Getting a fitness instructor can help take your gym efforts to the next level, but that’s not always a viable option, financially speaking. So how do you take care of your wellbeing without the price tag? Take their advice! We’ve spoken to some of the nation’s finest personal trainers who gave us their insightful tips and strategies for building strength, losing fat, enhancing endurance and maintaining healthy eating habits.
1. Nutritional Basics: According to wellness writer James Demedeiros, ‘Ask almost any personal trainer and they’ll tell you that regardless of your training goals, healthy eating is the backbone. Food is what fuels your body to reach your goals and without proper nutrition through quality foods, you’re likely to stall. As a result, if possible, eat organic foods and, above all else, maintain a balanced diet consisting of fruits, vegetables, complex carbohydrates, complete proteins, and fats including such things as fish oils and flaxseeds.’
2. Prepare Ahead: Micah LaCerte, a personal trainer and fitness competition world champion, explains that it’s best to prepare for your ‘upcoming day by prepping all your food in advance’ as this will ensure you do ‘not eat bad foods or skip meals.’
3. Eat More: ‘Half the people I deal with aren’t losing weight because they don’t eat enough,’ warns personal trainer Mike Duffy. He advises them ‘to eat five times a day, about every three hours to stimulate their metabolism.’ As your activity levels decrease throughout the day, Duffy recommends that you ‘eat less as the day goes on.’
4. Portion Control: Jay Cardiello, a personal trainer to countless celebrities and professional athletes, instructs, ‘Make sure chicken breasts, (and) meats, are no larger than your palm’ and ‘spaghettis, (and) pastas, are no larger than your fists.’ He also recommends using ‘smaller bowls, plates, and cups’ because studies show people ‘serve themselves 20 to 40% more food when they’re using larger plates.’
5. Eat with Purpose: ‘Everything you eat should serve some sort of nutritional purpose in your body, fuel your workouts, and (be) geared towards optimising your body,’ says Dan Trink who possesses 11 training certificates in spite of once being overweight.
6. Muscle-Building Basics: ‘First, increase your caloric and complete protein intake,’ Demedeiros details. ‘Then, when you enter the gym, focus on your form. Perform compound movements and train with weights on average around four times a week. Never underestimate the importance of rest. Remember, muscle tissue grows outside of the gym when you’re giving your body time to relax and recover following your workouts.’
7. Range of Motion: Personal trainer Lee Boyce, an ex-athlete with a background in Kinesiology and Health Sciences, suggests, ‘Aim for the largest ROM you can achieve in your exercises. Your muscles will do more work per rep, and it will result in your breaking down more tissue by the end of the workout.’
8. Up and Down: Duffy tells clients to ‘use a weight that will have them failing on the set between the 30 and 40 second mark because research has shown that it’s the time under tension that causes muscle to grow if you are trying to build more muscle. [If] you’re failing at 20 seconds, you know that weight was too heavy.’
9. Prepare Yourself: Demedeiros warns, ‘When it comes to training for endurance, you’ll need to be hydrated and be sure you’re eating properly because, by its very nature, this form of training is very demanding on your body. You should be doing a good mix of cardio and weight training. And, to increase your aerobic capacity, you should incorporate intense interval training. You’ll likely be sweating buckets and burning calories galore, so be prepared.’