More For Your $$$

You need to invest in your health. The money you spend on a personal trianer now can save you thousands in doctor bills later in life. You are putting money into what should be your most valued asset-- you.

I have most of my clients supersetting a resistance training exercise with either a stabilizing (4 point plank--- seen below) or rotational core exercise.

A core rotation exercise would be something like a Russian Twist (seen below), barbell torque, windshield wipers, med ball 123 throw, cable ax chops, or some other type of cable rotation exercise.

For greater difficulty you can lift your feet off of the ground.

I have my clients do core with almost every resistance training exercise to build into their sessions a larger core component instead of always waiting until the very end of their session when they are exhausted to do core exercises. When the exercises are left until the end, they almost become like stretching... a chore.

I also believe in giving my clients the most activity in the hour I train them. I don't want a client to look at me at the end of the session and say," That's it?"

I want them to feel like the session is twice as long ... actually I would prefer they had no energy to think... Just follow my directions and get their body in better shape.

I want to throw so many different exercises at them that at the end of the session they want to stand under the shower and stare off into space.

That's the service they are paying for.

Fast Forward... do something!!!!

Fast forward to June13... five months from today. Your name is still the same, you more than likely have the same job. How is that resolution going you had in your sights? Do you feel better? Do you feel worse?

What is the scale telling you? WAIT, even better... What is your body fat percentage telling you? Most gyms have free fitness evaluations. If you set a resolution, you should get your basic anthropometric measurements. I wouldn't buy some land and build on it before I saw the layout of the land to see what I started with. If you set goals to improve, shouldn't you want to know where you are starting????

What is your resting blood pressure, heart rate, anxiety level, sleep pattern, eating pattern telling you? Have you changed anything?

You set a goal or goals in December, early January to make this YOUR year... your time to set those new marks, improve your overall health... how are YOU doing?

It is June 13, 2009, half-way through this year... looking right at 2010... that's right 2010. That year doesn't even look correct. Did you want to call your trainer at UK and say "Hey Rob, yea I lost a couple more pounds and I am planning on "insert next life goal"

I would probably hop the hell out of my seat and get all too much caffeine excited to hear you still making goals, excelling at everything you do.

A great quote I saw today reading some articles....

"Take your life in your own hands and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame"—Erica Jon

It's your life. Your time on earth. Your time with your family. I am not saying don't enjoy their company, spend time with them. Workout to lengthen the years you are able to spend time with them.... In all seriousness, working a long day, chilling with the fam, then going for a short run or lift in the mornings before they are up, watching what you eat, not just while it goes into your mouth... love your family for longer.

Take responsibility. You are all grown up. It is January 13, 2009... Two weeks into 2009. Did you write down your goals?

Thoughts for 2009

Starting 2009... do you remember the half-intoxicated goal you set for yourself SIX days ago? That is right, we are already almost a week into the new year. You could have been working out every day and be talking trash to your goal because you know that you will reach it, it is only a matter of time. You could have reverted to the trend you were in last year, of saying it is only January 6, I have plenty of time to hit my goal. Help yourself out and get to a gym, run at home, run around your neighborhood, use those dumbbells that you got for Christmas, strap on the heart rate monitor and mp3 player loaded full of kick-ass songs and go do something productive.

People are extremely dedicated in early January and sadly tend to face out of the gym picture, as do their health related goals... all they do is fade out. Get in a workout routine. Don't work against yourself. Believe the person who set the high standard for weight loss, health improvement, strength gains. If you don't set the goals high, there is no work needed to attain them. Make that year-long goal the one that makes you smile when you think of achieving it. This is what you have dreamed of and what you said for the last month taht you were going to start. Write down your goals and tape them to your mirror, instantly reminding yourself every day. Do some research and find some healthy snacks and pack your apartment/house/trailer with them.

