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Keepme Launches AI Guide To Boost Fitness Membership Sales – Athletech News
AI-powered sales and marketing platform Keepme has launched a new guide to help fitness operators integrate AI sales agents into their business—a must-have in today’s competitive landscape, Keepme points out.
The new resource, “Implementing AI Sales Agents: A Practical Guide for Fitness Operators Ready to Grow,” offers a step-by-step approach to explaining how AI can enhance membership sales, boost lead-to-tour conversions and reduce customer acquisition costs.
“AI is no longer a future concept—it’s already transforming member acquisition,” Keepme CEO Ian Mullane said. “Operators who are already embracing AI Sales Agents are seeing massive improvements in lead conversion, engagement and funnel efficiency. This guide gives others a blueprint to take similar action, ensuring they don’t fall behind in an industry that’s evolving fast. For fitness operators to truly benefit, they need more than hype, they need a deep, practical understanding of how AI can be applied to the business function where it delivers the highest impact: membership sales.”
The guide is available for fitness operators to download here.
“One of the biggest misconceptions about AI in fitness is that it’s too complex to implement,” Keepme chief of operations Steffie Bryant said. “This guide completely dispels that myth. It’s a practical, no-nonsense roadmap for operators who want to future-proof their sales process and drive real revenue growth. If your business isn’t thinking about AI yet, this guide will show you why it needs to be a priority.”
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Trump updates: US president delivers first Congress address of second term – Al Jazeera English
These are the updates for Tuesday, March 4, 2025 when US President Donald Trump addressed a joint session of Congress.
Will Europe and the US reach a common ground on Ukraine?
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Ukraine ready to accept US plan for 30-day ceasefire with Russia – Al Jazeera English
US says it will ‘immediately’ resume military aid and intelligence sharing with Kyiv.
Ukraine accepts ceasefire proposal, agrees to start talks with Russia
The United States has agreed to resume military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine after Kyiv expressed “readiness” to accept a 30-day ceasefire in its conflict with Russia.
The two countries issued a joint statement after officials met on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia, saying that Ukraine was open to the US proposal “to enact an immediate, interim 30-day ceasefire which can be extended by mutual agreement of the parties”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Telegram that the ceasefire proposal would “establish a complete ceasefire for 30 days, not only regarding missiles, drones and bombs, not only in the Black Sea, but also along the entire front line”.
US President Donald Trump said he hoped Russia would agree to the ceasefire plan, signalling that the US will hold a meeting with Russia later on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Following the progress made in talks, the US said that it would “immediately lift the pause on intelligence sharing and resume security assistance” to Kyiv, which it had suspended last week, effectively hobbling Ukraine’s ability to track Russian troop movements, shield against missile strikes and carry out attacks.
The suspension came after a blow-up last month between Trump and Zelenskyy, who had travelled to Washington to discuss a rare earth minerals deal, which would see the US gain access to the lucrative resources in Ukraine.
The joint statement indicated that the deal was back on the table, with the two countries set to “conclude as soon as possible a comprehensive agreement for developing Ukraine’s critical mineral resources to expand Ukraine’s economy and guarantee Ukraine’s long-term prosperity and security”.
Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher noted that the joint statement did not include any mention of the explicit security guarantees that Zelenskyy had been seeking during his contentious meeting with Trump at the Oval Office.
“But those [security guarantees] appear to be missing at the moment. Perhaps that’s something that can be discussed, although we know that Donald Trump is really, really against that idea of explicit security guarantees for Ukraine,” he said.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the ball was now in Russia’s court.
“We’re going to tell them this is what’s on the table. Ukraine is ready to stop shooting and start talking. And now it’ll be up to them to say yes or no,” he said. “If they say no, then we’ll unfortunately know what the impediment is to peace here.”
US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz added: “The Ukrainian delegation today made something very clear: that they share President Trump’s vision for peace.”
Waltz said negotiators “got into substantive details on how this war is going to permanently end”, including long-term security guarantees.
Zelenskyy said on Telegram that Ukraine was “ready for peace” and that it now fell to the US to “convince” Russia.
“Ukraine is ready for peace. Russia must show its readiness to end the war or continue the war. It is time for the full truth,” he said.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago and now holds around a fifth of Ukraine’s territory, including Crimea, which it annexed in 2014.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he is open to discussing a peace deal. But he has ruled out territorial concessions, saying Ukraine must withdraw fully from four Ukrainian regions claimed and partly controlled by Russia.
The talks in Saudi Arabia started only hours after Ukraine launched its biggest drone attack on Moscow and the surrounding region, claiming that it had struck an oil refinery near the Russian capital and a facility in Russia’s Oryol region.
