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Healthy Lifestyle vs. Busy Lifestyle

October 28, 2015 By Garrett

Well hello everyone!  It has been awhile. It has been crazy busy around here lately!  Like many of you, I have had to make some choices on how to manage time to get through the busyness.   I wanted to share some tips that have helped me get through it all:

 

  1. Prioritize– As much as we don’t like to admit it….we can’t do it all. There simply is not enough time in the day to do everything.  We have to learn how to prioritize what is essential to our professional and personal existence.  For me my family, friends, clients and fitness took priority.  Things like social media, marketing, outreach and some other administrative things went to the back burner.  A big reason why it has been so long since my last blog!  I picked the things that were necessary for my business, my health and my family first
  2. Control the things you can control- When we get busy we tend to feel like we lose control because there are so many moving parts. Sometimes, there are things that we can’t control.  14 hour work days, busy weekend schedules, family obligations, etc. are things we can’t control.  However, a big thing I could control was my nutrition.  I would prepare foods for the week on Sunday, I would only buy healthy foods when I grocery shopped, I made smart choices at restaurants.  When people get busy they tend to eat poorly and thus gain weight.  When there is no time to workout or the workouts aren’t as long or as intense because of our schedule we can combat this with the quantity and quality of the food we consume.  Also, making choices through the day to move….. get up from the desk and walk around, parking farther away, taking the dog for a walk, setting aside time (no matter how little) to do purposeful exercise, and making active activities a part of your social gatherings all help.
  3. Sleep– Getting the proper amount of sleep is huge in recovery, rejuvenation, and stress management. This is the time that our body repairs itself.  This is the time that the body replenishes itself.  Without it, alertness/cognitive function will suffer, energy will be low, fitness progress will be stalled and the risk of getting sick increases drastically.  Everybody requires a different amount of sleep.  A couple of ways that you can tell if you are not getting enough sleep is if you require an alarm to wake up, you have a hard time getting out of bed when you do wake up, you are sleepy through the day or if you fall right to sleep when you do go to bed.  A majority of people do not get enough sleep at night and that is one of the most important aspects of your life where you literally make yourself better without doing anything!
  4. Take your moments- When we get busy we tend not to take time to “smell the roses”. We move from one task to the next, rarely enjoying the process because we have so much to conquer.  From a mental, physical and spiritual standpoint it is necessary to take a moment and appreciate the people and things around us.  Whether it is in the morning sipping on some coffee or as you lay in bed ready to fall asleep, take time to reflect and appreciate what you are doing.  It makes those hectic times worth it!

These tips have helped me in the past and will continue to help me.  I hope they do the same for you.  Now that I have resumed a more “normal” schedule I look forward to sharing more blogs with you!

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Filed Under: busy lifestyle, healthy lifestyle, personal training, sports performance, strength and conditioning, time management, weight loss Tagged With: beginnings, career, diet, health and fitness professional, personal training

Is it important for a trainer to be certified?

February 6, 2015 By Garrett

Is it important for a trainer to be certified?  This seems to be a hot topic these days with the growth of the fitness industry and all the different training methodologies and varying standards to meet those methodologies.  I will be the first to say that the certification doesn’t make the trainer and the trainer is not representative of the certification.  I have seen great trainers with certifications that I have never heard of, and I have seen bad trainers with the best certifications out there.  However, I feel that it is of the upmost importance that a person who trains another to be certified!

A certification will teach the basics of human anatomy, function, physiology, program design and methodology.  It won’t make a trainer all knowing, but it will lay a sound foundation that will give them guidance on providing their clients with safe and effective programs.  Without this foundation, where would they get this information?  Well any combination of their own personal workout history, workout videos, fitness magazine, youtube videos etc is where.  Quite frankly, I don’t trust any of these as sound foundational sources.  So, basically, these “trainers” are using broscience or what I call “the sexy”.  “The sexy” pertains to all of those exercises that look really cool and exciting to do, and have their place with a particular person in a particular situation, but most people have no business doing.  Most of the time this is a conditioning based program where the only goal seems to be how hard you can push your client until they throw up.  Well, I can make anybody throw up in 5 minutes if I wanted to.  The only thing that gets accomplished with this mentality is that a person threw up.  Congrats!  Nothing was accomplished.  No goals were met and in fact that persons goals have been pushed farther away.

So from just having basic knowledge of how to properly train a client is more than enough reason to require a certification for someone to train another person.  Equally important it shows that the person is serious about their profession.  Personal trainers are professionals.  Would you go to a guy that took one accounting class in college to do your taxes?  Probably not.  Then why go to a guy that lifted in college to train you.  Yes there is some knowledge there, but not enough to do something very specific for a specific goal.  Taking that step to get certified shows that a person is committing themselves to a profession, committing themselves to better serve their clients.

