Like Us! Bank On Fitness Is Now on Facebook!

Breaking news:  Bank On Fitness has joined Facebook.  We want you to LIKE us! 

Why? Easy answer. Bank On Fitness will use Facebook to keep you INFORMED, ENGAGED, and ENTERTAINED in five simple ways.

1. We will post important information about our group classes, as well as share fitness and health tips and how to information that will help to get and keep you well. 
2. Once a week we will post a favorite healthy recipe that will complement your fitness routine.
3. And, may be most important to you, we will offer fans incredible specials and promotions.  
4. There's more!  Starting in April, Bank On Fitness will host a quarterly contest because our clients are awesome competitors. 
5. Finally, we will do our best to humor you in our own way.   Fitness is fun. . .our goal is to share that fun with you. 

So, LIKE us.  We know you'll be glad you did.  Bank on it!

Keep Calm and Get Hot!

With hot yoga at Bank On Fitness. . .

It's mid-February 2014. It's Wisconsin. It's winter. It's beyond cold. There is snow. A lot of it. Accumulation totals are ridiculous and more is coming our way. Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow on February 2. . .meaning, we have at least four weeks to go. This winter has caused you STRESS. Schools are closed, kids are home, babysitter has the flu, and like you, your car battery is struggling. You're too busy to vacation, but you long for warmth and stress-reduction. 

Ommm. . .hot yoga just may be your answer. For the remainder of the month, Bank On Fitness is offering Jani's hot yoga sessions at $10/class so that you can enjoy 105 degree temperatures and stress reduction. (That's a $5/class savings!)

Why hot yoga? So many reasons. If you are new to hot yoga and would like to learn more: check out this article (and video) at Everyday Health: Should You Try Hot Yoga? And, guys, it's for you too! Read this incredibly humorous blog by Peter Kaufman for why YOU should try hot yoga: Do Thumbs Sweat?  Reflections of a 50 year-old married man with four children after five sessions of Bikram Yoga

Close your eyes and picture the calming yoga studio at Bank On Fitness. It's not Key West, but it will be 105 degrees. You deserve it!

How Private Are You?

Bank On Fitness followers, today we talk privacy.  007 sort of stuff. . . Facebook privacy, specifically.  You ask, is there such a thing?  Possibly, but it does take affirmative action on your part.  The focus of today’s blog is on exercise of the brain . . . thinking about your professional image, which really is important to your overall wellness.

Consider this:  six months ago you were looking awful, in fact, at your worst. (Of course, you hadn’t started your Bank On Fitness training contract.)  It was a night you had a huge Mexican dinner, a pile of chips and salsa, and a few margaritas.  Your “friend” Sally snaps a photo of you in your margarita glory, uploads it to her Facebook page, and tags you.  You do not require approval of this tag, and you allow the public (or friends of friends) to see photos of you.  Sally allows the public to see her photos.  So, an unfortunate, bad angle, “looking a bit heavy and oh-not-so professional” photo of you is open for world viewing because Sally has 725 other friends, some of whom you know professionally. While you have only 50 Facebook friends, some of your friends have hundreds of friends, and YOUR settings allow friends of friends to see photos of you (yes, you were tagged).  With this chain of settings, it just so happens that thousands get to witness your first night out in months.  Not exactly what you wanted to see first thing in the morning, right?

Here’s the scoop, you can take actions to be a bit more exclusive, to protect your image.  For example, Facebook allows you to approve photos in which you are tagged.  Facebook privacy settings also allow you to limit viewing of a photo you post to only you or to just your friends.  Have a stalker?  You can block that specific person.  Click on the Facebook settings tool and explore the options you have to be more private.  Facebook does provide you with options; you simply have to spend time ensuring your privacy settings reflect how private or public you’d like to be.  Visit this link for more information and frequently asked questions on Facebook privacy:  Facebook privacy.

About me and my privacy:  I probably have more Facebook friends than I should -- people I'm really not friendly with, as a matter of fact.  Some of those friends are customers of my second business, who I feared that I would offend if I did not accept their friend request.  Who wants to lose business, right?  However, after thinking about Facebook privacy, I will at least give thought to accepting new friends.  Do I know them well enough?  What are their Facebook privacy settings?  Will they share information that I don’t want the world to see?  While I do not share my contact information on Facebook, I allow a number of travel and fitness apps to access my information.  Should I?  I’m not sure (I did delete a few because, no, I did not win that awesome travel vacation which some business used to entice me to share my information.)

I am a professional.  My image is important, and I want it to be professional; on the other hand, I use Facebook to stay in touch with friendships I’ve established over the past 25 years. I want to stay in touch with these people from my past, but I don't know their privacy philosophy.  These are friends from all over the country, who without Facebook, I may lose touch.  As I sit on my sofa, with a glass of heart-healthy red wine after a very long day of work, I commit to giving this more thought.  And, yes, I may make changes over the course of the next few months.  I promise this.  Do you?  Remember, fitness is about more than exercise.  Your social network, your personal privacy, and your professional image IS part of your overall wellness. Bank on that!

PS:  You may not be able to control Sally. . .if she allows everyone to see her photos, many will see the photo she uploaded of you in all your unpleasantness.  An important note:  not all is solved by Facebook privacy settings; rather full resolution may require a conversation with Sally.  Maybe, you do really need to re-think who you friend on Facebook (or in life, for that matter).  Another tidbit to ponder. 

Bank On Fitness Tweets! @BankOnFitness

Bank On Fitness is now on Twitter @BankOnFitness! So, what's Twitter, you ask?  It's a social media microblogging site on which users (people, organizations, or businesses) send out brief messages (140 characters or less) called "tweets" to engage, entertain, and inform its followers.  Ok, so now you ask, who are followers? We hope you! Followers are Twitter users who are interested in staying connected to a particular person or business, like Bank On Fitness. Search for our handle @BankOnFitness and follow us!

Of course, Twitter for business has pros and cons.  Using Twitter is no-cost and can provide a wealth of information to customers or potential customers who become followers. Businesses use Twitter to engage and grab attention of followers through brief, and informative or entertaining tweets.  Twitter users get instant information about what's happening at businesses that they follow. Followers are often the first to learn about specials and promotions. That said, the microblogging site can be overwhelming to users and time consuming for businesses. Tweet, tweet, everywhere a tweet, tweet!

Businesses must strive to standout from the crowd. To ensure customers stay engaged, a business must be entertaining, informative, and tweet regularly. To boot, all tweets must be short and sweet, which can sometimes prove challenging.  Businesses must deliver a message in 140 characters or less. That's a tweet challenge!  Example engage, entertain, and inform tweets are:

Engage Tweet

Show LOVE for Bank On Fitness by following us on Twitter & be eligible to win a free training session! Random drawing held Valentine's Day.

Entertain Tweet

Make your heart and your honey happy. Exercise! @BankOnFitness 

Inform Tweet

Bank On Fitness is open on Valentine's Day.  Stop by to buy your sweetie a personal training package!

EEI Tweet with #

Twitter special: join us for our indoor boot camp for only $8 this Saturday at 10AM.  #LoveBootCamp

EEI Tweet with @

Wear red this Friday to support AHA's goal to end heart disease in women. @GoRedForWomen