Personal Training: Helping a Friend day 12

personal-trainer-2

Warm up:

Dynamic stretching:

  • Torso twist
  • Hip bridges
  • Buttkicks
Workout Session:
Stationary bike-
  • 8 minutes, no resistance, RPMs 50-60 
  • 8 minutes, level 5 resistance, RPMs 80-90 
  • 8 minutes, no resistance, RPMs 50-60
  • 8 minutes, level 5 resistance, RPMs 80-90 
  • 8 minutes, no resistance, RPMs 50-60
Ab Workout:
  • Planks- 3 sets of 1:14 minutes 
Cool down:
  • Treadmill- 5 minutes, 2.5 speed, no incline 
John did a good job again with doing the opposite of the previous workout. He didn’t give up and stuck with it. 
Your fitness blogger,
Shay-lon xoxo

Personal training: Helping a friend day 11

personal-trainer

Alright everyone, I am back at it. I took my 2-3 days off from the blogosphere, it was much needed, now I am back and want to catch everyone up on John’s workouts. I have 2-3 workouts to still write about, so bare with me, because everyone has missed a lot. Many of you will notice how I amped some of the workouts up to make sure I am mentally and physically challenging him as we go along. It has almost been a Month since working with him at the gym, so things will soon become more and more challenging. This workout is from Oct. 14th. 

Warm up:

Dynamic stretches:

  • buttkicks
  • walking lunges with hands up
  • skipping
Workout Session:
Stationary bike: 40 minutes total.
  • 8 minutes, no resistance, RPMs 80 and above
  • 8 minutes, level 5 resistance, RPMs 50-60
  • 8 minutes, no resistance, RPMs 80 and above
  • 8 minutes, level 5 resistance, RPMs 50-60
  • 8 minutes, no resistance, RPMs 80 and above
Ab session:
  • Planks (I timed him to see how long he can hold a proper plank for after demonstrating the exercise, he held it for 1:14) we did 3 sets of 1:14)
Cool down:
  • Treadmill- 5 minutes, 2.5 speed, no incline. 
John did well with the workout, he actually didn’t have any problems or complaints. 
Your fitness blogger,
Shay-lon xoxo

Guest post- Online personal training

Hello everyone, I wanted to start this Monday off right with a guest post from a fellow blogger friend, whom I have grown to respect as a writer and fitness professional.  Many of you know his site very well, and probably currently follow him, between his workout videos and beautiful quotes, & that ever so clever playlist he likes to show off for his audience, I would say he was one of many bloggers who I can honestly say I love being on his page! haha. I have done a guest post for him, which was an amazing opportunity considering, I never would have thought I could offer his audience as much as he does.  I decided to have him guest post for us: Chape, who will speak on “online personal training”.

I had never heard of “online personal training” until I had the chance to speak with Chape, and to be honest, it seemed like a sham, because everything I was taught about personal training and everyone I know who works in the profession works hands on with their clients. To be honest, many people seem to shame online personal training and think it is pointless, but I didn’t want to be someone who knocked something before getting an understanding, I did my own research and kept a keen eye on Chape website to see what it was about and it made me interested. I decided since this was something that was new to me, I would have the person who knows best about it speak about it and share their insight. Now I won’t say this has discouraged me from wanting to be hands on with my clients because for now, I want to stay hands on, but it wouldn’t hurt to have this on the back burner if I ever decide to go this route. I don’t hope this will change anyone’s mind, but I do hope it helps to gain understanding and if any fitness professionals or others want to ask him questions about it, I feel this would be a good time and post to do so. I am happy he has taken the time to explain this with all of us, hope all of you enjoy: 

Hello, dears!

 

I´m delighted to have been invited to write in this amazing blog. So, let me thank Shay-lon first for this opportunity. She suggested the topic, online personal training, and I just loved it. I do online personal training!!!

I´ve worked as personal trainer since 2003, and with that experience I decided to move to the online world a couple of years ago. Shay-lon also has some thoughtful  questions and concerns you could share. I hope to be able to solve some of them.

 

I had been helping friends of friends, and friends of clients via mail and Facebook for quite some years. They were happy enough with the results to pay me month after month. To be honest, one good day I realized I was doing online training, with all those mails and chats. The results were there, clients were happy…

I needed to take it seriously. Long story short, two years ago I thought I could do it better, and reach people all over the world. So, I´ve been working on it since then.

 

Definitely, online personal training is a new service in the fitness industry. I think it´s a natural evolution, taking advantage of new technologies. And I think it´s here to stay and improve. We already do serious things like banking and doctor visits online.

Now, you can find online fitness magazines, workouts and diets on any social media platform, fitness apps (free or premium) at Google Store, activity trackers for your phone, wereables, etc. Am I right?

If people are willing to trust and follow these app instructions, or a diet found on internet.  Why not go a step further and consult a personal trainer, online? 

Who is going to help you with all that data collected from your apps and gadgets? What when you´ve tried countless nonsense diets and insane workouts but you still have trouble spots? Then, my friends, you´ll want a personal trainer. You may prefer a face to face class with a local trainer. What if there is none where you live at? What if you can´t afford the rates? What if you don´t like him/her? I think that online training would be a valuable service for a lot of people if they dared to try.

 

I enjoy online training for several reasons. I like meeting people from another countries, learning about their cultures, and habits. I work from home and I´m not tied to a fixed schedule (some weeks are harder than others). Also, I like all this virtual world and tech stuff.

I´ve noticed that online clients are more motivated and committed than face to face clients. They are looking for guide and advice and they follow strictly any indication.

