-David

There is not much difference between the foam rollers and the exercise bands and stability balls since all of them are types of cross over equipment, which are obtained from the rehab training. Their utility lies in their versatility, inexpensiveness, and lower weight.

These qualities also make them good for home workouts and studio usage. They are also very simple pieces of equipment (being cylinders of high density foams) with immense uses. You can use them for various exercising purposes like self message stretching, body support, and stability exercises.

Using the foam body rollers

You can easily spot the foam rollers. These are the white cylinders which are piled up in the corner areas of gymnasiums and pilate studios. The pilate instructors are also promoting the use of foam rollers in their classes which will further contribute to its wide spread use. You can also do a wide amount of experimentation on these foam rollers.

Exercise and stretch by using the foam rollers

Massage tool
Massages are good for the pressured and tensed areas which you are trying to release. This can be done easily by rolling the body area or muscle on the foam roller after putting the body weight on the roller and then gently rocking and rolling the body for releasing the accumulated stress.

Body part prop
You can do this form of exercise by lying in rest position on the back of the body and supporting the slightly bent knees by the foam roller. This position of the exercise will help in spine elongation and its relaxation. The foam rollers can also be used in prop forms. For example, you can use them as body prop by placing them under the hip area or for supporting a limb.

Stretch support
The Foam rollers can provide you ample support for the stretching exercises by giving you a curved surface to work your exercises on. Since your position is not far from the ground, there is very minute chance that you might tip off and cause some damage to your body. Hence you can fully relax when you do all your stretching exercises. Stretching can be done in different creative ways by using a foam roller. For example, you can sit with your legs placed in a straight position and then place the foam roller under the calf area. Do not lock the knees during the process. You can go for extra stretching by leaning your body in a forward direction towards the leg.

Stability exercises
You can use the pilates and take advantage of the core strengthening potential of the unstable surfaces as well. While maintaining the balance during working out on an unstable surface, every deep muscle of your back and abdomen area is worked toward maintaining the body’s balanced posture. Enhancement in mat exercises like push-ups and planks are being explored and invented by the Pilate instructors. These exercises should be done on the foam roller and not on the floor.

Buying a foam roller
The foam rollers are available in different sizes and shapes. You can get foam rollers in different varieties of length and diameters. The size of 36 inches long and 6 inches of diameter makes the most popular dimension being sold currently in the markets. They also contain high density packing foam which delays the crushing of the foam roller under the weight of the body. The surface of the roller is also very soft and therefore is very comfortable and convenient to roll the body parts on it.

Prolonged usage of the rollers bends it and they can also collapse from the middle while being used. Further, lumpiness is also found in foam rollers. Therefore one should invest in the more expensive rollers that are being manufactured. The closed cell foam or the super high density EVA foam is some examples of the more expensive rollers. The basic foam roller costs somewhere between $17 to $27.

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About the author: Kate is a blogger by profession. She loves writing on luxury and technology. Beside this she is a fitness freak and exercise regularly to stay in shape. In her free time she loves playing game on her cell phone. She recently shared an article on water borne diseases which was liked a lot by her readers.

I have said before that you have to create your own purpose, that the universe will not come down and hand you the gift of purpose.  It’s a hard lesson to learn.  Over the years, I have had numerous gym members sit before me during a fitness consultation that were completely lost, both outside and in.  I invariably ask, “What is your goal? What are you trying to get accomplished?”  And amazingly enough, I have been told far too many times to count, “I don’t really know– what am I supposed to want?”

When somebody tells me, “I want to be healthy“, I ask them, What does that mean to you?  “I dunno’. Never really thought of it“.  They snatch the concept out of thin air, as a buzz word they heard on an episode of Dr. Oz, completely detached from reality, from the concretes and the moments that contributed to the idea in the first place.  “Health” does not mean to these people all the moments of feeling strong, virile, able-bodied, efficacious; it does not mean years of looking yourself in the mirror with pride, or years of great sex, or years of feeling 20 inside a 40-year-old body.  “Health” is simply something they are “supposed to” care about.

The real problem is, you can’t make somebody care about something, despite all the “supposed-tos” in the world.  You can’t make somebody do anything, really.  You can plant the seed of an idea, of a value, but even that presupposes they are already focusing on the external world, and receptive to that seed in the first place.  But if the mind is shut off, if the passion is extinguished, then no amount of prodding and poking and aggressively selling somebody will get them on-board.  That has to be done within the individual.

