Total Gym

Total Gym Survives Disaster at First Trade Show of 2011

By Joy Campanaro, senior vice president of marketing at Total Gym, from the APTA Combined Sections Meeting in New Orleans:

Yesterday (Thursday, February 10) was the official launch of the new Total Gym global brand at the APTA Combined Sections Meeting here in New Orleans. We were so excited to see our new booth go up! So many people had a hand in bringing the rebrand alive—from photographers, to models, to designers and editors. We spent all day Wednesday making everything ready with final touches going up yesterday morning.

Then around 10:30 AM yesterday, I received a call from Jeff Groh, our Master Trainer who had been rehearsing the Total Gym demo routine. He told me that about 100 gallons of dirty, sludgy black stinky water had just dumped in our new booth from a faulty sprinkler system overhead … and only our booth was affected.

I immediately texted Nick and Bruce, our onsite team from our booth design company, Czarnowski, and they immediately mobilized industrial cleaners, the New Orleans Convention Center crew and claims adjusters. It was a nightmare.

I called my husband Tom and our executive vice president Randy Bergstedt to make sure they were on their way back to the booth and then I hurried to the taxi to get there myself. On the way I received photos from Tom and my heart sank. I gasped involuntarily and began to cry; the taxi driver was sure someone had died.

When I walked in and saw the beautiful banners destroyed, I started to cry again. Nick and Bruce assured me they would have everything cleaned up for the opening. They already had photos and video of the destruction, and Nick had been working on getting the banners remade and delivered on time for opening the next day.

By the time we opened yesterday, the damage was evident really only to us and to those who heard about the calamity. You could see the damage to the banners, but because of our graphic elements in the images, the unsuspecting eye didn’t notice at a glance. I’ve posted before and after photos below.

By show opening this morning, Czarnowski had made sure that the floor was re-cleaned, they put up two brand new banners and ensured the stand was prepared for the main day of the show. I don’t know what we would have done without the mobilization of their team. Our partners at Czarnowski are our heroes.

The show goes on and so does Total Gym!! We hope to see you at IHRSA 2011 in San Francisco next month!

Damage after the drenching

More water damage

A mess to clean up

Back to normal

The show goes on in a dry booth

Behind the Scenes: Making of the New Total Gym Brand

Last week we announced we are now Total Gym. That means … Total Gym on TV! Total Gym in Rehab! Total Gym in Health Clubs! Total Gym ACROSS ALL MARKETS!!

A lot of work went into launching our new brand and Total Gym product line, including professional video and photo shoots. We were very fortunate to work with famed photographer Bil Zelman of Zelman Studios in Southern California. Our in-house videographer, Brian Rose, put together a stellar team of video pros to get the shots we needed to capture our new Total Gym bodyweight trainers in use.

Here’s a behind the scenes look at the Making of the Total Gym Brand!

Total Gym 14000 Super Sale!

Starting today through Monday, February 14, get 50% off Total Gym 14000 Accessories! Enter promotion code get50 at checkout to redeem your 50% discount on the following Accessories.

Click here for more details and to purchase. Happy training!

Tara's Friday Bite – How to Read a Food Label

The new FDA guidelines now require even more foods to include nutrition labels. This is fantastic news that allows us to make more educated decisions as to what we are putting into our bodies!

However, food labels are often packed with so much information that reading them can be intimidating and time consuming. Below is the order in which I read a food label and the ingredients that I look for to make sure the food is truly healthy!

• Ingredients – The ingredients are listed in order of quantity, so the first 3-5 are the most important.  Look for natural ingredients that you recognize and if you see the words Partially Hydrogenated Oil, High-Fructose Corn Syrup or Enriched Flour in the first 5 ingredients you are better off looking for an alternative!
• Sugar/Fiber – Every carbohydrate that we eat is broken down into sugar to fuel our bodies, but those listed in the sugar section of a label are already found in their simplest form. This is a great source of instant short-term energy for the endurance athlete. For the rest of us, it is important to combine sugar with fiber to help control the rise and fall of our blood sugar. Look for labels with equal amounts of sugar and fiber. This is especially important for things such as cereals or granola bars.
• Sodium – Just because you aren’t heavy handed with the salt shaker doesn’t mean that you aren’t getting a lot of sodium into your diet. Most of our sodium comes from bread, luncheon meats, pastas and eating out. Look for foods with 5% or less of your Daily Value and avoid those with 20% or more.
• Calories – Whether you are trying to gain, lose or maintain your current weight you need to pay close attention to this number. Bottom line, if you consume more calories than you expend you will gain weight!
• Serving Size – Everything on the label is based on this one term, which can be deceiving. Many foods that we think are one serving, like a small bag of chips or a bottled beverage, are actually 2 or more servings. A food or beverage may look perfect on the surface, but if you multiply all the above by the actual number of servings it may sabotage your health goals!

