Pros: Success stories, detailed step-by-step workouts, realistic weight loss plans, health articles, positive attitude, inexpensive price
Cons: Ads, some article titles are too hyped, some models too thin, expensive fashions
The Bottom Line: Looking for fresh workouts to slim/tone your body? Fitness magazine has plenty plus motivational success stories, health, beauty & balance articles. Find fashion suggestions for the new you.
glomarrone's Full Review: Fitness Magazine Subscription
Here’s a magazine that’s completely devoted to motivating fitness-conscious active readers to improve their minds, bodies & spirits through exercise, good health habits & good nutrition. Most women would like to improve some part(s) of their body. Getting started is one of the hardest parts. Getting discouraged at setbacks is another. Well this magazine helps get you motivated & keeps you on track. It is aimed at young 20 & 30-something women. Fitness has over 1 million satisfied readers.
Covers, Organization, Layout, Ads, Photography
Covers depict 20-something women with very trim bodies – some way too thin – dressed in skimpy attire that shows off/reveals their figures. The last two issues show cover models wearing skimpy bikinis. The Feb. cover model is a wearing turquoise figure-hugging glitzy top & low-rise color-coordinated leather boy shorts. Hope she’s warm enough! Is the magazine selling sex or fitness? The magazine has a good layout. Articles are completed on succeeding pages. The Table of Contents is neatly arranged on two pages; readers must wade through 8 ad pages in May's issue to reach it. The magazine is organized into On the Cover, FitnessBeauty, Health, Diet & Nutrition, Mind/Spirit, Style & In Every Issue.
The appealing magazine is alive and energized through the use of bright colors, creative arrangements of graphics, brief articles & action photographs of lithe young females. All ads target the youthful fitness-conscious readers. Ads are for fitness water, athletic shoe companies, beauty/pharmaceuticals, healthy snacks/food, weight loss supplements & home products. Fitness is “weighted” with ads – 52% of pages are ads – that’s pretty high by industry standards. The good side is these ads keep the cover price down. Many ads are double page spreads. Even the May issue inside cover is a foldout three-page ad. Photography is mainly action shots of young slim females exercising, young thin female trainers & celebrities or illustrations of products/food. Most issues run 140-180 pages.
In Every Issue
The Editor’s Letter opens the editorial content. She alternates on topics concerning mind, body or spirit. In the current May issue, she talks about outdoor workouts; last issue covers achieving balance in life; for Feb, it’s change in our lives. The editor reports that Fitness has a new travel page starting in May, but basically the magazine has just moved travel from In Every Issue to the Balance section. Below the editor’s very brief letters are thumbprints & short bios of contributors & photographers. Your Letters follows with a Reader Tip of the Month. Tips are very simple yet effective motivational aids for shaping up or losing weight. Reader letters are generally success stories based on past articles. The Buyer’s Guide helps readers locate products or apparel mentioned in the issue. If you enjoy Horoscopes there is one in every issue. Great Escapes has travel getaways for young women filled with opportunities for active sports, yoga, massages or meditation. There is a wide range of prices & types of getaways. Last month focused on bike trips. Costs range from $890-$1,995 for varying lengths of stays including meals, accommodations, guides, equipment & more. Can’t get away? Look for the helpful Try it at Home suggestions. The magazine ends with The List - 10 ways to improve your body, mind or spirit. This quick read page neatly sums up succinctly simple ways to improve your confidence, brainpower, conversation, willpower and your life in general. It gives readers something to dwell on after finishing the magazine. I enjoy reading the helpful, effective suggestions & try to use them whenever possible. Many are just things we all know already but are good reminders.
