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Friday, September 28, 2012

HOGS AND SLOBS

How many times do you have to wait for equipment or a machine in a gym? Sharing a certain apparatus inside the gym setting is common after all, the only way you won’t experience that is if you have your own private gym, or if you are working alone in a personal training studio.

But almost every day you see inadequate use of equipment besides its regular functional use, such as machine handles, the whole bench and other seats, used as coat hangers, stands and holders. Usually sports training and exercise facilities offer a locker so that you can put away your belongings, so coats and towels shouldn’t be hanging off handles of machines, water bottles, cell phones or other small objects should be on the floor, in your locker or in your pocket, and bags, which could be a hazard causing someone to trip should be in lockers or in the car and not mixed with people training. Just because at that moment when you arrive to use an unoccupied space, and the next one to you is empty, does not mean that someone might not walk up and want to use it. There are people that rather stay in their own training state of mind and not bother to ask if it is being used or not and go about it by doing something else rather than ask if it is being used when it usually isn’t.

What about the training partners, or even worse the Personal Trainers, hanging off of machines, or just sitting there waiting for their turn? For the Personal Trainers, it is unprofessional for you to be sitting waiting for your client to finish the exercise, when you should be paying attention, beside engaging them in conversation, counting the repetitions completely, watching the execution to make any adjustments to correct improper posture, movement or errors when performing the exercise if needed, and most of all motivating to get their energy up. As for the partners or just waiting on a friend, get up off your behind and stand up, after all you burn more calories and use more muscles to stand up rather than sit down, that is what a gym is for.

There are also the cases, example such as an E-Z bar hanging from a cable, but the person who is using it, is a distance away talking on his phone, or talking to one of his buddies from the gym, and when you even threat to go near it, they run and say they are using it, but when you turn your back they are back to “NOT” using what others need. Everyone is complaining about how kids can’t live without their gadgets and technology, but how are adults in a gym different when they can’t turn off their cell phones for an hour a day to train, and don’t let anyone else train either? Then wonder why they can’t get results. Don’t hog equipment, because there might not be enough to go around in small gyms, and in the bigger gyms, don’t do it because there might be people who take their training seriously and want to use it. Also if you are away from a piece of equipment for too long, of course it will be taken if the gym is full, or if a certain routine includes it, don’t be rude and say you were there first and take it, if the individual has already changed the free weight amount and adjusted it to his needs. There ARE people who would probably even be finished before you get to it again.

AND if you see that there 2 or 3 pieces of equipment being used at the same time by someone who is going from one to the next without rest, let them finish their set, for it won’t take more than a few of minutes, even with rest intervals, or ask them if you can work in, but don’t ruin their routine by slowing up their pace, for there are bodybuilding athletes and non-athletes that want their results and are seriously training.  


Hogs and Slobs, get over yourself, the gym isn’t just yours, but available for your use but also the use of others.

Friday, September 21, 2012

MALODOROUS ODOR: Does your gym cologne stink out others?


Do you really think that no one can smell you? We all know that there are some cultures that don’t have a habit of bathing frequently, especially in a cold country, but do you really think that sweat doesn’t smell? Or that someone else doesn’t smell it on you if even you can’t smell it on yourself?

Sweat is bodily moisture expelled from your body containing by-products of our metabolism, which is the result of what we ingest. And where that saying goes you are what you eat, if you eat clean, or healthy, your sweat WILL smell with time, but won’t produce an intolerable smell to others immediately when you workout. But there is that small quantity of people who don’t really take care of their hygiene and seem to think that not showering before they workout, changing workout wear weekly instead of daily, not wearing deodorant, or even not taking care of their bodies such as trimming underarm hairs won’t create a stink tolerable to others, then they are wrong.

But it DOES stink! And sometimes these individuals can stink out whole sections of the gym. Of course there are those that don’t mind the smell and continue to workout out as if they’re in a meadow of flowers, but honestly it is a distraction for those who take their workout seriously.

Any damp material put away in a closed recipient such as a bag, won’t dry properly, or will take longer to dry, but with that it can create mold and when worn again, without proper washing, can cause a bad odour. And even if the piece of clothing with sweat is spread out to dry, will accumulate a number of days being wet and dry, and will create a bad odor that can stink out the gym. So any material, even the ones made with advanced technology for sports, can cause strong and bad odors if not washed.

