Personal Training in Red Deer is a Little Twisted!

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At least when it comes to Lunges recommended by our personal trainers in our Red Deer studio. The Lunge is an excellent whole leg and lower body developer utilized by many Red Deer personal trainers. The lunge on its own is a great exercise, but be prepared for a whole new experience when you add a twisting variation. Many new muscles will come alive for the first time; though that’s not exactly what our Red Deer personal training clients say I am sure you get the idea.

lunges Personal Training in Red Deer is a Little Twisted!

Red Deer Personal Trainers like Lunges! But at One-to-1 Fitness things get a little twisted!

Let’s begin by learning to lunge in place. Standing comfortably take a big step forward, about 1 ½-2 times normal walking distance. Settling the foot flat on the floor you are now in a straddle position. Elevate the heel of your back foot by shifting your weight forward at the hips slightly. Both toes should be pointed directly ahead of you while the heel of the back foot is now off the floor. From this position we will perform our lunge by bending the knees, descending at the hips until the knee almost touches the floor. It’s important to note that our forward knee should never go past our toes during the movement. You might begin by lunging by a wall. You would place the toes of the front foot against the wall preventing your knee from going past this point during the movement. At the bottom of the movement you should feel the stretch in the quads, glutes and hamstrings. Now return to the start position and let’s make it more interesting.

This time holding a small medicine ball high overhead (we start with 4lb ball or if you are working out a home a heavy book will work fine also). Start again by taking a large step forward with one foot to our straddle position. As you descend this time we will add a twisting motion with your ball. You are going to perform a large circular motion keeping arms straight bringing the ball down in a circle back to the hip of the extended leg. You should concentrate on twisting the shoulders and the torso and keeping your hands flat on the ball. The idea is utilizing the core muscles to maintain balance as you shift the weight throughout the movement. From the bottom of the movement with the knee almost touching the floor and the ball now at your side on the hip bone return to the start position again reaching with the ball in a circular motion and back overhead. Complete for sets of 12-15 repetitions and then perform on the other side. Not only is this variation a great lower body developer but will also help strengthen the abs and torso leading to better posture and even an improved golf swing. Summer, golf, grass and the great outdoors, you can’t really beat it!

You're Working Out Too Much!

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Yes you can exercise too much. I was struggling thinking of what to write about this week so I began to review some of my client notes thinking of what discussions I’ve had with some of my clients lately. Recently I’ve had a couple of my clients where I’ve prescribed an extended rest or detraining period. Two solid weeks away from the gym, nothing but light activity and only if desired, a prescription that will insure additional progress upon return.

This idea often just doesn’t make sense to most people. Our good work ethic tends to make us believe that if progress is not satisfactory then we must simply push on and work harder. Whether it be physical activity, work, or some other type of stress our body uses its vital resources to perform through each situation. If our body grows too low on resources it begins to break down: sickness, injuries, lethargy, all common symptoms of overtraining.

If we learn to identify when our body is running low on resources we can use extended rest periods to push our progress much further faster. The hard part is knowing when extra rest should be taken. Unfortunately signs of fatigue or overtraining can be easily ignored. Symptoms such as a sudden loss of desire for physical activity, tired or twitching eyes, restlessness and an inability to fall asleep easily, increased thirst or mild dehydration, prolonged muscle soreness and loss of strength are all common signs of overtraining or over exercising. If you didn’t sleep well last night because you haven’t flipped your mattress for a year; and you had a hard day at work today so your workout suffered you might be confused about whether you are overtraining.

lazy america fail 300x225 You're Working Out Too Much!

This is not a license to be lazy, nut know when to take a break.

What I would recommend initially is to be keeping an exercise log so you have some documentation to identify your current performance levels. After an arbitrary period, say six weeks of steady workouts, try taking four to seven days of complete rest or what we refer to as detraining. Carefully document how you feel during the first few workouts of the next phase and again over the next six week period. At the end of the second period you can compare your progress and determine whether the rest helped or not. You may decide to increase or decrease your extended rest, or maybe even increase or decrease the training period before the next rest period. Over a time you will begin to be more body aware as to exactly how your body is feeling and performing allowing you to just know when extra rest is needed. This article is not a license to be lazy but a reminder that a little extra rest once in a while might push you over that next jump on the path to your goals.

