Get Real! - Randi's Blog

After reading Alan’s thoughts on the need to train smarter AND harder, and reflecting on the overwhelming prevalence of fitness marketing ploys that promise “something for nothing” (i.e., footwear, diet pills, beverages, cleanses, etc), I began to think about the dangers of the other side - programs that advocate hard work, but often promise unrealistic results - “Get absolutely ripped in 90 days, guaranteed!” or “Lose up to 20 pounds in 30 days!” 

You’ve seen the advertisements. You may have even been impressed or intrigued; and rightfully so, these claims are mind-blowing. But are unrealistic expectations setting the average client up for failure, straight from the beginning?

Now, I’m not saying these programs don’t work. Gym memberships and personal training sessions can be expensive, so “home fitness” DVDs and the like can have their place, if used properly and approached with a level head. The danger starts, however, when exercise beginners fall for photo-shopped BEFORE/AFTER shots and jump head-first into exercise programs designed way out of their range of physical capabilities. These programs make outrageous claims because they themselves ARE outrageous and designed for/by the extremely fit. Absolutely ripped in 90 days, guaranteed? It takes six to eight weeks of consistent overload to build muscle, so if you’ve been sedentary for the past couple years, or you’re new to the world of exercise, this is just not going to happen.

The REAL guarantee is this - one of two things will happen with the average “client” following these programs: he/she will struggle with the routines for a few days, but will experience debilitating soreness and muscle fatigue that forces them to taper off, and he/she will soon forget exercise altogether, OR he/she will push through the program but become frustrated, and eventually give up, when the results they see do not match those they were promised.

If you’re new to exercise, have been out of practice for a few years, or are just unsure of your current fitness level, stay away from infomercials promising huge gains (or losses) in unrealistic time frames, and come visit The Wolf Studio for an exercise program designed especially for you (not you and the rest of the masses). When you have specific, realistic goals and a specific, realistic, expertly designed program, you WILL see results. But, you will also be expected to do the work. Ambitious fitness goals are great, but remember to consider the sacrifices you are willing to make and the time you are willing to commit.

More to come,
Randi

My first week - by Randi Cantrell

It started a few weeks ago with a short e-mail forward from a friend.

“This couple came to my office and put on a seminar. They mentioned wanting an intern,” she said, “It is at least worth checking out their website!”
So I did. What I found was something worth much more than a passing glance, something strikingly different than the usual gyms, “bootcamps”, and “personal trainer” studios selling sweat and exercise to the masses.

A student at UCSD and currently studying for a personal trainer certification of my own, I’ve spent the last five or six weeks swimming in a flood of hand-written 3x5 flash cards and ambiguous charts and diagrams, reading about anatomy and exercise physiology, and attempting to magically pull a three-dimensional knowledge of the human body out of a two-dimensional explanation. To put it mildly, this wasn’t working. I could read all day long about the muscular system and which muscle was where and what it was responsible for, but that didn’t give me any understanding of how the body really works. Something was missing.

After Day One of my internship with The Wolf Studio, I knew I found that missing “something”.

Alan and Corina started me off with a full postural and biomechanical assessment so I could better understand the type of work that happens in the Studio. I’ve been working out in the big-name gym corporations since I was 11 or so, and I’ve worked with a number of different trainers over the past couple of years, but I have never experienced such a thorough assessment or received such detailed feedback. Simply put, among other things, Alan found that I have rounded shoulders (which explains a recent on-set of intermittent numbness/tingling in my right hand) and that I need to work on reactivating the muscles of my abdominal wall. I was then asked to design an exercise program for myself based on the results of my assessment. Alan wrote one as well, and the next day we compared the two. (I’m sure you can imagine how that went). Overall, I found that I need to be clear and confident about what I want out of myself and my body. “If your workouts are vague,” he said, “So are your results.” I realized that it doesn’t matter how many days I work out or how long my work outs are, if they don’t consist of the right exercises at the right intensity, and they lack a clear purpose, I’m just doing a whole lot of moving around without actually getting anywhere.

As a future personal trainer, this week came with an invaluable lesson for me. The human body is not “one size fits all” and as such, neither is its movement; every client I’ll someday encounter will come with his/her unique bodily quirks and idiosyncrasies brought on by muscle imbalances, injuries, and the like - my job will be to know how best to address, correct, and strengthen these “quirks” - how best to match the exercises that the client needs with the goals that they want to achieve. I couldn’t be more excited to keep learning.

