All posts by NTrainers

Meditation and Exercise

April 23, 2020

Ilana Milstein personal trainer in nycCombining Meditation and Exercise in Your Practice ilana

by Ilana Milstein, personal trainer & Pilates instructor

We have so much on our minds. We are stressed, scared and feeling cooped up. The experts are saying make a schedule, exercise, reach out to friends, meditate. As New Yorkers, we are used to multi tasking, rushing, keeping busy. We are not good at being idle. Our days used to consist og running on autopilot through our routines, including our workouts. Now is the time to slow down.
Moving our bodies is not just good for our physical well being but for our mental well being as well.
How do we do this?
We need to slow down our exercise routines as well. For those of you who love a
HIIT workout, a good run in the park, a spin class, try yoga, try pilates, try slowing down a strength training workout.
Pay attention to your muscles and what they are doing. Pay attention to your breath. Breathe out on your exertion and in on your relaxation repeatedly. Breathe through the challenge and burn in your exercises. Push all other anxieties out of your mind and hone in on what your body is doing. That in itself is a form of meditation.
Here are a few cues to pull your mind into you body as you move through your workouts:
-Focus on your core during every exercise: Bring your belly towards your back
-Close your rib cage: Knit the ribs together
-Stabilization: While moving through your exercises think about stabilizing the rest of your body.
-Breathe

Evening Exercise

April 18, 2020

At this critical time many of us are trying to cope with “The New Normal”.
Rearranging your schedule to accommodate a workout might be very frustrating and challenging.
An alternative solution might be to exercise in the evening.
After you wind down from online work, meals, and online education, might be the activity you’re craving. Exercise will boost your endorphins, metabolism, and mood. You might even sleep better.
Here is a 10 -15 minute challenging body weight routine. Feel free to go through twice, add weights, or even time each exercise.
Enjoy, you’ve earned it!!!
Warm Up-
Brush March or light jog- 30 seconds
Reverse lunge-30 seconds
Wide pli’e squats with overhead reach- 30 seconds
Round 1-
Inch worms – 30 seconds
Push ups- 30 seconds
Plank- 30 seconds
        Repeat
Round 2-
Roll ups- 30 seconds
Side planks- 30 seconds each
Tricep dips- 30 seconds
      Repeat
Round 3-
Lateral lunge – 30 seconds each
Shoulder push ups -30 seconds
Superman’s-30 seconds
       Repeat
Cool Down Stretch
Mini cobra 10 second hold
Child’s pose
Downward facing dog.
Be Well, Stay Safe!!!’

Bodyweight Exercises To Do At Home

March 29, 2020

 

What Kind of Exercises Can I Do At Home?Luis

Stay active with bodyweight exercises to pass time while at home is a great tool because it allows one a distraction while giving back to the body’s health.
Using apps like Zoom, Skype, WhatsApp for video calls can keep you in touch with others for friendly completions such as a pushup challenge.
We ,as trainers, are following suit so that our clients still feel connected and do not lose track of accomplishing their goals.

Here is a sample 15 minute workout [3 rounds of 5 minutes each]

45 seconds of effort with 15 seconds of rest for each exercise
Pushups
Towel Rows
Glute Bridges
Squats
Bicycle Crunches or Burpees
Pushups: Place hands on the floor about shoulder width distance. Perform push-ups on your knees instead of your feet to ease the difficulty on your upper body. Once ready perform them on your feet to really challenge your upper body strength.
Towel Rows: Stand with feet shoulder-width apart. Push your hips back so that your body is in a firm position. Grasp a towel firmly in both hands. Pull the towel towards your chest and extend the arms back to start.
 
