Wednesday, February 15, 2012
The Truth About Dental Insurance
So is getting dental insurance really worth it? My dentist told me it's not worth it. Is she just trying to make more money off of me? I doubt it. Being a personal trainer, I get it. Whether I come in or not she will still work the same amount of hours every week. So why did she tell me this? Is dental insurance really worth it?
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Article About Diet
Are We Supposed To Be Vegan, Vegetarian, Carnivore, Omnivore, Herbivore, Or Paleo?
It's something my personal training clients often wonder and discuss with me during training. As a nutritionist as well as a personal trainer, I thought I would write an editorial on the subject matter. Read more here: The Best Diet For Human Beings.
It's something my personal training clients often wonder and discuss with me during training. As a nutritionist as well as a personal trainer, I thought I would write an editorial on the subject matter. Read more here: The Best Diet For Human Beings.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Genetically Modified Foods
After reading about President Obama appointing the former VP of Monsato as the senior advisor for the FDA and how some Monsato campuses have removed GMO foods from their cafeterias, the battle over GMO foods and our right to either be aware of it or ban it has become widespread.
Some of the pro arguments:
- Cheaper food
- Food resistant to pests
- Ability to make edible pharmaceuticals
Cons:
- Unintended harm to organisms (like organisms that transfer pollen)
- Gene transfer to non-target species
- Deadly food allergies
- Unknown effects on human health.
If nothing else, we the consumer should be given a choice to be aware of what kind of products we are purchasing. One site I found that does just that is Non GMO Project.
Because of my own views of living and eating in a way more akin to our ancestors, I avoid anything modified or processed.
About the Author:
Sam Y. is a Personal Trainer, Coach, Performane Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Pilates and Yoga instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Friday, January 20, 2012
Training Miss California Contestant Jona Xiao
The thing that was best about working with Jona was, it was so easy! She did everything I asked, never whined, showed up, and trained like a mad woman! I thought being a beauty pageant contestant, she would be hard to work with and a bit of a diva. No way. I don't think she missed even one day of training. I told her what to do, and she just did it. If everyone trained like her, well my job would be easier, and they would get this kind of result. She was all business!
Jona has a bright future ahead of her.
Read about her experiences in her own words here:
When I was selected as an official representative for the Miss California USA pageant (My title was Miss Melrose 2012), I furiously looked around for THE best personal trainer so I could confidently wear a bikini for the millions of viewers that would be watching. I am so fortunate to have found Sam Y, as I achieved this goal, and so much more.
Knowledge. Inspiration. Unparalleled trainer of both the body and mind. And I've worked with several personal trainers, most of whom use a one size fits all approach. When I would inquire about kettlebells, tabatas, greasing the groove, or other exercise programs, most of the trainers I interviewed would either give me blank stares or mumble that they weren't as familiar with these fitness concepts. Sam's immense fitness and nutrition knowledge is so expansive that it feels like he can field any array of questions pertaining to these subjects to a degree that instills so much confidence in him as a trainer and the regiment he puts you on. He answers the WHY that gave me confidence in what I was doing.
In a mere 7 weeks of training with Sam, not only did I transform my body, but also my level of fitness in the areas of cardiovascular endurance and muscular strength and power. When I first started with Sam, I would feel slightly tired jogging up a flight of stairs. About a month into our training, I did a late night jog at Griffith Park with a former marathon runner, and barely felt tired during the uphill portion of the run. I was shocked to find out I had been jogging over a mile uphill to start out. Sam and I hadn't even been doing any treadmill or running work at that point, but it was the eclectic power, strength, and muscular endurance exercises that helped me get from "feeble to fit" (one of Sam's goals for clients).
I love Sam's take on building strength through MOVING weight rather than LIFTING weight, which is much better for the body, and you see incredible results. When we first started training, I would complain that my body wasn't "feeling" certain exercises as much as other exercises. I think we often are under the false pretense that an exercise is only effective if we are in severe physical discomfort. Not so. I built strength and endurance without feeling like I was about to pass out or my muscles were going to give out every second. Makes the sessions much more enjoyable as well.
