Top Ten Reasons to Hire a Certified Trainer

1) You have tried everything and after years of working out, you have hit the "brick wall" in your training.
Everyone has heard of it. Most trainees have experienced it. A training plateau hits when the body is over trained or your training is too familiar to your body to provide enough external stimulation. An experienced personal trainer/ strength coach can show you new exercises or training guidelines to break through the ruts.

2) You want to get fit, you just don't know the best way to go about it.
A personal trainer/ strength coach should be able to show you what types of exercises to do, how many reps and sets you show perform, what progression there should be, as well as provide you with a wealth of health and nutritional knowledge.

3) You need extra motivation and support.
A trainer can provide you with the support and motivation you need by being an educational tool. They are not interested in your life problems but they can help you work through lifestyle issues. They can help you set goals and then achieve them.

4) You don't have access to weights or travel a lot and need to know what to do with what you have.
Many people travel or stay at home and don’t have access to weights or exercise equipment. A trainer can show you fun ways to get in shape without expensive training equipment. A good trainer will help your fitness no matter what, if a health club trainer won’t show you because he wants to sell you a membership, ditch’em.

5) You are training for a sport or event.
This is a no brainer. If you are training for a sport or event you need to be pushed to your limit to increase performance. To perform at your best you must train at your best. Technique, intensity, and consistency are important here. A certified trainer can help you get there.

6) You have a condition or disability that you need to improve.
Diabetes, muscular injuries, etc., a certified trainer can teach you how to train to either rehabilitate these health issues or at the very least to work around them.

7) Your current workout needs some extra difficulty.
A trainer can add some “spice” to a boring repetitive workout for both mental and physical stimulation.

8) You need nutritional consultation.
A good trainer can help you with nutritional strategy and implementation. Diets are over-rated, but good nutrition is very under-rated. Get advice from a certified trainer and follow that advice 90% of the time and you WILL see results.

9) You need to make a commitment to stay motivated.
Some people need to have something invested in a project to make it happen. Buy a couple of personal training sessions so that you have some extra incentive to go work out. Hopefully it will stick!

10) You have limited time and want to make the best of your training.
Fitness does not have to take 2 hours in a crowded health club. In fact it shouldn’t. Especially if you’re in a gym get in and out within an hour, don’t let yourself get distracted. The more you can get into a shorter amount of time, the more intense your workout usually is. A trainer can help take the worry away from figuring out what to do, how many times to do it, and how much rest time should there be.

Easy Recipe of the Day: Chili Bean Dip

Ok I have very little time to cook anything, much less anything tasty. So I usually come up with weird recipes of things that I have in my kitchen (because I also do not have a lot of time to shop). The other day I was running late to open the gym and needed to put together a lunch quickly. So I ran to the kitchen and tore that place apart. After scowering the shelves and fridge for something that could be successfully combined to at least resemble a meal, here is what I came upon:

1/2 can of black beans
1 large can of canned chicken breast
2 fistfuls of spinach
1 box of Triscuits
chili powder
minced garlic

Yea I know, I thought the same thing, all that together is going to look like dog food. However I didn't have time for logical thinking. I threw into the blender the black beans, the can of chicken breast, two fist fulls of spinach, 6-10 dashes of chili powder, 3/4 tablespoon of minced garlic and about 1/2 cup of water, pushed blend and wha-lah.

I had Chili-Bean Dip for my Rosemary and Olive Oil Triscuits. Total time: 5 minutes (including the search). I split this up into two meals that day and it was fantastic. This nutritious snack has the following nutritent profile:

(with about 20 Triscuits and 2 fish oil capsules)

Calories: 890/2=445
Protein: 79/2=39.5
Carbs: 97/2=49.5
Fats: 15/2=7.5

This just goes to show you that it is always possible to eat healthy if you buy the right groceries and have an imagination.
Enjoy!!

One Very Effective Training Program!!

