Search results matching tags 'TRX' and 'Jonathan Ross'

Beverly GSTC Sept 09

renae — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 01:57:00 GMT

Way to go Beverly - knock'em dead with your new Group programs!

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.

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.

4 Insights to Achieving Optimal Fitness - Part 1

Fraser — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 17:00:00 GMT

by Jonathan Ross

1 – What are your “fitness values?”

Might sound like a silly question, but what does fitness really mean to you beyond a vague notion of “getting in shape.” What does a more capable body allow you to do? How does living in a more fit body allow you to more fully participate in your own life?
“Fitness values” is a term I created to describe what it is about being fit that you really care about. For each of us, there is something that better fitness does for us that we treasure. It might be playing with your children or grandchildren, taking up a new sport or activity, or renewing participation in a previous one. Knowing what your fitness values are keeps fitness connected to what matters most to you.

The workouts you do day-in, day-out are often not great motivators in and of themselves to stick with it over time. They are simply a means to an end (and not just a means to reduce your end). Each of us has reasons that we value fitness, and simply looking better often only scratches the surface of what they are.
Your "fitness values" are what better fitness presents you the opportunity to do and to be.

Find them, and you'll have lifelong motivation to stay fit!

2 – Are you a goal setting victim or hero?

When you watch a horror movie, you often see victims running away from the villain while looking back at the villain. And you know what happens: the victim falls down and is caught.

When you set fitness goals to avoid a negative, it makes it harder for you to find success. If you’re trying to:

Avoid looking “ugly in your wedding dress”
Avoid “Looking bad in your bathing suit”
Are “tired of feeling fat in your clothes”

Your mind makes a negative connection with fitness.

Now, consider if we state the exact same goals in a different way, listen to how different they sound. What if you wanted to:

“Look great in your wedding dress”
“Feel confident in your bathing suit”
“Fit into your favorite dress or pair of jeans.”

Those are essentially the same goals, but don’t they sound different in your mind when you say them?

Listen to the self-talk in your head about fitness, and carefully check your wording when setting goals.

If your efforts to get fit were made into a movie, would you want to be a victim or the hero? Set goals like a hero, and that's just what you'll be.

To be continued... check back tomorrow for the 3rd and 4th insights!

Homework

Spend a few minutes to reflect and write down 1-2 fitness values as described above.
Be a goal setting hero - Write out 1-3 POSITIVE fitness goals.

Post these where you will see them multiple times throughout the day - refridgerator, screeen saver etc.

Jonathan Ross is a TRX Master Trainer and the 2006 ACE Personal Trainer of the Year. Additionally he was selected as a Finalist in 2008 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.