Category: Home Training

Strategies for maintaining healthy eating habits (Part 1 of 2)

As mentioned in a previous post, the majority of diets fail. Diets fail for a wide variety of reasons but there are a few basic reasons why most diets are destined to fail right off the bat. The key to maintaining healthy eating is to change the approach one has to their “diet.”

Why do diets fail?
Of the many reasons why diets fail, I think the biggest comes from our perception of the word “diet.” When people think of that word, they associate it with something temporary, something restrictive, painful and a means to an end (losing weight). These are all negative associations and automatically make the diet likely to fail.
Another reason why diets fail is because they are generally not sustainable. Most diets are so restrictive that a person can only stick to It for a finite period of time. A person may notice significant weight loss from a new diet but once they go off of it, the weight is likely to come back on in equal or greater numbers. The final reason why diets fail is because they are often not specific to the person. Everybody has different habits, lifestyles and physical needs. A diet must take all of these individual needs into account in order to be successful.

How do I approach an effective diet?

In order to have successful diet, one must overcome the obstacles mentioned above. The first thing that we need to do is to change our mindset when it comes to the word “diet.” The word “diet” simply refers to the way we are currently eating. Whether your diet is healthy or unhealthy, the word still applies so there is no need to apply those negative connotations. For a diet to be successful, what is needed is the proper mindset. It needs to be approached as a lifestyle change and not simply a way to lose weight. While weight loss may be a goal, it is also important to maintain a healthy lifestyle and to keep the weight off long term.

A typical crash diet is designed to be used for a finite period of time and generally to lose a significant amount of weight over a short period of time. While these diets can yield good results initially, the person will almost always gain the weight back once they stop the diet. For this reason, a good diet must be sustainable. It needs to be something that the person can stick to for an indefinite period of time. If someone can sustain a healthy diet, they will lose weigh at a steady and consistent pace but more importantly, they will keep the weight off.
The reason why I use the word “strategies” in the title is because it is essential that a person have a strategic approach to their diet. Everybody is different and requires a different approach to structuring their diet. Specificity is very important and we need to take a variety of factors into account. Things like work schedule, availability of food, sleeping habits, religion etc. all may have a potential impact and should be takes into account. If a person can pit together a diet which takes into account their lifestyle, they are more likely to stick with it than if they are simply given a sheet of paper with what they should do.

Please check back next Tuesday for part 2 of this series as I will go into the 4 basic rules and you can start to build the frame of a good diet.

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Exercise of the week

flex-021Exercise of the week is back and I will do my best to update this as
frequently as possible from here on. This week’s exercise of the week
is a flexibility exercise that can be useful to most people. This
exercise stretches the psoas or hip flexors. Most people’s daily
routine can be very taxing on the hip flexors which in turn can cause
tightness in the lower back. Stretching the hip flexors will not only
work on the hip but will also alleviate some of the tension in the
lower back. This stretch should be done in three steps.

Starting position: start by kneeling on one knee on a soft surface.

Step 1: fall forward on the hip that’s kneeling by extending the leg.
You should feel a stretch from the hip going down the leg. (Pictured)

Step 2: raise the arm on the same side as the knee on the ground. Pull
the arm directly behind you. The stretch should be more intense.

Step 3: with the same arm in the air, reach across to the opposite
side. You should feel the stretch even more intensly.

After step three, hold the stretch for about 20 seconds and do the
same on the other side.  Make sure to complete each step separately as
it’s the most effective way to get the stretch.

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In Home Personal Training Tip (Increase the heart rate)

When it comes to in home training, the lack of equipment can pose a bit of a problem when trying to get a good cardiovascular workout. Most apartments will not allow you to do any running or jumping so as a trainer, it is necessary to come up with creative ways to increase the heart rate. One way to do this is to use a form of circuit training. In this form, the trainer chooses 4 exercises, 1 upper body, 1 lower body, 1 abdominal/ core and 1 total body exercise. Have your client do each exercise back to back with little or no rest in between. Have the client do about 12-20 repititions of each exercise. When one series is completed, have the client rest for one minute and then start another series.

Feel free to mix and match exercises, reps and rest periods.

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Ask the trainer: “I would like to tone up my arms and thighs, how do I do that?”