North Americans are Fat, Lazy and Stressed Out!

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3 lazy polar bears North Americans are Fat, Lazy and Stressed Out!

Lazy North Americans

Recent exposure to another part of the world left me with a feeling of disappointment. We in North America are horribly inactive and the by-product of our industrialized society has really created the modern day health problems known as stress related illness.

A few weeks ago all forms of local media graciously reported that myself and fellow Red Deerian Glenn Moore were heading to Tanzania, Africa to climb the great Mount Kilimanjaro for charity. (www.thewaterschool.org) The fundraiser and the climb were very successful and our determined group persevered with 23 of 24 individuals reaching the 5895m summit, far higher than the typical summit success average. Personally it was the greatest challenge I have faced in my life so far, the effects of altitude and the limitations in your ability to work it creates is an incredible and very individual experience. At times I would walk no more than 30m before collapsing for 2-3 minutes of rest with a heart rate of likely 150+ bpm. The anxiety and frustration of an inability to perform or maintain my heart rate I am sure only made it worse. In just shy of six hours, but truly what felt like an eternity, I reached Uhuru (the Swahii word for Freedom) Peak under the careful and watchful eye of Odell, one of our porters who had become my personal guide for those last few kilometres. It’s a funny thing when you get there, you sort of can’t believe you made it, you quickly hurry to take your photos and videos as though you might forget altogether and just as quickly begin to head back down simply because inside you are so exhausted that you are afraid if you don’t get going right now you’re not sure if you will make it back to camp.

Now not to belittle the personal sense of achievement that myself and the others share for having conquered the world’s highest free standing mountain but this story is about how we in North America have created a lot of excuses to be inactive and the modern day illness called stress. I make my living in the fitness industry. I trained for this climb for about four and half months. Growing up a strength athlete I was way outside of my comfort zone but after losing 18lbs in preparation I felt I was in pretty good shape for the coming adventure. Spending time in Tanzania you suddenly realize in that part of the world being active is simply a way of life. It was unusual for me to see hand drawn carts of goods for sale, supplies and everything else in the cities. It was more unusual to see people walking, carrying many items miles from any city or town. However the best example of amazing fitness as a result of a lifestyle requiring a great deal of activity came on the mountain from our guides and porters. We were only carrying our 20-30lb day packs walking pole, pole (pronounce poleE poleE, Swahili for slowly, slowly) while our team of porters is carrying about 30-50lbs of their own gear and camp supplies and another 30-50lbs of your additional supplies, food, etc, usually balanced on their heads; walking quickly up the mountain and often in simple running shoes. Each day they would reach camp long before us, often with our tents fully setup and prepared and busy boiling drinking water and preparing the evening meal. On summit day Odell needed no rest but he would patiently rest and wait with me as I struggled to persevere onward. Our lead guide Godfrey travelled to the summit three times total assisting climbers to reach their destination. Another of our guides aptly nicknamed Masai (the Masai are Tanzania’s tribal herder/warrior people) ran a full marathon the day prior to our trek leaving the city of Moshi. It was by far the most amazing example of fitness, conditioning, commitment and hard work that I have ever seen.

I left that mountain with a true sense of respect for a people and culture that was previously foreign to me, but I also left with an awareness of how our complex lives have made us lazy and allowed us to create excuses for being ill and overweight. Day to day in North America revolves around our careers and this word stress is constantly applied to all the difficult decisions we must make every day. On paper it seems crazy that this could make us inactive, overweight, and sick but as I sit here in front of my computer I am reminded it’s very real. March 1-6, 2010 myself and 23 others trekked over 100kms through four distinct climates and faced numerous physical obstacles for the pursuit of clean water worldwide. And yet that exhausting task now seems easy compared to the tiredness I feel after spending a day in my office or dealing with the day to day tasks of life in North America. If you don’t like exercise, or on the days you simply don’t feel like it remind yourself that obesity is now labelled as an epidemic in North America. Try to find ways to set aside the “stress” of each day for a couple an hour or two and go and do something active. I bet if we all did this we would relieve major “stress” off of our health care system and some major illness would drastically decline. Just a thought.

