Can You Write me a Routine?

Trainers and coaches frequently get this question.  It comes from friends, family and gym goers alike and usually involves a “few exercises to get rid of this” as they gesture toward their “love-handles” or “wings.”  At face value it might seem to be a reasonable request but if we look a little deeper into the issue the usual response of “no” might make more sense.  First, I’m reminded of one of my favorite quotes:

Routine is the antithesis of progress.

Obviously, you want an overall plan or, perhaps, even a protocol to shoot from, but a day-to-day routine is exactly the mistake many “disciplined gym-goers” make.  Maybe a trainer once wrote them a routine or maybe they’ve taken exercises from the internet or a magazine but I can almost assure you that routine hasn’t evolved to any reasonable degree since they started.   Nor has their physical fitness or health.  A routine becomes boring, not only mentally but also physically.  When the routine is in place, workouts become predictable and progress slows, and then stops.  Isn’t a predictable and familiar set of activities with which we are comfortable what allows our body to become weak or soft or unhealthy in the first place?

This offer is only valid for one week.

Would you go to a car dealership and ask to purchase a car for as little as possible or for free knowing it would only last you a week?  A “quick routine for you to do” would have to include probably a page and a half of small print essentially explaining why the routine would only be good for the first week, would not guarantee the results you want nor that you would remain injury free due to lack of coaching.  And the coaching piece is perhaps the biggest point to be made here. 

What’s wrong with having a routine you follow at the gym to keep you active?

There is definitely nothing wrong with that, and it’s a good start, but it is certainly a low standard and a misinterpretation of the definition of wellness.  A good workout is about more than breaking a sweat, feeling tired and being sore in the morning.  A good workout brings about progress, positive physical changes and an improvement in wellness.  Bending, twisting, reaching and squatting are things we need to do, but they are also all things we need to learn to do both in the gym and out.  You can mimic Tony Horton or Denise Austin to the best of your ability but they cannot coach you in the movements to avoid injury or get the most from your efforts.

We’re here to help.

Most good trainers have a combination of 3 things; personal experience, education and a passion for helping people achieve their goals.  Many have been overweight or unhealthy in the past and probably all of them have gotten out of the rut.  Most should be (or at least have been) competitive in a realm of physical performance.  A lot of good trainers will have degrees and certifications to back their experiences.  And every single trainer I have met, good or bad, has a passion for helping create positive changes in the health and wellness of others.  With resources like this available to you, why settle for a quickly written, and almost immediately obsolete, routine or dancing with a videotape?  Why wonder if you’re doing things right and, not only getting results, but staying injury free and progressing? You would take your car in to a mechanic for maintenance and repairs to save money in the long run and to continue with your day-to-day life, why not take the same care with your body?

~Matt Brouse

Personal Trainer

Anytime Fitness of Lakeville

How to Get the MOST from Your Fitness Center

Do you want to get the most from your fitness center? Have you been working out but feel like you’re just not getting anywhere? Have you lost your motivation and have stopped working out? Are you recovering from an injury or are in pain and find it even more difficult than it was before to reach your goals?

What will increase your chances of actually achieving a body transformation or weight loss goal once you get in the right mind-set and start to enjoy exercising?

KNOWLEDGE & MOTIVATION

Knowledge is POWER and the key to your success. You must understand exactly what you need to do to accomplish your goals and you need to stay motivated to be able to stick with it. The main reason people get de-motivated is if they don’t see results. This often occurs when people get very comfortable with one exercise routine or piece of cardio equipment and never try anything else. Your body will adapt to whatever you do to it, otherwise known as reaching a plateau. Varying up your workout routine, progressing your exercises, and learning something new keeps your gym experience fun and worthwhile.

The weight loss and/or body transformation will come in time, but first you need to learn how to eat to achieve your goal; select the right type of exercises for your fitness level, medical constraints, muscle imbalances, and goals; and progress your exercises efficiently. Just because we have a room full of equipment doesn’t mean that every piece of equipment is right for you to reach your goals. In the same sense, just because you can buy a DVD or find a workout program online doesn’t mean that program is right for you.

