Besides working with our personal training and fitness bootcamp clients, I often work with people who need help with injury rehab / injury prevention. Today I just had a consultation with a competitive floorball and soccer player complaining of “unexplained” back pain. This is quite a common type of back pain that seems to come and go. It isn’t the kind caused by a bulging disk that you can get from lifting a weight improperly, or from twisting yourself into an un-natural position.

When visiting most back health people, they would focus on – no surprise – the back. Adjustments, massage, or even acupuncture, usually focus on the site of the injury.

However, because this client is extremely active in many sports this means a few things…

• He has to train alot to get good
• To get good at a particular skill e.g. kicking a soccer ball, you need to do thousands of repetitions of that skill
• All sports have “overuse” patterns – the movement most done in that sport
• All overuse patterns lead to some parts being tight/short and some parts being long
• The uneven length and tightness of the various muscles leads to them pulling on the connective tissue (called fascia) unevenly, twisting the body gradually over time, leading to poor function and likely, pain.

I experienced this myself because I played six years of competitive softball, and I must have swung the bat thousands of times in one direction and nearly zero times in the other. I also used one hand to throw with that same direction of twisting. That is why one side of my body is tighter than the other and it has taken alot of massage and stretching to get things back to somewhere near normal.

So… for this client, we assessed his range of motion all over his body and found out where he was out of balance. We used acupressure and stretching techniques to help balance him out, and within 10 mins, he was pain free. I also taught him how to do these stretches at home to keep his new found range of motion.

These methods are by no means “magical” although the fast results may appear to be! But I do know that there are many people who can benefit from a personalized stretching program. That is why I have managed to get my Australian colleague and stretching expert Keith to come to Singapore to give a stretching seminar. 3 hours of pure usable knowledge that will help you customize a stretching program to keep you pain free and flexible forever!

Check it out here, its a once in a lifetime opportunity:)

BTW thats Keith in action in the picture.

One of my fellow coaches from Texas, Luke Leaman pointed me to this article at consumerreports.org. While I don’t agree full with all the protein recommendations (I see better results with slightly higher protein content in food and less starches for most personal training fat loss or fitness bootcamp clients), this is a non-profit, unbiased lab test of some common protein brands.

Shocking levels of heavy metal toxicity and other toxins.

That is why I started a new website to sell only the best supplements in Singapore. I call it www.singaporesupplementstore.com. Check it out. As an extra service, my staff and I give customer support and QnA help to those who buy from this site through my distributor links.

Saving money is good. But not at the expense of your health. And with supplements, like many other things, cheaper is NOT better!

As people who are interested in maximizing our health and life, we have to beware of what I call the “online attitude”. That attitude is that we can get whatever we want for free. Download free music, movies and books. Take whatever you like, it is easy to get whatever  you want.

Besides the legal side of things…

The “easy way out” attitude carries over into our training and our buying decisions. Cereal for breakfast instead of high quality protein – after all, the ads say it’s good for you. But in reality, the cereal box is more nutritious that the cereal

Just do a bit of “easy” brisk walking and that should get you the awesome physique you desire, when in reality you will look exactly the same and likely fatter 3, 6, 12, 24 months from now if that is all you do.

Just choose the cheapest possible supplement instead of looking for the best quality after all, supplement companies never try to skimp on ingredients or fool customers with deceptive advertising. In reality the supplement industry is one of the most unregulated and scammish in the world.

Recently on an online forum, I was “accused” of making a profit of unsuspecting buyers of supplements. “How can you charge the prices that you do, you are making a cheap profit” was the claim. This is where, unfortunately the freedom of speech of the internet makes talking without proper consideration the norm. This poor soul forgets to take into account shipping, taxes, holding stock and currency conversion rates.

In fact, unless a client orders a big quantity, buying from me is actually cheaper than getting supplements of this quality directly from the supplier! And he forgets the service and support that is provided to help clients choose and buy the correct nutrients and supplements in the correct amounts… the internet certainly has its ups and downs!

But in general the “easiest and cheapest” mentality rules. But don’t let it rule you. Choose the nutrition, supplements, personal training, fitness services, exercise routine that gets you results, not wasted time and effort!

There is always the question asked ask by people who know that I own a personal training gym and fitness center. “I can’t make it to your gym, what should I do at home?” – Should I buy a TRX suspension trainer like I see at all the outdoor fitness bootcamps, how about kettlebells, how about dumbbells…?

Well firstly this question is only valid if you stay really far away because having a proper gym is going to get you better results full stop.

But lets say you are posted to a 3rd world country to help preserve endangered species… and assuming you have a limited budget, here is what I would buy for a home gym in order of importance.

