The Trainer’s Creed

I am a trainer, educated to teach you how to live a more active life and take the safest and smartest route to a healthy lifestyle. I am not a doctor, a dietitian, a psychologist or physical therapist.

I am a trainer, educated to instill the correct exercise techniques and programs, no more, no less.
Therefore:

• As a trainer, I can help you and inspire you, but I cannot cure you.

• As a trainer, I can provide a solid foundation for you, but I cannot make you happier, thinner or perfect.

• As a trainer, I can give you proper education but I cannot do the work for you.

• As a trainer, I can encourage you and challenge you but I cannot prevent the natural peaks and valleys of your fitness journey.

• As I trainer, I can walk you through the process, but I can’t guarantee it will be easier.

• As a trainer, I can believe in you but you must believe in yourself.

• As a trainer, I can hope for years of active living, but only you can choose to be active.

• As a trainer I can make you stronger, but I can’t make you indestructible.

• As a trainer, I can hope that your success will inspire other’s success, but you must believe success is possible.

• As a trainer, I can give you the best of my experience, knowledge and encouragement but in the end, it is you, my client, who must decide and commit to living the life that I know is possible for you.

• As I trainer, I know that only you can make it happen; only you can open yourself up to the realities of healthy living and allow yourself to be inspired.

I found this on Daily Muscle It was originally written by Nicki Anderson.

I quoted it because it is inspiring not only to trainers but to trainees and generally to anyone trying to accomplish anything in life or encourage or help someone else to accomplish something.

Loosing weight and keeping fit should be a regular normal part of our daily life, not something that we do in spurts and fits here and there.
I prefer using the term “new life style” than diet - because associatively dieting is something that you do for a limited period of time - and then what?
In order for our new life style to fit into our daily lifes it has to be connected and comfortable for us - or on the other hand doable.
Eating only cabbage is not doable for a long period of time, for example.
A lot of us have very little time (or inclination) to join a gym, and even if we do, we keep some fitness equipment at home. (I have dumbbells for example)
They are too heavy to store in a draw, to dangerous to store in a cupboard (they could fall on someones head or toes) and way to ugly to leave lying around.
I was over joyed when I ran into the following on Laura Moncur’s blog, that she ran into on Danny’s blog
Make dumbells out of your old CDs’

150 CDs, about 75 on each side, on a threaded rod from the hardware store and then (8) bolts to hold it all together. No tools needed. Just thread it all and bolt it tight.

They weight about 10 pounds each and I actually love the shiny look of them. I made two of them and they are sitting in my living room. Very handsome looking items I must say!

This is nothing if not three birds with one stone -
bird #1 - Dumbbells
Bird #2 - Great home accessories
Bird #3 - recycling.

Enjoy!

This is from the Guardian via Smarter Fitter

Every morning, shortly after sunrise, this former factory worker and up to two thousand mostly retired Chinese descend on Ditan Park in the city’s Dongcheng district, where they spend between one and three hours exercising amongst the trees. “No absence,” says Jiao, “no matter the weather.” The ritual - frankly astonishing to Western eyes - is replicated all over town, as some participate in dance, or the traditional game of ti jian, where a sort of shuttlecock is kicked around like a hacky sack. Others stick to the Chinese tradition of tai chi, and the rest use the simple public exercise contraptions that positively litter Beijing, spread through the parks or fixed in trails down the quieter streets.

My sister lives in Macau, a SAR near Hong Kong. When I visit her I often wander up the hill behind her apartment where there is a park with exercise machines and a running track at the top. Striking, there, is the age of the athletes, it is really great to see the older folks walking to the top of the hill in order to do more exercise.

“I can’t say that you Westerners are wrong,” one Ditan regular explained recently, “but you pursue a different objective. Whereas we aspire to health, you aspire to size, speed and strength.”

Slid show of typical Chinese park

The last sentence in the quote says it all. Definitely worth looking at those values or motivations and seeing if they are good ones to have.

Did you see the little old ladies doing hanging tummy crunches!!! Wow. And that is what the entire population is like.

It looks like as far as fitness goes, and the philosophy behind it, the Chinese have got it right while we seem to have just missed the mark.

For those of you who are Unfamiliar with the Name Dara Torres is a 41 year old Olympic swimmer, and the 2008 games are her 5th time representing the USA in the Olympics.

Her career spans 26 years so far - she set her first American record for 50 mtrs freestyle at the tender age of 15! Yesterday she received yet another Olympic medal for the 100 meter relay (silver)
She is the mother of a toddler and claims that her daughter is what keeps her going strong even after the age of 40. She want her daughter to grow up with proof that there are no boundaries and nothing is impossible if you are committed to your dreams and always believe in yourself.

She has been under suspicion for drug abuse lately, but has been tested in every possible way and is clean. It seems that the secret is in the training. according to Basil and Spice

In truth it’s really all about her training. Dara follows her own customized, tried and true training schedule. As a 41-year-old mother of a toddler, she has reduced her pool workout to one intense swim a day. She has a team of people including two “stretchers” who travel with her, a strength coach, a massage therapist, and a soft tissue therapist. In addition, her incredibly focused diet is a huge part of her success, in which LivingFuel products play a key role. Read More

I don’t know about you, but I am quite inspired!

All you need for ab work is your body and a little bit of time.

1. Start out with basic crunches.
2. Once you’re able to do sets of 20 basic crunches, add some difficulty by doing knee to chest crunches instead.
3. Remember to work the sides with exercises like alternate situps.
4. And if you get bored, add in something a bit different like leg raises.

That’s all it takes. Do 1 or 2 sets of each of these exercises once or twice per week and you’ll be fine. Just remember that this needs to be part of an overall fitness plan. You can’t just work on your abs and not worry about anything else.

(From 60 In 3)

 Gal posted this on his blog after watching one of those infomercials about how to get a six pack ab with some crunch machine or other.

To read more of what Gal thinks go here