitness has changed over the past 4 decades (03:04)
- Mental health and mindfulness in fitness (08:44)
- How lean body mass affects your metabolic health (10:46)
- Establishing a good culture in a fitness business (16:37)
- Rick’s advice to his younger self (21:43)