The Art Of Social Networking

What if there was a way to establish yourself as an expert in your professional fitness field by simply talking about your life? What if this same habit instantly increased the number of hits and search engine rankings of your personal training website, while at the same time attracting clientele and customers in your local community? Furthermore, what if this business and marketing strategy was free?

If you think this sounds like a fantastic deal, then you’re most likely a candidate for launching a social networking campaign. A social networking website is designed to create an online community of individuals who share similar interests and activities and provides a way for those individuals to interact with one another via messaging, video, audio, email or any other online communication media. Popular social networking sites with which you’re most likely familiar include MySpace and Facebook.

So how can social networking help your business and marketing? Imagine that you walked into your local community center and there, gathered into a large room as a captive audience seated at tables, were thousands of fitness enthusiasts waiting to hear your latest story, newest exercise, healthy meal plan, or helpful tidbit. If you play your cards correctly, you’d be the most popular personal trainer in town, with hundreds of clients signing up to hear more of your wisdom! This is the power of utilizing the internet for social networking. The large room is the internet, and the captive audience is the millions of users on their computers searching for fitness advice and exercise experts. Together, they represent the online community or group on any specific member site, forum, discussion group or email list.

When you create your own account on a social site, you will be given the opportunity to customize your profile. Not only can you add professional information about yourself such as certifications and work history, but you can also include exercise photos and videos or links to your website. Most of the sites allow you to search your existing e-mail address book for contacts who might already be part of the social network, thus providing an instant platform to begin establishing friends and contacts. When users find your profile via a search engine or recommendation, they can subscribe to your articles or videos, and choose to become connected to your page.

Let’s take a look at some of the more popular social networking sites, and how you can use them to enhance your personal training business:

Twitter.com. We’ll start small. Twitter is almost like a “mini-blog” social networking site. Each of your posts is limited to 140 characters, and can easily be viewed by a PDA or cell phone. Individuals can sign up to “follow” your posts, which means that anytime you create a message, your followers can instantly be alerted. With as little as 60 seconds per day, you can post a nutrition tip, featured exercise or link to your personal training website and gradually build a solid reputation as a fitness expert.

Linkedin.com. Linkedin is considered to be social networking for business. By uploading your cover letter, resume, profile, picture, work history, testimonials and any other pertinent career information, you can establish a network in the online business community and create business relationships in the fitness field. Think of this as achieving a similar effect as joining your local Chamber of Commerce – it allows you to stand out as a certified and qualified professional in your field. Additionally, anytime you create a page in a social networking site such as this and include a link to your personal training business webpage, you increase your ranking in search engines. This is because one component of search engine optimization is legitimate outside links to your website.

MySpace or Facebook. Both of these websites would be considered more personal than professional, but they both have the advantage of a very high number of active users. Once you’ve established a group of “friends” or individuals to whom you are linked, you are in a perfect situation to launch a “viral video” marketing campaign where you upload your latest exercise video and share it with as many of your friends as possible. Using this method, you can find that your video may saturate thousands and even millions of other MySpace or Facebook user pages, providing you with links, popularity and “clickbacks” to your business website. You can do the same type of marketing with fitness articles, nutrition tips or exercise photos and audio clips.

In addition to the popular social networking websites mentioned above, there are also fitness specific sites. On these sites, people visit with the sole purpose of communicating about health and exercise, searching for the latest fitness news, tips and articles and finding experts to address their health concerns. Let’s look at a few of these niche sites.

iSweat.com. Consider this website “Twitter for fitness.” In addition to posting 140 character mini-messages on exercises, workouts and nutrition, you can also join groups that are focused on different aspects of fitness such as triathlon, mixed martial arts or fat loss. The individuals on iSweat are guaranteed to be passionate about fitness and make great business contacts or potential clients. You can even link your iSweat account with your Twitter account so that you’re not having to post twice.

Bodyspace.com. Hosted by the popular megasite bodybuilding.com, this site tends to be more focused on aesthetic fitness and allows users to create a profile, upload photos and even start a BodyBlog. Like most social networking sites, users can share workout feedback, track progress and communicate about goals, diets and supplements. This site would be perfect for a personal trainer interested in focusing on a bodybuilding specific fitness business.

Fitizens.com and Fitfiend.com. The attractive aspect of both these websites is that Fitizens allows you to set up your profile as either a “Fitness Expert” or “Fitness Enthusiast,” while Fitfiend allows you to be a “Fitpro” or “Fitfiend.” This automatically provides a venue for fitness professionals to connect with individuals who are specifically seeking out fitness advice. You can upload your latest articles, videos or favorite links and attract a community of fans who follow and comment on your posts. Perhaps most importantly, these sites allow you to delineate your geographical location, thus making local clients more likely to find your services.

