Christmas Gift Ideas

images-1Still shopping?  Let’s face it, when shopping for loved ones year after year the situation can be daunting to try to find something they will really enjoy and isn’t a pair of socks or a tie.

Maybe you have parents who are retired but whose knees ache when playing with grandchildren?  Maybe you and your hubby keep talking about getting in better shape but never do?  Maybe you have a friend that needs some extra support to make needed lifestyle changes?  Maybe you’re done shopping and it’s time to get a goody for yourself?!images-2

Victory Fitness Online Personal Training is the gift that keeps on giving!  It’s affordable and if you get two people to train at the same time it’s half the price!  No membership, no hidden costs – just a great personal trainer wherever you need them to be!

Christmas_socks_in_stock_Christmas_sock_stocklotsHappy Holidays Everyone!

Full Body Weight Exercise

images-2 The trend right now in fitness is for trainers to advocate “Total Body Weight Exercise” as being the magical cure for every person wanting to lean up and get buff.  But what’s not being openly talked about is the casualties that line this path.  I want more fitness professionals and their clients to be mindful about what “total body weight exercise” really means.

It is true that the more muscles you get working at any given time the more calories you burn. That makes intrinsic sense.  It is also true that your body moves on it’s own without you thinking about it, all day, every day in a multiplicity of complex multi-movement patterns.  All of that is good stuff.

Now, what most athletes, many turned fitness professionals fail to take in to consideration is the different types of learning and their effect on motor co-ordination and the ability to perform an exercise correctly.  There are varied learning types that people can be generally classified under, like visual or auditory.  Visual learning style, means you see someone do it and you can then do it.  Auditory learning style means you hear a list of directions and you can then sequence them back correctly.  Most athletes are kinesthetic learners, that means they learn by physically doing a task.  That is not to say that a visual learner cannot learn to perform the same task as a kinesthetic learner, but it means that there will be a higher learning curve for them on a task of physical nature.  So trainers, just because you can do 100 picture perfect burpees in a row at speed, does not mean that your client should or can even if they want to.

Full body weight exercise requires a base level of strength.  The building block structure should be first: 1) establish stability – the means by which the body can maintain the integrity of its joint structure under most forms of stress.  Stress itself can be constituted in training terms by speed (how fast or slow is the pace), load (how much weight you’re lifting) and duration (how long are you lifting each load.)images-1

Everyone has helped a friend move; imagine you lift a heavy box and you have to stand still and hold it until your friend gets his car. It would make a difference to your back and shoulders if that car were right out front or parked two blocks away.  Now imagine you and your friend have to lift a really heavy box – but you only have to move it ten steps in a straight line.  Chances are – you will both move as quickly as possible.  Lastly, imagine you are carrying a heavy box that requires you to move down several flights of stairs – you are under load and the duration will be long and the pace will be slow.  All of these scenarios are slightly different from one another in the demands they make on the body.  And everyone can relate to feeling stiff and sore after a move.  Proper training can get you to where none of those scenarios would be painful.  You would be stable in maintaining your joint integrity.

UnknownThe next phase of training should be symmetry. Is each individual joint and side equal to the tasks demanded on the body?  Anyone ever tried to carry a toddler in one arm and lifted a bag of groceries from the back of a car simultaneously?Unknown-1

The last phase is dynamic performance.  The ability to do intense, full-body, full-ROM exercises under various forms of stress.  Yes, FBW exercises develop dense muscle mass more efficiently and effectively than any other form of exercise.  But is it appropriate for everyone to go straight to the hardest, most bad-ass place first?  An athlete has been doing crazy compound loaded movements for a lifetime – the brain actually functions differently (this is another topic for a future blog in and of itself!) To expect a client to perform like that before proper foundations are put down is a recipe for disaster.  Anyone remember Tae Bo?  Yes, great results are achieved but at what cost? My goals are not for people to feel good for the one year they did Cross-Fit.  I want people to be equal to the physical challenges in their daily lives and to feel good and look great for the duration of their years!images