LoYoBo Fit is a fitness program run by Courtney McCarthy in Guelph, ON. LoYoBo Fit, standing for Love Your Body Fitness, is about exercise and activity that promotes body positivity, healthy living, building self esteem, and having fun. Classes range from fun and energetic cardio like Zumba, to strength building exercises like Tone & Flex, to relaxing stretching and flexibility like Mind/Body Unwind. There are options for everyone, regardless of age or fitness level.

Tone It Up was started by Katrina Dawn and Karena Scott with a $3,000 start-up investment in 2009 (Lepore, 2017). They began by self-shooting and editing beach workout videos targeted to women, that they put on YouTube. Fast-forward to 2017, Tone It Up is a multi-billion dollar fitness/nutrition/lifestyle company, boasting a community of over 5 million women (Lepore, 2017). What is in the secret sauce for their success? Tone It Up has tapped into one of the most successful tactics to propel businesses in this highly social and digital age – engagement.

Social media is changing the landscape of the fitness industry.  Beachbody represents the perfect example of how fitness companies are harnessing the power of social media to build successful empires.   Beachbody sells fitness packages which include workout DVDs, superfood shake powders called Shakeology; and simple eating , portion controlled meal plans.  Beachbody has a network of coaches that are essentially successful customers-turned-salespeople.   Coaches obtain a portion of sales they bring in and as they build a network of customers beneath them, they obtain a portion of the sales from their customers who themselves become coaches. The use of social media is a critical factor in the business model’s success as the more people that can feed into their network, the more powerful and successful their program becomes. Social media is used by the coaches to showcase the programs successes in order to motivate existing customers to succeed and to recruit new customers and eventual coaches.   As the Beachbody business model is so reliant on the power of social media to meet their business goals, the utilization of social media metrics is equally as important.  Given the Beachbody program is fundamentally a continuous sharing of communication amongst its community of coaches and users, social media metrics provide valuable information to help Beachbody understand what messages and programs are working and consequently what areas to improve.  

We have all stood in front of the closet thinking that you had nothing to wear.  Wishing that someone would design clothes that worked with your lifestyle and listened to what you needed. With Titika couture those thoughts are just a hashtag away from becoming a reality.

To be motivated and inspired.  That’s all anyone wants when they start a new fitness journey.  Often times this can be the biggest struggle of them all. Beachbody has created a winning formula of pairing accessible fitness, nutrition plans and supplements. Complimented by  social media inspiration and accountability that not only engages the customer but also empowers the customer to engage others. Beachbody is the online powerhouse that has brought to your home award winning workouts and well known brands like the P90 series, Turbo Abs , The 21day Fix and Shakeology.  Started in 1998 with the belief that that the focus should be on progress not perfection.  Founders Carl Daikeler and John Congdon continue to live by this philosophy by sharing their own story on social media .  Today with their community of 350,000 the idea is that you will “never be alone ” in your journey due to the company support.  https://www.beachbody.com/product/about_us/company_overview.do  

For personal trainers and other fitness professionals, your ability to be a top-notch fitness leader in the field can no longer be established solely on your ability to help clients see results. In addition to being able to inspire people to get off the couch and get moving, educating client’s on the latest fitness trends and research findings, and possessing the knowledge to develop fun, innovative and effective fitness programs, it is now a necessity to incorporate social media into your business plan. To say the competition is fierce is an understatement – a quick Google search of ‘personal trainer Ontario’ yields well over a million results. So how is a privately owned studio or personal trainer to get a lead on the pack? Social media. Not just engaging in social media but using metrics to ensure that you are getting value for your efforts. In preparing for her participation in the 2013 ITU World Championships, Amy Moss-Archambault, a dedicated triathlete and personal trainer faced a quick learning curve to fulfill social media contractual obligations with sponsors. “Six years ago Twitter was really successful for my goals,” she said noting the model of stream of consciousness and earlier use of hashtags allowed for unique and powerful posts. Today, the Twitter climate has changed and so has Ms. Moss-Archambault’s business focus. The busy mom of 3 is no longer focused on sponsorships but now operates the very popular TriMom Fitness Studio in Millgrove, Ontario. She uses her earlier leap into social media to engage with her clients and further develop the Tri-Mom community primarily through the use of Facebook and Instagram.

All I hear is “Heads Up!!!” and out of the corner of my eye, I see a white blur coming at me.  My right hand is busy carrying a grocery bag, the dog is barking and I’m mid sentence encouraging drinking glass use as opposed to directly from the faucet or milk carton. I caught that baseball seconds before it hit my forehead and earned a “Wow, good catch Ma! You didn’t even stop talking when you caught that!” No doubt these new found reflexes are a result of over a year of working out at Fergus Kickboxing.