There’s a really great quote,

“If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you.”

-Fred Devito

If effective exercise and good for you nutrition were easy, everyone would be doing it. Everyone would have successes. As a whole we’d likely be a healthier, happier world.

When your exercise routine doesn’t challenge you anymore you probably won’t see results, at least not the same degree of results you had in the beginning of starting. You can challenge yourself by:

• using heavier weights
• taking less rest
• varying the tempo of the exercise
• completing the same amount of work in less time
• changing the time of day you exercise

The same concept applies for nutrition. It will take more time to prepare your food but it will be healthier and better for you than eating out or buying prepackaged food items. It might be easy to order a pizza for dinner but over the long haul you’ll have a greater response from grilled chicken, roasted vegetables and a salad.

I don’t mean any of this to say that you should purposefully make life harder on yourself, that’s not the angle I’m approaching this from. If you’re going to put in the effort to do a workout, be sure to make it challenging so you benefit from your efforts. If you’re going do that, then you’ll want to fuel and refuel the body with nutrients that are needed by doing some meal prep.

__________________________________________________________________________

Don’t know what to do for your workouts?

Call us to set up a time for your success session and we’ll show you how! 215-248-2130

There are likely more recommendations on health and fitness, exercise, weight loss and strength gains than any other subject matter on the consumer market. If not, there are at least too many to count.

Who and what should you believe?

First and foremost, all the facts are required to make the best, educated decision for you.

If it sounds extreme like caloric deprivation, under 1000 calories a day while maintaining exercise, it’s not sustainable or healthy. Also, if it’s excessive, like two-a-day workouts with steady state cardio built in, it’s not sustainable or healthy.

All lifestyle; exercise and nutrition, decisions should support increasing your quality of life. That’s not to say that starting them might be uncomfortable compared to what you currently do. After all, consistent exercise and clean eating are not easy tasks to master but they can be mastered.

To avoid making this a mile long read, the basics for the average person with quality of life as goal, look like this:

-Eat lean proteins, healthy fats, non processed carbohydrates, vegetables and low glycemic fruits.
-Exercise consistently throughout the week, at least 3-4 days a week.
-Don’t starve yourself, your body needs nutrients, particularly after you workout.
-Get sleep, at least 7 hours, it’s part of the recovery process.
-If it hurts, don’t do it. Find a substitute.
-Never give up. Keep at it, building habits and creating change won’t happen overnight.
-Keep yourself accountable, let your coach or family member know if you need support during the process.

Once you’ve mastered the above you make tweaks to train for specific events or to see what your body is capable of doing. Just don’t over do it in the beginning. Remember this: extreme and excessive are not sustainable or healthy.

After being in the industry for over 14 years and owning a facility for over 12 years, I’ve noticed that when budgets are tight or expenses need to be cut, gym memberships are often one of the first to go. In reality it should be one of the last.

Here’s my opinion on how to make a gym membership work for you and why it’s valuable.

Years ago the boutique style gym wasn’t quite a thing yet, CrossFit did a great job of helping to get today’s smaller, functional training facilities on the map. Before then there were large, corporate owned gyms that offered classes, personal training and just a regular old membership, where most people just roamed about. The cost typically wasn’t impactful enough if you missed three weeks in a row or eventually three months in a row.

Here’s why those gyms, and most of our mindset about gyms in general don’t work:

1. You’re signed up,  all excited and motivated to start but you loose that motivation or you simply don’t know what to do when you are there.
2. There’s no accountability, so the first week you miss it’s not noticed, then all of a sudden you haven’t gone in 3 months and it’s still not noticed. Eventually you fall out of a routine.
3. Larger gyms are actually designed for you to not attend.
4. When you don’t know what to do when you’re at the gym you start to wonder if your time might be better spent doing something else.
5. If you aren’t following a specific workout and nutrition plan you probably aren’t going to get the results you want in the time period you want and you get frustrated.

In a smaller, boutique style gym, like Urban Athlete, we attempt to break the mindset and limitations listed out above.

1. At Urban Athlete – it’s about lifestyle. When you sign up for a gym membership we want you to come on a regular and consistent basis.
2. If you are doing personal training we will make sure the workout is tailored to the goals we discussed in your success session.
3. If you are doing group training we will make sure that you are comfortable in the group setting and have modifications and progressions available for when/if the workout needs to be adjusted.
4. Starting a new habit can be challenging and we want you to succeed, so all you have to do is get to the gym, we will show you what you need to do.
5. We also want your workouts to be fun! In addition to the workouts, we host charity events and appreciation events that allow the community to become more connected to each other.
6. Supporting you in your efforts is huge, we want to be able to lift you up, even if it’s just for the time you are at the gym.

