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Jacksonville Certified Advanced Personal Trainer, Fitness Training, Pilates Instructor, Flexibility, Diet and Nutrition Coach in Jacksonville FL, Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach, Ponte Vedra, Sawgrass and the Beaches Area. Phone (904) 422-6218 |
Private Studio One-on-One Personal Fitness Training. Serving the Jacksonville Beaches Area. |
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In
the life of a successful trainer everyday is "game day". As a successful Certified Advanced Personal Trainer I have to be prepared to bring high energy to each and every one of my clients, every time, every session. Every day I have to get the proper rest, nutrition and be fully ready to work at the best of my ability. Sometimes I get four to five hours of back to back clients. I exercise with my clients so I need to have the energy to sustain me until I get a break. No late night excursions in my life. In fact I end my day about eight o'clock PM everyday. That's when I hit the hay. I usually wake up around 4:10 AM, ease into the morning with some coffee and about 5:00 AM I'm off to swim a mile at the pool. The swim is more of a stretch than an exercise to me. Then I have some breakfast and load up my vehicle with my gear for my morning sessions. I move thousands of pounds of barbells, dumbbells, bars, plates and stuff everyday. Just setting up my clients for their session is a workout for me so I MUST be in top shape - everyday. I used to work from a studio located in Atlantic Beach, FL. It was a perfect size and I had some pretty good, effective machines and equipment there. In the rear was a large nice room that I turned into a therapy room for my massage and bodywork. It was a great experience for my clients and me. Some of my days were free from any appointments and some of them were booked for ten hours. I work one-on-one, that means only one client at a time was in my studio. I still work one-on-one which is the best way to train clients. No distractions for my clients. The second best way to train clients was to train two clients at a time. I usually required that they be somewhat matched in terms of strength and ability. This reduced the extra work for me. Clients who trained with me in pairs really got a great deal. Each got a full workout and the price was far below what each would have to spend separately. Anyway, the studio rent always went up, as did the utility bills, insurance bills, permits, blah, blah, blah so after my lease came up, I decided not to renew. Instead I have set up a smaller private personal training studio with almost all the same things I had in my leased facility. I also offer "In Your Home Training" options. I get a lot of calls from people who are interested in my personal training. Most of these calls just want to know how much it costs. They lose interest when they find out that I'm not $49 a-month-gym-membership-thingy. They just do not know that personal training is a professional occupation - and not cheap! Check around first, then call me. I like to keep my fees competitive. Many trainers are just out of college with little or no experience. Young and relatively new at the game of life they don't know what it feels like to see oneself as old and out of shape. I, on the other hand, am middle age with a lot of life experiences. I'm 5' 10", weigh about 162 lbs. and have about 12% body fat. That's pretty good considering that most men my age have in excess of 25% body fat. I've worked with body builders who had huge chests and arms. They looked like the guys you see in the magazines and on TV. Most of the time I find these guys can bench-press a ton, after all that's the exercise they practice most of the time. These guys have worked only the muscles that make them look good but they lack functional strength. Many bodybuilders just don't have real strength. I remember wrestling. The opponent who had large muscles and looked like a weight lifter were surprisingly weak. I could beat them even when they weighed 20 pounds more than I weighed. I like training my clients with a full body workout. Arms, chest, back, abs and legs. Some guys only want to get bigger in the arms and chest. After about 3 months they are glad we worked the legs too. You can see the difference. Go to you local gym, you will see guys working on their arms and chest but the legs are under developed when compare to their upper body. Big mistake. Ignoring parts of the body can lead to injury because of the imbalance in strength. A full body workout takes about 55-minutes - it is a world class workout, believe me. Women like to work the thighs and buttocks. Pilates is an excellent way to work the legs, buttocks and abdomen. I offer a 25-minute Pilates training session to clients. It's pretty intense. I will bring mats, balls and other gear to them for these sessions. I do the workout with them. By doing the same workout they can see exactly how it is to be done and that someone CAN actually do the exercises and repetitions. Speaking of Pilates, I recall a prospective client who wanted to train for bodybuilding contests. I suggested to her that we should