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5 Ways To Tell If Your Personal Training Is Truly Personal

How personal is your personal training?  It can seem like a ridiculous question, but let’s explore.

A quick search on Dictionary.com reveals that there are multiple definitions of “personal”:

  1. of, relating to, or coming as from a particular person; individual; private
  2. relating to, directed to, or intended for a particular person
  3. intended for use by one person

The definitions continue, but, for our purposes, these will do.

When it comes to personal training, there seems to often be a disconnect between the type of “personal” that is marketed, the type that is delivered, and the type that could be experienced but is often overlooked.

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By Charlie Cates, ago

Former Athletes: 3 Tips for Exercising After Athletics

Welcome back to this week’s edition of 2-Minute Tuesdays where we are bringing you one exercise topic, talking about it for two minutes, and giving you three reasons why you should follow our advice.  This week we are speaking to the former college and high school athletes.  This is for those of you who used to compete on a regular basis and are now at a loss on how to exercise without that competitive model.

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By Team MAS, ago

What makes a Muscle Activation Techniques™ practitioner unique?

When people think of muscles, they usually don’t immediately think of a Muscle Activation Techniques™ (MAT™) practitioner, but they should.  Similar to how somebody might think of a dentist after hearing “teeth”, or a chiropractor after hearing “back” or “spine”, Muscle Activation Techniques™ may one day have that same relationship when somebody hears “muscle”.  For the time being, though, that typically isn’t the case, and here’s why — many people aren’t sure of 1) what MAT™ is, and 2) what makes MAT™ unique.  In that case, let’s discuss both of these. 

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By Charlie Cates, ago

Are you a first-time exerciser? Read this.

Welcome back to this week’s edition of 2-Minute Tuesdays where we are bringing you one exercise topic, talking about it for two minutes, and giving you three reasons why you should follow our advice.  This week we are giving you three tips if you have never worked out before.  If you are a first-time exerciser or have never been to the gym, how should you start?  Follow this advice.

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By Team MAS, ago

Considering Adding MAT™ To Your Professional Toolbox? Read This.

As a personal trainer or fitness professional, adding the Muscle Activation Techniques™ (MAT™) skillset to your professional toolbox can be one of the best decisions you make.  Not only can it serve as a differentiator from your competitors, but it can allow you to help your clients in ways you did not think were possible, both as a result of the MAT™ process as well as because of the information the MAT™ process provides you.

When I first started personal training, I was completely unsure how to assess my clients.  Coming from a sports performance background, assessments had always involved some kind of one-rep-max bench press and squat.  But what kind of information would that really provide me about my clients?

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By Charlie Cates, ago

3 Considerations When Doing Cardio

Welcome back to this week’s edition of 2-Minute Tuesdays where we are bringing you one exercise topic, talking about it for two minutes, and giving you three reasons why you should follow our advice.  This week we are talking about cardio.  Cardio is something a lot of people who exercise love to do, but here are three considerations for you if you are going to engage in a cardiovascular activity.


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By Team MAS, ago

How To Integrate MAT™ Into Personal Training

As personal trainers in Schaumburg, we strive to provide our clients with the most up to date exercise approaches to health, strength, and mobility.  This, undoubtedly, involves an integration of Muscle Activation Techniques™ with more traditional exercise.  We are often asked how we are able to blend the two–MAT™ and regular exercise–within a single personal training session and what information we are able to gather from the MAT™ assessment to help us make exercise decisions.  Well, MAT™ Headquarters just released a post giving a nice overview of how the two can blend.  And if you watch the associated videos below, you may or may not recognize the face on screen 😉

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By Team MAS, ago

The Gold Standard Of Exercise

When my personal training clients start working with me on exercise related tasks, they quickly realize that I am always preaching about moving slowly, moving with control, using as much support as possible, and lifting with significant weight. There almost always becomes a time when a client will ask, “Will we always train like this?”.  This is such a legitimate question for two main reasons.  1) I don’t know of any other fitness professionals (except my colleagues from my path of study) or gyms that endorse this, and 2) people always want to know that they are doing the best thing for their body to help with their goals.

Here is my answer: We will always have a significant portion of your training be like this (slow, controlled, lots of support, and significant weight).  Why?  This is the Gold Standard of exercise, in my opinion.  Let me tell you why. (more…)

By Julie Cates, ago