More to come,
Randi

Growing Pains

Picture this, you start a new weights program full of enthusiasm. You can picture the fantastic new body you will have. For 2 weeks you work hard, you sweat, you ache all over and you look forward to that new body that is just around the corner. And then you look in the mirror again, stand on the scales again, and nothing has changed. Has all the hard work been for nothing? 

This is a story we hear from many of our clients. They star an exercise routine with the best of intentions, even enthusiasm, but when their body is tired from the training and there is no difference to see they lose heart. This is not due to a lack of effort on their part, most people work extremely hard in the gym. Often it is from doing the wrong exercises or dong things at the wrong intensity, but there is always the element of expectation as well.

When starting any exercise program you need to have an idea of what you are expecting to change and in what timescale if you want to judge if that exercise program is doing its job. If your goal is muscle growth/toning then you need to give the body enough time for the tissue to actually grow. This takes 8-12 weeks. 8-12 weeks of consistent training providing stimulus to the same tissues with a progressive overload. That is simply how long it takes for muscles to grow.

That is not to say you won’t see benefits before this. Improvements in flexibility, posture, strength, coordination, balance and abdominal function can all happen faster as they don’t rely on muscle growth. So, after 2-3 weeks of training consistently you should start to see a few benefits in terms of feeling better and performing better. You may be able to lift slightly heavier weights than when you started, you may find that your hamstrings are not quite as tight as they were before or you may notice that your shoulders are a little further back when you stand up. All these little things can make a big difference, but the muscle growth will take longer. 

The moral of the story is that if you want to make long-lasting changes in your body you need the consistency of training over an extended period. Working hard for 2 weeks and then taking a week off will not get the results. And changing your workout at every session won’t get results either. But if you stick to a well designed program and perform the exercises consistently and at the right intensity your body will adapt and you will reach your goals, and possibly a few more besides.

Another Year, Another Gym

a message from a Personal Tailor Trainer

It is the silly season in gyms, January is when most large commercial gyms expect to make most of their money. Guilt is an amazing motivator, it is the reason why gyms are busiest at the beginning of the week and why gyms are busiest in the New Year.

I have ran personal training and functional exercise studios for many years and I have never been busy with new clients in January, the reason is simple, people are joining gyms...

Most gyms make their money from locking you into a contract and then assuming that you will never use the gym. When I started in the industry in Edinburgh, at the first super-gym, the membership people only expected 30% of those joining to actually use the facility more than twice a week and even then one of those visits was to watch sports on the big screen TVs. 

Gyms pay their staff very little, and the knowledge and experience of the staff is very low. I am not deriding the staff, I speak from experience because that was me a little over 10 years ago. Staff turn over can be 100% every 6months, it is amazing that the industry has not evolved. It is the same in the USA, Australia and the UK.

By joining another gym the client is motivated by a fresh start, new people, different equipment but the results are almost always the same, no results. Generally once the initial buzz of the new gym has worn off the same motivational problems resurface, results don’t come along, injuries occur and you lose interest. I have seen the sweat running down the walls of gyms, and I have seen all the hard work of the clients be for nothing as their hard work does not change their bodies or move them towards their goals.

More pain, less gain: this should be the slogan for the latest craze in ‘boot-camp’ workouts. Training once or twice a week with explosive exercise, at a high intensity is a recipe for injury, yes it can be fun but unfortunately just because it hurts doesn’t mean that it is good for you. The exercises that are done during these workouts are usually ok, the technique could be better, but the intensity and duration of the exercises is all wrong. The attendees of these workouts are not ready for this type of workout, or it does not benefit their chosen activity or sport. Because these workouts are so tough you can only train a couple of times per week, this is not enough to illicit a response from your body other than a stress response. Lets train so hard that you become injured and even if you don’t get injured your body will be pushed so hard it will preferentially hang onto fat... not the best tag line.

So what is the answer? We are not busy in January, but we are busy in February and in March when people figure out that just joining another gym isn’t the answer and they need something more tailored to their body.  The clothing analogy holds up quite well; for some people the ‘off the rack’ generic gyms are fine but if you want something a little more specialized, something that is designed around you, then you need to come and see us. Like a tailor we will measure you and figure out exactly what you need and want, then we will make your solution fit perfectly, making adjustments where necessary to give you exactly what you need. More expensive but better in  the long term, we are the custom designers of the exercise world, we take into account trends, but don’t blindly follow, we only provide the highest level of quality and don’t compromise.

If you want the real deal this year, something tailored around you, and real results in 2011, don’t wait until your next gym lets you down, give us a call and let us tell you how we can get you to where you deserve this year.

Alan