You got questions? Ask.
What’s the best way to reach my personal training goals?
A.: Chunk them down.
Ever had a personal training or fitness goal that excited you … but then you got started and became overwhelmed (and dropped it)? Well, there’s an easy solution: chunk it down!
“Chunking down” means breaking down a large project into smaller parts. When we just focus on the next partial goal, we can go farther and longer than when we are staring down the huge end goal way in the distance.
For example:
- If you want to do planks for 1.5 minutes at a stretch, consider counting off in 15-second intervals. You can make it to the next 15 seconds. And the next.
- Marathoners often don’t think of running a marathon; they think of running 1 mile … 26 times.
- Instead of bench pressing for 3 sets of 15 reps, count off 5 reps at a time.
By breaking down your goal into manageable chunks, you’re able to enjoy the sense of accomplishment that comes from reaching the mini-goals. And that can fuel the fire to get you to the next mini-goal … and ultimately to the larger goal.
So the next time you’re tempted to avoid exercise because it seems overwhelming, think about chunking down your personal fitness goals. When you can see yourself accomplishing the individual steps, you’re more likely to reach your targets and enjoy the process of getting there.
If you’d like to get started with a personal fitness trainer to help you meet your fitness goals, contact us at Joe Carr Personal Training!
Can I exercise right after eating?
A.: I’m tempted to say that you should wait an hour after having a tunafish sandwich . . . but it really depends. It depends on how much you eat, how vigorously you plan to exercise, and how quickly your metabolism works. In short, you need to really know your body.
Some people feel more comfortable on a full stomach than others. Some have better blood metabolism than others. Either way, if you’ve gorged yourself to the point of nausea, that’s not the time to pump more iron than Arnold Schwartzenegger.
If you don’t know how to read your body’s signals, it’s wise to avoid high-intensity activity right after eating. That said, going for a light walk is usually fine—and can help enhance the digestive process.
Whatever you eat, though, do NOT exercise right after drinking alcoholic beverages.
Why shouldn’t I hold my breath when doing weight reps?
A: It’s simple: When you hold your breath, you hold in carbon dioxide. Your muscles fatigue faster the more carbon dioxide you have in your system. You get rid of carbon dioxide by exhaling.
As a result, the more carbon dioxide you get out of your system, the longer it takes for your muscles to fatigue.
So technically, it’s more important to exhale than it is to inhale . . . but we have to do both.
Should I work out every day?
A.: No. The body needs to rest and recover so it can get stronger. When you work out all the time, you’re not giving your body the time it needs to recover and strengthen itself.
Now, to be clear, you can do cardio exercise on the days you’re not training. (General cardio doesn’t “count” as “training” the leg muscles.) But you need to take time in between your workouts. Certainly, don’t strength train the same muscles every day. As a general rule, it’s healthy to take one full day off per week so you don’t burn out from working out.
What is the biggest mistake people make in gyms?
A.: Lifting too heavy.
You see it all the time in the gym— guys (yes, it’s usually men) on a bench grunting away doing chest presses. Picture “Frankie”: His back is arched and he’s pushing against his feet and shoulders so his pectoral muscles can thrust the weight upward. Frankie may think he’s macho and cool, but he’s actually causing potential long-term damage to his body. He’s “leveraging”: using other body parts to help a particular muscle to do its work.
Here’s the problem with leveraging.
First, the more assistance you get from a different body part, the less the muscle that needs to do the work gets used. So when Frankie uses his feet and shoulders to chest press, his pecs get underworked, and he’s putting extra strain on his neck, back and shoulders. Definitely not the workout you want, and you won’t see the results you want from it.
[Hint: to avoid leveraging when doing chest presses, put your feet on the bench (not on the floor) so your keep your back flat. That will force you to focus on using the pecs — and just the pecs. Try it! You’ll notice the difference right away.]
Second (and more devastating), problem with leveraging is that you can easily hurt your joints. Muscles can get stronger. Joints don’t. In fact, they get weaker. So when you’re 22 and think you’re Superman lifting all that weight, the truth is that you’re doing damage to the joints—damage that can’t easily be repaired as you age.
Here’s a YouTube example of how NOT to weight train:
https://youtu.be/Kaem3O-HmwU
Why should women lift weights?
A.: Strength training—that is, weight training and resistance training–is a vital part of any overall fitness program. But it has special benefits for women. Osteoporosis (decrease of bone mass) is a major cause of disability among women, especially those over 50. Studies have shown that strength training can help you develop strong bones. In particular, strength training increases bone density and reduces the risk of osteoporosis. In turn, you’ll be rewarded with a reduced risk of spinal problems and broken bones.
It’s never too late to start!
If you’d like to get started with a personal fitness trainer, contact us at Joe Carr Personal Training!
