06 Aug

What Is A Personal Trainer

By gerald In personal training /   No Comments

 

What is a personal trainer?

What is a personal trainer? When we talk about a personal trainer, we refer to a fitness professional, who has qualifications in the art of physical activity, who prescribes exercises, motivates and sets goals individually, taking into account the physical conditions and the objectives of each of their clients.

The success of personal training is due, in the first place, to the benefits and satisfaction obtained by personalized attention to each client.

Goal of personal training

What is a personal trainer? To understand this lets look at what their goal is. The goal of a personal trainer is to give guidance and support to a potential trainee to help them achieve their fitness goals.

A personal trainer is a mentor, coach and a friend and will use all necessary resources and technology to help his trainee.

You will have access to all the knowledge the trainer can offer, in order to achieve the best results in the shortest possible time, and in the most efficient and safest way possible.

When you hire a trainer, he/she is expected to:

  • Design an exercise plan according to your goal.
  • Guide you through your training: This is not only to raise the daily routines, but verify, step by step, that the exercises are carried out in the right way. It is important to note that a poorly executed exercise could eventually lead to an injury.
  • Teach you about the exercise, your muscles and the general function of the training plan: Your trainer will educate and inform you of the science behind the routine, why you should perform certain exercises. The purpose of a personal trainer is not to train you for the rest of your life, keeping you in ignorance, but to empower you and teach you about health and fitness
  • Motivate you: Motivation is an essential part of any physical change. A coach should not only be a fitness professional but also an accomplished motivator. He/She has to have the ability to empower you to achieve your goals and to avoid temptation and laziness.
  • Inspire you: Physical transformations involve forming new habits. Habits that are for life if you want to keep your body in optimal condition for years to come. That is why the work of a professional coach does not end when you drop the dumbbells, no. Your trainer has walked the path and therefore knows the temptations and emotional adversities that entails the goal you are after. For that reason, he/she will always be there to inspire you.

Who should get a personal trainer?

Having a personal trainer is highly recommended for those users who have don’t like to exercise or need extra guidance to guarantee result.

Personal trainers are also recommendable to those who want to go a step further in their level of fitness , performance, or for those who have an injury.

What is a personal trainer and what are a clients expectation?

Currently there are several types of clients that want a variety of things from personal trainers, and their main goals are; improvement of physical condition, weight loss (a majority), increase in physical performance (increase of strength, resistance or speed etc.).

Other clients want specialized coaches in some sports like Golf, football, triathlon, etc.

What does personal training consist of?

Consultation

A personal trainer will sit down with you to understand the goals you want to achieve. These can be weight loss, muscle definition and toning, maintenance, and so on. The training plan will vary depending on your goal.

Fitness assessment

The second thing a personal trainer will do is assess you to see if you are at risk of a potential injury due to lack of flexibility or muscle weakness.

The trainer will also test your fitness levels to ensure that the programs they devise on your behalf are not too difficult.

This is important because although you may want to be pushed hard, you don’t want to be pushed so hard that you get injured. Your fitness levels need to be built up gradually.

Postural Assessment

A personal trainer will also assess your posture to see how they can improve you in this area. Bad posture can lead to injuries and could also be the cause of aches and pains that you may experience day to day. A personal trainer will try to take away some of this pain and reduce your risk of injury.

Advantage

One of the main reasons for failure of people who join the gym is the lack of willpower to be consistent. This is a problem that mostly affects beginners. These are probably the people that need a personal trainer the most.

If you hire a personal trainer it ensures that you obtain the best possible results and helps prevents plateaus. In addition, a good personal trainer will strive to improve your technique

Disadvantages

One of the main problems of a personal trainer is the price of getting one, as it is an additional service to the price paid for the gym. Another factor is that not all personal trainers have the same qualification. This can pose a danger to you as it may lead to you wasting money and time. For this reason, anyone who is interested in hiring a personal trainer should investigate his/her qualification, and above all, experience.

In conclusion, this service seeks maximum efficiency in the processes, maximum efficiency in the results and minimum risks in the respective goal. A personal trainer will work individually with you, guiding you during your exercise sessions.

If the physical advice is designed and followed properly, there will be noticeable improvements in your physical condition.

Topic: What is a personal trainer

 

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19 Jul

25 Home Exercises For Legs

By gerald In Exercise /   No Comments

home exercises for legs

25 Home Exercises For Legs

Home exercises for legs are easier to do then you realize.

 

You may think to yourself that you need to use the TRX or kettlebells to get great shaped legs but that isn’t true.

 

The only thing you will need is just your own body weight and perhaps some old tea towels that you may have lying around the house.