The best thing for making a gym membership work for you is:

1. Make sure it’s convenient to home or work or along the route to get to either of these places.
2. Schedule your gym time like you do all other appointments and don’t miss.
3. Set small goals; if you attend the gym 36 times (that’s just 3x a week) in 90 days, reward yourself!
4. Let your coach know what support you need to keep at it. That’s part of the reason we’re there, to help lift you up.

In my experience with the fitness, one of the most challenging conflicts in being successful with your fitness plan is sticking to it. I’ll be one of the first to admit, that fitness isn’t easy. It’s one of those things, that if it was – everyone would be doing it and doing it well.

Let’s clear up a few things that often get in the way:

1. Starting a fitness journey cannot be a fleeting thought. Decisions made at 2am or because your saw a cool advertising sign, likely won’t be the reason you stick to a program, at least not long term.
2. Starting a fitness journey cannot be something someone else wants you to do. If your spouse or partner wants you to lead a healthier lifestyle or your doctor tells you exercise should be in your weekly plan, likely won’t be the reason yo stick to a program, again, at least not long term.

So, if you personally want to make some lifestyle changes and are driven by factors that are important to you like longevity, your family, happiness, better sleep, and so on then here are some steps to help make your fitness journey successful.

• Schedule your workout time. This is a lifestyle change – you must make it a part of your life. These fitness appointments cannot be traded for other time or other appointments.
• Your gym should be convenient. If you choose a gym or coach that is either close to home or close to work you will be more likely to attend. It should be on the physical path you travel most days.
• Invest in you. Fitness and nutrition are a hard and confusing journey. There is a lot of information available to you, hire a professional to guide you and coach you through the process.
• Find a community that fits you. This might sound weird to be in this list but the people who are clients in the gym you decide to work out in are important. You have to like going there and soon enough you’ll even like the workouts despite how easy or hard they might feel.
• Remind yourself why you started on this path every day. You might need a few pep talks along the way. Some will come from your coach, some from your loved ones, many will come from you. Be positive in the talks you have with yourself and celebrate your wins; big and small.

Fitness should be fun and rewarding. Some days might be hard but once you start you’ll have days in the future where you look back and reflect on where you started and how far you’ve come.

First, what is ROM?

Glad you asked! ROM stands for range of motion. It’s a very crucial component of exercise. Working with full range of motion is what makes us stronger overall and specifically in the joint that is doing most of the work. Additionally. as you progress from the basics to more challenging exercises having full range of motion is important.

What does this look like exactly?

Let’s look at the push up as an example. In a full range of motion push up we want:

• the upper body to be in line with the lower body
• the head to be in a neutral position
• the elbows to be in full extension (or straight) at the top of the exercise
• the upper arm to be at least parallel to the ground in the bottom of the exercise

If the all four of these cannot be achieved when doing the exercise, we prefer that you modify the exercise in order to be able to reach full range of motion, particularly with the upper body.

I know that sometimes our ego can get in the way and encourage us to try a version that isn’t modified. Trust me when I tell you, you’ll reach your exercise goals quicker when you work with modifications to help get stronger.

It might even be hard for you to tell when you are or aren’t getting the full range of motion you need. Often, the full range of motion will be harder! That’s ok. Ask your coach if you aren’t sure.

Some things to look at in the push up to determine if you aren’t reaching full range of motion:

• shoulders are always above the hips, or the hips are sagging toward the floor
• hips that are popped up in the air, hips above the shoulders
• if the chin is reaching toward the floor
• if elbows do not come to full extension at the top of each rep
• if the upper arm does not make it parallel to the ground

Ways to modify the movement to become stronger, which is a good thing!!

• Elevate the hands off the floor
• Drop one or both knees to the floor when doing the exercise, be sure not let the hips pop up in the air
• Use a resistance band around the elbows to help lift you up from the floor as you do the push up
• Work on the negative of the exercise, slowly lower yourself to the floor and don’t worry about trying to push up from the floor

Over time with effort you’ll be able to do regular push ups with ease!!