It comes with the territory of wearing the right clothing to exercise. Usually if you are caring about your health, you care about your inner health and outer health, and if you care enough, you care about how you present yourself to your surroundings, and if you work out you definitely care about your physical appearance, and if you care about your physical appearance, don’t say that your physical appearance, is to spread the smell around, especially if there are women, who in this world, more and more every day are brought up taking care of themselves with products that smell nice.

Real bodybuilders, and people who sculpt their bodies, are called vain, but imagine what the perfume would be like with the training, and the specific foods, condiments and supplements with their size if they weren’t vain? Yes so they are usually obsessed with personal hygiene and body care, because they want to make a good impression which stands out which usually includes a specific wardrobe,  and special hygiene care to bring out the hard work of their physical appearance.

So visual appearance isn’t all that it takes to impress.

Friday, September 14, 2012

WHAT CAME 1ST….GEEKS OR MUSCLEFREAKS?

It isn’t really about the question “what came first the chicken or the egg”. It is a question that can be answered looking at history and seeing how the physical activity of today, exercise, sports, coaching and training of athletes came to be.

If we look at history, exercise has come a long way. It started out as physical activities for survival skills. Today these skills developed into exercise, which can be done in facilities such as gyms, martial arts studios, group or individual sports and then games for recreational play, or even at home. Humans, especially males have always been physically active, and looking to improve performance for everyday life, whether it was just hunting to catch prey for food in a short time to feed the family, or competing with others to protect their tribe, to obtaining land or anything that had to be conquered. With that training was simply gaining experience through repeated motions of everyday activities. The male with genetic favourability and the most experience would present to be more successful.

When humans stopped being nomads and settled down, armies were formed for protection of the land which can date back to the Greek, Egyptian, and later the Roman civilization. It was so embedded in society at the time for protection and needed to gain more power, that it was a great honour to be killed in battle so that you would be remembered as a great warrior. Boys started being educated and prepared to be men of war, and it became a meaning of status of an individual, where besides the group practices, rocks and other objects were used as weights in training for better physical performance. But when there was no war, there were military practices and competitions between men to determine the strongest, the quickest, the most agile, the best of all. Finally physical combat was substituted by manmade machines, and the need to be physically fit became more for the purpose of appearance instead of survival or formal recognition.
 
In the beginning of the 1900’s bodybuilding became popular in search of the perfect body, which made training to gain muscle popular in the 1950’s when movies such as Hercules and Samson were released. And then weight bearing equipment was created to make training for physical appearance easier, and supplements were released by Joe Weider to complement the promotion of competitions.

In the 1970’s many films about bodybuilding received publicity, making Pumping Iron, one of the most famous and probably the most admired bodybuilding films, which showed the differences in the weight training methods of Arnold Schwarzennegar and Lou Ferrigno in the preparation for competitions.

With the rise of gyms and group exercise in the 1980’s, and the growth of the Sports Industry to a million dollar market of its own, there was a need for athletes to stay on top from there on. Successful athletes, techniques and methods of training started to be analized and studied to try to reproduce results in other people who weren’t athletes. Today what studies are still encountering in their results are that resistance training, endurance resistance training, with periods of strength and other type of athletic skill training is the best method behind the improvement of athletic performance. So besides the normal specific sports modality training, coaches are teaming up with professionals with weight training education, knowledge and training background to maximize training for the best performance. And gyms are promoting it for people who just want to lead a healthy life.

Today it has exploded in a way, that even other areas such as the music and film industry are resorting to resistance training to get the results for certain roles. This is where the position of Personal Trainer appeared, to teach and guide in resistance training for better and faster results.

So when you are looking at a man with big guns with veins poking out or with a six pack, and at a woman with large thighs with deep definition, doing the legpress with more weights then you, and you think they are on steroids, just remember that it is research on dedicated individuals, professional or amateur, that information is available for you to achieve your goals.

Friday, September 7, 2012

UNDERDRESSED

If you Fitness Professionals were the only ones that thought that were going to get a wake up call, guess again.

Yes being a bodybuilder and going to the gym or doing any type of workout along with keeping healthy eating habits and lifestyle is hard work, but thinking there isn’t a dress code or that a specific one is cool, then you ARE a jack ass.


