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<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="23944870" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Sonya-Moore" source="keywords">Sonya Moore</keyword> decided that if Trump won in 2016, she would leave the US.</li><li>She followed through and has been living abroad for seven years.</li></ul>"If Trump wins this election, I'm <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-reelected-americans-are-planning-to-flee-in-droves-2024-3">moving out of the country</a>." I said those words in November 2016. So did a lot of other Americans: so many, in fact, that <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/canadian-immigration-site-crash-election-2016-11">Canada's immigration website crashed</a> as votes were being tallied due to increased traffic. No joke. I don't know how many others <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/americans-who-left-us-because-of-trump-talk-biden-presidency-2020-12">followed through on that declaration</a>, but I did. Trump won the election, and 9 months later, I left the US. Full disclosure: Trump becoming president was not the only reason I left — it was also about being fed up with my corporate job, coupled with a strong desire to explore the world. I was 37, single, with no children or pets, so I was free to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/working-mom-quit-job-expat-move-abroad-qatar-singapore-2023-12">quit my job</a>, uproot myself, and take off. I did own a house at the time, which I sold a few months after I left. Upon my departure, I didn't have much of a plan other than the intention to spend some time slowly exploring Asia and teaching English when I needed to make money. This no-plan thing was out of character for me, but I was very comfortable with <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/southeast-asia-travel-mistakes-packing-weather-clothing-traditions-medicine-2024-4">solo international travel</a>, thanks to previous study abroad experiences and 14 years of intensive overseas work-related travel. <div type="image" title="Sonya Moore in Siem Reap, Cambodia" height="1280" width="1600" msid="115071450" hostid="261"></div><h2>The move opened a new chapter in my life</h2>As months unfolded, I discovered that when you leave space for it, life guides you to the places, people, and opportunities that are meant for you. Seven years later, I'm still living <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/boomer-couldnt-afford-retirement-in-california-moved-abroad-travel-happy-2024-10">happily outside the US</a>. While my decision to leave opened up a horizon of experiences beyond my wildest dreams and led me to the man of my dreams, it hasn't all been a bed of roses. The first year, I lived off savings while traveling slowly through Asia. I started my travels in India, where I spent 10 days at a silent meditation retreat, attended teachings by the Dalai Lama, and took a <keyword id="20626363" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="yoga-teacher-training" source="keywords">yoga teacher training</keyword>. I promptly got hooked on teaching yoga. After four months in India, I continued <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-to-pack-traveling-in-southeast-asia-singapore-thailand-bali-2023-9">making my way through Asia</a> for eight more months. I swam in the crystal clear waters of the Maldives, visited healers in <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/american-family-kids-bali-decompress-relocate-slow-life-work-remote-2024-10">Bali</a>, witnessed breathtaking sunrise views from mountaintops in Laos, went island-hopped through the Philippines, rode motorbikes around Thailand's islands, and discovered ancient pagodas in Myanmar The cost of living in much of Asia is so low that savings can stretch a long way. I have high standards for my accommodations, and while traveling, I usually spent around $20 to $25 per night on hotels. Lower-maintenance friends of mine found simpler places for $6 per night in India. Meals usually cost around $3. After six weeks in India, I considered a lunch bill of $5 to be expensive. <h2>There have been times along the way when I've felt lost </h2>From time to time, I experienced stretches of feeling <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/relocation-moved-to-milan-living-abroad-emotionally-exhausting-unspoken-truths-2023-9">unsettled and lacking a sense of purpose</a>. Over the years, I learned that those periods of doubt and uncertainty will continue to surface. But I also learned to just keep trusting, and the way forward would eventually reveal itself. People often ask me if I was ever afraid while <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-women-need-to-know-traveling-solo-southeast-asia-tips-2022-12">traveling alone through Asia</a>. I never was — except a couple of times in India when riding on some precariously high Himalayan roads with no guardrails. But of people? I never had a reason to be. After a year away, I found an opportunity to teach yoga in a small mountain town in Myanmar. Life there was quiet, simple, and beautiful. I lived there for 9 months, and I was profoundly happy most of the time. But there were times <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/loneliness-how-to-make-friends-remote-worker-freelancer-new-city-2024-2">I felt lonely</a>. The locals were sweet and kind, with love in their eyes and actions, but I missed friends who spoke my language fluently, with whom I could have deep conversations over a glass of wine. And the dating scene? Nonexistent. <div type="image" title="Sonya Moore kissing a man at the airport" height="2118" width="1754" msid="115071453" hostid="261"></div><h2>I found love during my travels</h2>Another yoga teaching opportunity took me to Siem Reap, Cambodia. Siem Reap is not a big city, but after my small-town Myanmar life, it felt like Manhattan. There were so many restaurants, bars, social events, friends, and even some attractive single men. I fell in love with the town, the quality of life, and the locals. It was easy to get a tourist or work visa to live here long term, and it was almost as inexpensive as India and Myanmar. I was living in Siem Reap when COVID-19 hit. By that time, I was in a <keyword id="20752574" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="long-distance-relationship" source="keywords">long-distance relationship</keyword> with a French man I met during my travels. After the closed borders of the pandemic kept us apart for 7 months, I moved to France to be with him. Our story was long and winding, but it felt like destiny. He <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/my-partner-couple-travel-together-full-time-one-date-2024-5">loves global travel</a> like I do. We've been together for four years and are living together in Papua New Guinea. Our plan is to go back to a nomadic slow-travel lifestyle. My career has gradually evolved to encompass creative pursuits that light me up inside: retreats, writing, photography, and yoga. I am deeply grateful to my former self for <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/live-abroad-cheap-low-cost-living-high-quality-life-2024-1">choosing to leave the US</a>. I sometimes miss family and friends, but thanks to technology, our connection stays alive across the distance, and I go back to visit once a year. I still love America and feel lucky to have been born and raised there. But there's a big world out there waiting to be discovered. Do you have a personal essay about relocating to Asia that you want to share? Get in touch with the editor at <a target="_blank" href="mailto:akarplus@businessinsider.com">akarplus@businessinsider.com</a>. November 11, 2024 — An earlier version of this story mentioned Trump becoming president was not the reason Moore left, it was not the only reason.

I swore I would leave the US if Trump won the 2016 election. Here's how that worked out for me.

