TRX

 The first time I saw the TRX, I was intrigued. How does such a small, light piece of equipment do as much as it claims to do. It claims to work your body harder than any other form of exercise. I mean, we all hear these claims from different companies, how is this one going tobe different. Then I tried it for the first time. OH MY GOODNESS! It was the most intense workout I'd ever had! I mean, I have always classfied myself as a fit, active person, working out every day. But I was not prepared for this 45 minutes class! I felt like I worked harder than I ever had before. My arms burned for 4 days! I couldn't even lift a cup of coffee without spilling it because my arms were shaking so bad! Even after all this, I fell in love with this thing, nothing has ever challenged me like this before.

The thing about the TRX is it used every muscle group in your body. You get core, resistance and cardio all in one shot. Now, I always went to the gym, pushed weights, built muscle, toned, even doing cardio everyday. But the results on the TRX were so different. It helped me burn off the stubborn pounds that had been lingering for what felt like, forever. When you use the TRX, your core has to be engaged the whole time. The longer you do a set for, sets are usually timed, the faster your heart will go.

The TRX is small and lite-weight, which makes it easy to take with you anywhere. With the door anchor, anywhere can be your gym. TRX suspension training helps work on balance & flexibility. Engaging your core increases your stability, which in turn provides ease of balance. You can increase, or decrease the intesnity of the exercise by the positioning of your feet; the more parallel you are to the floor, the more intese the exercise is. You can change the insensity on the go with a simple step, this is how class can accomodate varying levels of fitness.

It does take some time to get used to the straps. Most people tend to “white knuckle” the straps when they first start out, and this causes them to really feel the muscles in their forearms. Those who struggle with balance, may have some difficulty to begin, but can progress well. Anyone with blood pressure concerns will need to stay away from some exercises, but not all. Always be honest with your trainer about your health concerns, so they can ensure your workouts are safe.

Fitness & the Aging Population

Let's face it, we all have people in our lives that are classified as part of the senior population. We don't want them to get older, become sick, we want them to stay with for as long as possible. In order for that to happen, we nned to encourage them to stay fit and active.

Being physically active helps to reduce the impact of illness and chronic disease. It helps improve our immune system, so we are better equiped to fight illness. It helps improve our heart health, lower blood pressure, increases bone density and improves digestive functioning. Physical activity helps lower the risk of chronic conditions, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis and colon cancer. This is important to everyone, no matter the age, but the risks increase as we get older.

It's important to keep active to improve mobility, flexibility and balance. All these things will help to alliviate symptoms of chronic conditions. Being active will improve sleep, boost mood & self confidence by producing endorphins. All of this combined is good for brain function. It can help prevent memory loss, cognitive decline and forms of dementia.

Tips for our aging population before they start an exercise program;

-get medical clearance, always keep your current health concerns on your mind, like the timing of medications

-always start slow

-have short-term goals, they help you stay motivated

-always listen to your body, if there is any kinds of pain, stop the exercise.

-let your trainer and doctor work together to ensure your program is safe for you.

Never to old!

As we get older, we start to think about the things in life we have accomplished, and all the thing we haven't gotten to yet. For years, I was wanting to learn to snowboard. Many friends, ex-boyfriends, all said they would teach me. Only for me to be a pest constantly asking, and never learning anything new. Well, at 37, I finally took a lesson. My friend and I were in Alberta for other reasons, and we decided to go to Lake Louise to snowboard. We found a cheap snowboard in Edmonton for me to buy, and I registered for a class. He did his own thing, I took the class, which was only me. It was awesome! I had a few hours of private instruction for the price of a class.

Not only was the price right, but the experience was amazing! I couldn't believe that it took me so many years to experience something so much fun. I mean, I wiped out alot, some worse than others, but I kept going. I don't excited about many things, but I get excited about going to “play” in the snow. I mean, where I live, snow is a part of life for 6 months of the year, so it makes sense to find something to make it fun.

I don't bounce back as fast as I would've if I started in my teens or twenties, but I wouldn't take it back for anything. I look forward to snow now, whereas before, I dreaded every snowfall thinking about how crappy my drive to work was going to be the next day. Now, I see that snow is coming & start to plan my day around when I can get out riding. I'm still not good by any means, but I get out as often as I can. I find places in parks, river banks, anything with a slope, and only a few trees. And it turns out that I get out more often than my friend who introduced me to it. I ask him if he wants to go, but usually he declines.

Learning to snowboard has been probably one of best experiences of my life. It's not just about snowboarding, it's about the things I've learned about myself since I started snowboarding, only a month ago. I've learned that it feels great to get out of my comfort zone, and it's actually very healthy to do so. I've learned that with lack of focus, pain is gauranteed. I'm still learning to re-train my body from instinct, because instinct can be very painful. But most importantly, I've learned that you're never too old to experience something new, and that every new experience teaches you how to grow and be a better person.

Insanity

Albert Einstein said the definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results.” We've all heard this before, so why do some people keep doing this at the gym?

