If you saw my previous post, you might think that this refers to my waistline, but no. It is about how I choose to approach my career as a personal trainer, and indeed all aspects of my life. Every year I spend well over £1000 on continuing my education in the area of health and fitness so I can be the best trainer that I can be. I buy books, go on courses, attend conferences, and generally embrace any opportunity to learn more about my chosen profession.
I have just returned from an exciting three days at the annual FitPro conference in Loughborough, and as always it exceeded my expectations. I will be the first to confess that I am a creature of habit, and can find myself doing things a certain way, or acting according to a set of beliefs simply because that is the way I always have. I recognise that I have to force myself out of my comfort zone if I am to grow and evolve as a person, even if it is uncomfortable at first.
At FitPro, I had the opportunity to surround myself with some of the brightest and best in my industry, people who are far smarter that I will ever be! That knowledge is of little value if I keep it to myself, so lucky you; here are some of my highlights. I attended 11 sessions over the first two days, all of which challenged my thinking in some way. You will be able to read more about some of the sessions in upcoming blog posts, but I wanted to give you a quick overview of two of the most impactful things which I learnt.
Intermittent Fasting (IF)
Those of you who have been my clients for a while will know that I have experimented with IF a number of times over the past year. Every time I have stuck to a routine I have experienced reductions in body fat, generally without most of the negative association which people would attribute to not eating for 24 and sometimes 36 hours. Going for a day without food (providing you don’t have any medical issues which could make this risky – check with your doctor) is nowhere near as hard as most people expect, and has many positive benefits such as fat loss, improved insulin sensitivity, and reduced inflammatory markers.
IF certainly isn’t for everyone or indeed the ‘only’ way to achieve results (my industry is full of these misleading types of claims), but I do believe that it is a successful tactic for changing body composition. There are many different protocols out there, and some are easier to follow than others. If IF is something which interests you, go here and read this excellent report by Dr John Berardi at http://www.precisionnutrition.com/intermittent-fasting
Being prepared to investigate concepts like this is an area where I think that I have evolved as a trainer. I don’t blindly follow the crowd without doing my own research from trusted sources, or jump on the latest fad with my clients just to appear ‘hip’. I will be the first to confess that I used to declare that the optimum way to keep your metabolism high was to eat small, frequent meals every three hours, and that hunger was the enemy. It was a real stretch for me to change my belief system, but when I first heard about IF over a year ago I wanted to know more. I was soon drawn to the work of Dr Berardi, so I was really looking forward to attending a few of his presentations at FitPro, and it was worth the wait.
I am more than happy to answer any questions you may have on my personal experience with IF. I am currently using an IF protocol in my own efforts to rapidly change my body composition, but it will be several months before I can report real life findings. If you haven’t already then make sure that you subscribe to my mailing list to receive updates www.merlinfitness.com .
Flexibility / stretching
As part of a prize I collected at FitPro, I had the absolute honour to attend a Master class with one of the premier fitness professionals in my industry, Jay Blahnik. I have met Jay before, and indeed attended a number of his conference presentations over the years both here and in the USA, but I will remember this semi-private session for ever. As it turned out only one other lady could be there, so we got to spend 45 minutes of discussion and practical work with Jay – what a treat! I now have some new techniques to work on myself and then share with my clients.
Like most people I am notoriously bad at stretching, and a lifetime of not regularly working on my flexibility has had a negative impact. My hamstrings are tight and upper back weak , and I am now going to start a whole-body structured stretching routine to address issues before they get any worse. Jay has developed a very interesting three-step stretching system: maximise, minimise, equalise. I will give you a quick overview, but thoroughly recommend you pick up a copy of Full-Body Flexibility (second edition) by Jay Blahnik, as there are detailed stretches for every part of the body and some great routines to follow. It is currently only £8.81 on amazon, so if I hadn’t been given a signed copy it would definitely be on my list.
If you have ever attended an exercise class you will be familiar with static stretching, where you take a muscle almost to its end of its range of motion (ROM), and then hold it for between 10 and 30 seconds. It has its merits, but may be less beneficial than some other methods of stretching. Dynamic stretching is where you take a body part repeatedly through a smooth controlled ROM, usually 10-12 times, without jerking or allowing compensatory movement to occur elsewhere (forget about the 1980’s trend for ballistic stretching which often led to injury).
Two other terms which you should become familiar with are passive and active stretching. Passive stretching is when you use outside assistance, such as a wall or other body part, to help you maximise your ROM. When active stretching, you instead contract the opposing muscle group to facilitate the stretch, for instance contracting your quadriceps at the front of your thigh to stretch the hamstrings on the back of the leg.
Every stretch is either static or dynamic and passive or active. Many people only do static-passive stretches as they are easy and quick to perform, but studies have shown that dynamic-active stretches are likely to have more lasing benefits. It is also clear that people are more likely to get an injury if there is a big difference between passive and active flexibility i.e. if the ROM which the opposing muscles alone can provide is much less than using external assistance. In an excerpt from Jay’s book, the idea is to:
Step 1 – Maximise the range of motion in each stretch.
Step 2 – Minimise the difference between passive and active flexibility around each joint and within each muscle group.
Step 3 – Equalise the range of motion in the left and right sides of the body, as well as the front and back of the body.
The key here is that regardless of your current ROM, if there is a big difference between your passive and active flexibility, then it is counterproductive in terms of injury potential to continue only doing passive stretching with outside assistance. Instead you should to work on your active stretching until the difference between the two has decreased, before again trying to progress your passive stretch. Again, I recommend that you buy Jay’s book, especially if like me you ‘could do better’ when it comes to taking care of this often neglected area of all-around fitness.
So I come full circle, and reiterate the concept of continuous growth. It doesn’t just have to be about fitness, but whatever you do in life, from your job, to your family relationships and hobbies. Find things which you are passionate about, and then embrace every opportunity to get better at your chosen craft. Listen, read, think and discuss. Along the way, share your knowledge and expertise with others, for therein lies a beautiful gift, “as you give, so shall you receive”.
Your Merlin Fitness friend,
Beth