I have been an athlete for the past 18 years of my life, and due to my busy career, my sport participation has momentarily come to a halt (with the exception of my ridiculous obsession with strength training). Since I have stopped training in other sports I have concentrated on my strength training and research much more. Recently I began a new type of training called Undulating Periodization. Now after several weeks training with this method, I see some great results that I haven’t seen in years.

I stumbled upon this about a year ago over the internet, skimmed the idea and didn’t think much of it, probably because I was deep in training for mixed martial arts and didn’t have the energy to give it a go. I now regret this because with a little tweaking it could have been very beneficial to my training. Anyways after reading some of fitness expert Alwyn Cosgrove’s literature, it got me interested. Now I’m not going to lie, I’m often stubborn in that I like to come up with and create methods out for myself, but this was too good to pass up. I’ve been a fan of Mr. Cosgrove for some time and outside-the-box thinking like this is why. So visit http://www.alwyncosgrove.com/ and see for yourself.

So without further ado here is my adapted method of Undulating Periodization:

• DEVELOP TWO WORKOUTS AND ALTERNATE BETWEEN THOSE TWO WORKOUTS

• IF YOU TRAIN FOUR DAYS A WEEK USE AN UPPER BODY, LOWER BODY SPLIT WITH A DAY OF REST AFTER TWO DAYS

EXAMPLES:

Workout A: Bench Press, Rows, DB Curls, Triceps Extension

Workout B: Front Squats, 1 Leg RDL, Lunges, Calf Raise

• IF YOU TRAIN THREE DAYS A WEEK USE A VERTICAL PUSH AND PULL/ KNEE EXTENSOR DOMINANT WORKOUT FOR ONE DAY, AND A HORIZONTAL PUSH AND PULL/ HIP EXTENSOR DOMINANT WORKOUT FOR THE NEXT.
  

EXAMPLES:

Workout A:Overhead presses, chin up variations, and front squats or lunges

Workout B: Bench Press variations, row variations, and RDL’s or Glute Ham Raises


-IF YOUR GOAL IS FITNESS AND GENERAL STRENGTH USE THIS REP SCHEME

3 Day Workout
Day 1 (Workout A): 5 (sets) x 8 (reps)
Day 2 (Workout B): 4 x 10
Day 3 (Workout A): 3 x 12

*repeat starting with Workout B


4 Day Workout
Day 1(Workout A): 5 x 8
Day 2 (Workout B): 3 x 12
Day 3(Workout A): 4 x 10
Day 4 (Workout B): 5 x 8

*after two days off begin the next week with Workout B


- AFTER 4-6 WEEKS TRAINING IN THIS REP RANGE ADD A SET TO EACH DAY AND ENJOY THE BEATINGS!

This is a great general fitness exercise method to build muscle while keeping a high metabolism and these are just examples of set and rep ranges that you can use, so make sure you consult a professional on the specifics for your goals and limitations.

Top Five Qualities in a Great Personal Trainer

1. Knowledge of your specific goal and what it takes to achieve it
A good personal trainer should have a background either in research or more important practice, of areas synonymous with that of your goals. If you are looking to improve your golf swing, don’t go to a trainer that specializes in bodybuilding.

2. An educated background
An education from a reputable institution with a high quality program related to your goals is an important base to have as a trainer. Sure school doesn’t compare to the experience of the work field, but it provides the foundation of knowledge to build off of. Young, entry level trainers can make up in desire and willingness to learn, what they lack in experience.

3. Personality of some sort
They don’t have to be the next Robin Williams, but they must have some sort of personality to hold your attention. Remember the most boring teacher you had in grade school, did they make you want to learn? If your like me the answer is “I don’t remember, I was forehead down on the desk most of the class.” They are not there to act as your own personal Dr. Phil, but they need to be informative and interesting.

4. Supplemental knowledge
A good trainer will enhance his/her professional knowledge with an education in related areas such as, nutrition, wellness, sport training, fat loss, rehabilitative exercise, etc. That way they can suggest techniques or ideas to create a well rounded fitness experience.

