Hiring a Personal Trainer 101

You've just come from the doctor and you've been told that you need to shed 15 - 20 pounds, you're blood pressure is up, and your cholesterol numbers need improving. To make matters worse, there's a history of Type II diabetes in your family and you're a good candidate unless your diet improves. But where do you go from here? Frankly, doctors aren't much of a resource when it comes to accomplishing these tasks. You'll get some general orders about eating right and exercising, and if your numbers are bad enough, you'll be put on medication.

Your choices are daunting. There are hundreds of diets out there promising one thing or another. Many employers and some HMO's reimburse their members for a gym membership, but what do you do once you get there? This is where you may want to consider hiring a personal trainer to get you started in the right direction. A trainer can provide a good starting point for healthy eating tips and safe, effective exercise. Finding the right trainer for you can be difficult, as well. Here are a few considerations:

Watch. Look. Listen.

One of the easiest things to do is to watch a potential trainer interact with his clients. This can take several days or several weeks. Is the trainer attentive to his client or is he on the phone and/or chatting with others during the session? Do the exercises this trainer is using seem like something you'd be interesting in doing? Does this trainer have a professional demeanor?

Ask Questions.

You may know the client that the trainer is working with so not why inquire about their experience with this trainer. Is the trainer on time? Is he courteous? Does he listen to the needs of his client? Would this person recommend this trainer? Ask the trainer directly with questions and concerns. Be clear about your goals when speaking with a potential trainer: The answers provided will give you an idea about this person's abilities.

The Fine Print.

You need to ask your potential trainer for three important documents: A training certification, proof of liability insurance, and a valid CPR certification. Some clubs/gyms require these documents as part of the training agreements with their trainers (incredibly, some don't) but it doesn't hurt to ask. Trainers and/or clubs may require contracts with their clients, as well. Read the fine print!

And finally, look forward to having fun with your trainer. The experience can be a rewarding one for both parties. Don't rely solely on your trainer for guidance. Arm yourself with some good reading about the topic(s) in which you are interested and take charge of the changes you want in your life. Happy New Year!

What's in Your Shopping Cart?

Show me the content of a man's shopping cart, and I'll tell you about that man. I just made that up. Actually, I think a better picture of a person's tastes and habits would be a glimpse into their refrigerator. But the stuff didn't suddenly appear. There was some kind of motivation to take it off a shelf, pay for it, and bring it home. Was it hunger? Was that motivation health-related? Or was the grab an impulse buy?

I don't go shopping without a list partially because I get to the store and forget what I needed and because that list steadies my hand in the face of temptation. You won't find prepared foodstuffs in my kitchen: No Rice-a-Roni (what the hell is that stuff?), no prepared entrees, and save me from jarred pasta sauce (they all taste the same). My last partner brought home this package of mystery meat "marinated" in, I swear, something reminiscent of formaldehyde.

I'm fortunate on the culinary front to have the skills to make things from scratch. The biggest impediment isn't preparation skills, it's the time needed to make healthy food. In one of my trade journals an article detailed the high costs of eating junk food. Not only were prepared, processed foods made of poor quality ingredients they are packed with fat, sugars, sodium and chemicals you can't even pronounce. The article featured a favorite chef, Mark Bittman, roasting a chicken and preparing veggies in about an hour. But, you still have to buy the bird, take it home, cook it, and that takes time. The article doesn't even mention the amount of skill (relatively low) needed to make this meal. Even after you've learned to cook a bird, again, it still takes time. Therein lies the lure of prepared, processed food.

Just for fun, here's my marinara sauce that's easy to prepare. The onions, cooked until golden, will sweeten this sauce. I make a good-sized batch so I can portion and have it in the freezer. Of course, it's not only great for pasta but it's also a great base for chili, as well.

Not-So-Basic Marinara Sauce

Yellow onion, peeled, chopped coarsely, 1 medium
Olive oil, extra virgin, 1/4 cup
Whole thyme or rosemary, 1/2 teaspoon
Bay leaves, 2 whole
Fresh black pepper, 1/2 teaspoon or to taste

In a large pan over medium heat, cook the chopped onion in the olive oil with the thyme, bay leaves, and fresh black pepper until the edges of the onion start to turn gold-brown.

Fresh garlic, peeled, coarsely chopped, 4 whole cloves
Salt (sea salt, if you have it), 1 teaspoon

This is the time to add the garlic and salt. Any sooner and you'll risk burning. Cook it until you can smell the fragrance coming up from the pan. Then add...

