HAMB SF: Why I wanted to do it (Part 1 of 2)

Over the past four months I have been working on my recertifcation with the Aerobics & Fitness Association of America. For 4 years now I have been a certified Group Exercise Instructor, and for the past two years I have been a certified Personal Trainer.  While I was in college and graduate school, I taught step aerobics, body toning and a mix of floor and athletic training called 20-20-10 (for the number of minutes spent on each activitiy).  In 2007, I decided I wanted to get my PT certification so that I could work 1-on-1 with clients.  But, with my Masters Project well under way, traveling, starting 1-job and then starting another, I never made the time to put my certification to good use and pick up clients part time.

Last November, as AFAA notified me that my PT certification was expiring, I realized that I needed to make my investment in money and time worth something in dollars.  I didn’t realize the education had paid off in intangibles, like what I know, how I workout, eat better and lead a healthier life.

I decided that I wanted to create a small workout group in Russian and Nob Hill neighborhoods. The basic premise of the idea was that there were many other women my age who paid for gyms every month but didn’t want to add to the already steep cost to hire a personal trainer.  Boot camps in the city are targeted at older men and women, and are also very expensive per month.  They start at 6 am, which is just too early for someone in their 20′s, who still wants to go out at night.  Waking up at 5:XX anything is miserable!  If I could teach outdoor workouts twice a week, charge a nominal fee of $5 per workout, I could break even on my costs to take all the recertification courses (approximately ~$300+).

While I did home studies and took practical classes to earn my continuing education units (CEUs), I enlisted my friends to help me with a name.  We played around with a lot, they ranged from serious workout names to ridiculous puns.  Some included:

• Bust Your Butt Outdoors
• Three Hills You’re Out
• Sweatin’ the Hills
• Run for the Hills!
• Head for the Hills
• Shape Your Booty

I ultimately settled on HAMB SF:  Hills are My Bitch, because this is what I say whenever I’m running and get to the bottom of a big hill.  I thought it was fun, catchy, and would attract other people my age.  I was definitely right on that one because when I began to build the website, and show it to friends, everyone had a smile on their face.

So as the technophile that I am, I spent way too much time building the website and playing around with different layouts(here, here and here)…the programming bug bit me and I was obsessed for a couple weeks in January.  Some of the designs, if you look, needed a tag line “Just like our bodies, a little resizing of the browser always helps!” It was fun, entertaining, and I got to really play around in photoshop, so I don’t see this as wasted time at all.

My final version is up at HAMB SF – It’s only the About page. I never finished it, and there’s good reason why – Legal Complications.  To be talked about in a follow up post…

Related posts:

1. HAMB SF: Why the Idea is Benched (Part 2 of 2)
2. XML and Resume Writing