No, goals do not come down from the stars.  They are selected.  They are willed into being.  We wake up, we look at the world, and we decide in which direction to move.  Some of us, anyways.  Some of us, by contrast, decide not to move– decide not to select a goal, or a purpose.  And those individuals sit passively throughout their lives, awaiting the inevitable.

Much of the confusion on this issue comes about when one thinks of goals as intrinsically right or wrong, better or worse.  I started playing the drums right before my 9th birthday, after my Dad brought home a cheap drum set.  Instantaneously, I felt I had found my life’s purpose.  I remember talking to other kids growing up, in middle school and high school, and asking them “what they did”– and what they planned to do when they grew up.  Ninety percent of the time, I was met with a blank stare– “I don’t know, I haven’t really thought of it”.  The answer bothered me on a deep level, as if I was talking to an unfortunate individual who had been placed on this earth missing a soul.  How can you go through your days, and not know who you are, what you are, what you are going to be and where you’re headed?  Isn’t that overarching goal the thesis or theme that is going to define the outline and necessary steps that will constitute all days to come?

I had such a strong reaction to music, such a strong calling, that I could not fathom being confused about the future.  But as I got a little older, I found the “purposeless-syndrome” was more common that I ever had expected.

As an adolescent, my wife was similar in her undying passion, but not for music; instead, she was driven by her sport of choice, volleyball, which propelled her to excellence all through high school and college.  Even after college, her days were defined in large part by coaching future players.  But then the day arrived: she had to admit she was no longer defined primarily by being a volley player.  And a sense of malaise and dread spread throughout, infusing her limbs, and choking off her inner motor– “If that’s not who I am, then what do I do?”

I went through the same thing several years earlier when I decided that music was no longer my primary passion.  I turned my passion instead to philosophy, and then later, to bodybuilding.  But I always sought that passion, that outlet– that goal.  I always knew that, in order to justify getting out of bed in the morning, there had to be some driving force compelling me to move, to learn, to research, to work harder, to be better.  I have now watched my wife struggle through it and admit to herself that there is no intrinsic purpose to life, that we select our own purpose at any given moment in time– but that there must be purpose.

That purpose can be great or small.  It can have larger philosophical or moral import, or it can be more humble in nature.  But one thing is for certain: in order to lead a purposeful life, you must select that purpose, and then throw yourself into it wholeheartedly.  That’s precisely what “passion” is, and that is what separates the great from the good from the average from the rotten.

So yes, I want to be a bodybuilder.  I want to work overly hard, and deprive myself of common worldly pleasures, and spend lots of money, for a stupid plastic trophy.  It’s no different than golf, or stamp collecting, or horseback riding, or skydiving.  It is an activity, a lifestyle, a destination and a path.  It is a means of organizing one’s activities and steps from beginning to end. And if and when it becomes boring, it will be time to select the next purpose.  But one thing is for certain: there will always be some purpose there, until the day I die.

-David A. Johnston

Note: If you missed yesterdays post regarding bodybuilding diet and meal planning you can read it on the Facebook page here…   Bodybuilding Meal Plan

While prepping for bodybuilding competition I generally keep training very simple, as I am an advocate of fairly low-volume, high-intensity training. Throughout the entire prep, I would train back and shoulders on Monday; quads and hams on Wednesday; and chest, biceps and triceps on Friday. Occasionally, I would train calves and abs on the weekend, but for the most part, stuck only with major body parts throughout my prep, focusing on compound movements, good form, and strength increase.

During the first half of the prep, I essentially stuck to the DC training template, but split the days up a little different to save on time. During the second half of the prep, I went to a slightly more “traditional” bodybuilding split (same body part split, more exercises and more volume); the exact exercises would change somewhat from week to week, but would typically follow a pattern like this:

Note: One week start with back, one week start with shoulders.

Day 1: Back/Shoulders

* Wide Lat Pulldown: 4 add sets of 15,12,10,8 reps
* Barbell Rows: 4 add sets of 12,10,8,6 reps
* Cable Row or Machine Row: 4 add sets of 15,12,10,8 reps
* Butterfly: 3 sets of 20,15,12 reps
* Dumbbell Lateral Raise: 4 sets of 15,12,10,15 reps
* Smith or Dumbbell Overhead Press: 4 sets of 12,10,8,4-6 reps

One week start with quads, one week start with hamstrings.