"I'm starting the new year right"
"Man, in January I am going to be in the gym so much they might give me a paycheck"

"I'm going to get serious about training in January"

HEY, IT'S JANUARY. Time to show up. MAKE TIME. People are their own worst enemies a lot of the time. They throw in a ton of speed bumps and hurdles for themselves. Having a fridge full of beer and the wrong snacks around will doom yourself because having that temptation constantly a cabinet away is torturing yourself.. You will cave. It is better that you don't even buy that stuff or treat yourself once a week to something you think you need. Make it a reward for hitting your mini-goal weight loss mark. Don't let your treat be a sheet cake and ice cream, then you are just working against yourself again. A lot of successful people give themselves rewards that start as that piece of chocolate cake and end up being a heart rate monitor, new book, or new cd because as you lose weight and get in better shape you have a better understanding of what you need to do next to meet your next goal head-on.

You need the proper balance of exercise, diet, and sleep. Say you work 12 hours a day and don't workout becasue you are tired... but you go home and mess around on the internet so long that you only get 4 hours of sleep AND you were up so late you got hungry so you ate 1500 extra calories. You will repeat this viscious cycle daily because HEY, you only got four hours of sleep. Of course you are tired. Help yourself. Don't skip the workout. Eat something light when you get home, and get some sleep.

One summer I helped set up an Office Depot store. Walked in first day and it was a huge open room.. Had to lay the steel, drill it together, put all the merchandise in, blah blah blah. For about four weeks I worked 7am-7pm, got home and ate dinner then lifted with my buddy from 830-1030pm, shower, then bed.
I understand busy schedules.

My body weight went from 225lbs to a little under 200 and my flat bench went from 3 sets of seven at 275 where I would get 7,7,6 to 3 sets of seven at 280 7,7,4. I realize the weight loss was from long hard days and their were small gains in my flat bench, but I made a point to work out on top of my work schedule and I saw gains in strength and weight loss. Freak of nature? Hard-worker? I'd say it was a combo

My fiance recently sent me an article, check it out:
http://ezinearticles.com/?7-Signs-You-Are-Doing-Too-Much-Cardio-Exercise&id=1841369

These are the people that don't workout to get in better shape, they workout because it is January, because spring break is two months away, becasue they didn't enough last year.

Make it your purpose to workout to surpass your goals this year. Let me know if I can help. I found this on Youtube:




start progressing today... you aren't getting anywhere just sitting there

Holiday dedication- what are you doing tomorrow?

It's kinda late on a sunday night... had a couple days of no internet connection doing the holiday visits with the family... i am completely looking forward to my lift tomorrow. Working at a faculty staff gym at UK, I know that the entire campus is closed. SO I have the keys to the gym and I have an all-access pass to my own gym anytime I want over the break.

I am assuming I will lift in the morning one muscle group and then go back later and do another. I will write the program down tonight and go in with a plan... I am a lot more productive (and you are too) when you go into your workout with at least a mental picture of everything you want to accomplish. I would recommend writing down at least the exercises you want to do, but the best would be exercises, reps, sets, and what weights you believe you are going to start at on each lift.... this dramatically cuts down on the amount of "what the hell do i do next" time and keeps the flow going in your workout.

I hope tomorrow, the last monday before next year, you get up and get your workout in. i will be up by 9, i guarantee it, which will be around 8ish hours of sleep. I have read several places that most people need 6-9 hours of sleep and the way you feel for less than that amount of sleep can actually physiologically match the way your body feels if you get tooooooooo much sleep. These people that end up sleeping 12 plus hours because they feel they DESERVE it is a load of shit.

That must mean you deserve your heart problem, high cholesterol, lung problem from deserving too many extra cigarettes.... YOU DESERVE TO GET HEALTHIER! You deserve to get a great nights rest and wake up and make the most of your day. Get into a gym, do your aerobics at home, set goals and achieve them, sweat a little, sweat a lot, get that huge smile when some one asks you what you did today and you get to say you worked out on Christmas break.

