Ongoing Case Study

     A few months ago, I had the honor of making a new friend. She's a married 27 year old mother of  2. After a while of talking, she found out about my training to be a Professional Fitness Consultant. So she asked me for some advice. She weighed 197 pounds and stands 5'2. She had an ongoing issue with her knee giving out after walking for a period of time. She wanted to know what she could do to lose some weight, and strengthen her knee.
     Of course the first thing I made a point of telling her was, that even though I can offer advice, there was no way I could help her unless she devoted herself to it. She informed me that she was very devoted to being healthier.
     For weight control, I explained to her how important it was to eat 3 meals and 3 snacks a day. Also to keep an eye on portion size, and eating healthier foods. I also explained the importance of drinking water. As for exercising, I had her start with seated light lifting. I wanted her to do the light lifting while seated, so as not to put any strain on her knee. For her knee, I had her doing easy body weight exercises, and a lot of dynamic stretching.
     For just over a month now, she has been following my directions. She eats 3 meals and 3 snacks a day. She is no longer getting that hungry feeling through out the day, and she is also not getting that overly full feeling. She has increased her water consumption as well. She is very pleased to tell me that in just over a month, she has lost 9 pounds and can now walk up a hill by her house with no problems from her knee. She is averaging around 2 pounds a week weight lose, and feeling a lot better about herself.
     She is going to continue with this strategy. Once her weight lose slows down, we will change up the exercises and see what happens. For now, we are both very happy with the progress. I look forward to sharing the final results with everyone, once we reach her goals. Whatever they may be.

     Stay tuned...

Another Tough Challenge

     Well here we are, just over half way through our in class Trainer/Client relations. My client has been a very big challenge. It is not because she has a hard time getting active. It is because she has no time to relax. Between school, running her own gym, work, sports that her children play, renovations to her house, and building workout routines for me and her other clients, she really doesn't have enough time. I've decided to show a little snip of her schedule. Just to show how busy her life really is. (See Below)

     Just think, that was actually from a period not so busy for her. Although I think we might not be able to hit her goals right on, I am very confident in the time we have remaining that we can do it. Her busy life schedule is starting to be uncluttered. The sports are over, renovations are almost completed, and hopefully in the next few months she will have someone to help relieve her of some gym duties. I will update this post as results show, or at the end of our client/trainer session. Check back often to see how we do.

Exercise of the week. Cable Supine Curl

Sit on the floor with your feet against a pulley machine. Grab low pulley cable bar with shoulder width underhand grip, then lie back on the floor with arms at your sides. Now with keeping your elbows at your sides, lift the bar so your elbows are flexed, then lower until elbows are straight. Repeat.

     When elbows are fully flexed, they can travel upward slightly allowing forearms to be no more than horizontal, in this lying posture. This additional movement allows for relative release of tension in muscles between repetitions

Exercise of the week! Monday November 11th 2011

Seated shoulder barbell press.
As in the name, this exercise focuses primarily on the shoulders (anterior deltoid). Although there are more muscles involved. here's the list:

Muscles

Target

• Deltoid, Anterior

Synergists

• Deltoid, Lateral
• Supraspinatus
• Triceps Brachii
• Trapezius, Middle
• Trapezius, Lower
• Serratus Anterior, Inferior Digitations

Dynamic Stabilizers

• Triceps, Long Head

Stabilizers

• Trapezius, Upper
• Levator Scapulae

     While seated, grab the barbell slightly wider than shoulder width overhand grip from the rack. Position bar near the upper part of your chest. To execute, Press bar upwards until arms are extended overhead. Then return the bar to the upper part of your chest, and repeat.

Exercise of the week!

OK well here goes everything. I've decided to try to post once a week on an exercise. I'll try to cover exercises for every body part. Although I do realize i will eventually run out of exercises, I still find it very important for people to learn the proper way to execute an exercise. Most, if not all exercises can be found on www.exrx.net

     This weeks exercise is a "Plyometric" exercise called the "Medicine Ball Split Jump".
Preparation: Stand with one foot slightly in front of the other, knees slightly bent. Hold medicine ball close to your chest. Slightly dip your body.