Day 2: Rest

Day 3: Quads/Hamstrings

* Leg Extension (Pre-Exhaust): 4 add sets holding the peak contraction at the top for a 2-count for 12-15 reps
* Squats or Front Squats: 4 sets of 12,8,6,3-5 reps
* Hack Squats or Leg Press: 4 sets of 20,15,12,20 reps
* Seated Leg Curl: 1 warmup set of 12-15 reps, 2 working sets of 50-70 reps (blood volume)
* Romanian Deadlifts: 4 add sets of 15,12,8,4 reps
* Lunges or Lying Leg Curl: 3-4 sets of 12-15 reps

Day 4: Rest

Day 5: Chest/Biceps/Triceps

* Smith Machine Incline Press or Flat Bench Press: 4 sets of 12,8,4-5,8 reps
* Dumbbell Incline Press or Flat Bench Press: 3 sets of 10,8,6 reps
* Dumbbell Incline Flyes or Butterfly: 3 sets of 15,12,8 reps
* Alternate Dumbbell Curl or Barbell Curl: 3 sets of 12,10,6-8 reps
* Machine Curl: 2 drop sets of 15,12 reps
* Skull Crushers: 3 sets of 15,12,8
* Cable Pushdown: 2 drop sets of 15,12 reps

Days 6 and 7: Rest

Cardio:

Throughout the course of the diet, I slowly increased my cardio output, starting with fairly low-intensity walking, and increasing the frequency, the duration, and the intensity over the course of the 32 weeks.

During the first 4 weeks of the diet, I only performed 3 30-minute sessions per week, typically walking on the Treadmill around 3mph, working the incline higher over the course of the 30 minutes, usually to a peak of 11% (no holding on). I tried to increase my intensity slightly every two weeks, but tried to not take my heart rate much over 150BPM, on average, since I was doing cardio in a fasted state and wanted to avoid burning muscle tissue.

Having a treadmill at home, I used incline treadmill as my main cardio aparatus throughout most of my prep (usually about 4 days per week), but whenever possible, I would use the stair mill at the gym (usually 2-3 days per week), as it is my prefered and favorite method of cardio. (I think it actually helps you keep size in your legs, especially your glutes and quads).

The next 4 weeks of the diet, I increased cardio to 4 days per week, 40 minutes. Then two weeks of 5 days per week, 40 minutes. Then two weeks of 5 days per week, 50 minutes. Then up to 6 days per week, 60 minutes, which was my max cardio throughout the majority of my prep. I did 60 minutes every morning, fasted, throughout the majority of my prep.

During the last 6 weeks leading up to the Philly, and the 8 weeks in between the Philly and the Maryland, my conditioning had improved so much from all of the cardio that I had to start doing much harder intervals in order to increase heart rate. I am truly not a fan of running, so I would normally just keep the treadmill at a 15% incline, 3mph, for the whole session.

At this point, I tried doing the stairs whenever possible, and would normally start on level 4 to warm up, and interval up to roughly level 9 or 10 for 5 minute blocks, or until my legs gave out. I never truly attempted HIIT cardio, but towards the end of my prep, it was approaching that.

David Johnston was overweight for most of his life and wanted to make a change for himself and his family. See how he lost over 70 pounds and competed!

Bodybuilding.com is one of, if not the biggest bodybuilding sites on the internet. Each week they feature a Transformation of the Week. This week they have selected David to profile. Read it here…

In the article David talks about what led him to getting involved in bodybuilding and what he did to prepare for the 2010 Maryland competition. Learn the exact carb-cycle diet plan that his coach Dan Kelsey (www.lbs4lbs.com) laid out for him.

David gives some great advice to others who might be looking to make some serious changes in their lives…

My main advice to others is simply to prioritize, be serious about achieving your goals, and don’t hold back. So many people approach life at 50%, and that’s simply not going to get you there. I know, because I was a fat kid my entire life-I never played sports, and was always somewhat embarrassed by my body. I tried to get into fitness a few times during my teens and college years, but again, never went 100% at it.

Read the entire article at http://bodybuilding.com/fun/david-johnston-shed-over-70-lbs-competed-onstage.html

When trying to design an effective strength training program, the first thing to note is that there is no singular right or wrong way to organize everything. An efficient and effective training program is going to take certain parameters into account and work with them: your time allotment, your goals, any injuries you might have, overdeveloped or undeveloped body parts, imbalances, and a host of other factors. However, we can say that there are ways of organizing your strength training that make more sense and ways that make less sense, given those factors. Let’s look at a few of the variables involved.

