What I Thought Of My First My Zone Class
Its not that I have never been a fan of My Zone, on the contrary I love the concept. I consider Emmett Williams and Dave Wright mates, so I hoped that My Zone would be successful for them – and their families, assuming the investment they made!
I will admit though I have not been a promoter of the product. I was more scarred with the false starts the product had had. And as an early adopter I don’t cope with inadequacies. And don’t want to recommend the product because of these.
So I took the advantage of participating in a My Zone class at the IHRSA European Congress and in short . . . very cool!
I am a fan!
I was really impressed – not with my actual work out – but the information My Zone gave me during my 45 minute session. In fact, thanks to My Zone I know why my work out sucked!
My Zone allowed me to walk away with some real tangible effort levels as opposed to how I felt about my effort. I felt that I was busted but my heart rate told me a completely different story.
The instant feedback on the screen inspired me to work harder, recover and train with a purpose.
The real strength of the program I felt was visually on the big screen. My effort levels were in colour in front of my face and compared to other participants.
The colours are sensational! And logical. They truly create an obvious, slap in the face with a wet fish wake up call when you are not working hard enough.
The product itself will be an asset to any club. My only concern, we are relying on our Team to educate, motivate and encourage usage of My Zone. Although, Iassume if the staff of a facility were as excited as me after my work out, then I am sure they will preach the gospel to the members.
I am not a sales person for the product, so will not go through the versatility of the product or the features. If you want to know that, you contact them – www.MyZone.com. But I would suggest if you want to help your members get results, this product is a no brainer.
Last year I participated in a Fly Wheel class in New York. The feedback you receive from their technology I felt was/is a game changer for a spin program.
What I experienced with a My Zone 2.0 work out, I can see how this could be and is a game changer for the whole gym.
I am a fan of My Zone 2.0.
Justin is the Managing Director of Active Management, which he began January 2004. He offers coaching to businesses worldwide in everything from start up and design to marketing and sales systems. Justin also facilitates four Australian and New Zealand ‘fitness industry roundtables’ events, which allows him to see a huge cross section of business models.
I just don’t get it, why in this day and age is everyone still trying to bust a gut every time they train? I am not saying that high intensity interval sessions don’t have their place, or we should not be doing threshold training workouts, they both certainly have a place in attaining goals in a structured training program…..but so does lower intensity aerobic intervals, or endurance and recovery sessions, so just because you did not train as intensely, or at as high heart rates as others in the gym certainly does not mean you did not have a very beneficial workout. Indeed depending on a number of factors your session could have been even more productive and beneficial than your fellow gym goers.
I have not seen the “MyZone” system so cannot comment on its merits, however if it is just encouraging you to workout at high intensities then I have my reservations……now if it encourages, rewards and motivates you to train smarter and at intensities that are beneficial your fitness goals and current fitness levels then that could be very interesting.
I like to draw comparisons in attaining fitness, health and wellbeing to being successful at golf, in golf you need to proficient in the many elements that make up a successful round from hitting good drives from the tee, long and short irons, from the fairway and off of it, bunker shots, long and short putts to name just a few. You do not become good at all of these just by practicing on the putting green, likewise with fitness you need to train in varying ways to attain differing adaptations, all of which make up the many elements of a effective fitness program.
There is no doubt that through providing live feedback, MYZONE has been developed around the science of motivation and encouraging people to be more active, however it is in no way limited to use during high intensity based sessions.
As you state HIIT based sessions are becoming increasingly popular, proven as an effective, time efficient workout but is not appropriate for everyone and can be balanced with other types of training depending on the individuals overall goals.
So although some users are no doubt motivated to train harder to achieve the high intensity, when using MYZONE, in the same way it is a tool for the individual, (or fitness professional) to ensure users are training both safely and effectively (or ‘smarter’), not just harder. At the other end of the scale, for some facilities with high risk clients, MYZONE is a tool utilised to monitor members to ensure their safety, by limiting their intensity to appropriate levels as dictated by the medical or health professional.
To use another analogy MYZONE is the speedometer in the car which provides the feedback, but it doesn’t tell you how fast to drive. That is down to the individual or fitness professional to dictate based on the individual and their goals.
In addition, as well as the live feedback, users data is wirelessly uploaded to the users online account, accessible to both the user and where relevant their fitness professional where they can set personal goals, review past sessions and monitor results.
Finally, key to the MYZONE system users earn MYZONE Effort points (MEP’s) which reward any concerted physical activity and while for some hitting the red zone is the goal others will be equally motivated by receiving a notification email confirming they have achieved enough points to meet the weekly recommended physical activity guidelines by walking the dog !
So whatever your fitness level or goal, knowing your ‘speed limit’ is of limited use without a speedometer !
In one of my favourite books (The One Minute Manager) author Ken Blanchard said “The number one motivator of people is feedback on results.” The Myzone definitely gives feedback on effort in an open but non-competitive way, and for many people (not all) this is a great and welcome motivational aid.
This morning I went for a bike ride, and I could not get the damn Polar computer to work. I rode anyway, but I might have rode harder if I had the feedback.
Anyway, it does not need justification. I’m one of those that like seeing my body’s bio-feedback.
PS Yes, I do keep my eyes on the road and stop at stop lights.