So won’t it be a hassle to track all your different pages if you’ve launched a profile on each of these separate social networking websites? Not necessarily. One of my favorite online tools is located at www.pageonce.com, which is a site that allows you to track all your social networking, finance, travel and other regularly visited websites from a single location. Another useful tool is located at www.tubemogul.com, where you can submit your exercise videos to multiple social networking accounts with a single click. Finally, mobile applications can allow networking from a phone and include Brightkite for the iPhone (brightkite.com) or Mig33 for any phone able to surf the internet (migg33.com)

There are millions of Internet users, and the world wide web isn’t going away anytime soon. People are growing more accustomed to shopping, communicating and establishing business relationships over the Internet, and the fitness business is no exception. Furthermore, this form of marketing is free and doesn’t take much time. If you’re serious about increasing your business, you need to be serious about networking, and online social networking is an easy and effective way to begin. See you on Twitter!

References: Ben Greenfield

Forwarded By, Natalie Pyles

Fitness & Nutritional Expert, Author, Speaker

Call Me For Your FREE Consultation Today! 1-800-681-9894 or 480-212-1947 e-mail fitnesselementsassociates@yahoo.com
WWW.MyFitnessElements.com

"How To Incorporate Programming for Skiing"

It’s that time of year in the Northern Hemisphere, when people are dusting off their ski boots and heading for the slopes. For personal trainers, it is traditionally the time of year when we are approached by prospective clients looking to improve their fitness in order to make the most of their time on the slopes. This article will focus on how to design a functional, enjoyable and appropriate training program for skiers and set recommendations on how to best prepare these clients.

I would like to start by making some general points with regards to designing and implementing a skiing program, or indeed any sports specific training regime. Never lose sight of these points because they will act as the focal point of your program.

1. Keep it FUN. This may be stating the obvious, but if your clients feel they need to perform hours of monotonous, repetitive and unimaginative exercise, they will be put off skiing forever.

2. Keep it functional. Functional training appears to be the latest fitness buzz word, but its underlying principles are relevant to sports specific training. We have all seen the trainer who guides his client around the gym floor from resistance machine to resistance machine. My advice would be, where at all possible, keep your clients on their feet. There are one or two exceptions to this rule, and I will explore these later in this article.

3. Keep it specific. Another obvious one perhaps, but if you are training athletes, then train them to improve aspects of their fitness that are specific to skiing, not soccer or basketball. A program must also be specific to an individual’s age, standard and own personal specifications.

That last point brings us nicely onto the first task of a trainer when designing a skiing program, and that is to analyze the requirements of the task. Questions to ask during a consultation include: Have you skied before? Where are you skiing? How much skiing will you be doing (and how much time will be spent in the lodge)? Once you have determined your clients' individual requirements, you must examine the activity demands.

Skiing, depending on the standard and ability of the client, can be compared with interval training. That is, an individual may perform high intensity exercise lasting anywhere up to several minutes followed by a period of inactivity or active recovery at a lower intensity. This puts a demand on both the aerobic and anaerobic systems. Or individuals may choose to participate in less intensive and more continuous skiing, which places different demands on the body. Skiing also places a great demand on the central nervous system with regards to balance, coordination, reaction time and, of course, core strength and stability. While skiing, these components of fitness are affected by variables such as surface area, contact points such as feet and hands, visual effect, movement and external stimulus (i.e., obstacles on the slopes).

It is vitally important to replicate the activity of your clients and train them to cope with the physical demands of such activities. I will now break down some of the above principles and apply them in a programming setting.

Strength Training

The strength component of a skiing training program deals with base strength preparation. This is the work an athlete needs to complete before he can progress onto more advanced forms of training such as stability ball exercise, BOSU integrated training and resisted movement training. This phase should involve familiarizing clients with fundamental large muscle movements such as squats, lunges, deadlifts and body weight resistance exercises such as pull ups and press ups. These exercises recruit high threshold motor units and increase motor unit firing rate. I would never use isolation exercises in a sports specific exercise routine unless it was absolutely necessary, not even for novices. For strength training exercises, I would recommend working on a three sets of eight to 10 repetitions protocol. The base strength preparation phase should last between four and six weeks, depending on your athletes' fitness levels.

Core Development

Core training is arguably the most important element of any skiing fitness program. Effective core development will ensure your clients are strong and stable in the trunk and therefore able to support quick, powerful dynamic movements. In his article "Principles of Skiing Preparation," Chip Richards highlights the importance of moving from our center, thereby taking the stress away from the limbs and promoting core function.

I use several methods in order to develop core stability. The first and most simple is single leg training. As mentioned above, skiing places great demands on the CNS due to changing surface area and contact points. Single leg training reduces available surface area and halves the body’s contact with the ground. Also, skiing requires rates of force production generated by a single leg. Appropriate exercises include single leg backwards lean, opposite leg and arm reach and resistance exercises such as single leg shoulder press and single leg squats. (Examples of these can be found in the PTN Exercise Library.) Exercise on unstable surfaces should be incorporated into all snow sport training programs.

The stability ball plays a vital role when training skiers. Its versatility coupled with the fact that you can really stimulate the core makes it one the most effective exercise tools for skiers. Effective exercises include dumbbell chest press (supine) and bridge raise with tuck. For more advanced athletes, do jack knife, press ups and lateral raise kneeling on the ball.

