All posts by Mike Shannon

A client recently shared with me that she had the best run of her life, having shaved 3 minutes off her 5k time. Then she shared that she had only done one thing differently – she ate before she ran. My response to her was this “food is fuel, that’s what I always tell everybody.”

She shared that years ago, in high school, she had eaten before a run once and became nauseous, and couldn’t finish her run. After that, she never ate prior to a run again. She’s been an ‘on again, off again’ runner over the years, despite that it seemed to get a little more difficult with each passing year. She figured she was just getting older. When she first started working out with me over a year ago, she was wary of eating prior to working out for the same reason. It did take a while for her to find the right type and quantity of food to eat, as well as the right amount of time to eat before her workouts. Ever since she found that magic combination, she’s always been able to power through her workouts.

I share this story with you to challenge you to step back and think about your cardio, fitness and nutrition habits. In this case, it was the timing of when to eat food that made all the difference. (If you’d like more information on food as fuel, see my February 24 post Carbs and Protein – What to Eat Before and After a Workout) Maybe for you it’s switching up your food, or perhaps you’re not getting enough water throughout the day, which can make you feel tired and hungry.

Other things to think about include how often you are working out. If you find yourself at a plateau right now, consider adding more cardio to your routine –  a spinning class with Chandra, or take part in one of Ana’s HIIT classes.  Maybe you’re hitting the pavement two days a week right now. Try adding one more day to boost your metabolism.

The duration of strength training can also be something to consider. If you are currently doing 30 minutes of training 3 days a week, consider boosting it up to 60 minutes either one or two days a week. A simple way to add additional time in this area is with a TRX class on Saturday. It’s affordable and fun.

Like the saying goes, “Do the same thing you’ve always done, and you’ll get the same results you’ve always gotten.” Sometimes just a little tweak or change in your fitness routine can yield dramatic results.

Fitness advice floods the internet, exercise DVD infomercials are plentiful, and there seems to be a monthly membership gym on every corner. With all these options available, why in the world would anyone need or pay for a personal trainer? Is it really necessary?

If you’re like most people, you’ve tried either one or all of these options and they yielded little to no results – but it wasn’t for lack of trying! You either pieced together your own fitness regimen from different sources, followed the DVD program perfectly, or went to the gym religiously, but still came up short. Why? Well, there are three things a personal trainer does that will help you meet your fitness goals, which are very challenging to do alone. These three techniques are the golden nuggets that make a personal trainer well worth your time and money.

A personal trainer will:

1. Motivate and guide you
2. Hold you accountable
3. Provide nutrition guidance

Let’s explore how each of these offerings will benefit your fitness.

Motivation and Guidance

The decision to start exercising sometimes starts strong, but then quickly fizzles. Like many things in life, it’s tough to go it alone, especially if you’re not sure where to begin. A good personal trainer will assess your health and fitness history, design a custom fitness plan based on your goals, and help you start out strong. Once you get going, you will find that a personal trainer will push you harder that you will ever push yourself, and have you testing and pushing your limits beyond what you ever thought you were capable of doing. A good personal trainer will also ensure proper training of all muscle groups, adjusting as necessary for any health limitations or injuries. A seasoned trainer will also keep you motivated by changing your workout routines and introducing new techniques to keep workouts fun and interesting.

Accountability

Why do we typically fall out of an exercise routine? It’s a simple decision to start exercising, but to stay the course is a challenge. When left to our own devices, we often default to ‘easy’ mode, and exercise is not easy. A committed personal trainer will make sure you stick with the program, encouraging you to work out the proper number of times per week for your fitness goal. They can also help you identify self-sabotaging behaviors such as rationalizing missed workouts, not performing to your capability, or defeatist ideas and negative self-talk. At the same time, a wise personal trainer will encourage you when you feel like giving up, instill the confidence needed to help keep you focused, and celebrate successes with you along the way.

Nutrition Guidance

A veteran personal trainer also knows that healthy eating is essential to fitness and weight loss and maintenance. As such, a good personal trainer will assist with a proper nutrition plan to maximize your workouts, help with recovery after a session, and assist with weight loss goals. Personal trainers should also be knowledgeable about vitamins and supplements, and if they are right for you. They will also be the first to remind you that fad diets never work, and are a waste of your time and money.

Despite these many advantages, some may still struggle with the investment of a personal trainer. I encourage potential clients to think about “The 3 L’s” – lifestyle, long-term, and loved ones. Deciding to work with a personal trainer is a lifestyle change and commitment. It is a decision to take a positive action in your life to benefit your health, well-being, and overall outlook and attitude. Working with a personal trainer has a long-term benefit too. I encourage people to think of it as an investment in their future self and future health, which is money spent wisely in the here and now versus later in life on medical bills, medicine and long-term care facilities. This naturally brings to mind loved ones. When you invest in your health now, you ensure your well-being down the road so that you can really ‘be there’ for your loved ones in the future, to enjoy time together as well as a good quality of life. In addition, your decision and commitment goes a long way to ensure that you will be healthy and self-sufficient later in life, and not reliant on others for your long-term care or needs associated with failing health.

Is a personal trainer really necessary? If you are serious about taking care of your health and well-being, and acting in the best interest of your loved ones, the answer is self-evident.

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.