 

You will be able to work your quads, calfs, hamstrings, glutes and inner thighs with these 25 home exercises for legs.

 

By working your leg muscles, you will be able to change the shape of your entire body. This is because your leg muscles are the biggest in your body and burn the most calories.

 

As I mentioned before these exercises will give your legs great shape, but they will also give your legs great strength.

 

Lets not foget that you need strong legs for every day life so that you can climb stairs, walk around pick things up of the floor.

 

The leg exercises I will be showing you will not be complicated and you wont require a gym membership if you don’t want one.

 

Another good thing about using body weight exercises is that it allows you to learn correct form before you add weight to the exercise.

 

For example, an exercise like squats require you to use a large portion of your body. When you start to add weight to the exercise you burn even more calories.

 

However, once you add weight to the exercise it becomes more of an advanced exercise, and can be dangerous if done wrong.

 

You will be able to learn the correct technique for this exercise so that you can progress it some stage.

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18 Jul

Find A Personal Trainer London

By gerald In personal training /   No Comments

Find a personal trainer London

 

There are many ways to find a personal trainer in London. There are key search terms that you can use to find a London personal trainer in Google.

 

There are also dedicated personal trainer directories that list personal trainers. Lastly there are review sites that show you how a personal trainers services have been rated.

 

We will look at all 3 sources and show you how to get the most out of each one.

 

Find a personal trainer London using review sites

 

There are a few major review sites that list personal trainers.

 

There are many more review sites that you can use, but these ones are probably the biggest and best.

 

For instance, Yelp.co.uk have over 970 London personal trainers listed on their site, and many of them have reviews of the services.

 

970 personal trainers may be a bit too much too sort through so you can break it down further by specifying an area of London.

 

For instance, you can search for personal trainers in Kensington only, or Mayfiar.

 

Review sites are probably the best way to search for trainers as solid reviews give you a greater peace of mind.

 

It is important too know that some of these directories charge a price and the personal trainers that decide to pay for a premium listing will get more exposure.

 

This type of bias may not be ideal when looking for the best personal trainer.

 

Fitness directories

 

The best fitness directory is probably the national register of personal trainers (NRPT) They have over 150 personal trainers listed.

 

There search function allows you to search by post code, by sex, by price range, type of location they train at (gym, home, outdoors), you can even search by a trainers name if you alreadu know one.

 

It is important to know that not all fitness directories are free, so not every personal trainer will have signed up for a directory.

 

As a result you may not be getting a full selection of all the personal trainers available.

 

Other personal training directories

Bidvine

Trube

Toplocal trainer

Bark.com

PTfindr

 

Joining a gym

Joining a gym is a great way to find a personal trainer. All personal trainers have to be qualified and have their own insurance.

 

If you stumble on a personal trainers website it is easy for them to write some fake testimonials and to pretend that they have the right qualifications to train you.

 

If you join a gym there will be a variety of different personal trainers with different skills, different personalities and different philosophies.

 

Depending on whether they are employed by the gym or self employed will also make a difference as to how much they can charge.

 

If they are employed they will get a fix percentage of the money that you pay for your session. The gym will also have one fixed price.

 

If they are self employed they will pay the gym a fixed amount of money each month and charge what they want.

 

Performing a Google search

 

Performing a google search is probably the best way to find a personal trainer as Google has no bias to there trainers.

 

Google make it clear as to which personal trainers are paying for ads and which personal trainers are ranked naturaly by Google.

 

Once upon a time it was easy for personal trainers to manipulate search and rank high. However, those days are gone. The only personal trainers ranking in the top twenty are repuatable personal trainers.

 

How do you know which is the best personal trainer London?

 

Once you have decided what platform you want to use and you have narrowed it down to a few, you now have to think about what type of personal training you want.

 

Do you want a personal trainer to help you with weight loss, sports specific training, an injury, boxing training?

 

Are you a special population?

 

There are personal trainers that specialise in pre and post natal fitness, personal training for teenagers and even personal training for the over 50’s.

 

What style of trainer do you want?

 

Do you want a personal trainer that is going to push you till you bleed, do you want a personal trainer who is going to be more caring like a mentor?

 

Do you want a young trainer who is under 25 or would you prefer a trainer who is over 35 and has more life experience?

 

Where do you want to train?

 

Some trainers that are based in gyms may also train you outside of the gym. Some personal trainers provide personal training online. You need to decide this before narrowing down your search.

