I'm an ACE certified personal trainer and National Masters Over 60 Powerlifting Champion with over 25 years of experience in the health and fitness industry. I've seen a lot of fads come and go, but three things remain constant in getting healthy and staying fit. A positive mental attitude, a healthy balanced diet, and a fitness program built on proper strength training and cardiovascular exercise. Practice these three things daily and you will discover that they lead to "The Fountain of Youth."
Showing posts with label Personal trainer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Personal trainer. Show all posts
With the new year comes your New Years resolution to get healthier and more fit. You are ready to start on the road to improving your health and fitness but you don't know exactly how to begin. I suggest you hire a personal trainer to get your fitness program started right.
While you can find good health and fitness information in publications, and online you will also come across some bad information that is good for not you. One of the major benefits of investing in a personal trainer is that he or she can assess your physical capabilities and design a fitness program that gets the best results for you with very little chance of injury.. Also, they can educate you on healthy eating habits which is one of the biggest parts of seeing optimal results from your fitness program.
When hiring a personal trainer make sure they are certified by an organization that is accredited by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA), have liability insurance, and have experience in the field. Check with some of the trainer's clients both present and past to get their experiences working them.
My newest ebook, A Beginners Guide to Strength Training Over 50. Strength training is one of the most important things you can do if you want to remain healthy and fit over the age of 50. In this guide I show you a beginners strength training routine I do with my clients over 50.
I've been searching the web recently for credible information on
exercise and fitness. I'm amazed at the huge number of programs
promising dramatic results in as little as 15 days. I'm a certified
personal trainer, fitness author, and competitive natural bodybuilder
and I know better than to subscribe to one of these programs, but the
general public does not.
While achieving dramatic results from your fitness program in a short
period of time is possible, the probability of sustaining your results
for a long time is very unlikely. It takes me 16 weeks of intense
exercise and very strict dieting to get ready to compete in a
bodybuilding competition, and I cannot sustain that peak physical
condition for very long. So, buying into those quick fix programs is a
waist of your money, because you can't keep up the effort it takes to
sustain the results for the long-term.
Staying healthy and fit is a lifetime effort which is most easily
accomplished through balance and moderation in your diet combined with
regular exercise. The quick fix approach is just a short-term answer to
a long-term problem.
Recently I've found the best weight maintenance system I've seen in my 20 years in the health and fitness industry. It's called the Metaboliq Lifestyle System developed by Dr. Donald K. Layman. Dr. Layman's research in obesity and weight loss has proven that balance in your diet is the only long-term solution to losing weight and keeping it off. You can find out more about this amazing system by following this link: Metaboliq.
My name is Darvis Simms, and I am an ACE certified personal trainer and author of Forever Fit and Firm. Over the last 20
years , I’ve helped many people get healthy and stay fit. I want to help you realize your fitness potential
by showing you what I do myself and with my clients. I’m writing these
posts based on the things that I have learned and applied in my exercise
program over the last 30 years in my quest to stay healthy, fit, and firm as I
age. My methods are not based on scientific theory but rather on
results that I have attained for both myself and my clients.
As I mature and my client base matures, I’m beginning to specialize in
fitness over age 40. I’m in my fifties so I understand the challenges
you face as you fight the aging process. I am stronger, fitter, and I
feel better than I did in my twenties. I’m writing this series of posts
to show you how to look and feel as good, or even better, in your
forties and fifties than you did in your twenties.
People seem to think that once you reach the age of forty, your body
starts to deteriorate, and you slip down the slope into old age. They
blame their lack of energy, their soft pudgy appearance, and their aches and
pains on “getting old”. However, most of these symptoms are the result
of years of negative thinking, lack of exercise, and poor dietary
choices. The key to keeping your body healthy, fit, and firm at any age is making
healthy lifestyle choices on a daily basis.
