I want to Lift Weights, But I am Afraid of Bulking up…

This is a concern that many of my Female clients have when starting a weight training program.  If you are not one of these Females, more power to you… there are no right or wrong body types or images.  

Somewhere along the line, we have been told that this “bulking up” is an inevitable byproduct of weightlifting.  “People that lift weights, hefty weights, get bulky.”  That is an observation not founded in science.

This type of thinking is a significant deterrent to many females, and unfortunately, this false information prevents many women from participating in weight training.  This urban legend also keeps many strong females from engaging in some of the most productive and beneficial exercises, such as deadlifts, squats, and some pressing variations. 

Everyone wants to feel and move better, but we do not want our bodies to change into unrecognizable, bulky and “manly” figures.  Rest assured, it is possible to enjoy a robust weight training program and not turn into a muscle-bound hulk.

So How do We Weight Train Without Bulking Up?!  Proper Science and Application…

When Smart Strength designs a program, it is designed just for you.  We will talk about your goals and what you want to achieve.  From there, we craft a program to help you reach your desired outcomes.  

Throughout years of schooling and personal training experience, Smart Strength has developed a large toolbox to craft a workout routine to accomplish any goal.  Not only does Smart Strength have many “tools” (exercises and lifts), but it also has many ways to implement those “tools.”  Sets, Reps, tempo, and rest ratio are among other variables that will help the “tools” deliver the best results.  Combine this with our attentive and hands-on coaching; you have a recipe for success.

Any exercise scientist or health professional will tell you that lifting weights provides multiple positive health benefits when appropriately done with gym training.  When prescribed correctly, it can reduce fat mass, increase lean muscle mass, and create a lean, strong look… precisely what some of my female clients are after… 

Let the principles of Science and sound exercise prescription guide you to your desired results.  Not social media scientists, celebrities, or uninformed observers.  I look forward to scheduling an assessment with you and hearing your goals.  

Work Smarter, not Harder

Your Trainer, 

Alex

Find a Great Coach

would you try to build your home without professional fitness instructors or guidance?  How about learning a new language?  Cook a 5-star meal?  Learning how to exercise and train properly is no different.  It is not an inherent skill we are born with.  Find someone who has spent their life learning how to do these things. And someone who can effectively coach you on how to do them. It will speed up the learning curve dramatically, produce better results, and help keep you moving forward while minimizing your risk of injury and setback.

The Systemic Approach of a Great Coach

Another thing a great coach will implement is a systemic way to approach and accomplish your goals.  Our bodies are designed in a certain way.  Our bodies consume, burn, and store energy in a certain way. It responds to different stimulus levels and repairs in specific ways.  These systems are well-researched and guide proper programming and progression in the exercise world.  This is a valuable skill set.  This is only one example of why having a great coach is essential to making a New Year’s resolution a lasting change. Leverage the skills of private fitness coaches in Albion to give yourself the best chance at success! 

The Power of Commitment

Commit- Getting in shape means different things to different people, but we all agree it is hard, no matter your goals.  Realize that it will take a firm commitment to reach your goals.  Strategies to improve your level of commitment include writing down your goals and displaying them where you will view them often (daily or hourly is even better).  Tying your commitment to a financial incentive (this is heavily dependent on the type of person you are/ how much you value money).  Tying your commitment to a health-related outcome (being able to participate in the family hike, having no reservations about the summer beach trip, or pushing back father time are all admirable goals).

Communication

Communicate with your circle & with your fitness pro.  

*Communication With Your Circle is Enormous.

This is your spouse, kids, parents, friends, co-workers, and anyone you see daily.  These people will either make or break your fitness experience.  Even the most dedicated clients only see their coaches for a few hours a week, but the people in your circle influence your behaviour daily!  Communicating with them your goals and reasons for change is very important.  You will need to get these people on board significantly to give yourself the best chance at making those New Year’s resolutions stick!

If you and your spouse are not on the same page about New Year’s resolutions, that’s ok. But please communicate with each other what is acceptable and what isn’t. Your spouse shouldn’t undermine your fitness and diet goals. And trust me, I have seen this happen many times (not pretty!)

Example: If weight loss and health are goals, please get on the same page about when and how often pizza is on the menu! 

*Communication With Your Fitness Pro.

Before you begin your fitness journey, any good fitness pro should ask about your goals.  This starts a dialogue that should continue throughout your time spent together…  It should be revisited and amended occasionally.  These conversations are great tools to remind us why we started this in the first place.  They are often very recharging and refocusing conversations and can be the difference between a client that fizzles out or the rare client that reaches their goals and makes the New Year’s resolution stick!

Surviving the Winter Slump

The most critical workouts will be the ones that come in late January and February, the dog days of winter.  This is when shiny, glamorous New Year’s resolution motivation runs out. And all that is left is old hard work.  This is when your commitment will truly be tested.  This is where about 90% of people fail. And this is the make-or-break season.

Mastering the Winter Challenge

We can combat this with the right mindset, knowing what challenges await us as we dive deeper into the winter abyss.  We need to give ourselves the best chance by creating support networks, having a coach or friend hold us accountable, and prominently displaying visually our goals and why we are doing this!

Pursuing Confidence in Your Fitness Goals

Fitness, weight loss, strength gain, whatever your goals may be, they are admirable and worth working for.  It is truly unique to know you can feel confident in your skin and that nothing is physically holding you back from living the best life possible.  

The journey is long, and the road is full of obstacles, but with these 4 nuggets of insider information, you will have the best chance at making your New Year resolutions stick!

Work Smarter, not harder.