If you search “Red Deer Personal Trainer” on YouTube you will find I have posted a morning and evening video from each day of our trek explaining what it was like and how I felt, it’s amazing to hear my voice change on summit day and how foggy my thinking was at times.

It's Not NORMAL to Live Each Day With Pain

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There are certain things we do like clockwork. Generally we have our teeth cleaned every six months and book our next appointment after each cleaning. We change the oil in our vehicles at steady increments and don’t wait to run out of gas before we fill up. And most of us see our physicians annually in an effort to ensure our bodies are functioning optimally. And still it seems many of us may be a little confused about maintaining the physical performance of our bodies; particularly when it comes to our ability to move, perform and live without pain. Having been a personal trainer in Red Deer for more than twelve years I have encountered literally thousands of people that seemingly believe it’s normal to have a certain amount of physical pain in their lives as they age. From sore knees, elbows, hips and shoulders; to day to day back pain and headaches; many people feel this is an acceptable sign of aging.

I hope today, together we can break this paradigm. It’s not normal to live with pain, especially where serious injury is not a factor. Injury or not with some basic understanding of how our body works to move; chronic pain can often be reduced, eliminated or prevented altogether.

massage%20pict%20Tuina It's Not NORMAL to Live Each Day With Pain

Massage is a key treatment for improving the health of soft tissue.

Soft tissue needs maintenance just like our teeth, cars and our internal organs and immune system. What we think of as the skin that covers our muscles and the muscles themselves is actually an elaborate system of multilayered tissue. The layers of tissue from the outer layer of the muscles (known as the fascia), the independent muscles in each group, and the layers of the skin are actually all designed to move freely over one another. Over time, lack of increased circulation and movement to different areas of our body, (primarily from in-activity involving these areas) allows adhesions to form that prevent these tissues from moving freely. A good example of this is pinching your skin. Someone very fit will often be able to pinch (just their skin without much if any fatty tissue) and have a lot of mobility of the skin when compared to someone not as fit. The fit person would have less impingement of their facial layers.

When our facial layers become impinged or are unable to move freely our body compensates by altering our patterns of movement, our posture, and joint alignment. Any and or all of these inevitably lead to pain and injury. As society continues to develop more conveniences our lifestyle habits provide more repetitive in-activity and ultimately the day to day pain that many people experience.

Here is what you need to know in order of priority to live a pain free life:

1)      Treat soft-tissue impingement regularly. Massage therapy is one of the best treatments available to break apart facial adhesions and increase the mobility of the facial layers. The results of treatment are almost immediately notable. The problem with massage is most of us don’t use it enough. If you are currently experiencing day to day pain that is not related to a specific injury I highly recommend discussing treatment with a qualified massage therapist. A couple treatments in the same week followed by regular treatment 2-3 times per month will likely have significant and immediate impact on how you feel. Ongoing treatment in this fashion will almost certainly eliminate and prevent further pain throughout life.

2)      A body in motion stays in motion. This simply means we need to move on a regular basis and if you don’t use it, you will lose it. Exercise is essential if you want to live a long, enjoyable pain free life, and when used with regular massage therapy goes a long way to guarantee prevention of pain. 30 minutes of steady motion of any kind (the more of your body in use the better) each week will be an acceptable minimum.

3)      Maintain joint alignment. This recommendation is the most broad as it may be controversial with a number of people. People in general, active or not will likely experience some joint misalignment, the hazards of our complex internal structure versus gravity. Joint misalignment can often be improved with regular stretching, something that none of us ever do enough of. Ten minutes of static stretching per day (broken into 2-3 minute increments) will have a tremendous impact. A more direct approach would be to also work with a reputable chiropractor. Now not everyone is comfortable with a chiropractor, and even though I have worked with chiropractors most of my life even I am not comfortable with them all. I would recommend meeting with one before a consultation before ever receiving an adjustment and I would also recommend using a chiropractor who avoids using aggressive velocity adjustments.

If only everyone educated themselves and used these three services and therapies with the same type of regularity we do the dentist, lube shop or our physicians the world would be in a lot less pain.

