How Do Personal Trainers Personally Train?

I get a lot of emails from people asking about my own personal workout regimen, how I'm currently training, etc. When inquiring about my personal training regimen, readers often write something along the following lines: "You're a personal trainer so you must get to workout all day, right?"

The reality of the situation is that, as a husband and small business owner, when it comes to exercise, I face the same demands and obstacles that other "real world" hard working people face. I work 55-60 hours/week, have to maintain my house, my marriage, and I have social and family obligations as well. The reason I decided to focus my training business and blog on the "real world adult" population is because I am a "real world adult", and I can relate to and sympathize with this demographic in regards to leading a healthy lifestyle.

Also, I use all of the same training principles, methods, and protocols I write about on this blog because they are practical and they work. I can assure all my readers I'm not engaging in some "secret" training regimen I'm not sharing. Trust me, on most days, trying to find an hour to exercise can be a daunting task, but, I value and prioritize training, so I find a way.

With all of the above being said, for those who are interested, I've outlined what I'm currently doing below. Keep in mind, this is a very liberal template, and, about 1/3 of the time, it is adapted, as my schedule can change at any time. In fact, sometimes, I have to split the workout into 2 or 3 20:00 segments because I don't have a full hour to devote all at once. This is the nature of the real world and you just have to make it work, even if it's not ideal.

Monday: upper body strength training and possibly a long walk in the afternoon or evening

Tuesday: moderate intensity cardio using a ladder, 30/90, or steady state protocol + direct core training

Wednesday: lower body strength training and possibly a long walk in the afternoon or evening

Thursday: see Tuesday

Friday: see Monday

Saturday: high intensity interval training (usually sprints on the turf) and/or metabolic resistance training (dumbbell or body weight complexes etc)

Sunday: off or a long walk or other type of recreational activity (long bike ride or something like that)

*foam roll and dynamic warm-up precedes every workout

As you can see, I'm not doing anything revolutionary. At times, I might change the proportion of strength training to conditioning or vice versa (lift 4 days per week and condition 2 days per week for example). In future blog posts, I'll outline specifically what I'm doing on each day listed above in order to give readers a little more detail. I think readers will find the programs I engage in are simple in regards to the structure. However, they are not easy. I can assure you I bring the effort, and I'm always attempting to progress. This is what counts. Stay tuned for details and thanks for reading.

Is Interval Training Necessary? It Depends.

Received the following question from a blog reader-

PJ:

Love the blog man. As a self employed husband and father of 3, your information has helped me immensely in regards to getting in time efficient and effective workouts. My question is this: my primary goal is just to continue to get stronger. Thanks to your no BS approach to nutrition, I've really gotten my diet in line and lost a lot of body fat over the last 6 months. I'm happy with my level of leanness, and found just keeping my calorie intake at or below a certain level (while keeping the protein intake plenty high) does the trick. So, I really just want to focus on getting stronger while maintaining my level of body fat and weight. This being said, I don't want to neglect my heart health either...but I'm not really interested in getting in extreme condition...it's just not one of my primary goals at this point. I know you are a big interval training advocate, but do I really need to do it, given my goals? Thanks in advance.

Jeff from North Dakota

Jeff:

Very good question, and, actually, you pretty much answered it for yourself. BASED ON YOUR GOALS, no, I don't think you need interval training. I think traditional cardiovascular work, for 30 minutes, 3 times per week, at about 70% of max heart rate, will do just fine. The one thing you have to be careful with in regards to interval training is, if you are really trying to get stronger, it can delay or stop progress altogether. It is demanding, and makes recovering from strength training workouts much more difficult. Can you MAINTAIN strength and do hard interval work multiple times weekly? Sure. BUT, trying to get stronger while hitting hard intervals 2-3 days/week is usually going to lead to compromised results. I hear people talk all the time about how moderate intensity cardio can impede recovery from strength workouts and make gaining strength and muscle difficult, but I completely disagree: too much high intensity interval work is the real progress killer when it comes to gaining strength and muscle.

Now, if you would have told me your primary goal was fat loss or getting in stellar performance condition, I would have told you, yes, you do need to include interval work. However, as you stated, your goals are far different. Keep in mind you can't OPTIMALLY enhance more than 1 or 2 fitness related qualities at the same time. However, you can try to enhance one quality (strength in your case), and maintain the others through smart programming (which it sounds like you are doing). All too often, I see people trying to increase strength and size, decrease body fat, eat in a caloric deficit, and run a 5:00 mile all at the same time. This is a recipe for disaster.

Some methods work very well for achieving certain goals or enhancing certain fitness related qualities, but don't work so well when trying to improve other qualities. The key thing, which you've done, is to identify what is important at this point: this is something most people NEVER do. Once you've identified what you are trying to optimize, choose the methods which work the best for achieving the goal. If you want to maintain other qualities, choose methods which will allow you to do so, BUT METHODS WHICH DON'T COMPROMISE THE MAIN OBJECTIVE. Sounds to me like you've already intuitively done this. Good luck on your quest for strength.

