What a Concept!

So, here's the deal. Like most people I have a few pet peeves. One for instance has to do with people standing directly in front of a weight stack and performing their exercises, thus making it impossible for anyone else to access a dumbell or two. That just bugs me.

A more agregious level of peevity (my word) would be the conceptual misuse of words. You know, things like "your going to get in trouble if you go threw that door." See the words aren't misspelled, they just are conceptually wrong. It hurts me that perfectly functional, red blooded Americans willfully abuse grammar and thus are never able to extract the desired result from their tortured attempt at communication.

The other night while I ruminated on a particularly tragic attempt at literacy with regard to a facebook status update, I had what Oprah refers to as an Ah Ha moment.

You see I am a fitness instructor. It is my job to see to it that individuals perform certain exercises, drills, movements, properly therefore reaping as many gains as possible. It doesn't peeve me when clients perform exercises "improperly" it just makes me sad. Everyone has the opportunity to glean the most out of every training session, but that requires one not just to listen to cues, but to hear them, internalize them and act on them...

Let's take the example of lateral flexion and extension of the torso with a load. If the torso or the core is where I'm trying to get my power and also the area I'm trying to target, the load does the most when it is close to the trunk (i.e. the Kinesis cable handle on the shoulder). Once the handle leaves the shoulder on the push the arm is simply following through. As the torso goes back toward the cable the handle just rests on the shoulder, it does not go down to the side. Why?

Well I'm glad you asked because that's where the conceptual thing comes back to play. You're not loading the bicep, you're loading the trunk! Yay! In fact the bicep has little to nothing to do with this exercise. It's about the C to the O to the R to the E. Remember that is the shoulder girdle, the hip girdle and everything in between. Always think of where your load is and what your force is. It's a concept that will allow you to garner the very most from your training sessions. Once you understand the concept, you will find that it just doesn't make sense to do things any other way. Okay, any questions? Let me hear them. In the meantime, Mary Mary and Happy Knew Year To! ( haha, just kidding;)

If The Mean guy From Star Wars Didn't Need To Scream Why does Your Trainer?

So, have I ever mentioned that I have never seen Star Wars. Not one. Not Luke's Last Stand, or Jedi Kingdom Something or other blah blah blah. I don't even know who Luke's father is. At the end of the day I do not enjoy science fiction. Part of the problem is that I spend half the time trying to figure out if the contraptions they have on set really work or where the guide wires are (or were pre green screen.) I couldn't even bring myself to enjoy the end of the original Willy Wonka alas spending all my energies trying to figure out if they made the chocolate river bed out of toilet paper roles or how they ever expected me to believe the miniatures they used for the part where they fly over the city (uh, my brother had a train set people.) But I digress. The point is, this new series V started tonight on t.v. (otherwise known as the device that babysits me and my husband after a long day of work.) I have no interest in this show V. From what I understand somebody clones something and then they eat it or whatever. The point is I made Toods(husband Todd) watch H R Puffnstuff or V or whatever in the bedroom and have found myself wandering around the t.v. stations in the living room. And guess what Coach Kitty found......
The Biggest Loser. That's what. And I am not happy.
That Jillian is not nice,and Bob has turned into a real diva. They seem to have succumbed to what I like to refer to as the Bull from Night Court syndrome wherein a once believeble character who was based in reality is, after one too many seasons reduced to a caricature beyond all recognition. Thus is the fate of Bob and Jillian or so I hope. I mean I hope this is not how they treat their clients or that people watch this show and are drawn to these kinds of abusive demeaning tactics. If you would not tolerate abusive behavior from anyone else in your life why would you accept it from a trainer? Ask yourself if you would allow anyone else to get an inch from your face and scream at you without punching them in the nose. I am not saying that trainers should sugar coat the truth and baby clients. Ask anyone who has trained with me and they will assure you nothing could be further from the truth with regard to my training philosophy. However, I like to employ a little thing I call the velvet hammer approach. A trainer can make their point without yelling and screaming. As a matter of fact didn't we all have that one teacher in high school who would stand at the front of the class silently with her arms folded until everyone got super uncomfortable and the room suddenly went silent which is exaclty what she wanted. The velvet hammer. A trainer should be able to make her point through example, correction, and well, a little bit of shame NOT SCREAMING AND YELLING! Got it?

One word. Kinesis.