I've been in the fitness industry all of my life. I started my career in fitness at the age of sixteen due to a traumatic experience I had the year prior. I quickly realized that health and fitness were my deepest passions and I decided to make something out of the desire. Fast forward five years, and I realized personal training wasn't my true passion, and that I wanted to do so for the rest of my life.
Training was enjoyable and I truly relish the process of designing client's programs and working through their challenges with them, but there was something in me telling me that this wasn't what I should be doing. The question at the time was what was I supposed to be doing? What were my strengths? What could I do every single day and reap a tremendous amount of joy doing so?
This is where my desire for corporate wellness came from. I began my own corporate wellness consulting/providing company at the beginning of 2017, so I'm fairly new to this industry. What I'm not new to is the aspect of educating and learning. This is my strength that drove me towards the industry of corporate wellness. I saw a huge void of proper education from wellness programs to employees.
I knew I could leave a mark here and provide a tremendous impact. What I lack though is the important aspect of experience. Yes, knowledge is power and a tremendous base of education is critical but practical experience is also right up there as well. I didn't have any!I needed to find a way that I could develop a greater knowledge base, as well as begin getting as much practical experience as possible.
Here is where the Certified Corporate Wellness Specialist certification program became a tremendous asset. Corporate wellness and health and fitness have interrelated factors, but can be completely different. The environments, the people, the culture, the verbiage, the time, there are so many factors that one must be very educated on to be successful in the industry of corporate wellness. For myself, the legal side was a huge gray zone. I literally knew nothing legally regarding what could be done.
The certification goes in depth into all aspects of the legal processes for a corporate wellness program. The legal factors are different regarding the type of program that is being conducted as well. This was one of the biggest assets that I believe the certification offers. Besides the legality aspect of the certification, a very simple yet highly beneficial aspect of the certification is the usefulness of having two learning resources.
Not only is there a text book that has the information used in the certification, but there are also comprehensive video modules guiding you through the certification process as well. Many people have a strength in how they learn, some are more visual while some, like myself, can dive deep into a book and not look up for hours still comprehending all material that was just read. This is a very simple upside to the certification I know, but the importance of having two learning sources is amazing.
One other factor that I would like to touch on briefly is the impact of millennials on the workforce. This is a very hot topic now as far as how to retain millennials for the long run in a company and how to engage them so they are satisfied with themselves and their working environment. The CCWS goes into depth on this! This alone is going to bring tremendous value to you despite all the other material in the certification.
Every day, there are articles published on to retain millennials, what millennials want in a wellness program, and why you need a wellness program in your company to attract millennials. All these are covered by the CCWS Certification.Overall, this certification was surprising. I didn't really know exactly what I was going to be diving into material wise, but it was a welcome surprise.
The material was different and I've never seen a lot of the content covered in this certification. A lot of education seems residual or regurgitated information that has a few words taken out, but not this one. I can honestly say that this content covered here likely hasn't been seen by many of you and it will prove to be highly beneficial once you complete the certification.
About the Author
Zach Younce is the owner of LNE-FIT Corporate Health and Wellness. He started in the wellness industry at sixteen years old; he was an anorexic athlete in high school and developed a severe heart condition. He uses the knowledge he gained from this experience to help educate employees about all aspects of wellness including lifestyle, sustainable nutrition, and behavioral change habits.
He founded LNE-FIT with the goal of innovating a new way in which corporate wellness is thought of. He is a strong advocate of sustainability. He works exclusively with companies interested in truly investing in their employees' wellness and who desire to create a thriving wellness based culture. Everything he does with sustainability and instilling new habits with the result being a more confident and healthier state both physically and emotionally.