Execution: Jump up while extending ball upward. Quickly reposition legs, and land with feet in opposite positions. Immediately pull ball back to chest whole dipping body down by bending legs just short of rear knee making contact with floor. Keep torso upright and hip of rear leg straight. Repeat sequence with opposite leg movement. Continue jumps by while alternating leg positions.

     This exercise brings a lot of muscle groups into play. Also affects a large amount of different body parts for extension and flexion.

Dynamic

• Hip
  • Extension
  • Flexion
• Knee
  • Extension
• Ankle
  • Plantar Flexion
• Shoulder
  • Abduction
  • Flexion
• Scapula & Clavicle
  • Upward Rotation
• Elbow
  • Extension

Sarcomere and Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy

     I recently did an oral presentation for my class on Sarcomere and Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. Just the thought of hypertrophy makes me curious. I did a lot of research on it and found a lot of very useful information. Some of which I am actually including in the design of my work out routines.

     Instead of talking about both forms of hypertrophy on here, I will only make a brief comment on Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy. As most of my attention is focused on Sarcomere Hypertrophy.

     Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy is non-functional hypertrophy. Sure it can make your muscles bigger. Who doesn't want to be bigger? I wouldn't mind being a little bigger myself. Within reason though. I want to add lean muscle mass, but still be able to do most common daily activities without having to hire an assistant to help me, simply cause i can't reach, or bend that way any more.

     So, that brings us to Sarcomere Hypertrophy. Sarcomere is the smallest functioning unit of the muscle, and is also the part of the muscle that does the "contracting" or moving. Increasing the size of the sarcomere, and not only do you increase muscle size (of course not as much as in Sarcoplasmic), but you also increase muscle strength for more forceful contractions. Which is functional since your strength increase is relative to muscle size. Simply put, Sarcomere builds a more dense, stronger muscle. Sarcoplasmic builds bulk, but not as much strength.

     An easy way of picturing the difference would be to picture two well known people. Just as an example, lets use Bruce Lee and Arnold Schwarzenegger. When thinking of sarcomere hypertrophy, think of Bruce Lee. He was very strong, but he also had small but very dense muscles. Very functional. Which leaves Arnold Schwarzenegger to be sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. Arnold is strong and has large muscles. If Bruce Lee was still alive today, and we could compare, I'm sure we would find out that they are both pretty close in strength. The only difference would be somewhere between 80 to 150 pounds of body weight.

     Although there is a lot of ways I could explain how Bruce Lees muscle structure is more functional, I would rather just make one observation and leave it at that. Bruce Lee being as strong as Arnold Schwarzenegger, could still buy his clothes right off the rack. 

My Time in Class is Almost Over!

     It's been a while since I was last on here to talk about myself. I figure now is a good time for an update.

     We just finished the Anatomy and Physiology portion of our program. It has been a very interesting year, and only a few month's left to go. We have covered a lot of information in the past year. Information that I can honestly say, would have been very boring if it wasn't for our exceptionally great teacher. Someone I honestly classify as an "Elite Instructor". Mr. Tranter brings so much energy and enthusiasm to the class. You can't help but to absorb some of his energy and enthusiasm for the class. I couldn't imagine sitting through so much information with anyone else.

     In the last few months, we've seen 3 of our classmates, the first 3 to attend the class; leave us to continue their lives in the new field of work that we all are striving for. We have 3 more classmates leaving us to strike out on their own soon as well. Over the next few months, the class I started in will be completely different. Including myself, as I go out to perform my hours of work at a local gym. During that time, I have to go to Las Vegas, Nevada. While in Las Vegas, I'll be going through a boot camp to get my NSCA, First Aid, CPR and AED certifications.

     As for now, over the next couple months I have a lot of exams to write. I have every confidence in my self, that I am more than prepared for everything that will take place in the next few months. I owe my confidence to Mr. Tranter. With his energy, his life stories and the way he helps us all to learn. He has helped all of us that have been lucky enough to study with him, to see how valuable we are, and how to strive to reach our goals.

     So now I would like to take the time to say "Thank You" to Medix school, and Mr. Tranter for all the help, and for getting me going on the right path for a job I can see myself very happy doing.

Next client please!

