Personal Training in Truro, Cornwall

Over the past 10 years or so personal training has grown rapidly in popularity as many people seek expert guidance on an ongoing basis to help them achieve their goals. However, a lot of people still ask me exactly what a personal trainer does and many view personal trainers as a luxury rather than a necessary investment if they are to achieve what they are looking for. Do not think that a personal trainer is simply there to count repetitions and shout motivational slogans at you! A good trainer will write a structured programme for you that is specific to your current condition, they will look very closely at your nutrition and lifestyle, and they will ensure that you are training at the correct intensity to ensure success. Personally, I have had more success with clients in just two weeks than they experienced in months of going it alone!

Finding a good trainer can be a tricky business and you want to make sure that you are going to get value for the money you spend. With that in mind, I have written down a number of points to take into consideration when looking for a personal trainer:

1. Look at their qualifications - it is worth bearing in mind here that someone can become qualified as a personal trainer in just 6 weeks, while others will have studied for years and spend many thousands of pounds to help them give the best service to their clients.
2. Do they have a track record of delivering results? - ask the trainer about their experience working with clients. A good trainer will have a long list of happy clients who achieved exactly what they were looking for and many of these clients will be only too happy to chat with you about their experience.
3. Does the trainer's programme work for them? - this is one of the most important factors to look at when hiring a trainer. Look closely at the trainer and you will quite clearly see the results of their programme. I don't know about you but I wouldn't want advice on weight loss from an overweight trainer - they can't give what they don't have!
4. Do they offer nutrition and lifestyle advice? - your nutrition and lifestyle will make or break your programme. Even a well-written programme can be rendered useless if you do not take into account these factors.
5. Ask the trainer about their philosophy - all good trainers have a training philosophy. My advice would be to steer clear of anyone who says they like to work their clients as hard as possible as this is not intelligent training.
6. Ask the trainer about the assessment process - one of the reasons that you might go to see a trainer is to get a programme that is individually tailored to suit you - if the trainer does not perform a comprehensive assessment this is not possible. Look for a trainer who performs at least the following assessments: posture (both static and dynamic), core function, breathing patterns, flexibility, length-tension relationships and movement pattern analysis.

The vast majority of personal trainers will offer a free consultation so do not be afraid to use this opportunity to visit a number of trainers before you decide and ask them about the points I have raised above. Also, remember that the cost can be expensive but do not just go with the cheapest trainer otherwise you may not get the results you are looking for.

Good luck with your health and fitness goals in 2011.

Hi and welcome back to the Optima blog. One of the questions I frequently get asked is how to get through the Christmas period without your healthy lifestyle going down the drain, and have fun at the same time!

To help you make the most of the festive season, here are a selection of my top tips to help you enjoy Christmas without ruining your health:

• If you are going to drink alcohol, always make sure to consume plenty of water as well to help minimise any dehydration (and the dreaded after-effects!).
• Always try to eat something fatty (healthy fats of course!) before drinking alcohol to minimise the effect on your blood sugar. Organic pate, nuts or fatty meats are great options and you will feel much better for it.
• If you are going to indulge in 'treats' always try to look for certified organic options as this will reduce the load on your liver and assist your well-being.
• Make the most of the current weather! Get outside and enjoy the snow - go sledging and have snowball fights.
• Most gyms should be open over the Christmas period so there is no excuse not to head to the gym for a quick workout. The most effective way to burn calories is to lift weights so have a member of staff show you how to use the dumbbells. A 30-45 minute session is ideal.
• Finally, make sure you get plenty of rest. Take any opportunities you can get to have a quick power-nap. 15 minutes is ideal for this.

Remember that January is also a great time of year to set yourself some new goals to help improve your health and vitality and make 2011 a great year. At Optima we have two great packages to help you get started. Click here for more information.

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Welcome back to the Optima blog and part 2 of my article looking at training considerations for females.

In part 1, we looked at the importance of resistance training if you want to lose weight and tone-up. Now I want to take a look at postural and nutritional considerations.

Posture

There are a great many ways in which a female's posture differs from a male's. Here I shall take a look at just a few of them and discuss how these differences could affect your exercise programme.

Firstly, female's have a wider pelvis than males to support child bearing. This means that the femur (the long bone of the thigh) angles downward and inward creating an angle at the knee which is larger than that of a male (known as a Q angle). A result of this increased angle is an increase in orthopaedic dysfunction at both the knee and hip. For this reason, it is of particular importance for females to have strong, well-coordinated 'core' muscles as this will help to stabilise the pelvis and knee.

Also, females have an increased joint laxity, particularly in association with the premenstrual cycle. This adds further importance to an exercise programme emphasising stability and a strong core.

