Portland Oregon Personal Trainer: Preventing Lower Back Pain

Posted on May 12, 2013 by admin

One of best ways to prevent lower back pain is to be cautious when lifting objects in front of you. We do not know what age we humans get lazy about lifting, but it seems more and more of us do not want to use our legs to lift an object from one location to another. Rather, we just pick it up with straight legs and with distance between us.

If you want to start practicing safer ways, just remember: if the load weighs 10 pounds and you are picking it up 10 inches from your mid section, then that equates to 100 pounds of pressure on your lower back. If you were to use your legs to lift the object and pull it in towards your stomach, that number would significantly decrease, which means less pressure on your lower back.

If you want to learn to lift an object correctly or start getting better at your functional strength, then you may want to consult with a Portland Oregon personal trainer or fitness professional in your area.

Thank You,
Oregon Personal Trainer

Portland Oregon Personal Trainer: When The Knee Is Working!

Posted on April 15, 2013 by admin

When the knee is working, there is no pain, clicking and you can walk normal. When the knee is causing pain with each step you take, what is going on. Once of the easiest answers to this question relates to is the knee cap on track. Meaning, is the knee cap tracking with the correct alignment or is it not? When things are working well in the knee, the patella or knee cap will glide and stay in place. When muscles are too tight or too weak and there are imbalances being created, this is what will cause the knee cap to be off track. When the knee cap is off, just like a train getting off the tracks, pain and not so good things happen. This can happen when certain muscles are weak and another part of the leg is too tight and the knee cap may slip to one side just a bit to create that pain. If you knee more advice on this and you have already met with your physician and physical therapist, then look into hiring a Portland Oregon personal trainer. When you hire a trainer, they can take your existing prescription that you have learned from physical therapy and continue with your training and incorporate that into a fitness routine for you.

Thanks,
Oregon Personal Trainer

Personal Trainer Portland: Triceps Pushdowns

Posted on April 12, 2013 by admin

When you want to really single out those triceps, then try doing the standing triceps push-downs using the pulley machine. When done correctly, this is also a great way to work the abdominal muscles too. When you are using correct form and following the ninety degree principle, you will engage your entire ab and core muscles when doing this exercise. If you need some guidance on this, consult with your personal trainer Portland to help you. They will be able to assist in making sure you have perfect form, but also be able to structure the amount of sets and repetitions you should be doing too.

Thank You,
Oregon Personal Trainer

Personal Trainer Portland Or: How Do I Know About Increasing Intensity Working Out?

Posted on March 22, 2013 by admin

This is such an important question and this is some thing that a lot of personal trainers do not take into consideration. There are a lot of fitness trainers out there that will do the same workout for each of their clients and not even alter the workout intensities. If you have gone to college and received your BS in Kinesiology or Exercise Physiology you will have taken various classes, written papers and even done presentations on exercise prescriptions, intensities, max and sub max testing and always conducting RPE or rate of perceived exertion tests on individuals. Without knowing a baseline for each and every client it is not wise to just guesstimate, you need to know the exact numbers in order to know how challenging or less to make that initial fitness training session, so it is enjoyable, but challenging at the same time.
The best thing to do is if you are working out a gym, watch all the trainers before making a decision. Look at the specific individuals who will vary up the workouts and fitness routines for all individuals based on their ability and fitness level. When you find that specific person, go talk to them and tell them what your goals are, if you have limitations/injuries and what you are currently doing at that moment in time. With that information, they can then have a rough guideline of where you are at and where you want to go. They will then conduct their own intial fitness assessment with you in order to really pin down your fitness level and what it is going to take to get you to that next level.

Best of Luck,
Personal Trainer Portland Or

Portland Personal Trainer: What Is Stability Training?

Posted on March 10, 2013 by admin

Stability training is exercising on an unstable service. I know you are asking the question: how can that be beneficial? You can develop excellent form by just doing slight modifications of the movements you are having a challenging time, or you are having trouble performing. A great example would be recovering from an ankle injury and it is not time to start strengthening those tiny muscles in the ankle that seem to give you the most problem with pain and instability. A great exercise is just balancing on one foot with a very slight bend in your knee, but on a stable surface. Even when you are just on the floor, your foot is going to wobble a bit. When this gets easy, then your Portland personal trainer is going to add a piece of equipment that will make the surface unstable. The purpose of this is to keep strengthening your stabilizer muscles so they are so strong and have a great endurance that when you are on a stable surface the possibility of injuring that body part again will be not as high as before.

