Fitness Coaches in Boston

Archive for March, 2010

Here are 10 things that you can do to keep yourself on a track when you start working out for the first time in a long time (or ever).

1. Check with your doctor
Many people ignore this when they start working out. We think that we know our body best, but most of us do not realize that something is not quite right until someone tells us. For example, if you are overweight, you have a higher possibility that you have knee and lower back problems, since you are imposing extra stresses on your joints. You may not realize, however, the weight is the cause of the joint problems until a doctor (or someone) tells you. It means that you may want to start with a stationary bike workout or walking instead of jogging. A doctor can tell you whether you can do certain workout or not, especially if he specializes in sports medicine.

2. Hire a personal fitness trainer and/or a nutritionist
Again, many people start a workout based on magazine articles or fitness books. This is quite dangerous! You do not need to work out with a personal trainer every time, but, at least, you should work out with a trainer once a month so that the trainer can modify your workout accordingly. The trainer also can correct your posture and some exercise your are not doing quite right. The same holds true for a nutritionist. If you are going to do a weight loss diet, consult with a nutritionist (who is also willing to work with your doctor). A nutritionist may disappoint you, since she/he won’t recommend any fancy herbal supplements, but the recipes that he/she recommends are usually safer, more effective, and cheaper.

3. Work with a personal fitness coach
The main problem for some people who cannot continue working out is actually due to the lack of mental preparation. Work with a coach for a few months so that you can develop a new way of thinking about your body, mind, and a new attitude toward your life. Once you make a big shift in thinking, you will not stop working out and you will stay healthy.

4. Ask for help from your family and friends
Especially for men, this is the hardest thing to do. Asking for help from family members and friends! You need to realize, however, your family and close friends could be your worst enemies, if you do not ask for the help and support. They unknowingly drag you back to the old life style, if you do not tell them. If you ask them explicitly for the support you want, they will be the best support for your life style change. So ASK!

5. Be friend with fitness buffs
If you want to be a fitness buff, be with them. It is the easiest way to motivate yourself. You are with your role models, and they love to help you (or show off their knowledge and physique). Just tell them how you truly admire their accomplishments and ask for help. One caution; they may not know or forgot how beginners work out; so watch out if they try to push you too much.

6. Continuously feed your mind with fitness information
This is another way to keep motivating yourself. Read fitness magazines and books, watch workout videos, and go to a workshop. Then tell your friends the new information that you just learned. Impress yourself and your friends with fitness information constantly, then you will be a fitness buff yourself really quickly.

7. Gradually increase workout load
Although the human body has the capacity to take a big change, it is recommended to go slowly. It is better to build up slowly rather than too quickly and having your motivation die away in two weeks. It also prevents you from getting serious injuries. If you once get injured, the probability that you come back to working out is quite small.

8. Give yourself a break
Your body and mind need a break. At least once a week, give yourself a non-workout day. You can be officially a couch potato. If you do diet, at least one day a week, eat whatever you want to eat.

9. Give yourself rewards
Set some goals, and decide what kinds of rewards you want to give yourself once you get there. It could be a piece of chocolate cake, or a nice massage. We are still Pavlovian creatures; if you once connect a good reward with working out, just by thinking about the reward, you can keep motivated to work out.

10. Find a workout you enjoy
This is quite an important point. If you do not like to run, why do you do it? Don’t do it, unless your ultimate goal is to be a Boston marathon runner. There is always something that you could enjoy physically. Do you like window shopping? Then go to a mall, and walk around the mall for an hour. You can get a workout!

Many people start exercising with good intentions, motivation, and goals, but cannot continue beyond the first few days. It is very important to make exercise a part of your life style; it takes about a month to feel a new thing becoming a part of your life. Here are some suggestions of things to avoid when starting a new fitness program.

1. Do not expect to see results in a week

Despite the promise many advertisements, you will not see washboard abs, or a 20 lb weight loss in a week. If it does happen, something is totally wrong in your body, and you should see a doctor immediately! It is a gradual process to become healthy. If you lose your weight quick, you usually gain it back quick and possibly more.

2. Do not make your workout schedule too rigid.

Although it is a good idea to allocate a specific time of a day for working out, it can be hard in our life to actually can get the same time slot every day. Instead, use a floating time block system. For example, if you scheduled 1 hour of workout time at 7a.m., but end up with an early morning meeting, you can instead use your lunch time, or even divide your workout into two 30 minute sessions – morning and after work.

3. Do not compare yourself to others

Comparing yourself to someone else is the fastest way to discourage yourself and make you want to give up the commitment. There is always someone better at a specific point, e.g., your pal may have the larger biceps (but he has skinny legs), or your girl friend has a narrow waist (but her skin is sagging). You want to compare yourself today to yourself yesterday.

4. Do not buy expensive equipment

You do not need any expensive pieces of equipment. More than half of exercise machines (such as abdominal machines, or running machines) are used no more than a few weeks after purchased. As a beginner, only thing you need is a reasonably good pair of workout shoes.

5. Do not take it too seriously

If you do not enjoy what you are doing, you will not last. If you miss a workout today, just smile to yourself and workout tomorrow a bit more.