Unstable surfaces should be incorporated into a winter sports program, with the most effective piece of equipment being the BOSU integrated trainer. Skiing requires high frequency muscle contractions with a restricted range of motion. Therefore, squats and lunges on the BOSU ball are ideal. Conventional standing strength training exercises such as deadlifts, shoulder press and woodchop as well as single leg exercises can also be performed using this piece of equipment.

The Resisted Movement Training protocol developed by Premier Training International in the UK is an idea based on dynamic movement patterns to promote healthier human function with particular emphasis on exercise along the kinetic chain. The type of exercises promoted through resisted movement training is relevant to winter sports training.

Dynamic Flexibility

There has been little research conducted in the area of flexibility for snow sports. I don’t prescribe any static stretching for my clients unless they have a specific muscle imbalance, and even then, I consult with a physiotherapist before prescribing a static routine. It is my belief that dynamic stretching is a safer and more effective way of improving flexibility. Some of my favorite exercises include leg kicks, star jumps, hip swings in the saggital plane and dynamic hip adduction and abduction. Ensure your clients have conducted some form of aerobic activity before performing such exercises. I would reserve five minutes every session for flexibility work.

Agility

Due to the aerobic and interval nature of the sport, there is a requirement for skiers to undergo some aerobic training. This is best conducted in the form of explosive and agility work, which requires clients to complete short bursts of aerobic activity with a rest period. Exercises involving short sprints, agility ladders and vertical cones/poles should be high on the agenda. This will also increase quickness and reaction time. If you are seeing your client for two hours per week, then I would spend a total of 30 minutes per week on agility.

In summary, it is very important that trainers consider all of the above theories, principles and exercises in order to plan an effective training program for skiers. Sometimes, the amount of time we can spend on the program is affected by our clients' schedules, and it is very common for someone to approach a trainer two weeks before their holiday. Ideally, a trainer would have at least two months to prepare their client, but we can only do our best. Your ultimate goal should be to design a fun, functional and sport specific skiing program.

References:

1. Heatlie, M. (2006) Strength Training for Winter Sports. FitPro Network, October/November 2006. pp 16-17.
2. Pratt, B. (2006) Progressive ski-matics. FitPro Network, October/November 2006. pp 14-15
3. Tom Huelin

Forwarded By,

Natalie Pyles

Fitness & Nutritional Expert, Author, Speaker

Call Me For Your FREE Consultation Today! 1-800-681-9894 or e-mail fitnesselementsassociates@yahoo.com
WWW.MyFitnessElements.com

How To Train The Abdominals

"All I want is a Six Pack!" It is almost a standard request to a personal trainer from a prospective or current client. There’s no getting away from it; we are literally obsessed with our physical appearance and no body part (other than maybe the butt) has perfection wished upon it more often or receives more specific work and attention than the abdominals!

This is not necessarily a bad thing, provided that the cosmetic enhancements come along with improved health and functional benefit. Nor is it a surprise! The abdominals are the centerpiece of the body and one's eyes are automatically drawn to that area, so it stands to reason that we would want them to look good.

From a functional perspective, a great set of abdominals are the key to optimal performance in a multitude of exercises and activities as well as being a major key in the prevention of back injuries and pain!

However, a great looking set of abdominals will not necessarily be functionally effective.

The goal of working this muscle group (and any other) should be to get the ultimate in both cosmetic development and functional value.

We must also be very careful about subscribing to a myth that none of us really believe in (or shouldn’t): spot reduction! "I would never be guilty of promoting that!" I hear you say? Think again! How many times has a client told you that he wants to lose fat off his waist/hip and/or wants lots of abdominal/thigh work for the same purpose? How many times have you responded by giving him what he asks for and usually at every single session with high repetitions and multiple reps? For what purpose is the A.B.T. (Abs, Butt & Thigh) class promoted other than to support the ridiculous notion that spot reduction is possible? How many gyms provide such classes and direct "appropriate" clients to participate? If you fall into any of these categories, then by association you are indeed guilty!

Enough of this preamble, and on with the article!

To achieve the ultimate in abdominal development in both function and form in minimum time, the trainer must approach the task from three directions, targeting three specific factors:

1. The deep abdominal and spinal stabilizers used in everyday activity
2. The external (visible) spinal flexors
3. What you or the client eats

In short, this article is not about diet, but let me say this: if you insist on shovelling in copious amounts of starchy carbohydrates, then the majority of you should forget about ever making significant visual acquaintance with your "six pack" no matter how hard you work ‘em. This statement is a whole other article that needs to be addressed separately.

So, in reality, we are only addressing factors 1 and 2.

Factor 1 – Deep Abdominals and Spinal Stabilizers

I’ll keep this simple. This group of muscles generally act in an involuntary fashion. They are skeletal muscles, and we do have the ability to voluntarily contract them, but they are most active in a stabilizing role, reacting to shifts in the body’s centre of gravity in relation to its base of support as well as altered pressure on joints. In short, these factors are known as "tilt and equilibrium reactions" and "proprioception."