Personal Trainer Portland: How To Stay Lean and Trim

Posted on January 27, 2013 by admin

Losing the weight, body fat percentage and keeping your muscle tone can be challenging, because there are temptations of food, beer, wine and treats where ever we go in Portland, Oregon. So how does one who is getting great results with the personal trainer Portland fitness professional keep that great body.
The secret is to always train and keep the body burning lots of calories throughout the day. In addition, we also need to keep very hydrated, so we do not confuse hunger with dehydration. I am sure you have been told time and time again to eat small meals. It is not about eating small meals, it is about eating meals that are the correct amount, but also every certain amount of hours. Meaning, eat a meal that does not totally stuff, but eat the correct amount that gets rid of the hunger and satiates you so you can eat again three hours later. In addition, make sure you are drinking enough water throughout the day, because a lot of times when we think we are hungry, we actually need water, not food. If you forget to eat, set your smart phone alarm every three hours to remind yourself to eat every three hours. If you do not have time to go get a meal or you forgot to prepare, make sure you always have emergency snacks on hand: apples, pears, nutrition bar, etc. You want to put something in your body so it keeps burning, just like a log in a fire place. You want to put small logs too keep the fire burning, but not a huge log that is going to just sit there and take forever to burn. We hope this helps and keep up the great work. Remember, if you are having a challenging time making this all work, consult with a Portland personal trainer in your area, it is worth the time, effort and money. Your health and body are irreplaceable, so do the right thing.

Thanks,
Oregon Personal Trainer

Personal Trainer Portland: Those Holiday Parties, Eat Sensibly & Keep Exercising!

Posted on December 10, 2012 by admin

This is the time for all of those fun holiday parties, but that also means this is the time when a person will gain weight. Even if the weight gain is just one pound, research states that most people won’t lose that one pound. Meaning, that the number of holidays a person has had, is basically the amount of fat weight they have gained, which is not going to help the obesity rate that we have in the USA. So, what is the secret to surviving all of this great food and festivities The rule of thumb is to eat with a fork, not with your fingers; avoid the finger foods. If that is all they are offering then get the finger food, cut it with a knife and eat it with a fork. You will take more bites, you will chew the food longer versus just shoveling it in with your fingers. When you chew longer the body will absorb more of the nutrients in the food even if it is a fried mozzarella stick or chocolate dipped marshmallow.
If you are working out or thinking about it, then you should probably do your best to be as consistent as possible. If this is something that you need extra motivation with, then hire a personal trainer Portland or fitness expert. It is always better to start your New Years Resolutions earlier, because you will be ahead of the curve, ahead of the crowds and you will be closer to your goals.

Thanks,
Oregon Personal Trainer

Portland Personal Trainer: Chest Press and Bringing The Bar Down Too Far

Posted on October 28, 2012 by admin

The chest press exercise is very popular among the male fitness person. Why? Because they sense with a big chest, they will look bigger, stronger, sexier and it means they are strong. The chest press is an important exercise because it is one of our major movements that we tend to do throughout the day, which is pushing. We either push down, in front of us, to the side or above our heads. But what we most people don’t understand is that if you do bench press too much, your chest will not stick out like you want it too. This is one reason why taking a few tips from a Portland personal trainer or fitness professional in your area can provide an enormous amount of information to help you with your body, exercises and breaking plateaus.

The reason for not being able to see your chest like you would like is that a lot of individuals will develop muscle discrepancies and if they do chest press too much without balancing out the rest of the muscle groups in the body, the chest muscle will become too tight and will cause the shoulders to rotate anterior, which you will look like a neanderthal.

In addition, you do not have to bring the bar down to your chest on each repetition. If you are playing a contact sport where you are pushing opponents from a close distance from your chest, then yes, you need to practice that movement. If you are not doing these types of activities, then there is not reason to do this. You muscle is going to contract the same and you will develop the muscle and strength you need. You do not want to risk hurting yourself with a movement that brings the bar down to your chest. Athletes who do this movement when they are playing are used to having a range of motion that is from their chest to a full extension, the normal population does not do this, so the injury rate will be much higher if you try to mimic the professional.

If you are concerned about this and feel that your chest and shoulders are hurting when you are doing the traditional bench press, consult with your Portland personal trainer and ask them to provide options that will still challenge the pectoral muscles, but not cause so much pain or strain on the parts of your body that are becoming irritated.

Personal Trainer Portland: Losing Body Fat!

Posted on October 6, 2012 by admin

This is going to be a quick post on what is an easier way to lose body fat. The rule of thumb is that you want to not only want to eat in moderation, but you also want to push your body a little bit more than you are used to doing. Meaning, do your best to watch what you eat, but we do not want you starve yourself. Also, push through on your workouts and operate out of your comfort zone for a little bit. If you do this for a certain period of time, you will see some great results when it comes to inches lost, body fat percentage decreasing and your clothes will be fitting a lot better. If you need some extra help with your fitness routine, contact a personal trainer Portland to help you out.

Personal Trainer Portland: Being Fit at 40 years old!

Posted on October 2, 2012 by admin

Just because you reach that magic age of 40 years old, does not mean that you need to cut back on working out or ease the intensity. The one thing that we need to understand is that two of injuries that happen the most at age forty and beyond are Achilles tendon tears or ruptures or rotator cuff injuries.

If you are working with a personal trainer Portland or your local fitness expert,remind them of your age and that you need to incorporate stretching in your routine. Let the fun begin, because you can still take your fitness to the next level and there is no reason why you cannot get the body of your dreams.

Have a great time and remember, always focus on form, proper breathing technique and incorporating a proper food intake program.