I’m a woman. If I weight train, will I get big?
A.: Women frequently worry about the results of weight training. “I don’t want to become a big hulking freak. Will that happen with weight training?”
For the most part, NO. Helping a woman get stronger through weight training will not make them HUGE. If a woman is “body-building big”—like Ms. Olympia —that’s the result of abnormally high amounts of testosterone in a woman’s system . . . and which, more often than not, got there through supplements or steroids.
Weight training helps tighten and strengthen muscle fibers, which leads to a strong, toned look. Perfect for the beach, baring your shoulders in a party dress, or wearing a great pair of jeans.
What’s Joe Carr’s “8½ Theory” of Fitness Training?
A.: You want your workouts with a personal trainer to be challenging. Like Goldilocks and the Three Bears, they should be not too hard, but not too easy. Ideally, your fitness trainer will motivate and test you without overwhelming you.
I call it my “8½ Theory”. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being “I haven’t a molecule of energy left in my body,” my goal is to for clients to hit 8½ in terms of physical exertion. When a client finishes a set, I’ll ask for a rating. If they tell me, “It was a 7,” I know to increase the difficulty for the next set. If they tell me “It was a 9,” I know to decrease it. Eight to 8½ is a real good place to be.
If you’d like to get started with an experienced personal fitness trainer, contact us at Joe Carr Personal Training!
Where do trainers get their training qualifications?
A.: In addition to strong certifications, good personal trainers have an athletic background.
Look at it this way. I love my wife. As a lawyer, though, she’s been a “desk jockey” her whole career. If she suddenly decided to leave law and become a personal trainer, sure . . . she’d probably ace all the exams (she’s brilliant when it comes to studying). But would she have the real-world experience of coaching people and being coached to have the fullest perspective as a trainer? No.
Take a good look at your personal trainer’s life experience when it comes to athletics and fitness.
Has he or she:
- Competed on athletic teams?
- Had a long-standing commitment to his/her own physical fitness (no one wants a fat trainer!)
- Coached sports teams or groups?
- Been involved in fitness internships?
- Has health and fitness been a lasting part of your trainer’s career? Or did they begin yesterday?
If you’d like to get started with a personal fitness trainer to help you meet your fitness goals, contact us at Joe Carr Personal Training!
What should I know about a fitness trainer’s qualifications?
A.: There are a lot of options nowadays for working with personal trainers. Fitness trainers may work:
As employees of a chain of gyms
By training private clients in private training gyms
With private clients in the fitness facilities in their buildings
In people’s homes, with or without fitness equipment
Group bootcamp sessions in a park
But what do you really know about them? And how do you know that they know their stuff? In a word, ask.
Make sure you ask about their qualifications.
A college degree in exercise physiology, kinesiology, anatomy, or related subjects is a terrific foundation.
Some personal trainers skip the college degree and go straight to accredited personal training certifications.
These include:
- NASM—National Academy of Sports Medicine
- NCSF—National Council on Strength and Fitness
- ACSM—American College of Sports Medicine
- NFPT—National Federation of Personal Trainers
- ACE—American Council on Exercise
If you have special needs or concerns, such as age, disability, injury, or pregnancy, you’ll want to ask if your personal trainer has gone to college or done any advanced studies in what’s known as “special populations.”
If you’d like to get started with a personal fitness trainer to help you meet your fitness goals, contact us at Joe Carr Personal Training!
Why is a personal trainer’s personality important?
A.: What’s the trainer’s fitness training style? Do they have a high-energy, chatty style that keeps you motivated? Or do you prefer someone low-key yet intense? Your old college roommate may thrive with a Celebrity Fit Club-type drill instructor, but that might make you want to hide under the bedcovers on training days. Like other relationships, you’ll have a good sense from an initial interview with the fitness trainer whether their personality meshes with yours.
If you’d like to get started with a personable personal fitness trainer, contact us at Joe Carr Personal Training!
How can I choose a personal trainer who’s right for me?
A.: It’s not called “personal training” for nothing! Choosing a private fitness trainer who’s the right fit for you depends on several important considerations:
- Personality
- Qualifications
- Experience
The right combination in a private trainer for you might not be the same for your best friend, your brother, or the neighbor down the street. Partly because your fitness goals, abilities, and time you can devote to them probably won’t be the same. Don’t hire a trainer just because your cousin uses him. Make sure the trainer has the personality, qualifications, and experience that you need and want.
If you’d like to get started with a personal fitness trainer, contact us at Joe Carr Personal Training!
Can I reach my fitness goals if I only work out with a private trainer once a week?
