History
The history of sleep will really open your eyes to new concepts. To know that some of the most memorable people in history had irregular sleep patterns will make you question whether 8 hours is really the path to success. From Einstein to Pavlov. From Hitler to Churchill - the people we know most throughout history have secrets in the bedroom and we’ll expose them.
REM
Proper REM sleep will help replenish your muscles. Knowing how to control your sleep and change from different stages will aid you in recovering quicker than anyone else. Teach this to an athlete, and it could be the difference between setting a world record or not.
Posture
A pillow between the knees, 2 pillows under your arms, and a pillow that aligns your kneck straight is ideal. Almost all back problems can be fixed in your sleep by aligning your posture differently. We’ll also teach you how to recognize when someone is sleeping on their stomach, side, or back. A great tool when explaining situations to clients.
Circadian Rhythms
Did you know that different chemicals are released depending on what time of the day it is? Or if it is light or dark? You can utilize this information to make your body perform at its highest level. It will also prevent sickness, insomnia, and more.
Massage
Massage helps release toxins out of the muscles and puts them back into the blood stream. Then if you drink enough fluids it will wash these toxins out. If our body is full of rubber bands, then massaging those bands will help get the knots out. You willl learn pressure point massage to help relieve these knots in your clients.
Yoga
This is an new form of an ancient art. Many don’t understand why we do yoga, but we personally feel its overall focus should be on breathing, posture, and mental relaxation. We briefly go over these, but feel that you should be informed of the benefits of it since it is so popular in the health community.
Posture
Through sword fighting, yoga, and dancing, we teach what posture is. On another level, we teach how to control your TVA and take better control of your center. We also will teach about how to sleep with the correct posture since we spend up to 30% of our life in bed!
Breathing
By practicing the correct breathing patterns, all sports will be easier. You will be able to better control how much endurance you have and how much power is exerted in each effort. This will help bring your heart rate down - a crucial step in lowering stress in your life.
Meditation
We teach a variety of meditation techniques already mentioned: sword fighting, yoga, breathing. We will also speak about visualization techniques to achieve goals. Visualization techniques is yet another common practice by professional athletes completely laughed upon by the amateur.
Stretching
Same as above
Supplements
Same as above
Retail fitness is a concept overlooked by many. In addition to working out and eating right, you should also reward yourself. Seriously, how many people in great shape do you see wearing ratty clothes, have a mullet, and their teeth are falling out. Not too many, right? There is science behind this and we will teach you why.
Hair
You never knew you were getting in better shape by going to the stylist, eh? Well, we’re here to tell you differently. Also, what you put in your hair effects its health. If your hair is healthy, you will have more confidence and treat yourself with more respect. This will stem into other areas of your success. Knowing this and knowing how to utilize this concept with clients is crucial into taking them past the client stage and turning them into a peer.
Clothing
Again, nobody in great shape wants to hide their body. When a client goes from 300lbs to 200lbs, they often have no clue how they should dress. They make the mistake of buying the same box-like clothes they have for years. We actually take our clients to the department store to pick up some new threads. No reason to have them wait until they are successful either. This will also boost their confidence and give them insight on secrets of the fashion industry.
Skin
We believe the best way to make a flower blossom is to water its roots. This means proper nutrition will make your skin radiate. Though, we also believe there is other skin care such as proper sunlight, hydration, supplements, and cremes that can aid in radiating your skin.
Equipment
When you’re a runner, the right pair of shoes makes all the difference. A boxer? The right gloves, shoes, and oil used really helps. A football player? The right padding. Here, we will teach you the right equipment to use for boxing, sword fighting, running, kettlebells, and a few other sports. We will also teach when to introduce a client buy their own equipment and what they should focus on. If you ever watch a marathon, you will see the professionals ALWAYS have a beanie, gloves, a thin shirt, shorts, and really thin shoes. The amateurs never mimic this, though. Isn’t that baffling? If you want to be the best, use what the best uses!
Network
Last in retail fitness is your social network. If you continue to hang out with people who see the old you, you will become the old you. We help our clients find new circles of influence whether it be helping them get a promotion, introducing them to a soccer league in town, or recommend they leave the beer guzzling Tuesday nights with the boys to take up a dance class without any alcohol.
Exchanges
This is a standardized word in the world of dietitians and nutritionists which represents portions. 1/2 a banana for example is 1 exchange of Carbohydrates. 3oz of chicken is 3 exchanges of Chicken. We go over in detail how to count exchanges and utilize this idea to help your clients get a precise understanding of how much you prefer them to eat at any one time.
Meal Planning
With 80% of all success coming from meal planning, we can’t emphasize it enough. The idea is simple - eat small, well-rounded meals 6x a day. Yet, we have hundreds of creative ways of presenting this idea to a client and want you to do anything in your power to make that happen! Matt’s concept of The Fire Within is just one example of how to explain that small frequent meals are best. We have a program that helps you pick meals for your client or you are welcome to give it to your client to try on their own.
