Tips
Start with the legs straight & look forward or slightly up.
Keep the arms & legs straight & flex at the hips to lower the cable towards the ground as far as comfortable.
Maintain a rigid torso & extend the hips to bring the body to an erect position.
This exercise requires good lower limb & back flexibility to complete with correct technique.
Cautions
Do not allow the spine to flex at any stage during this exercise.
Below is the sixth excerpt from my chapter in the Switched On Health Professionals Book. Here I talk about the one of the biggest mistakes I have ever made and what I learnt from it?
My biggest mistakes actually came during a period that also brought me the greatest joy - the birth of my first son, Kayden. Simone and I had just purchased our first house and started Career Fitness, and now Simone was not going to be working for the next 18 months! As you can imagine this led to some financial pressure.
There are always more expenses than expected with a new home, especially one built from scratch as ours was. There was turf to buy, a TV aerial, clothes line, letter box, shed, curtains, carpet and more. The list went on and on. On top of that, the new business had its own unending list of purchase needs.
All this put us in a difficult financial situation, but the biggest mistake I made was to pay for a lot of those expenses on credit. Eventually, with high interest mounting, the debt got out of control.
I am pleased to say this situation has now been reversed, but only through much disciplined effort. It also taught me some really valuable lessons that I now use in my mentoring sessions; lessons such as the importance of budgeting and recording all expenditure, living on cash, and of course, controlling credit card debt.
Below is the fifth excerpt from my chapter in the Switched On Health Professionals Book. Here I talk about the challenges I have faced running Career Fitness and what got me through.
I love running my business, Career Fitness. However any businessperson who thinks there won’t be testing times is living a fantasy.
For me one of those times came in 2007 when I found myself totally exhausted both physically and mentally. I was running Career Fitness; coordinating a team of 10 personal trainers for the City of Banyule; committing 20 hours a week to Preston, my subdistrict level cricket team; and trying to be a good father and husband.
I was already struggling to do justice to all these activities when the sucker punch came: an announcement that all Certificate III & IV in Fitness course providers like myself would be audited.
This meant going over reams and reams of paperwork to ensure we were adhering to the strict compliance rules associated with delivering a Nationally Accredited Training Package course. This mountain of paperwork along with the pressure I was feeling from my other commitments almost caused me to throw it all in. I felt overwhelmed and a little depressed that my life was out of control.
Fortunately though, these thoughts were only temporary and the audit went exceptionally well. However, the situation I’d found myself in taught me an important lesson about over committing. It prompted my decision to resign as the Personal Training Coordinator with the City of Banyule. I also put time and priority management strategies in place to ensure Career Fitness would grow while allowing me a life outside of work.
Today there are still challenges, however I feel better equipped than ever to manage them. This experience also gives me a great personal example I now use when mentoring clients and speaking to groups about priorities.
Below is the fourth excerpt from my chapter in the Switched On Health Professionals Book. Here I talk about the role models or mentors that have inspired me along the way and particularly what important lessons I have learnt from them.
A key role model for me was Trudie Balthazar, a manager of mine at the Melbourne City Baths whom I developed enormous respect for. She taught me some very important lessons about managing people. Prior to Trudie, I had other managers who were very systems-oriented; what Trudie taught me was that systems are only as good as the people who are operating them.
If people in leadership positions do not have a genuine understanding or interest in those they are leading then it’s unlikely that people will follow them. This principle can be applied to personal trainers: they may have great technical knowledge and training methods but if they don’t show genuine interest or care for their clients they will not keep them for long. They also won’t get the same results as a trainer whose clients believe in them so much, they’ll crawl over broken glass for them.
Another for whom I have the greatest respect is Simone Whear, my wife. Simone is the most amazing person I have ever met. She has taught me a lot about unconditional love and total support. She has made many sacrifices to allow me to grow my business while still playing cricket at a high level, and has supported me through decisions such as leaving a well paid, secure job as a health and fitness club manager for the unknowns of the business world. The biggest lesson I have learned from Simone is the need to have a support system around you to achieve optimum results - both in business and in one’s personal life.
Ann Leslie, my grandmother, has been another amazing role model. I lived with her through my late teenage years and into my 20’s, a time when young people can go off the rails a little. I am proud to say that I never once had an argument with Nan and am still amazed at the patience she showed me. Nan passed that patience onto me - an invaluable gift during frustrating times in business.
Lastly, I must mention Andrew May, my business mentor, who has shown me the unlimited opportunities that abound for those who seek them. He has shown me how valuable it is to have a mentor who can open our eyes to opportunities that we can’t see for ourselves. I am also a big believer in “walking our talk”, so as a business mentor to others I believe it would be hypocritical not to have one myself.
Tips
Position the head & shoulders on the stability ball with the hips in a low position.
Raise the hips, simultaneously perform a biceps curl & reverse the movements back to the start position.
The hips should be in line with the knees at the end of extension.
Cautions
Ensure that the stability ball is on a non-slip surface.