A.: One day a week is certainly better than none! One day a week with a personal trainer can offer muscle guidance and repetition, which teaches you the right form. Muscle has memory, and even if you’re learning only one day a week with a trainer, your body will eventually remember how to carry itself and move in healthy ways. Maybe not as quickly or as well as if you trained more often, but you’ll see the benefits nonetheless.
If you’d like to get started with a personal fitness trainer, contact us at Joe Carr Personal Training!
How often should I work out with a personal trainer each week?
A.: It depends on your fitness goals. Unless you are an athlete (and even they sometimes need to unlearn bad exercise habits and form), the muscles of your body need time to get acclimated to training, overcome soreness, and learn new and better ways of moving. Working with a fitness trainer 2-3 times per week will give you an excellent start.
How often should I work out?
A.: The frequency of your workouts depends on your fitness goals. If you are a physically fit person and simply want to maintain your fitness level, you may not need to work out any more than 3 times per week. If you’re looking to lose body fat, you’ll want to consider doing cardiovascular exercise (ideally) 4-5 times per week, coupled with resistance training 2-3 times per week. A personal trainer can help get you started on a program to reach those goals.
If you’d like to get started with a personal fitness trainer, contact us at Joe Carr Personal Training!
I want to train at home. What equipment do I need for in-home personal training?
A.: You can get a solid workout using nothing but your own body weight if you know the right exercises to do and do them properly. No equipment necessary (other than, perhaps, a clean floor)!
For the sake of variety, you may want to have some resistance bands, a step, and possibly an assortment of dumbbells. You can easily find this equipment at your local sporting goods store. With that equipment, you can get a full-body workout involving resistance training and exercises. You’ll be able to work your lats, shoulders, biceps, triceps, quads, hamstrings . . . and more! Good, old-fashioned sit-ups or crunches require nothing but your body weight.
Can I get results working out at home … or am I just kidding myself?
A.: You get out of it what you put into it.
Whether you’re training by yourself at home or working with a trainer, you need to be consistent and use good form. Those are the basics. You won’t see results if you do three deep knee bends twice a month.
How do you know if your form is good? Well, that’s where a good trainer comes in. I’m an extra pair of eyes to make sure you enjoy getting fit without getting injured. For trainers like me who are knowledgeable about resistance training, I can train you in the corner or your living room with no/minimal equipment – and you’ll see results.
But you don’t have to be stuck in a corner. I built a state-of-the-art gym at my home so I could have a variety of options and room to grow strong. And I share that space with my clients so you can do the same.
If you’d like to get started with a personal fitness trainer, contact us at Joe Carr Personal Training!
Can’t I just do this on my own? Why do I need a personal trainer to help me?
A.: Personal fitness trainers provide two vital roles you can’t do on your own.
1. They remain objective about your exercise form.
2. They keep your motivation up.
Let’s face it: when you’re exhausted, your form suffers. You’re on that 8th bicep curl, and the muscle is screaming to you, “Help me! Call in the reinforcements!” And unconsciously, your body does just that. You swing your arm or torque your back—just a little—to get the momentum started so you can reach your 9th bicep curl. And your 10th.
But if you’re not using the right form for an exercise, the muscle you’re trying to work won’t get the full benefit of the exercise. Or worse, you could injure yourself. That’s where working with a fitness trainer comes in. When you work with a trainer, the trainer uses an objective, skilled eye to help you get better results as you work out.
More importantly, your private trainer is your motivator, your cheerleader to encourage you to push toward your goals. When you fatigue, you’re more likely to punk out early, before you’ve really reached the limit of your capability. If you don’t push those limits (safely), you won’t get the most out of the work you put in . . . and it could take longer to get in shape. Your trainer can help you reach your fitness goals sooner than if you did it yourself.
If you’d like to get started with a personal fitness trainer, contact us at Joe Carr Personal Training!
I really need to lose weight. How can personal training help me?
A.: One of the surest ways to lose weight is to increase the muscle mass on your body. Why? Because when your body is at rest, a pound of muscle burns more calories than a pound of fat. So having more muscle means you will expend more calories throughout the day. Plus, there’s the added benefit that resistance training will help you reduce fat overall.
That’s why personal fitness training is so essential. It’s a key component of building muscle mass—especially when coupled with a good diet and cardio exercise.
If you’d like to get started with a personal fitness trainer, contact us at Joe Carr Personal Training!
I’m in my 50s. Am I too old to start working out?
A.: Absolutely not! Any age is a good place to start.
At Joe Carr Personal Training, we take a customized approach. Every client comes in where they are – and we build a program from there. We don’t slot you into a pre-set program based on age, weight, or other criteria.
Like the proverb about planting trees, “The best time to start was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” So let’s start now.
If you’d like to get started with a personal fitness trainer, contact us at Joe Carr Personal Training!
(917) 207-0902
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