How to keep results coming...

I received a great question from Caliah this afternoon...

Caliah and Tina are my hairdressers and they own a salon called O'Hairas at 3205 39th ave in Vernon. If you want the best service in the Okanagan, give them a call at 250-545-3200, I have been going there for years and I don't trust anyone else to come near me with scissors - they are the best, hands-down.

Okay on to the question...

Hi Rylan,

I was reading your blog and I just have a question.
It's good to switch up a work out every 6 weeks. So when you say switch it up what things could you do? More cardio? Just strength training? How do I find new routines? Because I too have bought fitness magazines and tried the new workouts because I don't know what else to do.

The way I like to explain it is this:

When you try any new exercise for the first time (cardio and strength) you will be pretty sore for the first week as your body is learning to adapt to the new stress.

If you keep the stress the SAME, then you body eventually has no need to adapt because it can handle the demands put on it with ease.

At this point your improvements will drop off and you plateau.

When you change the stress, your body has to adapt again, and you will see further improvements.

The reason that programs from a book or magazine don’t work (other than the obvious I have stated before – that they are primarily there to push supplements) they are not tailored to your body specifically. And every body is different.

For example, when I meet with someone for an initial consultation I like to get a thorough background on their physical activity history, and exactly what it is that they want to accomplish with their program; ie. what goals they have, what their time constraints are, if they’ve had injuries, what they’re past workouts have been, etc.

From this information I then go away and design a customized strength training and cardio training plan to fit all these subjects.

Then when we meet for the first session, I teach these exercises in detail, and I will not move on to the next step until I am confident they have performed these exercises successfully.

I have often changed exercises on the spot if I find that biomechanically, an exercise just doesn’t suit a person.

For instance, if a particular individual has reduced mobility through their low back, I would need to address that first before having them perform a squat. If not, they would end up performing the exercise improperly, and eventually this could lead to a muscular imbalance and injury.

So I guess that’s a long answer to a short question, but ultimately, you need to have your program changed and updated on a regular basis by someone who knows what they are doing. Simply pulling a routine out of a book will never yield the same results, and quite often, could end up inuring you or simply not working at all.

Thanks for the question Caliah,

RD

P.S. This will be my last post for the next week or so. With my wedding coming up this weekend, I will be stepping away from the keyboard for a little while to enjoy this monumental event in my life. I must admit, I am a little nervous, but incredibly excited. Wish me luck!

Protect your valuables!

Another off topic post.

I recently picked up a memory foam sleeve for my Macbook from Isis Covers (more than anything just because it looked cool).

Well, I'm glad I did. In between clients the other day I was working on some programs with my Macbook, and the inevitable happened. I dropped it.

Thank crap for this cover.

It slid off my seat, and landed on the floor, but the cover saved it. I had visions of shelling out $1500 to replace this little piece of work.

Thankfully I spent $30 and avoided disaster.

If you have a Macbook or laptop, get yourself one of these little devils.

RD

Some humor for your friday

I know how you feel buddy, by Friday I hate my phone just as much!



This looks like my workout in my garage tuesday morning.

Proof of Bigfoot

Ever since I was a young boy I've been fascinated by Bigfoot or
"Sasquatch".

My grandpa used to keep me and my younger brother awake at night
with stories of the hunting trips he used to take when he was a
young cowboy - hunting trips where he would come across signs of
Bigfoot tracks, hair left on barbwire fences, trees knocked over etc.

Of course, when I grew older I kind of figured these were nothing but
stories, but he always remained adamant that they were the truth - which
he then followed up with a pat on my back and him breaking into his
infectious laugh.

After my grandpas funeral, my dad bestowed upon me an envelope of
"Sasquatch hair" that grandpa kept with him in the corn truck on the
farm. Of course, I now know that he would collect hair from the barbed
wire fences (the bears would pass through the fence to get into the corn
fields and their hair would get caught on barbs) to add further
creditability to his Sasquatch tales.

As goofy as all of this sounds, those are some of my fondest memories
of my grandpa. And to this day when I'm camping in the backwoods,
I must admit, I'm much more terrified of being snatched up by a
Sasquatch than running into a bear or cougar - or anything else
a little more "realistic".