Sections
The popular Fitness section is very interesting & diverse. In Forecast, learn how to achieve better workout results. Get helpful advice from a celebrity trainer. Find good tips from stars on how they achieve their goals. Get the latest information on new apparel, gym equipment & exercise tools.. I love the monthly suggestions on how to achieve a certain look with economic alternatives. In May, check out “Summer Steals,” a colorful page filled with bright finds on hats, bags, shoes, towels, watches & sunglasses. I especially enjoy the monthly I Did It! real life success story detailing a fitness program that really works. Each real life person describes How She Did it & there’s a really helpful Stick With it Tip. Read the brief stories, view before & after photos & become motivated. Another popular page is How She Got That Body. Here a celebrity passes on her secret for achieving her sleek, toned body. In May, Kellita Smith of The Bernie Mac Show is highlighted & pictured. As usual there’s a great celebrity tip for readers. Extra is a one-page digest of trends, exercise equipment/apparel, programs/DVDs & newsy pertinent health items. The Fitness section always includes a workout routine that either tones the entire body or targets one problem area with step-by-step illustrations & descriptions of the moves. Sometimes there’s a related article such as how to prevent muscle soreness or techniques to improve workouts.
Diet & Nutrition has good strategies for smart eating & articles on weight loss. Read motivational success stories from real people with proven weight loss strategies & Stick-With-It tips. Get suggestions for tasty low fat recipes & healthy low calorie snacks. Get reports on nutritional news & answers to questions about the latest popular diet programs. Find out about new health foods & supplements on the market. I've tried some of the recipes with good results.
One of my favorite sections is Health, which contains several articles on women’s health issues and also general interest health topics. I especially enjoyed the informative “14 Health Lies Not to Fall For” in May’s issue that dealt with health misconceptions ranging from bleeding gums, smoking, calcium needs & hangovers to breast cancer & the pill, STDs & vegetarian diets. One important article, “7 Crucial Questions to Ask Your Mom” (February,) has answers that may help determine your risk of diabetes, depression & infertility. Other important timely articles in recent issues are on lifesaving breast cancer & cervical cancer news, new facts about women & cholesterol & how to talk to your doctor about anything. Fitness has similar health information found in other women’s magazines. My daughter enjoys the monthly Healthy Pregnancy section that covers maternity gear, exercise, diet & nutrition information plus tips & hints for an easier pregnancy. Find out the best exercises to ease delivery, the benefits of using a doula (trained labor consultant,) essential supplies for new moms & postpartum depression. The information is helpful & important.
The rest of the sections have less to do with fitness than the previous sections & departments. Under Beauty find articles by beauty experts with ideas on how to improve your complexion, eyes, lips, skin, nails & hair. Get product picks from experts in a good range of prices. Read brief but honest-sounding product test reports from the editors & staffers. Discover new beauty products in the marketplace. I especially appreciate suggestions for less expensive alternatives in the At Any price section. This month it’s a timely page on pedicure product/tools – just in time for summer & toe baring sandals. The interesting Extra covers brief reports on new products & good beauty hints or tips. If you are looking for beauty advice, however, I suggest you buy a magazine like Glamour magazine.
Mind & Spirit delivers psychology-oriented articles to help readers cope with life situations. Learn to lower stress, improve your relationships & feel in control of your life. Brief articles help spark creativity & help develop assertiveness. Discover the mental health benefits of certain foods & how to redirect your negative thoughts toward positive ones. There are many strategies for improving emotions & attitudes. The emphasis is on positive aids & tools but the information is really too brief & simplified to be very helpful. Information is meant to ease mild every day concerns – it is not meant to ease severe psychological problems. Maybe the suggestions are helpful to some women.
Style is the fashion section of the magazine. Fashions are shown on quite slim figures. The recent spring fashion spread is such an example. Prices are too high. A mini skirt costs $220, jeans cost $110, pants $299; a cashmere shirtdress is $345. Even a polo top runs $280 & a casual striped skirt costs $223. The May issue has a spread on terry & velour summer clothes. Prices again are high although the fashions are cute. A terry poncho is $250; boy shorts are $125; a plain terry top is $51 & terry pants are $77. A tiny terry bikini is $105; a velour bikini is $55. I wonder how long they take to dry? I know you can find just as lovely choices at lower prices in many department stores & boutiques.