 

Here are some tips before you make some payment:

  • See if your trainer offers a FREE session or a trial session that is heavily discounted from there normal price.
  • Ask them for references of previous clients.
  • Check that they have insurance
  • Ask them for proof of qualifications

 

Topic: Find a personal trainer London

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04 Jul

Don’t Waste Time with These Ab Exercises

By gerald In Exercise /   No Comments

Ab exercises

Don’t Waste Time with These Ab Exercises

Ab exercises are great. If your body fat is already low then ab exercises can give that finishing touch to your six pack and make you look fantastic.

There are a plethora of different exercises available to work your lower abdominals, obliques and upper abdominals. However, which ones are the best?

In fact, which ones are safe for you to do? There can be situations when a abdominal exercise can be counterproductive.

For example, if you have lower back pain there are definitely some exercises that you try to stay away from, because they can make lower back worse.

There are also some abdominal exercises that can be bad for posture…..

Going back to what I said at the start of the article, if your body fat is low ab exercises can make a difference…….

However, before I reveal the worst 5 abdominal exercises and why they are bad, lets discuss some facts about abdominal exercises.

Ab exercises don’t burn fat!

Yes, you heard me right. Ab exercises do not burn belly fat. You could do 1000 sit ups every day and the muscle will become rock hard under a layer of soft belly fat.

The reason why you wont burn your belly fat is because the abdominal muscles are too small a muscle group to get the necessary calorie burn to burn body fat.

Compound vs isolated exercises

Think of it like this. If you do an exercise like a bicep curl it may burn 50 calories if you do 12 repetitions in 50-60 seconds.

A bicep curl works mainly the bicep because it is an isolated exercise.

A compound exercise is an exercise that works multiple muscle groups at the same time. So if you can do an exercise that works 5 muscle groups then you’re going to burn close to 5 times the calories compared to an exercise that works one muscle.

This means that if you are doing a compound exercise and are doing 12 reps in 50-60 seconds you are using your time more efficiently for fat burning.

Ab exercises are not functional

As I mentioned before they won’t improve the way your abdominals look unless your body fat is low, but at the same time these abdominal exercises won’t help you with day to day life.

Let me explain this in more detail. Lets think about what the main movement patterns are that we perform for carrying things and picking things up.

There are six primal patterns that are natural to our bodies. They are:

  1. Lunge
  2. Squatting
  3. Carrying
  4. Hinging (like your taking a bow)
  5. Pushing
  6. Pulling

If your exercise program contains these types of movements in the form of a:

  • Front squat (squat)
  • Walking lunge (lunge and carrying)
  • Romanian deadlift (example of a hinge movement)
  • Press up (push)
  • Bent over row (pull)

You will see some improvements in your day to day life. For example, you may need to squat down to pick up your shopping, you may need to carry shopping to the car, you may need to hinge forward to put your shopping down.

You can make a strong argument that because many abdominal exercises are done on the floor that ab exercises will not improve human function.

Ab exercises can cause back pain

The pelvis has numerous muscles that connect into it. One of those muscles are your hip flexors. This muscle can be over used during excessive abdominal exercises.

Due to the fact that the hip flexor connects into your L4 and L5 vertebrae when this muscle is activated it causes a large pulling force on your lumbar spine (lower back).

The activation of the hip flexor muscles cause your hips to be pulled closer to your torso, which in turn can compress you’re the discs of your spine to close together.

Over time this repeated movement can cause changes in your posture and even lead to lower back injuries like a herniation.

My top 5 worst ab exercises:

  • Hanging lifts
  • Incline sit ups
  • Side bends
  • Ab roller ab curl
  • Twisting ab machine

  1. Hanging lift

This exercise mainly works your hip flexor muscles while your abdominals stabilize. The fact that you are hanging also builds grip strength.

Unless you have a particular reason for wanting strong hands you should probably stay away from this exercise.

Lifting your legs against gravity to raise your legs up in the air causes a massive pull from your hips against your lumbar spine.

I am not saying that you will definitely injure yourself, but why take a chance?

  1. Incline sit ups

This exercise is one of the biggest culprits in causing hip flexor domination in your body. Your abdominal muscles will get activated during the exercise, but not as much as your hip flexors.

When you increase the incline during this exercise you increase the pull of the hip flexor on the lower back, which can lead to greater pain.

Please avoid this exercise as there better ones out there that will work your abdominals in a safer and more functional way.

  1. Side bends

Your abdominals help to cause rotation and bend your body to the side, and this exercise works the oblique muscles that cause you to bend in this particular plane of motion.

The problem with this exercise is that it causes your vertebrae to squash together every time you do this exercise, which could lead to back problems.

  1. Ab roller ab curl

I always hated this exercise. What happens for most people the first time they do a normal ab curl is that they may experience neck pain.