This commitment is what will determine if the trainer will be a good one or not.  But this commitment, this initial skin in the game, is just the beginning of a good trainer.  It is how they perpetuate their commitment is what will make them great.  All certifications require a certain level of continuing education to maintain the certification.  This continuing education will help the trainer learn the latest in research and training techniques.  It keeps them on top of their game.  The certification requires this.

Those who go beyond this base level of continuing education are usually the better trainers as you would expect of anyone going beyond the minimum.  Those who hone their skills by gaining other certifications/specializations, going to industry conferences, entering into mentorship programs, and studying reputable and researched based literature are the trainers that will make an impact on this world.  So to say it is important to have a certification to train someone is quite the understatement!

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Filed Under: certification, personal training, sports performance, strength and conditioning Tagged With: career, health and fitness professional, personal training, scope of practice

It’s All About Those Pants

December 31, 2014 By Garrett

This is my first blog of many to come.  I feel that it would be fitting tell you a little bit about how I ended up in this field.  My personal story is very common amongst fitness professionals.  I once was sedentary and overweight.

As I grew up my parents owned a pizza shop, which we also lived above.  Can you imagine!  Unlimited supply of pizza and subs all day long!  Sounds heavenly doesn’t it?  Well, I won’t lie…….it was.  Unfortunately, the combination of this amazing food (I still can’t find a pizza that can beat it!) and an inactive lifestyle (my big weekend plans consisted of a large pizza, a couch and a tv) caused the inevitable.  My weight began to balloon.  Heck, my sister called me curtain butt on the account of how my shirt draped over the old gluteus!

It wasn’t until my 8th grade year that I decided to do something about it.  Sadly, I will admit that it was to fit into a pair of pants for the 8th grade formal.  Those Dockers were pretty sweet!  You should have seen them, pleats and all!  Unfortunately, they didn’t have them in my size but I just had to have them.  I vowed that I would fit in them for the dance…and…you know…actually be able to move in them without busting out the seams.  So I started to run.  I basically did a Couch to 5k, before Couch to 5k existed (I should be a millionaire!).  I ran a little, walked a little.  Each day I ran further and further until I was able to run 2 miles without stopping.  With each step I took, the curtain became less and less prominent!  My sister eventually had to find something else to make fun of me (don’t worry, she had plenty to choose from!).  And then it happened.  I decided my progress warranted a dress rehearsal to see if I met my goal.  I slid on those sleek, pleated, Kahki Dockers and to my surprise, they fit like satin Isotoners!  (ask Dan Marino how good those feel!).  Not only did they fit, they were a little loose!  I tucked my stonewashed jean shirt in, put on my leather braided belt and pegged up (tight rolled for you Midwesterners) my pants.   Damn…….I looked good!  I was ready!

Something that started out as an aesthetic mission, actually turned into an athletic one.  You see, I was never blessed with amazing athletic coordination (don’t believe me, throw something at me and see what happens).  As it turns out, I was ok at running.  Never great, but good.  At the end of my 8th grade year, after I rocked it out on the dance floor in my pantaloons, I went out for the summer track program.  I also started to lift with those old plastic encased cement weight sets in my basement.  I started to feel capable and confident.  I went out for the cross country team and track team in high school.  In college I ran track and power lifted.  In grad school I was a graduate assistant coach for the cross country and track team.  I also started to work at a local gym as a fitness instructor.  I wanted to learn more about helping people reach their potential.  I became a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and then have amassed multiple other certifications and specializations.  I pursued a professional career in the field and have been here ever since, learning, exploring, and evolving so I can better serve my clients.  It was like a domino effect.  One thing led to another and my path to my career was laid out.  It’s funny, I owe my career to those pants!

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Filed Under: personal training, running, sports performance, strength and conditioning, weight loss Tagged With: beginnings, career, health and fitness professional, origins, personal training, running, weight loss

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By: Rashid Azar

Latest Blog Posts

  • Healthy Lifestyle vs. Busy Lifestyle
  • Primitive Initiative™- Climbing Progressions
  • Primitive Initiative™ Jumping Progressions
  • Primitive Initiative™- Crouching Progressions
  • Primitive Initiative™- Getting Up Progressions

Latest Blog Posts

  • Healthy Lifestyle vs. Busy Lifestyle
  • Primitive Initiative™- Climbing Progressions
  • Primitive Initiative™ Jumping Progressions
  • Primitive Initiative™- Crouching Progressions
  • Primitive Initiative™- Getting Up Progressions

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