Glute Bridges: Lie flat in your back with your knees propped up and pointing to the ceiling. Keep your heels close to your bottom. Raise the hips up until there is one line from the knees to the shoulders, and lower back down to repeat.
Squats: Have your feet shoulder-width apart. Pushup your hips back as you lower yourself down as if sitting in a chair. Raise yourself back up to standing to repeat.
Bicycle Crunches or Burpees
*You can alternate these moves between rounds to keep things challenging*
Bicycle Crunches: Lie flat on your back and reach an elbow to an opposing knee. Repeat the motion back and forth until time is complete.
Burpee: Perform a slight hop, tuck yourself down into a deep squat, kick your legs behind you as you brace yourself as in a pushup position on the feet. Reverse the motion to come back up to standing.
Modified: Extend your arms up to the ceiling while performing a calf raise. Tuck down into a deep squat and walk one leg out behind you at a time until you brace yourself as in a pushup position on the feet. Walk your feet back in and stand back at the starting position.
Are you interested in more at-home exercises or live training with Luis?  Contact Luis today!

Navigating Rough Times COVID-19

A Map To Help You Navigate Through Rough Waters

By Elisabetta D’Avenia, personal trainer


By nature, as human beings we tend to resist change both negative and positive. More so when these changes are sudden and radical, to the point of forcing us to modify our daily routine entirely in only a matter of days.
What we know and we are used to are simply reassuring. The new reality on the other end, is perceived as “surreal”, “unsettling” and “scary”. Are we capable of imagining a different way of being and living?
As hard as it is, I believe that the only way to overcome the huge challenge in front of us is to keep a flexible attitude and to believe that reinventing ourselves is  indeed possible. Just like you, I am also trying to navigate through conflicting feelings and search for new coping strategies. Please realize that you are not alone and that all feelings are valid, so try not to dismiss them. Just notice and name them without judgment. You might feel hopeless and powerless at times, and that’s alright. Now that most things are in pause-mode, take your time to grieve: take a piece of paper and write down what kind of challenges this pandemic is adding to your life as well as the feelings that accompany them. Once you are done feel free to tear it into pieces or burn it! Now try to think of what the current situation is doing for you and put that in black and white too: it could be anything from discovering new resources that you never thought you had, to an opportunity to slow down and enjoy more time with your kids and/or partner, to the realization that you don’t like your current job.
There is no right or wrong way to deal with these unusual times. Try to steer away from self-imposed mantras like “I should be more productive”, “this is the time to get in the best shape of my life”, “I should not waste time”, “I should take as many online fitness classes as I can!”. Be compassionate with yourself; our value is not necessarily connected to how useful and productive we are. Perhaps this is not the best time to stress your body with strenuous routines which can result in taxing your immune system or in causing a physical injury.
I like to give myself one micro-goal for each day and celebrate the small victories (it could be something as small as calling a loved one to make them feel less lonely or avoiding the social media binge before bedtime as to protect my sleep).
Reach out to your personal trainer or your group class teacher and let them know how they can help you. “Hey, can you send me short workouts I can easily perform in my tiny apartment?”, “Can you teach me some self-relaxation techniques to calm down my nervous system?”, “Can I text you every time I remember to drink a cup of water?”. The options are endless: I even offered to send my clients easy and nutritious recipes, should they run out of ideas for their meals! Keep in mind that we are your ally.
Most importantly, do not forget that this situation, is only temporary. We are all going to return to our previous lives or maybe only partially. However it will be for the best!

Maintaining Routines Through The Coronavirus Quarantine

susanne alberto personal trainerRituals To The Rescue

by Susanne Alberto, NSCA-CPT, TPI-CGFI/FP3

One of the definitions of a ritual, according to Merriam-Webster, is an act or series of acts regularly repeated in a set, precise manner. Many of us might not be aware of our rituals. But, they are there, so that we can complete an overall routine.

 

In many ways, a fitness program design is a ritual. You perform some dynamic joint mobility warm-ups, movements to stimulate the central nervous system, strength or cardio training movements in a particular order, and then a cool-down. All of these are performed with some intent or purpose.