The first day at a new job is always weird. You have no idea what you're supposed to be doing, who to talk to, or how to even really be. The theory is that over time you get the hang of it — but lots of workers make it months into their jobs and feel like they're still kind of winging it. It's not that they don't want to learn; it's that nobody's teaching them. In many pockets of corporate America, on-the-job training mostly amounts to "figure it out." Workers are struggling to get a handle on their jobs, and this failure falls on everyone — companies, managers, human-resources departments, and, in some cases, the workers themselves.You don't need to look far to find evidence that people don't feel ready when it comes to work. Some <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-workers-are-lazy-lack-soft-skills-managers-say-2023-8">bosses complain</a> that Gen Z workers don't know what they're doing and are lazy. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-lazy-hiring-jobs-careers-hr-training-pandemic-2024-8">HR professionals and Gen Z workers</a> argue that young people want to be successful in the workforce, but they simply aren't given the tools to do it. In a survey from the <a target="_blank" href="https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2023/09/27/adobe-future-workforce-study-what-us-employers-need-know-about-gen-z-workplace#:~:text=Gen%20Z%20is%20hungry%20for%20mentorship%20and%20development&amp;text=Gen%20Z%20is%20eager%20for,percent)%20reported%20having%20a%20mentor.">software company Adobe</a>, 83% of Gen Z respondents said having a mentor at work was crucial to their career, but only half said they had a mentor. It's not just young workers who are facing a training problem; it's everybody. For <a target="_blank" href="https://www.gallup.com/394373/indicator-employee-engagement.aspx">Gallup's employee-engagement indicator</a>, which analyzes employee perspectives using random samples of working adults, less than half of US employees said they knew what's expected of them at work. This is a costly problem, too: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.gallup.com/workplace/393497/world-trillion-workplace-problem.aspx">Gallup</a> found employees who weren't engaged cost $8.8 trillion in lost productivity worldwide.Just figuring out the day-to-day basics of the job is a challenge. The pandemic-driven upheaval of the past several years led to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/great-resignation-still-going-layoffs-low-job-openings-quits-high-2022-11">high amounts of</a> job-hopping, organizational brain drain, and a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/loyalty-employee-employer-job-security-broken-work-companies-bosses-2024-1">decline in loyalty</a> among employers and employees. The chaos has left employers, managers, and employees wondering just how much time and money it's worth investing in training in the first place. The rise of remote and hybrid work has complicated the situation even more. It's tough to learn by osmosis over Slack, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hr-software-tech-companies-employees-productivity-workday-oracle-adp-2024-8">the deluge of HR apps and training modules</a> isn't filling in the gaps."Most companies want employees to 'hit the ground running' and use apps, AI, and training videos to avoid disrupting another employee's flow or for the lack of staff to train someone new or help someone learn a new skill," Ana Goehner, a career strategist and HR professional, said.That may work in some instances, but in others, instead of hitting the ground running, workers find themselves perpetually zig-zagging, unable to break into a full sprint.That people feel like they're not equipped to do their jobs isn't a new phenomenon. There's been a long-standing decay of investment in learning and training by employers as part of an effort to create leaner organizations, said Kenneth Matos, the director of market insights at HiBob, an HR-tech company. If you're cutting costs, training is an easy place to do it. That's especially true when many employers use the internet to access a wider talent pool than in the past, which means they can just look for a candidate who already knows everything instead of having to teach someone. And, of course, plenty of companies have been axing middle managers, the people who would have previously been in charge of training up younger or newer employees."You cut away the people who are the link between big strategic ideas and day-to-day tactical activities," Matos said. "And so you end up with a scenario of a big strategic speaker talking to a much more junior doer, and they're like, 'I don't know how this translates into my job.'" Making matters worse, in many workplaces, training and mentoring are treated as an extra, rather than an integral part of the job, if they're noticed at all. In your performance review, "I spent 10 minutes explaining something to the new guy he was too afraid to ask his boss about" doesn't rate very highly. As workers and managers are increasingly overextended, these types of unmeasured, softer activities can fall by the wayside. This creates a conflicting web of incentives. It may be better, organizationally, for a manager or experienced employee to spend time teaching everyone on their team to complete a complex task so that a team's performance is better overall, but if they have an individual quota to meet, they may opt to focus on doing the task themselves, even though it's not what's best for the business."You end up with this really weird tension around organizational citizenship behaviors like mentoring and developing employees," Matos said. "Do you give a manager a lower quota because they are also magnifying everybody else's, or are you assuming they're going to do more than everybody else, are more talented, and also do the mentoring?"The people in the middle — who find themselves in between the big bosses and the little guys — are going to focus more on managing up than managing down. It's hard to tell the CEO that you can't come to that third unnecessary meeting of the day because your time would be better spent training that new hire on logging sales calls."Managers feel so caught up, and oftentimes they feel pressure of, 'OK, well if I'm going to disappoint someone, then it's going to be someone junior to me and not someone senior to me,'" said Ashley Herd, the founder of Manager Method, a training platform for managers.Many managers really are over it. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.gallup.com/workplace/510326/manager-squeeze-new-workplace-testing-team-leaders.aspx">Gallup found</a> that in 2023, managers were likelier than nonmanagers to say they're disengaged at work, burned out, and on the lookout for a new job. Their workers have been given more responsibilities, their teams have been restructured, and they're expected to accomplish everything with fewer resources, as in, money. And less than half of managers said they're sure they already had the skills needed to be great at their jobs, meaning managers weren't getting taught to be managers.At the r/managers forum on Reddit, the what-am-I-doing sentiment is evident. "Is it normal to get zero training as a new manager?" one Redditor <a target="_blank" href="https://www.reddit.com/r/managers/comments/1d6soeu/no_training_in_a_figure_it_out_situation/">asked</a>. "I have reviewed the team's work over the past couple of years, asked them questions to clarify a few things, and asked my boss questions to clarify a few things and have basically picked up most of it. Thought it was kind weird I got zero training, though."Technology is supposed to make training better, in theory. Why have an HR person go over the same PowerPoint on vacation policy for every new hire when a quick video or document stored away somewhere can do it just fine? That may work for simple processes like requesting time off or finding subscription logins, but it can become a problem when companies try to throw technology at their more-in-depth training problems. Nobody knows what they're doing here? Why not get an app to fix that? One of the biggest issues with using tech to solve what's ultimately a human problem is that it's hard to know if anyone is even going to use it. Take mentorship: Having one-on-one coaching from someone with more experience can help workers gain skills and knowledge that can't be found in a training video. It can also make workers likelier to stick around longer, help them feel more connected, and boost the sharing of institutional knowledge. Fostering these kinds of relationships is important, hence why the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.mentorcliq.com/blog/mentoring-impact-report">vast majority of Fortune 500 companies say</a> they