Make Your Body Your Machine : Jonathan Ross

Power Up with the Superhero Workout!

Fitness Anywhere — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 18:46:00 GMT

"I'll save you!" was my cry, at 3 years of age, as I ran at top speed to rescue the fictional person in distress. Decked out in a red cape and Superman underwear, I would run, leap, swing and climb my way around all obstacles in order to fight for justice. I was invincible, I was having fun, I was working out.

As kids we never looked for excuses not to workout, we looked for excuses to workout. We disguised it with our imagination and it became fun. Jonathan Ross of Aion Fitness has taken this same concept and created the superhero workout. Utilizing the TRX, you can practice and perfect your superhero moves based on the classic comic book characters we have grown to love. Bonus points for anyone who does this workout actually dressed as a superhero (oh please... PLEASE send pictures :) ).

BONUS: Love this workout and want a guide you can take with you? We're giving a FREE Superhero Workout Guide with any purchase in our online store in the month of October. Best of all, it's a download so you get it right away. No waiting!

Want more to power up your day? Check out the Lightning Fast Workout on the Go.

Iron Man Squats (15 reps)
Face the anchor point and grasp on to the foot cradles. With your feet hips width apart press down firmly onto the foot cradles as you lower down into a squat.

Wolverine Lunges (10 reps low & 10 reps high)
Face away from the TRX with arms bent and palms faced down. Extend arms wide with palms faced out into a “Y” as you lunge forward. Press back to the start position and alternate feet.

Batman Cape Throw (8 reps per side)
Face away from your anchor point and put the TRX in single handle mode. Grab onto the TRX with one hand and put the opposite knee on the ground. Stand and sweep your TRX arm over your head and return down to the original kneeling position with the TRX arm crossed over your chest, as if covering yourself with a cape.

Neo Row (6-8 reps per side)
Fully shorten the TRX and put it into single handle mode. Face the anchor point. Keeping your hips and shoulders aligned lean back holding onto the TRX until your knees are bent at 90 degrees. Extend your arm out back over your head towards the floor. Drive up with your hips and press through your heels until you are back in the starting position.

Spiderman Crunches (5 reps)
Put your toes in the foot cradles. Lift the hips so you are in push up position. Perform a pushup. At the end of the pushup movement, lift hips up and pull both knees to the elbows.

Morpheus Reverse Row (12 reps)
Start facing away from the TRX. Grab onto the handles with arms extended back towards the anchor. Cross your arms behind your lower back stacking one handle on top of the other. Gently lean forward until your arms are fully extended and repeat.

Wonder Woman Flys (10 reps per side)
Place your wrists in the foot cradles and face away from the anchor point. Bend your elbows up 90 degrees palms turned inward make a fist with your hands. Lean forward, moving one arm out away from the center of the body keeping the elbow is in line with the shoulder and holding the other arm steady. Bring the arm back to the start position. Repeat other side.

Daredevil: Rooftop to Rooftop (6-8 reps per side)
Put your toes in the foot cradles and face the ground in the prone position. Assume a pushup position where the tailbone is the highest point. Swing one leg out away from the center of the body while the other stays suspended and still. Alternate working leg.

Can Anyone Really Use the TRX?

Fitness Anywhere — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 17:51:00 GMT

by Jonathan Ross, TRX Master Trainer, www.AionFitness.com

“I think I might be ready to try the TRX…if you think I’m ready,” Sally said to me recently with apprehension in her voice and trepidation on her face. Sally (not her real name) is in her mid-50’s and has been exercising with free weights, cables, stability balls, and medicine balls in programs I’ve been creating for her for years. She is strong and capable (and I dare say stronger than her husband).

As a result, there should have been no doubt in her ability to successfully exercise with the TRX. Yet the fact remains she was uncertain as to her readiness to use it. Why? I forgot to ask I was too busy reacting, “Are you kidding!? Of course you’re ready to try it!”

But afterward, I began thinking about why.

In the last year or so, the general public has become increasingly aware of the TRX and recent exposure through many major media outlets is a large reason for this. When I teach Suspension Trainer Courses, one of the key points we emphasize is that the TRX can be used by anyone of any fitness level almost anywhere – and I fully believe this is true.