The attack, in which 337 drones were downed over Russia, killed at least three employees of a meat warehouse and caused a short shutdown at Moscow’s four airports, Russian officials said.
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Did Mike Ashley Use Steroids? ‘The Natural’ Comes Clean – Muscle & Fitness
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In Episode 223 of M&F’s popular The Menace Podcast, host Dennis James was joined by his regular panelists Chris Cormier and Milos Sarcev, and some special guests in the form of Melvin Anthony Jr and Mike Ashley. Ashley was an incredibly successful bodybuilder who spanned three decades on the stage, but as he told the gang, being natural was a non-negotiable.
Milos “The Mind” Sarcev shared that back in the day, he was often approached by his peers who questioned Ashley’s assertion that he was all natural, but the former bodybuilder in his own right explained that he always believed it to be the case. “You guys (were) not the big guys, but you created that illusion,” he said. “But I think the biggest complement you can ever get is being accused, when you are not using it.”
In a career that started in his teens, Ashley picked up a number of prestigious trophies including a win at the 1990 Arnold Classic but apparently, he never picked up PED’s. Ashley retired in 1994 and provided the panel with his reasoning. “One of the things is, when they started testing, I thought it was gonna continue and it didn’t,” explained Ashley. “So, I tried for a while (to carry on competing).” The bodybuilder felt that stepping on stage helped bring in special guest appearances, including on all-natural shows to keep him busy.
Eventually, however, as the land of the giants got ever bigger, Ashley felt that he’d reached a junction where he would have to take steroids to hang with the big boys. “I didn’t want to go that route,” he said. “And I just decided to move on.” To this day, Ashley’s rock-hard physique has fans questioning whether the man they call “The Natural” was really all natural. Years ago, Ashley challenged anyone to give him a drug test and if he failed, he’d pay them $10,000 but if he passed, they would pay him $10,000. “No one ever did it,” he confirmed.
To catch-up on the full episode, where the gang talk on a range of other issues from the world of bodybuilding, click here!
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What chiropractors know about insomnia and mental health. – Psychology Today
Being overly polite might seem kind, but it often leads to problems anyway, in relationships, with friends, and at work. Verified by Psychology Today
Posted March 14, 2025 Reviewed by Monica Vilhauer Ph.D.
Co-written with Jai Liester
You’ve tried it all—sleep masks, white noise machines, meditation apps, and avoiding screens before bedtime. Yet quality sleep remains frustratingly elusive, leaving you to face another day with the mental fog that accompanies sleep deprivation. You’re not alone. Between 30-35% of adults struggle with insomnia or other sleep disorders, with profound implications for mental health. While medications and cognitive behavioral therapy remain frontline treatments, emerging research points to an unexpected contributor to sleep problems: the alignment and function of your spine.
The connection between sleep and mental health operates as a two-way street. Poor sleep doesn’t just follow psychological distress—it precedes and predicts it. A comprehensive meta-analysis by Harvey and colleagues (2018) found that sleep disturbances act as a transdiagnostic factor across numerous mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder.
When we fail to get adequate restorative sleep, our brain’s emotional regulation center—the prefrontal cortex—shows markedly decreased activity. As neuroscientist Matthew Walker (2017) explains in his book “Why We Sleep,” this neurological impairment leaves us “all emotional accelerator and no brake.” Small annoyances become major frustrations. Anxiety escalates more easily. Positive experiences lose their luster. Perhaps most concerning, longitudinal research by Baglioni et al. (2016) demonstrates that chronic insomnia increases the risk of developing depression by 250%.
What’s less commonly understood is how physical interventions targeting the nervous system might influence this relationship between sleep and psychological well-being.
The spine is far more than a structural support system—it houses a complex neurological highway carrying millions of messages between your brain and body every second. The quality of this communication fundamentally affects how your body regulates essential functions, including the sleep-wake cycle.
Your nervous system operates in two primary modes: sympathetic (fight-or-flight) and parasympathetic (relaxation response). Optimal sleep requires a shift from sympathetic dominance to parasympathetic activation—a transition that can be disrupted by neural interference patterns stemming from spinal misalignments.
This connection is especially relevant when considering the cervical spine (neck), which sits in close proximity to the brainstem—a region critical for sleep regulation. Research by Mallampalli and Carter (2014) highlights how neural pathways originating in the upper spine influence key sleep-regulating centers in the brain. Similarly, Siegel’s (2009) work on brainstem control of sleep-wake transitions demonstrates the importance of unimpeded neural signaling through these pathways.
