I am very happy and very proud to help announce what I think will be one of the biggest opportunities for ACE Certified Personal Trainers. See the letter below from Scott Goudeseune the President of ACE about the announcement. Great work Scott and ACE Team!

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I’m excited to tell you about a valuable new career opportunity — available only to ACE-certified Professionals. ACE has teamed with AARP to offer your personal training services to their members through a new fitness program launching this summer.

AARP is the leading nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization for people age 50 and over in the United States. With over 38 million active members, AARP is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life as people age, leading positive social change and delivering value to members through information, advocacy and service.

The new fitness program for AARP members includes member-only offers provided by ACE, Curves and Gold’s Gym. Focused on prevention, this program will provide information, resources and services to help members lead active, healthier lifestyles.

As an ACE-certified Professional, you are now eligible to register as a trainer for this program providing direct access for your services to AARP members nationwide. The annual $50 enrollment fee includes your profile listing accessible at www.aarp.org, viewed by millions of consumers each day. At no additional cost to you, the program will be communicated to AARP members through a nationwide public relations and advertising campaign, allowing you to focus on what you do best: fitness training and education. Additionally, those ACE-certified professionals who join in the first year receive two complimentary continuing education courses focusing on older adult fitness (worth 0.2 CEC).

To enroll, you’ll simply need to hold a current ACE certification* and a current adult CPR certificate. To sign up or obtain more information, please contact ACE Professional Services at 888-825-3636, x781 or visit www.acefitness.org/aarp.

AARP is clearly determined to provide the very best tools their members need to stay healthy and fit. ACE is honored to team with such a reputable organization and bring you this incredible opportunity to grow your business and share your passion for fitness with America’s fastest growing population segment.

Best in Health,

Scott Goudeseune
President
American Council on Exercise

Click here for the latest Fitness from the Fairway Article – Are you drinking enough water?

Fitness from the Fairways on Tee Time Radio – better golf through better fitness

Click here to listen to the segment – April 14

NEWSWIRE

An insider’s look at presidential fitness

By Brian Davidson, Managing Editor – 04.06.2007

WASHINGTON D.C. – Working as a fitness center director, Ted Vickey’s morning commute started much like anyone else’s.And then he got to work, where a K-9 unit would search his car – an officer checking underneath it with a mirror – while he walked through a metal detector and another officer inspected the contents of his lunch.

Such was the life for the executive director of the White House Athletic Center, a job Vickey held from 1995 until he sold his fitness consulting company in 2005.

“One time I was doing a CPR certification class,” Vickey recalled, “and I brought Annie the resuscitation doll with me in a bag. You can imagine the look on the officer’s face when I put it through the X-ray machine and he saw a body.”

Despite the daily pat-downs, Vickey enjoyed the 10 years he spent on White House duty. And now that those years are over, he said, he finally feels free to talk about them.It all started when he was a 24-year-old intern for Health Matters, a small company the White House hired to manage its fitness facility. Though the company couldn’t afford to offer Vickey a full-time position, the owner called him shortly after his internship ended in 1994 with an even better offer.

“She called and told me she’d met the man of her dreams and that she was selling the company,” he said. “She asked if I wanted to buy it.”

In July of 1995 Vickey bought the company, now known as FitWell, with money he borrowed from one of his old college professors. The professor had his money back five years later, after FitWell designed a corporate fitness center for Fruit of the Loom and doubled the size of the White House facility.

But the 7,000-square-foot White House Athletic Center isn’t as fancy as one might expect, says Vickey.“A lot of people would think it has marble floors and golden shower heads,” he said. “But it’s pretty modest.”

The facility has a membership fee – it was $364 a year when Vickey was director – and could only be used by executive office staff. It was open from 6:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. during the week, with after-hours access for members.While all of that may seem typical for a fitness facility, Vickey said there were some unique challenges he faced as WHAC director. For instance, he said, he had to constantly swap equipment brands so that one manufacturer wouldn’t be able to say it was the exclusive supplier to the White House.

“And you can imagine how getting any sort of shipment would be a pain in the butt,” he said. “After 9-11, we didn’t get physical mail for a year. I got a Christmas card once that came in October of the following year.”

And then there was the clientele.

The presidents worked out in a separate, private fitness area above the Oval Office, or in a cabana by the pool on the south side of the grounds. Former President Clinton had a track installed on the White House lawn to satisfy his affinity for running outdoors. President Bush went so far as to have Vickey buy a portable treadmill to bring along with him on Air Force One. Vickey refers to Bush as “the fittest President we’ve ever had.”