     As we travel along in our program to become the most up to date and knowledgeable Professional Fitness Consultants, We have a lot of interesting challenges. My first client was a challenge for me, as it was the first time in a client/trainer relationship. That was a fun yet challenging time for us.

     Now we have moved into another session of client/trainers. As before, it has already proven to be challenging, yet fun. The first time, both my classmate and I really didn't know exactly what we were doing, so we were always erring on the side of caution. The classmate I have now as a partner, has a great deal of knowledge about exercises and workout routines.

     I spent the first few weeks of the new relationship, trying to be creative enough to come up with routines that she would enjoy, and would surprise her. That didn't go over to well. Took me 3 attempts at designing a routine, and her looking at it 3 times. The first 2 times she of course explained to me both the pros and cons of my design. 3rd times the charm! She checked it over (strictly as a classmate offering help) and gave me the thumbs up. WOOHOOO!
 
     I think, even with as much knowledge as my new client/trainer has; she is still going to prove to be a challenge. She is very light weight, but wants to add some size. Simple enough, use heavy weights and increase your dietary intake. Not so simple. She has such a busy life, she often doesn't have time to eat. She runs her own business, and has spent the past few month's renovating her house. Renovations are almost complete, but now to make ends meet, she has taken on a second job. Throw into the mix, the football practices and games her kids have. Yes she is busy.

     So I designed a 3 day work out. The first 2 days, are workouts we perform together at the gym. The 3rd day i reserved for her to do on her own when she finds time. Should be interesting in seeing how this works out.

UPDATE

     OK! It has been a few weeks since we started training. I'm very pleased to say that i've noticed some changes in myself, and my client. For her, we did a core routine a little bit ago. A couple days later, her abs suffered DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness). She still felt it a few days later, but she can't wait to continue on and see how cut we can actually get her abs. I'm very interested in seeing for myself as well. I have a whole list of ideas to run her through. I will do my best to keep you updated on how things work out for us.

     More to come.

My First and most Important Client

     Well here we are. Almost at the end of a 3 month program of working with my first client. I'd like to take a little time to explain a bit about my client. First off, she is from Lebanon. She is a 34 year old mother of 2. When she started the program with me (Professional Fitness Consultant program) she weighed 168 pounds. She was also suffering from some shoulder pain and demonstrated a lack in upper body, and distal arm strength. She does have lower body strength, since she was a belly dancer in her home country. However she was also lacking in cardiovascular.

     Her goals were to lose at least 18 pounds, gain upper body strength, and increase her cardiovascular. I love the reasoning for her goals. She wants to be able to play longer with her children, and have the strength to play harder as they get older.

     Our plan of attack? Simple. Start off increasing her Cardiovascular. It is important to do this for a couple of reasons. First reason is it helps build endurance and increase the flow of oxygen to the system. Second is its a great way to help lose the weight.

     We have had some obstacles to over come. The first few weeks we had to take it easy, due to an issue of a personal nature of my client. At the start of Week 3, we started our assault on her system. First plan of attack was to improve her cardiovascular system,  and endurance. We did this by starting every session on a treadmill. She would start off walking for 5 minutes, to prepare her body for the workout ahead. After the 5 minute walk, we would increase the speed. At first she would last between 60 and 90 seconds. Gradually over the weeks, we greatly increased her time to the point where in a 1 hour treadmill exercise, she spends a majority of the time jogging at a fast pace. Congratulations to her and all her hard work. I am more than impressed.

     Second attack was on her upper body strength. I put my client through a short serious of machines from the Fit-Fix area in our gym to find what her base strength was. Since we had a rocky start, I didn't see the need for a mid point reference. On the first machine, she was able to do 1 set of 10 reps with 75 pounds. The last time i tried her on the same machine, she managed to do 3 sets of 10 reps with 115 pounds. An increase of 53.3%. Although not all increases were as great, they are still very significant. on average the strength increase is between 30 and 54%. I also have to take into consideration that not only is she able to lift more, but has also increased her amount of sets, and repetitions.

     Here is a chart to show the weight loss that was achieved.