1. A pair of adjustable dumbbells. Preferably fat grip dumbbells as shown in this post.

2. An adjustable bench.

3. A training program from a good fitness coach – with a pair of dumbbells and a bench, a good coach can get you decent results!

4. A chin-up bar with multiple “grips”

If you have limited space or budget, I don’t recommend a TRX suspension trainer because you will outgrow it within a few weeks. You will get too strong if you are trained correctly. I also don’t recommend kettlebells because kettlebells are not as versatile as dumbbells and in fact KB’s were replaced by dumbbells long time ago but are making a comeback as an interesting alternative.

Feel free to add whatever equipment you like. TRX, gymnastic rings, kettlebells, etc once you have got the basics in place. Then its time to add the rest. But remember that in training gear, it is important to keep the main thing, the main thing and not get caught up in marketing hype.

One of the keys to preventing shin splints is the strength of your anterior tibialis muscle that pulls your foot upwards towards your knee. This is called dorsiflexion and this muscle is important in absorbing shock during running and jumping. When it is strong, and free of tension problems (fixable with soft tissue massage) chances of shin splints are very low. That’s why at our personal training gym, where athletes of all kinds train, we need the machine shown below. It’s the only way to properly train the tibialis anterior. No shin splints for any of our personal training clients or athletes!

In addition to training of the tibialis anterior it is important for the athlete to build up his ability to tolerate lots of jumps and sprints. World class track athletes do up to 1000+ jumps per week in training!

Ensuring Fatness, Diabetes And Cancer

I just finished a phone consult with one of the finest natural medicine and detox specialists in the world. Dr Bob Rakowski. I wanted to know more about natural solutions to cancer because recently I have several family members/friends who have it. All kinds – breast, colon, liver, pancreas etc. From our 30min consultation, I learned a few things…

Cancer LOVES sugar – in fact it loves it 15x more than any other nutrient. And what were my friends/relatives on? “Ensure” Whats that – it’s 60% SUGAR!! It’s mad that this food is recommended to help give the cancer patient energy when all it does is feed cancer cells the nutrient it loves most!

Digestive tract health is so important, and the nutrient that helps digestive tract health (Glutamine) also helps fix cancer via 7 pathways – one of the most important is that, being an amino acid, it maintains muscle mass which is good for immunity.

Pancreatic enzymes are GOOD! They break down the protein coating of cancer cells and KILL THEM! Yay!

Dr Bob also gave specific supplement protocols for my “cancer clients” and I look forward to helping them get well ASAP. No more chemo, no more radiation, no more illogical food choices.

But better still, PREVENT cancer by PERUSING health! That’s what we do with our weight loss, personal training and fitness boot camp programs where we cover health, nutrition, supplementation for your genetics and body type, as well as exercise:)

Once You See This - It's Probably Not Good For You

Almost everybody knows that sugar is bad for you. And my personal training and fitness boot camp clients certainly know this because we try our best to inform our clients about the negative effects of sugar consumption for their health. But the processed food manufacturers know that customers are becoming aware of this too! Customers are more informed and are getting better at reading food labels.

Here is one trick that you should be aware of…

Manufacturers sometimes “split up” the sugars among the ingredients. It is quite well known that the ingredient with the highest amount has to be listed first, so a food with sugar listed first may be very unpopular. But if a manufacturer seperates sugar into fructose, dextrose, maltodextrin, high fructose corn syrup, different sugar alcohols (malitol, xylitol etc) it becomes easier to hide and none of these individual ingredients ends up high on the list. But add them up and you have  sugar-fest that will make you tubby real quick so read labels carefully.

Even more so… don’t even buy many foods that have labels to be read! I mean a vegetable or piece of meat or a fruit has NO LABEL! These tend to be the best foods for you.

Here are a few questions that I was asked by our personal training and Singapore boot camp fitness clients last week. I hope these answers help you with your health, fitness, weight loss and fat loss goals too.

• What seafoods are ok and not…for example I love prawns and crabs ..are they ok as meal – yes they are fine as long as you don’t have an allergy to them. They are actually healthy and very nutritious! (and won’t make you fat!

• For the snack, can i replace egg with cheese? what other alternatives i have (Yoghurt, etc?) – I would stick with eggs over cheese although cheese is not a bad choice either. Eggs just have a higher amount of protein. I am not a big fan of yogurt because it tends to be highly processed and high in sugar.

• If i miss or cheat on my diet like last night. do i make it up the next day by taking less? – If you end up eating a bad meal, RELAX:) guilt probably raises stress hormones and makes you even fatter! Just get back to healthy food ASAP. That is the main thing. The wrong responses are to skip meals, or to continue eating bad stuff since “I already messed up”.