I had never actually looked FORWARD to going to the gym or working out with a trainer prior to Sam. Nothing ever felt stale because we did a variety of workouts, ranging from kickboxing, to kettlebells, to weighted Indian bats, floor exercises, endurance drill competitions between clients, and much much more! He was very available via phone and email, proactively checking on my progress, both physically and mentally.
At the very least, do the personal assessment with Sam. His keen eye for detecting bad form and habits will provide you new information about your body and the way you use it. If certain habits aren't corrected (if you aren't aware of them, how can you begin to change them?), they could lead to very debilitating injuries in the near or distance future..." Read more.
Here's a testimonial she shot at the contest:
About the Author:
Sam Y. is a Personal Trainer, Coach, Performane Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
What's Most Important
I had a client come in. Wanted to get fit, and also use my coaching to help her with her anxiety. She's tried everything. She performs classical music and the amount of stress and pressure of performing and auditioning and competing at a high level were wearing on her and she felt something physical would help her fight this, along with building confidence, and work out some stress.
She told me she felt she needed a hardcore teacher. A bad ass who was in her face screaming. That's what she needed. Tough love. I asked her why she felt this way? She said her teachers tell her that's what she needs, that's already what she's used to, and its the only way to get good performances out of her. I asked her who told her that? Her teachers. I saw where all this anxiety was now coming from. I told her that's not the type of coach I was, and that's not what she needed.
I handed her a stick. I told her to hold on to it. Then I tried to rip it out of her hand aggressively. Every time I did, she braced and clenched. Even when I pretended to grab it, and feinted, she still clenched. When I came at her slowly, more politely, more respectfully, she relaxed and allowed me to move her around with the stick. I told her when people come at her this hard way, that's her natural reaction. Freeze, clench, stress, and react also aggressively. When I came at her respectfully and controlled, she allowed me to move her, we created a mutual bond of trust. I told her then that people will come at her in life this way, but she is also coming at herself this way as well, she is coming at herself without respect, impolitely, aggressively. She needed to be easier on herself.
I asked her what's the most important thing she needs to learn from this? What's the first thing she needs to learn? What does she need to get out of today?
She gave me varied answers. From relaxation and breathing, to learning how to exercise on her own, to maybe some martial arts moves as well. She thought martial arts seemed like a good form of exercise, that it may help her.
I told her all those things were important, but to me the most important thing is learning how to get up.
I told her to lie on the ground, and asked her if she knew how to get up without having someone kick her in the face? She realized she had no idea. The simplest thing, the thing taken most for granted.
I then demonstrated a way to get up without taking any damage.
I asked if she knew what I just showed her? She said I showed her how to get up.
I said no, I showed you how to rise against duress. Duress of any kind. Physical or mental or situational.
I showed her the same move again, this time holding weight. There was only one way to get up against direct pressure.
Performance training to me is all about being able to get up, rise to the occasion, or keep picking yourself back up, against any stress, pressure, or attack. Whether it be mental, physical, emotional, financial, spiritual.
I told her she would perform as she trained. If I screamed at her, she would just be good at taking orders. And then out there, she would only be good as the orders I gave her. She would be the best example of a cog on a ship. Not the captain of the ship. It's not about taking orders, its about mastering yourself. To master yourself, you need to learn to rise against any adversity.
Get up.
About the Author:
Sam Y. is a Personal Trainer, Coach, Performane Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
What Are The Best Basic Exercises For Beginners
For anyone starting a fitness program or routine, they should consult their doctor first to make sure they are cleared for physical activity.
Your first goal and the goal of any personal trainer or training program should be to keep you safe and injury free. Every other goal is secondary to that primary goal of doing yourself no harm. Make sure you properly warm up prior to activity.
