How to Hire a Personal Trainer

If you make the decision that you need a personal trainer, here are some first steps.
1. Credentials
Your trainer should have a background in human anatomy, physiology, exercise physiology and bio mechanics. If they are hesitant to show you their credentials or liability insurance count that as a red flag.
2. Experience
Some are students doing training until they can "get a real job". There is nothing wrong with working part time as a trainer but it often means that the trainer has minimal hands on experience.
3. Adaptability
Some trainers have ready made workouts that they hand out to everyone regardless of their needs and personal goals. A good trainer will write your program based on your current fitness level and goals. Beware the trainer that wants to train you without a consultation first and trains all clients the same.
4. Exude Health
Trainers don't have to be professional athletes or bodybuilders but should exude health and have no obvious habits, like smoking
5. Ability to teach exercises correctly
This requires knowledge of good form and can sometimes be a problem for trainers. It has been my experience that some trainers often tell clients not to do squats because they are bad for their knees when in fact they do not know how to properly teach the technique.
6. Ability to work with a diverse clientele
A trainer should have experience with the kind of program that you are looking for. For example, if you are looking to become more muscular or get into a serious weight training sessions and the trainer only has experience with weight loss circuits they may not be as responsive as they should to your needs.
7. Cost
There is a big swing in costs for trainers. More expensive is generally not better training, only higher overhead. It is wise to purchase ( or try to get free ) an initial trial session before making a commitment. Don't allow yourself to get talked into a long term plan. Also , make sure that sessions are refundable if you change your mind. You should never sign a contract for training beyond your package that was purchased.
8. No matter how highly recommended, some people just don't click. If you don't feel comfortable in your consultation don't hire the trainer. You don't have to be best friends but you should feel good enough to know that you can work together.

Week 2 commit To Be Fit

All of the contestants of The Springfield Paper and Springfield Health and Fitness Center's Commit to Be Fit Contest lost weight in week 2. The big winner of the week is David Reeves who lost a whopping 6 pounds. David did that by cleaning up his diet. He had given up sodas, even diet ones, years ago. David did add more vegetables and water . David knows that finding an exercise and diet program that he can live with is key to making the lasting changes that he will need to continue his healthy lifestyle.

It is interesting to note that although David had the resources of personal trainers at his disposal, he did his weight loss on his own by coming to the gym every day and walking on the treadmill programmed for intervals.

As a trainer myself for many years I am the first say, not everyone needs to hire a trainer. If you are looking for specific training, or want someone to push you a trainer is invluable. Trainers are also good to help trouble shoot your workouts if you are not getting the results you want on your own. A good gym can help you get started without the added expense of a personal trainer and will have a knowledgeable staff to help you if you have questions.

Why do you lose so much weight the first week?

After one week of The Springfield Paper's Commit to be Fit challenge two people stood out. Allen Rea lost an astounding 9 1/2 pounds and Tracy Tackett 6 pounds.

Allen went from being a couch potato to taking Timothy's BodySculpt class 4 days a week and walking on the treadmill 2 days. He also stopped drinking soda and began drinking water instead. His diet changed to eating 5 to 6 small meals a day, 2 to 3 hours apart. This he said kept him from getting hungry and supplied plenty of energy all day.

Why is that when we go from being sedentary with a junk food diet to exercising and eating a more wholesome diet there is such a dramatic weight loss the first week?

Glycogen is created from the carbohydrates and starches you eat. Your body carries 3-4 grams of water for every gram of carbohydrate/glycogen you store. If you , on a regular basis, are eating somewhere around 300 to 500 grams of carbohydrates and were storing ( not burning off ) and then while dieting cut it to 200 grams of carbohydrates you will lose a lot of water weight the first week. Generally this comes from my clients eliminating or drastically reducing soda, chips, cookies, candy etc.

It is important to understand that when you start, especially if your diet has been heavy on sugar you can see these dramatic results the first week or two but it's permanent lifestyle changes that allow you to have permanent weight loss.

The lifestyle changes of increased exercise, both cardio and weight training, will improve metabolism. Eating good wholesome foods like lean protein, lots of vegetables and fruit will help you get the permanent results that can be maintained for a lifetime.

The Springfield Paper Gets Fit

Eight people working at The Springfield Paper have made the decision to change their lives. The group is a wide array of ages and fitness levels. While biggest loser type challenges generally involve only losing pounds this one is different. Although most people competing want to lose at least a little weight on the scale, others want to lower their blood pressure, build some lean muscle mass or just regain their old fitness levels. One even wants to gain some lean weight.

There are two teams of four, each with their own trainer as a resource, but the teams do not compete against each other. The teams work together to help the other succeed. Any person on either team can work with either trainer depending on their schedule.

Springfield Health and Fitness Center and Underground are providing two Certified Personal Trainers, full access to the gym, a fitness coach and all available classes and nutrition coaching. The person deemed to have made the biggest improvement in their lifestyle will win a year's membership at the gym.

For the next 12 weeks I hope that you will follow along with the successes and the challenges facing the Commit to Be Fit group.

You can read about it in The Springfield Paper, this blog, and on Facebook.

Bios on the trainers will be coming soon.

Burn Fat While You Sleep

I know that sounds like a late night TV commercial for the newest miracle pill but it isn't. I am talking about a solution based on scientific research on the sub cellular level. I am referring to the tiny power plants within the millions and millions of cells within our bodies called mitochondria.

The function of mitochondria is to burn up all of the calories we eat and to produce energy. all of our energy is made in these little factories, each about the size of bacterium. Cells that require a lot of energy, such as muscle cells, have thousands of mitochondria while others that don't need much energy ( such as fat cells) have only a couple of hundred.

The more mitochondria we have the faster our metabolism. One solution to your sluggish metabolism is fairly simple, make more mitochondria.

Unfortunately, you can't get more of them by eating them. Instead, we need to get our bodies to make more of them. There is only one proven way to make that happen, build more muscle and exercise. By building more muscle and doing more exercise we increase the number of muscle cells as well as increasing the number of mitochondria in each cell. Do this on a regular basis and metabolism will improve tremendously.

To build muscle you need resistance training of some sort. I recommend concentrating on the largest muscle groups as found in the hips, thighs, hamstrings an buttocks.

Aerobic exercise in your target heart zone, combined with interval training will burn up fat stores. Adding a couple days a week of muscle building into your program will go a long way to increase those all important mitochondria.

27 days until your Resolution?

Many of us try to put off getting into shape. We know we need it and we know we want it but the (perceived) agony of dieting and exercising during the busy holiday season seems overwhelming so all eating plans start on:
tomorrow
Monday
at the first of the month
Jan. 1st.

For the next 10 days I will give you 10 habits to help get through without the typical holiday weight gain.

Habit #1
Eat every 2 0r 3 hours.
One of the worst things almost all dieters do, especially women, is to skip breakfast in a misguided attempt to save calories. This does not work and will backfire by slowing your metabolism and causing a ravenous appetite in the evening.
Each person meal sizes and number of meals are different depending on their gender, body size and composition and activity levels. For the standard of how many meals to eat, take the number of hours you are awake and divide by 3. example: 15 hours / 3 = 5 meals.
I don't really like to differentiate between meals and snacks because they are all meals in their own right, some just smaller. Every time that you feed your body you have the opportunity to make your body better or make it worse.
In the end do your best to stick to habit #1. -eating every 2 0r 3 hours without making it a source of frustration and confusion. If you would like more help with this first of 10 habits feel free to drop me an email through the gym's website www.springfieldhealthandfitness.com