I had a client that lost 25 pounds in about three months and got so many compliments that he got complacement and instead of hitting the eventual 50 pound long-term goal, stayed where he was and didn't lose another pound. It kills me because he had such high expectations and definitely deserved the praise he had gotten for losing the 25 pounds, but his drop in dedication to achieve the long-term goal completely surprised me. Write down all your goals, both short and long term and don't forget the long-term goals that made you start working out when you reach the short term goals.

Do something this last Monday before 2009.

Picking a personal trainer

Another blog was brought to my attention today and it had posted a news story well into last year. The news story discussed trainers that don't really know what they are doing and got some express certifications. It had a very negative connation towards personal trainers and really didn't go over how to actually pick one as a consumer or as a business.
For the consumer: You have made the right choice, whether you need motivation, drastically need to lose weight for health reasons, or just want to fine tune some areas of your body that you seek improvement in... you need to made an educated choice on who your personal trainer is... you have a choice, you are paying for the service. You want a trainer that has expertise in the area you are wishing to improve in. If you want to improve aerobic performance, pick a trainer that has personal training certification as well as some group fitness certifications... or that has experience running half or full marathons. if you want to improve strength, find some one with a strength and conditioning certification from the NSCA... Another essential part in picking a trainer is that any gym you go to should have trainer bio profiles posted or on their websites. Look over those to get a glimpse of the trainer's personality and certifications. There collegiate degrees should also be posted. Look for a trainer with an undergraduate degree in Fitness and Wellness, Exercise Science, Physical Education, Kinesiology, and/or a masters in exercise physiology exercise and wellness or a related field. These degrees still do not definitely get you the perfect trainer, so make sure before you pay that you may switch trainers if you are not comfortable with the one you are assigned to or your first choice.
Do not settle for "oh, my trainer is ok." This trainer is here to help you and you are the consumer, you should get the most for your money as well as the most results. Realize that you are not just paying for a lifting buddy, your trainer is there to motivate you to achieve your goals not to be your best friend. But they should have reasons for the training modalities they put you through and should not get defensive when you ask them during a rest period or consultation why they chose a specific exercise.
I try to give reasons to my clients that aren't filled with ocnfusing jargon to the general public and really give them specific reasons why they are being put through the workout I have written for them that day.
Also, if you feel pain... your trainer should let you STOP. Just because the workout is hard doesn't mean to stop, but you need to know the difference between "hey, my trainer is pushing me" to "ow, I am going to limp for two days after this." Please inform your trainer of previous injuries. A great trainer should have a vast exercise bank in his/her head and be able to adapt to a different exercise for any muscle group.

For the business: Your trainers need current cpr, aed, and first aid certifications from the American Red Cross and you need copies of those forms on file. You need copies of every certification they say they have as well as recognizing legitimate certifications. When in doubt, give them a brief quiz during the interview on methods a trainer should know... how to warm a client up, how to resistance train, proper running form, target heart rate determinations, how to stretch, how to cool down... This is your gym, make the trainers you hire the best. Have monthly meetings or have your trainers email each other new ideas for workouts they thought of... when fitness professionals share the information they know, it makes evry one better informed. Even if a trainer brings you an idea that is not correct (i.e. doing romanian deadlifts with a curved back) tell them why it is wrong, but be constructive with your criticism. Teach your employees. Be up to date on training techniques and the research that is out there on the best methods. Attend conferences, google, workouts, read books... absorb as much as you can.
Another pointer is to never let the trainers take the money, have a pay system that allows the front desk or you as the supervisor to take the money and the trainer gets paid for each session after it is completed. This compltely takes the temptations of the trainer just taking the money and not telling you about the sessions. If the clients pay up front for 30 sessions, log that and only release money to the trainer as the sessions are completed. have each trainer have client log sheets that have to be initialed by both trainer and client as sessions are completed.
Please install a cancellation policy. The client has to notify the trainer within 24 hours of a cancellation or they will still be charged even if not completing a session.
Tell your trainers to wait at least fifteen minutes for a no show before leaving. If a cient shows up and the trainer is still there after fifteen minutes they have two options: either train the client for the remainder of the time period that the session was planned or call it a no show. Either way, your trainer still gets paid. Make sure the trainers know that to maintain a client base they need to use their best judgement on these policies. If a client is always late, well, they are only going to get 50 minutes of the planned hour. If you have time and the client was late once, why not train them a full hour from the time they get there. I recommend having the trainers give out their cell phone numbers, that is the easiest way to get in contact and communicate.