It is important to note at this time that such exercises as sit-ups, crunches, leg raises and back extensions do NOT contribute to core stability. In fact, in some cases they can weaken the stability of your spine and pelvis. The best place to start your core training is with the 4-point tummy vacuum:

• Assume a position on all fours.
• With the spine in neutral alignment, take a deep breath in and allow your belly to drop towards the floor.
• Exhale and draw your navel in towards your spine as far as you can. Once the air is completely expelled, hold the navel to- wards your spine for ten seconds, or as long as you comfortably can without taking a breath (no longer than ten seconds).
• Throughout the breathing pattern keep your spine motionless.
• This process should be repeated ten times to complete a set.

Another interesting area in which a female's posture differs from a male's is bought on, not by natural means, but by lifestyle. High heels dramatically affect posture and, for those who wear high-heels a lot, this needs to be factored in to your exercise programme. High-heeled shoes can cause tightness in the calf muscles; this then pulls the knees into hyperextension, which affects the angle of the pelvis and therefore the curvature of the spine. A significant portion of the back pain in females can be traced back to high-heeled shoes!

In this example, it is very important to strengthen the lower abdominals and stretch the lower back muscles and calf muscles to help restore optimal posture. There are many ways in which individual posture can be affected and I would always recommend a full postural assessment before beginning any exercise programme.

DO NOT DIET!

Whilst not going into too much detail, there is one last point I would like to highlight with regards to nutrition and females. I highlighted in the first part of this article that females are typically 40% more energy-efficient than males - this is partly due to a female's greater quantity of lipogenic enzymes (fat-storing) as opposed to lipolytic enzymes (fat-burning). It is for this reason that females store fat more easily than males.

The reason this is so important is because of the growing popularity of fad diets and calorie-restriction. Every time you go on a diet, the body increases the amount of lipogenic enzymes as insurance against starvation. Therefore in response to the diet, your body is increasing the it's ability to store fat as a survival mechanism! In fact, each diet makes it progressively harder for the body to restore a normal metabolic rate. Debra Waterhouse, author of 'Outsmarting the Female Fat Cell', says that diets are one of the causes of obesity and that the "typical women has lost 100 pounds through dieting only to regain 125!"

Therefore, eat plenty of food. It's not the quantity that counts, but the quality!

Welcome to the Optima blog, and my latest instalment looking at training considerations for females.

During my time as a Personal Trainer, the two goals I find most prevalent, regardless of sex, are the desire to lose weight and tone-up. What is interesting though is that males and females seem to go about achieving these goals in very different ways; males typically prefer to lift weights whilst females generally tend to prefer using such cardiovascular (CV) machines as the cross-trainer, or attending aerobic classes. Bearing in mind that the goals are the same, should males and females be training differently? The short answer is yes, but the real question is how should the training programmes differ? In this blog, I am going to look at specific training considerations for females and provide some tips to help you get the most out of your programme.

Do you want to lose weight?

One of the main differences between males and females is that females are approximately 40% more energy-efficient. This stems from the fact that females are designed to carry a developing foetus for nine months in what, throughout history, could have been very unpredictable environments. Unfortunately this energy-efficiency is not a good thing when you want to lose weight - you want the body to be as inefficient as possible, burning up huge amounts of energy! Many feel that the best way to lose weight is to regularly attend the aerobics class at the local gym or religiously log high amounts of time on a piece of CV equipment. Initially, most notice a small or moderate change in their body shape with this form of exercise. However, once the initial period is over, say 2 or 3 weeks, the body has begun to adapt to the specific stress of whatever exercise you were doing, therefore becoming even more efficient. This means that you will be burning progressively fewer and fewer calories the more you do that exercise! It is for this exact reason that it is very common to see the same people on the same machines or in the same classes month after month and their body shape rarely ever changes!

The most effective way to ensure you get the most from your programme is to incorporate resistance training, in particular, free weights. This ensures that your programme has enough variety so that your body is constantly being challenged and therefore burning far greater amounts of energy. Also, free-weight exercises, as opposed to machine exercises, require activation of your stabiliser muscles which further increases the energy requirement of the exercise, whilst helping to maintain a more functional body. An exercise such as the squat literally activates pretty much every muscle in your body - I have trained many female clients who do one set out of 10 repetitions and are more out of breath than if they had just done 20 minutes on the cross-trainer!

Won't I get big if I lift weights?

This is a very common fear for females when contemplating resistance training, though it is completely unfounded. Females typically have 10 times less testosterone (the muscle-building hormone) in their blood stream than males, and much higher levels oestrogen. The women on the front of body-building magazines have a very hard time putting on muscle and this is after lifting very heavy weights for as much as five hours each day, coupled with comprehensive nutritional modifications and supplements.

Of course, it is very important to seek professional advice when beginning a resistance training programme to ensure that you perform exercises with the proper technique.

Join me for Part 2, in which I will take a look at postural and nutritional considerations for females.