have mentoring programs, many of which are facilitated by apps and software. How many people are actually using those programs, however, is unclear. Christy Pettit, the CEO of Pollinate Networks, which creates mentoring software, told me she recently spoke with a large multinational that told her despite having 2,000 licenses for the mentoring program, which was mainly an app, fewer than 200 people were using it and participation was declining every quarter."Most companies say they have a mentoring program, but few have one that works," she said. "It feels a little bit like when you buy a gym membership, and it makes you feel like you're doing something, but you may or may not be going to the gym."In some cases, tech-based training materials are disconnected from the realities of the work. All the training videos are done in an "official" corporate speak it turns out nobody actually uses, Matos, from HiBob, said. Or managers aren't well versed in what their charges are being taught and end up wanting the task done differently.Even when companies invest in training, it can often be directed toward the wrong people. Herd said that businesses often make the mistake of spending a ton of money on fancy retreats and training courses for their most senior leaders without making much, if any, investment in the bottom rungs."You could spend a fraction of that and give good training to all of your employees, and you're probably going to get more ROI if that's what you're focused on," she said.Stephanie Wolf, a vice president at RebuttalPR, a legal-communications firm, said the company learned the hard way about the costs of not investing enough time and energy in training people. As the firm grew, managers wouldn't realize people didn't know how to do timely tasks until they became urgent, or they'd discover employees were doing things in a way that wasn't consistent with the documentation and processes in place. That meant they had to rely more on senior staff to do the work and that projects took longer because training was happening alongside execution. "We've seen how our whole team can suffer when we don't train folks thoroughly enough," she said. To ensure accountability, she's now the point person on training, because the company found that when training was everyone's job, it was no one's. The firm has taken steps to get all the necessary information in one place and to slow the onboarding process down — instead of expecting people to take a week to get up to speed, it now gives them about a month.Wolf acknowledged it's "super easy for training to fall by the wayside when your client work gets busy," which means not allowing that to happen is a conscious effort. "Investing time now is going to save us all time in the long run," she said.It's easy to blame hybrid and remote work for some of these issues, to argue that if people were just gathered in an office together, that would fix things. But many HR professionals and career coaches say that's not necessarily the case. Yes, human interaction is helpful, but it doesn't solve problems like misaligned incentives, increasingly stretched managers, and a lack of a real, holistic plan for getting people up to speed. A remote-work training plan probably has to look different from an in-person one, but it's not impossible to craft. "In a remote environment, you, as the leader, need to model and also hold the individual accountable for taking initiative, saying, 'Hey, if you need something, I need you to tell me because I can't see you,'" Phoebe Gavin, a career and leadership coach, said.Gavin emphasized that it's not just on companies and managers to make sure employees are learning and getting onboarded but also on individual workers. Essentially, if you see something — or don't know something — say something. Ask questions, or take the initiative to figure things out on your own. I told her about an experience I'd had at a job where on my first day, one of four "important" passwords I'd received was for software the company didn't use anymore. I expressed disappointment that the HR department hadn't caught the error, which it took me a long time to figure out even was an error. She pointed out that I should have then gone to HR to alert them to the error so the next new person didn't have the same experience. I did not."That's a tiny place where you could have a positive impact," Gavin said. It wasn't necessarily my fault, she said: "Just that was an opportunity that you didn't take, and those sorts of things happen all the time."But not everyone gets the chance to sound the alarm on their employer's faulty training system before it's too late. That's what happened to Michelle, which is a pseudonym I'm using to protect her privacy. Before starting a job at a science-focused communications firm earlier this year, she was assured that she would get all the training she needed to overcome the fact that she didn't come from a scientific background. When she started, she was surprised by the deluge of training modules and videos that were added to her plate on top of the tasks of the job itself. There were supposed to be meetings with other, more seasoned coworkers after those video training sessions, but eventually, almost everyone stopped showing up. She was fired in a matter of weeks after being told she wasn't picking things up fast enough. She said she received little feedback and hadn't been given warning that things were going wrong."I felt blindsided by the termination just because I didn't think I was given enough time to do all of this," she said. "I was led to believe they would kind of hold my hand a little bit at the beginning, and a month in, to me, is very much still the beginning."You know how there are certain tasks in life that feel designed to be so complex that you'll give up? Like filing an insurance claim or <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cancel-subscriptions-congress-ftc-dark-practices-autorenewal-2023-2">quitting the gym</a>. Work should not be like that, but for many people, it is.Employees have complained about just being thrown into the fire forever. Many employers subscribe to the idea that you just toss people into the water and see who can swim. Trial by error is part of learning at work — one of the best ways to learn how to do something is to just try doing it. But it shouldn't be the entire approach. You know how you learn at school? The teacher explains something, you do your homework, it gets graded, you take a test, and you move on once you more or less figure it out. Imagine if teachers just piled 15 algebra tests on high-school students and everyone hoped for the best.There are aspects of the current workplace environment that make training more complicated to tackle. Remote work is different — you can't just lean over and ask the person next to you how this one software works again when you're typing on your laptop alone from your couch. Workers and employers don't feel as tied to one another, so there may be a decline in investment from both sides in the idea of getting supergood at the task at hand. The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/remote-workers-middle-managers-most-affected-by-layoffs-experts-2024-2">middle-management class</a> is increasingly stretched thin and hollowed out.Above all, it's really easy to load up on a bunch of tech-based solutions without identifying whether they actually solve anything. Relying on tech is appealing financially because buying a software license is a heck of a lot cheaper than paying a real live person. Many of the HR experts I talked to for this story suggested the training gap was a problem artificial intelligence might fix, a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/generative-ai-exaggeration-openai-nvidia-microsoft-chatgpt-jobs-investors-markets-2024-3">common refrain for intractable problems</a>, no matter the industry. Maybe that's true — if your manager won't have a one-on-one with you, having a chatbot to ask questions to isn't the worst thing in the world (assuming said chatbot knows stuff and doesn't make things up). But AI isn't going to be a panacea here. When you need to speak to a real person, no Coursera video or HR app or robot can do the trick. People make human mistakes, and sometimes humans need to address them.Wolf's firm is fully remote, but managers have noticed that Gen Z hires, in particular, tend to inquire about an in-person component for training. So they've adjusted. For a couple of incoming hires, they've rented a coworking space and enlisted some other employees to work alongside them for a couple of days to help them learn the ropes.<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/emily-stewart">Emily Stewart</a> is a senior correspondent at Business Insider, writing about business and the economy.