 

During a crisis, such as the current one – which we have never experienced before – rituals can come to the rescue! They provide us with structure, familiarity, comfort and control when everything seems like it is completely out of control. When fear of the unknown is the reigning emotion, what do we do? We trust in what we DO know and focus on the positives, no matter where we find them and no matter how big or small they are.

 

The following is a list of my daily rituals. While some have been modified to reflect the current crisis, I focus on the rituals themselves and their purposes:

susanne alberto training at home

  1. I wake up and go to sleep at the same times each day and night. This is extremely important to maintain the natural, 24-hr sleep-wake circadian rhythm. This internal cycle reflects many important physiological changes, such as heart rate and organ function, oxidative stress, cell metabolism (and metabolic disorders), immune responses and hormone production, among others.
  2. I perform my usual workday rituals, even though my commute has been reduced from 3 hours round trip to a few minutes into the basement of my house. My husband & I already have training equipment there, as well as his home office.
    So, it was easy to set up my home “office” for virtual one-on-one personal training sessions. While I’m only doing half the amount of what I was before, I focus on how grateful I am that I can still earn money and deliver a valuable service to my clients at this critical time.
  3. susanne alberto stretchingMy previous commute time is now devoted to all the educational reading and video viewing, and online marketing that I want/need to do.
  4. The rest of my workdays are the same as before – work out, spend time with my husband & fur babies, eat dinner, turn off all blue light devices and avoid any stimulation, watch 1-2 hours of relaxing TV, and then off to sleep.
  5. My days off are a little different than before. Since we can’t go out for Sunday brunch for a few hours, we are tackling many Spring cleaning projects. And instead of driving 80 minutes round trip to my martial arts school for 2 hour-long classes on Mondays, I practice in the basement or yard at the same time class is usually held. The commute time is now used for leisure reading, which I haven’t done in years!
  6. Nutrition – I am not going off the deep end and eating out of boredom or frustration. If anything, I’m eating less calories than before, because I’m not dining out and eating desserts. And, I have more time to maintain regular workouts.

 

While my daily rituals might look different than yours, what we will have in common is that we all have them. Trust them – and you – to get yourself through!

Susanne is ready to give you a hand. Contact Susanne today!

New Year’s Healthy Changes

January 1, 2020

Quick changes for the New Year

Lisa Snowby Lisa Snow, personal trainer

It’s New Years!  Your friends have big resolutions — eat better, work out more, lose weight — but you’re still living with chronic pain.  You want to be in better shape, too, but it’s hard enough just to get through the day. Here are just a few things you can do immediately:
  1. Paint the picture for your doctors.  Pain is invisible.  If she or he is only talking about your bloodwork, it’s likely she doesn’t even know you’re in pain, so speak up!  Even if you DON’T have one specific, acute injury (such as a car accident or a fall on the ski slopes), you can still get a referral to a Physical Therapist, which might be paid by  insurance.  Over the past 12+ years of personal training, I’ve heard countless people say that their friends, family, or doctor don’t believe they have “real” chronic pain just because they’re not addicted to opioids.  If you’ve been in pain for more than a few months, that IS “chronic.”  The more vividly you can describe your symptoms to your doctor, the more likely he or she is to be able to give you the right diagnosis.  Is your pain sharp?  Dull?  Radiating?  Worse going down stairs than going up?  More intense when you’re looking at a computer screen?  Many people are visual learners, meaning they learn better from pictures and videos than from written articles or lectures.  So paint the picture for your friends and your doctor with visual words.  One of our clients, a baby boomer with kyphosis, had pain and weakness because the upper back muscles between her shoulder blades were like “overstretched taffee.”  That’s an image we’ll never forget!  If you CLEARLY tell your doctor what’s wrong and they still don’t believe you about chronic pain, see if another doctor has additional insights.
  2. Explore private pay PT.  Many insurance plans have a high deductible.  Paying cash for physical therapy is often more affordable than you think, and prices vary widely throughout NYC; don’t assume it’s beyond your budget until you get actual price quotes from at least 2 or 3 different therapists.  If your therapist is “out of network,” the money you pay for each visit may count toward your deductible anyway, which will help you afford other doctors and therapists throughout the year.  (Double check this before starting with any new practitioners.)  Even if the fees do NOT count toward your deductible, a therapist who understands your specific injury and really clicks with you can be worth their weight in gold.
  3. Use pro tools at home.  Many gym goers are foam rolling, and that can be a good start (check with your doctor that it’s OK to start or continue an exercise program).  Foam rolling breaks up “knots” in muscles to help you move more freely and live with less pain.  However, foam rollers only cover a large, general area.  To target more specific points by yourself in between visits, try using a HyperVolt.  Tools like this used to only be for PTs and athletic trainers, but now you can get one yourself to use at home or at the gym.  It looks like a power drill, but instead it provides gentle but deep massage.  I own, like, and use the TheraGun (the main competitor to the HyperVolt), but I feel it is just too loud for home use.  It looks, and feels, like a power tool.  The HyperVolt is quiet — you can hear a whisper over it — and for the majority of clients, it works just as well.  Whether it’s a simple, cheap, but powerful foam roller or a high tech tool like the HyperVolt, self-massage tools don’t replace your doctor.  It’s still really important to get an accurate diagnosis and find out the true cause of your pain.
Lisa Snow is the owner of On the Mend.  She is a personal trainer and nutrition coach who helps clients get everything on their fitness and wellness wishlist.  
Lisa works closely with each client’s doctor and PT to provide a seamless transition from rehab to the gym. 