Canned, crushed tomatoes with liquids, 4 - 14oz cans
Water or chicken stock, 1 cup
(Optional) Red wine, 3/4 cup

Let the sauce come to a boil while stirring the reduce then heat to medium low and simmer for about an hour. That's it! Time will take care of the rest. Give it an occasional stir and adjust the salt and pepper as desired. Let it cool, portion as needed, and freeze.

What Are You Grateful for Today?

There's quirky vegan restaurant around the corner from where I lived in San Francisco. It's called Cafe Gratitude and is located on 20th & Harrison in the Mission. Quirky is hardly a good word for it: Cafe Gratitude received accolades in the New York Times for its vegan fare and they have, I think, three locations. I've never had a better, fresher salad in my entire life. When taking your order, the service staff, instead of asking, "What can I get for you" or "May I take your order", asks,"What are you grateful for today"?

What are you grateful for today? We're on the other side of a bountiful holiday that most people got to enjoy. We ate to our heart's and belly's content (about 2400 calories in that meal) and enjoyed the company of family and friends. I wasn't able to be at a Thanksgiving celebration and ended up at Carl's Jr. for a 6 Dollar Burger. There was a homeless person there, too, but he was asleep. As I enjoyed my 6 Dollar Burger (finally, somebody put some crunchy veggies on a burger, the pickles were a little sweet, but...) I thought about what I was most grateful for that day. For yesterday, today, and tomorrow, it will always be my health.

So much of what ails us these days is preventable. High cholesterol is mostly diet-related. High blood pressure is mostly diet-related. Obesity (and its cascade of health issues) is diet-related. Type II diabetes is mostly diet-related. I had a 70 year old male client who refused to get a colonoscopy because he perceived it to be unsafe (colon cancer is preventable with regular screenings). And least we not forget cigarettes: A government-sanctioned, highly profitable, highly taxed, nicotine delivery device responsible for thousands of preventable deaths.

Mortals that we are, we will all eventually die. Why hasten the process and erode our quality of life (what's left of it)? I used to care for a friends dog and her instructions were: Food, water, and plenty of exercise. I think this is a fitting prescription for all of us.

Fitness Paradise: San Diego!

A year ago I arrived in Palm Springs and now it's time to leave. So soon, you ask? Palm Springs has been a little strange for me. Okay, it's been weird. I realize everyplace has it's "weirdness", especially having lived in a city like San Francisco, but Palm Springs has been weird times 10.

I've decided that Palm Springs is not part of California. Its glitzy-esque, nostalgic glamor lends it as more of an outlier of Las Vegas. It's a patchwork of vacant lots, shuddered businesses and nude resorts. Walking-types beware (there aren't many here): You'll find that sidewalks, if any, suddenly narrow, end, disappear altogether, or are squarely blocked by a palm tree.

Having escaped the fitness craze is another reason for my decision that Palm Springs is not part of California. For all the great weather and sunshine, you won't find too many people enjoying it. As I observed, there aren't many people that walk or bicycle. It's a place where cars rule and folks like to drive...fast! Except for a small area downtown, it is not pedestrian friendly. And as for a good cup of coffee or a decent loaf of bread? Forget it.

For all of Palm Springs shortcomings and weirdness, the one saving grace is its natural beauty. This is the desert, and regardless of the colorful, exotic, over-watered landscaping, those majestic, weathered hills loom as a reminder that this city is contrived and is nothing without precious water. You'll find a lot of great people here and even more characters, too. Palm Springs has a "let it all hang out" attitude and some like to let it hang to the ground.

San Diego, my quintessential California. Growing up in the parched desert of Eastern Utah, it's no wonder it was the dream spot of my youth. My Aunt Aggie, a goddess of a woman living in Chula Vista not far from the beaches, would collect and mail sea shells that smelled and tasted of brine. Whether or not they really came from those beaches was irrelevant to three young boys living in a coal mining town. The dreams they inspired, and continue to inspire, were richer than the gift itself: The ocean, year-round sunshine, young-minded people, forward thinkers, new ideas, people with purpose, and lots of good vibrations.

San Diego is definitely part of California with it's gentle temperatures and moist breezes from the ocean. It's a hotbed for fitness buffs and you'll find all varieties in the water, on the streets, up in the mountains, and all in between. It's a personal trainer's paradise with an abundance of health-conscious folks seeking guidance and motivation. If there's an empty patch of grass, you can bet a boot camp will pop-up there sooner than later. Fitness is relatively new in our national, social consciousness and cities like San Diego are setting the pace. Come and visit!