This week I am featuring an article written by Charles Staley which I think is very relevant.
1 - Don’t Use “Bodypart Splits”
Here are two big problems with bodypart splits:
1) You limit yourself to relatively ineffective exercises. For example, if you have a “hamstring day,” you can’t really do squats of any kind, or deadlifts of any kind (The most effective hamstring exercises), because both involve not only hams, but also quads, low back, and core stability, among other things. On a “chest day” you can’t do any form of bench (The most effective “chest” exercise), because it involves delts and triceps as well as pecs.
So if you go on the assumption that each “bodypart” needs to be trained at least twice a week (an assumption I happen to ascribe to), you’d need a schedule like this:
Monday: Chest & Back
Tuesday: Hams & Shoulders
Wednesday: Biceps & Triceps
Thursday: Abs & Calves
Friday: Chest & Back
Saturday: Hams & Shoulders
Sunday: Biceps & Triceps, Abs & Calves
2) Which leads to the fact that: of course you can arrange things differently, but anyway you slice it, you’re training 6-7 days a week, using inefficient exercises.
A somewhat better “compromise” might be to have 2 “upper body” days and two “lower body” days. Now your weekly split looks something like this:
Monday: Lower body
Tuesday: OFF
Wednesday: Upper body
Thursday: Lower body
Friday: Off
Saturday: Upper body
Sunday: OFF
A schedule I prefer even more is to involve as much of your body as possible on every workout. This requires a bit more creativity in order to avoid redundancy (see point # 3 below), so here’s an example to get your started:
Monday: Back Squat, Bench Press, Low Cable Row
Tuesday: OFF
Wednesday: Step-Ups, Dumbbell Overhead Press, Chins
Thursday: Front Squat, Dumbbell Bench Press, Suitcase Row
Friday: OFF
Saturday: Lunges, Barbell Military Press, Pullups
Sunday: OFF
With these last two examples, you have 3 days off, plus you can do the best exercises: squats, pulls, Olympic lifts, rows, lunges, presses, etc.
2- Use A Weekly Cycle
By a “cycle” I simply mean a recurring or repeating unit of time into which you place every exercise you think you must or should do. Using my last example, you obviously wouldn’t (or actually couldn’t) try to back squat, front squat, lunge, step-up, chin, row, bench press, etc., etc., all in one day. You’ve gotta spread them out into a cycle.
If your cycle is too small (compressed) you won’t be able to recover from all the work you’ve placed into it. On the other hand, if the cycle is too large (expanded), you’ll get too much recovery, meaning, you’ll be starting from scratch on each new cycle. The trick is to make your cycles just long enough to be able to achieve a full recovery, but not so long that your fitness levels recede back to the starting point with each new repeat.
The smalles possible cycle (in my opinion) is about 4 days. This would assume that you accomplish all desired work in two training sessions. The upper body-lower body split described earlier is one example. Using this, here’s what your 4 day split would look like:
Monday: Upper Body
Tuesday: OFF
Wednesday: Lower Body
Thursday: OFF
Or, the 2 sessions could be distributed toward the front of the cycle, and the rest days placed at the rear:
Monday: Upper Body
Tuesday: Lower Body
Wednesday: OFF
Thursday: OFF
Either of these two cycles could be repeated over and over with a good degree of success, for an indeterminate length of time. The problem I have with this split however, is that modern Western civilization is based on a 7-day week. It only makes sense therefore, to align your training cycle with your work/life schedule, which happens to be a 7-day cycle. For this reason, I think you’re best off using a weekly split. Using the last example, it might look something like this:
Monday: Upper Body
Tuesday: Lower Body
Wednesday: OFF
Thursday: Upper Body
Friday: Lower Body
Saturday: OFF
Sunday: OFF
3 - Seek Maximum Diversity And Minimum Redundancy
If you look back at the earlier example of a “whole body” split, you’ll notice that although there is a repetition of fundamental movement patterns, there is minimal redundancy of specific movements. Here’s that split again so you don’t have to scroll back up to find it:
Monday: Back Squat, Bench Press, Low Cable Row
Tuesday: OFF
Wednesday: Step-Ups, Dumbbell Overhead Press, Chins
Thursday: Front Squat, Dumbbell Bench Press, Suitcase Row
Friday: OFF
Saturday: Lunges, Barbell Military Press, Pullups
Sunday: OFF
So again, you’ll notice that we’ve covered pretty much every major movement pattern: vertical and horizontal pressing, vertical and horizontal pulling, squatting, lunging, etc.
4 - If A Movement Pattern Hurts, DO SOMETHING About It
Typically, if a lifter has a particular movement scheduled for a workout, and then the initial warm-up sets for that movement cause pain, the typical response is to simply skip the movement and hope it feels better the next time around. Bad idea. The solution is beyond the scope of this article, but let me suggest getting some medical advice for anything that hurts more than a week or so (as opposed to a year or so). Until you get a diagnosis, you don’t know what you’re dealing with. And you can’t fix a problem if you can’t define the problem.