It’s a proven fact that people who make healthy lifestyle choices live
longer and have a better quality of life than those who adopt unhealthy
habits. So, deciding to incorporate healthy habits into your life is
the first step to getting and staying healthy, fit, and firm with age. The next
step is choosing those activities that are the most beneficial to your health and fitness.
Those, including myself, who stay fit and firm as the years pass find
that a positive state of mind, and a proper mix of strength training,
cardiovascular exercise, and balanced nutrition is fundamental to
getting and staying healthy as you mature. People, such as Al Beckles and the late Jack LaLanne are examples of the benefits of living a healthy
lifestyle.
Jack LaLanne, who recently passed away, was a living icon to the benefits
of positive thinking, healthy eating, and regular exercise. Over the years he performed
amazing feats of strength and conditioning on his birthdays as he got
older. Jack was in great shape, and worked outs two hours each day,
devoting one and a half hours to strength training well into his
nineties. This is a true testament to the value of strength training as
you age.
Al Beckles is a legend in the bodybuilding world. At the age of 55, Al
placed second in the Mr. Olympia competition. The Mr. Olympia
Competition is the premier bodybuilding event which thousands of
competitors all over the world dream of winning each year. Al
Beckles competed well into his sixties because his physique was still
phenomenal and better than competitors more than half his age.
While I don’t place myself in the same class with Jack LaLanne and Al
Beckles I can tell you the value that healthy lifestyle habits have in
my life. As mentioned , I am in my fifties and I keep my body fat around 10
percent. My fitness program consists of four strength training
sessions each week followed by 20 minutes of cardio. I can chest press
100 pound dumbbells for 10 repetitions and leg press more than 1000
pounds, neither of which I could do in my twenties. I'm saying this to brag, but to show you that it's possible to look and feel better in your forties and fifties than in any time in your life.
Watch this video of one of my favorite exercises. The leg press is one of my favorite exercises for keeping my legs strong and fit. Your legs are your foundation, so you have to keep them strong!
Every heard of a company name Qivana? Neither had I, but that’s not unusual. I’m a personal trainer and I’ve been in the health and fitness industry for over 17 years and I’ve been approached by more network marketing companies with their so called cutting edge nutritional products than I can count.
Earlier in my career I’d gotten involved with a couple of these companies only to find that their nutritional products didn’t deliver half of what they claimed and they were mostly based on pseudo science. I have to admit, I came away feeling very negative about these network marketing based nutritional companies. It seemed these companies were all about making money and cared little about the product they were selling.
I like making money too, however for me to stand behind a product and sell it, it has to be of very high quality and company must also be of high integrity. I’d always thought that the network marketing idea was a great way to leverage myself but I had never found a product or a company that I felt good enough to get involved with. That is until recently when I came across a company named Qivana.
When I was first approached about Qivana and saw that it was a network marketing based nutritional company I thought, “oh no, here’s another one of those companies pushing some half-baked nutritional product.” However, I am an open minded person and I did some research about the company and I ordered some of their products to sample for myself. I was very impressed with the quality of their products. I thought about joining there company, but my plate was full with my personal training business and I had just opened a studio.
A few weeks later I got the opportunity to hear Dr. Marcus Laux speak about Qivana. Dr. Laux is a well renowned naturopathic physician who created one of the Qivana product systems. I was impressed. However, I was more impressed by what Dr. Laux said to his audience about health and healthy weight loss. It was the same things that I personally do and recommend to my clients.
I had found a nutritional company that base their products on the philosophy that I have adhered to for over 25 years to maintain my health and fitness. I had to become a part of this company and I did. The more I find out about Qivana and it’s line of amazing natural nutritional products the more I am impressed. If you haven’t heard of Qivana, believe me you will soon.
Check out this amazing company and it’s products at www.myqivana.com/darvis.