However, any quick online search for TRX exercises yields some extremely challenging, crazy-looking exercises not appropriate for the average – or even some above average – fitness enthusiasts. While true that anyone can use it, you usually only see things that a small percentage of the population can perform.

It’s like the classic example of communication: If I tell you “yes” while shaking my head right and left, you will most likely interpret my response as “no.”

People remember what we show them, not what we tell them.

I had a client once that I was able to convince to use the TRX, but it took a few visits by me where I brought my own and showed her how to adapt it. (For full details of this client’s experience, see my previous post in the forum titled “Hates Exercise, Loves TRX”

Our Head Coach and Director of Programs and Development, Fraser Quelch has a saying about crazier exercises, and they apply to exercises beyond just the TRX “eyebrow raisers” we’ve seen. He puts them in a category of “You could do it, but why would you?”

Although visually impressive, dramatic, and a great ego booster, these are some of the same exercises that scare the daylights out of millions of regular people out there who see the TRX for the first time.

As the saying goes, you only get one chance to make a first impression. There are literally millions of people out there in search of viable fitness option to help get them started. To illustrate the real possibility of using the TRX with anyone, I’m going to use one of the harder exercises in the TRX library and show you modifications I’ve created to allow just about anyone to do it – The TRX Suspended Pendulum.

And Introducing…The TRX Pendulum for Everyone!

Setup: Stand facing away from the TRX with your hands in the handles at a shallow angle (most of your weight in your feet) with a wide stance.

Performance: Sway side-to-side while maintaining full-body rigidity. Progress the exercise by lowering your body angle.

TRX Pendulum for Everyone Video.

Notes: This is a great body awareness exercise for deconditioned individuals to begin experiencing the sensation of their body moving against gravity. As the exercise progresses, the challenge increases to the abs and hips to maintain stability.

Jonathan Ross vs. Time Magazine... Round 3

FitnessAnywhere — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:45:00 GMT

Author: Jonathan Ross, TRX Master Trainer, Discovery Health Fitness Expert, www.AionFitness.com

Third, the article drops hints at the real problem with obesity, but the dots are never connected for you. The real source of the obesity problem is not that “exercise does not help you lose weight.” Here’s the real reason that exercise doesn’t do much for many people’s weight loss efforts.

Exercise is powerless against poor nutrition habits.

You get hints of this in the article, but nothing more. The article references the “lip-licking anticipation of perfectly salted, golden-brown French fries after a hard trip to the gym.” Another reference is to someone who does a light workout and then grabs a massive coffee shop muffin afterwards.

I’ve worked with a lot of people over the years, some have lost a lot of weight while following my exercise programs, and some of them haven’t. Did I give them different programs? Did I treat one client better than the other by withholding some sure-fire exercise strategies from one and not the other? Of course not!

The main difference between results and frustration is in one’s ability/willingness to end their love affair with junk food. If you regularly fantasize about a threesome with Ben & Jerry, no trainer or exercise program is going to get you very far. This romanticized, weak-kneed reaction to stuff that barely qualifies as food is the real problem…and this leads directly to the fairly obvious conclusions from the research that the author (and unfortunately many of the researchers) missed.

The correct conclusion from most of the studies is to note the overpowering effect that junk food has on our metabolism, health, and minds. And to be clear, I don’t blame the individual for having difficulty staying away from it. Recall that the main study the author cites to form his premise featured already overweight women who made no changes to their dietary habits.

Let’s see…we all eat several times per day and maybe exercise 2-4 days per week. And we know that in this case, the women clearly were already living a lifestyle that led them to become overweight so it’s not a huge leap to assume their nutrition habits were a teensy bit off. You just cannot conclude from this study that exercise is worthless in weight loss. What if your car had no tires, but I made the engine run better and got it in tip-top shape? Your car still wouldn’t go anywhere. Do I conclude the engine work has no value?

Although all of our choices for food are up to us, I don’t blame the individual for having difficulty in staying away from junk foods. You can find the truth if you look for it in books like “Beating the Food Giants,” by Paul Stitt, “Why We Eat More Than We Think,” by Brian Wansink, and more recently, “The End of Overeating” by David Kessler.

The powerful chemistry – and the marketing – that is put to work on us through junk foods by corporations who are not necessarily setting out to make bad foods, but are most definitely setting out to increase profits, has us consuming more and more empty food. If they make satisfying, nutritious food, we’ll eat less of it and they’ll have lower profits.

