As a Personal Trainer in St Louis, there are certain questions that are regularly asked.  Quite often we are asked whether training with free weights is better than with machines.  The quick answer is a resounding yes.  Not only are the strength gains greater, but the functionality of movement with free weights add to an overall improved physique and performance level.  Here is a brief comparison between the two.

Free Weights

Pros- Strength gains tend to be greater.  More balance and coordination is required with free weights.  Unlike resistance machines which tend to isolate specific muscles, free weights recruit more muscle groups in single exercises.  Free weights promote more activity of the joint stabilizer muscles.

Cons- A spotter is needed.  Machines tend to have less risk of injury.

You may have heard this term thrown around the fitness industry in recent years.  The basis behind the “Muscle Confusion” theory is that in order to grow and become stronger, you must constantly change your routine and confuse your muscles.  Some think this theory is a myth, but there actually is some truth behind it.

Our bodies respond to new stimuli and use it to become stronger.  When you are placing demand on your muscles that incorporates balance, different angles, or just a varying training style, your body sees this as something new.  Varying routines can be used as a breakthrough during those plateau times as muscle groups become accustomed to a training program quite quickly.  For instance, for chest exercises, you may perform pushups with one hand on a medicine ball one day and inclined dumbbell press on a physioball later in the week.  While you’re still working the chest region, you’ve changed the angle and added a level of imbalance resulting in stimulation of new muscle growth.

Muscle confusion will also improve your motivation and keep your interest level up.  Varying your routine is an excellent way to constantly challenge your body in several dimensions.  For additional assistance in designing a program that incorporates muscle confusion, get in touch with a local personal trainer in St Louis.

We have all heard about the importance of vitamin D and possibly even some specific nutritional guidance on the proper intake of vitamin D, but do most of us really know why we need it in our bodies?  Vitamin D is usually obtained from sun exposure, food, and supplements.  Although it IS found in foods, very few foods naturally contain vitamin D, including fatty fish, egg yolk, milk, orange juice, yogurt, and cereal/bread.

What does Vitamin D do for our bodies?

- aids in the Maintenance of organ systems

- increases flow of calcium into blood stream

- promotes the absorption of calcium from food in intestines

- reabsorbs calcium in kidneys

- bone growth and remodeling

Who is at risk for low levels of Vitamin D?

- breast fed infants

- someone above 50 years old can not synthesize vitamin D efficiently

- those with limited sun exposure

- dark skin people- melanin means less ability of skin to produce vitamin D from UV

- obese people

What can a lack of vitamin D lead to?

- thin, brittle bones

- rickets

- osteomalacia, osteoporosis

- links to increased susceptibility to chronic diseases: tuberculosis, periodontal diseases, MS, chronic pain, SAD

As personal trainers, it is important to educate our clientele on the many intracacies of proper nutrition.  Adequate Vitamin D levels may be overlooked by many, but should be viewed as an essential part of one’s diet.

The upright row is a movement that has been performed by body builders and fitness enthusiasts for years in hopes of developing shoulders and trapezius musculature.  This highly popular exercise is performed by holding a barbell or dumbbells in front of your with a close, overhand grip, you pull the weight up to your chest, keeping it close to your body, leading with your elbows.

The Upright Row is one of the most harmful exercises you can expose your shoulders to. The problem with the exercise lies in the position your arms must be in in order to perform the movement. The position, called “internal rotation,” is where your arms are bent at the elbow and then internally rotated.  This position, with the addition of weight and your arms raises places your shoulder in an impingement position.  This is where a tendon in your shoulder gets pinched by the bones of the shoulder.

Many will ignore the advice of fitness professionals or personal trainers and continue to perform the exercise seemingly pain free.  The breakdown of this tends occurs slowly over time and gradually breaks down until a severe injury could occur.  To this day, I have witnessed several places all over the Saint Louis area that has members/clients still performing this exercise.  It is important as a personal trainer to educate our clientele on some of these exercises that may be extremely dangerous.  Expect more posts like this in the near future !

Most are familiar with the word, but probably aren’t sure of the exact definition.  Your core is basically the center portion of your body, excluding your limbs and your head.  This is the area where the force of movement is generated in exercise and in life.  Training your core is vital to living a stronger, healthier life or becoming a stronger athlete.  Personal trainers and other fitness professionals throw this word around like crazy, but there is a great deal of science behind the buzz.

I decided to compile a personal list of the most functional and effective exercises to build core strength.  This is, by no means, a definitive list.  Just my opinion on the best.

1. Bicycles- works the muscles deep in the abdominal wall and the obliques

2. Plank- this can be performed in numerous variations.   Improves core stability in an isometric fashion.

3. Long arm crunch- focuses on upper portion of abdominal region

4. Supermans- numerous variations, deep abdominal region, lower back region

5. Reverse Crunch- pulling your knees in.  Focuses on lower region of abdominal area

As stated before, this is not a definitive list of 5.  Please contact me or anyone with Studio Element with questions concerning any of these exercises.  Remember- While a nice six pack is appealing, performance and core stability is more important.  Focus on exercises like the ones above and improve your nutritional habits and the six pack will follow!

The fast pace of modern life leaves us with little time for ourselves.  Exercise is often the first activity to suffer as it is placed on the back burner.  While personal trainers don’t generally like to hear the excuse- “I don’t have enough time”, it can become quite difficult to give yourself this time.  The demands of life can be extreme, but health should be positioned high on the list.