The Basics of Training and Understanding the Core

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core The Basics of Training and Understanding the CoreCore training is the buzz word in fitness these days, I’ve touched on it in previous columns. Previously while snowboarding at Panorama I experienced first hand the significant impact of core training on balance and performance. I was excited and yet very nervous about the trip as I had not been on a snowboard in nearly two years and my father has become quite the avid snowboarder. I couldn’t have dear old dad show me up that’s for sure. Too my surprise my confidence and ability on the snow had improved over my last trip in spite of the time that had passed since I’d last been to the mountains. Core and functional training is really the only possible explanation for this improvement. Core training not only makes traditional strength training more interesting it also produces significant improvement in a very short time.

If you are reading this article chances are you have a weak core because at this moment you are engaged in a position all too familiar, one that may make up a large portion of your day, every day. Sitting is without a doubt the largest contributor to a weak core. Our car seats support us to and from work, the couch or lazy boy takes care of us at home and your ergonomic deluxe office chair isn’t helping either. When we’re seated and supported there is essentially no reason for the muscles to be strong so gravity begins to transform us and we don’t even realize until we feel the all to common low back pain or other aches. It’s time to do something about it.

Our core is mainly comprised of the abdominal muscles both, front and side, and the muscles of the lower back. You could expand this to include the muscles of the hip and pelvis and the small supporting muscles that follow our spine. If you’re ready to improve or avoid the back pain that might be in your future here are 3 things you can do to be well on your way:

1)      Draw In – This is a simple little exercise that you can perform right now where you are sitting, in your car or at the office. In fact no one will even know your doing it and yet it is highly effective. Simply draw your belly button to your spine, and I don’t mean suck in your bulging belly, I mean concentrate on contracting the abdominal muscles all around the belly button as though you were trying to pull them to your spine. Hold it for a few seconds and relax and repeat. Just a few minutes each day will greatly strengthen your core help to trim the belly and eliminate back pain.

2)      Plank – This is an abdominal hold that is great for the core performed on the floor in a position kind of like a push up. Instead of positioning yourself on your hands rest your elbows on the floor and extend your legs straight. You will hold your body up and keep it straight by contracting the abdominals similar to the draw in. Simply hold the position as long as you can. (You can find a full description with pictures on my website for this exercise.)

3)      Hip Bridge – Great for the butt this exercise is performed lying flat on your back on the floor. Bend your knees so your feet are flat on the floor much like you would to perform a sit-up. Now push your heels into the floor to raise your thighs, butt and low back off the floor. You should be supporting yourself with your heels and shoulder blades squeezing the butt tight. Hold this position until fatigue and repeat a couple times.

Performing these three exercises two to three times per week will begin to yield results in just a couple weeks. This is only the surface of core training and what it can do for posture, balance and performance.

CoQ10 is an Important Antioxidant

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Over the year’s as a personal trainer in Red Deer I’ve always tried to coach people to weight loss and better health particularly through improved nutritional habits. I’ve also tried not to recommend much in the way of supplements or items that would force them to incur extra costs. However, it has become apparent to me there are certain things that are proving to be so important to improving health and longevity I cannot ignore them. Recently I’ve been very seriously contemplating a new addition to this list. Today I will share that with you.

You’ve probably already heard of Coenzyme Q10. You may have seen it on vitamin shelves or heard it mentioned in ads for one of the popular make up companies. Beyond hearing the name you may not even know what it is, let me enlighten you. Two important things about your body: 1) many facets of our metabolism are all based on chemical

CoQ10 300x225 CoQ10 is an Important Antioxidant

CoEnzyme Q10 a powerful antioxidant

reactions that are triggered by enzymes. Enzymes are made up of a protein and a vitamin or mineral. 2) free radicals are the greatest destructive force in our body and are attributed to the development of many diseases and conditions.

CoQ10 is an enzyme with a vitamin structure similar to vitamin K. It is also an extremely powerful anti-oxidant.CoQ10’s enzymatic function is related to cellular energy, particularly the production of ATP. ATP is the main energy source used by your muscles during any activity, and particularly the first few minutes of strenuous activity (ie. Exercise). Right now there is a great deal of speculation as to whether this relationship to cellular energy may also have a direct impact on fatty acid mobilization to the mitochondria and ultimately fat loss.  

