Editor’s Note:
I’m working on a new project called Tech Trainer. It is a writing project that focuses on using technology in the allied health fields. As a personal trainer I have leveraged a lot of technology (both workflows and apps) to be productive and efficient with my work and it’s time to open the conversation.

The following was written to be a stand-alone domain but until I get at aspect figured out I decided to publish it here on my personal blog.

Why Tech Trainer?

I absolutely love what I do and I’m guessing you’re an exercise professional who feels the same. We are the lucky ones, doing what we love and getting paid for it. But it is hard work. Put more fully, we all could do our job a little better, a little more effiiciently. In our digital world, how do we leverage all the technology that year year is getting better and cheaper? That is why I started Tech Trainer. Because I have spent my career bringing my expertise in exericse together with my passion for cutting edge technology.

Time is money. As a personal trainer I work on commission. Any time that I spend working on clients’ programs, communicating and/or scheduling with clients, or developing a new class or small group is time that I’m not getting paid for. So I need to be using the best tools so that I can be both fast and efficient. While much of this can be copy and paste, automation on iOS has evolved to be faster and more powerful. There are better apps for the job and as a cutting edge tech guy, I’ve spent a lot of time learning how these apps work and how a personal trainer can leverage them to be fast and professional.

I don’t expect readers to adopt all of my advice. But Tech Trainer is a forum where we can establish best practices and share other tricks of our trade. My goal is to help any trainer who wants to be more efficient with their business learn the tools here, practice them and then report back what is working and how we can take the industry to the next level.

Tech Trainer is based on iOS and macOS. I’ve never used an Android phone or tablet for this work. I’ve used an Android phone at a previous job and it had a couple advantages: Google voice-to-text was fantastic and the Swipe keyboard was awesome. But my personal phone has been an iPhone for seven years and I’ve had an iPad for six. I had the first generation iPad because I could see the vision: iPad was the future of mobile computing. The apps weren’t there yet, the operating system was a sub-par, but I trusted Apple – I always have and probably always will.

This project is about using iOS because I believe it is a superior operating system with superior apps. The community around iOS is fantastic. I follow some great developers on Twitter and read expert blogs on the iOS platform. Let’s not create a Android/iOS war here. I’m just drawing lines in the sand – we are going to share how iOS and macOS can make us better professionals.

Running a business means wearing many different hats. I image this blog will evolve into a review of apps, sharing of workflows, and even marketing ideas that will resonate with the community. I got into the health care field because I want to make people’s lives better and live longer and stronger. Part of the way I do that is equipping the trainers that are doing the same thing for their clients. This is Tech Trainer.

I’m putting together a seminar for work next week. It’s called FT2 (Fitness Tracker 2.o). The premise is that many people have fitness trackers like FitBit and Apple Watch but (1) they aren’t using all of the data available and (2) they aren’t getting the results they want. For the last year I have been taking a small group though an intensive Fitness Tracker class where we analyze their workouts, customize new workouts, implement those workouts each week. I’ve learned a lot about these fitness trackers, especially FitBit and I want to help others leverage this amazing technology.

I am looking forward to the opportunity to teach again – I coach clients all week but this is a different scene. One of the challenges of a seminar like this is that attendees can come to it from all sorts of different places. Some have used the trackers for years, others are just getting started, and still others are newly in the market and they’ll ask “what should I buy and will you set me up?” What an opportunity! With all that I’ve learned this year, I’m honored to play a role in each attendee’s pursuit of their health. After all, it’s about building a relationship, not necessarily teaching content as a one-time info session.

This week marks the start of the fourth quarter of 2016. Here in Wisconsin we have a tradition marking that special moment of time between the third and the fourth quarter. Of course I’m talking about Jump Around. We all know about it, many of us have seen it, and the lucky ones have participated in one of the greatest traditions in sports.

So here we are. Three-fourths of the year is behind us and we are going into the fourth quarter. It’s time to jump around because it’s about to get real. We’re about to put this year behind us and we all want to finish strong! What does that look like for you? How are you going to keep pursuing your health goals for the year? Do you need to take your effort to the next level to finish well? Do you need to work on a new aspect you’ve been avoiding all year so you can prep for 2017?

When I got my FitBit at the start of this year it was to participate with my Fitness Tracker 2.0 class. Most people use fitness trackers to track their steps or their exercise. While I use my FitBit for the later, I also became increasingly interested in tracking my sleep. Many of my days start with my first client before 6am each day so you can imagine how challenging it is to get enough sleep. For me to finish the year right, I need to start tracking entire weeks where I meet my goals. I’ve put a new task in my weekly planner to export my sleep data from FitBit and put it into my journal so I can process how I’m doing and continue to figure out strategies to get to bed a little earlier because those morning clients keep coming!

Each year I try to be a better planner and a better executer of that plan. That means taking an inventory of what I’m doing to pursue my health and making adjustments along the way. I’m excited to head into the 4th quarter because it means the end is in sight and I can turn the page to a new year. But we’re not there yet and I’m thankful for that because there’s still work ahead.