HALO Talks: Elevating Wellness

Jared has been in the HALO sector for over 10 years. He's a native Houstonian and scaled Dynamic Fitness to 3, full service locations ranging from 30-35,000 sq feet. "It was a whole lot harder than what I thought it would be. Overwhelming would be an understatement!" he joked. "It's about learning from each mistake that's made and continuing to move forward." Listen to learn more about Dynamic's model and how they continue to set themselves apart in one of the most competitive cities in the country.

The National Strength & Conditioning Association (NSCA) is, by a large margin, the industry leader when it comes to educating top tier strength coaches who--many times--later go on to work with colleges, universities, and teams nationwide. They've educated over 30,000 professionals so far and operate as a non-profit. "We want to stay at the principle level and make sure that everything we're sharing is evidence based and backed by science," states Nick Clayton, the PT Program Manager. Listen now to learn more.

A 30+ year veteran in the fitness industry, Dr. Kevin Steele earned his Ph.D at Pepperdine and had a personal training business even before there was even a term for it! Dr. Steele taught and coached at the university, and continued in the HALO sector with the legendary Don Wildman, Founder of the Health & Tennis Corporation of America. Dr. Steele later went on to research and scale the first national platform for personal training to 370 health clubs nationwide. Listen now to learn more from this industry pro!

As the Executive Vice President of the American Council on Exercise (ACE), Graham has been in the HALO sector since 1991. As a former competitive cyclist with a BS in Athletic Training, he notes, "Our Mission, really simply stated, is to get people moving." With over 90,000 certified professionals in 100 different countries thus far, ACE continues to make its mark. As a non-profit, ACE is also self-funded with no external grants--and that puts them in a very unique position in an industry whose educational requirements has changed quite a bit over the years. Listen now to learn more.

"The industry is now embracing and accepting the space between medicine and fitness," states Lisa Dougherty, Founder of the MedFit network and--clearly--a woman on a mission! Like many of the best businesses, MedFit Network evolved organically from (an extremely important!) need that had yet to be met. It is now the largest directory of fitness professionals on the Internet who work with special populations. Last year, Lisa took this on the road and started the Medical Fitness Tour and was acknowledged by the Obama administration as a "Champion of Change." Listen to learn more about this incredibly worthy cause and how your club can get involved.