Image via WikipediaI recently read an article that offered inexpensive alternatives to hiring a personal trainer. The article mentioned places where you can get "how to" fitness information online. While, you can find a lot good fitness information and excellent exercise routines on the web, you will also find some information that's not worth following. Therefore, you need to have enough knowledge about health and fitness to distinguish the good information from the bad. So, if you are new to exercise and thinking of beginning a fitness program, I suggest you hire a good nationally certified personal trainer. A personal trainer can assess your physical characteristics and lifestyle and custom design a program just for you.
I also think you should at least have a trainer custom design a program for you even if are going to workout on your own. They can teach you the proper form and technique to use for each exercise, so when you are working out you can be confident you are doing the routine properly. I can't count the number of times I've seen people following some exercise routine they've downloaded and doing most of the exercises incorrectly and consequently injure themselves.
In addition, a personal trainer can also educate you about health and fitness, so when you do search for new exercise routines on the web you can distinguish the good ones from the not so good. This alone is a good reason to invest in hiring a personal trainer.
Image via WikipediaAs a personal trainer in my 50s I realize the value of a good fitness program in helping me to stay healthy, strong, and active. However, I'm bothered by some of the fitness routines I see trainers having people do who are over the age of 40.
It seems the more intense the program the better people think they are. I see trainers having people who are over 40 jumping on and off plyometric boxes, (risking injury to their knees, ankles, and lower back) until they are drowning in their own sweat. I see people who are de-conditioned being pushed by trainers to do giant sets of push-ups, squats, lunges, and you name it until they literally can't move another muscle fiber.
It leads me to question whether doing more intensity is always better (especially for the 40 plus crowd)? In my 17 years of experience as a personal trainer and a person over the age of 40, I have to say no. You can have anyone do jump squats until they are standing in a pool of their own sweat, but is that necessary what they need?
When working with clients over the age of 40, you have to take the following things into consideration when designing a fitness program for them.
How long it's been since they've done any exercise regularly?
What kind of regular exercise are they use to doing?
Do they have any condition that requires a doctor's approval before beginning a physical fitness program?
Any prior injuries that would prohibit certain exercises?
The condition of their ankle, knee, and shoulder joints.
Their core strength.
Do they have any muscular skelotor imbalances?
Are their fitness goals realistic?
Are they former athletes? Sometimes they think they can still do what they did 20 years ago.
I know as a trainer you want your clients to see results quickly. However, sometimes the best workout you can do with your client is one where they don't even break a sweat.
Image by Rtist MrB via FlickrAs a personal trainer, I am in and out of health clubs all day. I love to observe the things people do in their efforts to "get in shape". The major thing I notice, is the over-whelming amount of cardio I see women doing while neglecting to do much strength training.
While cardio is an important part of any fitness program, it should not be the primary focus, especially if you are female and over 40 years of age. In your 20s you could knock off those extra pounds by just running on the treadmill a few extra times each week. However, as you approach your 40s and beyond that plan isn't effective anymore and here's why.
As you enter your late 30s you start to lose muscle, and muscle is that part of your body that burns the majority of the calories that you consume each day. A pound of muscle burns about 6 calories a day even while your are resting, and a pound of fat only burns around one calorie per day.
If you don't do anything to combat the above scenario, you can lose as much as 10 lbs of muscle each decade beginning in your 40s. That decreases your metabolism by about 60 calories a day every 10 years of your life. So, that's about 21,900 calories a year that's being converted to fat, which is approximately 6 lbs of fat you gain each year.
I know, this is a very sad scenario, but there is hope. Your savior is called strength training. By incorporating strength training in your fitness program you can slow, and in some cases, even reverse muscle loss. And, it's never too late to start, studies have shown the positive results of strength training in people well into their 90s.
Image via WikipediaI've been searching the web recently for credible information on exercise and fitness. I'm amazed at the huge number of programs promising dramatic results in as little as 15 days. I'm a certified personal trainer, fitness author, and competitive natural bodybuilder and I know better than to subscribe to one of these programs, but the general public does not.
