WTA Athletes Inspire a New Commitment to Fitness

We have come to the end of the two-week BNP Paribas Open, a premier WTA event, and it was, as always, a fantastic tournament. It started early for USANA as our marketing/media teams gathered in the desert sun to capture images and messages from our incredible USANA Brand Ambassadors — Liezel Huber, Zheng Jie (seen at left), Melanie Oudin, Sam Stosur, and Aleksandra Wozniak. While the weather wasn’t always cooperative — read crazy winds and cool evenings — the athletes were totally focused. Keep your eyes out for the new pictures and videos.

The first week of the tournament is when the USANA nutritional products are distributed to the players and there was the usual high demand for their custom MyHealhPaks™, Booster C600™ and USANA Probiotic. It’s amazing to me how quickly a box of Peanut Butter Crunch Nutrition Bars can disappear when you set them on a table!

From our distribution location, we looked out over a large grass field where the players of the WTA and ATP can gather to workout, stretch, play a pickup game of soccer or just enjoy the sunshine.

Watching them I learned a great lesson about fitness. Here is a group of athletes that are on the road 10 months of the year and expected to keep in top physical shape. You may be surprised how limited the formal workout facilities are at some of the tournament venues, so it’s up to the athletes, coaches and trainers to find effective and interesting ways to keep the gain turned up on fitness.

As I looked out over the grass I saw a myriad of creative ways to make exercise fun with easily available objects like tennis balls, towels, stretch bands and open space. It made me think about the excuses I can come up with when I’m on a business trip and don’t have a nice gym in my hotel. I’ve made a commitment to find my own creative ways to keep fit “on the road.” I suggest we all follow their lead and spice up our workout and dietary plans to make them more fun.

During the second week of the tournament I returned to Indian Wells with a couple of special guests for some meetings with WTA CEO Stacey Allaster (If you don’t know who went with me you need to look back at your Twitter and Facebook entries). This great visit also included some great tennis and the chance to meet tennis legend Tony Trabert. The week came to a close, but not without even more exciting news as USANA Brand Ambassador Liezel Huber clinched the doubles title with her playing partner, Lisa Raymond. If you haven’t been keeping track, that’s their fourth victory already this season. Between them, they now have 130 tournament wins and Liezel is ranked NUMBER ONE.

Enough writing. It’s time to get out and get physical. Hope you are doing the same.

Give ’em health.

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