TIME ALLOTMENT

One of the first questions I ask of all clients is, How much time, per week, can you truly commit to being at the gym, strength training and cardio included? If you are a professional athlete, obviously it is your job to train, and therefore, we can demand a lot of time commitment. If, however, you are a business professional, and a mother of two, and have a lot of responsibilities outside of the gym– and also want to get in shape and lead a healthy lifestyle– then we obviously need to work within that context, and design a template that works for you.

I like to see most of my “normal” clients (read: everyday people looking for fitness and a lean, toned body, not bodybuilders or athletes) strength training twice a week on average. This allows us to spike the metabolism a few times throughout the week, rather than just once a week– when you strength train, you put a large strain on your body and your muscles, which then have to recover afterwards, and this recovery process can elevate your resting metabolic rate for 48-72 hours (which will aid greatly in fat loss). Also, when training more than once a week, it is easier to implement something called a “body part split”, or a “split routine”, which we will address further below.

I have a handful of clients that only strength train once a week, due to time limitations mostly, and still see great results over time. Remember, the most important variable with your strength training is intensity– increasing weight and reps over time, in order to put a progressively larger and larger strain on your muscular system. Even if you only do this once a week, as long as you focus on progression, your body will still change over time, albeit maybe a little slower than somebody who trains twice or three times a week.

The first step is to figure out how much time you can realistically spend in the gym, and then commit to that time allotment. There’s no sense in having an “ideal split” that has you strength training four days per week, and then letting a bunch of external obligations pull you away from the gym so you end up only training half your body every week! Again, for most interested in fat-loss and toning, twice a week is a perfect amount to aim for.

TOTAL BODY VS. SPLIT ROUTINES

The next question: should we try to train all the major muscles in the body at once every session, or should we split the body up into distinct muscle groups each session? There are numerous advocates for each approach, and each approach makes sense in certain regards. Let’s look at the virtues and vices of each way.

When strength training for muscle tone and fat loss, we want to focus the bulk of our efforts on the large skeletal muscles of the body, as these are the muscles that will contribute most to metabolic rate: the pecs (chest), lats (back), deltoids (shoulders), quads and hamstrings (thighs), glutes (butt), biceps and triceps (arms), and core (abs). Yes, we can specialize and focus on smaller muscle groups, like rear deltoids and calves and rhomboids, but these groups a) will not burn as many calories while being worked, b) will not contribute as much to metabolic increase, c) will not put as much total strain on your body as a unit, and thus won’t bump your metabolism and natural hormone levels quite as much. It’s fine to focus a lot of your efforts on these groups for rehabilitative purposes, or, if after you’ve built a foundation, you are looking to put the “finishing touches” on your physique. If I have somebody that is willing to strength train 3 days a week or more, I will definitely have them doing direct work for these smaller muscle groups. However, if I only get Joe Office-worker for two hours a week, the bulk of our efforts are going to be spent doing large, compound exercises that work larger muscle groups (those listed above in the beginning of this paragraph).

If you decide to train total body each time you strength train, you will undoubtedly burn more total calories during your weight workout, as well as increase your metabolic rate in the hours following, simply because your entire body has been utilized. A good example of this would be something like Crossfit workouts, which tend to use all of the muscles for every workout, to maximize metabolic contribution.

The problem with total body workouts, however, is that they don’t allow for almost any specialization. Let’s say you’re a total beginning, and are trying to learn how to squat. Well, squatting is a very difficult exercise (at least if you want to do it properly and not injure yourself)– it will take all of your physical and mental focus. The same is true of dead lifting. To a slightly lesser degree, the same is true of bench press, and pull-ups/pulldowns, and most compound movements.

If you really want to learn the proper mechanics of real strength training exercises, I think a split routine, where you split the body into different muscle groups and train different groups on different days, makes the most sense. It allows you focus more individual attention and energy to individual muscle groups. It also allows you to devote more time (exercises, sets, and reps) to each individual muscle group over the course of the week, leading to a higher likelihood of overload for that muscle– meaning you succeeded in actually causing fiber damage to the muscle, meaning it will remodel and grow (which is our goal, after all!). The purpose of strength training is not primarily to burn calories– if that were the case, it would make more sense to just get your butt on a treadmill, which would burn more total calories, and requires virtually no attention to form! The purpose of strength training is simply to build strength and muscle, and all the side effects that go with that (increased metabolic rate, great fat loss over time, a tone physique, greater bone density, etc.). This is why I’m not a fan of circuit training, and why I’m not a fan of total body workouts: in general, I don’t think they allow you to focus enough on each individual muscle group to create fiber overload, and therefore, over time, don’t lead to much muscle accumulation.