If you strip away the nutritive value of food and you add the taste sensations of fat and sugar, and then add the “emotional gloss,” as Dr. Kessler says, of comfort foods that we ingrain in ourselves by soothing every skinned knee with an ice cream cone as kids, then we find ourselves in the situation we’re in now: a world where despite “trying everything,” people can’t lose weight.

It’s no coincidence that the timeline of our massive obesity problem flows right alongside our major industrial advances and the advent of large-scale food processing. Our brain and body chemistry is powerless against the “engineered addictiveness” of junk food, and no amount of exercise can undo the “sins” of eating.

We’ve been “exercising” forever as we’ve needed to hunt and avoid prey to stay alive for millennia. Modern living has engineered the need for movement out of our day-to-day lives so the need to reinsert it is self-evident. Whether it is through challenging chores or full-on exercise, the choice is yours. But there is a real myth exposed from the information in the article: And that is the myth that “there is no such thing as bad food.” The truth can hurt. And in this case to say so would incur the wrath of the big food companies and the mouthpieces they’ve brainwashed. But since you can’t sue the makers of “exercise,” it’s a safe target.

The cover of the issue of Time featuring this article really does say it all. It shows a woman on a treadmill eyeing a giant cupcake with green icing and sprinkles. The colors we used to eat in fruits and vegetables we now eat in cupcakes sporting the colors of health food but consist of junk.

Is the problem with exercise or with the food?

Ask the Trainer with Jonathan Ross

Fitness Anywhere — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 15:08:00 GMT

Q: "How do I know that I'm doing the exercises correctly? I'm following the DVD workout, but I'm not seeing the results I expected."

A: If you're doing the exercises correctly and not seeing results there are two possible reasons. One is that your nutrition isn't supporting your goals and that's too big to address here. The other is that your intensity might be insufficient to give your body a reason to change.

When it comes to exercise, the human body is actually quite simple. It's driven by one rule: Stimulus and Response.

Provide a stimulus to the muscles greater than what your body is used to and you get the response of getting stronger/leaner/more fit. If the stimulus isn't there, your body's response is "been there, done that" and it rolls over and goes back to sleep through the workout.

Some questions to ask yourself are below. Your answers to them will likely provide the answers you need to get the results from your workouts.

When you are finished your workout, do you feel like you had a workout?

At the end of a workout, does your body let you know it had a challenge? Do you feel a faint whisper of "Whoa, what was that we just did?" from your body? If all you noticed was that your muscles were moving and then the workout was over, your workout probably is not asking your body for any changes.

Solution: Make the workout harder. Decrease rest between sets, add more sets, add a rep or two, increase the resistance, decrease the stability, or increase the time of your work interval on each exercise. If your workout time is already maxed out then ignore any of the above choices that add significant time to your workout. But change something to make the workout harder.

How do you determine when it's time to stop an exercise?

Do you train for the feeling or for the number? Do you stop just because you completed the target number of reps or the work interval time? Or do you stop because you are tired? Ideally, your muscles get tired in the target rep range or time interval.

Solution: Follow my training mantra: "Train for the feeling, not the number." Add a few reps to each exercise or add 5-10 seconds to your work interval. Before stopping any exercise, ask yourself "Am I really tired enough that I should be stopping now?" If not, do a bit more!

Stop an exercise when you need to stop because you're either too fatigued to continue or your form is completely shot. A minor drop in technique isn't a crisis since in life we often have to move in less than ideal conditions and without perfect form.

Jonathan Ross
TRX Master Trainer
www.AionFitness.com

Bio: Jonathan Ross is the 2006 ACE Personal Trainer of the Year, Exercise TV's "Best Personal Trainer," Discovery Health National Body Challenge Fitness Expert and one of Men's Journal Magazin's Top 100 Personal Trainers in America. He is owner of Aion Fitness, co-author of Family Fit Plan, and Personal Training Director at Sport Fit Total Fitness Club. His unique personal experiences help him create exercise strategies that deliver big results for his clients.