What chiropractors refer to as vertebral subluxations—misalignments that affect nervous system function—may contribute to sleep disturbances through several mechanisms. First, these misalignments can create irritation in spinal nerves, potentially triggering sympathetic dominance and making it difficult for your body to “power down” for sleep.
Additionally, research by Haavik and colleagues (2021) has shown that spinal adjustments produce measurable neuroplastic changes in brain activity, particularly in areas involved with autonomic regulation. These adjustments stimulate specialized nerve endings called mechanoreceptors, which send inhibitory signals to the brain that can dampen stress responses and promote relaxation.
The body’s inflammatory response also plays a role in this connection. A study by Teodorczyk-Injeyan et al. (2019) found that spinal manipulation reduced inflammatory markers that are known to disrupt sleep architecture. And as Pickar’s (2002) research demonstrates, mechanical stimulation of spinal tissues through adjustment directly influences neural activity in ways that may help restore normal autonomic balance.
Of course, we can’t overlook the simple fact that pain disrupts sleep, and pain reduction following chiropractic care may independently improve sleep quality. Smith and colleagues (2019) documented this bidirectional relationship, noting that improving pain often leads to better sleep, which further reduces pain sensitivity.
While more extensive research is needed, clinical studies show promising connections between chiropractic care and sleep improvements. A systematic review by Haas et al. (2024) found that chiropractic interventions positively influenced sleep quality across multiple studies. In one study by Haas et al. (2024), patients receiving regular chiropractic care showed significant improvements in sleep compared to control groups. Budgell and Polus (2006) documented changes in autonomic function following spinal manipulation that parallel what occurs during the transition from wakefulness to sleep.
While chiropractic care shows promise for addressing certain sleep challenges, it works best as part of an integrated approach. Research by Salsbury et al. (2018) demonstrates that collaborative care models incorporating chiropractic alongside conventional treatments often yield superior outcomes for patients with complex health needs.
When considering this approach, several factors may indicate when chiropractic care might be particularly beneficial for sleep issues:
The emerging understanding of how spinal health influences sleep and mental wellbeing represents an expansion of our approach to these interconnected challenges. While the research continues to evolve, the neurological pathways connecting these systems offer biological plausibility to what many patients report experiencing—improved sleep following chiropractic care.
For those struggling with persistent sleep problems, considering the role of spinal health and nervous system function adds another dimension to conventional approaches. As with any health intervention, consultation with knowledgeable providers who understand both the possibilities and limitations of different approaches is essential.
Sleep remains one of our most powerful tools for mental health resilience. If conventional approaches have left you still counting sheep, exploring how your nervous system function might be contributing to sleep challenges could provide unexpected pathways to better rest and the emotional balance that follows.
Jai Liester has a Bachelor of Science degree in exercise science. He has conducted and published research in cardiovascular physiology. Jai is currently a student at Palmer Chiropractic College in Davenport, Iowa.
References
Harvey, A. G., Murray, G., Chandler, R. A., & Soehner, A. (2018). Sleep disturbance as transdiagnostic: Consideration of neurobiological mechanisms. Clinical Psychology Review, 25(5), 731-748.
Siegel, J. M. (2009). Sleep viewed as a state of adaptive inactivity. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 10(10), 747-753.
Haavik, H., Kumari, N., Holt, K., Niazi, I. K., Amjad, I., Pujari, A. N., Türker, K. S., & Murphy, B. (2021). The contemporary model of vertebral column joint dysfunction and impact of high-velocity, low-amplitude controlled vertebral thrusts on neuromuscular function. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 121(10), 2675-2720.
Teodorczyk-Injeyan, J. A., McGregor, M., Ruegg, R., & Injeyan, H. S. (2019). Effect of spinal manipulation on the production of inflammatory cytokines in patients with chronic low back pain: A randomized clinical trial. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, 42(1), 15-23.
Pickar, J. G. (2002). Neurophysiological effects of spinal manipulation. The Spine Journal, 2(5), 357-371.
Haas, M., Bronfort, G., Evans, R., Schulz, C., Vavrek, D., Takaki, L., Hanson, L., Leininger, B., & Neradilek, M. B. (2020). Dose-response and efficacy of spinal manipulation for care of cervicogenic headache: A dual-center randomized controlled trial. The Spine Journal, 20(1), 44-56.
Budgell, B., & Polus, B. (2006). The effects of thoracic manipulation on heart rate variability: A controlled crossover trial. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, 29(8), 603-610.
Mitchell B. Liester, M.D., is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.
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Being overly polite might seem kind, but it often leads to problems anyway, in relationships, with friends, and at work.