On-the-job training is broken. Companies are paying a steep price.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said the company is working to find its place in the AI "arms race."</li><li>The platform has become a power player in the race to train AI models.</li></ul>Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said the platform's content is among the world's <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-train-ai-model-crazy-subreddit-posts-reddit-licensing-deal-2024-2">best training data for artificial intelligence</a> — and an increasingly valuable commodity as the company aims to find its place in the AI "arms race."<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/reddit-ceo-steve-huffman-defends-193-million-compensation-package-2024-3">Huffman</a> discussed the future of internet search in an AI age during an appearance at The Wall Street Journal's Tech Live conference on Monday.Amid concerns of a coming wave of "<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-facebook-ban-ai-slop-images-shrimp-jesus-why-2024-6">AI slop</a>," Huffman said Reddit, which he's previously described as "the most human place on Earth," will stand out even more."AI has to come from somewhere," he said. "The source of artificial intelligence is actual intelligence, and that's what you find on Reddit."The company, which <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/reddits-ipo-set-to-take-front-page-of-internet-public-2024-3">went public in March</a>, has become a powerful player in the AI age. The site is a wealth of "colloquial words about pretty much every topic" that is constantly being updated, Huffman said, making it extremely valuable in teaching machines how to think and speak like humans.With its massive index of user-generated content, Reddit's public content has already played a significant role in the creation of popular AI models, Huffman said, prompting the company to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/reddit-acquires-artificial-intelligence-adtech-startup-memorable-ai-2024-7">figure out its place in the AI ecosystem.</a>Earlier this year, Reddit created a public content policy and struck <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-train-ai-model-crazy-subreddit-posts-reddit-licensing-deal-2024-2">major deals with both Google</a> and OpenAI to allow its information to be used to train the companies' respective AI models. <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-train-ai-model-crazy-subreddit-posts-reddit-licensing-deal-2024-2">Google will pay Reddit $60 million a year</a> for access to its content. The financial details of the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/reddit-openai-deal-ai-data-partnership-2024-5">OpenAI deal</a> remain unclear."We think generally the internet is better when it's open and interconnected," Huffman said. "But we also need to make sure we aren't just giving away the value of Reddit to the largest companies in the world for free."During the Monday discussion, Huffman was asked about whether other big-name companies are "taking advantage" of Reddit's information without an AI deal in place."Yeah, the ones I didn't mention by and large," Huffman said, who also said Reddit was in talks with "just about everybody" to license its data when asked a specific question about Microsoft. Reddit's heritage is one of internet openness, Huffman said. But the company needs to find a way to maintain its values on terms that are still sustainable for the platform, he said."We've been getting scraped every which way," Huffman said. "We've invested a lot in the last couple of years in locking that down, but it is an arms race."