Even now as I write this, that envelope of "Bryan Duggan's original
Sasquatch hair" sits in my office in a drawer next to me and reminds
me of how important it is to let your imagination run wild every once
and awhile. It's that uninhibited imagination that so many people
lose as they grow older - but would help to keep you looking and
feeling years younger.

Anyway, there is press conference scheduled for tomorrow at 12:00pst
where these men who have captured Bigfoot will be supposedly by
providing photographic and DNA evidence of their capture, and hopefully
proof of the existence of Sasquatch.

Hoax or not, I know Grandpa Bryan will be watching over this event
and grinning from ear to ear.

So what does this have to do with fitness, you ask?

Well, I guess nothing really, I'm just really excited and I wanted
to share my enthusiasm with you.

I will tell you this, if Bigfoot is proven to be real tomorrow at
this press conference, I am going to be one excited guy.

And if not, I'll keep on dreaming.

RD

Response to Cereal Box Personal Trainers

Okay, so it seems that (as I expected) I caused a bit of a stir
with my last past about 'not-so-personal-trainers'.

I have received a whole slough of questions from you on the subject,
and there are a lot of you who have had bad experienced with these
people.

I got one email from a lady in Seattle who paid her trainer
$175/hr, and he did little more than show her how to use the
machines at her 'boutique' gym.

This is little more than an orientation folks, and this shouldn't cost you
more than $75, and in many cases gyms offer this for free.

This wasn't the only case. One of my wonderful clients Sue told me of a very
similar story where her friend experienced nearly the identical situation, and
in this case the same gym offered a free orientation.

So you can pay for the service, or get it free, what would you choose?

I got an email from yet another woman hired a trainer to come to her house for over
$200 an hour. She wanted to lose about 20lbs before her daughters
wedding and she needed results fast. The program this idiot (to
put it lightly) put her on was almost entirely stretching and
core-stability work. She lost about two pounds over the course of
6 weeks - utterly ridiculous!

Just because core training is trendy, doesn't mean it will do a damn thing
for you!

For those of you are have just started reading my blog, you might not have received my
special report on the fallacies of core training I wrote some time ago.
If not, email me and I'll send you a free copy.

Anyway, I'm ranting...back to the subject at hand.

So how do you find a trainer who is worth the bill?

First off, education. You need to find someone that at the very
least has two years of university study under their belt - and
preferably have a four year degree in a field such as Kinesiology
or Human Physiology.

Second, ask for their certifications. Anyone certified by the NSCA
(national strength and conditioning association) is a good bet.
There are two things you should look for here, NSCA offers two different
certificates. NSCA-CPT and CSCS.

NSCA-CPT is a certified personal trainer

CSCS is a certified strength and conditioning specialist.

To make things easier for you, anyone who is a CSCS has to
have a degree in a related field to even get certified. So if you
find someone who is a CSCS, your work is done. They will have
completed at least 4 years in university studying human performance
and exercise, and they will have passed the most highly regarded
certification process in the WORLD.

If you look in any of the top reputable magazines or books on
fitness (Men's Health and Women's Health are two of the only ones
that I recommend) look at the article contributors. Nearly every one
will have the CSCS designation. There is proof positive that these
people should know what they're talking about.

Furthermore, the top names in the industry at the forefront of
exercise physiology research, and the people who work with the
elite of the elite are CSCS designated.

These are folks such as:

Dr. Donald Chu, PhD, CSCS
Dr. Mauro Di Pasquale, MD, CSCS
Dr. Tudor Bompa, Phd, CSCS
Dr. John Berardi, Phd, CSCS

These guys write the textbooks that the university students learn from
all over the world...nuff said.

There is another reputable source that I would
recommend, and that is CSEP (Canadian Society of Exercise
Physiology) but it is not found outside of Canada, and there are
far less people certified by this organization so it would be
harder to find someone with this designation.

So there you have it! Now you have the information you need to
ensure that you find the kind of personal trainer who knows what they
are talking about.

Keeping you fit and informed,

RD