Features
FP readers can expect to find approximately 10 informative features each month. Usually 4 of them will be on fitness, 3 on diet/nutrition & weight loss, 1 on either beauty or health plus 1 on balance. The features are listed in the On the Cover section. They are all well written & interesting. Features generally list sources for additional information on the topic.
Publisher, Website, Subscriptions
G+J USA Publishing, a Gruner+Jahr Company publishes the monthly magazine. Visit the new magazine Website at, www.fitnessmagzine.com. View a listing of what’s in the current issue. Share your fitness story online, search for healthy recipes, read beauty, wellness, health & fitness Q & A articles, use the fitness calculators & answer polls & quizzes. Get motivated with daily tips & find inside information on events, hot new products, special offers & sweeps. Subscribe for 1 year (12 issues) @ $13.97. That's a 66% saving off the $42 annual newsstand price. Single copies cost $2.99.
My Final Comments
Fitness magazine is a wonderful magazine for young women who want to get into shape and lose weight. It sets realistic goals such as The Get-Ready-for-Summer Diet” (May 03) that has an easy-to-follow plan for losing 1 Lb a week, which is a reasonable weight loss. The weight loss plans offer several meal choices so readers don’t get bored. I like the frequently offered sensible alternatives to high calorie/rich foods plus descriptions of portion sizes so readers can determine how much they are actually eating. Also the magazine mentions & illustrates products by brand name when comparing them nutritionally for easier identification when shopping.
This magazine, however, does leave out the sodium content of recipes as do so many other magazines. It’s probably because recipes can’t keep the amounts down low enough to be really healthy. Also, starting with prepared sauces or pre-cooked supermarket foods in order to keep the dishes quick to prepare & cook, raises sodium levels to higher levels.
Sometimes magazine titles are too hyped. An April cover feature is called “Flab-Free in Record Time – 20 Minutes a Day Does the Trick. What the title doesn’t tell you but the article does is that you will have to do the 20-minute exercises twice a day for three days a week PLUS eat healthy meals in order to see the desired muscle tone improvement in three weeks. The magazine article even suggests beefing up the exercise to 40 minutes doing additional exercises. It’s not quite as easy as the title implies. I doubt many women will be flab free in the three week time period, either. Even the balance titles promise too much such as May’s “& Life Lessons That’ll Help you Succeed at Anything.” Sure the 7 suggestions may help but there is more to the formula for success than just these simple 7 techniques or we’d all be CEOs & Olympic stars after reading the article.
Be aware that some workouts DO require a treadmill, exercise ball, resistance bands or tubes, jump rope, dumbbells, air disc, etc... I think it is a little ironic that Fitness is filled with ads touting the benefits of weight loss supplements - implying magazine endorsement - while the magazine repeatedly states that readers need to workout regularly plus eat healthy foods & portions to lose weight & get fit. Since the average American woman is a size 12-14, many women interested in working out & losing weight may not relate to the extra slim, toned bodies of cover models or inside magazine photographs & ads. Many women will never have the shape that these models have no matter how much they work out & watch their diet. I hope women have realistic goals for their own bodies & don’t get frustrated when working out doesn’t deliver a body like the cover models have.
All in all, I like the magazine. Fitness magazine has an Advisory Board for the fitness, nutrition, psychology & health/beauty articles. I am impressed with the members’ qualifications. I like the magazine’s upbeat, can-do approach to fitness & nutrition. There are plenty of tools & techniques to get readers started plus plenty of success stories & balance articles to help keep readers motivated & successful. Of course, to achieve the promised results from the magazine, readers have to get moving & actually do the workouts/exercises. Just reading the magazine won’t change your shape nor will swallowing those supplements found in ads. If, however, you are a health-conscious young female who is willing to follow a program of fitness & healthy eating but just need some motivation & guidance, then this magazine is great. Pick up an issue, get moving & sculpt a new you. You’ll be amazed at the payoff
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