Now realistically, over time, no singular routine is going to work perfectly forever. Whatever you throw at your body over time, the body will acclimate to and get used to, and you will stop seeing results. Therefore, it periodically makes sense to modify your routine, whether on a smaller level, or a greater overhaul. As such, you might begin with a split routine for 6 months to master the basic mechanics of the movements, then move to a total-body routine twice a week focusing on simply core compound movements, then go back later to a different split routine, etc. This would be a perfectly reasonable way to approach to your training over time. But in the beginning, until you have built a foundation and at least gotten a basic handle on basic exercises, I would advise sticking with a split routine.

DIFFERENT KINDS OF SPLITS

When it comes to split routines, there are a million different possibilities. The one that most novice bodybuilders follow is a 5-day-a-week routine where each major muscle group (or pair of muscle groups) is given a full day, so something like: day 1, chest; day 2, back; day 3, shoulder; day 4, legs; and day 5, arms. (Of course, there would be a rest day or two worked in there over the course of the week.) Of course, this much time in the gym would be very impractical for most individuals.

In the past, I have used a number of different split routines that work quite well. One “classic” is upper body vs. lower body. The muscles of the lower body are much bigger and much more taxing to work than the muscles of the upper body. So an upper body day would include 1-2 movements for chest, 1 movement for back width (a vertical pulling movement, like a pull-up or a pull-down), 1-2 movements for shoulders (usually an overhead press and a lateral raise), 1 movement for back thickness (either a row or a deadlift), 1 movement for triceps and 1 movement for biceps. Lower body day, by contrast, wouldn’t focus on isolating out individual muscle groups, but instead would just start with the biggest “basic” movements and more towards more isolated movements as needed, or as time/energy would allow: some type of squat, followed by some type of lunge, followed by some type of leg press, followed by some type of deadlift (for hamstrings and lower back), followed by some type of leg curl. That would be a basic, well-rounded lower body workout.

In more recent times, there are 2 variations of a basic split I have found to be very effective with clients:

1) legs and back: a lot of the primary movements for legs also involve a lot of the back muscles, such as deadlifts, lunges (which work the glutes and connect to the back), and even rowing movements (which work primarily the back and biceps, but require a lot of core strength, lower back, glutes, etc.); on the second day of the week, you would train chest, shoulders and arms– again, a lot of overlap between muscle groups (working chest already hits shoulders and triceps, working shoulders already hits triceps, etc.). The nice thing about this split is that it is efficient (lots of overlap, meaning you’re not taxing the same muscles a mere two days apart), and you are working comparable amounts of muscle mass (even though legs and back are the largest groups, you’re only focusing on 2 major groupings; chest/shoulders/arms focuses on four major groupings (breaking arms into biceps and triceps), but they are smaller groups than back and legs; thus, comparable amounts of muscle mass). A generic version of this split might look like this:

Day 1: back and legs-wide pulldown: 3 sets x 10 reps

-dumbbell row: 3 sets x 10 reps

-deadlift: 3 sets x 10 reps

-squat: 3 sets x 10 reps

-lunge: 2 sets x 10 reps

-leg press: 2 sets x 15 reps

-leg curl: 3 sets x 15 reps

Day 2: chest/shoulder/arms

-incline chest press: 3 sets x 10 reps

-chest flye: 2 sets x 10 reps

-overhead shoulder press: 3 sets x 10 reps

-dumbbell lateral raise: 2 sets x 10 reps

-barbell curl: 3 sets x 10 reps

-triceps extension: 3 sets x 10 reps

2) the other split I’ve been using a lot lately is torso vs. limbs– day one would be chest, back and shoulders, while day two would be legs and arms. I like this split because day one gives equal attention to the larger torso muscles, while day two, you can focus 75% of your time on lower body (the bigger grouping), and then, since you already did a lot of upper body work earlier in the week, you can simply touch briefly on arms (25% of the time)– which are the smaller muscle groups anyways– and be done with them. I consider this just a minor variation of the more classic “upper body vs. lower body” split that I used successfully with clients for years. (On a side note: I think it’s also easier to get my male clients to wrap their brains around a workout that is predominantly all lower body, provided we do just a little bit of upper body during the same workout!) A generic version of this split might look like this:

Day 1: chest/back/shoulders

-incline chest press: 3 sets x 10 reps

-chest flye: 2 sets x 10 reps

-wide pulldown: 3 sets x 10 reps

-dumbbell row: 3 sets x 10 reps

-deadlift: 3 sets x 10 reps

-overhead shoulder press: 3 sets x 10 reps

-dumbbell lateral raise: 2 sets x 10 reps

Day 2: legs and arms

-squat: 3 sets x 10 reps

-lunge: 2 sets x 10 reps

-leg press: 3 sets x 15 reps

-leg curl: 3 sets x 15 reps

-barbell curl: 3 sets x 10 reps

-triceps extension: 3 sets x 10 reps

You should notice that I used pretty much all the same movements for each split, just rearranged the order and grouping of them. That’s because the body has specific muscle groups, and each muscle performs specific functions, and all we are doing is trying to tax that muscle with a load to get it stronger and more efficient. Thus, regardless of how I organize my split, it is going to revolved around certain basic movement patterns, and variations of those patterns:

-chest press and fly

-shoulder press and lateral raise

-triceps extension

-lat flexion (so lat pulldowns and rows)

-hip extension (so deadlift-type movements)

-biceps flexion (curl)

-squats

-lunges

-leg press

-leg curl

And that’s pretty much the major movement-types for the major skeletal muscles.

SMART STAGING AND STAGGERING

One of the things I intuitively do when I train clients is try to make the workout “efficient”. There are a million little variables involved in this, and it really is an art as much as a science, but we can cover at least a few quickly.

One thing I try to do is “stagger” muscle groups. So let’s say I’m taking a client through chest, back and shoulders. Well, the primary movement for both chest and shoulders is going to be some type of pressing movement. This will heavily tax the deltoids and the triceps. So if we go straight from chest press to shoulder press, chances are that their triceps will be fatigued, which will severely limit the amount of weight they can handle and thus lead to a worse workout. Therefore, chances are I’ll stagger it: do chest first (a pushing movement), then back (a pulling movement), then shoulders.

I’ll use the same logic if we’re training the entire upper body during a workout: chest (pushing) followed by back width (pulling) followed by shoulders (pushing) followed by back thickness (pulling) followed by triceps (pushing) followed by biceps (pulling).

Let’s follow the logic further. Suppose I’m doing a total-body workout with a client. We know that leg movements are more taxing, overall, than upper body– spikes the heart rate more, and more tiring in general. Thus, chances are I’m going to go back and forth between lower and upper body movements, which will allow a slight recovery in the bigger muscles (legs) while doing upper body, and will allow the client to “get through” the entire workout. So we might do squats (legs), chest press, lunges (legs), pulldowns, leg press (legs), shoulder press, leg curls (legs), rows, and that’s the whole workout.

Let’s say I’ve been working with a client for a few months now, they have learned basic form and gotten good at it, and they have built something of a strength foundation. Chances are I will now start focusing on building up their endurance, or their capacity to push harder for longer periods of time. As such, I will start using more supersets, which is two exercises stacked back to back with no rest in between. You can either superset two movements for the same muscle group (a chest press and a flye) to create a deeper burn in the muscle; or you can superset upper body and lower body, as in the example above; or you can superset antagonistic muscle groups, like a chest movement and a back movement (opposite muscle groups), which, again, will help to avoid too much localized fatigue.

There are a variety of intensity techniques that can be employed over time to push a muscle harder and harder. One good technique is drop sets: use your heaviest weight for the desire number of reps (8-12), and when you fail and can’t get any more reps with good form, reduce the weight (usually by about 33%) and try to get another 4-5 reps; you can do a triple drop to push it harder. This is very intense, and usually best reserved for the last set of an exercise, when you are trying to get that final bit of intensity out.

You can stack multiple exercises for the same body part, something called a giant set, in order to beat the living hell out of an individual muscle. So for instance, for hamstrings, you can do a single-leg leg curl right into a lying leg curl right into a lunge right into a stiff-legged deadlift. If you start going to fast that you have to use very light weights, then your training is now approaching circuit training and probably not as effective; however, if you try to keep the weights fairly heavy, this can occasionally be an awesome technique for pushing a muscle harder.