incorporate Pilates exercises into her routine. She was not very accepting of this suggestion. Her response was "I've tried Pilates before and it was too hard." I thought how could you get into a bodybuilding contest with that attitude? Hard work is what it is all about if you want to win! Yes Pilates is hard at first. You may be able to perform 2 or 3 repetitions at first. The next time you might get in 4 to 5 repetitions. Finally you will be up to 8 reps. It's only hard in the beginning just like many things in life. I don't take on everyone who contacts me seeking a trainer. All prospects are interviewed so that I can determine whether we can work together or not. It hasn't always been that way. In the beginning of my training career I would take on every client. Now I can be more selective. I can choose those prospective clients who are sincere and clear about what they want. They have to be realistic about what work is necessary. Their motives are explored, past and present health issues, diet and exercise history are reviewed. In some cases I will need a physician's release form signed by their doctor. Nothing leaves our workout session. Many times I find I am the listener to clients with their personal lives, situations, drama and just "stuff". I never repeat anything I hear when a client unloads. Sometimes it's a bad day at the office, the kids, spouse, neighbor or whatever. I don't really want to get in to personal problems but I can be a helpful listener when needed. I will go in to some of this later just to give you an idea of what I mean. I've trained girls from age 14, boys from age 11, women to age 67 and men to age 71. I've trained ex-drug addicts, alcoholics and athletes. I never discuss anything specific about my clients. Clients come to me for many reasons. Most of the time clients are very clear about what they want. Sometimes they think they know what they want but I find they really want an easy solution to a life-long problem they believe (For them it is either a reality or another issue.) that they have. Some clients want to get bigger, stronger, lose weight, gain weight. Some clients know absolutely nothing about exercise and nutrition. Some clients have never exercised at all. Some were excellent athletes but wanted a different routine, something to move them forward. Sometimes I was hired to counsel clients in proper nutrition - only. These people actually hated exercise of any form! I get people who want to lose weight for a wedding or class reunion. They are not concerned with gaining the weight back. Oh well, everybody gets what they want. I will work with clients who have injuries. My training in medical massage has made me more valuable as a trainer. I've had clients come to me with shoulder injuries, back injuries, arm and leg problems. We start out slow, light exercises and progress slowly as we move to a more advanced intensity. One male client had a shoulder injury and could lift only about 40 lbs. until pain occurred. After nine months he was lifting about 90% of his own body weight. I've worked with several clients who had back pain - slipped or bulging disc. I do not diagnose, so their doctors gave me the specific information that I needed to prescribe an exercise routine. Months later their pain subsided, they were stronger in their core, and they lost some weight too. You may ask, "What does a trainer do? Will a trainer help me lose weight? Will a trainer make me toned and in shape?" It is you who are responsible for the outcome. You determine whether you lose weight, tone up or not. A trainer is a tool to be used to help you get results. If you follow the trainers advice with 100 percent effort on your part, you will get the results you want ... and more! I remember training a 36-year-old female client for three weeks. This was all she could afford at the time. She wanted to lose about 20 lbs. and tone up. There was nothing special about her except that she was a little overweight, weak with no muscle tone and was a mother. Her eating habits were mostly junk food and fast food with regular beer intake. With her situation in mind I put together a plan for her to follow. It included workout sessions - 2 times a week with me, and I gave her homework in the way of activity and meal planning. I made it clear that if she were to do exactly what I told her to do she would see the results. Well every time she had an appointment she rode her bicycle up to my studio. (I had this as one of the requirements for her.) She always gave it 110 percent. After the three weeks were up her weight was down by about 9 lbs. and she was looking better. She felt much better and her self-esteem was rising. Two months later she popped in to say hello and I almost did not recognize her. She looked 10 years younger. She made her high school weight again and she looked like a college cheerleader. She still drank her beers, but followed my guidelines for alcohol consumption. Given the time frame of several months I can say that this is the exception. You see she really wanted it. She wanted it so much that she made it her reality. She followed the plan and it worked. Sometimes it's hard to tell which