Reddit CEO says the platform is in an 'arms race' for AI training

To ensure the convenience of <keyword id="19915258" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="passengers" source="keywords">passengers</keyword> and manage the anticipated surge in travel demand during summers, <keyword id="19909154" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Indian-Railways" source="keywords">Indian Railways</keyword> is operating a record-breaking 9,111 trips during summer season. This marks a substantial rise compared to the summer of 2023, where a total of 6,369 trips were offered. The additional trains have been planned to connect key destinations across the country, ensuring seamless travel on major <keyword id="21357069" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="railway-routes" source="keywords">railway routes</keyword>. All <keyword id="20617985" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Zonal-Railways" source="keywords">zonal railways</keyword> spread across India have geared up to operate these additional trips, catering to the summer <keyword id="21357806" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="travel-rush" source="keywords">travel rush</keyword> from states like Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi. Planning and running of additional trains is a continuous process for which inputs are taken from all the communication channels 24x 7 like media reports, Social media platforms, Railway Integrated helpline number 139, apart from details of waitlist passengers in PRS system, to assess demand of trains on a particular route. Based on this requirement, number of trains and number of trips are augmented. Neither the number of trains nor the number of trips run by additional train(s) is static for the entire season. During the summer season, Zonal Railways have been instructed to ensure availability of drinking water at Railway stations. Elaborate crowd control arrangements are made at all major and important railway stations. <keyword id="49492" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="rpf" source="Orion">RPF</keyword> personnel have been deputed at originating stations to ensure Queue system for entry in General Class coaches. Skilled RPF staffs are deployed in CCTV Control Room to keep a close watch on the crowded areas and render real time assistance to passengers. Government Railway Police (GRP) &amp; Railway Protection Force (RPF) staffs are deployed at foot-over bridges to regulate crowd smoothly in order to avoid stampede like situation during the heavy rush period. Passengers can book their ticket in these additional trains through Railway Ticket counters or IRCTC website/app.

Indian Railways to break record with 9,111 trips to meet travel demand this summer, nearly 3,000 more than in 2023

When <keyword id="20747437" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Pokmon-Go" source="keywords">Pokémon Go</keyword> hit the app stores in 2016, millions of players took to the streets to capture virtual Pokémon in <keyword id="19900656" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="augmented-reality" source="keywords">augmented reality</keyword> (AR). But behind the scenes, players unknowingly became contributors to something much bigger: a powerful <keyword id="19904566" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="artificial-intelligence" source="keywords">artificial intelligence</keyword> (AI) model designed to map the physical world. <h2 style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:18pt;margin-bottom:4pt;">Mapping the world, one PokéStop at a time</h2><keyword id="20054960" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Niantic" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Niantic" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Niantic">Niantic</keyword>, the developer of Pokémon Go, recently revealed that it has been using data gathered from its AR games to create a Large <keyword id="24105791" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="geospatial-model" source="keywords">Geospatial Model</keyword> (LGM). This AI model will allow robots and other devices to navigate and interact with the physical world — even with limited data. The announcement, made in a blog post on November 12, disclosed that the company has used over 10 million scanned locations worldwide to train its model, with players contributing 1 million new scans each week. “In our vision for a Large Geospatial Model (LGM), each of these local networks would contribute to a global large model, implementing a shared understanding of geographic locations, and comprehending places yet to be fully scanned,” wrote Eric Brachmann, Niantic staff scientist, and Victor Adrian Prisacariu, Niantic chief scientist. This massive AI effort is powered by Niantic’s Visual Positioning System, which can pinpoint the exact position and orientation of an object using just a smartphone camera image — accurate to within 0.4 inches. <h2 style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:18pt;margin-bottom:4pt;">From gaming to <keyword id="20256621" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="robotics" source="keywords">robotics</keyword></h2>The LGM project is no small feat. Just as <keyword id="19897804" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Large-Language-Models" source="keywords">Large Language Models</keyword> (LLMs) like ChatGPT use vast amounts of text data to predict words, LGMs use geospatial data to infer what buildings and environments look like, even imagining parts of a scene that haven’t been fully scanned. This capability could make LGMs invaluable in fields ranging from robotics and <keyword id="20562351" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="autonomous-vehicles" source="keywords">autonomous vehicles</keyword> to AR glasses and content creation. As Brachmann and Prisacariu noted, the technology enables machines to not only perceive physical spaces but also interact with them in groundbreaking ways. <h2 style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:18pt;margin-bottom:4pt;">A cause for concern?</h2>While many Pokémon Go players have shrugged off the news, others are more skeptical. Critics fear that such technology could have unintended or harmful applications, including use in surveillance or even military operations. Elise Thomas, a senior intelligence analyst at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, voiced her concerns on X: “It’s so incredibly 2020s coded that Pokémon Go is being used to build an AI system which will almost inevitably end up being used by automated weapons systems to kill people.” Niantic’s LGM reflects a growing trend: the blending of entertainment and AI research. While the technology promises to unlock new possibilities, it also raises ethical questions about privacy, consent, and the future uses of such data. For Niantic, the data scraping was possible because users willingly scanned their surroundings through the game. These scans were part of AR features that players engaged with, from battling at gyms to exploring PokéStops. But few players likely realised they were helping train a system with potential implications far beyond gaming. The question remains: should users be more aware of how their data is used? And where should companies like Niantic draw the line between innovation and transparency?