Stretching. Is it Worth the Time?

Are you wasting your time stretching?: Stretching might not exactly make you less “tight”?

By Otis Collier, personal trainer

Let’s put this out in the open immediately. I do not think stretching is an overall bad thing. I do know, however, that stretching is situational and should be used in a very intentional way. It is not a “one size fits all” remedy to a person that is considered “tight”. I am not saying this doesn’t happen but, It is quite rare that stretching actually makes the muscle longer or more flexible. It is more likely that your increase in flexibility and a decrease in pain is more neurological versus physically. Let me explain.
According, static/passive stretching is when the muscle is put in an elongated-end range position (i.e. the bicep muscle when your arm is straighten). While in this position, the muscle encountering a physical, mechanical change within the muscle fibers. Muscles are viscoelastic, a fancy way of saying a muscle have both elastic and viscous properties. In other words, a muscle can return to its original form (elastic) when force (stretching) is removed and it can lengthen (viscous) when force (stretching) is applied long enough.
There are several different types of proprioceptors that contributes to motor control, including muscle spindles and Golgi tendon organs. This is one explanation for increase in muscle lengthening. It is all in your mind (and spine).
Your mind is the chief of your body hence your muscles. Based on a neurological approach, muscle flexibility is increased through the person increasing their tolerance to the stretching or that person believes that he or she should be more flexible because of stretching. This is particularly factual during acute stretching (i.e. a single session of <30 minute). Furthermore, the effects are short term as in longevity. This means the person that stretches/foam roll (yes, foam rolling falls into this category) for 10-15 mins in the gym prior to a workout is probably just improving the toleration of the muscle being put into a stretched position.
Henceforth, stretching is appropriate for mind-muscle connections where the brain is trying to re-establish control and awareness of a particular muscle.
Since stretching probably won’t change your flexibility desires, the ideal approach should be re-orientate your bones and muscles to work efficiently. When your bones (i.e. pelvis, scapular, ribcage) are in their proper position, the brain is able to recognize and communicate to your muscles to perform the desired task in the best way possible. This will lead to an increase in strength, power, endurance while reducing injuries, and stress levels. The key is to couple your respiration with proper movement mechanics. This will help your body connect and cement proper body mechanics with breathing, which is one of the most powerful stimuli for the body to maintain different body position. In other words, work on fully exhaling with each breath and sense the muscles you are suppose to sense during the desired movement. This is can be a tricky and tedious task to find exercises that address both body mechanics and respiration. A good start is in a 90-90 hip lift position. 
Overall, go and find a coach that specialize in motor control and movement to determine if your body in aligned appropriately because stretching just might not be the answer for you!!!