Based on the fact that some people get neck pain doing this exercise, someone had the idea to produce an ab roller to take away any neck pain…..

Sounds like a good idea right?……

Wrong!

First of all, the flexors in your neck don’t get any stronger……

Secondly, you end up using your arms and hip flexors more than your stomach.

This exercise is not dangerous……….. It’s just a waste of time!

  1. Twisting ab machine

The first time I saw this machine I thought that it was the greatest bit of equipment ever made. I used it in every workout without fail.

Then I realised that this machine causes your lumbar spine to rotate in a greater range than it supposed to.

Your lumbar spine (lower spine) only has three degrees of movement. Once they are forced to rotate any more than that, the discs start to wear down and will cause chronic back problems in later years.

There are alternatives!

Remember that abs are made in the kitchen and not in the gym. To help you get a flatter and toned stomach I have devised a 12 week program that helps with nutrition, habits and workouts to get you a six pack.

You can try seven days for free by clicking below. Also, if you enjoyed this article and you know anyone that would benefit from by tips feel free to share it with them.

 

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23 Jun

How Much Are London Personal Trainers | Personal Trainer London

By gerald In personal training /   No Comments

How Much Are London Personal Trainers | Personal Trainer London

It is possible that at some point, you have considered hiring a personal trainer to guide you in your training. If you have thought of this, surely it was because you have reached a point where training for yourself is not giving you the result you expect, or simply because you need a professional to show you how to train to achieve a particular goal. At this point, the next thing that comes to mind is, “what is the price of a personal trainer”, and like any personalised service, the prices that should be paid can vary depending on who is consulted.

In the free market economy there are no established prices when hiring a service. It is difficult to point out how much a personal trainer costs in London and in general,  since the price of the personal trainer depends on many factors.

To elaborate more, let’s look at an example of what is being charged for a discipline that is very fashionable now, crossfit . Many users and eager to be, complain that the prices to register in a gym are very high. However, crossfit is usually an activity that is done in small groups if we compare it to spinning or aerobics classes, you are practically paying for a semi-personal service, and that is why the coaches look to make their classes very profitable.

Factors that determine the price of a personal trainer include:

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17 Jun

One Simple Weight Loss Tip YOU Can Apply

By gerald In Motivation /   No Comments

Weight loss tipsOne Simple Weight Loss Tip YOU Can Apply

A lot of people don’t realise that there is a link between sleep and weight loss. We spend one third of our life sleeping so it has to be extremely important. During sleep we release hormones to physically repair and recharge us, but we also release hormones to psychologically restore our cognitive function and your neural function. When we don’t get enough sleep or the quality of our sleep is poor there are risks to our health. One of those risks are weight gain.

Why do we gain weight when we don’t sleep?

One of the reason why we start to put on weight if we don’t get enough sleep is because our body’s cortisol levels are going to be too high. Cortisol is a stress hormone which is a fight or flight response. It affects the levels of our blood sugar, it affects the food choices we make and large amounts lead to long term storage of fat in our bellies. If you are not getting enough sleep each night and your trying to lose weight you are making it more difficult for yourself to lose weight. Even if you are working out at the gym, its not the workout that makes you better, it’s the rest and rebuilding that occurs during sleep that makes the magic happen. Weight loss tips What happens to your brain when it doesn’t get enough sleep? The performance of your brain suffers when you don’t get enough sleep. For example, you are going to find that your decision making is worst as a result of lack of sleep. 1) Lowered Impulse Control This is because the performance of your frontal lobe is reduced. Your frontal lobe controls your decision making and impulse control. The lack o clarity is similar to when you are drunk and you just want to eat anything as a result of the lowered impulse control you experience. 2) Your brains reward centers are more active Fatigue causes your brain to seek something that can make you feel good. In ordinary circumstances you may be able to resist sweet foods, but its more difficult when your tired. We know this because studies have shown that people that are sleep starved experience a greater desire to snack late at night compared to people who are well rested. Sleep starved people also have a greater desire to eat foods high in carbohydrates and fats compared to people that have had sufficient sleep. Lastly, there are studies that have shown that being sleep deprived causes you to eat bigger portions, and craved energy dense foods. When you think about why we sleep, it makes sense that you would want to eat more if you haven’t slept well. We need to sleep to repair and balance the body.Sleep is a crucial part of recharging are energy levels. If your energy levels are low through lack of sleep it makes sense that your body would try to find that energy from food. After-all, that is what food is for. Energy! 3) Hunger Hormones You have two hormones called leptin and Ghrelin which tell your body when your hungry or full. Ghrelin is released and signals to the brain that your body needs food. When you have had enough food and you are full your body releases leptin so that your body stops eating food. During sleep deprivation your body has a higher amount of Ghrelin and a lower amount of leptin. This means that you are more likely to feel hungry and your brain will find it difficult to receive a signal telling it to stop eating food. weight loss tips

How much is enough sleep?

