#GameChangers Series: Les Mills International
With Lashaun Dale, MA, MPH, Vice President of Group Exercise 24 Hour Fitness, and Phillip Mills, Jackie Mills, Les Mills, Jr. and Diana Mills
Les Mills International is an international fitness pioneer, the source of the ever-popular LES MILLS™ exercise-to-music programs, and a longtime 24 Hour Fitness signature partner. It’s a family affair: It all began when Phillip Mills, a former professional athlete, decided to leave his job managing an iconic ‘70s rock band and bring together the worlds of sports and performing arts. He started with aerobics classes in his father Les Mills’s New Zealand gym, and has since taken the LES MILLS brand of exercise-to-music programs to the world. Dr. Jackie Mills, Phillip’s wife, is Chief Creative Officer. Their son Les Mills, Jr. is creator and program director of LES MILLS GRIT™ and IMMERSIVE FITNESS™. Daughter Diana is creative director for BODYCOMBAT™, BODYJAM™, BODYPUMP™ and RPM™, and co-program director for BODYBALANCE™,
Lashaun Dale, Vice President, Group Exercise at 24 Hour Fitness caught up with the family behind the legendary company.
Lashaun Dale (LD): Phillip, thank you for joining us today. Your work has transformed hundreds of thousands of our members’ lives, so it’s a privilege to get to know more about your family and how you make each day count. Phillip, fitness is your life, but what’s your greatest passion?
Phillip: Avoiding climate disaster. There is a link between the develop world’s obesity epidemic and the state of the planet. In 2006, Jackie [Mills] and I wrote a book about it, Fighting Globesity, looking at creating sustainable exercise, dietary and environmental lifestyles. In 2008 I founded a New Zealand business people’s group lobbying for green growth and a move to a carbon neutral society. In November and December of 2014, Jackie and I lobbied for a binding agreement at the UN Climate Committee meeting in Paris. This is probably the last chance we will have to put ourselves on a path to avoid it this century and possibly within our lifetimes.
LD: Jackie, you’re responsible for new classes every quarter that inspire a tribe of 100,000 instructors and millions of participants worldwide. Where do you find inspiration?
Jackie: I began my fitness career as an international gymnastics competitor and a lot of my inspiration comes from that. Concurrent with my fitness career, I spent 25 years in medicine, first as a general practitioner specializing in obstetrics. Later, when waking up in the middle of the night to deliver babies got to be too much for me, I focused on nutritional medicine. That has inspired much of our organization's focus on research and getting things scientifically right.
As far as my own inspiration, I’m fortunate to take sessions with many of the world’s top trainers in exercise modalities ranging from yoga to weight-training to martial arts. And of course the music we use always inspires me.
LD: Les, you created the LES MILLS GRIT series and IMMERSIVE FITNESS, which breaks new ground in the group cycling class experience. What’s your thinking behind these new formats?
Les: I’m working to revolutionize the industry by creating fitness experiences that appeal to my generation. I keep up to date with everything that’s going on in the industry—the Internet’s a major resource for that—but it takes creativity and thinking big in order to create programs that people have never experienced before, and to appeal to a group of people that aren’t currently getting what they want from fitness experiences.
LD: Diana, it’s safe to say fitness is in your blood, but it’s still amazing that you introduce new classes in some of the most popular LES MILLS formats, every quarter. Where do you find inspiration?
Diana: Music—it inspires movement in ways you wouldn’t have imagined. Also, watching my young children interact with the world: Play is the most visible form of human exploration. My favorite quote on inspiration is that the body can do anything—it’s the mind we must convince.
LD: You have only 24 minutes to workout today—what do you do?
Phillip: An express RPM class (high intensity interval training on a bike).
Jackie and Les: A LES MILLS GRIT workout.
Diana: Half of a BODYJAM class—working full-out.
LD: How do you relax or regenerate?
Phillip: Not enough! But I do BODYFLOW (our Les Mills yoga-fusion class) twice a week, indoor cycling classes once or twice each week and I also love books—everything from history to ecology to science fiction.
Jackie: Meditation, cooking and growing organic vegetables.
Les: I meditate every day. Mental health is just as important as physical fitness and 10 minutes of meditation every day keeps me in a relaxed, inspired mind state.
Diana: I don’t relax—I have three boys under age 6. But a hard workout can be relaxing in its own way.
LD: Running a fitness empire and enjoying life at the same time doesn’t sound or look easy. How do you balance the work/life conversation as a family?
Phillip: I can't lay great claim to work/life balance, but I love my work and it has been great to have our family involved in the business. It means we are spending time together talking about a subject that we are all passionate about. We have some intense debates, but that's an important part of business. The key is to be open and listen to each other's points of view, which we have learned to do quite well.
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