Training for these skills is a cinch. Basically, you just have to perform free standing, resistance training exercises or, for that matter, any activity that has you moving in multiple directions (i.e., aerobic classes) possibly except swimming. Why not swimming? In the water, you are supported partially in three dimensions, gravity exerts less effect, creating less need for these particular muscles to be active to support the skeleton and another factor may be that eccentric resistance is all but absent in water. (I am not saying that swimming is a redundant health pursuit. I am simply saying that it is not productive in developing the core stability and joint proprioception required for life outside of water!)

Free weight, resistance training exercises (including cables and pulleys) will generally require good levels of activation of the deep core and abdominal muscles and are most effective for the development of the same. Following these simple tips during workouts can enhance this:

1. Replace benches and seats with a Swiss Ball.
2. Train the body unilaterally (one side at a time) without hanging on to something.
3. Maintain perfect posture – don’t let the weight dictate your position.
4. Activate deep abdominals by pulling in the stomach.
5. Don’t use a weight-training belt.
6. Reduce your base of support (stand on one foot) during upper body exercises.

One of the added benefits of training this way is a significant increase in calorie expenditure! By bringing multiple deep stabilizers, proprioceptors and other extraneous muscle groups into play, the amount of energy required to perform the exercise is significantly increased. The increased innervation of the nervous system results in a hormonal situation that is highly favourable to fat metabolism. The functional/real life value of the exercise is greatly enhanced as well as a much improved injury prevention ability, not to mention that the resultant fat loss will serve to make your abs more visible. The time taken for the session is the same, but the calorie usage is greater! Whichever way you look at it, you can’t lose!

Factor 2 - External Spinal Flexors

This group of muscles simply consists of the Rectus Abdominus and the External Obliques. As with all muscles in the body, they act in an integrated way with numerous other muscle groups to perform a particular movement: in this case, spinal flexion, rotation and lateral flexion. Movements to work this area should consist of variants of these movements.

It is unwise (if not impossible) to try and isolate these muscles for three reasons:

1. Muscle isolation does not happen in real life and is rarely necessary in training.
2. Greater loads and/or intensity can be applied to a "group" of muscles as opposed to a muscle working autonomously (resulting in the hormonal situation mentioned above).
3. Functional integration and "real life carry over" inevitably results in greater training effects in energy expenditure, strength development, injury prevention capabilities and inevitably far better cosmetic results.

Factors that one should consider implementing are:

1. Train the muscle(s) through as full a range of movement as safely and as practically as possible.
2. Utilize resistance from weights, cables and even machines.
3. Train to at least concentric failure and, if possible, eccentric failure on working sets.
4. Keep repetition rage below 15-20.
5. Perform multiple movement patterns, even within the same set.
6. Limit the use of "fixed path of resistance" machines.
7. Vary the exercises, resistance and repetition range from session to session.
8. Keep working sets and exercises to no more than two of each.
9. Train this muscle group 1 – 2 X per week, program it like any other body part and always train it last in the session.

Technical Issue

Past, and even in some quarters, current teaching criteria would indicate that during crunch type exercises, the lower back must remain in contact with the floor. This is incorrect and dysfunctional from the point of view that if the spine remains flat on the floor, it stands to reason that the spine remains in flexion – not even approaching neutral curvature. The lumbar spine is not naturally flat! It has (or should have) a lordotic (concave) curve in it!

If this is considered, then the muscle that flexes the spine will remain in a contracted/shortened state with the spine staying in flexion through the exercise. The target muscle will not be worked in anything approaching full ROM. This then poses two issues that need to be carefully considered.

1. The muscle is only being worked through partial ROM and is likely to only be strong through the range that it is worked! Considering the target muscle in this case is the Rectus Abdominus and it is a "back up" muscle to the Transverse Abdominus (TA) in preventing the spine going into forced, passive extension! (It inevitably takes over that role when the TA ‘lets go’ – generally in extension beyond neutral). Should it not be trained in the ranges that it might be required, then it is unlikely to be much use when it is actually needed for the task.
   
2. Working the abdominals with the spine maintained flat on the ground and the head/neck continuously protracted is simply promoting and developing a kyphotic (round shouldered) head forward posture! An unacceptable amount of individuals in modern society already suffer chronically from this condition - the last thing we should be doing is promoting and developing it! Especially in the highly repetitive manner that happens in "Exercise to Music" classes. We are just enforcing an already deeply established bad habit and making it worse!

The Exercises

The numbers of exercises available to you for this muscle group are immense. It would be impossible for me to list and describe even half of them here. So, I have selected my top 5 "Ab Killer" exercises and described them, along with photographs for your perusal and subsequent trialing.

Before embarking on the description of the exercises, I should probably enlighten you on some of the terminology I’ll use to describe some exercises.

Folded Mat refers to a plain old "sit up" mat with (surprise, surprise) a variable number of folds placed in it to adjust the difficulty of the exercise. The folds are about the same width as the distance between the base of the scapula and the base of the spine. The client lies supine across the folds making sure they are centred between the scapula and the base of the spine. This is done, as the name of the exercise describes, to extend the range of motion in the crunch and is a great alternative and variation to using a Swiss Ball or DuraDisk. The more folds you put in the mat, then the greater the ROM and the difficulty of the exercise.

