Q n A Mar 14th

Question: I’ve beChallenge workoutsen watching & doing some of your workouts. I found you through My Daily Workout which I am subscribed to. I turned 50 on Christmas. I am thinking about getting certified to be a Personal Trainer. There are so many courses out there. Our community college here in Columbus also offers a fabulous program that is a year long & about $3k tho. I was wondering if you could steer me in a direction. I like your focus of 40+ age group. I want something that puts it all together. A friend got NETA certified but she said it didn’t cover nutrition. Do you offer anything? Tina

Answer: Tina, I appreciate your question and am flattered that you’d ask me.

A great certification is the TT certification from Craig Ballantyne. I’ve found his cert to be better than any other online certifications if an online cert is the direction you’re going. It’s a very thorough cert with a good knowledge base with practical applications. As well, he covers important things like how to market your skills once certified. No one else does this. Learn more about the  TT certification here.

I’m not sure if it would be enough to get you insured in your area. This is a very important factor to consider. Call your insurance agency to check (or a few of them) to find out what basic level of cert is necessary to get coverage. No one thinks of this, but this is a necessary evil with all PT’s. TT cert graphic

I’d start with an online cert (the TT certification) and then if you find that this is really something that you want to invest more time and $ into, I’d then look into your community college cert.

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Question: I need some help downloading your videos. ch fat loss video page

Answer: To help with downloading issues, here’s a video to help with ALL videos: http://challengeworkouts.com/ how-to-save-the-videos-or- create-a-dvd.

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Question: I have limited space and funds. I usually do bodyweight workouts but want to use DB’s with some workouts too. I only have 10, 15 and 20 lbs. Is this adequate? Jeannie

Answer: If that’s the only room you have and that’s the equipment that you can get, then you can make due with it.

Here are some tips:

Focus on the eccentric contraction. The eccentric phase is the strength building phase of the movement. Control the eccentric lengthening phase of the movement to increase intensity.goblet-squat

-You can ‘pre-fatigue‘ a muscle by doing a bodyweight set then go directly to a DB set.

For example:

-Do push ups prior to doing a set of chest presses with your DB’s.

-Do bodyweight squats prior to doing DB squats.

-Doing two sets of an exercise using the same body part will really hammer that body part more effectively.

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Question: I love to run. I live on the East coast and winter has hammered us. What’s the best cardio machine to use if I can’t run outside. Tammi

Answer: Tammi, if fat loss is your goal, then you should know that running and cardio ‘machines’ are the least effective fat loss tool. Unfortunately, a lot of people still “believe” in cardio for fat loss. It tends to be lower body based and opens you up for injury.

But if you LOVE to run, you NEED to run for the pure joy of it,  start slow and let your muscles adapt to training. If you run too long, or on too hard of a surface, or too frequently, or in bad shoes, you’ll get shin splints. You can’t go from nothing to 5 miles in a week…be very careful and conservative.

To avoid them, stick to no more than 20 minutes of running and precede that with a good warm-up and finish with a cool-down. Stretch muscle groups that gmike w bw fin 2.0et tight from running (hip flexors, calves, hamstrings).

As far as cardio machines go, the elliptical machine is the biggest waste of time. It overestimates calorie burn by 42%, according to ABC news. Definitely stay clear of that one!

If you want to lose fat but want to avoid long workouts and over use injuries. then I highly recommend my pal, Mike Whitfield’s  Bodyweight Finishers.

Take a look at the Bodyweight Finishers 2.0 System and get:

  • 41 Bodyweight Finishers
  • 10 Bonus Tabata Finishers
  • Bodyweight Dirty 30 2.0 4-week program
  • Bodyweight Adrenaline 4-week program
  • Coaching videos so you’ll know exactly what to do and get exercise substitutions.

Give this finisher a try:

Gimme’ the 250 Bodyweight Finisher

Do the following circuit ONE time, resting only when needed. The next time you do this finisher, try to beat your previous time it took you to complete it.

  • Bodyweight Squats (30)
  • Pushups (30)
  • Alternating Bodyweight Chops (15/side)
  • Bodysaw (30)
  • Skater Hops (15/side)
  • Jumping Jacks (100)
These finishers are a whole lot more fun, faster and more effective than cardio.

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Question: Please let me know whether a 13 year old boy can do the exercise routine found in Challenge Burpee Program.

Answer: Burpees are really for anyone so your 13 year old son would definitely benefit.

big book of beautiful burpee graphicThe only people that may not benefit from burpees are those with impact or lower back/knee issues. For those people, I have ways to modify the beautiful burpee so that they can benefit to.

So the answer again is ‘anyone can benefit from burpees’! My Challenge Burpee plan is a great program that combines burpees with bodyweight and simple dumb bell exercises to burn fat and get fit.

 

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I’ve been going through some old photo albums and my kids were in hysterics seeing old pictures of me. I mean no disrespect to my dear ole Mom who’s just passed, but it’s clear she must not have liked me much to have my hair cut this way. (The good news is that it must have been a good day for a picture because I didn’t have tape on the side of my glasses. I was forever breaking them playing sports.) Seriously, this is just Screen Shot 2014-03-12 at 9.06.34 PMone of many photos that makes me wonder how I have any self esteem at all. (I told you I was president of the Geek Club.) I’m still a geek but I got a better hair dresser (thank you Anna).