Guinea Pig Workout Week 3 - by Carrie Adamson

According to Alan I made a rookie mistake during my training session this week.  I only had two workouts this week, I missed Monday because I was still suffering pretty badly from my cold.  I even missed work that day.  The first time I worked out was Wednesday and it was also my first time having Corina has my trainer.  Alan had another commitment that morning.  Corina and Alan work as a team and I knew my workout wouldn’t be any less hard or different with her in charge.  I noticed a difference with my warm up stretching as I think she used her body weight as the resistance.  It felt good, probably partially because I hadn’t worked out for five days and because it felt like a deeper stretch.  Since Corina was following Alan’s training notes I also got to do the side stretch on the ball, one I hadn’t done in a while.  I like that one because it feels like my body is tight and I am getting the stretch that it needs.  I am still working on the same leg exercises, but this week Corina upped the weight on my squats.  After the first set she added 20 lbs.  I made it through the remaining three ok and the rest of the exercises.  The last one that I do on leg days is balancing on the exercise ball.  To make it more challenging, she was throwing a soccer ball at me and by the last set I was able to make four catches before I rolled right off.  Luckily I haven’t  face planted yet on the floor and hoping my legs and core get strong enough before that happens.  

Friday was upper body day and this is when I made my rookie mistake.  I got through most of my workout with Alan and Corina and when I said I wasn’t feeling the burn as much in my arms as I was my legs.   I think I was on my second set of raises while standing on the Bosu ball and made the comment that my legs were getting tired before my arms were.  Alan’s reply was, “oh yeah?” He then proceeded to give me heavier dumbbells for the following two sets and this time for sure I was feeling the burn when I got to the last reps.  Even though I made a rookie mistake I am glad I did because if I don’t speak up about my training and push myself, who will?  Alan and Corina can only guide me so much, I am the one who has to do the work.  

Guinea Pig Workout Week 2 - by Carrie Adamson

My second week of training is done. The main lesson learned; listen to your trainers, they know their stuff. I am getting in a pattern of the workouts, although Alan says not to get to comfortable because he will be mixing it up.  I come in and get stretching and on to my workouts.  Monday and Friday were lower body and Wednesday was for the upper body.  I did everything in four sets on all days.  On my leg days I think I get through the squats and walking lunges with relative ease, but they were the first two exercises of the morning.  It is the ones with the Swiss ball that I begin to really feel the burn in the workout.  The hamstring curl one I think is still my toughest to get through sets three and four are painful.  The opposite exercise for my quads I feel I do pretty well, but the balancing on the Bosu ball makes me think this is a trick exercise because it feels like it works my entire body.  Having the Wednesday workout focus on upper body worked out perfectly because it was after my hard track workout from the night before.  Of the two workouts I would say I like the upper body a little more so far, but only because I can more readily see the results of the work.   But I know the lower body workouts will pay off in my running performance. 

Again I got to end my week of training with some soft tissue work by Alan on Saturday.  I had been struggling with a cold all week and got through the tough workout sessions, but didn’t run for a few days.  I decided to still get the recovery part of my training in even though I was feeling under the weather.  Before my massage I had some head congestion with a stuffy nose, but no fever.  I remember Alan saying that therapists are taught not to give massages when the client has a fever, all the tissue work and trying to fight off the fever is too much for the body.  I didn’t have a fever, so I thought I was ok to go forward with the massage.  Of course during the massage it felt good with Alan paying attention to muscle areas that I worked hard during the week.  Even for a while after I was feeling pretty good, but around 6 PM I took a nose dive and felt the worst I had the entire week with this cold. I am recovered and back on my training schedule. More to come next week!

Dispelling Some Myths and Misconceptions

The longer we spend in this industry the more we hear the same confusion about personal trainers in general and our studio in particular over and over again. So, we will aim to answer a few of those things. Here is Part 1, part 2 will follow next week!

Myth #1: All personal trainers are the same

Many personal trainers use their business as an extension of their own workout routine. So, the client does the same exercises as the trainer. This is not appropriate for most people and is not true personal training. The entire concept of personal training is that it is designed around the needs and goals of the individual, not the trainer.

We have been in the health and fitness industry for over a decade and during this time we have accumulated a wide array of experience and qualification. On all of our exercise clients we perform a postural and biomechanical assessment that can take anything from an hour to 3 hours. We do this to identify exactly which is the best approach for your body.

We only perform functional exercise with our clients and there is a reason for each exercise. We take a scientific approach so that you get the best results in the least amount of time.


Myth #2: You need to be fit to see a personal trainer



We are delighted to work with everyone from the couch potato to the pro athlete.

We have been in the fitness industry for over a decade and we have lots of experience dealing with clients from all walks of life, at all stages of life. If you would like help or advice on how you can get fitter and healthier, whether it is for a specific sport or to enjoy life more.


Myth #3: I don’t have time to see a trainer


The truth is you don’t have time to waste doing an ineffective training program. If you are serious about wanting to achieve your health and fitness goals a personal trainer can help you achieve them in less time spent training every week than you could manage by yourself. Your programs can be flexible so you choose where and when you work out, making it easy to fit around your life. In reality, if you are short of time you can’t afford not to see a personal trainer!