Just make sure of two things: 1) That the clients’ hips and shoulders can touch the ground at either side of the folds and 2) that extended ROM of the spine is not going to aggravate any pre-existing conditions.

DuraDisk is a 30cm diameter inflatable disk with a very high burst rating. It can be inflated or deflated to varying degrees. Greater inflation generally will mean less stability, greater ROM (in abdominal exercises) and a higher degree of difficulty. Same two precautions as for the Folded Mat apply. (Available from AOK Health in Australia – bradley@aokealth.com.au & www.aokhealth.com.au)

Bench (applies in Extended Crunch only) refers to lying supine on a standard gym bench with the upper torso, down to the base of the shoulder blades, positioned just off the end of the bench and the feet anchored or held by the trainer. Again, this is used to increase the effective ROM. But I strongly suggest caution and control in this variation and application to advanced level clients only.

1) Extended Range Balance Crunch – (Ball, DuraDisk or Folded Mat): To do this properly requires a high degree of skill, abdominal strength and control. I will describe to you the advanced version and then give you some interim techniques to assist you in getting there.

For the "full" version, a 4–5 Folded Mat or DuraDisk is required. Start position is with the mat or disk placed at a "balance" point between the hips and shoulder blades. Thighs should be in the vertical aspect, the knees bent and the ankles crossed. The hands should be positioned at the temples.

Begin the movement by simultaneously lifting the hips and the shoulders off the ground until the abs are fully contracted and you are "balanced" on the mat/disc. The return to the start position should be a controlled and simultaneous descent of the hip and shoulders, both coming into contact with the ground at the same time.

It is unlikely you will ever need resistance for this exercise, and if you can make 10 repetitions unassisted (especially on the disk), you are exceptional.

Slightly easier variations would include placing the heels on a bench (you can lie across a Swiss Ball for this version) or in the hands of the trainer to allow some purchase through the heels or have a trainer assist your balance. Some adjustment of the placement of the mat/disk may be required to find the individual point of balance.

2) Swiss Ball Reverse Crunch: Place a large (65cm+) Swiss Ball up against a machine with 2 upright posts (be sure to protect the ball from any sharp edges). Lie against the ball at angle of 45 degrees to the posts and grip them with both hands. Lift the legs until the thighs are at 90 degrees to the torso; this is the starting position. Perform the movement by flexing the spine and drawing the pelvis up off the ball to full spinal flexion then return to the start position.

Resistance, such as a dumbell between the feet, a cable or a rubber band may be added.

Movement at the hip joint should be kept to a minimum.

An easier variation could be done by placing a DuraDisk or Folded Mat under the Lumbar spine while lying on an incline abdominal bench or even while flat on the floor.

3) Weight Resisted Extended Crunch – (Ball, DuraDisk, Folded Mat or Bench): Lie supine across a DuraDisk, Folded mat, Swiss Ball or with the upper torso hanging off the end of a bench (see instructions for correct performance of this particular version earlier in the article). Hold a weight plate on the chest or forehead or set up with cables or elastics. Make sure that the neck is in extension and that the head is supported on the Ball or ground (dependent on the exercise) prior to the commencement of each repetition.

Begin the movement by flexing the neck first and then allow spinal flexion to occur sequentially to the point where the ribs and pelvis are as close together as possible. At this point the spinal flexors have reached their point of full contraction and to continue beyond this will inevitably engage the hip flexors. This is acceptable and even quite functional as it is rare that spinal flexion will happen without some hip flexion in real life, so it may improve the functional benefit of the exercise to perform the full sit up. However, if you are using a weight plate, be advised that resistance to the target muscle groups is reduced as the plate travels closer to and above the hip joint. This shortcoming is eliminated if cables or elastics are used instead of or in conjunction with the weight.

Functionality and effectiveness can be increased by reaching out behind with the arms at the point of full extension and by pulling them in as the client comes up.

This exercise can be made easier by using less folds in the mat, less air in the DuraDisk or bringing the client further forward on the ball.

4) Bench Kneeling Cable Crunch: This is probably my favorite abdominal exercise. I see many people performing versions of this but very few get it right.

Start position requires you to kneel on a flat bench that has been pushed up in front of a Lat Pulldown machine or overhead pulley with a rope attachment. Tuck the toes over the end of the bench for grip, maintain a right angle at both hip and knee throughout the movement and have the spine in the position of full extension. Hold the rope in your hands and rest the forehead on the thumbs.

Select a weight that is heavy enough to support you comfortably in the start position. If it is too light, you will find yourself falling face first onto the bench. The exercise seems to be more effective if you are back from, rather than directly underneath, the pulley wheel. A 20kg disk placed between the bench and the machine will give the desired result.