Remember going crazy over Pokémon Go in 2016? Turns out, you were training AI all along!

<ul class="summary-list"><li>US Army soldiers are training to operate at night in the challenging jungle environment of the Pacific.</li><li>During a recent war game, soldiers engaged in a long-range maritime air assault to seize an airfield at night.</li></ul>In the dense tropical jungles and humid archipelagos of the Pacific, the US Army is readying its soldiers for a potential high-end conflict by teaching them to own the night and take advantage of low visibility conditions when the sun goes down.The capability, which is a "perishable skill" and highly dependent on technology, is rife with challenges and opportunities, an Army commander told Business Insider.US Army Pacific held its large-scale annual Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center training rotation in Hawaii earlier this month. During the event, US troops <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-army-training-to-counter-aggressive-insidious-china-top-general-2024-2">wargamed a high-end fight against a peer adversary</a>. The Hawaii drills focus on preparing soldiers to fight in the tropical conditions of the Indo-Pacific region, such as on small islands scattered across miles of ocean.USARPAC also conducts a training rotation in Alaska in the dead of winter that tests <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-army-breeding-new-kind-of-arctic-warrior-freezing-alaska-2024-2">soldier capabilities in the Arctic tundra environments</a>. Both locations represent the most extreme variations of climates found in the vast Indo-Pacific region, and both rotations seek to train soldiers to fight in a variety of conditions and scenarios.<div type="image" title="A US Army soldier looks into the scope of a gun at nighttime. The photo is tinted green from night vision." height="2585" width="3447" msid="114326979" hostid="261" sizebytes="94734"></div>A major highlight, and perhaps one of the greatest challenges, is the focus on <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-of-nighttime-operations-show-how-the-military-fights-at-night-2018-10">nighttime operations</a>."The ability to move at night remains a primary area that we focus on," US Army Maj. Gen. Marcus Evans, commander of the 25th Infantry Division out of Hawaii, told BI, explaining that "the ability to hide amongst the noise, if you will, is another area that enhances protection and something that we train on both here and in the Philippines."During this year's JPMRC rotation in Hawaii, soldiers executed a long-range maritime air assault involving around 300 soldiers traveling to seize an airfield 200 miles away in the middle of the night. The assault, along with other elements of the exercise, allowed troops to understand how they can stay hidden and move stealthily across the Pacific.At night, the soldiers "are less observable," Evans said. "Nighttime enhances protection." That works for transporting infantry squad vehicles or aviation brigades across varying terrain, refueling aircraft, or conducting long-range missions across the islands or Pacific Ocean.<div type="image" title="A soldier stands holding a gun on the edge of a ship. The photo is framed in a circle and tinted green from night vision." height="3321" width="3321" msid="114326978" hostid="261" sizebytes="209176"></div>But night operations, Evans said, are a "perishable skill," meaning if troops don't continue to test it, they'll lose it.In Ukraine, nighttime missions and movements became common as the drone threat became more prolific. But sensors and signals intelligence systems <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ukraine-war-showing-us-troops-fight-hide-in-electromagnetic-spectrum-2024-10">on the battlefield</a>, as evidenced by <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/western-weapons-wins-against-russia-are-intelligence-bonanza-2024-1">the war in Ukraine</a> where drones with thermal imaging scan for foes, can still be a headache at night.Because troops use technologies to see, fight, and maneuver in the dark, they have to be cautious about what that looks like in the electromagnetic spectrum.The Army has been pursuing lines of efforts to improve both offensive <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-loses-quickly-if-cant-win-electronic-warfare-fight-officer-2024-6">use of the electromagnetic spectrum</a> and defense, thinking about how soldiers appear to the enemy's systems and sensors and figuring out how to cloak their signatures or disrupt the enemy's ability to find them.Evans told BI that the goal is to be "small and undetectable," and it's something soldiers are constantly working on.<div type="image" title="A US Air Force plane sits on the runway as personnel unload equipment from inside it. The sun is setting in the background." height="3963" width="5957" msid="114326980" hostid="261" sizebytes="300222"></div>Nighttime operations help troops to stay hidden and allow them to seize the advantage, especially in the jungles of the Pacific region, "an environment that others can't take advantage of during the night," Evans said. Learning how to navigate the tricky terrain while remaining hidden from the enemy is a major challenge, but it's part of the Army's larger goal with JPMRC."Our number one focus in JPMRC is war fighting readiness," Evans said. And "the ability to train in this terrain is really a critical enabler to enhance and drive our war fighting readiness."The Pacific is a priority theater that is home to rivals and adversaries, including China, which the Pentagon identifies as its "pacing challenge."

