Personal Training
What if you could look and feel your best without having to go to ‘the gym’?
Would you like to be lean, strong, and consistently energized throughout the day? What would it feel like to be painfree, healthy, and vibrant? Wouldn’t it be great to achieve all of this without risk of injury and in far less time then you’ve ever thought possible? And what if you could sustain those results for years rather than the fleeting, short-term fix of most programs?
Although we’ve helped thousands of people rapidly transform their health and fitness with a very small time commitment each week, what really excites us are the hundreds of clients who have sustained these benefits for the last twelve years and are motivated to continue training regularly for the rest of their lives! It’s no secret that most gyms and fitness programs are a revolving door based on short-term results or even faddish entertainment. It surprises no one when new year’s resolutions are forgotten by February. We are incredibly proud of the long-term relationships we have with clients and extremely impressed by their dedication. It may not sound sexy; however, the truth is that best results come from consistent effort over time. In addition, one of the most important factors determining your ability to remain active is avoiding injury along the way.
Why is it important for you to be fit and healthy? Perhaps you want to keep up with your kids or grandkids? Maybe you’d like to be more active or get back to activities that you once used to do? Many of our clients want to improve their performance in their chosen activities. Like driving the golf ball a little further, or skating faster, or taking flights of stairs with greater ease.
Even if you have no big ambitions for more, you understand that exercise is an essential part of healthy aging. You may want to carry the groceries upstairs without help, garden in the backyard for a few hours without feeling like you’ve broken your back, open the jar of pickles without assistance, or shoveling the driveway with ease. Okay, no one wants to shovel the driveway, but you get the picture.
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If none of these things interests you, there is no need to read any further.
No matter your goals or why those goals are important to you, everyone faces a common enemy when it comes to health. No adult is immune to this. Most often, this enemy is referred to simply as “aging”. More accurately, what is really happening is the loss of muscle tissue that begins around the age of 25 and accelerates every decade after age 40.
Again, no one is immune to this process. Its scientific name is sarcopenia and there is only one thing that you can do about it. That solution will be discussed in this article, but we’ll give you a hint: you need to start resistance training ASAP!
What really happens when we age?
The most significant change that that contributes to ‘aging’ is the loss of lean tissue, namely muscle, bone, ligament, tendon and even organ tissue! The good news is that you can slow this process down and even regain some of those lost resources.
We like to say that ‘muscle is the window to the body’. That means muscle is the best way to access, stimulate, and improve all of the other systems in our bodies. Want to improve your metabolism? Your strength? Your cardiovascular conditioning? Your blood sugars and blood pressure? Your bone density? Hormones? All of these things can be achieved with challenging mechanical work with muscle.
Age 25
Age 63
What you need to know is:
- the higher the quality of work with muscle, the greater the overall positive impact and,
- it doesn’t take that much time.
"I Don't Have Time For The Gym"
The conventional recommendation for exercise is ‘three to five days per week at 1 to 2 hours per workout’. This is unreasonable and unsustainable for most people in our society and, frankly, most have other things they would rather do.
What if we told you that you can achieve most of your physical health and fitness benefits in 20 to 60 minutes per week, total?
Skeptical? We don’t blame you, but we’ll explain how this is not only achievable, but something that can be sustained for a lifetime.
The Optimal Dose
Dr. Doug McGuff is an emergency room physician in South Carolina and in his book, Body by Science, he outlines that INTENSITY is the key factor that will determine the benefits of an exercise session. This is because the greater the intensity of the exercise, the more muscle is used and fatigued, creating a significant stimulus and, therefore, a greater the adaptive response. This includes getting stronger, improving blood sugars, building bone, improving metabolism, and much more.
When you train at higher intensity, you must train for a briefer interval of time. And, you must train less frequently. The reason for this is that the greatest benefits of exercise are achieved when you recover, not while you’re exercising. You can literally rest your way to results!
We like to use the analogy that exercise is like a drug because it directly affects your biology, including your hormones. When doctors give prescriptions, they recommend a dosage that will be therapeutic, meaning it will (hopefully) give you a positive result. If the dosage is too high, it can be toxic. If the dosage is too low, nothing will happen. While this is simplistic, it nicely outlines the way that exercise works as medicine too.
“Intensity”
This discussion around intensity may sound intimidating to some, but rest assured that our approach is one of the safest ways to exercise.
We have clients well into their 70’s and 80’s who train with us on a weekly basis, and have done so for years, with nothing but improved fitness and health to show for it.
See what our clients have to say
“After 25 years of back problems and two surgeries, I had just about given up my lifelong dream of driving motorcycle. I heard about OneUp Fitness and their unique approach to exercise. After first working through physiotherapy I graduated to strength training and five years ago I obtained my motorcycle license and started riding! Not only am I strong enough to handle a 350 lb bike, but I have reclaimed bicycling, snow shoveling, hiking and many other activities I thought I would never be able to do again. I am in the best shape of my life, look and feel great - all the result of 30 minutes per week at OneUp Fitness, a clean diet and a focused mind. Thanks to the OneUp team for helping me make my dream come true!”
Where do I start?
It is important to start working out with relatively light to moderate weights, roughly 60-80% of your perceived level of effort, that you can handle comfortably. This ensures that you are perfecting the movements to the best of your ability. You have to practice the basics first going slowly and easily to learn proper form.
Once you’ve developed some level of mastery of these movements, you can shift your focus to gradually increasing the difficulty of your exercises by increasing the load that you lift. This is called ‘progressive resistance training’ and is essential to gaining strength and fitness, while keeping you safe from injuries. Stronger muscles need a greater challenge to continue producing results. This is where some people begin to stress their systems by performing too much volume or taking unnecessary risks. Learning to take your muscles to momentary muscle failure in a controlled and progressive way ensures you have done everything required to stimulate growth.
Safe strength training is the key to longevity
Since consistent strength training is the key to healthy aging, it must be performed in as safe a manner possible. Approaching it slowly and progressively, is the overarching context of the practice, though a few more tips will also help keep your routine safe and productive:
- Move Slowly – Moving in a slow controlled fashion increases muscle work, decreases joint impact, and reduces the chance of injury.
- Breathe - Holding your breath increases your blood pressure and the tension in your body, which could lead to a headache, muscle spasm, dizziness, and decreased performance.
- Biomechanics - Also referred to as ‘good form’. If you put yourself in a compromised position under load, you can easily injure yourself or place unnecessary ‘wear and tear’ on your joints. Understanding biomechanics allows for proper loading in appropriate ranges and positions.
- Volume of work performed - How much exercise you do during a workout can potentially compromise your ability to recover and adapt to that workout. In other words, more is not better and you need the right amount of stimulus per workout and the right amount of workouts per week. If you need it, get a professional exercise prescription to ensure the right dose!
- Injuries - If you are already injured or suffering from pain or discomfort, how you exercise is even more critical to ensure recovery and avoidance of further problems. While there are ways to work around injuries, it is important to understand that you shouldn’t attempt to work through them. This is where an experienced coach or trainer can really help.
Your next steps
A knowledgeable, trusted trainer is a great asset to get you started on your journey or to help take your health and fitness to the next level. This will take out a lot of the guesswork, significantly improve the learning curve, and guarantee better results.
Get started by booking a complimentary, one hour session by calling
If you have more questions and would like to book a brief phone consultation with one of our trainers, call or email to schedule and we’ll be happy to connect.