Whether you’re hoping to run a half-marathon or adopt healthier eating habits, it not only takes dedication, but also a support system to achieve any wellness goal. In partnership with Cigna, we bring you stories of two individuals who encourage others to go the extra mile to be healthy, but make sure they don’t do it alone.
Have a mentor or friend who has supported your recent wellness goal? Take a minute to send them a thank you card here.
Meet Aly Teich:
In the fitness industry, your main competitors are usually your own colleagues. Aly Teich sought to change that. Aly is the founder and CEO of The Sweat Life, “a weekly web series and online magazine designed to help you find your healthiest life.”
The Sweat Life evaluates studios, classes and gyms throughout New York City and offers video profiles weekly of what Aly and her team discover. “I’m surrounded by the world’s greatest motivators,” she says. “I spend my days at fitness classes with trainers who motivate people for a living. They’ve made me part of a family — their enthusiasm is motivating.”
In addition to the professionals she meets in the fitness industry, Aly is motivated by the people for whom she created The Sweat Life — her audience. Every email she gets from a new reader who’s found The Sweat Life and dedicated (or rededicated) his or herself to personal wellness gives her the validation that the business of wellness, especially within a communal, supportive environment, is booming.
She’ll always go the extra mile for her readers, her team and the fitness community at large. There’s an inherent cyclical nature to this; if Aly goes the extra mile for her readers by working diligently to find the best new workouts, then she’s giving those instructors the chance to go the extra mile for their students. Everyone wins.
Getting people motivated to prioritize their own wellness has afforded Aly the opportunity to make meaningful, industry-level change, as well. In March 2015, she launched “Sweat it Forward,” a national studio competition which challenges the industry practice of “banning” (when instructors from one studio aren’t allowed to take classes at another studio). “In an industry, which, at the end of the day has a strong and common goal of simply helping people get healthier, such competitive practices feel not only unnecessary, but completely out of place, and, in my opinion, wrong,” she wrote on The Sweat Life earlier this year.
Now, across the country, fitness studio staffs challenge their competitive colleagues to come try their classes. Donations from the campaign benefit Stand Up to Cancer. “There’s no easier way to create camaraderie than to give people a shared mission.”
MEET Matt Buchholz:
People who teach can do, too.
Just take New Yorker Matt Buchholz, for example. Born and raised on the east coast, Matt’s fitness activity of choice has always been running.
He’s training for the 2015 New York City Marathon, which has been an exercise in finding motivation and support where he can, despite a work schedule that necessitates nearly constant travel.
At its very core, running is a solitary activity, but a team mentality can only enhance the experience. Marathons are drawn out races, but each mile stretches with the potential for meaningful connection between athletes who share a common passion — running. Before he began marathon training, Matt was a college track coach.
“I was originally inspired to coach because of the experiences I had while running for [my college],” he says. “In my first couple of years of school, I found myself injured frequently and that prompted me to spend a lot of time learning about the body, the principles of training, and really try to understand the sport at a deeper level.”
Matt was inspired by the coaches he had while he was a student, coaches who were committed to his improvement as an athlete. “Deciding to pursue coaching and help people achieve their goals and be healthy eventually seemed like a no-brainer,” he says.
As is the case with many people, the biggest obstacle Matt has had to overcome throughout his wellness journey is simply finding the time to train. Hitting multiple cities a week for work makes it hard to establish a routine, so Matt uses runs on the road as a means to explore a new city.
"I try to think of the 26 miles of a cheering crowd to draw motivation for this event," he says. "There's no other marathon like it. I also have friends I keep in close touch with locally and across the country to use as an outlet and help keep focus."
For more information about wellness, please visit http://together.cigna.com/
Walang komento:
Mag-post ng isang Komento