While maintaining hip and knee angles, begin the movement by contracting the abdominals and flexing the spine. Imagine yourself curling around a pole directly under your abdomen. Return to the start position under strict control. (A tip here for greater effectiveness is to "suck in" the stomach hard during the eccentric phase – it seems to increase the workload on the abs.) Remember that the exercise is spinal flexion not hip flexion – keep the hip joint stationary!

Adding a twist (right elbow to left knee) into this movement (and the others described previously) gives a good functional variation.

5) Dumbell Bent Press: This is an exercise from the distant past of weight lifting and was a competitive lift way back in the 1800s. It may seem like a strange exercise to do for the abdominals – until the morning after the session and your obliques feel like they are on fire!

Hold a dumbell in one hand at the shoulder (same as a press), in the upright position, feet slightly wider than hip width. This is the start position. Perform the movement, not by pressing up the dumbell but by pushing and rotating the body away from it. Imagine that you are attempting to pick up a weight off the floor and between your feet with your free hand (which is in fact an exercise/lift known as "Two Hands Anyhow").

While keeping the dumbell at arms length, return to the upright position and then lower the dumbell to the shoulder to begin the next repetition.

A floor pulley system can be used to provide variety for this exercise.

Conclusion

Effective training of these muscles should be no different to the training philosophy applied to other muscle groups. The emphasis should be placed on avoiding homeostasis! That basically means that a muscle or muscle group will cease to respond favourably in strength, size or appearance if the necessity to adapt to the particular stress diminishes. Simply increasing the load or volume of work is rarely enough! The body will adapt to a "movement pattern" very quickly and become very efficient at performing it, even with increased loads.

Increased efficiency, while in some instances we desire it, in this case is not a desirable outcome. Efficiency means that we are using less effort to complete the exercise. It means there is less neurological recruitment of muscle fibres, and it basically means we are not going to reap the same benefits from the exercise as we were prior to the adaptation taking place. Remember the great improvements that you made as a beginner? These improvements were simply adaptation. Once adaptation took place, improvements diminished. Simply put, we must continually prevent our body from becoming too familiar with any one particular exercise. This factor alone may be the prime determining factor in "plateauing."

"IF NOTHING CHANGES, THEN NOTHING WILL CHANGE"

Chronic use of the same movement pattern, especially with "fixed path of resistance machines" will also induce a phenomenon known as pattern overload and slow down progress even quicker. These machines should be used sparingly.

In short, I am basically saying that it is more favourable to vary the exercises for any muscle group on a session-to-session basis rather than follow them religiously for extended periods of time.

References:

1) Pattern Overload Part 1 & Part 2 by Paul Chek. Personal Training on the Net. Online. September 2000.

2) Lou Barrie

Forwarded By,

Natalie Pyles

Call Me For Your FREE Consultation Today! 1-800-681-9894 or480-212-1947 or e-mail fitnesselementsassociates@yahoo.com
WWW.MyFitnessElements.com

Atkins vs. South Beach vs. Metabolic Typing

As personal trainers working in the health club environment or in private studios, our clients often ask us questions about nutrition. Regardless of whether or not you provide your clients with nutritional counseling, in my opinion, it is absolutely necessary that we all have at least a fundamental understanding of the common diets our clients are experimenting with. As we all know, knowledge is power and transferring that knowledge to your clients in the form of verbal or written exchange will separate you from the average personal trainer who provides the generic advice of “exercise more and eat less.”

The following is an excerpt from my book The No Diet, Diet! and has been written to provide an overview of the two most common diets in America: the Atkins Diet and the South Beach Diet. I compare these diets to a third program, the Metabolic Typing Diet, which is not as well known.

After careful review and study of the South Beach Diet, Atkins Diet and Metabolic Typing Diet, the similarities and differences are summarized in this article. The South Beach and Atkins programs have many similarities. The similarities between these two programs are as follows:

* Cardiologists created each of the diets.

* Both authors advocate the consumption of artificial sweeteners.

* Neither program addresses the emotional component of eating or provides additional help through certified coaches or advisors. (Dr. Mercola states that emotional eating is the most important factor of dieting. To read more on this, visit www.mercola.com.)

* Neither program talks about food quality or food sources (i.e., organic, free range, processed meats, etc.)

* Both programs are marketed as a “lose weight quickly” diet.

* Both programs advocate eating fish without any mention of potential mercury and other heavy metal contamination.

* Both programs suggest eating whole grains, without mentioning that 50 to 60 percent of all white skin people are intolerant to gluten, a protein found in all grain products.

* Both programs support drinking pasteurized milk, which has many health risks that are often unknown by the general public. For example, pasteurized dairy products often exacerbate food intolerances.

* Both programs progress you through different “phases.”

* Both programs have specific meal plans for the initial phase.

* Both programs suggest that you will drop weight in the first two weeks.

* Neither program is tailored to the individual. Both are under the “one size fits all” model of dieting.

The main differences between South Beach and Atkins are:

* South Beach states that saturated fats are harmful. Atkins advocates large quantities of saturated fats.

