In the past few months of writing this blog, I’ve had the privilege of meeting some pretty interesting people both in the field of fitness and technology. Chris McNeil, founder and creator of Pensarc, is one such individual. A member of the fitness community for over 25 years, Chris has been constantly at the forefront of developing new techniques to help people stay in shape through creative software. Chris was nice enough to answer some questions about his background, his love of merging technology and fitness, and his current projects that will soon make things easier for everybody throughout the country to get healthy!
Hey Chris, let’s talk about your work on merging fitness with technology. You work for Pensarc. is this YOUR company, or a company you work for? Why the focus on fitness related websites?
I am the founder of Pensarc. I owned a chain of personal training studios for 9 years prior to that. While I owned the studios, I found myself getting more and more focused on developing web-based software to help the clients get fit faster, to manage the business more effectively, and to market fitness better. Two of the products, “FitPoint” (an online fitness scoring system that tracks results and turns them into a competitive game) and the “Wireless Workout” (handheld computers on a wireless network that replaced clipboards with a web-based workout tracking system) won the Nova 7 award for innovation in new technologies in fitness, which got them national recognition. That recognition facilitated my move to starting Pensarc to further develop and market the online fitness products.
Where did you come up with the idea for fitmenu.net?
I am a strong believer in symbiotic businesses marketing together. FitMenu is a platform for just that. Health related businesses sponsor restaurants and benefit from the positive exposure gained by the association. It also makes the benefits to the restaurant free to them, so restaurants are very willing to join the program when it’s that easy. Each sponsored restaurant gets 3 healthy menu items analyzed and listed in the searchable fitmenu.net database. They also benefit from the promotions and materials supplied by the sponsor to promote healthy eating at their establishments. And, of course, the person who benefits the most is the health-minded diner. People can continue to lose weight, stay fit, and feel great while enjoying eating out as much as they want to.
What are your goals when it comes to fitmenu.net? Where is it currently available?
My goal is for FitMenu to be in 100 U.S. cities by the end of the year. FitMenu is currently in 4 cities in South Carolina. The program has been very successful there so it is going nationwide. With the web-based sponsor software that runs the program, we can support restaurants and sponsors anywhere there is internet. So, we are in the process of a nationwide rollout. I think it will happen quickly because there is a lot of incentive to being the first FitMenu sponsor in your area. They get the pick of the restaurants to sponsor before their competitors get a chance.
Have you always been interested in fitness and getting healthy? If it’s something you started doing for a certain reason, what was that reason?
I have been in some sort of fitness business for 25 years. I have been an owner of a fitness business for 20 years. I have a mission to empower the average person to have the enjoyment of a body that feels great because it can perform at high levels. When I was 19 years old and running fitness centers, I saw that the typical health club business model did not support the success of the average person. I sought to create new models that were more helpful to normal people wanting to get in great shape, which eventually became incorporated into my chain of fitness studios and now my online fitness applications.
You also mentioned you’re working on a new exciting website as well that’s launching soon, what can you tell us about it?
There are actually two main projects coming to fruition soon. One is a web-based operating system for personal training businesses. This will give a typical personal trainer a great sense of control over his or her business. I am doing this in partnership with Shane Doll of Shane Doll Fitness. Shane also owns Shaping Concepts (www.shapingconcepts.com) Fitness Studios. The other one is still secret, but if you follow me at www.twitter.com/pensarc you’ll learn about it first! 😉
Any advice to pass on to fellow technology lovers when it comes to staying healthy?
It doesn’t have to be hard or time consuming to achieve a lean, healthy body with a high level of fitness. The secret is to have good systems. One such system is that of exercise performance goal-setting. That means creating timelines of measurable progress in the key exercises you are doing. Another is cycling your training so that you emphasize different areas of fitness at different times. The FitPoint system I created automatically changes the program cycle for each user every three weeks. Three weeks is the “sweet spot” of how long to stay with a particular progam before you would start to plateau on it. Then, instead, you switch to something different.
In nutrition, I believe in managing your lifestyle instead of strict dieting. Start with your normal habits and shape in a healthier direction instead of following a rigid plan that doesn’t take you or your lifestyle into account. That way, you can stick with it and permanently create the lifestyle that supports the healthy body you want.
Chris McNeil is the founder of Pensarc Software Development. Chris has twice won the Nova 7 award for innovation in websites and new technology. His FitMenu program was recognized as an “Innovator 2008” by the Charleston Regional Business Journal.