There are 5 basic exercises or lifts or concepts that are important for beginners. They are the squat, the deadlift, the lunge, a pulling exercise, and a pushing exercise. All of these are compound movements. Meaning instead of isolating parts of your body, you are using your body as one whole unit. Which is ultimately the way your body was engineered to work. Isolating body parts is a sports specific way of exercising for the sport of body building. For a beginner or someone just looking for fitness and weight loss, compound movements are recommended.
From the perspective of toning or weight loss, you will recruit more muscles doing compound exercises as well as increase your metabolic rate (burning calories as some people call it). Think about it in the instance of cardio, would you get more benefit from running up a hill, or standing in place and swinging your arms in a circle? One uses your whole body, one just uses your arms (specifically your shoulders). So then with that same thought, would you gain more benefit sitting down and doing some bicep curls, or holding weights and doing a squat?
1. Out of the 5 exercises I have mentioned, the squat is the most important. The idea is simple, we are mimicking something we do every day. The most important act, one of our first acts. The attempt to lift ourselves off of the ground, sitting and standing. Something we are designed to do. You look at a lot of cultures and they still squat instead of sitting on the ground, and this is completely comfortable for them. It's even how we originally used to go to the bathroom. You look at modern day people, and when they sit or stand up from a chair, they no longer squat. They basically fall down into the chair, and fall forward out of the chair. We need to bring the squat back. If we want to look like our fit ancestors, we have to train like they did. So what's more basic than something we've been doing since we've been around? There are many variations, from behind the back squat, front squat, dumbbell squat, goblet squat, kettlebell squat, overhead squat but for a beginner I recommend the body weight squat. I won't allow any of my clients to have weights until they have mastered the body weight squat.
2. The next exercise is the deadlift. The act of picking something up from the ground. It's roots? We had to hunt and gather right? We picked things off the ground, or hunted things that ran on the ground. Or we needed to pick up tools or pick things up to create tools. Its part of the foundational movements that make us human. It's all about hinging at the hips. With all the back problems people suffer from now, we have lost this ability and we need to bring it back. You look at how bad people's postures are, how rounded their backs get. They don't hinge at the hips, in fact they start bending from the middle of their back. We were born with a S-curved spine for a reason and if you round it out while bending over, under load or constant repetition, something will pull or snap! People because of this will tell you to avoid the deadlift. Well you will deadlift regardless. I guarantee it. While tying your shoes, picking up something off the ground, picking up your child, etc. Would you rather do it without any thought and poor technique? Or correct it and do it under a controlled environment so you become conditioned to a movement you do already? Make sure you master the idea of the hip hinge while maintaining a neutral spine. Look at yourself in the mirror. I use a stick with my clients, they hold it behind their back. One hand behind their head, one hand behind their low back. Throughout the whole movement they have to maintain three points of contact with the stick, at the head, the upper back and the low back.
3. The lunge is next. What else do we do all the time? We walk, we move, we stagger our legs. This is conditioning us to stay balanced and strong in a staggered stance. In all sports, martial arts, dancing, or basically 99% of the time you are up right, you will have one leg in front of the other. It's a safe way to work our balance without all the difficulty of exercises that require us to stand on one foot. But once you get good at the squat and the lunge, single leg exercises would be your next progression/evolution.
4. The pulling exercises. In our past, when we worked, we worked. We were constant pulling things. Pulling ourselves up, pulling carts, pulling ropes, pulling weeds, etc. We are so rounded because we constantly shrug forward, even our shoes make us lean forward. This has become a problem. Pull yourself together! Pull! Correct and align your posture. Whether its the row, a pull up, a pull down, a cable pull, etc. Just pull.
5. The pushing exercises. So what do I mean by that? It's any exercise where you push something away from you. Think about it, what do you do most of the day? You reach for things in front of you like keyboards and cellphones, you push doors open, your shelve something, you lift yourself out of bed, etc. So a pushing exercise can be anything from a push up, bench press, or my favorites, any overhead presses. Pick something up and lift it over your head. Bring that range of movement back and unfreeze your shoulders. We hardly ever lift our arms above our heads anymore as an adult. We stopped doing that once we stopped raising our hands in school. And even in school your arms got burned out raising them so you had to try to hold it up with your other arm or set it on top of your books. Besides the back where do people have the most problems? Shoulder and neck. We have nearly the same design as apes and monkeys. They have no problems raising their arms over their heads, they cling and climb trees all day, and are much stronger than us. Do they have our shoulder and neck issues? No. We were born to move our arms about. They are in a socket after all, designed for full range of motion.
