Can I benefit from hiring a personal trainer?

Truth is I think that anyone and EVERYONE can benefit from having some sort of exercise guidance in their life no matter how large or small. 

  

In case you have been living under a rock these past few years 

ONLINE and SMALL GROUP TRAINING have taken center stage for two major reasons. 

They are affordable and personalized.  

 Major win-wins!

Less is MORE: Part 2

Sleep, stress and food are all under control?
Okay now its time to move on to EXERCISE.  
WHY are you exercising?

To FEEL GOOD and LOOK GOOD.

A sequenced strength training session can set you up for an amazing day.  You feel tall and light, yet grounded and strong.  It’s not the same feeling as getting your ASS handed to you. (There’s nothing wrong with that 1-2 times a week in short duration)

I find that focusing on symmetry and posture makes your strength training more efficient and turns more heads! Seriously though there are few people out there with decent posture these days!!!

When it comes to the majority of my clientele and the way I have come to run my business LONGEVITY is the common thread that gets new clients in the door.  Training with me allows avid lifters to keep lifting, runners to keep running and people who sit at a desk for 8 hrs to go home and play with their kids without pain.

First off,  GET ASSESSED.  Every body is different. Having a trainer who knows the FMS to a decent degree will help you if you are experiencing difficulty with certain exercises.  Most of us have a good relationship with physical and manual therapists on the same wavelength as us. This allows YOU (the client) to have a team backing you; we can work together to get you moving in the right direction.

Secondly, learn what a FOAMROLLER is and consider buying a few LACROSSEBALLS.

Meet your new besties.

MOBILITY 

If your hip flexors are tight and your shoulders are hunched from sitting you won't be able to engage your back body properly if you move right into strength work! You also don't want your tight muscles acting as stabilizers and compensating for other areas of your body
It only makes sense to open certain areas up first before moving along to stability and strength.

STABILITY

Once the necessary muscles are open it is time to get the glutes and core going.  The glutes and core connect the upper body and the lower body and enable you to complete single leg and arm exercises successfully.
You know the feeling you get when you say "Oh yeah my BALANCE is horrible."
Its not your BALANCE. It's most likely your stability.
The majority of low back, knee and shoulder pain I see is a result of lack of mobility and or stability. 

 *Foam roll and self myofascial first, then necessary mobility and stability work, then on to strength.  Remember you do not want to strengthen movements that are not functioning efficiently! 

STRENGTH TRAIN

To me strength training is like art. Your body is the canvas and with the proper instruction you can create what you want.  Obviously genetics are HUGE.  

I am telling you strength training can actually CHANGE YOUR BODY.... for the better!

Gaining strength allows you to be more in control of your body two major ways.

• The more lean muscle you have the easier it is to maintain the physique you have worked so hard for if you happen to “fall off” for a bit.
• Strength and a keen sense of body awareness enables you to keep your body feeling its best. If carrying kids and groceries, or toting around camera’s while shooting a wedding is a part of your day to day; you NEED strength in order to make it through your days with ease.

That was probably a lot more info than you had bargained for. If you follow these simple steps I guarantee you will see results! 

Don't forget:

LESS IS MORE.

All  you really need is 3 days of total body strength training.

Once this baseline is established for a few months MAYBE you end up building from here.

Perhaps you don’t.

Either way it will work…TRUST ME!

You want something that’s livable. After all you are in this for the long haul right?!

***Stay tuned for some examples of total body strength training days!

HOW TO TGU LIKE A BOSS

-guest post written for Chad Smith and Juggernaut Training Systems!

The Turkish Get Up is by far the most intricate of all the kettlebell lifts. Many will argue that it is the most complex lift around, seeing as it requires the entire body to work together in order to complete. It also happens to be my favorite. 

Whether you are a newbie or a seasoned athlete the get up is comprised of many steps and the mastery of the TGU does not happen overnight.  I have been “get uping” for years and I am still a work in progress.

Benefits of learning and practicing the Turkish Get Up:

-improved shoulder and hip mobility

-improved shoulder and hip stability

- development of true core strength and stability

- increased shoulder range of motion (shoulder rehab)

- increased grip strength

- strong and solid shoulders

- improved ability to overhead press

- increased coordination

-improved posture

Whether you are a power lifter, yogi, fighter, bodybuilder, strongman, or runner, the TGU can help YOU!

*How you incorporate this lift to your program will depend on your goals and current training regimen.