* Atkins advocates counting carbohydrates, which is actually “net carbs,” defined as the number of carbohydrates minus the fiber content. South Beach does not have you count calories, carbs or anything else.

* The health benefits of Atkins are said to be reducing the risk of heart disease, controlling and preventing diabetes and lowering high blood pressure. The South Beach diet claims to improve cardiovascular health.

* The meal plans between the two diets are different. This is based on each author’s opinions about which foods will and will not help the dieter lose weight.

The Metabolic Typing Diet is different from South Beach and Atkins. Here is a summary of the key differences between Metabolic Typing (MT) and the other two programs:

* MT is a customized approach to nutrition. The individual’s “metabolic type,” which can be defined as his/her own nutritional needs, is determined through a comprehensive series of questions. The answers to these questions determine how food behaves in the body and then suggests the foods that are specifically going to support the individual’s requirements. Both Atkins and South Beach can be classified as a “one size fits all” approach, as it does not have any system of analysis for identifying one’s individual needs. These are books that anyone can read and then implement without any regard for an individual’s genetics, physical characteristics, activity levels or personality traits, all of which have a major influence on how the body converts food to energy.

* Unlike diets such as the Blood Type Diet, MT looks at the entire system, which is composed of 10 fundamental control systems including the Autonomic Nervous System, CarboOxidative, LiopOxidative, Electrolyte, Acid/Alkaline, Endocrine Type, Blood Type, Constitutional Type and Prostaglandin Balance. Therefore, Blood Type only accounts for a single, fixed variable, whereas MT is much more comprehensive and can offer clearly defined, specific and reliable test results.

* Atkins and South Beach do not address the quality of foods. For example, there is no mention of avoiding fish due to the high levels of known mercury and heavy metal contamination. Secondly, no comparison is made between free range, organic food and commercially processed food. Conversely, MT specifically suggests going out of your way to buy free range, organic food whenever possible and avoiding high quantities of mercury contaminated fish.

* Atkins has a university that offers courses on cooking, shopping and other areas of food. South Beach also has a web site that offers limited online support for dieters. Metabolic Typing has a very comprehensive certification program consisting of three intense levels. This program trains health care professionals such as doctors, nutritionists, chiropractors, C.H.E.K. Practitioners and personal trainers how to administer the questionnaires and thus be able to coach clients towards their goals using the comprehensive approaches that are outlined in the book The Metabolic Typing Diet by Wolcott and the Intermediate Level MT Certification Manual.

* The South Beach Diet and the Atkins Diet were both founded by cardiologists. Each program is based on one doctor's opinion of how everyone should eat. MT is a comprehensive compilation of over 70 years of clinical research by many different individuals, including medical researchers, physicians, biochemists, dentists, physiologists, nutritionists and psychologists. The following doctors are the main contributors of what is now known as Metabolic Typing: Dr. George Watson, Dr. William Donald Kelley, Dr. Royal Lee, Dr. Weston Price, Dr. Francis Pottenger, Dr. Melvin Page, Dr. Roger Williams, Dr. Emanuel Revici and Dr. Henry Bieler. Many of these individuals are giants in their fields and world renowned in their respective scientific and clinical disciplines. Now compare this list to the two doctors who created South Beach and Atkins. Which do you think is more researched and reliable?

* South Beach and Atkins are marketed as quick, easy approaches to lose weight within the first two weeks. MT is designed as a health program, not a weight loss program. The program describes weight loss as a benefit of becoming healthy, but losing weight is NOT the primary focus. William Wolcott, the author and founder of MT, states that the program is NOT designed as a quick fix but as a permanent way of life by knowing how to listen to the body's unique individual needs.

Conclusions and Suggestions

Based on the information and research available on these three diets, as well as the nature of the typical personal trainer/client relationship, I have found the following guidelines to be helpful when coaching clients on nutrition:

* When your client asks you about Atkins or South Beach, let them know some of the information you know to be true about these diets. Try to customize the information as much as possible to your client. For example, only emphasize certain points based on your client's current level of understanding, his/her personality and motivation to learn.

* One of the major points I always make while working with a client is to point out that ANY diet he/she chooses will typically not yield long term results, unless it is customized. The problem with most diets is that they are cookie cutter and do not take into account biochemical individuality, which is the concept of no one diet working for everyone.

* I will gently suggest the client investigate Metabolic Typing or some version of customized nutrition.

Following these basic guidelines ensures your client is well informed about these diets and yet not “oversold,” which maintains your professionalism and gives you an opportunity to educate, motivate and inspire your clients to make healthier food choices.

