ED is defined as “an inability to obtain or maintain an erection for satisfactory sexual intercourse”. Studies have indicated that there is a relationship between ED and the vascular system, due to the fact that rates of ED are much higher in men with diabetes, high cholesterol, and cardiovascular disease.

Understanding the critical role played by the endothelium the relationship between endothelial dysfunction, cardiovascular disease, and high cholesterol, nutrition and exercise are logical tools for prevention and treatment.

A previous research review from the Journal of Andrology found that men with ED who participated in an exercise program did demonstrate improved sexual responses. Overall, this review indicated that nutrition and physical activity positively augment normal erectile function.

Researchers in this review emphasized that this is probably the result of … “reduced metabolic disturbances decreased visceral adipose tissue, and improvement in vascular function”.

So, it shouldn’t be suprising another, much more recent, review in the Journal of Andrology, on the preliminary evidence of the association between ED and COVID-19, found a significant effect of COVID-19 on the development of ED was found among subjects in the study.

In conclusion, get vaccinated, participate in a functional fitness program, adhere to a clinically recommended nutrition plan and don’t think little blue pills might be a fun way to go about getting it up.

The post Erectile Dysfunction and COVID-19, a Relationship Made in Hell appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

COVID has left an indelible mark on the fitness industry. Business owners, gym employees, and gym-goers were left scrambling, confused, and in the dark by the ever-changing COVID rules and regulations.

Gyms were required to close their doors with no idea when or if they were going to reopen. Some gyms, including mine, could keep going because of flexible business plans, long sleepless nights, and a little luck. Others were not so lucky.

Here are four statistics that COVID inflicted on the U.S health and fitness industry last year:

1. Industry revenue plummeted by 58%.
2. Seventeen percent of fitness facilities were closed permanently.
3. Eight major fitness companies filed for bankruptcy.
4. More than one million industry employees lost their jobs.

The financial loss is enormous but imagine for a moment the effect it had on people’s health.

We cannot measure health benefits, but the clients will feel these effects for a long time. My heart goes out to these people.

My gym Results Performance Training remains open because COVID forced me to learn some tough personal and business lessons. In some respects, it saved my business, as ironic as that sounds.

Here are four lessons I learned that made my business better today.

And if you’re still in business, hopefully, you can apply these lessons so you can survive and thrive in the future.

1. Pivot and Focus on Your Options

Due to the uncertainty of the job market and COVID fears, we focused on semi-private and virtual options.

• Results Performance ended up doing more semi-private/small group training to adapt to people who did not feel comfortable in large groups.
• Our gym devoted more energy to building our higher-priced services of semi-private training instead of our large group.
• We then added more options for one-on-one and semi-private (3-5 people per group) training. By having these three options, I was able to keep my gym afloat while allaying fears about COVID.
• By keeping the groups between three and five people, my gym can offer personal service without the personal cost.
• Reducing group size allowed us to provide a service that charges more than large group training with fewer sessions and requiring less staff.
• Semi and private groups are also easier on our coaches versus doing many group sessions per day.
• Going with the semi-private/small group training still offers higher-cost options like one-on-one training.

One-on-one training makes your group training easier to sell to those who cannot afford personal training long-term.

2. Improve Your Mindset

It’s easy when you’re knee-deep in the trenches to sweat the small stuff.

Before COVID, I was complaining about being too busy, and then COVID shut me down.

Now, I will never complain about being busy again. When Results first shut down, it put things in perspective and helped me practice gratitude.

During COVID, I became more aware of my negative thoughts and improved my ability to stop them quickly and turn them into positives.

If you practice gratitude and keep your mindset focused on the positive while ignoring the negative, it will help with the day-to-day running of your business.

3. Play To Your Strengths

There is a push from some fitness business coaches to have you remove yourself from the training floor altogether.

• It’s your decision, but you must realize being a trainer and owning a training business are two separate things.
• Removing yourself from one side of the business to focus entirely on the other may not play to your strengths.
• I feel you need to know both sides of your business to be a complete business owner.

I love being back on the training floor because it keeps me in touch with my members and their wants and needs. If you’re not delivering what the members want, you’ll soon be out of business.

You must find a balance if you own and work in your business.

You may have to devote resources to other members of your team to cover your spending less time on the business side of your gym. I had to analyze my team and find people who can play off my weaknesses to focus on my strengths.

Rebuilding my team during COVID gave me the opportunity to right some of my wrongs. No one wants to say this, but when you screw up as a leader, your employees and members will not forget it.

That’s why, in sports, when a coach goes, you see the team clean house.

Before, I had too many people in the same position, which was a drain on my payroll. When I reduced the number of employees and staff and played to their strengths, the business ran smoother, and our work atmosphere improved.

Because of this, our culture improved.

Improve the Culture

COVID gave me a chance to see who bought into my training philosophy. I was shocked by people going out of their way to pay even more to help or invest more in our business to keep it going.

The culture of our studio became even more vital because the clients who stuck with us during COVID are our ideal clients.

Your culture improves when you have your staff and members pulling in one direction.

It isn’t easy to put this culture into words, but you can sense its enormity. Your culture is always something you should try to nail down and strengthen because knowing who you serve and who you don’t will help sales, member retention, and your bottom line.

COVID forced me into a situation where I needed to improve, or my employees would lose their jobs, and I would lose my business.