 As you can tell by the graph. Weight loss was gradual. Slowly losing weight gives a higher probability of keeping the weight off. The following graph shows the gradual decrease in my clients Body Mass Index.

The final chart i wish to share with you, is my clients Fat Mass. As you can tell by the chart below, my clients Fat Mass has dropped by almost 10 pounds. 

     Although we did not exactly hit my clients goal of a weight of 150 lbs, we did come very close. For me it is a great success. Even though she is my first client, I feel very confident in saying already that she was my "Most Challenging" client.

Mental Training. The Hardest Workout You Will Ever Do!

So you're 180 pounds, and flabby. What are you going to do about it? Sign up for a gym membership, just to go a few times. Then start making excuses why you can't go? Statistics show an average of 40 to 50% of people who sign up for a gym membership, quit going shortly after. Up to at least 90% will stop going to the gym within the first 90 days. Why do you think that is?

     The #1 reason for this is the lack of mental training, or Mental Toughness. People sign up for the gym because they feel they have let themselves go over the years. They are unhappy with their appearance. So they sign up for a gym membership, go a few times, then start making excuses. Sure they want to be in better shape. Sure they want to feel better about themselves. Sure they don't know that mentally they are not prepared for it.

     Just going to the gym and working out isn't going to do a lot. sure you will hit your goal....Eventually! You have to mentally prepare to push yourself to your limits. To really perform at your best, prepare yourself mentally. Don't go into the gym doing primal screams, beating your chest, and slamming weights down when your done. That's just mental. Instead, train yourself to think "There is nothing I can't do.". Don't just think it. Believe in it, use it. Repeat it to yourself several times a day. The proof that it works is all around you at the gym.

     You see men and women of all ages at the gym, that are in very good shape. They have the mental toughness to realize the shape they wanted to be in, and stick with it. They didn't just wake up one day and decide they wanted to look and feel better. They mentally set themselves in their minds. They decided how they wanted to look, and kept working until they reached that goal. You can do it too.  We all have the ability. All we need is the right mental path to take. 

     I've read a lot of articles on mental toughness. A lot of quotes as well. The best I have found is this one "Mental toughness is not letting anyone break you." and that was by Jimi Mitchell, a football player. It's all about having an unshakable belief in yourself and what you can accomplish, to be more consistent and remaining determined, focused, confident, resilient, and in control under pressure. So focus on what you want to improve, then make it happen. Regardless of what happens or what people say. You also have to remember, your goals are yours. When you do have them set, you need to block out the people around you in the gym, and focus on you. You won't look like them, you'll just be a better you.

     Once you set your goal, and decide that your not going to let anyone or anything get in your way. You will notice a big difference. Not just in how you look, but how you feel. More importantly, how you feel about yourself. 

Training Philosophy

Absorb What is Useful, Reject What is Not: I actually took this one from Bruce Lee. The intention of this philosophy is simple. When you start training, don't just jump into 1 routine and stick with it. Try several routines and exercises. Choose the ones that give you the best results. Don't keep using the ones that have little to no affect. There is many exercises out there, its up to you and/or your personal trainer to find the right ones for you.

Stand on the Shoulders of Giants: Don't be afraid to take some criticizing comments from others who have been at it a lot longer than you. There is a lot of very experienced people out there. Try what they say. It obviously worked for them, maybe it will work for you!

Form is King: Keeping the proper posture and form during an exercise is a lot more important than how many repetitions you can do. Bouncing the bar off your chest while doing the benchpress, sure it helps you do more reps, but its not the proper form. To fully use your muscles potential, you should stop the bar an inch above your chest. Same as swinging your body or your arm while doing bicep curls. Your losing the effectiveness of the work out. Your elbows should stay locked by your waist, and you should keep your body as still as possible for each rep.

Assess Assess Assess: Every 3 to 6 weeks you should assess yourself and your routine. You need to do these assessments to insure your doing exercises that will help you reach your goal as quickly as you want.

Tweak Tweak Tweak: This one goes hand in hand with Assess Assess Assess and Absorb What is Useful, Reject What is Not. Assess your routine and find areas to improve an exercise, or use a different exercise with better results. A successful tweak will be one that increases your gains.