References:

1. Agatston, A. The South Beach Diet. New York, NY: Random House, Inc.; 2003
2. Atkins R. Dr. Atkins’ Diet Revolution. New York, NY: David McKay Company, Inc.; 1973
3. Atkins R. The Atkins Essentials. New York, NY: Avon Books; 2004
4. Chek P. How to Eat, Move and Be Healthy. San Diego, CA: C.H.E.K. Institute; 2004
5. Mercola J. Is Meat From Diseased Animals Safe For Consumption? Online: www.mercola.com
6. Mercola J. Is the Atkins Diet Right for You? Online: www.mercola.com
7. Mercola J. Total Health Cookbook & Program. Schaumburg, IL: Mercola.com; 2004
8. Mercola J. Twelve Reasons to Avoid the South Beach Diet. Online: www.mercola.com
9. Rivera, R., Deutsch, R. Your Hidden Food Allergies Are Making You Fat. Rocklin, CA: Prima Health; 1998.
10. Rubin JS. The Maker’s Diet. Lake Mary, FL: Siloam; 2004
11. Sears J. Why our Health & Vitality are being damaged by our Present Food Supply. Online: www.ptonthenet.com
12. The Associated Press. Study: Low-fat vs. Lowcarb. Online: www.cnn.com; November 2004
13. Wolcott W, Fahey T. The Metabolic Typing Diet. New York, NY: Broadway Books; 2000
14. Williams RJ. Biochemical Individuality. New Canaan, CT: Keats Publishing, Inc.; 1998

References: Neil Habgood

Forwarded By, Natalie Pyles

Fitness & Nutritional Expert, Author, Speaker

Call Me For Your FREE Consultation Today! 1-800-681-9894 or e-mail fitnesselementsassociates@yahoo.com
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" How To Become An Extraordinary Sales Professional And Break Into The Affluent Market"

1 Key Strategy that will increase your pay rate overnight and save you years of stress

The key rule to any true sales professional is You must first develop the characteristic of great courage. That trait can be expressed in multiple ways. It takes great courage to earn one's income purely from sales commissions.
Compensation by commission only suggests that the sales professional operates almost independently of a sales manager's mandates. You can win by setting these standards for yourself:

1. Office Hours
2. Call Plan
3. Prospecting Hours
4. Time Blocking

Courage is especially necessary in selling to the affluent. Sales Pro's with considerable courage demonstrate this characteristic in their prospecting efforts. You must be bold enough to ask the really important question:
"Will You do business with me?" Courage also means being able to call yet another prospect after having been turned down by the last 100 prospects. You must keep with it by applying discipline, focus, and perseverance to build your million dollar rolodex. Keep in mind mast majority of the people who market to the affluent are completely self-made successes and the affluent respect that because it reminds them of when they first got started. We can either be ordinary or extraordinary. I don't know about you but given the choice I am shooting for the top notch sales professional. Will you join me there?

To learn more about selling to the Affluent Market look out for part 2 of this series.

Have a Healthy, Wealthy & Wise Day!

Your Friend In Health & Fitness,

Natalie Pyles

Fitness & Nutrition Expert, Wellness Coach, Author, Speaker, And Consultant


Call Me For Your FREE Consultation Today! 1-800-681-9894 or e-mail fitnesselementsassociates@yahoo.com
WWW.MyFitnessElements.com

"5 Key Strategies For Maximizing Muscle Activation When Lifting Weights"

If Your Looking To Maximize How Much Your Muscles Are Working When Lifting weights, Follow These Guidelines For Top Results:

Quadriceps
I Recommend squats. Given the multijoint movement of the quadriceps muscles, squats are the best exercise for them. You can use whatever leg position, stance width and squat depth are right for their bodies, since all are equally effective.

Gluteus Maximus
Again, I recommend squats. Use a wide stance and squat until your thighs are past being parallel to the floor. (The study that yielded this recommendation did not address knee safety angle. Always consider your safety first while performing these exercises.)

Chest
Bench Press: I advise you to use a grip nearly double your shoulder width.
Push- Up: I suggest a narrow hand position with the hands together under the center of the sternum, forming a diamond shape between thumbs and index fingers.

Upper Back
I recommend the seated row machine. All major muscles of the upper back-trapezius, rhomboids and latissmus dorsi-are more active during seated rows

Abdominals
Do Crunches on a stability ball with the lower back on the ball and the upper body lifted off the ball.

Enjoy these 5 key strategies and have a healthy and happy day!

Your Friend In Health & Fitness,

Natalie Pyles

Fitness & Nutritional Expert, Wellness Coach, Author, & Speaker

Call Me For Your FREE Consultation Today! 1-800-681-9894 or e-mail fitnesselementsassociates@yahoo.com
WWW.MyFitnessElements.com

"How To Re-Tool With A Successful Blueprint This Year" Happy New Year!

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Well, that is what happens to thousands of people time after time this time of year, who have yet to find true lasting methods or solutions to permanent weight-loss. NEW YEAR, NEW YOU I hear it every year my friends! Let me ask you this how are you going to make this year different? If you want the same results keep doing what you have always been doing. If you want a Strong set of blueprints and battle plan to finally achieve lasting Success and Results then we are your solution.


With Fitness Elements & Associates We Guarantee 2-3 pounds per week and 1% body fat-loss per week Guaranteed!

Your Health & Fitness Resource & Expert,

Natalie Pyles

Call Me For Your FREE Consultation Today! 1-800-681-9894 or480-212-1947 or e-mail fitnesselementsassociates@yahoo.com
WWW.MyFitnessElements.com