To our valued current clients, former clients, friends, business associates, and followers: Happy summer! It is an honor to be writing you for the third year in a row. June 6, 2018 marked three years of occupancy in our current office (and approximately 4½ years in business overall). It has Read more…
As a personal trainer in Schaumburg, I am often asking my clients what they did for exercise or physical activity since I last saw them.
“I played a round of golf over the weekend.”
“I went for a 45-minute walk yesterday.”
“I chased my grandkid all over the house.”
These activities can certainly be challenging, but what is the one thing they all lack? Specificity.
“Why are we squatting? I want bigger arms.”
“Well, if you do heavy lifts for your legs, you will produce a greater base of anabolic hormones to work off of later and that will allow you to build bigger arms.”
As a personal trainer in Schaumburg, I swear I have had this conversation with almost all of my male clients at some point in time. Unfortunately, the advice I gave is dead wrong. Check out why in my review of literature for this study!
As a personal trainer in Schaumburg, I am seeing that the fitness field today is all about what’s HOT, NEW, and TRENDY. This stuff is attractive and appealing to the masses. The good news is it is getting people into exercise. However, did you know that there are actually scientific principles behind exercise that almost no developer behind HOT, NEW, and TRENDY fitness paths seem to consider?
As a personal trainer in Schaumburg, I see a number of papers, books, and articles written on building muscle. In fact, this is probably one of the most frequently discussed subjects within mainstream fitness.
However, a lot of these publications and discussions miss the boat on what actually needs to happen from an exercise-conditions standpoint. And honestly, it is really not as complicated as some sources make it out to be.
One thing I am seeing in the exercise industry is a lack of specificity. In particular, specificity when it comes to exercise design and prescription for an individual. This bleeds over into many areas – the type of exercise, the dosage of the exercise, the speed/tempo at which the exercise is performed, the tools used to perform the exercise. In fact, almost everything in the exercise industry is the complete opposite of specific. One size fits most programs; group fitness classes; semi-private training; exercise DVDs, books, and online programs; and exercise tips given to the masses are all examples of this.
Both group fitness and personal training are great things, right? But have you considered how different they are?
Growing up I was a dancer. In fact, my dance company competed a lot at competitions with other dance companies. What I loved about dance was not learning the technique, or learning the steps, or memorizing the choreography. I loved performing on stage.
And you know what? I won. All. The. Time. Best facial expressions. Best costume. Best role playing. All this, and I still often forgot the ‘real’ dance stuff. I was awful at choreography, memorization, and technique. BUT, I could perform. And that ALWAYS stole the judges’ hearts. (more…)