In tropical jungles, US Army soldiers are training to own the night in a Pacific war

<ul class="summary-list"><li>US Army Rangers and Nuclear Disablement Teams trained this summer to neutralize enemy nuclear sites.</li><li>The exercise reflects rising tensions with nuclear-armed nations and those pursuing such weapons.</li></ul>Over the summer, soldiers from the Army's little-known Nuclear Disablement Team linked up with the elite <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/best-ranger-competition-determines-us-militarys-best-2-man-team-2023-3">75th Ranger Regiment</a> at a training event that offered insight into how the US military is thinking about taking out enemy underground nuclear facilities in the event of a conflict.The drill came as the US grapples with rising tensions with <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-now-fastest-growing-nuclear-arsenal-in-the-world-report-2024-6">China</a>, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/israel-not-able-to-take-down-iran-nuclear-sites-own-2024-10">Iran</a>, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/north-korea-tells-united-nations-accelerate-nuclear-weapons-program-2024-11">North Korea</a>, and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/putin-menaced-west-nuclear-war-troops-ukraine-russia-nato-strike-2024-2">Russia</a>, three of which already possess nuclear weapons and one that is, as far as the US is concerned, a little too close for comfort.<h2 id="09f50434-2cc2-41e9-82da-664371144da4">Rangers taking down nuke sites</h2>For decades, taking down adversary nuclear facilities has been a concern for the US military. No one wants to think about a near-peer conflict because of the specter of nuclear war that such a conflict could bring, but militaries regularly prepare for a wide range of scenarios that might never happen.Ranger training to prosecute nuclear targets seems to signal a shift in their role. For decades, the mission to find and eliminate enemy nuclear facilities belonged to the secretive Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) and its tier 1 special missions units. The Army's Delta Force was primarily tasked with finding ways to penetrate highly guarded nuclear facilities and neutralize nuclear warheads."The Unit [Delta Force] has been involved with the mission set. It is an extremely difficult task that incorporates a wide range of skill sets like CQB [close quarters battle], breaching, and CBRN [chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear warfare]," a retired Delta Force operator told Business Insider."The fact that Rangers and SF [Army Special Forces] are getting involved in the mission set tells me that the military is getting ready for a fight where there might be several different nuclear sites that need to be secured," said the retired Delta Force operator, who talked on the condition of anonymity because of his ongoing work with the Department of Defense.The exercise in June saw <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/every-piece-gear-army-ranger-night-raid-bag-2023-5">Rangers</a> and Nuclear Disablement Team soldiers operating under simulated fire at a decommissioned pulse radiation facility.<div type="image" title="US Army Nuclear Disablement Team soldiers and Army Rangers moving out of a defunct facility." height="1365" width="2048" msid="115056615" hostid="261" sizebytes="142680"></div>"The highlight of the exercise was the integration of the NDTs and 75th Ranger Regiment teams," Army Maj. Aaron J. Heffelfinger, the team chief for Nuclear Disablement Team 1, said following the exercise, adding that the training "ensured that if we train together or respond to a real-world crisis in the future the teams are already familiar with each other's capabilities."Although the training was intended to simulate attacking an adversary nuclear facility overseas, recapturing a friendly nuclear facility captured by enemy forces or even terrorists at home is also a concern. There are a number of legal concerns surrounding a potential response in that particular nightmare scenario, but there are workarounds.The Army's Nuclear Disablement Teams, which handle weapons of mass destruction and related materials to deny their availability to adversaries, also work with federal agencies like the FBI as part of a task force trained and equipped to conduct nuclear forensics, and during the summer, the Army unit also worked with Green Berets from the 7th Special Forces Group on taking down nuclear facilities.<h2 id="a216d71f-b1b1-4c6b-8cfc-992649b9e2d0">A new kind of mission for the Rangers</h2>The 75th Ranger Regiment is the world's premier light infantry, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-tell-the-us-militarys-most-elite-special-operators">special operations unit</a>. Comprised of three line infantry battalions, an intelligence battalion, and a special troops battalion, the 75th Ranger Regiment is America's answer to difficult situations that require raw force, numbers, and violence of action, the latter involving unrestricted speed, strength, surprise, and aggression.<div type="image" title="A US Army soldier in combat kit conducts operations next to a red light. The exact action is unclear." height="1151" width="2048" msid="115056614" hostid="261" sizebytes="56618"></div>Military commanders and planners have long recognized the value and effectiveness of the unit. In December 2020, the unit achieved a remarkable 7,000 days in continuous combat.Today, the 75th Ranger Regiment is a vastly different organization than it was 20 or 30 years ago. For years, the Rangers were limited to capturing airfields and pulling security for Delta Force. as they did during the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/former-delta-force-members-remember-somalia-black-hawk-down-mission-2021-8">Black Hawk Down incident</a> in Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1993.But the demands of the Global War on Terror across the force opened the way for the 75th Ranger Regiment to take on more missions. Rangers in Iraq and Afghanistan went after the same high-value targets as Delta Force and SEAL Team 6. And now, they have taken on another strategic mission set, responding to the nuclear threat.

US Army Rangers have been training for a different kind of fight: neutralizing enemy underground nuclear facilities

<ul class="summary-list"><li>EY has fired dozens of staff in the US over code of conduct breaches, the FT first reported.</li><li>The staff watched multiple online training courses simultaneously, the report said.</li></ul>The accounting and consultancy giant EY has fired dozens of US staff, accusing them of breaching internal ethics codes, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.ft.com/content/dff2246e-e949-4cfb-833d-a8e38ba1e7da">the Financial Times reported.</a>The dismissals took place last week after an investigation found that the staff had watched multiple online training courses simultaneously during "EY Ignite Learning Week" in May, the FT reported.EY said in a statement shared with Business Insider that a number of employees had violated the company's global code of conduct."At EY, our core values of integrity and ethics are at the forefront of everything we do. Any violation of our Code of Conduct and/or US Learning Policy will not be tolerated," it said."Appropriate disciplinary action was recently taken in a small number of cases where individuals were found to be in violation of our global Code of Conduct and US Learning Policy."By watching the courses, the EY employees scored continuing professional education credits, of which they are required to achieve 40 in a year.The sessions included "How strong is your digital brand in the marketplace?" and "Conversing with AI, one prompt at a time," according to the FT.Several of the fired EY employees told the FT that they did not believe they were violating any internal policies by watching multiple courses at once. They said that there had been no warning that watching courses simultaneously was not allowed and that multitasking was part of EY's culture.According to the FT report, the firm has since changed internal guidance for EY Ignite events. An email about a two-day training event in August informed staff that they were "expected to complete this learning activity with integrity, including being present for all content and class interactions."The consulting giant has tightened internal procedures since the US Securities and Exchange Commission <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ey-ethics-exam-cheating-record-100m-fine-big-four-2022-6">fined it $100 million for a series of breaches related to staff cheating on exams.</a>The SEC said hundreds of EY accounting staff shared answers to exam questions "over multiple years." EY was also accused of withholding evidence from the SEC while the matter was under investigation. The penalty was the largest ever imposed against an audit firm, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2022-114">the SEC</a> said.Similar reprimands have also been issued to other Big Four firms. Earlier in 2024, US regulator the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board fined <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://pcaobus.org/news-events/news-releases/news-release-detail/pcaob-imposes-record--25-million-fine-on-kpmg-netherlands-and-bars-a-firm-leader-after-exam-cheating--misinforming-investigators">KPMG's Dutch business $25 million</a> over staff cheating on exams, while <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://pcaobus.org/news-events/news-releases/news-release-detail/pcaob-imposes--2-million-in-fines-on-deloitte-indonesia-and-deloitte-philippines--bars-firm-leader-after-exam-cheating">Deloitte's affiliates in Indonesia and the Philippines</a> were also fined for similar breaches.Are you an EY employee? Contact this reporter in confidence at <a target="_blank" href="mailto:pthompson@businessinsider.com">pthompson@businessinsider.com</a>

