Here’s a quick video tip to keep your wrist, elbow and shoulder happier during pressing activities or pretty much any exercise holding the kettlebell in the rack position on your forearm.
Tag: personal trainer
Can’t Afford a Personal Trainer You Say?
On most occasions, trainers come up against this one overriding question on receipt of an enquiry – “how much do you cost”?
Yep, money rules but to quote the cliche, ‘you get what you pay for’… or do you?
Firstly, when you meet a trainer one-to-one, you aren’t really paying for a particular service, you’re exchanging a fee for their skills, experience and knowledge. If you are looking for a safe and effective outcome or experience, you’ll most likely place this on your prerequisite not cost.
Think about it. If you wanted your hair done for a night out on the town, are you likely to choose the cheapest hair dresser?
I doubt it. I imagine you’ll want someone with experience and skill to look after your plumage. Why then would it be different when choosing someone you’ll be entrusting your physical wellbeing with?
The Problem
The average professional career life of a trainer in Australia is between 1 – 3 years according to the Australian Fitness Network. Many factors lead to the end of the dream for these 1000’s of trainers every year but sadly this reflects on the experience levels of trainers out there. In 2012 approximately 10000 personal trainer candidates where studying for their certificates. Whilst I do commend those pursuing a career in fitness, I must confess, it’s takes a lot of ongoing education past the initial cert 3 and 4 in Fitness. It takes determination, networking, lots and lots of marketing just to get a few new clients.
With so many new trainers circulating, the average experience level is very low and yes, many new trainers will respect this and have lower fees to reflect on this. Conversely though, it makes it harder for the in-the-market-for-PT customers to weigh up their decisions. A newbie may charge $25-$35 for a session whereas an experienced trainer with 8-10 years may charge $75 to $100 an hour.
The Solution
Thinking empathetically of the average customer, it can be a challenge to pay for a well experienced trainer to train them 2-3 times a week. However, rather than turn away this potential customer, many trainers, myself included have addressed this issue by providing Sharing solutions and Online Training.
Shared or semi-private training allows for 2-3 people in a session where the trainer can supervise and instruct individuals successfully. A good indicator of an experienced trainer is just that – being able to instruct 3 people simultaneously! The investment is lower for the participants whilst the trainer is remunerated appropriately.
Online Training is a great way to gain training in the comfort of your own home or gym without the trainer having to actually be present. Systems are set in place where the client is provided with a detailed program, delivered via a smartphone app and uses a combination of videos and instructions. Accountability is provided by in-app messaging and frequent check-ins with the trainer.
Online training again, is a cheaper alternative as a lot of the resources supplied by the trainer is already on file or automated cutting down on trainer workload time.
So, whilst face to face training can be cheap and nasty, or an investment, there are options. If looking for a trainer, be sure to ask them what experience they have, how they continue their education and of course, do they provide shared training and online training.
I sure do and love the variable working styles each provide me.
If interested in learning more about what FitStrong Brisbane does, or if you’re a trainer wondering how to step up your skills, please do get in touch.
Yours in health,
Jamie Hunter
Winter’s Coming, so Get Flexible!
As winter sets in here in Australia, many of us will inevitably spend more time sitting, huddled up in the evenings and maybe not doing the full range of physical activities we pursue in the warmer months. Now, I know this won’t apply to everyone but, in particular, I’m addressing the cold haters… you know who you are!
This lack of moving has no rewards. Your body doesn’t need to be huddled up. And we’re not hibernators. There, I said it!
With a lack of incidental mobility, flexibility will in turn take a hit and this causes problems.
I’m actually writing this straight after a training session with a client who has just had a week off work. His biggest issues today were his hamstrings and hip flexors. He did stay active during his work break and in fact he did a 12km walk a couple days earlier but, his sitting quotient rose considerably over the week, despite his higher than usual physical activity. An extra couple of hours of exercise in way balances out an extra 30+ hours sitting when he’d normally be on his feet at work. It’s not a criticism, it’s just what happens when when we remove mobility, purposeful or incidental.
Getting back on topic – flexibility. It’s a controversial subject that causes riffs in the strength conditioning world. Many trainers will shun ‘doing stretches’ whilst others will proclaim it’s a high agenda component of recovery post exercise.
The reality, it’s probably somewhere in the middle of priorities for the average population but as we age, or become less active such in the colder months, its importance rises.
The benefits of flexibility are so great that training experts like Ian King call flexibility the last frontier of human performance. King also said:
Flexibility, generally speaking, is the most important physical quality. The impact of the flexibility on all other physical qualities is greater than the one of any other single physical quality. Flexibility potentially improves strength, speed and endurance more than any of these qualities impact on the other. In addition, I believe of all physical qualities, this one has the greatest impact on injury prevention. Flexibility training also potentially has the greatest contribution to recovery of all the physical qualities.”
(cited from this article: https://breakingmuscle.com/mobility-recovery/flexibility-is-like-any-other-discipline-it-takes-discipline)
So, what’s a reasonable action we can all take? I say reasonable because I could very well list 6-10 stretches to do in the evening and after whatever exercise you are doing but ‘nah’, you’ll probably not do them. Instead, I want to share what is in my opinion, the best of all stretches for unravelling our bodies tension from all the poor postures we put ourselves into.
Enter The Brettzel…
Brett Jones and Gray Cook introduced the world to this stretch in 2008 and it has slowly spread around the training circles. It’s a simple shape to get into although it may still be challenging to some. It will help reduce tensions but also helps us to identify asymmetries and imbalances in all the corners of the body.
Without further nattering from me, here are a couple of videos of the Brettzel. I would really encourage you to play with this simple stretch. Don’t go to pain and if you can’t breath properly, you shouldn’t be in that position. If concerned, just drop me a message.
Here’s another version of the Bretzel:
So, instead of huddling up, learn the Brettzel… maybe in front of a heater!