clients are going to make their goals. I know that for weight loss clients, the first week is the most important. I can say with almost absolute certainty that if a client want to lose weight that they must show it in the first week with me by losing at least two to three pounds - in the first week. If they don't, then it is very unlikely that they can do it at all! These are my observations. There can be exceptions and there have been, but if you are with me for say six months trying to lose weight and have had little or no results, you just are not working the plan. You may not be truthful to yourself or with me about your external activities, food intake and drinking habits. I can tell, I'm not stupid. Smokers can be trained too! One client would show up for a workout by pulling up in her car smoking a cigarette. She would step out of the car, stand there and take her final drag before dousing the cigarette, hold it in and blow out the remaining smoke from her lungs as she walked across the parking lot. I used to laugh to myself thinking anyone who this would wonder "What's up with that." Laugh! But bad habits can be replaced with new, better ones. That was how I looked at it. At least she was doing something which is better than doing nothing. I've had to "fire" clients before. This is not really something I like to do, but if it is the best interest of the client and myself I will stop seeing a client. This has happened only a few times. Firing a client usually stems from lateness, non-compliance or activity that interferes with the client being fully prepared for the workout session. I once had a client who would show up for a morning session reeking from wine consumption the night before. The client was up the night before our session until 2:00 AM drinking with friends. Yuck! Do not drink bottles of wine late at night before a morning session. After a while this client learned to not do this and remained in good standing for years. Some clients sap your energy with negativity and they do not adhere to the formulated plan and/or constantly complain - about almost anything and everything. In these cases I've had to discontinue our relationship. Sometimes the client terminates the relationship. Usually after a session or two, these clients just don't show up. They just disappear and I never hear from them again. This begins with them calling me to cancel the appointment - minutes before they are scheduled to show up. I say to myself "Here it comes, the famous client disappearing act". At the next scheduled session they just don't show up or show up 30-minutes late. I've learned that when this happens it's ended. I don't even try to call to find out what happened to them when they don't show up unless I know them to be committed. I used to call, worry, wonder, not any more. I've had clients come to me and pay for a series of sessions in advance (all trainers get paid in advance), then after the second session they found it was too hard for them. They just quit. Our energy levels change throughout the day. Usually there is some kind of pattern like high energy in the morning followed by low energy in the afternoon (or visa-versa). Evenings are usually dependent on what we ate and our activities during the day. I like to question my prospects about their energy levels throughout the day. This helps me with their progression. So how long do people work with a trainer? It can be for a couple of sessions to a couple of years. I try to teach my clients the "Mind - Body Connection". This is an acute awareness of what we experience when exercising. It is a full awareness of what we feel and what we are doing during a workout. This training actually leads to improved results rather than just going through the motions. Losing fat is 70% diet and 30% exercise. People can lose fat (and muscle) by diet alone but permanent fat loss requires strength training. Strength training will reduce the muscle loss when dieting on a low calorie plan. See my example of Stephanie on this website. Diet gets a little tricky. The ideal diet is actually moderation in all foods. Americans really eat too much considering our daily activities. Most of us are inactive. That means we really don't require three full meals and snacks each day. Especially sugar which is the main problem leading to excess fat. Sugar is found in almost everything today. Just look at the food labels. Sugar is considered a simple carbohydrate - which means it supplies energy to our bloodstream very fast, then to be carried to our muscles. If we are not using our muscles (in other words if are not active) they really don't need the extra energy. Guess what ... the excess energy is stored in our fat cells for later use. The accumulation of this energy storage is what makes us fatter. Complex carbohydrates enter our system like a time lapse capsule. This means that we get the energy released slowly reducing the fat storage that we get from simple sugars. French fries, potato chips, and some flour products have been classified as simple carbohydrates. Proteins and Fat on the other hand do not lead to a fast increase in blood sugar levels. (Protein and fat intake is the basis for