• For the coffee before training. Do I take it for big training (like on wed) or do i take it even if I do my intervals trainings/swims – Coffee is fine before intervals.

• Is coffee with low fat milk bad? I have a habit of taking it quite often..should i stop? I also use Equal instead of sugar.. is that acceptable? – I would go with heavy cream and cinnamon which slow down the caffine release and increase fat burning. I am not for artificial sweeteners unless absolutely necessary.

• My fishoil at home is 1200mg per capsule. How many do I take..taking 4 per meal doesn’t sound right – It is right, depending on your current level of body fat. The fatter you are, the more healthy fats you need to take to increase your insulin sensitivity (and a bunch of other good reasons too!)

Speed Training - What You do Near Tournament Time

Many of the clients at the Genesis Performance Center play a sport of some kind. Because many of these clients are highly motivated types of people, they often play these sports competitively and want to do as well as possible in tournaments. The level of the tournament can range from school leagues to professional (i.e they do it for a living).

Part of the personal training, or athletic training /strength and conditioning program is to get them to peak for the day of competition.Every sport is different, every athlete is different and if you want the program customized for you, then you need to sign up! But there are some principles that hold true for almost any sport.

1. End your training with a “strength and power” phase of training. Some training programs are for growing muscles, some are for building endurance, but the program just before your competition should be one that emphasizes speed, strength and power.

2. Don’t do your conditioning workouts too much, and don’t do them too early. You only need a few weeks to condition yourself for endurance/fitness. Don’t waste your recovery ability on that stuff far from the tournament. And when you condition – ONLY use stuff that will be used in your sport. Long distance running is useless unless you are a long distance runner.

3. Finally, taper correctly for goodness sake. 2 weeks of no training before a competition is not a taper. It’s a disaster. In most cases, drop training 20-80% in the week approaching the competition depending on how you feel. Tapering is an incredibly complex topic and needs to be customized.

Most importantly DON’T PANIC. If you have done too little and there is only a week to go before tournament, its too late! You cannot “cram” for physical performance. Do your best but learn from your mistakes.

But, more common, is that people do TOO MUCH before competition and enter feeling drained. The feeling you want is “I can’t wait to compete” when the game begins.

Things like this can make the difference between winning and losing (and for sure you don’t want to be off yoru game when your opponent is peaking). That is what our athletes training program is for.

It’s no point knowing. Knowledge is useless till it is applied. And that is where the art of coaching meets the science of training.

There are 4 general types of clients that we see, either as kids, children, youth or adults. And each type requires a slightly different coaching style to get the best possible response from them.

Type 1: Low Motivation + Low Skill
These clients may be shy, quiet, perhaps lacking confidence and ability (probably interrelated). Excitable coaching methods will probably not work with this kind of person. We need to be more quiet, personal and careful so that this person doesn’t feel targeted by our questions or coaching.

While these clients may take more patience to work with, and may not be the most “gifted”, there is great satisfaction is helping them achieve things they might have thought impossible for themselves. I believe the important coaching style for these clients is to “enable” so that they are encouraged that they can do it!

Type 2: Low Motivation + High Skill
These clients are technically or physically gifted, they are just good at all the things we ask of them. Things just come naturally for them. Sometimes they may not focus enough, or pay enough attention. Perhaps they and kids who were forced to come by their parents, perhaps they are just no longer interested in the current exercise.

The problem for many of these children and kids is that things are not hard enough! the coaching style I like to use is “inspire” or “challenge” for these kids.

Type 3 is High Motivation + Low skill
These kinds of clients are a great joy to work with. They have great attitudes, want to get better and try their best. They just need extra guidance on technical skills. We need to be energetic and eager as coaches to help them become technically proficient and boost their skill level. The key word for the coaching of these clients is “Guide”.

Type 4 is High Motivation + High skill
Of course this is the aim of all our programs, to get our clients, both children and adults, into this “high motivation + high skill” category. From a person lacking confidence and motivation, to one that is both intrinsically motivated, and high in skill.

One thing I try to be careful about is to overly shelter these clients. Instead, high motivation high skill clients need to be give more ownership, more discussion, more feedback, and more “empowerment” for their own development. That is not lazy coaching, that is teaching a man to fish!

There we have it, part of my learning as a (still learning) coach and personal trainer/fitness/sports performance professional. This is what works, and this is how we treat our different clients.

For the best coaching in sports performance programs or fat loss personal training programs contact us by filling in a consultation form at my website www.coachjon.com.