There are a few different ways to perform the Turkish Get Up out there.  My preference is the “hardstyle” get up with 3 point bridge and it is what I will be demoing.

TGU with a kettlebell

As a beginner I suggest that you perfect the “naked get up” first before moving on to using a weight. This ensures proper shoulder packing as well as postioning for when the kettlebell is introduced.

Naked TGU

Maintaining proper shoulder position throughout the 7 steps of the get up can prove difficult for clients with limited shoulder MOBILITY as well as those with shoulder STABILITY issues. For these folks the kettlebell arm bar is an awesome set up exercise for the Turkish Get Up. 

Kettlebell Arm bar

The top 5 mistakes I see with beginners and the TGU are…

1) Broken Wrist

Remember to grip the handle HARD.

2) Lack of shoulder packing

Try to feel your shoulder blade lie flat on the floor keeping shoulder away from ear.

3) Splaying of ribcage in the half kneeling position and driving off back leg to stand.

Instead, utilize the core to maintain a tall spine and drive through the front heel.

4) Arching into the low back on the way back down.

Your hand placement should allow the leg to move freely underneath your hips.

5) Loss of shoulder pack/straining the neck to look up at the bell in the standing position.

Remember to keep tight through the core and keep your eyes on the bell at all times EXCEPT from ½ kneeling to standing position.

Almost every one of my clients will utilize SOME part of the TGU within their program. If they aren’t performing the entire Turkish Get Up because of some limitation you bet they are:

-overhead pressing in the half kneeling position

-performing the first three steps of the get up to the high bridge for reps

-completing overhead waiters walks for time

After all, gaining shoulder, hip and core stability as well as t-spine and hip extension are all highly coveted advantages of learning this lift. It’s also fun to show off your strength with some heavy get ups every now and then!

Enough of me, here’s one of my clients performing the Turkish Get Up

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXSn2JqFWH4&list=UULmB9DA7WZGCtUGHccIGwVA

AHHH the pelvis...to TILT or not to TILT

I want to spin off of an article I recently read.  The following topic is something I encounter weekly if not daily, now that I run my business out of a yoga studio.

The issue of a neutral pelvic tilt…what is it?

A natural neutral pelvis supports a small arch in the low back so that your body is able to support and connect your upper body and lower body, as well as move you.

Therefore to state that a neutral pelvis is actually in an anterior pelvic tilt is in fact correct.

Men and women differ in degrees of what is considered a neutral pelvis in each gender. Women can get away with slightly more of an anterior tilt since a women’s pelvis is designed to support pregnancy, while a man’s pelvis does not.

Now I am going to go ahead and make two generalizations here. 

*If a client or student works at a desk or sits all day the likelihood that their pelvis will be posterior is greater.

*On the other hand if you are teaching a group of high-level athletes, then chances are higher that you will see more anterior tilts.

In reality every pelvis is a little different. One exercise could work wonders for one individual while causing pain for another.

Your best bet as a health professional is to get comfortable palpating the bony prominences that together create the “pelvic tilt”.  Eyeballing is simply not enough. The PSIS is at one end point of the iliac crest on the back side, they appear as two small bumps. The ASIS is the end point on the front side of your pelvis, these are larger and easy to find with you follow the iliac crest all the way forward.

Chances are if your ass is as flat as a pancake you have a posterior tilt going on and your hamstrings do all the work leaving you with a sad excuse for an ass. HOWEVER I have had female clients with nice C shaped bums that would appear to most to have anterior tilts …that were actually posterior!  Ahhh you see I am full of contradictions  :P

Get comfortable, touch yourself so that you can in turn palpate others or instruct clients and or students to get a little “hands on” with themselves.

That being said I see a ton of former dancers, gymnasts, as well as yoga enthusiasts at the yoga studio.  I work to create pelvic stability both bilaterally and unilaterally so that the core is able to fire properly and clients are far less likely to complain of SI Joint discomfort.  In addition I strengthen their posterior chain so that the hamstrings and glutes are firing properly as well as to protect them from a hamstring strain.

Here’s where I confuse some yoga practitioners.

I instruct yogi’s to arch hard when they dead -lift. This throws them for a loop seeing as “tucking your tail” is so common in the yoga world.

As you can see NO ONE RULE applies to every situation…such is life :P

As long as we can create strength and stability through a sound range of motion we will be activating the core musculature that is necessary for supporting a healthy pelvis.