Exercise

Are You Chasing A Mythical Body?

admin@UltraFitSystems.com — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:10:52 GMT

Just a quick note about how hard we work to get our bodies into shape and how quickly we get frustrated if we are not able to achieve the mythical proportions and looks of the fitness models in the magazines and advertisements we read.

We have been duped for years by 1-2 hour long training regimens and magazine articles about the routines many of the bodybuilders do, but in reality if you eat natural and don't take any steroids (which you shouldn't) you cannot achieve the same results. These are human freaks and drug addicts that synthetically achieve their results. Don't get me wrong they work hard, too hard, but it is not healthy. They do this for sport, or work but not for health.

Watch this short video clip and see what I mean:

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Top Ten Reasons To Have A Personal Trainer

admin@UltraFitSystems.com — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 13:52:01 GMT

Alright, this topic is overdone. So why do we want to mention for the millionth time why you should have a personal trainer? Because you know what the right path is, but you have not made the move yet. How do we know? The odds are with us unfortunately, that you are not exercising regularly even though you may have joined lots of gyms. You seem to get bored with your personal training routines and decide to opt-out after 2-8 weeks on average. So let’s see if we can come up with some good reasons why you should be doing personal training in Tempe or at our Clarendon location utilizing our personal trainers to guide you through your efforts.

1.    Have you visited your local gym and been totally confused on where to start and how to use the machines? You likely just went to the treadmill where you felt comfortable and jogged or walked for 10-15 minutes, roamed around a little and left. You need a personal trainer

2.    Do you rise up on your toes when you squat? Go ahead, try it, I’ll wait… or do you push through the heels activating the entire posterior chain? Do you even know what the heck we are talking about? If not, you need a personal trainer.

3.    Are you working those biceps hard? Seeing some gains in arm size? Seeing no gains in shrinking your waist size? You need a personal trainer.

4.    You like to work the chest and arms, but you hate working the legs and core. The Chinese say, what you don’t like is what you need. You need a personal trainer.

5.    Have you ever done a pull-up? Can you do one now? Been using the Graviton at the gym and still can’t do a pull-up. Everyone can do a pull-up if you are trained properly. You need a personal trainer.

6.    You are squatting 300 pounds, but you never come down lower than 45 degrees. Then you are not squatting 300 pounds, you are moving 300 pounds very little distance. Let’s not even discuss this. You need a personal trainer.

7.    Have you been doing core training? Can you hang from a bar and bring your feet straight up so your toes touch the bar? If not your core training is not working. You need a personal trainer.

8.    Have you been doing functional training? When was the last time you did a heavy deadlift or push press overhead? Can you squat down so your butt hits your calves like you see the local tribes people do on all those documentaries you watch about indigenous people of the Amazon? When was the last time you did these exercises for moderately heavy reps of 21? If you are not picking things off of the floor, putting them overhead and squatting down then you are not doing functional training. It doesn’t get any more functional than that. You need a personal trainer.

9.    Do you know that your best window of opportunity to eat carbohydrates and protein is within 30-60 minutes post workout? Do you know why and if you miss this opportunity you will likely not comeback as fully charged in your next workout? Do you know why the calories on the label do not reflect the actual calories you digest and that some should not be counted? Do you know that just because the label says that it has no trans fats that it still may actually contain trans fats? The list just goes on and on… if you don’t know these things, you need a personal trainer.

10.    Alright there is all the other good stuff like accountability, guidance, support… yada, yada, yada… but we know that most people are not getting results. There are 40 million gym memberships in this country and obesity and disease just keeps rising. The system is broke and it just does not work. Our system works because we use science and experience and it is fun. We don’t expect you to have an expertise in either of these two areas and we know that very few people know how to create an addictive game out of their workouts. Well we do. You do what you do best and we do what we do best. We use CrossFit methodologies, which means we have one of the best systems on earth, but how do you start it? The www.CrossFit.com website has gotten so big that it is hard for a beginner to know where to begin. We can teach you a focused step by step approach to learning the CrossFit system and scale the program to your needs and abilities. But to do this, let’s say it again… you need a personal trainer.

Call us to inquire about your personal training program today. We have personal training packages in both Tempe and The Clarendon to fit you. Don’t wait because none of the reasons above are changing anytime soon and neither will you if you don’t call.

Personal Training Tempe | Personal Training Midtown

Developing Your Long Distance with Strength Training

admin@UltraFitSystems.com — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 18:51:20 GMT

Image via Wikipedia

It should be noted that constant long distance running for the sake of sport or meditation does not make it a pursuit of fitness nor does it optimize the performance of the sport. For those who wish to gain the cerebral as well as physical benefits of exercise, the need for a well rounded approach to your training regimen are key to seeking what you desire.

