 Starting a new fitness program can be a daunting task. It takes courage and a willingness to change for someone new to walk through our doors looking for a personal trainer. When it comes to starting a training program for beginners, I try to empathize with my clients here in Palo Alto, CA by thinking about how it is for me to start a new training program where I am a beginner. When I first started training for Track & Field I would get very self-conscious when learning a new event. Since I only had considerable experience in 2 events, I was a beginner or a straight up novice in all the others I attempted. Part of starting a new program is the technical portion. Knowing what exercises to do, how often, how many reps, etc. The other side is finding inspiration and motivation so you stick to your new fitness program and have fun doing it.
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A home gym may be easier to set up than you think. This may look more like a mini workout area than a full room dedicated to a gym. All you really need is a small space and a few pieces of versatile equipment.
It’s been a while since my last post! I’ve been SO busy with clients, massage school, certifications, and my own training regimen for track and field.
I just had my 10 year anniversary as the owner of Breakthrough Personal Training! That makes 14 years of being a full-time personal trainer. Or as I like to tell people, “Fitness is all I’ve done”. Here are 5 “Must Do’s” for results that I have learned over the many years. Decathlon Week 4-8Updated 10/11/16
My training for D10’s Decathlon has been going stellar! My times and reps are improving! It feels great to tackle these goals and to “train” myself by setting up an intelligent workout regimen each week. The only issue I had is a low back injury which I suspect is merely severe muscle soreness from drilling one event. It always amazes me how sore we can get by doing something simple even if we are unaccustomed to it. Go to my profile page to see the list of events, my goals, and to donate to help children’s cancer research through Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford. I have to reach a minimum donation amount of $2250 to compete, so help children’s cancer research and help me get to the competition! A huge THANKS to those who have already donated! Thanks helping pediatric cancer research. It has also given me more motivation to achieve my goal marks on competition day. Here’s some videos and highlights on my training! I had no idea this competition existed until I stumbled upon it while searching for more information on the Decathlon in the Rio Olympics. I have always loved watching track and field and specifically the Decathlon. I got very excited after seeing the list of events, many of which are disciplines I strive to improve and excel in.
Go to my profile page to see the list of events, my goals, and to donate to help children’s cancer research through Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford. I have to reach a minimum donation amount to compete, so help children’s cancer research and help me get to the competition!  The one key to results is simple: Make it a priority. Behind the absolute “must do’s” like work, raising kids, and bathing, your fitness goals HAVE to be a top priority in order to see results.
I had a client once ask me, “How do your busy clients find time to workout?” By busy I mean they have a high stress/high responsibility job, kids, travel, and hobbies. Yet they still exercise 5 times a week. So I asked a client that is truly busy how he manages to exercise often. He quickly replied, “You have to make it a priority.” Ok, so that was obvious to me, but then he added, “You know Jerry, I COULD work more if I wanted to. I could work all through the evening and get home late at night, but then I would not only be skipping my workouts, I would hardly spend time with my family.”  For those of us who like to “bulk” and “cut”, it is now time to bulk or as I rather call it, do a muscle building phase. There has been some backlash on this method lately for good reason. A “bulking” phase does not mean eat and drink everything in sight. That is not the right way to build muscle and it actually makes it harder to lose fat come time for the “cutting” phase. I’m also convinced it makes problem areas more problematic. Believe me, I know too well.
Recently I was reminded of how much additional activity is needed for those with a sedentary lifestyle to lose fat. Most of us have a sedentary job which we drive to and then get home to sit in front of another computer or TV.  Active Jobs Make a Big DifferenceThe average sedentary woman will burn 1,750 cals a day and average man 2,300 cals a day. Take those same people and put them on their feet with light activity for 8 hours a day and now they burn 2,250 and 3,000 cals respectively. This activity level would describe such occupations as a nurse, server, or small-medium package handler. If you take these two people and have them at a job with moderate labor, they now burn 2,900 and 3,500 calories respectively. That is a difference of 500-1200 calories burned per day!
As a trainer, it is EXTREMELY easy to make those with active jobs lose fat. Give them a few extra workouts a week, make them adhere to a healthy diet, and watch them lose fat at an incredible rate. For the sedentary individual this happens MUCH slower as one would expect by the numbers above. They need to have their nutrition near perfect in order to lose fat at a considerable rate.  Fall in love with the gym or...As a trainer, my superstar clients are those that fall in love with the gym. They love the gym culture and atmosphere of people working hard to improve their physiques. They are the ones who go to the gym on the days where they don’t have an appointment with me resulting in 5-6 workouts a week. At 1-2 hours each workout, this comes out to 5-12 hrs a week of moderate- to vigorous activity. In reality, this is what is needed to get FAST results. You can get slower results by doing less, which is completely okay as well.
 Taken from Dru Bloomfield - At Home in Scottsdale. Cropped. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ There is an ongoing debate of whether running is beneficial to your health or whether it will make you injured and overtrained. Those against running are usually the people who are not good at it or those where cardiovascular endurance is of lower priority to their other athletic goals. They do however, have some good points as to the negative effects of running. Some people keep running even though they don’t like it. I’ve had many clients who hated running but still continued to do so because it helped them lose weight or just feel better afterwards. They still continue to run even though they don’t like it. Some say it is a recipe for injury and that it won’t really make you lose any fat. Others say it is an easy to do, convenient exercise that will shed the pounds faster than any other activity. So which is it?
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