The 12 Days of Fitmas! Day 1

Welcome to The 12 Days of Fitmas! Day 1. I have shared today's workout above. In addition to the workout, I wanted to talk about two other things that I think are important for anyone training with me to know. First, I'll talk about finding your motivation. Second, I'll discuss some of the theories behind the workouts I have put together. Enjoy!

Staying Motivated

I get asked a lot, "how do you stay motivated to work out every day?" The truth is, I am not motivated every day. Some days, this gets the best of me and I skip a workout, but most days I am motivated by myself. I am motivated by my "whys". These are the reasons I work out. These are the reason I continually work to better myself. 

 A "why" can, and will, change. You can have more than one reason to continue on a healthy journey, at any certain point in time. Even if your reason changes, or is one of many, that does not make it any the less important. These reasons are what will keep you motivated. You can look at every inspirational blog post, instagram photo, or whatever, but until you find YOUR "why", is when exercise becomes fun and when true growth occurs. This is when you become your own motivation. 

My "whys":

1. To be strong

2. To be a good role model for my family

3. To have the energy to keep up with my son

4. To maintain my health as I age

5. It relieves stress

6. To prove the person who once told me, "It's a waste to exercise after having kids. You'll never get your body back. You're foolish for trying." WRONG!

7. Seeing my hard work pay off

8. My self confidence

9. For those kick-ass progress photos

My Training Philosophy

As part of any exercise program I put together for clients, there is some type of resistance training that focuses on functional movement. These workouts are each structured around one of the 3 planes of movement. 

Planes of Movement

Because we are three demensional, human movement is broken down into planes of movement. I am going to try to explain this as simply as I can. I apologize in advance if it's too technical.

Sagittal plane : Imagine a sheet of glass dividing your body in half, right in the middle of your chest. All sagittal plane movements happen parallel to this line. In other words, these movements move you forward or backwards.

Frontal plane: This plane comes from the side & perfectly divides your body into two halves, your front side, and your back side. Frontal plane movements are side to side.

Transverse plane: Transverse movements allow your body to twist and rotate. 

Functional Movement 

As a personal trainer, I follow the functional movement and resistance training protocol set forth by the American Council on Exercise (ACE). This means, when any client comes to me, they are in one of three phases.  

1. Stability and mobility training: the goal in this phase is to develop stable and balanced joints and muscles throughout the body. 

2. Movement training: building upon phase 1, this phase is meant to develop stable, balanced, and fluid movement patterns. 

3. Load training: again, building upon the the previous two phases, load training adds external weights to the movements to develop muscular strength and control. 

Why does this matter?

I build upon the above ideas, as well as others, when developing any workout plan. I believe that when focusing on functional movement exercises, it is a natural progression to training planes of movement. At the very least, exercise should give you the strength and ability to perform activities of daily living without strain, and I thinking training planes of movement is an efficient way to do that.  Training this way promotes muscular balance, strong movements, and prevents injury. 

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