Jan 31, 2012

Hey again-

Hope you’ve been doing great!

The other day a prospective client came in for the first time where we spent some time together talking specifically about her struggles, her goals, etc.  I can’t stress the importance of this step.  I absolutely refuse to not know as much as my client is willing to share about themselves..

Anycase, I was asking her specifically what her workouts look like now and have looked in the past in relationship to her specific goals.

Now one thing you should know about “Sara” as we’ll call her.  Sara is by no means overweight…she has a normal upperbody she wants to tone.  Her waist is one most girls would kill for.  But as she admitted, her thighs are her trouble areas.  She’s by all accounts “pear-shaped”.

When I asked to her to tell me the kind of exercises she’d done up until this point, she said she and her personal trainer work on the lower body a lot….lunges, squats, things like that…

Back to Sara in a sec…

First, imagine having a really big bicep…

Now let’s say you hated your biceps and wanted them to get smaller.  So you decide that in order for it to get smaller you do a lot of bicep curls…heavy ones! Does that not sound the least bit…..off?

The problem is we in the fitness industry see it all the time especially with women.  Since you know that doing 1,000 crunches won’t get you a smaller waist necessarily, why would any other part of your body be different?

This is just plain DUMB exercise as I call it and it’s even dumber when the problem is exacerbated by “fitness professionals” as is evidence in Sara’s case.

So how would I fix Sara?

Since I know a lot of you reading this are in the same boat as Sara, the solution is “less is more” meaning lay off the legs.  For a bunch of different reasons that are uncontrollable to you, me, or Sara…whether it’s where your body stores fat, increased testosterone levels, or whatever…the answer is not to keep pushing on the gas pedal!

Instead, keep to lower weight bearing exercises…things like yoga, Pilates, steady-state cardio, aggressive stretching, etc.

The point I’m trying to make in today’s post is that you have to take a larger picture approach to your body and have long-term success in mind.

When I put people through my SMART Program (Systematized, Measurable, Accurate, Resistance Training) sometimes the path to their success isn’t the path that they want to take…sometimes, yes, I do scale some people back from working to complete failure.

Point again..everyone’s different.  I rarely come across two people who are on the same exact workout and nutrition regiment because of random things like hormone levels, fat storage, injuries and all sorts of other stuff..

Remember, stop doing DUMB workouts….

Ok, this is where I enter my own shameless plug…if your workouts and nutrition plans aren’t getting you the results you’re looking for and want to sit down for a comprehensive assessment and how a SMART Program could help you out…take a look at our training schedule or give us a buzz at (561) 994-0765.

See ya!