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How often should you have a day off from working out?

You know you should be exercising, but how often should you take a day off from your workouts?  As a personal trainer in Schaumburg, this question comes up often with my clients.

As with most things health and fitness related, the only truthful answer is, “it depends”.  How often you take a day off from working out in part depends on:

  • What you are doing while you are at the gym
  • What your body is currently accustomed to
  • What your body is physically able to tolerate
  • How well you are recovering from your workouts (i.e. do you feel sore and lethargic or energized and strong in the hours and days following your workout?)
  • What your goals are (health vs. performance vs. changing body composition)
  • What the timeline is for your goals

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By Charlie Cates, ago

Suffering from knee pain? We have some advice.

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 to those of you who are suffering from knee pain.  You have bum knees and they are aching and painful whenever you try to exercise.  How can you try to workout despite this chronic discomfort?

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By Team MAS, ago

Why Your Workouts Aren’t Working

When you think of the reasons why you should exercise or do your workouts, what do you think of?  Improving your health?  Increasing your fitness abilities, such as your strength, endurance, or flexibility?  Changing your body composition?  Changing how your body looks and feels?  Increasing your energy levels?  As a personal trainer in Schaumburg, I can tell you that all of these are wonderful reasons to exercise.

Now, when you actually go and exercise, what do you think of?  While you are doing your workouts — the running, the lifting weights, the group fitness class, the biking, the whole exercise thing — what are you thinking of?  Are you thinking about how your body is feeling?  Are you thinking about what your body is doing?

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By Charlie Cates, ago

Want to exercise more consistently? We’ve got you covered.

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 to those of you who want to become more consistent with your exercise.  How can you get to the gym more frequently, how can you workout more consistently, with your busy schedule?


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By Team MAS, ago

Client Testimonial – Sue Koril

Check out this fantastic testimonial below from one of Julie’s rock star MAT™ clients, Sue!  Sue had been suffering from leg and knee issues when her friend reccomended she look into Muscle Activation Techniques™ at Muscle Activation Schaumburg.

As an avid tennis player, Sue wanted to get back to playing the game she loves on a regular basis.  Julie started working with her to improve her muscular system through the Muscle Activation Techniques™ process in addition to specific resistance training for her hips and knees.

After seeing Julie consistently for a number of months, she has been able to not only return to the tennis court, but keep her body tuned up and feeling great with homework exercises to compliment her maintenance MAT™ sessions at Muscle Activation Schaumburg.

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By Julie Cates, ago

3 Secrets of Working with a Personal Trainer

Imagine this.  You meet a new friend and this friend has never eaten a strawberry.  As you hear about this craziness, you realize that you must describe to this person what it is like to eat a nice, juicy strawberry.

Think about that for a moment.  How would you fully describe to someone what it is like to eat a strawberry?  

When I think about this, my ending thought every time is “well, you really just need to try it yourself.”  Were you thinking the same thing?  Probably.

This is because eating something as simple as a strawberry is an experience.  It’s not something that can be fully experienced by another person through a description of it.  You actually must experience the experience of eating a strawberry to fully understand and to fully relate.

Working with a personal trainer is like this.  It is an experience indescribable with words.  BUT, I am writing this blog post to share parts of the personal training experience that individuals that have never worked with a personal trainer may not consider…. Since they have never worked with a personal trainer.

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By Julie Cates, ago

Golfers – 3 Exercise Tips To Maximize Your Performance

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 to the golfers in the crowd.  How do you strength train?  How do you prepare your body for golf?  What considerations should you take when you exercise to make sure you can enjoy the game that you love?


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By Team MAS, ago

Working out outside? Stay safe with these tips!

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 to those of you who like to workout outside, especially when the weather gets hot.  How can you make sure that you are staying safe with the increased sun exposure and the increased temperature when you are working out outside?

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By Team MAS, ago

Voyage Chicago Features MAS!

If you are a Voyage Chicago reader, you may have recognized a couple of faces featured on their website this past week.  Voyage Chicago did an interview with Charlie and Julie about building Muscle Activation Schaumburg.  Charlie discussed the process of first conceiving of the idea of MAS, bringing it to reality, and the struggles along the way.

Today we’d like to introduce you to Charlie Cates and Julie Errington.

Charlie and Julie, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
The idea of owning my own exercise facility started during my freshman year of college. I was really into sports performance but knew I wanted to explore the business side of things, as well. By the end of my freshman year, I had made the decision that I would one day go into business for myself running my own exercise facility.

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By Team MAS, ago