5. Dedication to your purpose
Your trainer should be as dedicated as a personal servant. You are paying them to effectively train you, not their friend working out next to you. Sure they might shoot a suggestion to a fellow client, but if you have a PERSONAL trainer then they should be just that. Go ahead be selfish, it’s your money. Now this is a different story if it is group training setting, but then that is considered a semi-personal training setting an probably won’t cost as much.

Contact me!!

Please feel free to email me at info@thenewfit.net about any exercise, fitness, strength training or nutrition questions you may have. I will try to answer your question within 12hours.

Train Regularly II

This is part two of my post about training regularly. Now that I have convinced you that taking more than a week off from training will begin to impact your strength and muscular development levels, I would like to also tell you that training everyday is NOT a good idea either.

Overtraining is somewhat of an epidemic in health clubs across the world. Working out becomes an addiction to "meat-heads" and "fit-freaks" alike. They put in hours upon hours, day after day at the gym trying to get that Spartan body, but after 6 months of hard training they see no more results. Well this "plateau" phenomenon is part of the overtraining effect. Basically, one or more of several things happens to your body.

1. Your body gets used to your training intensity and type, therefore adapting to the demands and ceasing any further improvement.
2. Your body cannot catch up to the demands of your workout due to the lack of recovery. If you have an intense workout on Monday and Tuesday, then you don’t allow your body to recover before trying to hit it hard again on Wednesday, then you won’t have the energy or muscle repair necessary to get a good workout. Your workouts diminishing intensity leads to a plateau.
3. As your body falls into a trench of excessive workout stress, your immune system and central nervous system become suppressed, and you feel symptoms of illness, loss of appetite, muscle soreness, fatigue, overall body weakness or lack of/ decrease of training progress.
   
   So it is not in your best interest to pound it out in the gym every day, month after month as hard as you can. My professional recommendation is 3-4 days/week total, of moderate to high intensity strength training. No more than 1-2 additional days of any high intensity interval fat-loss training (depending on your training level, age, stress levels, etc.) Always have at least 2 days of active rest (walking the dog, yoga, stretching, foam roller!!!), and AT THE VERY LEAST 1 DAY OF FULL OUT REST. If one day isn’t enough do not be afraid to take off another day, trust me it won’t make your hard earned six-pack turn to a keg.
   
   

Until next time, I'm going to get a six pack ; )

Train Regularly!

This blog was created to convey research-based material to the general public, inorder to persuade people to eat and live healthy, and above all if you haven't figured it out yet EXERCISE!!! I know 99.9% of you would keel over laughing if i asked you if you wanted to dabble in a research article. That's why I forward everything that I know and learn to the readers. For some, a post may interest you, for others, check back tomorrow, because my daily article selection is about as predictable as an episode of Lost (love that show-geek!!)

Now that I have stated my main purpose to those of you that give a rat's arse, on to the good stuff.

If you don't have any physical exercise in your daily routine, your muscle atrophies. Simple as that. Lack of muscle stimulation leads the body to believe you don't need it, therefore it's size, strength and function will diminish. Have you ever had to have a cast or a brace on for a 4-6 week period? If you have you know exactly what I am talking about. Along with a stench that could choke pig farmer (nothing against pig farmers), you get a puny, weak, barely functioning reminant of what used to be a fully functional limb. This is due to the lack of stimulation to the muscles involved in moving that limb, hence the need for physical therapists.

So the reason for me writing this article is to convince all you "fitness enthusiasts" that believe your once-a-month gym rant will wip you into shape, that it will not. While I would normally say that any exercise is good exercise (well I guess it is) it is virtually pointless. What would probably happen is that your body would have such a great post-exercise increase in metabolism or "after burn", as a knowledgable man by the name of Alwyn Cosgrove would call it, that you would actually intake more calories over the next day than you would if you didn't ever workout in the first place. Therefore overfeeding yourself. Besides that, your body would repair itself within several days and get back to homeostasis (or a comfort zone in a land of no muscle building or fat loss), without an any other stimulus for another four weeks.

