John Kelly's blog

Not exactly fitness but worth a look.

New Orleans’s Personal Training and Austin Fitness Training

The client was 58 and very fit. She was wearing a pulse meter on her wrist. Ninety seconds into the workout her pulse was 148 which is approaching her maximum for a person her age.

One method of determining one’s maximum heart rate is to subtract one’s age from 220 bpm. Using this method this client’s maximum heart rate would be 162 bpm.

We began the workout with the leg press using a heavy weight and slow initial movements. The leg press involves large muscle groups and can get one’s heart rate up in short order. The slow starts minimize force associated with injury and allow one to warm up safely with the heavier weights. The warm up is in effect incorporated in to the first set using a challenging weight. After a minute she was breathing hard and I told her to move faster. At this point her muscles were warmed up and appreciably weaker. Warmed-up weaker muscles are unlikely to generate enough force to cause injury as long as good form is maintained. Her attempts to move fast did not amount to much at that point in the set, but it did allow her to keep moving and achieve a deeper fatigue.

Number sixteen in a series about what clients have to say about their workouts.

Barbi was an avid runner. She began strength training eight weeks ago. Barbi had this to say, “I have had more results in eight weeks than in three years working out with another trainer”.

With strength training in order to produce a change the body has to perform more work than it is used to handling. Then, given adequate time to recover and adequate nutrition, the body adapts as a form of self-protection by becoming stronger.

Ten years ago we opened the doors to New Orleans Ultimate Fitness Training at 4930 Prytania Street. Last month we moved to a new location at 1738 Soniat Street just six blocks away. We also changed the name from Ultimate Fitness to Kelly Personal Training to match the name of our other location in Austin, Texas, Kelly Personal Training in Austin. Nothing else changes. We will have the same management, ownership, employees, procedures, rates, and equipment – just a different setting and name.

Eighty percent close before their tenth anniversary. During bad economic times those percentages are higher. We understand that the clients make our success possible, and as such, we cater to them as best we can. We are always mindful that our doors would not remain open without our clients. We thank all our valued clients for their loyalty that has enabled us to thrive.

Slowly the parameters of our world of physical abilities creep in on us. Each year we have a little less stamina, flexibility, strength, and ability to withstand trauma and infection.

We lose a little range of motion each year, a few ounces of muscle, and a few seconds off our personal records. If we are not active the process will occur more quickly . When we exercise we are placing demands on the body that send a message to the body that the muscle, stamina, and flexibility are needed for survival. As an act self-protection the body will do what it can do accommodate those demands.

How often does the body need to be exercised? Too much exercise can result in taking steps backward when there is insufficient recovery from the stress of exercise or when there are repetitive-use injuries. The body doesn't need be constantly stimulated to retain or add to our physical abilities. In one flexibility study one group stretched five days a week and the other group stretched three times a week. At the end of the study both groups increased their flexibility by an equal amount.

[Lief, one of our clients' has gone from five insulin shots a day down to one. He has been training with us for about four years. His testimonial is on this page.]

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

Men in a small study who added short, intense bursts of activity to mini workouts seemed better able to metabolize sugars – from this article The Brief Way to Better Blood Sugar:

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.

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

“There’s a lot of hype in this field in terms of brain improvement. I did set out to find out what actually works and what we know. What we do with our bodies has a huge impact on our brains. Our brains are more like our hearts in that everything you do for your heart is thought to be equally as good or better for your brain. Exercise is the best studied thing you can do to your brain. It increases brain volume, produces new baby brain cells in grownup brains. Even when our muscles contract, it produces growth chemicals. Using your body can help your brain.” From the NYT article, The Talents of a Middle-Aged Brain.

A strong body and a strong mind can be obtained through exercise. Prior blog entries dealing with cognitive decline and exercise:

Strength training enables you to engage in other activities more often and longer than had you not strength trained. You'll to enjoy life more and play longer and more often. Additonally, You will suffer less injuries. Engaging in activities longer and more often compounds the benefits derived from strength training creating a virtuous cycle.

Examples:

Carole lived with constant back pain. Her back pain disappeared shortly after she began strength training. Three years later she was still going strong attending dance classes with people half her age. The additional activity of dance classes contributed positively to her health as well.

This is going to be the year you get in the best shape of your life. You sign for a year to get the special rate, and the automatic bank draft begins. You faithfully go each week for the first couple of weeks or maybe even the first couple of months. Eventually your attendance becomes sporadic. You miss a couple of weeks and then you miss a couple of months. Eventually you return with the intention of really buckling down. For most that never happens.

Finally you admit defeat so you try to cancel, and that becomes a hassle and expensive because there is a processing fee. You realize that there are just a few months left, and you rationalize that it is not worth the hassle of trying to terminate the contract. You ride it out cringing when you look at your monthly credit card bill and see the card charged for the service you did not use.

Happy New Year.

Some New Years quotes:

Ring out the old, ring in the new,Ring, happy bells, across the snow:The year is going, let him go;Ring out the false, ring in the true.~Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 1850 New Year's Day:

New Year's Eve, where auld acquaintance be forgot. Unless, of course, those tests come back positive. ~Jay Leno

Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account. ~Oscar Wilde

Yesterday, everybody smoked his last cigar, took his last drink and swore is last oath. Today, we are a pious and exemplary community. Thirty days from now, we shall have cast our reformation to the winds and gone to cutting our ancient shortcomings considerably shorter than ever. ~Mark Twain

Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man. ~Benjamin Franklin

We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives... not looking for flaws, but for potential. ~Ellen Goodman