While achieving dramatic results from your fitness program in a short period of time is possible, the probability of sustaining your results for a long time is very unlikely. It takes me 16 weeks of intense exercise and very strict dieting to get ready to compete in a bodybuilding competition, and I cannot sustain that peak physical condition for very long. So, buying into those quick fix programs is a waist of your money, because you can't keep up the effort it takes to sustain the results for the long-term.
Staying healthy and fit is a lifetime effort which is most easily accomplished through balance and moderation in your diet combined with regular exercise. The quick fix approach is just a short-term answer to a long-term problem.
As promised I'm starting a contest to giveaway a copy of my book Forever Fit and Firm. All of the exercises that I have posted about over the last few weeks have come from my book. There's only two requirements to enter the contest. 1. Become a follower of my blog and send me a comment stating your favorite exercise from one of my previous posts. 2. Become a Facebook Fan of mine and send me a comment telling me your favorite food.
The contest starts March 1st and ends March 31st. Good luck!
Let start this post by stating that I'm 52 years old and I've been lifting weights for most of my adult life. I'm as strong (actually stronger), and I feel as good as I did 30 years ago. I'm 6 foot 2 inches tall, and I weigh in at 218 lbs at 10 percent body fat. I'm not telling you this to brag on myself, but hopefully to change your concept of aging.
I'm an ACE certified personal trainer and I specialize in fitness over the age of 40. I hear and see far too many people over 40 years of age blame their aches, pains, and poor physical condition on "getting old", when most of their physical calamities are the result of years of inactivity and bad lifestyle choices.
I believe that getting old has less to do with years and more to do with your attitude and the daily choices you make. Imagine your body being healthy, strong, and fit as you grow older and this will lead you to make the healthy choices to manifest the the healthy, strong, and fit life you want no matter what age.
What's more compelling than an example to show you that you can be healthy, strong, and fit in your 40s, 50s, and beyond. Here is my workout routine I did yesterday. It was a heavy lifting day for my shoulders and back, so I did the following:
Lateral shoulder raises, 3 sets of 5 repetitions with 60 lb dumbbells.
Overhead shoulder presses, 3 sets of 5 repetitions with 80 lb dumbbells.
Shoulder shrugs, 3 sets of 5 repetitions with 315 lbs.
Bent over dumbbell rows, 3 sets of 5 repetitions with a 150 lb dumbbell.
Weighted pullups, 3 sets of 5 repetitions with 35 lbs attached to my waist.
Lat pulls, 3 sets of 5 repetitions with 270 lbs.
This is not your typical 52 year old's workout, but it could be.
As a personal trainer with over 17 years of experience in the health and fitness industry, I've seen the fad diets and the quick fix exercise programs come and go. I'm always amused at all the so called health and fitness companies trying to rake in all the money they can by taking advantage of people's new year's resolutions. It's almost like a show I saw a few weeks ago on the Discovery Channel about all the sea predators waiting for the annual sardine run when they can easily eat their fill.
The advertisements entice you with quick weight loss results and a toned shapely body. They get celebrities to endorse their products to encourage you that buying them is money well spent. I hope you don't fall prey to these predators of human emotions.
The reality is their are not any quick fixes to long-term weight loss and improved physical fitness. Losing weight and improving your fitness level is a lifetime commitment to a healthy lifestyle.
In my experience, a healthy lifestyle consist of a positive mental attitude, balance and moderation in your diet, and a regular exercise program. The good news is all of these things are in your control. They are all based on the choices you make everyday and the first choice is not to become a victim of the "quick fix predators."
Image via WikipediaI got an early morning text from a client saying that life was really busy for her this week, and she needed a break from her workout session. Part of my job as a personal trainer is to motivate my clients to stay on track to accomplish their fitness goals. And another part of my job is knowing when a client is over-whelmed by the things of life, and giving them the okay to skip a session and to not feel guilty about it.