For the extremely busy sector, there are some faster paced, more time efficient methods to ensure adequate amounts of exercise.  I encourage my training clientele to employ a “combination-style” program.  Combination exercises include two or three body parts or movements into one exercise.  This can be a quick, intense way to get in and out of the gym in 30-40 minutes and use every major muscle group.  If you are searching for efficiency, this may be the best route for you.  Also, the functionality of these movements in very high.  Your body works as a complete unit with multiple body part and muscle groups, making it vital to include some exercises with this same concept in mind.

These exercises can be difficult to explain without video, but here is a list of a few:

- Push up/Dumbbell row combo

- Deadlift/Dumbbell row combo

- Lunge/Dumbbell shoulder press combo

- Push up/Pike pull in with physio ball

I thought that I would take a different direction with my first blog post of the new year and start with somewhat of a testimonial to the benefits of regular exercise and an appreciation of human performance.  I am sitting here at my computer at home, but just spent the past 5 days in Winter Park, Colorado with my family and some friends.  My wife and I snowboard, but we introduced skiing to our 4 year old son.  After 3 days of lessons, it was exhilarating to have him join us on the lift and witness him actually skiing down some green slopes!  This is the start of many family ski trips to come; something that I have dreamed about since I was very young.

Even though my wife and I spent some of the trip worried about our son in the ski program, we were able to enjoy the slopes ourselves and reap the benefits of the regular exercise that we both participate in, here in Saint Louis.  My wife even mentioned that she felt stronger than she had ever felt on the slopes; a testament to the increased training that she has had since the last time we went.  Yes, it is true folks.  Regular exercise DOES improve your performance in other activities and, in this instance,  DOES translate to stronger snowboarding, more time on the slopes, and a fuller, more complete ski trip.

I encourage everyone to take advantage of your body.  Appreciate the capabilities that your body holds.  Play hard, but train even harder.

We are approaching that time of year where we all are thinking about making a positive change in our lives.  Every year, on January 1st, millions of people are resolving to quit smoking, start exercising more, make more time for the kids, etc, etc.  Gyms, fitness facilities, and personal training studios are always packed with people until the end of February or the first of March.  Why do these resolution often go by the wayside?  Why can’t many resolvers stick with their plan?

Part of the problem is how many of these resolutions are approached.  Goals are set in response to something negative. i.e- stop smoking.  By setting a more positive and broader goal, long-term success is more viable.  Instead of saying “I want to stop smoking”, say “I want to start living a healthier lifestyle.”  This encompasses every aspect of your living habits, including smoking.  By limiting it to only smoking, you are continuing other unhealthy habits that may lead back to smoking.

Also, lack of planning is another detriment to the success of a resolution.  Plan incremental goals to go with the lifestyle change.  Reward yourself with these smaller goals.

All in all, it is up to you to create the opportunities to acheive your resolutions.  Positive planning, tenacity,  and looking at the “big picture” is vital in sticking with your program and not looking back on the negative behaviors.

Here is a topic that is of great interest to myself and the rest of my staff at Studio Element.  The childhood obesity rates are alarmingly increasing in America and seem to be even more so in Saint Louis.  When I was young, recess and gym time was so much more prevalent and now it is almost non-existent.

According to the CDC website, in a study done from 1976-1980 and 2003-2006, for children aged 2–5 years, prevalence increased from 5.0% to 12.4%; for those aged 6–11 years, prevalence increased from 6.5% to 17.0%; and for those aged 12–19 years, prevalence increased from 5.0% to 17.6%.  As the number ONE killer in America, obesity is linked to a whole host of health complications including diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and several others.

Here is another graph from the CDC website indicating the prevalence of obesity, ages 2-19, over the last four decades.

The bottom line is that we, as parents, need to take responsibility and educate ourselves and our children how to make better choices, become involved in active activities, and to develop these life skill to use throughout a lifetime.  With the dwindling exercise opportunities at schools, it is imperative to involve your children in other activities to keep them active whether it is sports leagues, family hikes, or a fitness program specifically designed for children as offered by Studio Element Personal Training.

There are so many 5K and 10K charity runs around St. Louis.  Participating in such events can be a great addition to your current program while helping out a great cause.  A strength and conditioning program can be very beneficial to the novice or advanced runner. Your program should consist of low weight, high repetition movements and involve the following components.

1) Proper Warmup/Cooldown

2) Flexibility Training

3) Proper Nutrition and Hydration

4) Balance Training- coordination/stability, opposing muscular balance, upper/lower/core balance

5) Running-specific movements the both mimic running and strengthen the working muscles

Implementing such a program can lead to:

- Increased strength, power, endurance and efficiency as a runner

- Decreased injury

i. Increased flexibility

ii. Balanced strength in the appropriate muscle groups

iii. Increased stability

- Less muscular imbalances

Today we are focusing on the resistance training aspect of becoming a better runner.

Exercise Demonstrations- notice I’m only mentioning 1 upper body, 1 core, and 1 lower body exercise. Each of these has an opposing muscle group that needs equal attention.

- Plank- alternate reach (excellent total core exercise)

- Pushup- unlimited variations (make sure to include back exercises)

- Lunge on BOSU ball- focuses on stability/coordination while working the essential muscle groups specific to running (while a lunge does work both quadriceps and hamstring, it is primarily quadricep. An additional hamstring exercise is recommended.)

These are some very general recommendations for being a stronger, more efficient runner. As we know, everyone is built differently and therefore responds differently to training. To make sure that you have a plan that is customized to your abilities, I suggest setting up an appointment with a qualified personal trainer.