the Adtkins Diet.) The main point here is: Do not eat candy bars, sugary sodas, donuts, cakes, crackers, pasta, breads or other empty foods if you want to lose fat! At least cut back on these foods. Your first step in creating a better diet for yourself is to reduce the intake of fast foods like french fries, potato chips, crackers, candy bars and other stuff found in vending machines. Prepare your lunch at home. Replace snacks with fresh fruits: apples, melons, berries etc. When you buy melons, don't just put them in the refrigerator. No one will eat them. You must cut them up into chunk size pieces so that when you mindlessly open the refrigerator door you will see the melon chunks first and will automatically eat them. Now you see how nutritious foods made easy to eat increase your chances of a better diet. The food manufacturer's know that ready to eat foods are an easy sale. That's why chips, crackers, candy and cakes are the staple of many Americans. Clean out your pantry. Remove all the junk. Don't give it away, you might be killing someone else with that junk. Start fresh. Shop the supermarket around the perimeter - which is where all the fresh, healthful foods are. Stay away from the isles running through the center. Choose fresh, lean cuts of meat, fish, eggs, fruits, cheese, vegetables and the like. Have breakfast cereal for dinner! But make sure that the sugar content is less than 5 grams per serving. Most cereals have too much sugar in them. Buy whole rolled oats or steel-cut oats - they contain no sugar. Buy only breads that have less than 3 grams of sugar per slice and are high in fiber and are made with whole grains. Whole grains should be the first ingredient in breads - if it is not the first ingredient, don't buy it, look for another brand or model. I've seen men in their fifties lose 60 and 70 pounds of fat over the course of several years using these diet suggestions. Blood pressure decreases to healthy levels. Blood profiles get into the healthy category too. It really does work. Spot fat reduction: I hear comments like "I only need to work this area of my butt." Or "I need to work on my lower abs." The truth is that you can't pick areas of your body for fat removal. Although you can work the underlying muscles in specific areas it does not lead to spot fat reduction. Fat comes off you LIFO or last in first out. So, if you begin to lose fat it will most likely begin coming off in the areas that you saw it go on last. Doing sit-ups or crunches or using an "AB Machine" will not remove your beer/wine belly. There is a myth that sit-ups and crunches are excellent forms of exercise. In fact, the worst thing you can do is to force yourself to do sit-ups or abdominal crunches incorrectly. These exercises done wrong can push your head out of alignment and cause tension in the shoulders. There should be no tension in the neck and shoulders during sit-ups and crunches. Sit-ups and crunches strengthen the rectus abdominus (the muscle that runs from the pelvis to the rib cage), they tend to elongate the transverse abdominus (girdle) muscle, causing the lower abdominals to pouch. In addition, sit-ups and crunches can damage the spine if done without proper form. To work all the muscles of your abdomen in the most effective way possible, try this safe and easy exercise... Dead bugs. Lie on your back with knees bent and head and feet flat on the floor. Tuck in your chin to elongate your neck, then cough to contract your oblique muscles and to pull the rib cage down and in. Holding your abdominal contraction as tightly as you possibly can, lift your arms high above you toward the ceiling. Extend one arm up over your head and the other arm toward your feet. Then slowly reverse the motion. Alternate arms for a count of 30. Keeping your abdomen contracted and your chin tucked in, extend your arms toward the ceiling and lift both knees toward your chest. Make a gentle bicycling motion with your knees for a count of 30. Finally, combine the arm and leg movements and do both at once. When one leg moves toward your chest, the arm on that same side should reach over your head. Continue for a count of 60. Be sure to keep your abdomen contracted and your lower back pressed into the floor throughout the exercise. An arch in your back can cause back strain. The exercises here can be performed in 10 minutes, once a day. A padded exercise mat is all you need to get started. I like to incorporate compound functional exercises in my client's routine. These exercises use the whole body rather than isolating one muscle group. Combat ready personnel are familiar with these routines. They will kick your butt!!! Don't worry, I will take you only as far as you can go. "A flexibile spine is a healthy spine." Movement keeps the spine flexible and the discs nourished. People appear old when they have lost flexibility in their spine. You can see this when watching people walk. This work is in progress. Check back as I add the full story. Daniel CPT, LMT |
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Certified Advanced Personal Trainer in Jacksonville FL Phone (904) 422-6218 |
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