5- Stay Flexible With Loading Patterns
Anyone who’s followed by work for any length of time knows that I’m not a periodization fan. It’s just simply impossible to predict how you’re going to respond to a specific stimulus weeks in advance. So on each workout, go in with a plan, but also don’t be afraid to modify the plan if things aren’t panning out the way you hoped. If you were planning on 3 sets of 8, and on the first set it becomes obvious that you could probably hit a new PR for a single, I’d take that PR. Conversely, if you’re planning on maxing out and it quickly becomes apparent that a new PR isn’t in the cards, take the opportunity to get some volume in instead.
If you don’t plan on being flexible, you’re likely to fall apart and lose motivation when your workout fails to go your way. So prepare for the unexpected, and have a back-up plan in place before you go in. This way, you’ll almost always have great training sessions, your motivation will stay high, and that leads to intense and consistent training. And that leads to great results.
Below is the third excerpt from my chapter in the Switched On Health Professionals Book. Here are the five key areas we need to focus on in order to maintain health and fitness.
1. Game Plan
As a personal trainer and business coach, the main message I teach my clients is to formulate a winning ‘Game Plan’. This means having both a specific goal, and a process for achieving that goal.
In practical terms this involves an initial health and fitness evaluation. There, baseline measures are established against which progress can be measured. These measures should be taken regularly to give ongoing feedback on progress towards the desired goal.
2. Exercise
It’s important to have a defined exercise program that combines both planned and incidental exercise.
Planned exercise includes regular weight training, running, walking, cycling, and sport. Incidental exercise is any unplanned exercise such as taking the stairs instead of the lift or walking to the shops instead of driving.
Several studies using pedometers to record how many steps someone takes in a day, have indicated that many who start a planned exercise program actually move less than they did before. Because they had been to the gym, it seemed they now felt it was ok to drive to the shops instead of walking - they had done their exercise for the day. In many cases this meant that people were actually less active after starting an exercise program than previously, as shown by the number of steps they were taking each day.
My advice is to not underestimate the importance of incidental exercise, particularly for those who have weight-loss goals in mind. Incidental exercise can significantly add to the number of calories burned each day.
3. Nutrition
Most dieticians agree that active people should eat approximately every three waking hours. Regular intake of food prevents blood sugar levels from dropping excessively, allowing energy levels to be maintained and food cravings to be avoided.
In order to eat well for energy and optimum performance it is important that you have a nutrition plan in place. This means preparing meals and snacks prior to leaving home, and being mindful of what and when you eat.
4. Physical recovery
It is vital that people establish a sleeping routine where they go to bed at the same time most nights and rise at approximately the same time each morning. This allows the body to form a regular sleep cycle pattern. I would suggest eight hours sleep a night to deliver optimal energy and performance. I am also a great believer in the power of regular massage for recovery, and regular holidays to maximise recuperation from work related stress.
5. Mental relaxation
We are not just physiological beings, we also have a mental side which controls how we perceive events and therefore how we react to them. It’s important that we enjoy regular downtime away from things that cause us stress. This could be going to a sporting event, listening to music, practicing yoga or using deep breathing techniques.
Below is the second excerpt from my chapter in the Switched On Health Professionals Book. Here are my thoughts on what is the biggest mistake people make in relation to their health and wellbeing.
Not getting started! I’d be a very wealthy man if I had a dollar for every person I’ve met socially during my career who, upon finding out I was a personal trainer, has said, “I’m looking to join a gym once I lose a few kilos”.
I am sure people think you need to be a certain size or have a certain level of fitness in order to start exercising, but this to me is the wrong way of thinking. If someone is currently doing no physical activity then they start walking for 20 minutes each night, that’s a great start towards a healthier life. If they are currently eating fast-food four nights a week then cut that down to three, they are on their way.
In a gym context I have seen many people start out with limited time to work out, some with as little as 20 minutes at lunchtime. But that’s a start - many of these people soon see and feel themselves getting fitter, stronger and healthier with just that small daily effort. These early results become the catalyst that drives greater results. They shift their priorities and all of a sudden are able to free up 60 minutes a day in order to do more. The key is to just start; the health and wellbeing changes will flow in time.
As they say, a journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step, and so it is with health, fitness and wellbeing.
Tips
Begin with the dumbbells close to the shins with the arms straight. Keep the chest up, & look forward or slightly up with neutral curves in the spine.
Extend the hips & knees, keeping the torso angle the same. Keep the arms straight & do not allow the hips to rise before or faster than the shoulders.
As the dumbbells pass the knees, move the hips forward & continue pulling. Keep the dumbbells close to the body & establish an erect position with the feet flat on the ground.
Reverse the movements back to the start position.
Cautions
Do not allow the spine to flex.
Do not allow the hips to rise before or faster than the shoulders.
Here are some photos of the Career Fitness presenters and students enjoying themselves at the Christmas Party held at the Bull & Bear Tavern on Saturday 22nd November 2008.