Essential Exercises Volume 2: Ab Wheel Rollouts

I've written in the past about the importance of including core stability exercises in your program. Remember, the lumbar spine needs more STABILITY...NOT MOBILITY. The primary function of your abdominals is to resist movement (stability)...not to promote movement (although they certainly are capable of doing this as well). Flexion exercises like crunches, sit-ups, etc. all promote movement (mobility) and actually place a great deal of compressive force on spine. Now, I'm not saying you can't do some crunches or other flexion type exercises here are there, but I definitely feel stability based exercises should make up the majority of one's core training.

Keeping the above in mind, one of the best core stability exercises is the ab wheel rollout (remember the infomercials? :). If you are looking to build a rock solid, stable mid-section which is both resistant to injury and aesthetically pleasing (assuming your body fat is low enough), this is one of the best exercises out there. Today, I'll present the first progression of this exercise, and, in future installments, I'll present more advanced variations.



When performing this exercise, make sure the low back doesn't sag (hips tilting forward): only go out as far as you can while keeping a neutral spine position. At first, you may not be able to go out too far. That's ok...you'll work up to a greater range of motion pretty quickly. Also, quality of reps is much more important than quantity of reps. When you feel yourself losing your spine alignment, it's time to stop. Give the ab wheel rollout a shot during your next training session.

http://www.personaltrainerscincinnati.com

How to Warm Up for Heavy Strength Training Sets

Want to know how to warm up for heavy strength training sets? See my answer to the reader submitted question below:

P. J.,

As a "real world" adult professional, I've really benefited from your blog, and I've really taken to strength training in the last few months. My question for you is how to warm up for heavy strength training sets, and, how many warm up sets should I do for each of my exercises in general? Thanks!

-JC from Austin, TX

There are two mistakes most people make when it comes to strength training warm up sets:

1. They don't do any at all

OR

2. They do far too many warm up sets which hinders their performance on the real strength and muscle building sets (work sets as I like to call them)

Here is how I would approach warm up sets-

On your first major exercise of the day, perform the following warm up set protocol:

Warm up Set #1: 50% of the goal work set(s) weight for 5-6 reps
Warm up Set #2: 75% of the goal work set(s) weight for 2-3 reps
Warm up Set #3: 80% of the goal work set(s) weight for 1 rep
Warm up Set #4: 90% of the goal work set(s) weight for 1 rep

At this point, you are as "warm" and as primed as you are going to be, especially if you performed a general dynamic warm up (which you should have) prior to your first exercise of the day. Furthermore, I don't think you need to do any warm up sets for the exercises which follow this first exercise, especially if the exercise was a multiple joint movement.

So, for a real world example, lets say your goal is to perform 200 lbs. for 4 sets of 5 reps in the barbell squat (these are your work sets, those which actually do something productive in terms of getting stronger and/or larger):

Warm up Set #1: 100 lbs. x 6 reps
Warm up Set #2: 150 lbs. x 2 reps
Warm up Set #3: 170 lbs. x 1 rep
Warm up Set #4: 185 lbs. x 1 rep

At this point, you are ready to start your first work set of 200 lbs. for 5 reps. How long should you rest between your warm up sets?? It's up to you, but 30-90 seconds would be a decent guideline. I would suggest resting completely for 2 or 3 minutes after your last warm up and prior to your first work set.

If you contrast the approach above to what you normally see in the gym, it's far different and more productive. I always laugh when I see guys bench press in this manner: 135x10; 185x8; 205x6; 225x4 (or something similar). If they would have warmed up more prudently-and not worn themselves out with useless sets and reps which were far below their capacity-that last set of 225x4 could have been more like 225x8, which, obviously, is going to overload the muscles involved to a far greater extent.

I hope this answered your question regarding "how to warm up for heavy strength training sets", and thanks for reading.


http://www.personaltrainerscincinnati.com

Time Magazine Article: Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin

I've been a full time personal fitness professional for eight years, and, throughout my career, one of the main messages I've drilled into my clients heads, over and over and over again, is that exercise, by itself, is an extremely ineffective and inefficient weight loss method. My opinion on this issue has not changed, and will not change. If you are a regular reader of my blog and website, you know I've written about this a number of times, and you know how strongly I feel about it.