If you want to know exactly what must be done to reach your goals, and you don’t want to waste time spinning your wheels trying to figure it out on your own or risk injuring yourself, talk to a personal trainer.

We’ve put together the following list of exactly what a personal trainer does for YOU:

Corrects Muscle Imbalances

Muscles that are too long or too short are not in balance. If the length of your muscles are altered as a result of misaligned joints (otherwise known as poor posture), then they will not be able to generate proper force to allow for efficient movement. During exercise, imbalanced muscles either force compensation to occur (these are called overactive muscles) or allow compensation to occur (these are called underactive muscles).

Muscle imbalances are caused by injuries, surgeries, improper posture, postural stress, emotional duress, repetitive movement, cumulative trauma, poor training technique, lack of core strength, or lack of neuromuscular control. These imbalances can be corrected with specific balance and stabilization exercises tailored to your needs. Personal trainers look for muscle imbalances when they perform a postural analysis on you during your assessment. The exercises that the trainer selects for your training program are a direct result of the postural analysis. They select exercises that will stretch (or relax) your overactive (or tight) muscles and exercises that strengthen your underactive (or weak) muscles. This is the most efficient way to correct muscle imbalances before they get out of control and surgery is required.

Alleviates Pain and Rehabilitates Injuries

Many people find it extremely difficult to work out because of chronic pain and/or past injuries. Personal trainers will work with you, your doctor, and your physical therapist to design a program to help alleviate pain and rehabilitate your injuries. It’s all about correcting those muscle imbalances so that you can move more efficiently and perform daily activities without pain. Once you get past that stage, you will be able to perform more traditional exercises and will actually find the FUN in exercise! After you reach that stage, your trainer can design a program that will give you the steps you will need to take to reach your fitness goals. When working with pain and injuries, you must be patient with yourself and your exercise program. Your body needs time to heal and there are specific exercises that you must perform correctly before you can move on. If you try to move too fast, you will risk the chance of reinjuring yourself and not being able to exercise for even longer. It is definitely worth it to do things right the first time!

Explains the Truth about Losing Weight and Toning

Our trainers will help you implement the steps to successfully lose weight and change your body composition into your action plan. These steps include:

·    Eating the right types of foods

·    Burning more calories than you consume

·    Tracking your calories and exercises

·    Getting the most from your cardiovascular exercise

·    Understanding how to perform and progress your resistance training exercises to reduce your risk of injury achieve your goals

·    Learning how to bust through plateaus

To understand what types of food to eat for weight loss, read our article: Learn How to Eat Right.

To learn more about the rest of the steps to lose weight, read our article: The Truth about Losing Weight and Toning.

Explains Why Balance and Stabilization Training is Imperative

You’ve probably heard us talk about the importance of balance and stabilization training but wonder what it will do for you. This type of training increases neuromuscular efficiency. Neuromuscular efficiency enables all of your muscles to efficiently work together in all planes of motion. In other words, proper postural alignment allows for optimum neuromuscular efficiency. Balance and stabilization training not only improves neuromuscular efficiency, but also improves muscular endurance, enhances joint stability, increases flexibility, enhances control of posture, corrects muscle imbalances, and alters your body composition. By performing exercises in a controlled yet unstable environment, the body is forced to recruit more muscles to stabilize itself. In doing so, you burn more calories.

Balance and stabilization training must be performed before traditional strength and power training. Otherwise, it can increase stress at the joints, overload your connective tissues, and eventually cause injury. The goal is to get your brain to fire the right neurons to move the right muscle groups to produce the correct movement without compensation. This strengthens the tendons and ligaments that attach muscles to bones. The risk of injury increases when people attempt to perform traditional strength exercises (training the muscles to get big and strong) before strengthening their connective tissues, correcting their postural and muscular imbalances, and stabilizing their joints.    