Jonathan Ross vs. Time Magazine... Round 1

Fitness Anywhere — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 22:36:00 GMT

Author: Jonathan Ross, TRX Master Trainer, Discovery Health Channel Fitness Expert, www.AionFitness.com

Recently, Time magazine featured a cover article titled “The Myth About Exercise.” Within days everyone I knew was asking me about this article. By the end of this article, you’ll enjoy much-needed clarity on a subject that wasn’t really confusing to most people until flawed journalism made it that way.

If you care to read the original article, here is the link:
http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1914857,00.html

Strap yourselves in. This is about how to think about exercise – something you don’t hear enough about but in my opinion is the real secret to long-term success. This is the main problem with the article – a dysfunctional attitude about exercise that leads to misinterpretation of research studies.

We’ll correct the article’s mistakes in four main points:

The author’s bias is evident and leads to incorrect conclusions from research studies (and additionally, some of the studies were poorly designed)
The article completely misses the point of exercise – as so many people often do
The real source of our world-wide obesity problem is ignored in favor of “smearing” exercise
There is a clear, nearly obvious, outcome from the research that the article unfortunately missed. Or was too scared to print.

First, a subtitle for the Time article could easily be “The Myth of Journalistic Objectivity.” One of the tenets of journalism is its objectivity, yet the author has a bias so powerful that it is impossible for it not to affect his conclusions. The article is riddled with references to how much he hates exercise. You’ll find him mentioning “working like a farm animal” with a personal trainer, throwing in terms like “abuse,” “hateful,” “grueling,” “wretched,” just to add some color and flair. At least we can compliment him for a complete lack of subtlety with his bias. Okay, Mr. Cloud, we get it! You don’t like exercise. With a weak premise, the best way to build support for your position is to play to emotions.

Were the bias in this article limited only to providing colorful language, it would be less bothersome. But, it unfortunately affects his conclusions from the various research studies he quotes throughout. Shockingly, in the article we learn that there are studies – real, scientific studies – that prove that exercise increases appetite!

Um, was this point unclear to anyone or inconclusive enough to warrant research?

At one point, he mentions that “I get hungry after exercise, so I often eat more on the days I workout than on the days I don’t.” Exactly! And your car uses more gas on days you drive than on days you don’t.

Precisely what “ah-ha” moment are we supposed to have in response to this obvious information?

(As an aside, I believe none of us are free from some degree of bias – myself included – and that true objectivity is a myth. We are all a mixture of our experiences, values, and beliefs and efforts to completely excise them from our lives results in a lessening of our ability to reason. The best we can hope for is to try and minimize bias, do our homework, and grow.)

The study which seems to be the fuel for his premise of the article is so flawed that it is of questionable usefulness (I did manage to find a more useful, closer-to-the-data conclusion – you’ll find it a bit later on.)

A large group of overweight women were broken into four groups – three of whom exercised for varying lengths with a personal trainer, and one of whom was asked to maintain their normal activity patterns. The kicker? They were not asked to change their dietary habits! All the groups lost weight, but no one group lost a significantly larger amount of weight than any other. And the conclusion was that exercise did not lead to a statistically significant change in weight loss. The only thing clear is that just because research is done doesn’t mean it gives us useful conclusions.

And to close the first point: I find it interesting that Mr. Cloud solicited not one comment from his own (or some other) personal trainer or other fitness professional. I suppose it was easier to call researchers in labs all over the country than get up and go find some people working in the trenches.

(In Round 2 post, I’ll address point 2 above)

TRX at IDEA World Fitness Conference 09

Fitness Anywhere — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 23:05:00 GMT

It is only day 1 (well, day 1.5) and the TRX is getting a huge response at the 2009 IDEA World Fitness Conference in Anaheim California.

People are coming from all over the world to participate in 5 days of fitness, education and just good old fashion fun. Fitness Anywhere is right there with them providing a little of all three. This morning, Fraser Quelch and Jonathan Ross had over 100 attendees at their TRX Circuits for Metabolic Training. The booth has been very busy with people stopping by and taking on the 40/40 challenge (we'll have more photos and videos at the end of the event). It has been so busy that we hardly have time to breath. We're getting a workout keeping everything going.

If this first day is any indication of what's to come, will be an exciting weekend.

TRX Community Featured Instructor: Jonathan Ross

Fitness Anywhere — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 12:00:00 GMT

Jonathan Ross, a TRX Master Instructor, is the Personal Trainer of the Year for ACE (American Council on Exercise), Exercise TV’s 2008 Best Personal Trainer, and host of Discovery Health Channel's Everyday Fitness, a web series designed to help you decipher the flood of fitness news and apply it to your daily life.

