Keep it Simple Stupid...

Hey everyone... Rob here, being a bit inspired by the many questions I have been recieving regarding fitness do's and dont's throughout the club and out on the town! My favorite is when I am out with friends, minding my own business and an individual stops me and goes "You must be a personal trainer! How do I (fill in the blank)?". I have a very easy solution to those seeking that "golden ticket" kind of advice that you're all absolutely dying for on your first few legs of your new fitness lifestyle... "Get active... Eat Healthy... Rest Consistently"... Plain and simple... 3 "easy" things (notice the quotations) that lead to overall improvement. Mind you this Blog is about the Fitness new comers planning to get ready for the next infamous season on our roster... SPRING!

Getting active is one of the biggest steps you can take. I’m sure you have all played some type of High School sport, or have done some kind of activity that would involve exercise at some point in your younger years. I remember running track and lifting with the football team like it was yesterday! I also remember being one of the 75% of freshman/sophomores that took the concept of Summer vacation so seriously it meant from our training as well! Remember that feeling when you started to get back into pre-season conditioning and season practices? That consistent “Yes, I feel great and I’m performing well! I’m seeing results!” It’s the same concept back then as it is now, even more than ever. An individual’s activity level can make or break someone’s exercise routine and hold them off from seeing the results they want.

There is one quote I live by, day by day… “You can’t out work a bad diet!” If there is anything a more fitness savvy individual can take out of reading this beginner directed blog post is just that. Your results will reflect your eating habits whether you are not eating enough, eating too much or eating pure junk. Proper eating yields very consistent results. Adjusting your eating, and making it work for your goals will allow you to healthfully accomplish whatever it may be you’re working for.

Rest is one thing that a good deal of Beginners and experienced Athletes both neglect. Some people can’t help their schedules but they can help how they respond to exercise through their recovery periods. Recovery doesn’t mean not being active entirely… It may mean you use what’s called “active recovery” and use the day to focus on a specific thing like core strength, low intensity cardio etc. This allows the rest of your body to rest and heal, but keeps you burning calories. Active Recovery is more applicable for individuals that get plenty of sleep, and does not mean they are entirely exempt from taking a whole day for recovery. For those of us in the performance realm of training, a day off or 2 may be important. Your nervous system can get just as burned out as your musculoskeletal system can. It’s important to accommodate both in order to keep your body seeing results and not becoming burnt out. For those of us fitness nit-picks it’s important to feel out and listen to your body.

Once you read into these details they aren’t too horribly simple, and yet once they are implemented and part of your lifestyle they become just as easy as putting on a shirt before work! For more information about scheduling, healthy eating and recovery… backtrack through my blog posts and read up on some of the information I have shared regarding just these subjects!

Scheduling Chaos!

     Hey everyone! Rob here, in the process of working on some little progress reports for a handful of my DFC Athlete members! You see one thing we try to do within the program is to come up with progress reports much like a follow-up consultation that I would do with a client. Stating from start to finish what has been accomplished, highlights, goals achieved, establishing new goals and how we are going to accomplish them! One big thing that I run into whether it is talking with a client, member, friend or family member about their progress with their fitness goals is schedule conflicts. It happens to everyone from the fitness savvy to the first timers! Life gets in the way, work consumes our days or we are subject to an event(s) that scramble up a period of time. Whether it’s been a week or a year, here are a few easy steps you can take to get your schedule back on track!

First of all, Figure out what exactly it is that you want to accomplish and how long it will take! Goals can be as simple as doing a pull up, but can take weeks or months to achieve! Set a time period at which you plan to work on your goal and as that time period goes on, see how you are progressing and see how realistic your time period was. Obviously keep your goals simple, and not horribly over the top like 50lbs in 6 weeks… we don’t want you getting sick! Not all goals can be accomplished within the time period you program, but focus on what you’ve achieved through that time and figure out how much longer it may take to get to your goal!

Once you have gotten that established, get your personal schedule set in stone. Those of us with variable careers need to make time at the beginning, middle or end of our days to get their training in. If that’s the case, set boundaries and time periods you know you can get a workout in whether its 6 times a week or 3! For my style of training, I perform 2 simple portions of work at separate times of the day during the slowest and least demanding parts of my day. I have been doing this for a while, so I can easily get a good workout in 2 20 minute sessions and not cause chaos in my day (it helps that I work 10 feet away from a squat rack, but let me tell you… it’s just as hard finding time to train while working in a gym as it is outside one!). Take into account travel time, meals and everything else to make sure you don’t overwhelm yourself!

So your schedule is set in stone… you know what you need to accomplish… the next step is to find, program, or consult a program to help you achieve those goals within the available time you have! Whether its 3 days or 6 days a week, with just the right programming and proper lifestyle changes you can accomplish just about anything (mind you I emphasize just about, remember.. let’s be realistic!)!

Lastly when it comes down to training, tweaks always have to be made! It’s rare a program is perfect from the get-go and even the savviest trainers need to sit down and get to know how their clients’ bodies react to different styles of training in order to better establish the right programming, the right way. Be wary of crash diets, “quick ab” routines, diet pills that promise the perfect physique and trainers that claim they can get you in the best shape ever in just a few weeks. Your body is everything, not just a social statement! You can lose 30 lbs in less than a month, but that doesn’t mean it’s right or healthy for you! Be safe and do things right, and if you don’t know how… help is always around if you know where to look! OR you can always shoot me an email and I can point you in the right direction… robdfc@rochester.rr.com (shameless plug! Haha)