Personal Training - Jack Of All Trades Master Of Personal Training

What I do for a living, it's like this... "personal trainers are now expected to [also be] be salespeople, psychologists, nutritionists, post-rehabilitation specialists, and motivational speakers". I'd add in: marketing pro, web designer, writer, secretary, PA yadda yadda yadda. All to be able to provide people with health and fitness advice and support. Now I find I have to learn more about the Biopsychosocial model of pain to learn how to precisely talk to people so that I don't compound any issues that they might have, i.e. "long-term" not "chronic".

Am I going too deep into aspects of the human body that don't concern me? I don't think so, to provide a better service to my clients without asking them to go to other professionals all the time for the things that I think require some attention, I need to at least know that things exist, then at least know in part how to deal with them, investigate further or then refer on to the specific professional who CAN deal with the issue. Then how do you know which professional, not just is it Physio, Chiro, Osteo, Bowen..... there are differences between practitioners knowledge base and experience.

Most say NHS professionals should be the first port of call to refer to but then most say that the NHS has never really helped them or has helped but with the more severe treatments like surgery and drugs before even trying the basic methods first like correcting diet and exercise. Do they even know? It would seem on the surface that they don't, but then that's dependent on the individual, some do and some don't. Every time I or a client speaks to a Doctor, Specialist or Surgeon they wholeheartedly agree with the soft methods first but actually they don't really do them with enough attention.

I think there's a reason the NHS would rather take to the quick fix methods such as surgery and drugs, I think it's actually driven by people themselves. The patients themselves drive this behavior because corrective methods such as changing diet or adhering to a consistent exercise programme require great effort and where you are not paying for the service you are far less likely to put in the effort, therefore you require the method that works and will require the least effort possible.

So to bring it back round, I don't know about surgery and I don't know about pharmaceutical drugs but apart from that I do need to know a great deal about everything else to be able to promote and safely provide exercises to people who require more help to perform better and if I must know about sales and marketing, nutrition, psychology etc to be able to help more people with a holistic approach to performance then so be it, it's good to be busy.

If you want better outcomes for yourself in health and fitness then in my experience you really need to A. Pay for it or B. Really really want it. I work with clients that don't pay for my services and clients that do and this trend runs through everyone. Those that pay or have a high level of importance for the change will do what I tell them to and generally get good outcomes, otherwise they don't and nothing changes. One or the other. An that leads me nicely onto philosophy, but that's for another day.

Rant over!

Do we need prehab? 'Therapy' before injury.

Here's something that seems to be a bit contentious in the Sports Physio world, or at least with one that I have met. This Physio seems to think that colleagues would follow the same belief that trying to predict someone's chance of injury and "addressing problems before they even exist" has the potential to in itself cause a problem.

What was being referred to is the connection that quite rightly exists between the muscles/structures and the control systems in and under conscious or subconscious control. There is the possibility that through the knowledge that one has an existing issue which has the potential to cause injury or excessive wear and tear over time that the issue could be worsened or another one arise in its place.

So is a Body MOT, a prehab intervention to do just this necessarily a bad thing? Well this Sports Physio certainly thought so and wouldn't like to align business with mine to help individuals avoid injury or aid recovery with added prevention of future recurrence. I wouldn't like to suggest that as the role of a sports physio is primarily to aid recovery of injury after it has occurred and that as many injuries are of an overuse intrinsic biomechanical nature that their prevention in the first place could well affect business therefore being counter productive.

Actually I would love to say that. There are a number of activities that a person probably shouldn't do if they wish to avoid injury and move forwards in their goals. Knowing what those may be isn't an exact science at all. The question when thinking about exercise or activities: Does this person have a tolerance to support this activity?

How would we know the answer to this? Practically, a survey would start to reveal answers that could be interpreted by a professional with experience. The most basic example could be: This person wants to run 5km, Have they run before and if so have they run this distance before? That's pretty basic so to improve the accuracy of this one would go further. Some professionals would just need to view the person running to give a reasoned answer. Another way, and it's just a tool like all the others is to perform a biomechanical analysis.

Much research that now exists and the work that is being undertaken by many, does suggest that (as has always been the case) 'prevention is better than cure' and that a great degree of prevention is possible through specifically targeted pre-habilitation. It only takes a certain amount of common sense to know this but non-the-less the researchers are out there doing their thing to bring the science in and seeing supporting results.

7 Ways Towards pH Balance From Eating Greens

I was talking with a client today who understands that managing the body's pH level from the foods we eat is a potential source of better health has led me towards providing you with this list of 7 ways you can get more greens into your diet.

I not trying to 'teach granny' here but we often forget to get our 5-a-day in, fact is for various reasons it should be more like 10-12 a-day.

By their nature green vegetables promote better balance within the body through reducing the need for it to work harder trying to maintain a normal pH level. Conversely there are other foods that add more of a load towards an imbalanced pH, these are generally the foods that you already know should be largely excluded from your diet or consumed in moderation such as: fizzy drinks, refined wheat products, sweets and other sugary products and even red meats.

Where pH is concerned, the balance of a meal is evened out in the stomach as is the glycemic load (GL -  rate of sugar uptake into the blood stream) where all foods are mixed together to form chyme before passing into the intestines for further digestion. You may find that eating certain foods causes acid reflux, this is not the same as managing pH balance with alkalizing foods but as ever a healthy diet is a healthy diet and that means generally you will have less issues in the long-term.

1. Cooking - we are often limited in our choices by limitations in our repertoire. Use Google to expand on your intake of green vegetables and try out some now recipes.

2. Drink your greens - my children found delight in a spinach, kale, apple and lime juice and so will you, so if you don't already have a juicer and a blender then I recommend you get them asap and get going. Again you'll find all the recipes you need on Google.

3. Soups - I find that the best soups are the quickest. Stock and vegetables in a pot for 20 minutes then either blend whole/part or not at all.

4. Stir-fry - Again this is quick and easy, most veg require scant preparation so where speed is the essence this is perfect. When was the last time you made a stir-fry?

5. Salads - it's that time of year. When was the last time you added Kale to a salad? Most of the vegetables you cook can be eaten raw and as such impart more vital nutrients that are lost in the cooking process.

6. Omelettes - Cereal for breakfast? Unless your cereal is loaded with berries/fruits, nuts/seeds and/or you have protein on the side you're not getting a head start on the day’s good nutrition. Omelettes are a sure fire way to get quality protein/fats and be able to add in more vegetable. Again a few more minutes to make than cereal or toast but the bang for your time buck is way more.

7. Use green leafs - do you like to wrap your salad and meat in bread? Try using green leafs instead to make a wrap and experiment with different lettuces and cabbages.

So your day could look like this:

• Breakfast - Omelette with spring onions and green peppers.

• Mid-morning snack - Smoothie with banana and avocado.

• Lunch - Salad: Kale, beetroot, carrots, red onions with olive oil and lemon juice. Side of flaked tuna.

• Afternoon - Green pea soup.

• Dinner - Chicken stir fry. Broccoli, peppers, mange tout, carrots, red onion.

How many fruit and vegetables 'A-Day' in this sample day? 10-12 portions depending on portion sizes.

Basically this is the sort of diet we should all aim for on a daily basis to promote good health. The constituent parts are all there and depending on how much protein you use in portions you should be getting around your intake to support muscle maintenance in-line with a basic strength training plan. Your carbohydrates will be mostly slow release and of high quality for greater nutritional value to support a leaner body. Your fat intake will be high quality to support proper cellular metabolism and functioning. Your fiber intake will be amazing for a healthier digestive system and all sorts of other stuff too.  

Give it a go and then expand on your repertoire with a little help from Google.