Oregon Personal Trainer: Exercise all Muscle Groups

Posted on January 24, 2012 by admin

You should always have a routine that is going to exercise all of the muscle groups. For example, males tend to do a lot of chest and arms, but neglect their back, shoulders, core muscles and their legs. If you do not have strong legs, then your foundation is weak. If you do not have balance between your chest and back muscles, then your shoulders will start to round forward creating unnecessary tension. Practice working all of the major muscles including the opposing muscles.

Thanks,
Oregon Personal Trainer

Oregon Personal Trainer: Doing Ab Machines

Posted on January 15, 2012 by admin

Doing ab machines are great at strengthening your rectus abdominus, but that is it. It is not going to decrease your body fat, but you will develop great ab’s from adding resistance to it. Here is a quick tip: if you have a lot of adipose tissue in your mid-section and you are doing an ab machine there is a possibility that your mid section will get bigger. The reason that could happen is that you are not decreasing your body fat. If you can do your best to reduce your body fat with at least a good diet, then your abs will become more defined versus what we discussed above.

Thanks,
Oregon Personal Trainer

Portland Fitness: Wear flip-flops in the gym bathrooms

Posted on January 10, 2012 by admin

If you are coming straight from work and you have brought your workout clothes and are going to shower before going home, then you need to come prepared. One of the quickest ways to get athletes foot is not wearing some type of foot wear on the gym bathroom floors. The staff does not wash or mop them throughout the day, only at the end of each work day, so imagine all of that buildup of dead skin, athlete’s foot fungi hanging out, etc. Wearing flip flops will minimize the risk of contracting that issue, plus it is just piece of mind that you are not touching that surface. Some individuals even go into the bathroom stallls or use the urinals barefoot and that is just not right. You need to have some kind of foot protection because whatever they encounter, they are going to track that back into the locker room. The rule of thumb, wear flip flops when walking around the gym bathrooms after working out.

Thanks,
Oregon Personal Trainer

Personal Training Portland Oregon: Client’s need to do their research

Posted on January 7, 2012 by admin

When ever a person is interested in personal training or taking a fitness program the potential client needs to ask for reviews, results they have generated and what is the injury rate if any, that their programs have caused. If they are an established professional they will have no problem letting you know these statistics. As a potential client, you need to do your due diligence and make sure your trainer or instructor has a lot of experience, has been in the business for awhile and they carry liability insurance.

Thanks,
Oregon Personal Trainer

Functional Training for the individuals over 40

Posted on December 31, 2011 by admin

People always say that 40 is the magic number when things start breaking down, but it does not have to be that way. Even though a lot of achilles, rotator cuff and back injuries seem to happen during this time, you can train to prevent this from happening. The type of training that you want to incorporate into your fitness regimen is functional training. We call it functional because you are going to be doing exercises that replicate the movements that you do in every day life. As soon as you can do the body weight movement with great form and technique, you will then progress on to using stability equipment, tubing and added weigh resistance to make the movements challenging, but to add strength, endurance and a little power. If you happen to hurt your back picking up a pair of shoes or just closing your car door, that is a good sign that we need some flexibility and strength training in order to prevent that from happening again. So if you are going to be working with a fitness professional at your local gym, ask them to incorporate this type of training into your routine.

Good Luck,
Oregon Personal Trainer

Fitness Secret – How much effort you put into your training.

Posted on December 28, 2011 by admin

You can exercise for long periods of time and get some modest results, but the real secret is putting a good amount of effort into your workouts to get the most out of them. It is about the intensity of your training, not how long you need to workout for. Make all of your workouts count and do the best that you can when regards to the amount of effort you instill. You want to exercise outside of your comfort zone so your body can go into hyper drive and respond by giving you RESULTS!

Thanks,
Oregon Personal Trainer

Weight Lifting: What are forced negatives?

Posted on December 27, 2011 by admin

Forced negative movements are for individuals who are looking for muscle hypertrophy. You are taking an exercise and increasing the weight by a certain amount that you will need assistance lifting it up. When your spotter has helped you lift the weight up, it is your job now to bring the weight down, but as slow as possible. That is why it is called a forced negative because the concentric or positive phase is assisted and the eccentric or negative is all you. The muscle is getting more fatigued with heavier weight, which is what you want when your goal is muscle hypertrophy (gain in muscle mass).

Thanks,
Exercise Portland

Calorie Burning After A Fitness Workout

Posted on December 19, 2011 by admin

Individuals who have been educated in exercise science or are veterans in the health & fitness industry know about the afterward effects of exercise and how the body will keep burning calories after an intense workout.
In the exercise science world this term is called, EPOC, which stands for Excess Post (exercise) Oxygen Consumption. This is when the body is still recovering from the exercise routine, and you are actually sweating more afterwards than during the workout. All of these extra processes that your body has to go through in order to bring it back to homeostasis require caloric expenditure to complete . So not only are you burning calories during exercise, but you are also burning calories afterwards. This EPOC can last up to 24 to 48 hours after exercise, and it depends how hard your workout was and how much your body needs to recover. This is just one of the many benefits of exercise and a bonus too.

Thanks,
Oregon Personal Trainer

Barbell Bench Press – Is it a good exercise?

Posted on December 17, 2011 by admin

Is the Barbell Bench Press technically a good exercise? The answer would be, No! The reason why is because it specifically locks your joints in one specific motion or pattern, called a Closed Chain exercise. When an exercise constricts your joints from moving naturally it will create shearing forces on other parts of your body that can creative negative consequences. When you look at the barbell bench press these negative consequences are joint damage and rotator cuff tears or strains. Doing the bench press on a smith machine is even worse because you are combining a closed chain exercise with a closed chain machine – not good.

I would recommend dumbbell’s, hammer strength or ground zero type of exercise equipment. If you are power lifter, then the barbell bench press is something you need to do because of the mass amounts of loads you are going to lift, and that is the method of doing it. Also, if you are a highly conditioned athlete, this specific movement may only be replicated with this type of exercise, such as a professional football defensive/offensive line player.

If you are not a power-lifter or high level athlete, then don’t do it, and use the suggestions I have mentioned above.

Thanks and lift safely,
Oregon Personal Trainer

Oregon Personal Trainer – Love Handles Workout

Posted on December 17, 2011 by admin

When they are not being called, “Love Handles”, other individuals are calling it their muffin top. It seems that this area is a problem for a lot of individuals, and they just want to get rid of it. Well, there is a combination of things that you need to do to get rid of that flab in that specific area. Yes, you are going to have to eat a little bit better and you need to move a little more than what you are currently doing.

I want you to up the tempo of how much you move so your body goes into shock and starts shedding that flab from those problem areas. If your body has not exercised at a more challenging tempo, then getting results is a side effect of what happens, especially when change is unexpected.

I don’t want you to spot train this specific area, unless you are currently doing some kind of exercise program. If you are currently exercising, then this is a perfect Love Handles Workout that you can implement in your current workout or routine. Please click on the video link and it will take you to an excellent Love Handles Workout. Enjoy and have fun with it.

Thanks,
Oregon Personal Trainer