Archives 2014

Cross training is participating, or training, in two or more sports in order to improve fitness and performance, especially in a main sport. Cross training may seem like something for an endurance or elite athlete. However, throughout my years of personal training, I have found cross training invariably becomes an integral and necessary part of fitness training. To share this fact with a client at the beginning of a personal training relationship can be intimidating, but as people progress through their fitness levels, cross training is met as a welcomed, exciting challenge. Let me explain the progression.

When a client first starts a personal training regimen with me, the first goal is to establish a routine and stick with it. This process generally takes three weeks, and coincides with the client’s adoption of a new way of eating. Nutrition changes include 5 meals a day, with a focus on protein, healthy fats and fiber intake, as well as an increase of water consumption. After these first few weeks, and even sooner in some cases, most clients begin to settle into their new lifestyle with commitment and passion. Weight loss is often dramatic during this time, and clients are excited.

At some point, every client hits a plateau. When it happens depends upon multiple variables; beginning weight, frequency of training sessions, and commitment to nutrition changes. Consequently, for one person, hitting a plateau can happen as soon as 8 weeks, for another, not for 6 months. However; the solution to getting over the plateau, in almost every case, is cross training. After a certain point, the body begins to adapt to the nutrition and exercise changes, and comes to expect what it’s been continually given. This is exactly when it’s time for cross training to enter the picture.

Cardio is my number one recommendation as a starting point for cross training. Raising the heart rate, increasing blood flow, and working completely different sets of muscle groups ‘confuse’ the body. When these things are done in tandem, the body uses more energy, and the result is more fat burn. Incorporating cardio into your weekly fitness routine two to three times a week, especially when combined with a weight training session, will not only catapult you from that frustrating plateau, it will push you to your next fitness level and beyond.

At the same time, you will realize additional benefits. Cross training provides the mental boost needed every so often to keep you energized and going on your path to ultimate fitness. Switching to something completely different can rejuvenate your senses and excitement about fitness. Cross training is also very helpful for injury prevention. By giving a rest to muscle groups you typically focus on, you provide a form of active recovery that enhances your overall strength, making it less likely to injure yourself either while working out, or during your daily activities. Another great benefit is that clients are even more engaged and invested in their personal fitness, and often find a new love of running, spinning, biking or other cardio activity.

This week, I am pleased to welcome Josh Fardy to the Full Spectrum Fitness team of personal trainers. He is a young man inspired to help others reach their goals and improve the well-being of their health. When he first started working out with me in May of 2012, he shared that he became interested in living a healthy lifestyle his freshmen year and had never looked back.

This is evident in his four-year football career at Milford High School, where he played running back and wide receiver, and was a varsity starter for two years. Josh achieved membership of the 1,000 club his senior year for the accomplishments of benching 295 lbs., squatting 535 lbs. and a hang clean of 255 lbs.; 85 lbs. over the benchmark! He is considered a leader on and off the field by his teammates who voted him offseason captain of the weight room, and football captain during his senior year.

Josh really began studying to become a personal trainer since his very first session with me; eager to learn and soaking up information like a sponge, as well as demonstrating a continued dedicated commitment to fitness. Josh recently received his personal trainer certification from the Aerobics and Fitness Association of America (AFAA), and successfully completed CPR training. After his first day on the job, Josh is receiving rave reviews here at Full Spectrum.

Josh will be attending The Ohio University in the fall pursuing a degree in Sports Management. He will be at Full Spectrum through the summer and return during college breaks and next summer. I wish him much success here, and as he pursues his passion through his studies.

When I asked him recently what drives him to do what he does, he told me, “there is no better feeling than watching others succeed,” and shared his favorite quote, which also demonstrates his vision: “The poorest man is not the one without a penny, but the one without a dream.”

I’d like to welcome and congratulate Josh. I am very proud and excited to have him on the team!

I get this question all the time: “Which should I do first, cardio or conditioning?” My answer has always been two-fold; 1) you absolutely need both, and 2) it’s best to do cardio second. Let me first expound on why I believe both are necessary. Cardio  is paramount to your health and longevity, and provides improved blood circulation and heart rate which is essential for strength training. I am not, however, a proponent of cardio alone, and the reason is this. While cardio is excellent for the reasons mentioned above, and is a great way to slim down and burn fat, it also burns muscle. When a great cardio regime is practiced along with strength training and conditioning, you build, maintain and protect muscle mass. I also advise strength training as a priority because the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn at rest, therefor making yourself a more efficient fat burning machine.

Until very recently, I always advised my clients to do cardio second knowing that a good strength conditioning session got the heart rate up, began the fat burn process, and put the body in prime position to stay in the ‘fat burn’ zone when you then turn on the cardio by going for a run, hop on the elliptical, or go for a bike or spin class. I have always followed this protocol myself.

This week, however; a new study published by a research team at the Department of Biology of Physical Activity at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland tells a different story. Over a two year period, they studied 200 healthy men and women and endurance athletes who performed either supervised cardio immediately followed by strength training, or vice versa, 2-3 times per week for 24 weeks. Their hypothesis was also that strength training first would be the best option, but for a different reason. They theorized that the immediate anabolic effects of performing cardio first would potentially “weaken” exercise muscles, thereby impairing ability to lift weights in a strength training session. While their theory proved true after just one session, the overall results were much different. After the 24-week period, the results showed that both groups increased physical prowess and muscle size at about the same rate.

So just like the old chicken egg question of which came first – this research seems to suggest “it just doesn’t matter.” As long as they are done back to back, you can start your day with a run, and follow with a session in the gym, or vice versa.