Though the presidents never dropped in for a workout, Vickey said he had many high-profile regulars at the fitness center over the course of the first Bush administration, the Clinton years and the current Bush administration.“I’d have Tipper Gore exercising next to a White House electrician,” he said. That’s what was great. When you get down to it, when we take off our suits and put on sweatpants and sneakers, we’re all the same.”

In 2005 Vickey sold FitWell to Comprehensive Health Services, a Virginia-based company that manages occupational health programs. He was named vice president of CHS shortly after.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – March 7, 2007 – In conjunction with the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association (SGMA) Leadership Summit, attendees and other fitness advocates met with Senate and House members requesting support on two important bills before Congress. National Health-through-Fitness Day is the industry’s annual legislative event asking Congress to expand opportunities for physical activity in America. This year, SGMA will be promoting federal funding of the Carol M. White Physical Education Program (PEP), benefiting P.E. programs across the country, and our industry’s signature issue, the Personal Health Investment Today Act (PHIT), a tax incentive option which promotes physical activity and fitness for all Americans.

“The PEP bill for school children and the PHIT Act for all Americans are the first steps towards making our nation more healthy. We need to act now and ask Congress to take the appropriate steps to help” said FitWell President Ted Vickey.

Click this link to show your support by contacting your elected officials on Capital Hill.

Penn State article about working out with the President.

Ted Vickey hosts Golf Fitness segment on Tee Time Radio

Dallas, TX – Feb 10, 2007 – A new golf show – a new kind of golf show.

Most radio golf shows are hosted by golf enthusiasts… amateurs who share their opinions of the game. TEE TIME RADIO is different- taking you inside the game, on the pro, ladies, and amateur levels- with hosts who actually shaped the game.

Hosted by CJ McDaniel, the PGA’s first Director of Marketing, Lisa DePaulo, a former LPGA Tour Pro, and Dan Potter, Texas’ most-listened-to radio news host, TEE TIME RADIO steps into the ropes with expert analysis and insight into making the listeners’ game better and more enjoyable.

PGA Hall of Fame member Ben Crenshaw shares his personal tips of the game each week in “Ben There,” and Ted Vickey, author and fitness expert, guides listeners through the integration of technology and wellness.

Ted is a co-author of “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Working Out With a Partner,” and has spent the better part of the last two decades motivating people to better health and fitness.

From 1995 through 2005 Ted was the Executive Director of the White House Athletic Center, serving the health, fitness and wellness needs of the staff of the Executive Office of the President for the Clinton and Bush Administrations.

Ted has been a Vice President of Comprehensive Health Services, Inc. since 2001. He is responsible for the operations, sales, consulting and client account management for the fitness management and wellness screenings division of the company.

From 1999 to 2004 he was a member of the Penn State College of Health and Human Development Alumni Board of Directors as President of the Kinesiology Alumni Association.

In 2004 he was selected by the Dean of the College of Health and Human Development as a member of the College’s Leadership Council, assisting the University with changes in curriculum, development and industry relations.

PRESS RELEASE: Vickey invited to fitness industry Leadership Summit

WASHINGTON, D.C. – February 5, 2007 – FitWell President Ted Vickey has been invited to attend the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association (SGMA) second annual Industry Leaders Summit. The sporting goods industry’s leading brands and strategists will convene March 5-6 in Washington, D.C. .

Hosted by the board of directors of the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association (SGMA), this event will explore catalysts for growth and value for the industry. SGMA’s inaugural Industry Leaders Summit last year attracted more than 70 presidents, CEOs, and chairman from manufacturers, retailers, and sports franchises. Ari Fleischer, former White House press secretary (and former FitWell fitness center member), will discuss the role of crisis communications in brand management, sharing experiences across politics and sports business.

The 2007 Industry Leaders Summit will focus attention on how the ‘Street’ values companies — from existing assets to key growth drivers. The discussion will thread across several important elements of building brand equity, from maximizing marketing ROI in an online world to building brand authenticity and credibility through multicultural marketing to the significance of consumer control in brand management.

“To be included with some of the industry’s best minds for an open dialogue and debate at this type of Summit is an honor. I look forward to sharing thoughts and ideas to grow the fitness industry” said Ted Vickey, President of FitWell.