Topic: Daunting Task

[Andy Dick]

So I recently took a job at a fitness club while I keep trying to break through as a strength coach at the college level.  The thing is that they do not have bumpers or anything of the sort just the metal plates and the closest place I could lift is 45min to and 1hr away.  I was talking to the fitness director the other day and one thing they really liked about me was my knowledge of olympic lifting.  They want to start implementing it at the club, especially since there are some athletes that workout there.  The trick is that I need to write up a proposal including pricing for the equipment, selling points, benefits, and ways to implement it into a program.  Especially, for the average person just looking "to get into shape."  For me this is going to be fun and a chance to educate more people about Oly lifting.  What I would like from all of you, is if you have any info that you found that would be really good selling weightlifting based on the health benefits or places I can look for reasonably priced equipment would be great.  In fact any info you want to send my way would be greatly appreciated.  The great thing is I still have access to university library websites so I can get actual studies outlieing the benefits of weightlifting.  Plus, ways to implement it will also be a cake.  Selling points might be a little tricky though.  Thanks for your help and hopefully the chips fall in my favor and we can get this started  :grin:

[Ryan Marciniszyn]

Studies regarding weightlifter verticals are a great sell for athletes. For girl athletes there are plenty international level women competitors to use as examples of what weightlifting will make you look like.

[Rex Kanis]

Weightlifting is relatively easy tot sell to athletes. To appeal to the general public is, indeed, a more daunting task. This is how I do it in the gym I work:
- lifting coarses for people with back problems.
The thing we often overlook that weightlifters are experts in lifting, where the rest of the world has some real problems with this. We use weightlifting excercises to learn people proper lifting technique. Tis is a great selling point for a group lesson, or a special x week coarse.
- kid fitness
I don't know how it is in the US, but obesity among children is a very hot item here. You can use weightlifting to help them lose weight.
- cardio lifting
on http://www.sportquest.nl/oga/wac/WAC_Index.html you can find a standerized ciruit training containing weightlifting excercises. I also use this as warming up and technique training for beginning lifters.

the possibilitys are endless. I hope this helps. What works here is change the view on weightlifting from heavy weights to a very technical point. I never tell people that excercises they do hail from olympic lifting. Not untill they are enhousiastic about it, anyway.

Rex Kanis

[Andy Dick]

MY BUMPERS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE AT MY WORK MONDAY!!!!  THE BAR WILL BE THERE LATER IN THE WEEK, WOOO HOOO!!!!  FINALLY I CAN START OLY LIFTING AGAIN!!

No I am just under a lot of pressure in getting enough people interested in "using" the weights to justify the cost but it should not be hard since I have a high school kid that wants to start learning the olympic lifts and as far as I know we are the only fitness club in the milwaukee city area with bumpers dedicated to olympic lifting.

[Matt Rupiper]

Wo wo wo....did you say milwaukee area.  I'm looking for a place to Oly lift around here .  I lift at concordia university,(not great equipment, but equipment none the less) right now taking a break, minor injury;  where exactly are you at?

[Andy Dick]

I dont know if you would consider what we got top quality but it is Northshore Elite Fitness and Racquet Club.  It is by Bayshore Mall, we are getting standard black bumpers.  The bar I dont know what it is I recommended the Pendlay bar but they might have cut corners we will have to see.  The best part is for the platform, we dont have one due to space issues so we ordered rubber flooring pieces (2 big pieces they should be) that we lay down in the gym and do them on top of that :P.  Ill let you know when we get all the stuff in and you can stop by sometime to check it out

[Andy Dick]

It was like Christmas early at work today when my bumpers came in, I was like a little kid with glee.  I would have to also give it to my job also that they ordered black werksan bumpers which also totally suprised me.  I almost couldnt believe I could finally do olympic lifts again.

[Andy Dick]

Matt, I sent you a message regarding the bumpers and bar.  Let me know if you want to stop by and check them out