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Outsourcing Fitness and Health: It's a Small Price to Pay

Outsourcing has a negative connotation these days. Corporations send jobs to foreign shores, manufacturers assemble products instead of making them, and private companies are now doing what the government used to do. How much of your life do you outsource? More than you think. It's true that some things are better left to experts, like your doctor or mechanic, but does someone else clean your house, wash your car, or prepare most of your meals? We live in a busy world and that's price we pay to have someone else perform tasks that we otherwise might do ourselves, or choose not to do.

How about your workouts? I have clients who get a 90 minute lunch break with 60 minutes of that time alloted to training. That's one of the great values of having a personal trainer: getting the most out of a workout in a short period of time. Other clients come to me with specific fintess goals, either their own or doctor ordered, seeking guidance and motivation. Whether it's loosing weight, gaining weight, improving "numbers," or sport-specific, a personal trainer is a great value. When considering health care costs and prevention the the U.S., the price of maintaing and improving health is vastly more cost-effective than the alternatives. Obesity alone, with aliments ranging from high blood pressure, diabetes, and joint problems - including higher insurance premiums and lost wages - added $190 billion to the national healthcare price tag.

Corporations outsource to improve their bottom line. You may want to consider outsourcing your health and fitness goals to improve your mumbers as well.

When a Lifestyle Becomes a Passion: 32 Years of Lifting.

September of 1980. I'd already lost 65 pounds by the end of my senior year in 1979 and was maintaining my weight at about 165 - 170 pounds, although my aunt Mary was convinced I was too skinny. I was living with my cousin Steve in Provo, Utah (yes, Provo) while I was going to school. He had a set of weights and a bench in the basement of his townhouse. You know the kind: cheap, cement-filled plastic discs that had to be bolted onto shoddy bars resting on a bench that could capsize without warning.

In the beginning, the only thing that I could do was to grasp 2, 5 pound weights and lay back on that shaky bench and do pec flys. In no time I graduated from that basement gym to a local community center with real barbells, dumbbells, and cables. I watched others do their workouts and got some basic ideas. I watched a guy, much smaller than me, do the bench press. After he was finished I ponied-up to the bench and loaded the bar with 2, 45 pound plates - the same amount he was using - and promptly dropped it on my chest. I squirmed for a few seconds when the guy, much smaller than me, hurried over and pulled the damn thing off of me.

There were setbacks: Illnesses; aches and pains; minor and major injuries (back surgery required), fitness-anemic schools and people. I look back over 30 years and can't remember any goals that I'd set for myself along the way but I do know I was in love, and continue to be in love with the journey. Lifting is how I learned to become my own healer, a place where I was both student and teacher, a lifestyle that turned into a lifelong passion. This line from my favorite song, that still brings tears to my eyes, sums it up: "Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own."

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Is it Real Strength or are you Slave to a Machine?

Promising I'd revisit this topic from an older post, I'm back to open this can of worms.

Occasionally, a new client will ask me to show him/her how to use the machines in the gym. It's a legitimate request coming from someone unfamiliar with the equipment having the desire to get a good workout when they come to the gym themselves. The presence of the machines do seem to offer a shortcut to a better workout. However, the only shortcut you'll be getting from a machine is a shortchange on real strength and quality muscle.

I overheard another trainer explaining to a new client that on most machines there were only two adjustments to be made: The seat height and the amount of weight to be used. Sit down, push or pull, that's it. And that is it. Your biceps, triceps, or lats will get a nice workout but you'll use few stabilizer muscles, if any. That's fine if you wanna look pretty, but don't complain when you hurt your back picking-up a bag of groceries. Or, in other words, that muscle is of little use off of that machine.

Muscles don't work in isolation and you shouldn't be thinking they can be trained that way (muscle isolation is not possible on garden-variety gym equipment). Most muscles work in pairs: agonists and antagonists. When you raise your arm towards your shoulder the biceps muscle (the agonist), contracts. When you lower your arm the triceps muscle (the antagonist) contracts. This action is also a stabilizing force for joints.

If you're content with the results of your machine-based workout, that's great. If not, then arm yourself with a great weight lifting or bodybuilding guide or hire a personal trainer who will show you how to use free weights and cables to grow quality muscle.