6. Do not limit your workout to a gym or to a certain time of day

You can work out anywhere, anytime. You do not need to go to a gym. In fact, there is a study, which tells us that some gym goers spent fewer calories per day than non-gym goers. How is this possible? These gym goers spent 30 minutes or so in a gym, but were totally sedentary the other 23.5 hours of the day. Some non-gym goers walk more, use stairs, or go dancing. On average, the latter group burns more calories per day than the former. So don’t think that you can finish your workout after 20 minutes in a gym. Just use your body all day long.

7. Do not punish yourself

If you miss a workout, recognize that you missed a workout, and just reschedule the workout without guilt. A guilty feeling has a negative effect on your psyche. You want to reward yourself when you do workout, and that is a better way to keep you motivation.

8. Do not blame anyone

Don’t blame anyone for what you did or did not do. Your body is totally your responsibility. No one will take care of yours but you.

9. Do not stop

It does not matter whether a workout is only 10 minutes, just keep doing it until the workout becomes a part of your daily life. At night, if you realize that you have not done any working out yet, then do some stretching for 10 minutes before going to bed. Just do something until working out is a part of your life style.

10. Do not wait till tomorrow, start now

Yes, start at this moment. there is a fifty percent chance that you won’t start your personal fitness program if you wait until tomorrow.

You hear about personal coaches a lot recently. Many famous people work with them, Fortune 500 companies hire them to improve the work quality of senior managers, mothers hire them for their children to learn how to be organized. They are not cheap to hire; often they charge you $200-$300 an hour, and corporate coaches charge upward of $1,000 per hour. Are they worth the cost? Well, it depends. If you are not ready, it is a total waste of money, but if you are ready, you will get 10 times more than what you paid for. You really need to think about it before working with a coach.

A personal fitness coach is a coach specialized in fitness, areas such as changing an unhealthy life style into a healthy one, weight control, improving your physical fitness, or even running your first marathon. How is a personal fitness coach different than a personal trainer? A personal trainer teaches you the technical side of the training, such as how to do weight training. A personal fitness coach works with you so that you will be able to find a way to achieve your goal yourself. Many personal fitness coaches are a hybrid between a traditional personal trainer and a personal coach; they can coach you with a large amount of technical knowledge.

So how do you know whether you are ready to work with a personal fitness coach? Personal coaching is known to be very effective when:

* The client is willing to grow and put their mind to it.
* The client knows what she or he really wants, or at least has strong ideas about it.
* There is a significant discrepancy between where she is now and exactly where she would like to be.

If you are clear about these three points, you and your fitness coach can start designing and implementing a plan of action, solve difficulties, and step to a new stage of life.

What are the benefits of working with personal fitness coach? There are quite a few benefits, but the main ones are:

1. You will achieve far more, without being consumed by the process.
When you have someone it is possible to trust and can comfortably talk about what you have in mind, you’ll achieve much more due to the fact you afford to.

2. You will take action more often and make smarter choices, since you set the goals and processes that you definitely want.

People are proactive only when they believe they are doing things their way, and doing what they want to do. Helping you to define that path is the very first task of this coach. A fitness coach will work with you to identify what is in your heart in an effort to set up an objective that truly resonates with who you happen to be. Once you develop the ideal goal, you’re much more likely to take natural and consistent actions to attain that target.

3. You will possess a balanced existence which operates smoothly, simply because you designed it for yourself!

If you do not have balance in all aspects of your life, something will break at the weakest spot. It is very important to consider yourself first, not your job, not loved ones, and not companions. Consider yourself first; not being egotistical, but self-caring. A personal fitness coach will work with you so that you can be self-caring yet dependable. How can you give your very best to others, if your personal needs aren’t met? If you are not healthy, how can you give 100% of your capacity to the the job, or to take care your loved ones? You need to be at your best before you can do your best for others. Balance your living very first.

4. You will increase all aspects of your everyday living, simply because they’re all interconnected

For anyone who is thinking of using a personal fitness coach just to increase your wellness, reconsider. You cannot boost just one part of this existence without it affecting other aspects. For example, let’s assume that you wish to go to a health club regularly to increase your fitness level. If your have a job and loved ones demand a large chunk of time, you might discover it hard to allocate sufficient time to go to a health club. So you might need to improve your time management skills very first. Of course in case you boost your well being, it will enhance your efficiency at your job, and also the quality of your home life, too.

5. You will make much better decisions for yourself, since your focus is crystal clear

People working with personal coaches are intelligent; yet, they still use a fitness coach. Why? Due to the fact that they know the value of sharing ideas and talking aloud with an individual who understands them without bias, but is honest enough to give their opinions without reservation. You can’t do that with most of your friends, or even with your family members. They are willing to give their opinions without actually listening what you are saying. Just talking about your alternatives with somebody who can listen is usually sufficient to have it all become really clear. That is the fitness coach you really want to work with.

And if you get all of this, naturally you will have far more energy, love your life, and live every minute fully. What a benefit! No wonder successful people love to work with a personal fitness coach, and you should, too.