Gets You Motivated

Personal trainers provide structure and accountability. Hearing positive feedback that you are doing a terrific job or that you’ve mastered an exercise stimulates motivation to continue. Your trainer will incorporate exercises that are fun and challenging for you. This alleviates boredom and creates excitement – you never know what’s coming next!

Tailors a Program to Meet Your Needs

A personal trainer is a fitness professional who will design an exercise and nutrition program based on your goals, your specific muscle imbalances, your level of workout experience, your lifestyle stressors, your level of motivation to work out, your time constraints, and your timeline to achieve your goal. These programs are tailored to you individually and are consistently adjusted based on your ability to perform the exercises and your level of energy on the day you work with your trainer. For example, if you stayed up all night taking care of sick children, your trainer would not expect you to train as hard the day after and would alter the exercises to something you can perform safely.

Helps You Become More Efficient

With time efficient training, you will stop wasting your time doing inefficient workouts. You will get maximum results in minimum time. Time efficient training consists of total body, balance, and stabilization exercises.

Improves Your Sport Skills

Trainers can help you improve your strength, speed, agility, quickness and mental focus for sports that you may participate in.

Helps You Become More Comfortable and Confident

If you are a beginner to exercise and think, “I need to get in shape before working out with a trainer,” you couldn’t be more wrong. It’s like telling yourself that you need to get really good at doing a new job without receiving any training on how to perform the essential tasks of the job. A trainer will lay the foundation for you and help you understand exactly what you need to do to reach your goals safely. Some exercises can be extremely dangerous for people with certain health conditions. Always ask your doctor and trainer which exercises are safe for you. Once you have a better understanding of what you’re doing and why you’re doing it, you’ll be much more comfortable and confident in the gym.    

Breaks through Plateaus

If you are already in pretty good shape, but you’ve seen no changes for years, a trainer will help you switch up your routine, which will give you something new and fun to do.

Empowers You to Train Yourself

A trainer can teach you how to select the important components that specify how each exercise is to be performed. These components include repetitions, sets, training intensity, repetition tempo, training volume, rest interval, training frequency, training duration, and exercise selection. These variables are modified each week depending on how you progress. The exercise selection process consists of total body exercises with specific attention to muscles that are imbalanced. You must select exercises that stretch (or relax) your overactive (or tight) muscles and certain exercises that strengthen your underactive (or weak) muscles. Trying to find an online or video cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all type of training program will not correct your specific muscle imbalances.

Demonstrates How to Perform Exercises Correctly

A trainer watches how you perform each exercise, monitors your vitals, and provides valuable feedback about your limits and strengths. Knowing how to perform exercises correctly greatly reduces your risk of injury.

Helps You Make a Lifestyle Change

Personal trainers understand exactly what you need to do to lose weight the healthy way. It seems that everyone wants a quick fix these days – a pill that will miraculously make the fat disappear or a surgery that will limit the amount of food you can eat. However, taking pills and eating less will not tone your body. Strength training is the only way to get toned. Unless you change your mind-set and embrace a healthy diet and an active lifestyle, those quick fixes become temporary fixes and you will be right back to where you started. You have to work hard to make lifestyle changes. You have to make sacrifices and make a commitment if you are really going to succeed. There is no easy quick fix to lose weight, get toned, and stay that way. To achieve this you must get in the right mind-set, understand exactly what you need to do to get results, create and follow your action plan, eat right, and make these changes a lifestyle. 

In summary, a personal trainer will help you get in the right mind-set, select mood-boosting foods, find the FUN in exercise, perform the right type of exercises for your goals and fitness level, perform the exercises correctly, correct any muscle imbalances you may have that is affecting your posture, become more confident in your ability to perform exercises, define specific goals, create an action plan, solicit motivational support, and track your progress. 

What are you waiting for?

Schedule a complimentary fitness consultation today with one of our personal trainers!

Source: Lippincott, Williams, & Wilkins, NASM Essentials of Personal Training