This question can be asked in a number of ways, substituting arms and thighs for any number of body parts. This is also a very loaded question and not an easy one to answer. The first thing is to understand what muscle tone really is. Muscle tone is simply the percentage of activity within a muscle group at rest. So when most people talk about toning up, they really mean something different from the true definition of muscle tone. What people are really looking for is better muscle definition. Better definition can be achieved by decreasing bodyfat percentage. Reducing bodyfat can be achieved by decreasing the fat content within your body, by increasing your muscle or a combination of the two.
There are several ways of decreasing the fat content within the body. Cardiovascular activity is probably the most effective if you are looking for fast results. Having a balanced diet is also a great way to drop fat from the body. Weight training also can indirectly assist with fat loss. Regular weight training boosts a person’s metabolism and over time that increase will result in fat loss.
Unfortunately, contrary to what many people think, it’s not possible to “replace fat with muscle” so while you are losing fat, you will need to do something in order to build up muscle. Muscles develop through resistance training. There are many forms including dumbbell training, machines and bands among others. If a person wants to have defined muscles then resistance training will be a key to their workout. It is important when training with weights that a person train at a moderate to high intensity in order to develop the muscles. This applies to men and women. Training with light weights and high repetitions only increases muscle endurance and does not develop the muscle in any significant manner.
Another important thing to note is the idea of spot reduction. When there is a specific bodypart that needs work, the only control you have is over developing the muscles in the area. A person cannot control where they will lose fat. Your body will decode on it’s own where and how it loses it’s fat. A good example would be a person seeking to lose belly fat. That person can do thousands of crunches a day but if they do not focus on fat loss, the person may develop muscles in the abdominal region but never see it through the fat.

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Exercise of the Week #1 (Side Bridge)

Description- The following exercise is a personal favorite of mine. It’s the Side Bridge. This exercise is great for a number of reasons. It is a tremendous core exercise as it strengthens the obliques. According to studies, the side bridge gets the highest level of activation in the obliques.

Muscles Worked- Internal and External Obliques are the prime movers with the lower back muscles as well as the rectus abdominus and TVA assisting with stabilization.

Starting Position- Lay on one side with your feet, hips and elbow in line and touching the ground. Feet can be positioned one on top of the other or the top leg behind the bottom one. Body should be straight with the shoulder flexed at 90 degrees.

Execution- One repetition is completed when you lift your hips off of the ground with your elbow and feet still touching the ground.

Tips- This can be done for repetitions or isometrically (held for a period of time).  If this is too hard, you can bend the knees and lift up from your knees instead of your feet.

Side Bridge

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Ask the trainer #1: “How do I find the right trainer?”

When a person makes the decision to work with a personal trainer, a very difficult task lies ahead. The process of selecting the right trainer is one that should not be taken lightly and is also one that could determine your own success. Unfortunately, many people don’t know where to look or what to look for in a potential trainer and they end up settling or choosing a person who is not the right fit. The personal training industry is one without a real governing body. Anyone can call them self a trainer. This means that there is a very broad range of people to out there, some with tremendous credentials and others with little or no legitimate experience. This is a problem that brings down the industry as a whole because for every legitimate trainer out there, there is one with no business working with people.
At a bare minimum, there are two things that a personal trainer must have. A trainer must have a current personal trainers certification and current CPR certification. There are many personal trainers certifications but only a handful are seriously recognized within the industry. Another blog will be devoted to this subject but some of the major ones are, NASM, NSCA, ACSM, ACE and ISSA. The certification should be current and the trainer should have documents to prove this. Most certifications require that trainers take continuing education courses to keep the certification and it is important that any trainer is actively involved in increasing his or her knowledge base. CPR is also important because you want to be sure that the trainer has life saving skills in the case of an emergency.
Once we get past these two basic requirements, there are plenty of other factors in the decision making process. The next thing to consider is your own personal health history. Are there any medical problems or injuries that could have an impact on the training regiment? If there are, then you need to be medically cleared by a doctor. Your trainer should have direct knowledge about whatever the medical problem is and he or she should know how to train people with whatever the condition may be. Don’t be afraid to quiz the trainer or ask questions.

The next thing to consider are your goals. Some goals, like general fitness or a little weight loss should be easy for even a novice trainer to work with while others may require some kind of specialization. If you want to improve your golf game, for example, you are going to want a trainer with specific knowledge in that area. Professionalism is a quality that every trainer must have. You want someone who is 100% focused on you when they are working with you and not themselves, other people or their cell phone. The trainer should be on time, not cancel frequently. With all that has been said above, the single most important factor in a successful client- trainer relationship is the connection between you and the trainer. This is someone with whom you will spend a lot of time with, a person who you are making responsible for a huge aspect of your life. Make sure that you pick someone who you enjoy being around and who makes you feel comfortable.
There are other things to consider when searching for the right trainer but those are usually more specific to the person looking, these guidelines should be the base level when you begin this search.

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