These are not fail-safe methods, but they should help both you as the consumer and you as a fitness business pick qualified personal trainers.

"oh, you lift... do you do any cardio? well you should..."

Note to readers: I am not knocking cardio... ok, read on


ok ok ok, I am sick of this scenario. You have some one that isn't very strong pushing the envelope on me doing more cardio "because it is better overall for your mind body spirituality blah blah blah"

first of all... mind your own workout. i don't come over and knock your bike over when you are cycling, DO I?

I got a heart rate monitor after constantly bickering with some of these people. I had told them before that while lifting the amount of weight that I do with the correct periodization program and sticking to proper rest time intervals that I guarrantee my heart rate stays higher for a longer period of time than people doing just cardio.

"but Rob yours (heart rate) is just up for short bursts" ... While I would love to think that I am a machine, you can't just put your heart on low after doing five sets of romanian deadlifts. I used the heart rate monitor today and while resting for a minute and fifteen seconds my heart rate stayed above 140 and directly after each set i glanced at the heart rate on the watch and it was in the 180s every time, creeped into the 190s on the last set of 8.

let me guess, "that can't be accurate, your heart rate can't be that high during just lifting"
I completed a VO2 Max test last fall and I got my heart up to 208 on a treadmill... IN AN EXERCISE PHYSIOLOGY LABORATORY... please argue with me about this... it happened. the max heart rate formula (220-age) is for the average population, it is not a Golden rule by any means. athletes can push themselves above that mark. "oh, that machine was broken" "NO YOU DIDN'T" and all the other random rebuttals that will receive, lok at this. I went beofre my budy and a GA strength coach at UK. I motivated them out of sheer competition to get 210 and 209 beats per minute on the same VO2 Max protocol... thanks

"you need to do more cardio for your health" my hdl cholesterol hovers around 30... yea, i know that is low... TOO BAD MY LDL (bad cholestesterol) IS 37----> extremely low. I have talked to various physicians that told me it is nearly impossible to increase my HDL when my LDL is that low and I shouldn't be worried about those levels because I am in great physical condition... but what do they know, they are just doctors

I am not knocking cardio, if that is your thing, do it. it isn't my thing. there is an abundance of research that comes right out and states that doing too much cardio in an athlete's training regimine will stunt his/her strength gains... it will decrease the amount of possible strength gains that would be attainable if that athlete JUST focused on resistance training. there are also articles that show that one to two sessions a week of explosive resistance training CAN HELP endurance athletes... I wrote a paper on specificity of training this semester as well as presented it to my peers, if you would like a copy let me know... it has the references attached so you can check out the specifics on the articles and research I am throwing out there.

it is simple, I want to be as physically strong as possible. I will and do devote mulitple hours per week lifting, researching better and different ways to resistance train, and then when the time comes, writing another program with CLC, CSCS, CPT (www.swonkdiesel.blogspot.com). I don't like being weak sauce. If a friend needs to move, I want to be able to help, not be the fifth guy on a couch. I want functional ability... that is great if you can run 20 miles a day or every other day... my question is this: WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO NEED THAT???????????!!!!!!!!!!!! If I need to help some one move or carry something I don't have to call three of my buddies to help me.

"Hey Bill, let's run to Richmond from Lexington because I need bread" ... you will never need to run that far at one time... like I said, if running, cycling, swimming is your thing, you love it, it is your stress reliever, how you are best motivated by beating yourself every day.... f'n fantastic. I am glad you have a passion. My passion is resistance training.