Keep Things Simple: This also includes over analyzing your workout routines. The closer we can keep to our basic movements, the less time you have to think about if your doing it right. You will get more out of your exercises.

More to come as the Experience Grows...

Dumbbell One Arm Tricep Extension

This exercise is one of my favourites. Mainly because it works on one of my favourite muscles to work on. The Tricep is the muscle on the back of your arm, and is the main muscle that makes your arms look bigger.

Preparation: Find a weight you feel comfortable using, but heavy enough to be a challenge. Sit on a bench with a back support, slightly lower than shoulder height. With dumbbell in hand, raise your arm straight over head, or slightly back. Make sure to keep your back pressed against the back support for proper posture.

Execution: Bending your arm at the elbow, lower the weight behind your head. Try to keep your upper arm as straight up as possible. After you reach the bottom of the rep, return your arm to the starting position. Repeat.

Incorrect Movement: Don't let your arm move away from your head. Moving your elbow forward will help you lift the weight on each rep, but will also lessen the focus on the Tricep Brachii.

Sidenote: Let the weight pull your arm slightly back to maintain shoulder flexion. Keep your elbow tucked in so it doesn't turn into an overhead press. Back support must not be high enough to stop full range of motion of the dumbbell. This exercise can also be performed without a back rest, or in a standing position.

Target Muscle: Tricep Brachii

Barbell Military Press

One of the easiest exercises to do, but can be ineffective if done wrong.

Preparation: Grab a barbell from the rack or clean from the floor. Should use an overhand grip, and hands should be positioned slightly more than shoulder width apart.

Execution: Press the barbell over head until arms are almost fully extended. Lower barbell back to front of neck and repeat.

Incorrect Movements: Do not lock elbows at the top of the repetition, you want to leave some flexibility in your arms. Never lower the barbell behind your head, this causes you to bend your head forward placing your spine in an incorrect position which could lead to spinal problems. Pressing the bar back up immediately on return to the bottom position. This can help you do more reps by utilizing the elastic energy stored in your muscle. However, it also robs your muscle from fully performing the way you want.

Tempo: The correct tempo for this exercise is 1-0-3-1. Which means a 1 count to push the bar up, 0 count at the top, 3 count to lower the bar, and a 1 count at the bottom. Ideally you want no rest at the top or bottom end of the repetition. A 1 count keeps your muscle explosive on the way up, and the 3 count on the way down really focus's on the muscle, and a 1 count at the bottom so your not using rebound energy to do the next rep.

Reps & Sets: 3 sets of 15

Target Muscles: Anterior Deltoid

Synergists: Pectoralis Major, Clavicular
                   Triceps Brachii
                   Deltoid, Lateral
                   Trapezius, Middle
                   Trapezius, Lower
                   Serratus Anterior, Inferior Digitations

To exercise, or not to exercise during Ramadan!!! That is my question

     Even though it isn't part of my religion, I understand why I should increase my knowledge of various reasons that may stop people from working out. Or rather being able to distinguish between a real reason, and a made up excuse. The first one I want to look at is Ramadan. Why did I pick this one to do first? Right now I have a client that is celebrating Ramadan. I also have a few friends that are also celebrating it. Naturally my curiosity has pushed me to explore it.

     During Ramadan which lasts for a month, those who celebrate it have to fast. No I don't mean any of the Fast and Furious films. Fasting is when you don't eat. Anyone that has had to go in for surgery have a slight idea about this. Its a medical requirement before surgery, not to eat for several hours. This is to insure that your stomach is void of any foods. Fasting for Ramadan is quite similar. With the exceptions that it lasts for a month, you can eat before sun up, or after sun down. It is said to void your spirit of impurities, as well as your body. I've also been told the reason some religions celebrate Ramadon, is so they get a better feeling and understanding of the suffering of hunger a lot of people in the world go through everyday of their lives.

     Now that we have a slight understanding of this celebration, it's time to figure out if we should or should not continue with our exercises during this time.

     There is a lot of people that do celebrate Romadan who are conflicted by this very idea, and with good reason. A lot of people don't want to stop their routine of working out. It's something they believe in almost as much as their religion.