Tara Coleman www.taracoleman.com

Tara Coleman is a Clinical Nutritionist living in San Diego, CA. She blogs for Total Gym Inside twice a month with “Tara’s Friday Bite.” Leave us your comments with ideas for future topics or email Tara directly at tara@taracoleman.com.

Tara’s Friday Bite – How to Read a Food Label

The new FDA guidelines now require even more foods to include nutrition labels. This is fantastic news that allows us to make more educated decisions as to what we are putting into our bodies!

However, food labels are often packed with so much information that reading them can be intimidating and time consuming. Below is the order in which I read a food label and the ingredients that I look for to make sure the food is truly healthy!

• Ingredients – The ingredients are listed in order of quantity, so the first 3-5 are the most important.  Look for natural ingredients that you recognize and if you see the words Partially Hydrogenated Oil, High-Fructose Corn Syrup or Enriched Flour in the first 5 ingredients you are better off looking for an alternative!
• Sugar/Fiber – Every carbohydrate that we eat is broken down into sugar to fuel our bodies, but those listed in the sugar section of a label are already found in their simplest form. This is a great source of instant short-term energy for the endurance athlete. For the rest of us, it is important to combine sugar with fiber to help control the rise and fall of our blood sugar. Look for labels with equal amounts of sugar and fiber. This is especially important for things such as cereals or granola bars.
• Sodium – Just because you aren’t heavy handed with the salt shaker doesn’t mean that you aren’t getting a lot of sodium into your diet. Most of our sodium comes from bread, luncheon meats, pastas and eating out. Look for foods with 5% or less of your Daily Value and avoid those with 20% or more.
• Calories – Whether you are trying to gain, lose or maintain your current weight you need to pay close attention to this number. Bottom line, if you consume more calories than you expend you will gain weight!
• Serving Size – Everything on the label is based on this one term, which can be deceiving. Many foods that we think are one serving, like a small bag of chips or a bottled beverage, are actually 2 or more servings. A food or beverage may look perfect on the surface, but if you multiply all the above by the actual number of servings it may sabotage your health goals!

Tara Coleman www.taracoleman.com

Tara Coleman is a Clinical Nutritionist living in San Diego, CA. She blogs for Total Gym Inside twice a month with “Tara’s Friday Bite.” Leave us your comments with ideas for future topics or email Tara directly at tara@taracoleman.com.

Back to the Future … The New Look of Total Gym

Many of you have known us as Total Gym for our popular bodyweight trainer as seen on TV and used in over 14,000 physical therapy clinics, athletic training facilities, universities, hospitals and professional sports teams. Others of you have known us as efi Sports Medicine in the commercial fitness sector.

Today, we are excited to announce that we are going back to our roots as Total Gym – named after our flagship incline bodyweight trainer – a globally recognized brand for over 35 years! So long efi Sports Medicine …

Total Gym has been moving YOU for nearly four decades – in rehabilitation, commercial fitness, athletic training and in the home. By reclaiming our name, we are leveraging the strength of our Total Gym brand that has achieved huge success across multiple markets, as well as being sold in over 80 countries worldwide.

Coinciding with our rebrand as Total Gym, we will introduce a new line-up of Total Gym bodyweight trainers! Introducing the innovative, all-new Total Gym GTS and Total Gym PowerTower along with our newest model for small footprint facilities and home training, the Total Gym Sport. Improved function, usability and style have been designed into all models, each of which can be utilized with our versatile, turnkey GRAVITY fitness program.

Here’s a sneak peak:

We’ll debut our new Total Gym equipment at the APTA Combined Sections Meeting in New Orleans, February 9-12, at the IHRSA International Convention & Trade Show in San Francisco, March 16-19, and internationally at the FIBO Trade Show in Germany, April 14-17. Come see our NEW Total Gym booth!

Club Industry magazine broke the news of our rebrand early. Here’s the article http://clubindustry.com/news/total-gym-rebrand-campanaro-20110201/.

Join us for the functional future of Total Gym!! Stay tuned for more information or call us at 858-586-6080.

Tom Campanaro

President and CEO of Total Gym