Many athletes that I have met and worked with over the years considered themselves long distance runners. These athletes were often long and lanky and lacked muscle development. This is a bi-product of a consistent need to feed oxygen and nutrients to the increasing demands of the metabolic pathways required in long distance running. This results in the breakdown of muscle tissue to be used as an energy substrate during long workouts. Additionally, science has discovered changes in the muscle fiber of long distance runners. They have noted separation and elongation of the muscle fibers which is thought to be an adaptation to provide more surface area for the muscle tissue to take in nutrients and oxygen to meet demands put on the system.

Recently the town we work in hosted the Ironman Triathlon. I was visited by many athletes from around the country seeking more information about CrossFit and resistance training. These individuals were 24 hours away from some of the most demanding physical movements known to humans but yet they could not complete intermediate nor simple bodyweight exercises that even our new clients begin learning. Their strength training was nonexistent.

Recently a well regarded running coach to the Olympic marathoner and American Half marathon record holder, Ryan Hall, was quoted in a November 2008 article in Running Times. He stated that it is now possible to consistently set new world records for running:

"Heart rate training, lactate training, alactate training, and even strength training and movement skills have made a huge improvement from the past. Our top level runners are more all-around athletes than others in the past."

If you want to optimize your long distance running potential, than you need to focus more of your workout routines on short sprints and muscular development, a major foundation to the CrossFit methodology that we teach at UltraFit Clinic. We have found that the pursuit of most sports leads to a desire to excel which eventually leads to injury or bodily destruction due to overuse or constant use of the same muscle and skeletal structures. Imbalances in the whole body system are difficult to manage and even more difficult to correct. When choosing your fitness regimen or training for a sport, make sure that your development and enjoyment of your training can progress over the long haul. This requires some thought into utilizing those movements and muscles that may not be apparent at first blush. The body may use certain parts more than others for some movements, but in general it must work as a whole to be optimized for performance. After all, you would not increase the output potential of certain parts of your car engine if the other parts could not keep up or might wear out sooner due to the added stress, would you? Well, the car parts are easily replaced, but your body parts are not. Start making wise long-term investments in your health and sports and realize that although they may not be the same they don't have to be in conflict with each other.

More Information and Research:

Research Article 1

Research Article 2

Research Article 3

Can Personal Training be made personal?

admin@UltraFitSystems.com — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 21:46:40 GMT

I hear this all the time from personal trainers and their clients..."we are going to make a personal training program just for you..." The reality is there are only so many exercises in the book and many of them overlap in their usefulness. I have been training for over 30 years and I still do a lot of the same exercises now as I did then. Why you ask? Because when I started training in the 70's we only had free weights. We did have one of the very first Universal machines but it was very limited in its use and not very well accepted at the health club I belonged to which had lots of heavy power lifters and bodybuilders. We were macho men, no women in here, they had their own training area where they did aerobics so they would not get "bulky". I will save that silly comment for another post. We performed basic fundamental Olympic and power style lifts, including deadlifts, bench presses, squats and overhead presses. Yes, we even did curls and triceps work for the girls I guess, as it had no fundamental use...ok another future post.

Now I watch trainers put every client through the same old exercises that everyone else goes through, sit-ups and bench presses and curls and pull-downs... doesn't look like anybody is getting anything special and surely not customized. The reality is there are fundamental movements that we must all do every day like pick things up, pull things, raise things over our heads, jump over things and climb things. How many different exercises can you create to do and train for what is always a whole body movement? The only way you can create so many exercises is to split the movement into its component parts, isolate each muscle and then work an exercise for each one. No wonder it takes most people so long to work out. Why not do one exercise that hits all these movements and muscles at one time? Isn't that more efficient and isn't that how we use them in everyday life? Why would we train for an environment that does not exist outside the gym?

Now, if everybody is doing the same thing, then how is anybody going to get a customized program just for them? Well, in reality they don't, the trainers use the same programs over and over again just changing the exercises so you don't get bored, but I guarantee you everyone is bench pressing and curling... The reality is we change the exercises by scaling the load (using different weight), using different exercises to hit the same muscle (handstand push-up vs. an overhead press), or change the speed at which you work. All this translates into "Intensity" and it is your intensity levels that are individual to each and every one of you. Are high intensity workouts right for everyone? Probably not. Are CrossFit workouts for everyone? Yes, because they are scaled. CrossFit methodologies see some of their best health results when they are performed at high intensity but they don't have to be. They can be performed at any level of intensity through substitution of exercise, change in weight and speed of the movement as well as increasing or decreasing the number of breaks you take, the reps you do and the sets you complete. It isn't CrossFit that anyone fears, it is the hard work which can be incorporated into any program, but is most beneficial when combined with whole body functional movement patterns that we use in our CrossFit methodologies.

So next time you hear that a trainer is going to "customize" a routine just for you, run the other way. If he tells you he is going to scale the exercises to match your capabilities then hang with him. It may take several sessions to learn what your abilities and limitations are but with the right amount of adjustment and experimentation you and your trainer will get there quickly.