I've given you a common sense explanation of why these exercises and routines are important. There are still many of you who are all about the weight loss and will think, well cardio will help me lose more weight. Wrong. If you think about it and go down that train of logic, it is absurd. What burns fat? Does fat burn fat? No. Muscles burn fat! Does cardio build muscles? No. What builds muscles? These compound exercises build muscles. What burns fat? Muscles. What do I do if I want to burn fat? You need to build muscle.
These are universal concepts really and there are many variations of all of these exercises. Some things that are general rules, maintain a neutral spine throughout each of these movements. Maintain most of your weight on your heels (except on the lunge where one of your feet will be on the ball of the foot), if because of your heels you can't feel where the weight is on your sole, wear less bulky shoes. Squeeze your glute and engage your core. Breath in and out during effort. Constantly breath, breath like a predator. How do they breath? Deep. Don't breath like prey and get winded and eaten up by these routines. Make sure your knees track your feet. With the squat, deadlift, and lunge: instead of just coming up, think about pushing the ground away.
For examples you can find plenty of demonstrations online but better yet because these exercises take time to master, seek out a professional. No not your buddy or your dad who thinks they know a thing or two. A personal trainer, maybe a personal training class or fitness class. They may be walking around your gym with nothing to do, ask them a question. These moves are simple but you don't treat them with respect and you will get hurt. So get guidance.
About the Author:
Sam Y. is a Personal Trainer, Coach, Performane Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Faceboo
Your first goal and the goal of any personal trainer or training program should be to keep you safe and injury free. Every other goal is secondary to that primary goal of doing yourself no harm. Make sure you properly warm up prior to activity.
There are 5 basic exercises or lifts or concepts that are important for beginners. They are the squat, the deadlift, the lunge, a pulling exercise, and a pushing exercise. All of these are compound movements. Meaning instead of isolating parts of your body, you are using your body as one whole unit. Which is ultimately the way your body was engineered to work. Isolating body parts is a sports specific way of exercising for the sport of body building. For a beginner or someone just looking for fitness and weight loss, compound movements are recommended.
From the perspective of toning or weight loss, you will recruit more muscles doing compound exercises as well as increase your metabolic rate (burning calories as some people call it). Think about it in the instance of cardio, would you get more benefit from running up a hill, or standing in place and swinging your arms in a circle? One uses your whole body, one just uses your arms (specifically your shoulders). So then with that same thought, would you gain more benefit sitting down and doing some bicep curls, or holding weights and doing a squat?
1. Out of the 5 exercises I have mentioned, the squat is the most important. The idea is simple, we are mimicking something we do every day. The most important act, one of our first acts. The attempt to lift ourselves off of the ground, sitting and standing. Something we are designed to do. You look at a lot of cultures and they still squat instead of sitting on the ground, and this is completely comfortable for them. It's even how we originally used to go to the bathroom. You look at modern day people, and when they sit or stand up from a chair, they no longer squat. They basically fall down into the chair, and fall forward out of the chair. We need to bring the squat back. If we want to look like our fit ancestors, we have to train like they did. So what's more basic than something we've been doing since we've been around? There are many variations, from behind the back squat, front squat, dumbbell squat, goblet squat, kettlebell squat, overhead squat but for a beginner I recommend the body weight squat. I won't allow any of my clients to have weights until they have mastered the body weight squat.
