Personal Training Blog with Douglasville Personal Trainer David Hansey

June is Men’s Health Month and it is a great time to reflect on the issues that PLAGUE men in the United States. There are so many health issues affecting men that it is hard to know where to start. Men suffer from a variety of diseases, but there are a few key diseases that all men should be concerned with as they affect a large number of men and there are many things you can do to prevent them.

When you are under 40, the top cause of death is accidental. Once you pass the threshold of 40, the top causes shift to heart disease, cancer, stroke and lung disease. Is 40 a magic number where you should change your lifestyle? NO! All of these causes have at least some factors that can reduce your risk (or prevent the issue all together).

There is no magic bullet here. I know you would like to hear that there is something simple that you can do. And, to be honest, there is something VERY SIMPLE that you can do to reduce your risk of DYING from these diseases.

They are things that your doctor has told you for years. Eat better. Exercise more. Control your stress. Live a healthy, active lifestyle.

If you continue to live with poor dietary habits, you increase your risk. If you continue to smoke or drink when your doctor has advised against it, you increase your risk. If you continue to eat more processed food than vegetables and fresh food, you increase your risk. If you don’t know your cholesterol level and haven’t visited your doctor in years, you increase your risk.

Does it make sense?

Weight loss can be challenging. It can also be frustrating. There are lots of things you can do to help make it easier and make those results more consistent.

My first suggestion to everyone starting out or stalling out is to keep a weight loss diary. Not forever, I know that can be tedious. Try a week to start. Write down EVERYTHING!!! All that you eat and all that you drink. There are often a lot of hidden calories in things like coffee drinks and gum and candy and snacks and juices and condiments and salad dressings — you get the idea. So focus on writing everything down. Then at the end of the week, do the calculations and find out where you have issues. This can be a huge asset when your weight loss slows or stalls.

Ok, now here is a simple fact. Apply the same logic to your workout. Write it down. Add up the time. While you may have INTENDED to get to the gym 4 times this week — if you only made it once and did not work out with the intensity or amount of time — then you are not being honest with yourself when it comes to working out.

Sometimes you truly need professional help like a dietician or a personal trainer. And those are great assets, especially if you have never worked out before or are just getting started. But for a lot of people, dramatic changes can happen by just getting honest.

Some people just find cardio hard. Either it is boring or not entertaining or easy to skip or you want it to be more social.

Well here is an easy way to make some family time, enjoy the fresh air and enjoy the beauty that is Douglas County. Douglasville and the surrounding area offers so many great places to go hiking — from Sweetwater to Cochran Mills to Clinton Farms to the amazing Silver Comet if you prefer walking on pavement to hiking.

And it is warm and beautiful and not hot and humid yet. So get outside. Try to vary your routine and hike at least once a week for a nice variety to your cardio.

I had a great hike this weekend (and a different one last weekend) just across the border in Alabama. There are literally HUNDREDS of places to hike within an hour of here — and there are DOZENS within 10 miles — so no excuses. Use nature for your workout and watch how if changes not only your fitness but also you mood.

Fitness is difficult, I KNOW. It is something you need to do daily. They say for every 30 minutes you exercise, you add one to two hours to your life. So really, you are actually MAKING time in a way rather than taking time away from your life.

You have a lot of things TO DO — I get that. Believe me I do. As a parent with a busy personal training business, I am out of the house at 5 am and a lot of nights I get back at 9pm. So yes, I know busy.

There is family, there are chores, there are bills — BUT STOP for a second.

First and foremost — THERE IS YOU!!! It is kinda like being on an airplane when the pilot tells you to put on your OWN emergency mask BEFORE helping others. Fitness is your life mask. Without a fit body, you cannot pick up your children properly, you cannot chase them at the playground (or stop them before they get into danger), you cannot do your job as well as you could — because you are tired, out of shape and worn out.

So it is important to find a way to prioritize fitness and find a way to fit it into your life — regardless of what other things you have going on in your life. If you just can’t do it on your own, some personal training sessions might be the right thing for you. But remember, you have to show up and WORK hard at those sessions and do whatever you are supposed to do between sessions to get the most results from personal training.

So, you ask yourself, is it possible to make personal training an option for anyone? Well, actually yes. Not that everyone needs or wants personal training all the time but it can add to everyone’s life.

I had a great new client last week who reminded me of this. One of my earliest clients was a wonderful lady who was having medical issues that were preventing her from walking. And I mean AT ALL. She came to her sessions in a scooter and really worked hard. We did a lot of corrective training and she still trains with me and walks — WALKS. It is such a dramatic change in a personal training client that it really touches your heart.

Well I was reminded of how important it is to have quality of life with my new client last week. She is a very nice lady also with medical issues that make day to day living uncomfortable and at times difficult. And when I have a client whose daily life can be so improved by personal training and I watch how hard they work — and how hard they want it — it is always dramatic.

Now I enjoy all my clients on many different levels and I love watching them succeed. But it is these clients who struggle with just their daily life that truly make my job rewarding and make me so happy to be a personal trainer so that I can help them to find a way to make that daily struggle easier.

Ok, here at the Personal Training Blog, I like to dish a good dose of reality.

I get a lot of people telling me that personal training is expensive. Like all professional services, it is not going to come cheap. And you get what you pay for. So a trainer who makes $9 an hour is going to most likely lack the professional training to give you a safe and effective workout.

Guidelines for personal training were established by IHRSA due to a serious need to determine the professional standard that you need to look at — CLICK BOARD CERTIFIED at the top of the page to read these guidelines. That is STEP ONE for you when looking for a personal trainer.

Now, once you have chosen a board certified trainer — you have a few responsibilities to meet your goals.
1- Show up early — and I mean at least 1/2 hour. This is when you do your cardio as well as get warmed up. It also buffers from any issues such as traffic so you don’t waste any of your time not training.