Biological Value
Often unknown to anyone outside of the bodybuilding world, BV or Biological Value is a crucial part of understanding how proteins effect our body. Many vegetarians are unaware of this concept and continually look to grains for their amino acids. We teach how to get the most BV in your diet and how to teach your clients the importance of this. This includes learning about the best protein supplements as well such as whey and casein.
Grocery Shopping
We believe the grocery store is the first place to start making progress. Whatever you put in the house can help you discipline what you pick up. If you have access to the right types of food, you will make better choices. There are also color codings on food, certain words to be aware of, and other information the food industry doesn’t want you to know about. We train our clients with this information so they won’t be fooled when they walk into a Red & Yellow fast food joint. They will know, for example, those colors have been chosen on purpose to stimulate their hunger. You will also learn about properly reading nutrition labels. Instead of reading how much sugar is in a meal and making sure it is fat free, we will teach you why you should make sure there are 5g of fat on the package and that reading the amount of protein is pointless.
Supplements
From omega 3 to Lifepak Nano, we cover the bases on all supplements we recommend and why. We have helped people lose a lot of body fat naturally and don’t see any reason for 99% of all supplements on the market. However, there are a few worth noting and you should know about them. A few samples are Silver, Omega 3, Whey Protein, Nutrilife, NOW, Jarrod, and many more.
Cooking & Recipes
So after you go to the grocery store, you’re going to need to know how to use the ingredients you just purchased. This can be as simple as using a slow cooker or combining some cottage cheese with blueberries. We like to teach easy recipes that don’t make you feel like you’re on a diet. Knowing how to cook them is half the battle at times. Brandi’s book, How to Cheat covers desserts as well that fit into our mealplan. We briefly look at this in the first certification, but feel it is a field you should study on your own in more detail.
HIIT Training
This form of training is superior to all others in that it has higher EPOC which means more calories burned throughout the day. These workouts are fun, invigorating, and usually stimulate the mind in far different ways than merely hopping on the treadmill. We incorporate HIIT into a variety of workouts such as boxing, swimming, running, stairs, kettlebells, and plyometrics, and lifting weights.
Boxing
Having trained thousands, we try to choose workouts that are HIIT in style, but also fun. Boxing fits the bill perfectly. A boxer is unrivaled in their physique, endurance, and SPARQ. You couldn’t ask for more in an athlete and here at MOVFitness we make sure that our clients look like professionals & have fun. This means our trainers must know how to train like professionals while maintaining the fun aspect of the workout. You’ll learn both with us.
Kettlebells
This workout originated in Russia and in the past few decades has moved to the US. It has recently exploded to become a popular cross training method for the gym rat. A few women have jumped on board, but not more your tomboy than your average yoga guru. We’re here to change that with rubber weights and a modified version. We specialize in training kettlebells for dancers. The movement is very similar to the lifts and tricks seen in many acrobat or dance moves. You’ll learn how to choreograph kettlebells to music, pump up a group. and give a hard core workout without jeopardizing the clients’ safety.
Sword Fighting
Not as popular as boxing nor kettlebells, we’re still setting ground with sword fighting. We teach this art in the beautiful outdoors and show how you can train a class of 10 people with no more than $70 invested in yourself & equipment. Also, sword fighting is a great alternative to yoga. It teaches proper breathing, posture, and incorporates quick movements. The sword challenges the body and the mind and there is unlimited potential for learning here - for you & your clients.
Plyometrics
To build a strong foundation, we must teach the body to reach new boundaries. A plyometric action does just that. We teach you how to safely extend the body past its current boundaries to create new ones that will blow your mind. The plyometric movement is a foundation workout used by professional athletes always overlooked by the recreational amateur. Most trainers neglect to teach this to their clients as well. We will teach you the movements and also when it’s appropriate for a client to incorporate plyometrics into their routine and how often.
Running
Believe it or not, there is a lot of technique to running. From knowing how to hold your wrists, using your headweight to get around corners, and properly training your VMO to prevent runners knee. These are just a few of the concepts you’ll learn about to train your clients into athletes. With running as the beginning of MOVFitness, we usually cater our goals around this concept & train clients for races. 6 months after training with us, more often than not you’ll see our clients as top competitors in various forms of running.
Calisthenics
Along with plyometrics, calisthenics is an often overlooked routine used by professionals and neglected by amateurs. Since most of your clients are amaterus, it’s important to encourage them to take up such cross training ideas as calisthenics. Again, we train not only what the movement is, but when & for how long it is appropriate to introduce this idea to a client.
Stretching
There are various forms of stretching. Whether it be static, PNF, active, ballistic, and so forth. We will give you a well-rounded perspective of stretching and what to do and what not to do. Just because it is invented doesn’t mean it is helpful. We believe your muscles are like rubber bands and just as an elastic rubber band has its purpose (think slingshot), so does a stiff band (think a fan belt of a car). We will teach you how much to stretch clients and what type is appropriate for which type of client.