Sometimes as a personal trainer I have to discern the best road to take for the long-term health and fitness of my clients. If I convince my clients to keep their appointments if they are feeling over-whelmed by life, when it would be more beneficial for them to take a mental break, then I am adding to their stress.
When the things of life get in the way of your fitness plan it's okay to take a session or two off as long as you pick-up your workouts when you get your focus back. Let's face it, we all have days that we just don't want to get out of bed, and that's s sign that we need a mental break. My advice is to take one.
Image via WikipediaThis morning a had a message from one of my clients who called last night to cancel her workout session for today. Which is okay with me because she has already paid me in advance for the session. After listening to the message, it made me think of all the excuses some people make when it comes to their own health and fitness.
Ever notice that the people who are always complaining about how they can't lose weight or how they can't get in-shape are the same people who make excuses why they can't exercise or eat healthy on a consistent basis? Getting healthy and fit and staying healthy and fit is a lifetime commitment. The older you get the more important it is to stay consistent in your fitness program.
The biggest problem with people who make excuses why they can't workout consistently is they think that they can get the results that they desire by doing their fitness program "once in a while." That's like thinking you can be healthy by only eating two or three times a month. It's just doesn't work that way.
In my 17 years of working as a personal trainer I have never seen anyone achieve their fitness goals with a "once in a while approach." To achieve and maintain your fitness goals you have to make a lifetime commitment to exercising and eating a healthy diet on a regular basis. No excuses.
Image via WikipediaI'm a personal trainer and part of my job is to motivate my clients to workout regularly. However, I often find that my clients motivate me to workout when I have one of those days that I just don't feel like going to the gym.
Being a personal trainer means I am also a role model. I've got to stay fit in order for my clients follow my advice. Would you go to a dentist who had rotten teeth? The same logic goes for me, would you pay a personal trainer who's fat and out-of-shape? No.
The majority of my clients are over 40 years old. They want to recapture their youthful energy and shape. I'm in my 50s and I show them that is possible. I'm stronger and more fit now than I was in my 20s. Thus, I have to stay in-shape.
So, when I have one of those days that I don't feel like working-out, I just think about my clients who look at me as their role model. I can't let them down nor can I afford to let myself down consequently, I find my way to the gym and I have a good workout.
To all my clients out there. Thank you for motivating me to stay fit.
Lots of people are starting to ask me what I personally do to stay fit. I'll be 52 years old in November and I feel honored that people think that I am in great shape for any age.
Well, I have great motivation to stay physically fit. I'm a personal trainer who specializes in fitness over 40 so, I have to be a great role model. I must show my clients and others by my actions and lifestyle that they can look good and feel great at any age.
First, I believe that health and fitness starts with a positive mental attitude. The way you think is reflected in the way you look and feel. A cheery disposition goes a long way in healing many ailments.
Second, I exercise on a regular basis. I weight lift 4 times each week and follow that up with 20 minutes of medium intensity cardio after each session. I can't over-emphasize the importance of strength training as you age. Building and maintaining muscle is key to staying fit and firm as mature.
Third, I practice balance and moderation in my diet. No amount of exercise can compensate for a unhealthy diet. Knowing approximately how many calories you consume each day and what percentage of those calories come from carbohydrates, protein, and fat is essential to balancing your diet. Balance and moderation in the foods you eat is easy to incorporate into your life and it's the long-term solution to a healthy diet.
Being healthy and fit is not that difficult. You have the power in your hands to change your life anytime you want to and I'll be here cheering you on.
I've finally written and published the book I've always dreamed of. It's called "Forever Fit and Firm" and it is based on how I stay healthy and fit. I'm a personal trainer in my fifties and I am in better physical condition than I was in my twenties. You might ask is that possible, and I say yes it is.
You see most of the aches and pains, and physical degeneration that you associate with aging it actually a result of many years of negative thinking, lack of exercise, and poor dietary habits. In my book I show you how to get into the best shape of your life no matter your age.
