Christmas Season Fitness Frustration

Most of us have had the weight loss or fitness frustration during this time of the year. Here we are struggling all year to do well and then the Holidays come around. All of a sudden there are Christmas parties everywhere, the end of the year work stress, kids and partners being sick, we are low on cash because of bills and Christmas gifts. It is the season that probably puts on the most pounds on people. The stress, the food and the time restrictions make it seemingly impossible to make it through. 

Don’t be mad!

Here is one thing, being frustrated with yourself does not make it any easier, quite the opposite, the likelyhood of you eating more food, especially comfort food rises.  We are all aware that this is coming around, most of us have seen it for a couple of decades (including the weight gain). If you have gained weight until now during this season, be okay with it. It is not like the weight drops right away if you are mad at yourself right, and I am sure you have felt the hunger cravings for chocolate or other comfort foods during that time when you are mad at yourself.

Now it is easier said that done. If you are mad, then you are mad, right? Well, kind of. It has actually shown that people active pursue some self compassion, like in the form of saying to yourself: “It is okay that I have eaten too much, most people struggle during this time, I am not alone”, really seem to be doing better and compensating less with food afterwards.

Move on!

Some of us live in the future and always worry, some of us live in the past and feel eternally guilty for something. Accept your responsibility and move on. We all fail, all great leaders have failed in one way or another, the difference usually is that they are capable of moving on. It does not mean you don’t take responsibility but guilt tripping yourself for all eternity has not changed anything yet other than making you eat more and feel bad. Next time you make a mistake, may that be eating or otherwise, take responsibility, have some compassion for yourself and move on by doing differently again. Thomas Eddison once said: “I have not failed. I have just found 1000 ways that won’t work.” In the end he was successful.

 

Reset!

How do you move on? You reset your day. You have eaten badly? You have not exercised? Reset the day. Start again. Eat healthily for the rest of the day, get  a short workout in, even 10 min are better than nothing. You can do it

Sincerely,

 

Michael Anders

Head Trainer Shape Up Fitness & Wellness Consulting

 

As a personal trainer I always ask my client for her/his goals. I often get to hear that she wants to be as fit as she can be. At other times I hear people compare athletes from different sports with each other and how one athlete is fitter than the other.

Fitness is a vague term and cannot be entirely nailed down. At the same time, when you are looking to work with a personal trainer it is important that you know what you are aiming for, what your definition of fitness is. A sprinter, a marathon runner, a weight lifter or a basketball player, they all require a certain fitness that pertains to their sport and their goals. It is really hard to compare them with each other though. All of them have a very specific goal and the adaptations in their body aim to improve on what is necessary to have a better performance. A true sprinter will not be able to run a marathon and the marathon runner is so slow over a 100 m dash that you can drink a coffee. Why? Their muscles have adapted to the requirements of their sport. 

If you want to get fit, then you have to find out what that means for you. Do you want to acquire what I call a general fitness, meaning, improve your cardiovascular fitness (in this case endurance >30 min), your strength, even some of your sprint ability? Then you need to understand that you cannot be great at everything. Up to a certain point you can improve on all of those but there is a turning point where you will have to specialize in a discipline in order to keep improving. Why is that?

Because sometimes the required adaptations contradict each other. Take me for example: I want to be stronger, be more explosive, run marathons and do martial arts. Well, good luck with that! I have become faster in my marathons, I have become stronger and faster for my martial arts but… I will level out. Someone who runs long distance trains slow twitch muscle fibers, someone who sprints, fast twitch muscle fibers. A body running long distance cannot carry a lot of muscle and stay fast. There is an optimum. At the same time a sprinter needs fast twitch muscle fibers that are able to contract explosively and generate more force than slow twitch muscle fibers. Those muscle fibers are bigger if trained.

I know I will never be as fast a sprinter, a marathon runner, or as strong a lifter as if I specialized on one thing only. I am getting better at all of it, but it takes longer which I am okay with. 

Even if you consider being a specialist, you still need to cross train in other areas because they can help improve your performance up to a certain point.

Most of our clients look for general fitness, some are specialists. We make sure our personal training is catered to the specific needs of our clients. I hope this article was able to help you find out what you are looking for and help you understand the importance of knowing your goals.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

 

Michael

Which Fitness Trends are going to stay in Charlotte?

Like every year there is always someone who tries to predict the fitness trends for the following year. This article is based on the article posted by the ACSM. I will comment on each of the top 10 trends and tell you what makes sense and what is most likely just a fad that is going to go away or is going to hurt you.

According to a survey they did the upcoming year will  see the following fitness trends:

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

is signified by short hard intervals followed by a resting period. This has been big already this year. I think depending on your goals this kind of training is actually here to stay. It shows some significant promise in weight loss as well as improving cardiovascular fitness fast. It is definitely NOT the holy grail. It will still have to be supplemented by other training depending on what you are trying to accomplish.

Body Weight Training

allows you to train with minimal equipment and get in shape. A great choice for many people, and definitely should be in your arsenal in the pursuit of fitness. Be aware though that if you are really out of shape even body weight might be too heavy and once you have accomplished a certain fitness level the training stimulus might just not be enough to help you improve.

 

Educated and Experienced Fitness Professionals

it seems that people are looking for more qualified trainers and professionals. This is definitely a trend that I embrace with all of my heart.

 

Strength Training

This has been a staple for a while and properly executed is an important part of your physical fitness, especially considering that our professions have become more and more sedentary.

 

Exercise and Weight Loss

This is a trend that keeps coming and my feelings are ambivalent about it. The reason for that is that despite all efforts with diets and exercise the overall population is still getting more obese. What has worked for us is guiding our clients to a healthy lifestyle instead of a diet, which includes cooking unprocessed food instead of counting calories. Counting calories seem to put the clients mind too much towards food and as we all know it is impossible not to think about a blue elephant in the room if someone tells you not to.

 

Personal Training

Education has become increasingly more important in this field and I can fully embrace that as well. Education and knowledge should be a minimum requirement, not optional.

 

Fitness Programs for Older Adults

with our populations average age rising fitness in our older population becomes more and more important and that is definitely important to keep health care costs low, improve quality of life and general fitness.

 

Functional Fitness

this term is frequently abused. The way I look at it: Functional training is the training that prepares the individual best for their daily living activities, their sports activities without hurting them but improving their performance. Balance, strength, coordination, stability and mobility are all part of this.

 

Group Personal Training

Offering a cheaper alternative to personal training it can be a good choice for clients and trainers without compromising the quality of training too much.

 

Yoga

the different variations of yoga can have beneficial effects on people, physically as well as mentally. It is crucial though to have a good instructor otherwise you might have the same experience as some of our clients that come to us after injuries to wrist, neck, back and knees.