What Are Carbohydrates?

SUGAR AND SPICE, AND EVERYTHING CAN BE NICE!

CLEARING UP THE CARBOHYDRATE CONFUSION – Part I

by Susanne Alberto, NSCA-CPT, TPI-CGFI/FP3

As a National Strength & Conditioning Association Certified Personal Trainer, as well as a Titleist Performance Institute Certified Golf Fitness Instructor, my primary responsibility is to design strength/conditioning, mobility/flexibility and cardiorespiratory programs for clients. My involvement with nutrition is legally limited to offering the basic science, so clients can make educated decisions for themselves. However, that doesn’t always seem to work out.

I have a female client in her early ’60s who chose a vegan lifestyle for “health reasons.” The only time I discussed nutrition was to suggest she increase her protein intake to support muscle building from the resistance training we were doing to combat her osteoporosis. So, her diet consisted of mainly plant proteins (carbs), starches (carbs), fruits (carbs) and healthy fats. After her most-recent physical, she was shocked to find out that she is pre-diabetic. After all, she isn’t fat or overweight, and she was eating healthy – right? I explained that even though she was eating healthy, her diet consisted of almost all carbs. And, as humans age, we lose the ability to process them efficiently as we once did.

Since there is so much confusion about carbohydrates – to the point where CARB has become a dirty word to some people – I want to try to clear up some of the confusion.

WHAT IS A CARBOHYDRATE?

A quick search on Wikipedia says, “A carbohydrate is a biomolecule consisting of carbon (C), hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) atoms, usually with a hydrogen-oxygen atom ratio of 2:1 (as in water) and thus with the empirical formula Cm(H2O)n (where m may be different from n).” That is why you’ll see carbohydrate abbreviated as CHO. Wikipedia continues, “The term is most common in biochemistry, where it is a synonym of saccharide, a group that includes sugars, starch, and cellulose.”

 

THE MAJOR DIETARY CARBOHYDRATES

According to Wikipedia, there are three classes of carbohydrates, based on their degree of polymerization (DP). The DP is a key characteristic of polymers that determine physical properties of polymer materials. Polymers are large molecules that consist of repeating structural (monomer) units.

  1. Sugars (DP 1-2):

* Monosaccharides – glucose, galactose, fructose, xylose;

* Disaccharides – sucrose, lactose, maltose, trehalose;

* Polyols – sorbitol, mannitol.

  1. Oligosaccharides (DP 3-9):

* Malto-oligosaccharides – maltodextrins;

* Other oligosaccharides – raffinose, stachyose, fructo-oligosaccharides.

  1. Polysaccharides (DP >9):

* Starches – amylose, amylopectin, modified starches;

* Non-starch polysaccharides – glycogen, cellulose, hemicellulose, pectins, hydrocolloids.

 

EXAMPLES OF CARBOHYDRATES

Now that your eyes have finished glazing over … I hope the above list will help you recognize a carbohydrate in all its various forms. In laymen’s terms, carbohydrates are found in a wide variety of natural and processed foods:

* Sugars appear in the human diet mainly as table sugar (sucrose, extracted from sugarcane or sugar beets), lactose (abundant in milk), glucose and fructose – both of which occur naturally in honey, many fruits, and some vegetables;

* Starch (a polysaccharide) is abundant in cereals (wheat, maize, rice), potatoes, and processed food based on cereal flour – such as bread, pizza or pasta;

* Cellulose (a polysaccharide) is found in the cell walls of all plants and is one of the main components of insoluble dietary fiber (helps maintain a healthy digestive system).