Anyways, the point is muscle building requires, at the very least, moderate training of some sort every 3 days. Any longer than that and it becomes maintenance training. After a week or two layoff, you begin to detrain or lose what you have hardly gained. Fat loss requires constant exercise to expend energy and burn calories other wise the calories you take in won't be used and will be stored as fat. Also another small tid bit. Diet alone will most likely lower your metabolism, so that your body's fat burning capability will also be lowered. While exercise without changing your diet will burn extra calories that your body is used to storing as fat.

So there are a few reasons to exercise regularly. If you are too stubborn to take my advice, or any other experts advice then you will pack on the fat instead of muscle. If you listen to my friendly piece of advice you can enjoy the melting of fat, instead of muscle. Until next time, cheers!

Flu Season

I am a strength and conditioning coach first and foremost. My main clientele are athletes ages 12-18 years old, and fitness clients anywhere from 30-80. Over the past 6 years or so I have been first-hand witness to people’s insistence that working out will "sweat" the flu (or any sickness for that matter) out of your system. Well I can first say that I have attempted to achieve this early in my training career to no avail. It just drained my energy and well-being even more.


This is not surprising considering there is a link between the auto-immune system and the central nervous system. Although this area of study is extremely complex it has been suggested that exercise-induced stress can release stress and inflammatory hormones. Think about it. If you are sick your body’s immune system is trying to fight infection so your immune system is working overtime to release antibodies and fight the "intruder". Meanwhile, you put further stress onto the body and central nervous system by having an intense training session. On top of that your muscular system is now in need of tissue repair. Even if there wasn’t a link between the two systems, the sheer stress on your body is enough push your body to shutdown. Now if research is correct, the proposed link makes it even more important to let your body heal itself before you go knock around some weight.

No this is not to say that going for a walk while you have a cold is going to kill you, but save the weight training and 5-mile runs for a healthy-happy day. Since this is a happy-healthy day for me (besides waking at 5:00am) I am going to go throw some weight. Good day!!

Eccentric Training

The benefits of eccentric or negative training has been known for many years, however it never really caught on to the general public. Physical therapists use it to establish stability and strength in muscle and joint rehab. Strength Coaches use it to develop athletes ability to stop and change direction quickly, or to decelerate during a violent movement. Bodybuilders use is to produce more "time under tension" for muscle building purposes.

All of these reasons have immense benefit to general fitness enthusiasts for several reasons:

1. An awesome by-product of strength training is the health benefits that it promotes. If you don't know by now that fitness can make you a healthier individual in multiple ways, then you need to call Century 21 and go house hunting, because living under that rock must be killing your back. Eccentric training can build tendon and muscle strength, as well as ligament and bone density. Basically, the load on the body's skeletal tissue can be greater on the negative portion of a lift because the muscle does not have to over come any resistance; it only has to decrease speed.



2. The reason for developing the ability to stop a body part from moving in an athlete, is the same reason eccentrics can help your training. Walking down the stairs, or catching yourself from slipping on ice requires the "stopping strength" produced by eccentric training, to prevent you from crumbling like the Berlin Wall. We have all had an unexpected injury at an inopportune time, whether it was cutting during a backyard football game or rolling your ankle on your kids Tonka Truck. Eccentric training can make you joints and muscle able to withstand the suprises of everyday life. Not to mention it can make an animal out of you in the gym.



3. Muscle hypertrophy (muscle building) has been shown in many studies to be dependant on the "time under tension". This means that muscle fiber development is increased the longer the extrenal load remains on the muscle. This principle is why you see olympic lifters in the 125lb weight class clean and jerking 225lbs! They train with mainly explosive movements with little time under tension, therefore little hypertrophy occurs. If you want to pack on some added muscle on your frame add eccentric training into your program, and shove some healthy calories into the whole in your head (preferably the one with teeth in it).

Eccentric training produces more damage to the muscle so it takes longer to recover from this type of training. It also fatigues your nervous system more than "average speed" lifting. For these reasons it is advisable to only do one eccentric-dominant movement per workout, and make sure that you have at least 2-4 days before you hit that movement again (depending on how you feel).