     You can find several of the points I'm about to make from http://www.dailymuscle.com/2007/09/12/exercising-during-ramadan/ . This article was written by Shazly Khan and published by Noel Chelliah.


     It is recommended by Mr. Khan to avoid high impact sports during this month. Avoid over straining or ignoring the messages from our bodies. If you feel dizzy or light headed, slow down, relax and wait for it to pass. Cardiovascular exercise is good during this time to lose that excess fat. Again, don't over do it though. Most exercises should be performed with in a couple hours of breaking fast. Weight training should preferably be done with in a couple of hours after breaking fast. Weight training during fast can affect muscle development, since you don't have the protein in your system. After you break fast, and before you do your weight training, make sure you have a protein shake. Also make sure you eat easily digestible meals. You will need that immediate energy boost from the foods for your workout.


     Avoid doing exercises too early in the day. This is a dangerous time. Your body is already lacking protein to fuel your muscles. Cardiovascular workouts too early in the day can lead to dehydration. Weight training too early in the day can lead to your body taking its energy from your muscles, which can lead to muscle atrophy. So just remember, if you celebrate Ramadan; do your workouts, whether they be Cardiovascular or Weight training as late in the day as you can. Again it is preferable to do cardiovascular within a few hours of breaking fast, and weight training within a few hours after breaking fast. 


     Keep Exercising & Keep Fit

About me and this blog.

     When I started this blog, I was already 4 month's into a PFC (Professional Fitness Consultant) program at Medix school. It's a 1 year program. I also have to say that it's a very interesting program. There is 12 different modules that we have to do. Each module takes about a month. There is also a side module which we have to take, which is called PX2. PX2 is a very interesting module in its self. We learned how to re-program our minds to think more positively about our selves and our goals.
     The PFC program is also very interesting. We have to learn a lot of stuff in such a short time. Yes a year is a short time when you consider the information we have to absorb. If it wasn't for our instructor, Mr. Roburt Tranter, I don't think we would ever be able to do it. My classmates also make it very interesting. We're just a group of people with very different backgrounds and personalities, but we all manage to perform quite well with each other.
     At the time of me writing this, we just welcomed a new member to our class. We are also getting ready to say good-bye to the original 3 of our class. The first 3 people, the ones that set the standard for us to all strive to achieve, will be leaving us shortly for their externship. We're going to miss them, but we also know that our time is coming as well. When you think about our class, its hard to figure out, how does a 60 year old lady, a UFC fighter, a female body builder, a computer geek,  Kick boxer, Tim Hortons employee, a wonderful lady from Lebanon, a Personal Support Worker, a single mother, an ex-wrestler, and a columbian get along? Specially with a fitness guru like Mr. Tranter. Well we do it well. Head on, full speed, and lots of support for each other.
     When it comes to Fitness, I like to say "No Retreat, No surrender!" Although our moto seems to be SPARTA!!!!!!

P.S.
If you want to share in the experience, locate the nearest Medix school in your area and check it out. With any luck, your close enough to come to the London, Ontario Campus and learn with Mr. Tranter.

No Pain, No Gain

A lot of people still believe in the old myth, "No Pain, No Gain". "If your not feeling pain after a workout, then it wasn't an intense enough workout!" We've all heard several ways of saying it. No matter how its said, its not necessarily true. Although most people will feel "The burn" after a workout, or even stiffness while moving. There is a lot of people out there that won't feel these sensations. Most people however will feel something. Personally, after a good workout, I don't feel pain. What i do feel is slight muscle fatigue.

     Celebrity trainer Harley Pasternak had this to say about the myth. "Many people think if their muscles don’t hurt, they’re not having a quality workout. This is way off base. While resistance training can be intense, and some level of discomfort may occur, pain is not required for a successful workout. It’s also important to note that pain can be a warning sign of an exhausted muscle or torn ligament." 


     What this boils down to is, The human body is a marvellous thing. It can adapt to almost everything. What is common is feeling stiffness, or soreness after your first couple of workouts. You're pushing your muscles to work harder than they have in a while, or ever.  Most everyone will adapt in a different way. Pain intensity will vary. Some people may not even feel any pain. Doesn't mean they didn't work out hard enough. Its just how their body deals with the workout.