Coming next issue: Part II – What Is the Function of Carbohydrates?

Personal Trainer Client Advice

October 13, 2019

I Always Share This With My Clients…
Amanda Treadway, personal trainer

When you think of fitness and other activities in your life you should always try to think of it in this way.
 
There is a difference between interest and commitment. 
 
When you’re interested in doing something, you do it only when it’s convenient. 
When you’re committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results.
Are you committed?  Contact Amanda today!

Core Bodyweight Exercises

THE NO-EXCUSES BODYWEIGHT WORKOUT: PART 3 – The CORE

 

by Susanne Alberto, NSCA-CPT, TPI-CGFI/FP3

Last month, we featured the lower-body movements.

 

In case you missed it, the first article in this series featured lower-body movements and the second featured upper-body movements. However, many upper-body movements require some sort of device to help us resist gravity, such as a pull-up/chin-up bar or a pull-down cable/band. So, we included movements that also work the core, such as push-ups and planks, because the upper limbs are attached to the core.

WHAT IS THE CORE?

Many people think “the core” is synonymous with the abdominals (a.k.a. Abs). Still others think the abdominals are limited to the muscles named “abdominal” (Rectus and Transverse). Without going into a hardcore (no pun intended) anatomy lesson, the core (torso or trunk) is the section of the body from the neck to the groin, excluding the head and limbs.

According to The Classic 1860 Edition Gray’s Anatomy (2008 edition), the muscles of the trunk may be subdivided into four groups:

  1. Muscles of the Back (five layers);
  2. Muscles of the Abdomen –

* External Obliques  (largest and outermost of the three flat abdominal muscles),

* Internal Obliques (flat muscles lying below the External Obliques and above the Transverse Abdominus),

* Transverse Abdominus, a.k.a. TVA (flat muscle layer of the anterior and lateral abdominal wall),

* Rectus Abdominus (vertical paired muscle on each side of the anterior abdominal wall),

* Pyramidalis, (small, triangular muscle located anteriorly to the Rectus Abdominus),

* Quadratus Lumborum, a.k.a. QL (paired muscle of the left and right posterior abdominal wall);

  1. Muscles of the Thorax – External Intercostals, Internal Intercostals, Infracostals, Triangularis Sterni or Transverse Thoracis;
  2. Muscles of the Perineum – the space between the anus and scrotum in males, and the anus and vulva in females.

In the grand scheme of things, it’s important to have a general understanding of the complexity of the core and why it’s so critical to human function and movement. However, for the purpose of this article, we’re focusing on the muscles most identified with the core – the abdominals (all of them).

THE FUNCTION OF THE ABS

According to Gray’s Anatomy, “The abdominal muscles perform a three-fold action.” The VERY short version is:

  1. they expel the fetus from the uterus, feces from the rectum, urine from the bladder, and stomach contents via vomiting;
  2. they assist in breathing;
  3. they mobilize and stabilize the trunk (and, therefore, the spine), and protect the spine and organs.

In order to completely work the core, choose exercises and their variations in all planes of human movement and resisting said movement, including:

* Prone (Face Down) – Planks, Bird Dogs, Supermans, Mountain Climbers;

* Sagittal (Front/Back) – Standing Bracing, Seated Knee Tucks/Extensions;

 

 

* Frontal (Lateral) – Side Bends, Side-lying Planks;

* Transverse (Horizontal) – Pallofs, Russian Twists (knees together!);

 

 

 

* Supine (Face Up) – Bridges, Crunches, Sit-ups, Leg Raises, Flutter Kicks, Scissors, Jackknifes/V-ups;

* Hybrids – Alternating Wide-stance Toe Touches, Bicycles, Burpees.

 

As with any health and fitness endeavor, get clearance from your appropriate medical professionals. If you need help designing a program, ensuring you have correct form, etc., always contact a Certified Fitness Professional.

Susanne is ready to give you a hand. Contact Susanne today!