Here's what he has to say:

How did you first hear about the TRX?

Funny story. I had never heard about it, but I saw it. I bought one without even trying it out myself. I was walking through the trade show at the NSCA Conference in July 2006. At this point in my career, I had been in the industry long enough to not be caught up in the hype of every single new piece of equipment that comes out. I saw the small booth that was set up with a few TRXs on a power rack. There were a few people queued up to try it out and I didn’t have time to wait. I watched a few people using it for a few minutes and bought one without touching it or speaking to anyone from the company before purchasing. I quite literally saw its potential immediately.

What excited you most about the TRX?

The ability to use it extends to any regular people and deconditioned exercisers who need a viable fitness solution. They either don’t like and/or can’t afford traditional gyms and gym equipment, or travel too much to have consistent access to equipment. Also, the notion of taking it outdoors was a big draw for me.

How have you incorporated the TRX into your workout routine/lifestyle?

1-2 TRX-exclusive workouts per week and 1-2 addition workouts where it is integrated with other traditional free-weight or cable exercises. This is one of my “big hooks” in my intro during courses. I’ve been using the TRX for three years now and it’s still plays a large role in my workouts. I can’t say that about any other piece of equipment that has come out in the last decade.

Where do you typically workout using your TRX?

Either at the gym, at home, in hotel rooms, and or outside. I know that sounds like just about anywhere, but that’s kind of the idea, right?

What are your fitness goals?

I want to be able to play a sport, go hiking, or try something new and have a reasonable expectation that if I lose or fail at an effort it will be due to a lack of skill; not a lack of conditioning. And I want to have just enough muscle and low enough body fat to look like I’d be halfway decent at any sport or activity.

How do you stay motivated?

Easy. My parents weighed 800 pounds combined. When my father died in 1995, when he weighed 424 pounds. Shortly before he died, he had to go to the airport to get weighed because he was heavier than the scale at the doctor’s office could accommodate. This is a great example of a life poorly lived. You hear a lot of people talk about mortality with obesity, but the real tragedy is the loss of ability to fully participate in your own life. Your world gets smaller. You avoid certain situations and every movement like tying your shoes becomes an “engineering problem.” And in my dad’s case, he stopped truly living long before he died. I have all these memories in my head of the way my father spent the last 10 years or so of his life. It’s the antithesis of fitness and it is a big motivator. But this story has a happy ending. My mother has lost about 170 pounds and is a fairly active 68-year old (she was featured in my TRX Mother’s Day workout). So for me, the ability to stay vital and do the things I enjoy without limitation is a big part of what keeps me seeking fitness.

What does it mean to you to be fit and why do you think it is important?

To be able to do whatever activities I want to do without having to worry about my body. Fitness is about ability, not about appearance. Appearance has to be the minority factor for long termlong-term success both personally and professionally. I always chuckle whenever I get a business card from another trainer that features photo of them with their shirt off. I’m thinking, “You just don’t get it, mate!” People out there “think” they want to lose weight or fit into that wedding dress or that bathing suit. They might want that, but, in reality, they also want something deeper. They want a positive experience. They want to feel good in their own skin. When you know to dig deep enough to find the real motivation, helping people get fit becomes much easier and you are more successful as a professional.

What is it that you are trying to accomplish as an instructor?

I want every attendee to leave my courses not only proficient in setting up and using their TRX – a given – also to become better fitness professionals. Out of respect for the people who spend their time and resources to attend the courses, it’s essential for me as an instructor to convey something of lasting value beyond the TRX instruction that will make them better ambassadors of both the TRX and the fitness industry.

Anything else you would like to add?

I’d love to be the face of the TRX to regular people everywhere. This is the group that I’m most passionate about helping, and because of my background I can easily connect with this population. I have been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to do so with through some media work for Discovery Health. Regular people trying to fit exercise into their lives is also, in my opinion, the biggest future growth area in the fitness industry. The industry has grown significantly in the last couple of decades, but to continue growth, we need realistic solutions for the vast, untapped markets out there which include people who aren’t currently participating in a fitness program. I’d encourage new, young trainers to get over the fascination with training athletes. I meet a lot of younger trainers with stars in their eyes. The athletic population is such a small percentage of the total population. It is highly competitive since a lot of fitness pros want to train them, and it is one of the easier types of training to do. All the training parameters are given to us by the sport. I’ve trained athletes – and still do – in many sports, but interestingly, the least fit, non-athlete clients are the ones who have the greatest appreciation for getting even the slightest bit more fit. When their lives get a little bit easier, they become fiercely loyal and provide tremendous word-of-mouth referrals.

