New Orleans personal trainers

From this article The Brief Way to Better Blood Sugar:

Men in a small study who added short, intense bursts of activity to mini workouts seemed better able to metabolize sugars.

When the men were given the equivalent of a meal's worth of glucose at the end of the study, their bodies metabolized it better than before the study.

Researchers suspect that bursts of intensity during workouts elicit stronger contractions and therefore more glucose uptake in the large muscles attached to bones.

The high intensity interval training in this study was performed on exercise bikes. High intensity interval training can also be incorporating into strength training - perform a series of high intensity strength training exercises will little rest between the exercises.

From this New York Times article, Forget the Treadmill. Get a Dog:

Nearly half of dog walkers exercised an average of 30 minutes a day at least five days a week. By comparison, only about a third of those without dogs got that much regular exercise...

A 2008 study in Western Australia addressed the question when it followed 773 adults who didn’t have dogs. After a year, 92 people, or 12 percent of the group, had acquired a dog. Getting a dog increased average walking by about 30 minutes a week, compared with those who didn’t own dogs…

On average, they exercised about 30 minutes a week more than people who didn’t have dogs.

Some trainees want to go all out every time. Some trainees think they are going all out. They really haven’t revved up their engines as high as they think they have, but that is another matter. For those who like to go all out it is a good thing for awhile. After a time the most hardened trainee will suffer from burnout or become over-trained.

A good trainer will anticipate the burnout or the over-training and make pro-active adjustments for the trainee. Sometimes as trainers we miss the cues and have to make adjustments after the fact. I had one client who absolutely loved the workouts and trained very hard. He then became sporadic in his attendance. I asked him about it. He told me no longer looked forward to the sessions and would look for a reason to stay late at work so that he could avoid an appointment. Lesson learned; we made adjustments. We did not go hard every time after that. When we did he was really up for it.

Is strength training safe for cardiovascular health and is it healthy? You might be surprised by the results of one study. From this study, Strength Training Early After Myocardial Infarction, comes this quote:

“For the three treatment groups, 30 of 42 subjects had one or more cardiovascular complication (arrhythmias, angina, ischemia, hypertension, hypotension) during the aerobic exercises as compared to only 1 subject with complications during the resistive exercises.”

 An interesting result that speaks for itself - 30 complications for aerobic rehab versus one for resistance exercise rehab.

Another quote from the study:

“ A year ago at this time I was experiencing frequent bouts of aches and pains in my neck, shoulders, and back. I figured it was just part of growing older. Since I started strength training last January, these problems have gone away. Amazing!”

This was the experience of Bill Milliken who trains with Timothy, one of our Austin Personal trainers. Carole had a similar experience: “I woke up every day with back pain. Going up and down stairs was painful for me knees. I am now pain-free”.

Previous blog entries in the series What Clients Are Saying:
1. This affects all aspects of my life.
2. I saw a remarkable change in my body
3. A Radical Transformation
4. I don’t think I would be alive today

Exercise increases the production of free radicals, and free radicals have been associated with a number of diseases and with aging.  To combat those free radicals people have taken to popping Vitamins C and D, antioxidants, to decrease the number of free radicals. New research indicates that that might not be a good idea.

 In one study with two groups of exercising rats, one group was injected with antioxidants, and the other group was not. The group of rats injected with antioxidants showed almost no free-radical activity, while the non-injected group had a high level of free radicals.

There were other differences as well.  From this NYT article, Phys Ed: Free the Free Radicals more findings from the study:

You can have all the qualities common to professionals (honesty, reliability, etc.) and all the qualities particular to the field of exercise (knowledge and experience in the field). That is often sufficient to be successful, but it might not be enough for the more advanced client or those who want to go to the “next level”. The really good trainers possess the quality of being able to be “in the moment"; this special quality will enable a trainer to take the client to the next level.

The next level? Someone exercising is willing to exercise at a certain level by themselves. That level is less than the absolute maximum they are capable of. A good fitness trainer who is in the moment will get the subject to go to the next level - somewhere above what they are willing to do and closer to what they are truly capable of. As one of my clients once told me, “I pay you to give me a workout I could not possibly get by myself”.

An estimated 63 percent of American households have a pet, according to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association. I assume
that a significant part of the no-owners would own a pet if their circumstances and finances were different.

Subjectively we know that being around pets has a calming effect for most of us. There is objective evidence as well. From this USA Weekend article, Why pets are good for us:

“People feel better after watching a Lassie flick because their levels of cortisol, a hormone associated with stress, take a free fall”.

There, some science to back up what many of us experience. A few years back after hurricane Katrina I went through a period of significant financial and personal difficulty. My house was unlivable. For five months I slept on the floor of my business in New Orleans. It was comforting to have my dog laying there beside me.

Several years ago I participated in the MS Tour For Cure. On the second day on the last half of the 75 mile ride I settled in with a small group of riders who were keeping up a blistering pace. We sailed past each of the rest stops. Toward the end it was all I could do to take my turn in the lead. I stayed with it because my odometer indicated that we only had a little over mile to go – the carrot (the end of the punishing pace) was very close.

I was really suffering. I wondered if others were suffering too. I found out. Someone in the group asked how much farther? Someone else replied: “Five miles to go” – that placed the carrot very far away. I knew that was wrong, but one of my co-riders Shane didn't know. Shane immediately fell off the pace.