EY fired staff for an ethical breach after they watched multiple online training courses at the same time

Venture into any commercial gym during peak hours, and you'll likely see the same thing.Row after row of empty treadmills, stair climbers, and elliptical trainers. Meanwhile, crowds of people are swamped around the squat racks, benches, and free weights, waiting to pounce on the first free piece of equipment.Long cardio sessions are a thing of the past. Now, everyone and their mother (<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/professor-exercise-aging-workout-food-longevity-karyn-esser-2024-5">literally</a>) is into squats. And deadlifts. And hip thrusts. And a multitude of other strength-building moves, especially ones that help sculpt a powerful lower body.Data from the Sports and Fitness Industry Association, the major trade association for sports equipment manufacturers and fitness brands, illuminates this trend. Since 2019, gym-goers have been ditching the ellipticals and stair climbers, reaching instead for kettlebells and free weights.There's just one problem: most commercial gyms are not equipped for this shift in consumer preferences. They're becoming a graveyard for bulky, old cardio machines with dated plugs and grainy televisions.Gym owners are aware. "Trust me, our members will come up to us and tell us exactly how they feel," Mauro Maietta, district fitness manager at Crunch Fitness in Manhattan, told Business Insider. "We have some locations where they're like, okay, what's with the 40 treadmills? We need more benches."But, it turns out, remodeling a gym is not simple. The process is slow, expensive, and complicated. It's often easier to swap out an old elliptical for some new cardio machine, even if that's not what people want.<h2>Cardio created the gym industry</h2>Prior to the 1960s, fitness trends didn't really exist. Gyms were for children. Kids played sports, ran track and field, and did Presidential Fitness Tests at school, but adults didn't have time for such childish games. That all changed when <a target="_blank" href="https://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/eat-run/articles/the-evolution-of-fitness-trends">Kenneth Cooper coined the term "aerobics"</a> — a type of high-energy exercise that he said would reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease. Or, for short: cardio.Suddenly, exercise wasn't just a fun activity. A new idea was taking hold, that jumping, running, jazzercizing, and other forms of bouncing around are important for your heart and your waistline. This cultural shift created a demand for places to work out. It created the gym industry, and cardio was the driving force. Sure, there was muscle beach in L.A., which had been around since the 1930s, but that turf was largely reserved for the ultra-shredded Arnold Schwarzeneggers of the world who wanted to look a certain way.The problem with the cardio-centric gym was that it stemmed from a half-baked understanding of fitness. Cardio certainly plays a role in heart health and longevity, but it's not the whole story.<div type="image" title="Richard Simmons working out with people behind him" height="1515" width="2300" msid="113347793" hostid="261" sizebytes="262642"></div>The past couple of decades have seen a boom in science showing that resistance training has a wealth of benefits, beyond looking big and strong. Lifting weights can <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/improve-mobility-build-muscle-longevity-exercise-personal-trainer-2023-11">help you feel younger</a> for longer, delay chronic illness, boost bone health, and reduce pain. It may even improve your self-image. Weight-lifting isn't even necessarily about <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/health/fitness/weight-lifting-myths-for-women">getting big</a> – it can actually help you stay lean and toned. In fact, studies show <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/strength-training-better-cardio-burning-fat-2023-10">strength training beats cardio, when it comes to fat burning</a>."What the evidence is showing is that building muscle through strength training, as opposed to using cardio to manage weight, has a much greater effect on promoting longevity," the "Smarter Workouts" author and fitness industry consultant Pete McCall told Business Insider.But, while scientists and trainers have known this for a long time, it has taken a while to catch on more broadly. Before the pandemic, studio classes, like spin, were booming. From 2018 to 2019, gym-goers were hungry for cycling, stair climbing, and rowing, according to data from the Health &amp; Fitness Association, the trade group representing gyms, studios, and the fitness industry at large in the US.COVID triggered a sharp pivot.<h2>The boom of strength training in 2020</h2><div type="image" title="Kayla Itsines Profile Rooftop copy" height="2599" width="3997" msid="113347789" hostid="261" sizebytes="131914"></div>In the early months of 2020, people working out at home turned to social media influencers and personal trainers, many of whom extolled the benefits of resistance training. By June, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/weights-dumbbells-not-in-stock-online-many-retailers-gyms-closed-2020-6">Amazon had run out of barbells</a> and dumbbells.Fitness influencers had been driving an interest in strength training since the dawn of Instagram in the mid-2010s, but it was a niche trend.In 2020, suddenly, influencers like Kayla Itsines, Kira Stokes, and Kaisa Keranen were <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fitness-influencer-industry-pandemic-quarantine-boom-2020-5">amassing millions more followers around the world</a>. Fans, pent up in their living rooms, navigating the unclear perils of a new pandemic, wanted to feel strong and look good."Women used to have this misconception that if they did strength training, they'd become too muscular," Pamela Kufahl, senior director of communications at Health &amp; Fitness, told Business Insider. But consumers are getting savvier. Kufahl says from Gen Z to elders, there's been a real and growing recognition of the importance of strength training for longevity and even mental health.Since gyms reopened, members are spending more time muscle-building and less time on cardio machines, the Health &amp; Fitness data shows. People — in particular, women — are investing more of their gym dollars into personal training sessions.Demand for unique, personalized fitness has upended the point of the gym.These days, people aren't going to the gym for solo elliptical sessions, they're joining <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/run-club-making-friends-dating-app-alternatives-2024-7">run clubs</a> to work up a sweat (and maybe even find love). <a target="_blank" href="https://athletechnews.com/boutique-fitness-personal-training-gen-z-millennials-report/">Boutique group fitness classes</a>, like Pure Barre and Orange Theory, are proliferating, and membership is growing at boot camps like CrossFit. Pilates — low-impact resistance training that touts strength and longevity — is soaring in popularity, per <a target="_blank" href="https://insider.fitt.co/issue-no-300-powerhouse/">Fitt Insider analysis</a>.If you've been in any large gym, you don't need to pore over industry reports or financial filings to tell you all this is true. These days, cardio is just one part of fitness. Treadmills, while still the most popular, least intimidating piece of equipment in the gym overall, might be used for a warmup or cooldown, not the entire workout.<div type="image" title="soccer players training at gym" height="683" width="1024" msid="113347778" hostid="261" sizebytes="55850"></div>McCall, who is a consultant for the cardio icon StairMaster, says this trend is only just getting started. "You're going to see a lot more interest in the next few years in strength training from all age groups," McCall told BI. "The 20-somethings, the 40-somethings, the 60-somethings will all be gravitating towards strength training, just because of the benefits it provides."<h2>A conundrum for gyms</h2>This sharp shift requires some adjustment for gym owners. In most gyms, the weight section is one small corner of their floor plan, and it is becoming increasingly crowded."Suddenly, now they need more plate-loaded equipment, they need to find space for that," Kufahl said. "Strength equipment takes up a lot of space, they need to be bolted in. To move strength equipment around is a big task for a lot of gym operators and it requires some planning, it requires determining what to do with the flooring."<div type="image" title="Olympic-level runner Eilish McColgan training on squat rack at home" height="737" width="1024" msid="113347801" hostid="261" sizebytes="49102"></div>To fully outfit a 1,300-2,800-square-foot gym for strength-training, you need dumbbells, kettlebells, barbells, medicine balls, three to four racks, and flooring that can withstand heavy weights. That takes around $60-75,000, Chris Travis, owner and coach at Seattle Strength and Performance, said.Often, it's a higher initial cost for gyms to buy that strength equipment, because it's designed to last a lot longer than treadmills, ellipticals, or stair climbers, which might be on a multi-year lease, and have lots of electronics on board.Businesses can't bend to every new trend, but consultants say it's time to do this remodeling job.Since COVID, gyms have struggled to keep their members. Last month, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.press.blinkfitness.com/blink-fitness-takes-action-to-position-business-for-future">Blink Fitness</a>, one of the cheaper, most basically-equipped gyms in the New York City area filed for bankruptcy, signaling a realization that many before- and after-work gym crowds just aren't coming back. But Blink's parent company Equinox, a luxury brand with plenty of space for personal trainers and kettlebell racks, plus one elite <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/equinox-40000-membership-optimize-longevity-health-years-2024-5">$40,000 membership tier</a> for longevity-seekers, is still in <a target="_blank" href="https://insider.fitt.co/equinox-lands-1-8b-plots-expansion/#:~:text=By%202022%2C%20CEO%20Harvey%20Spevak,domestic%20and%20international%20growth%20opportunities.">expansion mode</a>.<div type="image" title="empty ellipticals" height="683" width="1024" msid="113347806" hostid="261" sizebytes="82978"></div>Crunch gyms have spent the last few years investing in more lifting platforms and clearing space for strength training, Maietta, the Crunch district manager, said. Recent renovations around the country have included more than $200,000 worth of new equipment, which buys new dumbbell racks, plate-loaded strength equipment, and Olympic lifting platforms, according to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.prweb.com/releases/crunch-johns-creek-unveils-grand-reopening-after-500-000-renovation-302046030.html">press releases</a>. Other priorities include more open-plan turf areas for functional strength training with weights like kettlebells, Crunch CEO Jim Rowley told <a target="_blank" href="https://athletechnews.com/crunch-fitness-new-era-of-fitness/">Athletech News</a> in January.It doesn't have to be a shot in the dark, either. Gyms have access to all of the data stored on their treadmills showing exactly how often people are using them."I can go and use a code on an elliptical or I can use a code on a stair climber and get an idea of how many hours it's been used over the last month, three months, six months, whatever it is," McCall said. Gym managers can use that data to determine how they might want to remodel their space — and some do. "Some health clubs are building new locations without cycling studios, I mean, that's how much that group fitness is being affected," McCall said.<h2>A new demand for specialized muscle gyms</h2><div type="image" title="man with barbell" height="1414" width="2121" msid="113347796" hostid="261" sizebytes="127058"></div>Gym-goers are increasingly seeking out more specialized spaces, and not just for spin class.When JDI Barbell, a strength-focused gym in Manhattan, opened in 2016, it was a small operation, popular with seasoned gym-goers looking to step up their game. It started out as one of a few exercise spaces dedicated to powerlifting, strongman exercises, and Olympic-style weightlifting.Lately, business is booming even more."It's one of the biggest reasons we get people coming in: 50% or more of members come to us after leaving a commercial gym because they're looking for something more," Priscilla Del Moral, JDI's co-owner and manager, told Business Insider.Miriam Fried, a New York City-based personal trainer and founder of MF Strong, said she's seen the same trend at her gym: clients wanting more strength-focused workouts after tiring of the cardio-heavy fitness classes at bigger gyms.The issue has helped fuel a resurgence of small gyms, which can focus on catering to a more individualized experience than their big-box counterparts."You can have a million different types of machines, but if you're missing the 'it' factor that makes people feel welcome and supported, they may not want to keep coming," Del Moral, who founded a nonprofit called <a target="_blank" href="https://www.strongurlsclub.org/">The Strong Gurls Club</a>, told BI<h2>Is this the death of the elliptical?</h2>This doesn't mean cardio is out. But it's being forced into a bit of a makeover."We now know that strength training is really good for you and that's here to stay, but we know you still need to go for walks and get your heart rate up," Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, professor of history at the New School and author of "Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America's Exercise Obsession," told Business Insider. "The treadmill is not disappearing."Brands that manufacture cardio equipment are looking at tweaks they can make. StairMaster's parent company, Core Health &amp; Fitness, has been building out its fleet of machines, acquiring Jacob's Ladder, offering a new self-powered treadmill, and developing more assault-style bikes. They're branding themselves as more of a high-intensity training equipment provider than just a stair-climbing apparatus provider these days.<div type="image" title="assault bike" height="1414" width="2121" msid="113347786" hostid="261" sizebytes="183624"></div>Increasing enthusiasm for strength-training and longevity is also a boon for the fitness industry – potentially keeping people in the gym for way more years than they might have been capable of before. Strength training is ideal for extending your "play span," your ability to keep doing what you love as you age. Maietta, the Crunch manager in New York, said he (41) is still showing up athletes who are years younger than him. He credits that to his lifting."What strength training really affords people is to make age just feel like a number," he said.

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