Also, I’m excited about my book on abdominal training that will be coming out in 2010 through Human Kinetics publishers and will feature many TRX exercises!

Jonathan can be found online at:

Blog: http://blogs.discovery.com/Jonathan_Ross/

Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Everyday-Fitness-with-Jonathan-Ross/58299828177

Twitter: http://twitter.com/JonathanRossFit

Thank you Jonathan, and let us know when your book hits the shelves!

A Workout for Mom

Fraser — Fri, 08 May 2009 07:00:00 GMT

Wondering what to give Mom this Mother's Day? What do you do when flowers or candy just won't cut it? Check out what Master Trainer and all around great son, Jonathan Ross is doing for his Mom.

The workout is detailed below. (Be sure to watch the video all the way through so you can see the 2nd part of Jonathan's gift)

To all you Moms out there - We wish you a wonderful Mother's Day weekend full of all the love and appreciation that you so deserve.

Happy Mother's Day!

TRX Mother’s Day workout:
Client: Mom
Age: 68
What You Need: a TRX, gravity, and about 10 minutes of your time!
The Movements:

Walk-Unders (supine and prone) 3-4 x each
TRX Wood Chops (10-12 reps per side)
Standing Hip Swings (front-to-back, rotational) (5 reps each per leg)
Chest Press w/Offset Stance (8-10 reps)
Row – 3 elbow positions (5 reps each high, angled, low)
Squat to single leg balance (20 squats, 10 balances each leg)

Re-thinking Your Business Philosophy - by Jonathan Ross

Fraser — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 06:00:00 GMT

Check out this great article from TRX master trainer, Jonathan Ross. Jonathan questions durability of the traditional personal trainer's business model and suggests some solutions that he has proven will bring a more stable business and better results for your clients.

Trainers: If you get abducted by aliens tomorrow, will your clients still know how to exercise without you?

Ask yourself the following questions:
•    Are you having the same session/workout with clients over and over again?
•    Do either you or your clients get distracted easily during sessions? Are clients often late?
•    Are any clients considering dropping sessions with you for financial reasons?
•    Would you like to work with more clients without working more hours?

When the average person hears “personal trainer” do they have an image of a fitness leader/educator or a glorified workout partner putting them through a tough workout several days per week? And perhaps more importantly for the future of our industry: How do we, as trainers, perceive ourselves?

The answer to these questions is no longer simply a matter of how you prefer to structure your training business, but may determine your future ability to maintain financial success. The increasing financial pressures on people at every income level are causing everyone to reevaluate their expenses. As members of the fitness industry, we know that fitness is essential. However, are the services you provide essential and something your clients truly cannot live without?

To overcome potential future financial obstacles – and current perception ones – it might be time to rethink how we offer and deliver personal training services to better the results of our clients, the health of our businesses, and to become true fitness leaders.

The typical personal trainer has a low number of clients with a high session frequency.

Two sample trainers:
•    Trainer A: 10 unique clients, 2 sessions each per week (20 total sessions per week)
•    Trainer B: 40 unique clients, 1 session each bi-weekly (20 total sessions per week)

Consider the following: Who can afford to work with these trainers under the traditional model of one-on-one training even during prosperous economic times, much less during the current challenging ones? What is the potential impact on revenue for these trainers with the loss of a single client?

How Trainers Benefit
•    Greater number of word-of-mouth referrals. In our example, Trainer B has 40 people singing their praises, while Trainer A has 10.
•    Less negative impact of losing a client. Trainer A would lose two hours of income per week while Trainer B loses a half hour of income per week.
•    You will no longer have clients that, despite several great workouts a week from you, still don’t get results. You know how it is…people get three great workouts from you per week and think that is enough. They spend the rest of the week eating like crap and not taking responsibility for their own results. With fewer sessions, clients realize that the only way for them to get results is to take what you teach them, own it and run with it.
•    Clients will take time with you more seriously. They will rarely be late, and will show up ready to learn and get as much info from you as possible to make the most of the time.
•    Almost anyone can now afford your services. Even with one session a month, by the end of the year that is twelve hours spent learning and growing in fitness knowledge.