For obvious reasons, I can´t correct my clients while they´re training. Instead, I share with them videos for each exercise, descriptions, and chat before and after a workout with new exercises. If they have any doubt, they ask me until we are clear. I´m truly glad and proud of this, no injuries for now.

In the other hand, my clients have to keep a very specific training and food log. Daily, I keep an eye on these records. When something is not going like I would like to, I tell it with “loud voice” to the client. An in-person trainer who has a date with you twice a week may not be monitoring you as closely.

 

Some people need a trainer by their side. In extreme cases, these people only workout when they have an appointment with their personal trainer. We have to accept online training may not be right for everyone.

But most people don´t need the trainer to actually be there with them. They need someone who tells them what to do with the dumbbells and what to eat, to reach their goals. We can do that online. I would recommend to all trainers and trainees give it a chance.

 

I hope you´ve enjoyed this brief introduction to online personal training. Please, if you have questions, the comment section is just below.

 

Hugs!

The Burpee & Half Burpee

Half burpee video

The burpee video

Hello fitness Fanatics! 

 

Today I want to go over the Legendary burpee & half burpee.  I have participated in both exercises during my CrossFit class, and have to say I think the “half burpee” is harder, especially when you are reaching fatigue but both exercises are considered to be somewhat of an advanced workout. There are many ways to make burpees a bit more challenging but I want to keep it simple for our sake, I don’t want to confuse anyone.  I might decide to add some tips at the end to make it more challenging if I have time but honestly, just doing 5 burpees can be challenging enough for most people, let alone more than that. Personally, I don’t mind the burpees, but I have learned to hate them during CrossFit because of everything else that comes along with doing it.  This isn’t an exercise I would recommend to just anyone, especially if you have never done them, or have prior injuries or conditions/present injuries. I think this is an exercise that shouldn’t be taken lightly, people have been known to get injured doing burpees because they are hitting fatigue and mess up the form/technique or because they don’t know what they are doing. I have posted two videos at the top demonstrating both exercises, please adhere to them before jumping into this exercise and as always, consult with your doctor before starting any exercises. 

 

How many of you like doing burpees? which do you prefer, the burpee or half burpee? which is harder in your opinion? How many burpees can you do in 1 minute? 

 

I normally write down the how to portion on each of my exercises but decided for this particular exercise it was best to not do it, to keep people from being confused. Although if you are someone who wants the words, I don’t mind sending you the steps to perform a proper burpee without injury. 

 
 

Benefits of the burpee?

 
  • Full body strength training exercise
  • Functional exercise
  • Works the arms, chest, quads, glutes, hamstrings, core
  • Require no equipment
  • dynamic exercise
  • mentally stimulating
  • builds endurance
  • Improved anaerobic capacity
  • helps with weight loss

If any of you want to do this activity, and let me know your score that would be splendid:

 

time yourself for 1 minute and see how many burpees you can do in under a minute, then take your break and time your self for 1 minute and see how many half burpees you are capable of doing. I would love to see how well everyone did, and don’t worry about being judged, I am not here to judge you. My blog is a judgement free zone. I will give you my score if anyone is interested in knowing sometime this week possibly (Saturday maybe). Thanks for reading, please feel free to share, comment, like, and or reblog.

 

Your fitness blogger,

Shay-lon xoxo

Personal training: Helping a friend day 10

personal-training

Well, his sister did not make it to the workout with us this morning, she had another late night and wanted to catch up on some rest, so today was just John and I, which is fine, because we worked hard. My mom ended up showing up to the gym, she comes to the gym on her own and used to come with me before her schedule changed.  I had her workout with John, but kind of did her own thing but she does fairly well on her own. I was helping her, but she is a whole other battle, lol. Talk about stubborn. I am sure at some point she will end up doing the workouts I assign her again, but for right now I am happy she attends the gym in the morning. 

I had someone ask me if I plan on posting songs/playlist again since I did it once and never again, and I have decided that it will be something I will look into and will give everyone a heads up on if I decide to do it once a week or a daily playlist of one song that I like while working out. I am not sure yet, but I will look into it & plan it out.

For those who may not be aware, I am doing Motivation Monday Post/ Videos and I want to start a Topic Tuesday Video (Youtube videos) sometime within the next week of topics that I have covered in my blog page. I think it will be fun to have on video and give people who don’t read my blogs a way to keep up with my post. 

Now on to the actual workouts:

Warm-up:

  • Treadmill- 10 minutes, 2.0 incline, 3.7 speed. 
Workout Session:
  • Stationary bike- 45 minutes total. I had him to 10 minute splits, level 5. He did 4 sets of 10 minutes for the workout or if he could and was able I wanted to see if he could go the full 45 minutes at level 5. I wanted him to keep his RPMs at 70 and higher for the sake of the workout. 
Cool down:
  • Treadmill- 5 minutes, no incline, 2.5 speed
John ended up choosing a different style bike to do his workout on, and he liked it, he said it was something he had to get used to because the seat was smaller and hurt his butt. He managed to do the full 45 minutes but had to stop every 10 minutes for a  1- 1.5 minute break. He said level 5 was a bit more difficult but he felt no pain or soreness, his ankles are still doing fine. So with this being said, he is not yet ready to do a full 45 minutes on the bike at level 5, but it is okay because we will get him there like we did when he was at a level 4. Not to mention, I am happy he was able to finish the workout. I did not talk with him about his eating habits, I think I will this weekend if given the chance. Tomorrow we plan on meeting at the gym again and I have a core exercise I will introduce him to once his cardio workout is finished. We shall see what he thinks. It won’t be something too terrible but it is terrible. LOL. 
Overall, good job John, we will work on getting you to be able to do the whole 45 minutes with no breaks at a level 5. 
Your fitness blogger,
Shay-lon xoxo