Why do some people go to the gym, do the same boring cardio, maybe a few weights, and then complain that they don't see the results they want? I know that some exercise is better than no exercise, but if you want to see results, you have to change things up! Keep shocking your body.

Keeping workouts the same for long periods of time will put yours body into a training plateau. You'll stop seeing results in your workout. This happens in strength training, cardiovascular training, and in weight loss. Keep in mind, how you prevent these plateaus, will depends on what your goals are.

For strength training, there are various ways to keep your body from reaching a plateau. You can change the order you do the exercises in, the speed at which you do each repetition, the weight and the number of repetitions and sets you complete.

For cardiovascular training, working in intervals will help. Stay away from steady state training daily, your body will get used to it quickly. Interval training means to change the intensity every few minutes. Sudden bursts of intensity, followed by short periods of rest. This is also helpful in strength training and can be done with any exercise.

These are a few ways to keep your workouts fresh. If you continue to keep your body guessing, you'll continue to see results.

Positive Attitude

The best way to bring about positive change in our lives, is to have a positive attitude. Seriously. If we feel good about changes, believe we can accomplish our goals, we're half way there.

Negative thoughts and behaviours bring us down. If we constantly tell ourselves we can't do it, we won't be able to, we have already given up on ourselves before we even try. Fear of failure will do that to us. We can't fail at something we never try, right? But if we don't try, how do we accomplish anything?

We have to tell ourselves that we can do it, there's nothing stopping us from reaching that goal. It might not be today, i tmight be tomorrow. But as long as we're working towards that goal, we will reach our goals!

We always have to believe in ourselves, and our ability to grow, and positive changes will always come our way.   

My Crohns Story

My Crohns Story

About 7 years ago, I got really sick, spent a number of days in and out of the hospital having tests done to find out what was wrong with me. When all was said & done, I found out that I had Crohns Disease. The news shocked me. I didn't really understand what that ment, or what it would mean for me in the future.

The doctors told me I would need to be medicated to treat this illness. My specialist told me it couldn't be controlled with food and had nothing to do with the digestive system. Now you tell me, how does a disease that causes inflammation to the digestive tract, not have anything to do with the digestive system? I really couldn't understand, and I started to second guess all the reasearch I had done on this illness. After over a year of being heavily medicated, going in and out of the hospital, I needed to have an emergency surgery. They found that I there were internal ruptures, but they didn't know where.

After a long and very painful recovery, I had a friend suggest that I see a naturopath. She had been raving about what he has done for her and how much better she feels now. So I decided to give it a try. He was really thorough, ran some tests, and found what vitamins/minerals, etc, I was missing. He put me on a 3 week detox diet, removing sugar, alcohol, gluten, dairy & acidic foods. It was no easy task! I couldn't believe everything that has gluten and sugar in it. Reading labels became a huge part of my shopping experience. After 3 weeks, I went back to see him. We learned that I had to completely eliminate2 major things permanently, gluten and dairy. It was so hard to do, but at the same time, once my body adjusted to it, I felt amzing! I no longer felt bloated and uncomfortable, never got cramps, my energy increased and I rested better when I slept.

My naturopath helped me regulate my body, so I didn't need to be on medications anymore. And since then, I've been living a heathly, happy, pain-free, medication-free life for almost 5 years. Nothing feels better than being able to live a normal life and not be concerned about pain. All due to the guidance of my naturopath.

Why I became a personal trainer.

Growing up, I was always active, loved playing sports & keeping busy. Fun time for me, was playing outside, running around, not sitting in front of the TV, or playing video games. Throughout highschool, I still kept active, playing baseball, hiking, attempting track – it wasn't a strong things for me. But once college hit, that changed. I got busy with studying more, eating less healthy, and my activity level dropped right down. By the time I was done college, I had to lay on my bed, sucking in my stomach, just to try and do up my pants! Things needed to change.

I started to research exercise programs. I really wanted to join a gym & get a trainer, but the only gym in my home town seemed to be more geared towards meat-heads, not the general population. So, home workouts it was! I tried a variety of different things from Tae Bo to yoga. And it kept me going for awhile. I was very diligent on exercising and making changes. I started to pay more attention to my eating habits, and noticed where I was going wrong.

Then, and old friend of mine opened a new gym in our home town. I immediately joined, and soon found myself going everyday. Not only was I going, seeing changes, but I was loving it! I never thought the day would come that I would say that I feel in love with exercising! When I moved later that year, into a city, I kept it up. I got a trainer, who gave me a great program, that the body changes kept coming.

People started commented on the changes I had made, and started asking me for advice. I was getting asked my opinions on workouts, meals, supplements. I realized how much I enjoyed being able to help them with their questions. How good it felt to be the one they trusted with their concerns, and their journey towards a healthier lifestyle. It just seemed like becoming a personal trainer was the natural choice, the best choice. To this day, nothing feels better than to watch someone tansform and reach their goals. And knowing they did it with my guidance.