For starters, for those of you who don’t wear the appropriate footwear, do you see construction workers wearing flip flops? Do you see ballerinas wearing boots? People! Exercise is the basic movement for any type of sport, and in sports you certainly don’t see any athletes wearing inappropriate clothing. In fact the Sports Industry is growing with all the technology put into fabricating, and developing clothing for better sport performance. So wearing flip flops is the same as going barefoot (which some do anyway) which is asking for equipment to be dropped on your foot, or even worse, getting your it caught in machines. If you are wearing boots, then you might as well go with dress shoes or high heels.
How many people are having problems with their feet because of inappropriate footwear during the Summer? Flip flops are flat, and don’t offer enough support to the arch of your foot, and flip flops make you drag your feet, or pressure the toes to hold it into place when walking. So besides the possibility of your foot getting caught in machines or even having the dumbells or plates fall on your feet, you should have footwear that is appropriate for sports that have the right heel size, offer lateral support, and breathing room, protecting your feet.

Just because you are training upper body does not mean you don’t need the appropriate footwear. You still need the correct posture and stable footing to be able to perform an exercise correctly, example a dumbell lateral raise.

The correct type of footwear, which in the gym are sneakers with the appropriate heel, can be found at any sport store, and if you don’t want any of the high end brands such as Nike, Reebok, Adidas, you can look for cheaper no name brands, but be sure it is specific for purposes of sports and exercise. For those of you who want ankle support in the gym, you can go with the basketball high tops, or there is even a brand that was specifically designed for weight training, usually worn by bodybuilders, giving not only support to the feet but to the ankle too called Otomix.

As for those of you wearing jeans, where did you get the idea that wearing jeans in the gym is cool? Just because you think you look good in your designer jeans or your recreational play is in jeans doesn’t mean that you go exercise in jeans.


To have a good workout what is considered appropriate clothing is what is comfortable and not tight on the body in its whole, so it can breathe, allows perspiration, and offer full movement so that the exercises can be done properly. The risk of wearing jeans is that they limit movement, so they can rip, but with today’s fashion some are just too tight or just too baggy, and prevent the correct ventilation of skin, and movement which is a risk to health.

Now something has to be said about those that think that the gym is a Rap music video clip and train with baggy wear. For the Trainers and members that wear the waist line of their pants below the hips, showing off the back of your underwear, do you really think that’s appropriate, when that came from male incarceration facilities meaning you are offering that part of your body? Be careful because knowing the gay community, who cares about their bodies, you might just be taken up on your offer.

All the inappropriate clothing and footwear does not contribute to your health, for today with the advance in technology, materials to fabricate clothing and footwear are developed to help your body move properly, breathe, metabolise adequately, and to expel toxins that are needed to get your results. Wear the proper clothing to exercise, and it is a start to maybe reaching your goals and seeing results.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

RANT OF A REAL PROFESSIONAL – PERSONAL HEALTH TRAINER

There should be a revolution with the professionals that are hired privately, or employed by health clubs to prescribe exercises.

Who hasn’t heard of stories about people who don’t do their research, and end up harming their health in some way by it, by M.D’s that have harmed patients and caused irreversible damages to a person’s health?

These people who are sick or hurt consult with M.D’s that are supposedly licensed, TRAINED and responsible for making their patients healthy again. For this they went through years of school, studying the human body, to enable them make the right diagnosis and treat it, through medication and therapies, or direction to other treatments if needed.

The professional that works with resistance training is usually responsible for maintaining health through the prescription of exercise, so why is it that these professionals aren’t hired based on their education and training, but rather based on how much revenue they can make for their employers or themselves? Why are people who seek Personal Trainers, hiring people who have about 4 years of Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry, Biomechanics, Exercise Physiology all summed up in two days? If the Human health was that easy, the cures for Cancer and other existing conditions would have been discovered long ago.

So who said that Fitness professionals who are supposed to maintain an individual’s health aren’t supposed to have the same education? The Fitness and health market in North America is not really interested in improving the health of individuals who seek it, but they are interested in the profit. however that is portrayed by “new” types of resistance training which is no different from each other because it is ALL exercise and related to the Kinesiology.

Who are worse are the Fitness Professionals who have studied for 4 years, or those that went through hours of experience to become a result producing machine, profiting but accepting professionals to work a long side those who really aren’t qualified to even train themselves.       

WAKE UP EVERYONE!!!! When you decide to live a healthier lifestyle, and start with exercising, do your research on what type of exercise that would be best fitted for you.