SPARQ
This is rather self explanatory: Speed, Power, Agility, Reaction, Quickness. The best athletes in the world make sure all of their workouts are centered around SPARQ. While this is hard to do, we encourage our clients to do the same and give you enough workouts in your repetoire to give SPARQ workouts off the cuff and mix it up everytime.
Doing massage releases toxins back into the bloodstream. This relieves stress and is great for building the immune system. Getting a massage right after a workout reduces soreness as well.
HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) is essentially cardio performed at such an intense level that your body will spend the rest of the day expending energy to recover from the ass-kicking you gave it. This is commonly referred to as EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption) and means that you consume a great deal more oxygen recovering from the exercise bout than you would have, had you just done a steady-state workout.
How does this apply to you?
This means that you will be burning up to nine times more fat while sitting on the couch later that night than you would have if you had spent an hour on the treadmill at a moderate pace. Obviously, we are talking about intense training. You will need to push yourself out of that comfort zone you have gotten used to and really challenge yourself. If you are willing to do this, however, I can guarantee that you will spend less than half the time you usually do on those machines and get much leaner in the process.
The benefits of HIIT training
HIIT training also has a number of added benefits besides the reduction in training time. First of all, this type of training is far superior to steady-state exercises when it comes to increasing your VO2 max (the maximum amount of oxygen you can uptake during exercise). This means you will be in much better shape when it comes time to play a game of football with the guys. Secondly, when you perform long-duration, moderate-intensity exercise, you can actually put yourself in a catabolic state where you will start losing muscle mass. That’s right; some of that hard-earned muscle will start degrading itself in your quest to get lean. The reason for this is that there are two types of muscle fibers in your body: fast twitch and slow twitch.
Slow twitch fibers are more compatible with endurance training (such as a steady-state one-hour run), whereas fast twitch fibers are more compatible with short, intense bouts of exercise (such as weight lifting or sprinting).
When we train in one of these modes, our muscle tissue has a tendency to take on the appropriate properties. As an illustration, imagine a marathon runner and a sprinter. The sprinter is composed of fast twitch muscles and carries a great deal more muscle mass, whereas the marathoner has a lot of thin, slow twitch muscle fibers and his body tries to become as light as possible so that it is easier to transport across those great distances.
This is going to the extreme to prove a point; however, you can most definitely see how much of a difference the type of training has on your body shape. Check out these HIIT programs and find out how to integrate them into your regular training schedule.
Lastly, HIIT training, when combined with a slightly hypercaloric diet (above maintenance level), can actually be anabolic and help you to add muscle mass without adding very much body fat at all. This means that you can develop the muscle you want without having to bother with the phase of endless treadmill torture.
So now that I’ve convinced you that this is a better way, how do you go about doing it?
The specifics of HIIT training
There are a few different ways you can do HIIT training. You can either do all-out sprints — during which you go above your VO2 max for a very short period of time — coupled with adequate recovery periods, or you can do sprints that are just below your VO2 max for a slightly longer period, with an adequate recovery as well. The first option will really push your body and will elicit the greatest EPOC and VO2 max improvement. The second option will train your body to perform at a very high intensity for a slightly longer period of time while taking less time to recover.
For the first option, warm up at a comfortable intensity for 5 minutes. Then, give your maximum effort for 15 to 30 seconds, followed by a 2-minute recovery. You can walk during the recovery or you can just take it down to a very light jog, depending on your current level of fitness. More than likely, though, you will be going so hard that you will need to walk during the recovery. Perform between 6 and 10 of these intervals, and finish with a cool down.
For the second option, do the same warmup as in the first option, and then sprint at approximately 80% of your maximum intensity for 45 seconds to a 1½ minutes. Follow this with a 1- to 2-minute recovery period. You may find that your recovery periods are shorter since you aren’t running quite as intensely as in the first option. Repeat this sequence for 5 to 8 intervals, followed by a cool down.
Working HIIT into your training
These types of workouts are very intense and should only be done 2 to 3 times a week. A great idea is to perform them on your “off” days from the gym; however, if you must do them on the same day, I strongly recommend doing them at a separate time so you can devote all your energy to each session.
As with your weight training, be sure to take in a post-workout drink (or quickly absorbed meal) to help replenish lost glycogen and repair the muscle tissues.
On a final note, I must enforce that this type of training is not for everyone. Since it is so high in intensity, many people find that they simply cannot work out at this level and end up bypassing their workout altogether. If this happens, then you are much better off performing a more moderately-paced endurance-type cardio workout.
However, try to challenge yourself with a few harder minutes interspersed throughout your workout. This will help you to increase your metabolism (although not as much as with HIIT), as well as your overall fitness level, which may help you to eventually include HIIT training as part of your workout.