CoQ10 is a serious powerhouse as an anti-oxidant. Free radicals roam around in our body leading the charge in the process of destructive oxidation. We all know oxidation as the cancer that is rust that appears on our vehicles. This is an accurate description of the same process that is occurring inside our bodies as well. Controlling the metabolic rust is a sure fire way to improving our health and how we feel. A free radical is an unbalanced charged cell hunting for loose electrons to attract. It has the ability to pull the electrons from healthy cells in all our tissues. Once the healthy cell loses some electrons it degrades becoming a new free radical. This can be the starting point for sickness or disease in many forms. Anti-oxidants are elements that freely give up electrons to electron starved free-radicals balancing both cells and thus destroying the free-radical and slowing the oxidative process.  

The list of positive health benefits is long and growing but here are a few of interest:

  • Increased energy and metabolism, I have personally noticed soon after beginning supplementation.
  • Coenzyme Q10 strengthens the cardiovascular system and has actually been used to treat congestive heart failure. 
  • Coenzyme Q10 also helps athletes with stamina
  • CoQ10 improves and even reverses periodontal disease.
  • CoQ10 improves efficacy of weight loss programs.
  • Daily intake of Coenzyme Q10 has shown to aid in reducing blood pressure.
  • CoQ10 facilitates the elimination of Candida albicans.
  • CoQ10 alleviates allergies.
  • Diabetes sufferers are deficient in CoQ10. CoQ10 reduces blood sugar levels.

Eat More, Burn More Fat

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We should be cautious about many popular nutritional programs that play to our “common sense” work ethic that we need to restrict more or eat less to accomplish our weight loss or fitness goals.

To change directions for a moment; I think we can all agree that our world is a little more fast paced than it was 100 years ago, and that’s not likely to change. In today’s world just finding the time to do anything is becoming increasingly difficult. On that statement alone this column could easily shift back to time management or goal setting once again but the time management problem I am referring to this time is one of even greater importance. Finding time to eat, as silly as it sounds this has become a tremendously huge issue. Look at the line ups for drive-thrus, it has to be frustrating waiting so long for sub-standard food during your busy day. Or it will be tough to attend an evening function when you work late and have to stop for groceries before you embark on the hour long process to prepare a well rounded evening meal.

Simply, most people are not making the time to eat balanced meals regularly throughout the day. In fact we do a carful approximation for every individual that visits our facility of the number of calories the consume day to day. This number is evaluated by the standardized caloric intake equation pertaining to resting metabolic rate and activity. As of now more than 90% of everyone who has visited us for consultation has came in eating less than the standardized acceptable healthy amount, and often far less. If you hear any of the following:  too many carbs, too much fat, portion control, suppress appetite, you should immediately run to the nearest mirror and repeat, “what this really means is I may need to eat more protein, carbs, or fat to balance out what I am already eating. That eating too much isn’t as likely as eating out of balance and too little for my body to function at its best.”

A little analogy I use to demonstrate this is:

Most people eat too little, the body being an incredibly adaptive machine adapts to everything, just like we do. Imagine for a moment if your dining room and bathroom light in your home were burnt out and you could not replace them. It would be a major inconvenience, but if we knew they could not be repaired for some time we would quickly find a way to work around it and it would not be as big of a deal. My point is that your body is the same, if your nutrition is out of balance or you are not meeting minimum requirements it will simply adapt the best it can and you may never know it isn’t working well until you are sick, or injured, or both.

To achieve nutritional balance you need to understand some very basic rules:

1)      Understand what nutrients your core foods provide. (mostly protein, mostly carbs, mostly fat.)

2)      Combine foods at every meal so you have comparable portions of proteins and carbs and about half the amount of something providing fats. Essentially avoid oils, creams, and gravies and your balance will be in the ball park.

3)      Eat frequently, digestion is our most efficient calorie burner, it requires no extra time on your part. The more often you eat the more calories your metabolism burns in a day.

In our fast paced world, time is our most valuable commodity. That is not likely to change but by taking the necessary steps to eat frequently and focusing on balancing nutrients within every meal I can guarantee you will be more successful reaching your fitness goals and as an added bonus you are going to look, feel and perform better. Don’t be fooled by the big promises of low calorie diets, you and your body will thank me later.

What Is Your Favorite Exercise?

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I was talking with a training client today and we got into an interesting conversation about his favorite exercise.  It was kind of neat learning about his preferences, likes and dislikes.  So I wanted to open this up a bit and ask you… what’s your favorite exercise and why?