Myth #4: It makes sense to train go and see a trainer with my friend and split the cost


If you are sharing a session with your friend then you are not receiving personal training. This may be OK if you are going for the social aspect or you just want a calorie dump without addressing any of your other fitness goals and are not worried about getting injured, but you will not be reaching your potential if you do the same training program as someone else. We all have different bodies, different exercise histories and different goals. If you are sharing a session you are not getting the most benefit from it.

Myth #5: You need to do all of your training in the gym with you


The more often you train with us the better we are able to direct your training to ensure you are using the correct technique and intensity to get the maximum benefit. But we understand that financially or due to time constraints it is not always possible for people to do all their training with us. If you need to do some of your training at home or in your local gym we can design you a program that you will be able to do with whatever resources you have available, so you can continue the good work between seeing us.

Clients often achieve more from coming to us to get a program designed that they can do at their own gym or in their own home, giving them the right exercise program to follow and make the right gains but be completely flexible and fit around their life.

In Sickness and in Health

What to do about training when you fall ill is something we all wonder about. With so many of our friends and clients coming down with the latest cold that is making the rounds now seems like a good time to explore the subject.

So, if you feel yourself coming down with a cold should you continue training? It is not as simple a question to answer as it seems. It gets even harder if you are the one with the cold! 

One argument goes that if you are sick you should rest and let your body recover. There is certainly a lot of sense in this. If you are fighting off a bug you shouldn’t add extra stress into your system by exercising. Allow your body to recover and devote all your energy to getting better.

Another camp says that exercising increases your core temperature, this makes it more difficult for the cold viruses to multiply in your body. It is the same concept as you getting a fever to help your body fight off infection. There is certainly some truth to this also.

And, do you want to down tools every time you get the slightest hint of an illness?

In the end it is a decision every person needs to make for themselves. In my experience in the very early stages of a cold continuing training may help and the cold may pass by without every taking hold of you. But when you are really down with the cold you need to rest and let your body heal. Training won’t be enjoyable if you are having to cough at every stop sign and you won’t be able reach the intensity that you need, so it won’t give you the desired training benefit either.

One thing you do need to be aware of is how much you are masking the symptoms. The over the counter cold remedies treat the symptoms of the virus, not the cause. They make you feel better so you can get on with your day but they don’t change how sick you actually are underneath. These remedies are designed to allow you to do the essential things in life such as go to work and look after the kids, not to pretend you are not ill and go training anyway.

When you do get ill use the time to determine what this is telling you. If you were fully healthy and your immune system was working perfectly you shouldn’t have got ill in the first place. So the fact that you are sick means you were run down and your immune system was not functioning as well as it should have been. That can be due to stress, too much training, bad diet and a host of other things. It seems logical then to take the time whilst you are ill and relax, rest from training and eat food that is good for you!

One other thing that needs to be said when you have a cold or the flu: Do not get a massage! It may be tempting to let someone work on your aching body but massage will make you feel worse and get more ill. It is not a good thing to do, you would be much better off sleeping or you can get an acupuncture treatment to help.

Corina

Guinea Pig Workout Week 1 - by Carrie Adamson

I have been chosen by the Wolf Studio to be the guinea pig to receive three personal training workouts and recovery therapy each week.  I feel lucky that they chose to work with me and excited to go on this journey with them.  My first time in the studio, I was there for an assessment where my strength, flexibility, and balance were tested.  It was also a chance for Corina and Alan and myself to learn a little bit more about each other. 

Week 1 of training began with a blood lactate test where I ran in four minute intervals and a sample is taken to determine my anaerobic capacity.  I was sweaty and worked hard, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as some of the photos posted from previous tests made it look.  Wednesday morning was my first real workout and it was all about my legs.  After some stretching I did squats, walking lunges, jack knifes, some balancing stuff and a superman move on the balance ball.  My legs were feeling pretty good when I was done and it wasn’t until later in the day that I my quad and glute muscles really started to burn.  I have to say I enjoyed the temporary pain because it meant I had a good workout.  Lifting weights and doing the same routine day in and day out for the last year and half, I hadn’t felt sore in a long time and was really just going through the motions of my routine.  

Friday I went in and we worked on upper body.  I surprised myself with some of the workouts I was able to do.  There was the bent over row with a weighted bar, chest press while laying back on a balance ball, a move that was both bicep curl and over head press all in one, and balancing on a bosu ball while doing lateral and front raises.  Doing a push-up and pulling up a dumb bell in between was where I was surprised.  First I was doing real push-ups, no my toes not on my knees and then in between I had the strength and balance to pull up a barbell.  Who knew?  Because this workout I was able to focus on sides during each exercise I realized that I feel weaker on my right side.  After the upper body workout I felt sore right away.  I joked that I couldn’t lift my arms higher than my shoulders and was sore through the weekend.  Again, I didn’t mind the soreness, knowing that Alan gave my muscles a great, hard workout. 

Saturday I got to end my first week with a soft tissue recovery massage.  Earlier that morning I had just a new PR in a 10k and after some hard runs earlier in the week and my body getting used to the new workouts I needed it.  Alan explained the philosophy of the soft tissue recovery to me; that the massages don’t need to be painful to be beneficial and by coming in for weekly recovery he is treating any issues and pains that are small before they can become chronic.  Even though it is part of the training process helping my body perform it is still a relaxing treat that I will look forward to for all the work from earlier in the week.

I am thrilled I have this chance to be the guinea pig for Wolf Studio working with Corina and Alan to become a stronger, better athlete.  I promise to give this opportunity 100% of my effort and dedication.  See you all next week!

Carrie