Once again: YOU SHOULD EXERCISE AND TRAIN TO ENHANCE HEALTH, STRENGTH AND PERFORMANCE...NOT TO LOSE WEIGHT! The goals of a regular exercise training program should be to increase and/or maintain muscular strength, maintain (or increase if that is your goal) lean muscle tissue, and increase and/or maintain overall cardiovascular and metabolic work capacity. If you train regularly, on a sound program, you will decrease the risk for numerous adverse chronic and acute health problems (some cancers, type II diabetes, heart disease, orthopedic problems etc). Proper training will greatly enhance your functional quality of life and allow you to age well. Furthermore, I truly believe goal oriented physical training reduces stress and gives one a psychological edge which carries over into other areas of life. While everyone who trains and exercises may not be a traditional competitive athlete, we ALL play the game of life, and I feel hard training allows us to play this game at a higher level.

The problem is Americans equate an exercise program with a weight loss program. They do not equate an exercise program with a fitness and health enhancement program (or, if they do, they look at health and fitness enhancement as an "added bonus"). Exercise is marketed to us incorrectly and unethically. We really need to change the entire paradigm, change the way people view exercise, and change how it is marketed. We need a drastic re-education. More people would stick to exercise programs if they understood what they were supposed to be getting out of them and had the correct perspective and expectations. Right now, the outcomes exercise produce do not match peoples expectations. People do, in fact, get a lot of positives out of exercise, BUT, they do not value them, do not fully understand or appreciate them, and have been brainwashed into thinking exercise, by itself, should produce weight loss. When it doesn't, people say "screw it", and quit. The outcomes-even though positive-do not match expectations. This is unfortunate.

Yes, exercise burns calories and can CONTRIBUTE to weight loss, but, it can only contribute if you are eating at maintenance or below maintenance calorie levels. If you do not understand what your fat loss or maintenance calorie requirements are, do not monitor your calorie intake by weighing, measuring, and recording the food you eat, etc., you will not lose weight (at least not a substantial amount) or, if you do lose weight, will not maintain the weight loss. You have to manipulate and understand the input side of the equation. If you rely on the output side of the equation-exercise-and do not give any consideration to the input side, you are doomed to fail in regards to losing weight and keeping it off.

If you perform structured exercise, even for an hour or more 5-6 days/week, and do not give any attention to the number of calories you are consuming, the best that you can hope for, and expect, is weight maintenance. More likely, you will gain weight over time...but probably not as much as you would have if you didn't exercise. This isn't exactly a "sexy" message, but it is the truth, and it is what people need to hear. It isn't going to sell books or DVD's, but at least it won't continue perpetuating the myth that exercise is a great weight loss method.

Ok, now that I've ranted about this again, TIME Magazine published an article on their website yesterday which echos some of my thoughts on this matter (funny how I've been pointing this stuff out for 8 years and it takes the mainstream media this long to hit on this stuff). Generally speaking, I thought the article was good in that it points out exercise isn't all that is cracked up to be (due to the way it is marketed...something the author should have hit on) in regards to losing weight. However, my complaint is I felt the author generally understated the benefits of exercise independent of weight loss, and, at times, the article came off as "anti-exercise", which is unfortunate. Although exercise is not an effective weight loss method if you are not watching what you put into your mouth, it offers tremendous, well established metabolic health benefits, something the author didn't exactly present fairly. Even so, I'd recommend checking it out below:

TIME MAGAZINE ARTICLE

http://www.personaltrainerscincinnati.com

Essential Exercises Volume 1: Face Pulls

Thought I'd start a category of blog posts entitled "Essential Exercises", highlighting some of the exercises which I feel are, as the name implies, essential, and absolutely need to be included in your training arsenal. In this installment, I want to take a look at one of the best exercises out there for keeping your shoulders healthy, Face Pulls.



Face pulls activate and strengthen the upper back, traps, and external shoulder rotators all at once and really give you a great bang for your training buck. A tip: make sure you grab the rope with your fingers straight up in the air (and keep them up throughout the exercise)...not straight out and slightly down. The former grip feels great on the shoulders, while the latter, in my experience, irritates the shoulders and doesn't effectively work the external rotators.

If you want to enjoy a lifetime of hard training, you absolutely have to keep your shoulders healthy...Face Pulls can help achieve this objective. Put them in your program 1 or 2 days per week and reap the benefits.

http://www.personaltrainerscincinnati.com

An Article EVERYONE Should Read

Lyle McDonald of http://www.bodyrecomposition.com is one of the brightest minds in the world of nutrition. He wrote a blog post in late July which I feel everyone should read:

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/the-energy-balance-equation.html

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know my stance on fat loss nutrition. If you don't, check out my "Weight Loss 101" series...I think you'll see Lyle and I are on the same page, and it's good to see someone else standing up to the critics-who are just flat out wrong- of the energy balance equation.

Metabolic Rate

Metabolic Rate Overview

Most people have probably heard that weight loss or weight gain comes down to “input vs. output”. While most people understand the input side of the equation-the food you eat-many do not appreciate or understand how your body expends calories on a daily basis. By understanding energy expenditure and metabolic rate, meeting and maintaining your weight and body composition goals becomes much more likely.