2- Show UP — Yes, if you cannot make an appointment, then cancel with 24 hour notice. Most trainers charge for last minute cancellations and be honest with why you are canceling. Is your child ill? Is your car tire flat? Or do you just want to do something else?

3 – Don’t sabotage yourself. If you are doing training with a personal trainer, disclose the other things you do. Do you not do ANYTHING else even though your trainer thinks you are doing cardio 3 times a week. Then be honest about it.

4 – Be realistic and honest about your goals. If you aren’t honest about your goals, it will be very hard for your trainer to establish a routine to meet them.

If you are able to stick to those things, you will find that your goals will come more into focus and become goals you can achieve.

Getting fit and feeling great is about more than just doing a bit of cardio in a group fitness class. And it is more than just showing up for a couple of personal training sessions. And it is more than just adding a few recipes to your diet.

It is about doing ALL of these things ALL of the time.

For personal training, you need to show up and work hard for your sessions (be on time, do the work — get the most bang for your buck) Also for personal training, make sure you are doing all the other workouts that you are supposed to. Like your cardio or strength training sessions that you are supposed to be doing between personal training sessions. Remember, the 1/2 hour or hour you spend with me is not enough

And for eating — find a way to control what you eat and how much. Do you need to keep a diary, do you need to seek out professional help, do you just need to learn a new way to cook, do you need to learn how to lighten up a favorite recipe. These are all things that you need to do to begin your journey to healthier eating. All of these things done together will seriously change your body and are WORTH IT!!

Group fitness classes can be fun. They can also be effective. BUT — for a lot of people, they are not enough. Fitness classes are designed to provide a workout (cardio workout) to a broad group of people. They cannot magically know all the things that make you unique. So you need to be careful when selecting one when you are a beginner to avoid injury or to ensure that you get an effective workout.

First step — go to your doctor to make sure you know that what you are considering is going to be effective for you.

Next step — pick a class that is ideal for beginners. I usually suggest spinning type classes because for most people, riding a bike is easy and you can just increase the intensity as your fitness level increases. Now that said, still might not be the right class for you so check with your doctor and take his advice.

Now, ANY class you are going to take — make sure that you show up early. This allows you to tell the instructor you are new – they should come over and introduce themselves — if not, be concerned!! Also, they should offer to help you make any special adjustments — for a bike class, this would be properly fitting you to a bike. For a kickboxing class, it would be showing you how to punch without hurting your elbow (or wrapping your hands if it is a gloved class). For a weighted class, it would be talking to you about what weights to use and anything you should watch out for.

IF your instructor does not come over — THEN APPROACH THEM.

It is your responsibility to take care of you so make sure you show up early and act like a sponge. And regardless of how you feel or what ANYONE tells you, do what you feel is right. If it feels wrong, it is. If it feels too intense, it is. Do what is best for you. If you need to modify your workout or slow down — DO IT. I tell people that if it feels too intense, then you should try just walking on the spot for a bit. But seriously — if it feels too intense or you feel weak or dizzy — STOP.

It will get easier and easier every time. So just what you feel you can each time and it will get easier and you will be safe.

It is that time of year!! Time to evaluate your life. Make those resolutions. Resolutions are very hard to keep for the simple reason that they are easier to declare than they are to commit to and implement. What is the #1 resolution — to lose weight.

You can decide to lose weight at any time without a resolution. But the thing that makes you lose weight is not declaring it. It is simple science. And a simple math equation.

CALORIES IN – CALORIES OUT = CALORIES GAINED

So if you eat more than you burn, you gain. If you burn more than you eat, you lose. SIMPLE

So you need to learn how to eat healthy meals. And you need to eat fruit and vegetables and drink water – SIMPLE

If you have no idea how to eat, then try my healthy eating site Douglasville Weight Loss to get started. It is free and gives you lots of ideas on how to eat better.

Working out is CRITICAL for weight loss. You don’t get there without cardio and weights — SIMPLE

So put in the cardio sessions, a few a week is all that it takes and do a couple of strength training sessions.

Weight Loss is not an easy road and it is not an instant thing. It takes work but it is not voodoo, you just need to apply the simple methods and do it consistently.

It is the time of year that I see people starting to get into the fitness lifestyle. I know it can be hard to start something new so let’s go over a few things. First a few myth busters.

1 – you don’t need to hurt. I have so many people tell me that they hurt a lot. Working out sometimes causes aches and pains but it should not hurt you to the point that it interferes with your life. If you can’t walk down stairs or raise your arms or conduct your life normally, then there is something wrong with your workout and it needs to be adjusted. Be sure to tell your personal trainer if you have any pain, stiffness or anything that interferes with your quality of life.

2 – it does not take a lot of time. Two strength training sessions a week and three cardio sessions a week. You can bust that out in 3 trips to the gym or two to the gym and one run around the block.

So now that you realize it does not have to be painful and that it will not take a lot of your time — you need to realize a few of the realities.

1 – working out is not a license to eat anything and everything. The average workout burns about 300- 600 calories so realistically, you will lose about a pound a week if you don’t change your diet plan. Adding sweets and treats will just sabotage your workout.

2 – you need to know what you are doing. Just showing up and spinning your wheels will just frustrate you. A few sessions of personal training will give you a thorough program that is unique for you and your needs and your goals. And realistically, every budget can afford a few sessions. So seriously think about it — personal training can make a dramatic difference in your success.

I would like to take a minute to thank everyone for the wonderful year I have had. I am truly blessed to have been a part of your lives and your fitness and to have had the opportunity to help so many of you change your lives. I look forward to more in 2008 and would like to wish all my readers here at the Personal Training Blog as well as all my clients at the gym and in Douglasville — Merry Christmas.