Your own creativity will be your only limitation while training. My advice is to observe other people while in the gym– especially those who appear to be in terrific shape– and notice what they do. I’m guessing now that the majority of the “really fit, really toned” individuals keep it very basic and simple: basic compound movements, training with a fairly high degree of intensity, trying to increase the poundage over time. Again, there is a large artistic side to training, and creativity is great, but nothing will ever replace the basics.

David A. Johnston

3/28/2010

BOOT CAMPS ARE ON HOLD FOR NOW WHILE WE SEARCH FOR A NEW LOCATION. STAY TUNED AND WE WILL LET YOU KNOW WHEN AND WHERE THEY WILL RESUME.

Are you ready for a great workout?
Want to meet the trainers that work with David Johnston Training?
Do you want to check out our new home at the Colosseum Gym?

Every Saturday @ 12 noon we are holding a FREE Boot Camp.

These classes are free to all, and you do NOT have to have a membership to participate. We want to provide a nice perk to current clients, introduce older clients to our new setting, and get to know anyone else who is interested. Please feel free to bring friends and family that are interested in starting a fitness lifestyle, but haven’t yet gotten into the gym.

Do your have questions? Not sure if this is for you? Shoot David an email via our Contact Page.

The Colosseum Gym is located at..

9159 Red Branch Rd #101
Columbia, MD, 21045

I have worked in commercial gyms for years now, and have watched every sales tactic and technique imaginable when it comes to personal training. Often times, a new client is presented with a questionnaire asking about their preferences regarding a personal trainer– “Would you prefer a disciplinarian type, or an empathetic type?”

I always thought the question was the silliest question in the world– until I started watching other personal trainers with their clientele.

See, here’s the deal with personal trainers: they are typically commission-only. Which means, when they’re not training a client, they are making no money at all. Which means they are intensely interested in acquiring a client in the first place, and by all means never offending that client.

We are taught in the sales world to “never say no”– if you want to close a sale, you should always be cheerful, agreeable, and always tell the client what they want to hear, even if you later have to modify it to something slightly different. And most personal trainers approach their new clients in this manner: they are passive, borderline fearful of offending the prospective client, for fear that they won’t close the sale. And then once they have that client, they are afraid to be blunt, to “tell it like it is”, for fear of losing the client.

But here’s the problem: you are hiring a trainer. This means, you are seeking out guidance and leadership from a qualified professional to help take you to a level of health and fitness you admittedly can’t get to on your own.

Can you imagine sending your children to a teacher who backed down her expectations every time the child said “It’s too hard”, for fear of discouraging the child? Can you imagine employing a teacher for your child who was more concerned with being the child’s friend, than the child’s instructor? Of course not! You would run screaming from a teacher like that. Why? Because a teacher’s job is to hold your child accountable, have high expectations, and help elevate them to the next level of knowledge.

The same is true with personal training. You want somebody with a strong personality, somebody who is smart (maybe a little too smart), somebody who will call you on your BS, somebody with high expectations, somebody who holds him or herself to a ridiculously high standard. This will help to elevate you to the next level, even if it’s a bit painful (and trust me, it will be– if it was simple and pain-free, you’d already be in great shape, and not spending hundreds of dollars on a personal trainer!).

So when hiring a trainer, do yourself a favor and look for the meanest, most brutally honest trainer in the gym. Yes, it will sting a bit, but at the end of your sessions, when you actually have the body and health of your dreams– along with the self-esteem that you earned in the process– you will come back and thank me!

Getting in shape is a daunting task, but it can be made much easier with the help of a certified personal trainer. However, many people don’t know how to go about selecting the right trainer. There are three major areas one needs to focus on when hiring the right trainer:

1) What has this personal trainer accomplished in the past?

2) How did he/she accomplish it?

3) How is he/she going to do that for me?

Let’s look at each a little more in-depth:

What has this personal trainer accomplished in the past?