8 hours is considered to be enough sleep for everyone. However, this may differ from person to person. Some people may need more others will need less. Scientists have determined the best amount of sleep by separating people into 3 distinct groups. Group 1 had four hours, group 2 six hours and group 3 had eight hours of sleep. Scientists discovered that the two groups that had less then 8 hours of sleep had slower cognitive function and that the group that had only 4 hours of sleep were falling a sleep during tests. This means that sleep duration and sleep quality are both important to your bodies recovery. I would determine good sleep to be 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep, as this will allow you to go through all the different stages of sleep. What are the different stages of sleep? The different stages of sleep differ according to heart rate, and brain activity. There are four stages of sleep that occur approximately 90 minutes in cycles during a night of sleep. The type and speed of brain activity varies during each stage. The first 3 stages are considered to be non-rapid eye movement Stage 1 During this stage your body will be between wakefulness and sleep. This is the lightest stage of sleep. Your brain waves are going to be low in terms of how much voltage they produce during this stage. Stage 2 Stage 2 is a slightly deeper stage of sleep, and it is slightly harder to wake someone in this stage of sleep. During this stage your brain produces more theta waves, and it also produces some rapid rhythmic brain activity with some larger spikes to suppress cortical arousal. Stage 3 This stage is known as the slow wave stage because your brain waves are very slow. It will be extremely difficult to wake someone up during this stage. Stage 4 Stage 4 is the rapid eye movement phase which is characterized by your eyes moving quickly under their lids. Also, your muscles are paralyzed during this stage. Most of the dreams that you have are thought to occur during this stage. What happens during a normal nights sleep During a normal nights sleep it is expected that you will cycle through each stage 4-5 times during the night for approximately 90 minutes. However the order you go through sleep is not in order. You go from stage 1 to stage stage 2, stage 2 to stage 3, stage 3 back to stage 2, and than from stage 2 to stage 4. Then this cycle repeats itself.  

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05 Jun

Top 3 Weight Loss Motivation Tips

By gerald In Motivation /   No Comments

weight loss tips

Top 3 weight loss motivation tips

When it comes to getting motivation to lose weight it comes down to one thing. How much pain does it cause you to be overweight?

I am not talking about physical pain, but the psychological pain it causes you. For example, if you’re a guy and you put on a shirt and all you can think about is how big it makes your stomach look.

Perhaps you’re a woman and every time you put on something that looks nice you wonder if people are looking at you funny. Is this dress too short, are my legs to fat?

Weight loss motivation tip 1: Understand why you need to lose weight

You see its this pain that is going to get you to take action on your goals, and its only by getting clear with the pain that you feel that you will find the motivation to take action.

Napolean Hill wrote a book called think and grow rich that most people have probably read. In his book he says that to achieve riches it starts with a burning desire.

In fact, the desire burns so brightly that it almost becomes an obsession. You think about it daily, it almost consumes your every thought.

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02 Jun

TRX Abs Workout: 5 TRX Abs Exercises For A Killer Core

By gerald In Workouts /   No Comments

trx abs exercisesTRX Abs Workout: 5 TRX Abs Exercises For A Killer Core

Some of you may prefer to work abs the old fashioned way, which is to do ab exercises with no fitness equipment.

There is nothing wrong with doing ab exercises with no equipment, but you may be missing out on different ways to hit the core.

There have been many different pieces of fitness equipment introduced to gyms for working the abdominal muscles. Some of them are good.

For example, kettlebells, battle ropes, the core momentum trainer to name but a few. Others have been really poor. The trx is one of the best ways you can train your core.

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01 Jun

Best public places to work out in Central London

By gerald In personal training /   No Comments

workout in london

Best public places to work out in Central London

If you’ve been in an air-conditioned office all day than perhaps the last thing you want to do is go to the gym. Particularly if you work in central London.

It seems that all the gyms in central London are underground, and have no natural light coming in. Also, you have to deal with the congestion, queuing for equipment, etc.

Therefore, it is great to just go outside and be one with nature. You’ve spent enough time indoors at work so get outside.

I am going to share my top 3 locations in central London for outdoor training. You won’t need to bring any equipment to train in these places.

All you will need is just some suitable clothing for the following activities:

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