FASTER Focus — personal training

When you think about human movement and performance there is not very much in life that requires you to use just one muscle group. Even something as simple as standing is using hundreds of muscles and requires a strong core, legs, back and neck. If something as simple as standing requires more than one muscle why would we want to train just one muscle per day? Athletes need to be strong and efficient at using their body as a whole unit to perform specific skills. If an athlete was training one body part per day it would be unlikely that...

Wearable fitness technology (specifically the use of heart rate monitors) is one of the biggest fitness trends in 2017. Tracking your heart rate allows you to have a deeper knowledge of your fitness level. It also allows you to have better monitoring of the intensity at which you are working. Wrist trackers are becoming extremely popular and the technology used in them is getting better as well. A wrist worn heart rate monitor measures your heart rate through the blood flow in the area below the monitor. While this is an okay estimation of heart rate it becomes less accurate...

Many people believe that it is necessary to keep their heart rate high at all times during exercise but this is not true. Keeping your heart rate at the same rate makes you achieve steady-state exercise which we discussed when we talking about burning fat. Steady-state exercise is not the best for increasing cardiovascular performance or for maximizing calorie burning. The heart is a muscle and like the muscles in your body it achieves the best workouts when it is surprised. Keeping the muscles guessing increases muscle gain just like performing exercise are varying heart rates increases cardiovascular endurance. The...

Let’s start this myth busting with a quick break down of stretching types. Static stretches are done by holding one movement through which a muscle is pushed to tension for a certain period of time. Dynamic stretches involve movements that are designed to stretch the muscles as well as increase synovial fluid in the joints. Now we can begin talking about when and why we will do these two types of stretches! Before beginning an exercise session it is very important to properly warm-up. A warm-up allows the muscles to get increased blood flow and the synovial fluid that keeps...

The theory that the best way to lose weight is to spend hours on the treadmill is one that has been challenged many times in the exercise world. Running is a great way to burn calories but it is not the best way to burn body fat. When you run your body reaches a steady-state of exercise in which there is not much variation in heart rate. Running at this level is exactly what you need to perform an endurance run such as a half-marathon or marathon yet it is not ideal for weight-loss. High-Intensity Interval Training, also known as...