Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Injury Prevention Technique


Looking for a change in your routine?  This simple change may help you overcome your plateau while preventing injury at the same time.  In order to keep your muscles balanced it is optimal to workout opposing muscles groups on the same day.  This means that when you're in the weight room it is ideal to lift biceps on the same day that you're lifting triceps.  Additionally, chest should be worked out on the same day as back, and quadriceps and hamstrings should be exercised together.  Likewise, when you're working on your shoulders make sure you're hitting both the anterior and posterior delts as well as the rotator cuff muscles and traps so that you're not leaving one part of the shoulder weaker than another.  

The biggest benefit of lifting this way is that of injury prevention.  If you're unable to complete everyday of your weekly lifting routine, at least you know you've hit opposing muscle groups on the days that you did make it to the gym.  Consistency in this style of lifting will help you balance your strength and maintain healthy posture.  Often times we get carried away in the weight room and end up just working aimlessly on what we enjoy.  Try adding an educated plan to your lifting routine and reap the benefits of uninterrupted progress.  

Monday, November 21, 2011

Challenge Yourself


"Challenges are what makes life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful."  - Joshua J. Marine

Thursday, November 10, 2011

A Helpful Tip to Keep You Accountable


If you're struggling with accountability consider setting weekly goals for yourself in relation to your time spent in the gym.  I have recently set a goal of completing 90 minutes of cardio and 135 minutes of strength training each week.  Setting such a goal has helped hold me accountable by allowing me to make my workout routine a priority.  Whatever it takes, I make sure I reach my goal by week's end, and even have incentive to finish it by Friday so I can take the weekends off.  

In addition to this type of goal, I have set a physical goal of obtaining a lower body fat percentage.  While my physical goal may take several months to reach, it is nice to still feel accomplished each week by reaching smaller and simpler time oriented goals.  Take a look at your long term goals and consider developing an appropriate weekly plan.  Staying committed to a specific plan will help you achieve your goals without feeling like it's taking an eternity.  Good luck!

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Nutrition Tips and Tools



If you're having trouble sticking to your allotted amount of calories each day consider checking this website out.  Not only can you obtain helpful nutrition tips on the site, but it offers free meal plans for 1200 - 1800 calorie per day diets!  Check it out for new ideas and make your calorie counting even easier this week.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Outstanding Effort and Achievement Award!


For the first time this year we have dual recipients for the Outstanding Effort and Achievement Award.  For the month of October, Alicia Beaver and Caryn Coomer have earned their claim to fame.  These are two of my favorite girls to train, without a doubt, but coming up with challenges that suit them is no easy task.  The three of us have been training together, in home, since the beginning of this year and I can honestly say that few people are more consistent with their training than these two.  Week in and week out these girls come ready for the challenge and if you think that's awesome wait until I tell you that they rarely even complain!  I know, I know, there's obviously something wrong with them….it's almost like they enjoy working out!?

I met Alicia in the summer of 2010, but did not start training her until this past January.  Since January, Alicia has been on the road to success.  Aside from losing inches and weight, she reached her goal of getting below 30% body fat in our first 6 weeks of training together.  Alicia also set a goal of increasing her total body strength.  I can't even describe the progress we've made as far as strength goes.  Just recently, Alicia participated in the Napoletan Fitness "3 Minute Challenge" and became one of the top competitors in the leg lift competition.  She was able to complete 73 leg lifts in three minutes which earned her third place out of all of my female competitors and fourth place overall.  

Alicia, it has been a pleasure getting to know you.  You are so much fun to train and you have really come a long way in the last ten months.  Your fitness level has gone through the roof, and for you to be competing and hanging in there with some of the people I have trained for three or more years is a pretty big deal!  Your focus and ability to commit will be the keys to your success.  Keep working hard and I know we can achieve the unthinkable.  Your work ethic during our training sessions is unparalleled and I love that about you.  Keep working hard and there will be more great things to come!

Caryn and I started training together almost three years ago in the gym.  We began in home training in February and have been continuing our steady progress ever since.  In Caryn's first eight weeks of training in home she lost 2% of her body fat.  After 12 weeks of in home training she had lost nearly ten pounds.  She has been dedicated and committed to training since day one and her progress shows it.

Caryn ran her first half marathon during our second year of training.  This was also my first half marathon, so I decided to make a friendly wager over who could finish first.  This was the beginning of Caryn taking me for everything I am worth.  This year, she completed her second half marathon in 2 hours and 14 minutes, 13 minutes faster than her first race.  Aside from being an all-star runner, she is easily one of the strongest women I train.  Not only did she put up some great numbers in the "3 minute challenge", but she EMBARRASSED me in a head to head pushup competition during which she completed 110 pushups in three minutes.  (I still think she was counting by twos.)  At any rate, you can imagine how challenging it is for me to come up with workouts difficult enough for this girl.  She keeps me on my toes as a trainer and is easily my number one recipient of prizes and free things as I continue to be stupid enough to challenge her through competition.

Caryn, you are one of the hardest working people I have ever trained.  I have looked forward to training you and trying new things out on you every week for the past three years.  You're a blast to be around but you always make working hard your first priority.  I have a ton of respect for that and I can't wait to see what the future holds.  Keep working hard and using competition to drive you.  You will achieve great things as long as you stay committed and have something to work for.  As far as the pushup competition goes…we shall meet again.  You can have the half marathon victory…you couldn't pay me enough to show up for that rematch!