The future direction and success of the personal training industry is up to us. We have enjoyed massive success in recent decades while reaching only the minority of the population. There is a great untapped market out there full of people who think they aren’t fit enough for trainers, can’t afford trainers, and are intimidated by trainers. If you teach your clients to be independent of you, you demonstrate professionalism and confidence in your abilities that will impress almost any client. Give someone a workout; they are fitter for a day. Teach them to work out, and they are fitter for a lifetime. Impart fitness knowledge to your clients; build on their accumulated knowledge of exercise, and watch them enjoy greatly amplified results. When you treat clients like strong, capable, intelligent adults, they begin to act that way and feel more confident in their exercise programs. As a result, their progress accelerates, and they start telling everyone who will listen that they just have to work with you.

(NOTE: For more practical details on how to implement the above strategy in your personal training practice, see the full article April 2009 issue of IDEA Trainer Success Newsletter.)

Jonathan Ross is a TRX Master Trainer, 2008 IDEA Personal Trainer of the Year Award Finalist, the 2006 ACE Personal Trainer of the Year, Discovery Health Fitness Expert, and can be reached at www.AionFitness.com

4 Insights to Achieving Optimal Fitness - Conclusion

Fraser — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 17:00:00 GMT

Previously Jonathan took you through the first 2 of his Insights for Optimal Fitness and gave you some homework to help you implement them. Enjoy the conclusion

3 – No time to work out?
Funny thing, if you ask anyone who does exercise regularly if they are busy and pressed for time, they will say yes. It's not like everyone who exercises consistently is just sitting around looking for something to fill up their day.

In fact, I’m so busy I don’t have the time to work out either! But I take the time to.

You will be BUSY whether you exercise or not.

It comes down to making a choice between being “busy and fit” or “busy and unfit.”

It really is just that simple.

The reality is, 33 million people watched the season finale of American Idol so we've all clearly got plenty of time available for exercise. You can watch whatever programs you want, as often as you want, but taking care of yourself is a bigger priority and comes first.

The alternative: Ignore your body...and it will go away.

4 – Guilt-free forever
Way back in time, we needed to hunt, kill, skin, clean, and cook dinner; build our own shelters, wash clothes by hand, and protect ourselves from the elements and from predators.

Translation: We had to do A LOT of physical activity EACH DAY that was directly related to SURVIVAL. We spent a lot of calories just staying alive one more day!

The idea of expending energy that wasn't directly related to survival does not sit too well with your brain. After all, if you run around all day chasing fireflies, you may not have the energy left to run away from that saber-toothed tiger when it chases you!

Fast forward back to today: With the need for survival-based activity largely removed from our lives, we don't "need" to be active. In fact, we are largely insulated from the consequences of inactivity by modern conveniences and can safely get by while hardly lifting a finger.

But our brains follow our genetic programming and it is hard-wired over millennia to discourage physical activity that isn't survival-related. A few decades of living with modern conveniences hasn't changed the programming in our bodies.

So when you climb on that elliptical, or pick up those dumbbells, or tell yourself, "I've got to work out today," your brain often subtly discourages it or at least makes it seem harder to get it done than it would if you had to. After all, if you do the workout, you're burning up energy that you may need to make a shelter later - or so your brain thinks.

This is why - even for us fitness experts - it often takes a bit of an effort to get moving to exercise.

It's biology that drives you to inactivity, not willpower. Recognize it for what it is - the programming left over from a time we no longer live in - and just say "No" to the guilt about struggling to exercise.

I'm off to work out now, I've got no predators to run away from so I should be fine!

Jonathan Ross is a TRX Master Trainer and the 2006 ACE Personal Trainer of the Year. Additionally he was selected as a Finalist in2008 for IDEA's Personal Trainer of the Year and as one of Men’s Journal Magazine’s Top 100 Personal Trainers in America. His unique personal experiences – having 800 pounds of parents – help him create exercise strategies that deliver big results for his clients and make him a sought after fitness expert by the media.