These four lessons have improved my business, and hopefully, they can improve yours also.

The post 4 Ways the Pandemic Saved My Gym appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

One of the great head slapping moments of the Great Pandemic has been reading social media posts from gym owners decrying how they don’t get to open but bars do because, health.

No one should take medical advice from some who isn’t a medical professional or assume that the guy who just got you to deadlift your bodyweight is a health expert.

Let’s clear that up. For most gyms, it has always been about looking good naked first, and everything else second. Let’s not pretend that getting people into gyms is an act of salvation for society because it just sounds self-serving.

All those gym owners can rectify the situation going forward by figuring out how to make their gyms safe for use in a Pandemic world, and how they can be a part of the solution against chronic disease for the long term, as opposed to making a marketing pitch. It’s not going to happen but it’s nice to think that things might change for the better.

Does that sound cynical? Well, maybe, but it’s the truth and it isn’t actually the gym owners’ fault that they find themselves in the situation they are in.

They would probably love to have hundreds of members paying them to help them go for a walk or be more active, and not have to pick up their weights after them or clean their space.

Because, yeah, most healthy activity and reduction of chronic disease can be achieved without a $150 a month membership or a $20 a session group class.

But, that’s not why you’re there and you’re part of the problem and a definite part of the solution, if you only agree to be. You want that membership, and you want it in a box gym because it holds a different meaning for you.

Your gym is about 2,500 square foot, maybe more, maybe less, but it’s not a giant cavernous space. You have some bars and rings, barbells and squat racks, kettlbells, dumbells, ropes and stuff that looks good piled against the wall. It’s a dark, moody prison yard but you love it.

You’re going to be the kind of person who spends a good hour or more in that little gym, sweating profusely, breathing hard for most of that hour, and doing it with little time for the niceties of gym etiquette.

You drop weights, you run around, you drip sweat, you spray sweat, you are in it with your community of fellow moisture freaks to the bitter end when the final bell rings.

Yes, you are probably healthier than most people. Although, you know, you probably would be doing the same thing whether it was healthy or not. In fact, you don’t do it because of your regular physical, that bit is nice, but you do it because of the achievement, the need to lift more, to develop a new skill or, even to compete. You go to that box gym of yours even when you are injured because it is your rite of passage.

And, right there, is the dilemma facing box gyms opening up. They are not like the globo gyms where treadmills and equipment take up every usable square foot and where about 80% of the members don’t ever show up.

They reduce their cholestrol by having that $20 a month payment on their accounts. It reduces the stress of thinking about the actual work of working out.

Box gym goers are more likely than any other gym goer to spend the most time in their gyms (there’s a New Your Time article that makes this clear). They are the one percent of the gym going public. That’s 600,000 people roughly, divided between 5,000 gyms (roughly 120 people per gym, on average) in the US alone.

Box gyms, post-lockdown, are under pressure to be safe places in a way that they were never really designed to be. That’s a fact, it is not insurmountable, but it can’t be done by the gym owner alone.

It requires you, the member, to be engaged enough to want to make the environment safe for everyone. The big question is whether you are up to the task.

The Health and Safety Problem for Gyms

The International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association (IHRSA) has an extensive amount of information that it provides its members, the owners of health clubs, with respect to best practices in creating a safe environment.

Granted, there is no way to enforce any of these recommendations, as there is no way of policing their implementation. It doesn’t matter who says it, what they say, and how they plan for it, ultimately, the gym you go to lives in its own deterministic universe where the ownership and the most active members have pre-ordained the end results.

The biggest problem that I see is the fact that typical box gym is a one-stop shop of group and individual classes. There is no real distinction in organization between what is a set of people randomly doing their own workouts and a group following the on-the-hour whiteboard routine that’s been put up that day.

That in itself produces a series of logistical issues, and let’s be frank, it’s going to take patience, diligence, and teamwork, between members and staff, to enable the implementation of effective protocols in a COVID-19 world.

So, you have to ask two questions:

1. Does your gym have a set of written guidelines and protocols for cleaning, and maintaining social distancing? If not, why not?
2. Does your gym offer alternatives for members that are either not comfortable, or at greater risk? It could be remote training, online training or even personalized sessions in a clean environment? If not, why not?

The if not, why not follow up is pretty key. I can understand how difficult it is going to be for box gyms to manage in a COVID-19 world. But attitude matters. You are still going to be inside a closed environment for a significant amount of time with many other people, and the likelihood of a lot of shared air.

If bars have been responsible for the surge in recent cases then, how different a set up is that to a gym? Lots of people close together having a great time.

So, it isn’t the greatest situation from a purely logical standpoint, but mitigate the risk and you have lessened the chance of a breakout if someone is exposed to the virus. If mitigation isn’t even a consideration that should be of great concern.

Like I said, it is not up to the individual business owner to determine the fate of his or her members. It is up to you, as a paying customer, to manage your own risk. Make your choices wisely and if nothing happens, that’s success.

Can you work really hard to make nothing happen? It goes against the grain of your mentality but that’s what it is going to take. Time will tell how successful box gyms will be at managing in a COVID-19 world.

We hope that community really does mean something more than just having a bunch of people clap for you every time you get a PR.

You might also like:

• The Importance Of Gym Cleanliness: A Microbiology Approach
• Why You Shouldn’t Work Out When You’re Sick

The post Is Your Gym Healthy? appeared first on Breaking Muscle.