What makes up your Metabolic Rate?

1. Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR): the energy needed to sustain the body’s most basic functions (heart beat, respiration, all the processes on the cellular level, etc) and is responsible for 50-70% of the calories you burn on a daily basis. Many people don’t understand that even if they were to sit still all day long in a chair, their bodies would still be expending a significant amount of energy. To get a rough estimate of your resting metabolic rate, simply multiply your body weight by 10-11.

RMR is greatly influenced by the amount of lean muscle tissue you have: those who carry and maintain more muscle tissue will expend more calories than someone who has less muscle tissue. Bottom line: if you want to prevent a decline in resting metabolic rate as you age, don’t lose muscle mass. Consistent strength training is the best way to accomplish this.

2. The Thermic Effect of Food (TEF): the amount of calories used by the body while processing, digesting, and absorbing the food you eat. Generally, TEF makes up about 10% of the calories expended by your body daily if you are eating a typical mixed American diet. If you eat a 400 calorie cold cut sandwich, you really only take on about 360 of those calories.

Now, you can use TEF to your advantage when trying to lose weight and fat. Of the 3 macronutrients (protein, carb, and fat) protein has the highest TEF: of the total amount of protein you eat, 20-30% is lost in processing. So, if you look at your total calorie intake, if you increase the percentage of protein you are eating, your body will burn more calories. Over time, this can potentially lead to a few more pounds of weight lost.

3. The Thermic Effect of Activity (TEA): this is all the energy you burn outside of your resting metabolic rate through physical activity. Going to the gym to workout is TEA. Getting up from the couch and walking upstairs is TEA. Doing chores or yard work? This is also is TEA. So, basically, any bodily movement which expends energy. TEA is highly variable depending on the individual. Due to the sedentary nature of our society, and the large number of professional desk jobs, most people don’t burn up a lot of energy through TEA. People who work manual labor jobs burn a lot more calories through TEA: they are burning a lot of energy passively without having to set aside an hour to go to the gym specifically to burn calories.

4. There is also a sub-category of TEA which includes “fidgeting”, and other types of spontaneous movements which don’t really accomplish much (also referred to at NEAT...non exercise activity thermogenesis). We all knew someone in grade school who had “ants in their pants”…this is what I’m talking about here. Those people who can’t sit still, who are always tapping their foot or bouncing their knee, etc. actually can burn very significant amounts of energy, up to 900 calories per day.

I hope this article provided you with a nice overview and better understanding of metabolic rate. Of the four components of metabolic rate outlined above, see which areas you could improve upon or manipulate for better fat loss results...now get to work and apply this information!

http://www.cincinnatifitnesstrainer.com

The REAL Loser

Hello Everyone! Many of you have probably watched the popular reality TV show The Biggest Loser. The Biggest Loser is very inspiring and the contestants should be commended for their hard work and extraordinary weight loss. However, I have a problem with the show: it's not exactly reality TV.

Sure, it's easy to lose weight when you are shipped off to a "bootcamp", perfectly portioned meals are prepared for you, you are given free access to top personal fitness trainers, and you are basically made to exercise 5-6 hours per day. No spouse, no kids, no work, no social commitments, no eating out, etc. The contestants on this show are set up for success in an optimal environment conducive to drastic fat and weight loss...but what happens in the real world?

What happens when you work 50-60 hours per week, you are carting your kids to practices after work, you barely can find a half hour to exercise, and you have to do your own grocery shopping and meal preparation? What happens when you are lured by food marketers, fast food drive thrus and you are in an uncontrolled environment with easy access to junk food? What happens when you are responsible for figuring out the calorie content of the food you eat? What happens when you are stressed and are lucky to get 5 hours of decent sleep a night? What happens when you don't have-or can't afford-a trainer? What happens when you are invited out for yet another "happy hour" by a co-worker which is at the same time you were planning to workout?

This sounds more like "reality", doesn't it? This is the situation most of us find ourselves in when trying to lose weight or trying to maintain a weight loss...this is what we are up against. People who are able to lose weight-and keep it off-in the REAL world, under REAL circumstances, are the REAL LOSERS and are much more impressive, in my opinion, than the BIGGEST LOSERS featured on the television show. Where am I going with all this???

Well, my brother, Dave Striet, is a REAL LOSER. Since January 5th 2009, he has lost 71 lbs. and he has now started his own blog detailing his quest for continued weight loss: the good days, the bad days, his workouts, his diet, the challenges he faces in the REAL world as a self employed father of 2 girls, etc. He has taken control of his REAL life, has experienced great success-along with a few "fall off the wagon" days- and I think a lot of you will be able to relate to him in regards to lifestyle modification and weight loss. Check out his blog at the link below...I know you'll find it motivating:

http://davestriet.blogspot.com/