2. The next exercise is the deadlift. The act of picking something up from the ground. It's roots? We had to hunt and gather right? We picked things off the ground, or hunted things that ran on the ground. Or we needed to pick up tools or pick things up to create tools. Its part of the foundational movements that make us human. It's all about hinging at the hips. With all the back problems people suffer from now, we have lost this ability and we need to bring it back. You look at how bad people's postures are, how rounded their backs get. They don't hinge at the hips, in fact they start bending from the middle of their back. We were born with a S-curved spine for a reason and if you round it out while bending over, under load or constant repetition, something will pull or snap! People because of this will tell you to avoid the deadlift. Well you will deadlift regardless. I guarantee it. While tying your shoes, picking up something off the ground, picking up your child, etc. Would you rather do it without any thought and poor technique? Or correct it and do it under a controlled environment so you become conditioned to a movement you do already? Make sure you master the idea of the hip hinge while maintaining a neutral spine. Look at yourself in the mirror. I use a stick with my clients, they hold it behind their back. One hand behind their head, one hand behind their low back. Throughout the whole movement they have to maintain three points of contact with the stick, at the head, the upper back and the low back.
3. The lunge is next. What else do we do all the time? We walk, we move, we stagger our legs. This is conditioning us to stay balanced and strong in a staggered stance. In all sports, martial arts, dancing, or basically 99% of the time you are up right, you will have one leg in front of the other. It's a safe way to work our balance without all the difficulty of exercises that require us to stand on one foot. But once you get good at the squat and the lunge, single leg exercises would be your next progression/evolution.
4. The pulling exercises. In our past, when we worked, we worked. We were constant pulling things. Pulling ourselves up, pulling carts, pulling ropes, pulling weeds, etc. We are so rounded because we constantly shrug forward, even our shoes make us lean forward. This has become a problem. Pull yourself together! Pull! Correct and align your posture. Whether its the row, a pull up, a pull down, a cable pull, etc. Just pull.
5. The pushing exercises. So what do I mean by that? It's any exercise where you push something away from you. Think about it, what do you do most of the day? You reach for things in front of you like keyboards and cellphones, you push doors open, your shelve something, you lift yourself out of bed, etc. So a pushing exercise can be anything from a push up, bench press, or my favorites, any overhead presses. Pick something up and lift it over your head. Bring that range of movement back and unfreeze your shoulders. We hardly ever lift our arms above our heads anymore as an adult. We stopped doing that once we stopped raising our hands in school. And even in school your arms got burned out raising them so you had to try to hold it up with your other arm or set it on top of your books. Besides the back where do people have the most problems? Shoulder and neck. We have nearly the same design as apes and monkeys. They have no problems raising their arms over their heads, they cling and climb trees all day, and are much stronger than us. Do they have our shoulder and neck issues? No. We were born to move our arms about. They are in a socket after all, designed for full range of motion.
I've given you a common sense explanation of why these exercises and routines are important. There are still many of you who are all about the weight loss and will think, well cardio will help me lose more weight. Wrong. If you think about it and go down that train of logic, it is absurd. What burns fat? Does fat burn fat? No. Muscles burn fat! Does cardio build muscles? No. What builds muscles? These compound exercises build muscles. What burns fat? Muscles. What do I do if I want to burn fat? You need to build muscle.
These are universal concepts really and there are many variations of all of these exercises. Some things that are general rules, maintain a neutral spine throughout each of these movements. Maintain most of your weight on your heels (except on the lunge where one of your feet will be on the ball of the foot), if because of your heels you can't feel where the weight is on your sole, wear less bulky shoes. Squeeze your glute and engage your core. Breath in and out during effort. Constantly breath, breath like a predator. How do they breath? Deep. Don't breath like prey and get winded and eaten up by these routines. Make sure your knees track your feet. With the squat, deadlift, and lunge: instead of just coming up, think about pushing the ground away.
For examples you can find plenty of demonstrations online but better yet because these exercises take time to master, seek out a professional. No not your buddy or your dad who thinks they know a thing or two. A personal trainer, maybe a personal training class or fitness class. They may be walking around your gym with nothing to do, ask them a question. These moves are simple but you don't treat them with respect and you will get hurt. So get guidance.
About the Author:
Sam Y. is a Personal Trainer, Coach, Performane Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Faceboo
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