Many trainers are kids fresh-out-of-college that have never actually worked with a real-life client before. And while there might be a lot of theoretical knowledge, the everyday application and know-how is not yet up to speed. It’s always preferable to find a personal trainer with a track record of proven results. Ask to see his or her portfolio, with pictures and testimonials from past clients. This way, you can better gauge that trainer’s success rate. Ask them about their methods. Any trainer with his or her metal ought to be able to explain briefly why their approach works well, and what sets them apart from other trainers with a less successful track record. You want to find a trainer that has had a wide variety of clients with varied backgrounds, and thus knows how to solve a range of problems, whether physical, behavioral, or nutrition-based. Finally, it’s always preferable to find a trainer who “walks the walk”– a trainer that actually looks the part and is in shape, and is thus obviously passionate about his or her own fitness level.

How did this personal trainer accomplish his/her past successes?

After you’re sold that the trainer you’re interviewing actually has the goods, figure out how he or she has applied it in the past. Start by making sure the trainer is well educated and actually knows the science behind the human body. Make sure the personal trainer you are considering hiring avoids gimmicks and trends, and thus doesn’t go for the “easy-sale”. Even if well-educated, we all have our knowledge limitations; make sure your trainer is honest and objective enough to admit when he/she doesn’t know the answer to a question or problem, but is also ambitious enough to seek out the answer from the appropriate source or authority. Finally, make sure the prospective trainer is professional in how he/she conducts his or her business– that the trainer is consistently on time, is highly organized, and has excellent communication skills.

How is this personal trainer going to accomplish your goals for YOU?

After reviewing the trainer’s success rate and seeing how they accomplished said successes, it’s important to see then how they will individualize that program for you. First, make sure this trainer is going to take you on as a “project”, rather than as a “client”– that means they will help you with not just your exercise, but also with your nutrition plan, your cardio plan, your life-coaching and behavior-modification– basically, whatever is needed to help get you to your end-goal. Make sure the trainer is more focused on achieving your goals, and the actual training part of the equation, than merely closing the sale. Yes, sales is part of personal training, but it shouldn’t be the central focus. The focus should still revolve around your health and fitness. It’s important that your trainer is a good teacher. Unless you are planning on working with him or her for the rest of your life, you will eventually need to know how to work out on your own. Thus, you need somebody that can explain it to you. Finally, make sure your trainer is brutally honest with you, and has a strong personality. Remember, you are hiring this person to help drag you to the next level, often kicking and screaming. If you could do it on your own, you wouldn’t be hiring him/her! So the last thing you need is sugar-coated nonsense.

When trying to select the right personal trainer, just remember to focus on the three big areas: what have they accomplished in the past?; how did they accomplish it?; and how are they going to accomplish it for you?

To itemize:

1) Make sure the trainer has a proven track record of results. Anyone can talk big, but client pictures and testimonials don’t lie.

2) Make sure the trainer has a proven method of achieving results. After showing you his/her testimonials, make the trainer explain how it was accomplished.

3) Make sure the trainer has worked with a variety of clients presenting a host of different challenges (physical, nutritional, and behavioral). This will demonstrate that the trainer has good problem-solving skills, and can be successful in a variety of situations.

4) Make sure the trainer actually “walks the walk”. Many in this industry become cynical over time, but a trainer who still takes care of his or own health and physique is clearly passionate about fitness.

5) Make sure the trainer is well-educated. A scientific background, and knowing how the human body actually operates, is key.

6) Make sure the trainer is not looking for the “easy-out”. It’s simple to sell people gimmicks and trends, so avoid gimmicky trainers like the plague!

7) Make sure the trainer knows his limitations. Yes, education is key, but so is admitting that you don’t have the answer to everything– that way, you can both seek out solutions from other sources (doctors, chiropractors, etc.).

Make sure the trainer is professional. He or she should consistently be on time, not cancel appointments, be highly organized, have excellent communication skills, etc.

9) Make sure the trainer takes you on as a “project”, and not just a “client”. Yes, they are there to work you out, but they also need to help you with your nutrition, your cardio plan, your life-coaching and behavior modification, your motivation– basically, whatever it takes to actually help you achieve your goal!

10) Make sure the trainer is more focused on the training than the sale. Making the sale is an inherent part of personal training, but it should never be the focus; make sure the trainer you are considering puts your fitness and health first, and the sale second.

11) Make sure your prospective trainer is a good teacher. Unless you plan on working with him or her forever, you will eventually be doing this on your own, and thus need somebody that can teach you how and make sense of it all.

12) Make sure your trainer is brutally honest and has a strong personality. Remember, you are hiring this person to deliver you– often kicking and screaming– to a healthier lifestyle and better physique; thus you need somebody that won’t pull punches with you, and that will take the lead when necessary.