Your Trainer,

Alex

This is a bit of a mystery to everyone in the fitness world. So, let’s kick around some ideas and talk about things we know will change. And try to find a way to save the workouts and community-building we all love.

Navigating the Future of Fitness

The slew of new guidelines, regulations, and laws has many wondering how will a fitness facility look when all this dust settles.  One modality that will be significantly affected will be our group classes, whether it be yoga, pound, or CrossFit. Amidst these changes, the incorporation of Smart Strength becomes a crucial consideration. As we grapple with maintaining distance and adapting to safety measures, envisioning how to integrate Smart Strength Growth into these evolving fitness landscapes seamlessly becomes paramount.

The Joy of Sweat and Shared Struggles

There is something extra fun and rewarding working out amongst our peers.  Sure, it’s nerve-wracking at first, but once you get a good sweat rolling and find that everyone in your class is just like you, it becomes exhilarating.  We are all competitors in some way.  And everyone would agree that “misery loves company.” It always helps to have a buddy going through the same pain as you; it’s fun to team up and throw your collective jabs and dirty looks at your trainer or class instructor as you huff and puff.

Challenges of Distance and Safety

But what are we to do now?  Now that after two months, we have tried to stay as far away from others as possible.  How are we supposed to squeeze our yoga mats into slender studios?  How can we bond at our barre if only a few clients are in the building simultaneously?  And most importantly, how will we possibly do burpees with respirators and gloves on???

Transforming Challenges into Opportunities

There will indeed be changes to your favourite gym, but it doesn’t have to be wrong. Fitness instructors and gym owners will be put to the creative challenge, trying to make their facility safe yet still fun.  Consider a brand of fitness that provides the best of both worlds. Small group personal training.  With this exercise mode, you will get expert coaching and attention to detail, and you can still work with a few of your best friends or take a chance to meet new members and network.

Albion’s Small Group Training

You will get a great workout and still feel friendship and community.  Small group training in Albion is perfectly positioned to offer that clean, safe environment and be as fun and productive as the old gyms we grew up loving.  We are prepared for you if you’re ready to commit to fitness and results.  

Always remember to “work smarter, not harder.”

Alex Harris

We have all had it and are all chasing it… what is it?  Happiness.  

When you think back to a moment when you were genuinely happy, or if you are currently happy, consider what factors led to this happiness.  

I know for myself true happiness comes from earning something. Now, think about the statement, recall your happy moments, and consider if achieving your success was part of what made you happy. 

Unlocking True Happiness

I believe that all people enjoy working hard and accomplishing goals.  Many movies, songs, and inspirational speeches have used this theme to motivate and educate people about the fruits of hard work. With the guidance of personal trainers, this journey becomes even more fulfilling, ensuring you achieve your fitness goals and experience the true happiness that comes from earned success. Let’s work together towards a healthier, happier you.

Physiological Triumph

This belief has a physiological basis as well. All people have a built-in reward system that showers our neuro receptors with Dopamine (the happy chemical) when we work hard, and something that was a dream becomes a reality. 

Earned Success

One of the most rewarding and exciting things we can do is earn success.  This applies to your fitness just like any other area of life.  When you earn your win, you will not only be healthier, confident, and energized, but you will feel that wonderful thing we are always chasing… happiness.

Beyond Milestones

But the road does not end when you reach a goal or accomplish a major life event.  The true staying power of happiness lies in building habits and lifestyle choices that we control.  When our habits are sound, we drastically increase the likelihood of reaching our primary life goals.  Live your life as an enterprise!

For more information on this topic, watch this speech on earned success and happiness

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDH4mzsQP0w

I look forward to helping you earn your success.  

Work Smarter, not harder.

Your Trainer,

Alex

The Mental Side of Long-Distance Running

We often make the mistake of only seeing distance running as a Physical endeavour.  We do not address the other aspects of plodding down the trails, roads or tracks.  What do we do with our mind while we run?  Do we think about our day, life, fears, aches and pains?  Or do we blast the latest pop track or motivational speech on our devices?

A Guide for Newbies in Long-Distance Exercise

I am writing this article for newbies to distance running or any steady-state duration exercise (biking, swimming laps, walking, etc.  Experienced runners, as well as those who incorporate strength training, know how to deal with their minds while they run.  They have enough practice and have been through the drill enough times to know what to expect.  But for someone who has not yet run a 5k, 10k, or even a mile. It can be intimidating and scary to think about how hard it will be.  We, as humans, tend to extrapolate things in our minds.

From Doubt to Triumph

We think: gee, it was hard walking up those 10 stairs, I’m winded, imagine how hard it would be to walk up 20 stairs. It must be twice as hard.  We think wow, I ran one lap around the track, and it wasn’t perfect; I can’t imagine running 4 laps!  I understand that thinking; I once was that way myself.  But I will show you the science to help combat that thinking and to get you on your way to covering more distance than you ever thought possible. 

Exploring the Origins of Human Endurance

We, as humans, are VERY good at being aerobic endurance athletes.  This has come about from thousands of years of evolving as hunter-gatherers and needing to cover long distances.  The original hunting strategy was to “chase” a deer over long distances until it was too tired to run away.  The deer would bolt compellingly and fast, but eventually, it has to stop and regenerate energy.

The Legacy of Human Pursuit

Humans can keep moving at a constant and steady pace.   Eventually, the stable, consistent pace is enough to close the gap on the quicker deer since it needs an extended amount of time to recover.  The remote areas of Africa that are still hunter-gatherer societies are using these tactics. In case you are curious, below is a video that details the evolution of endurance exercise in humans.  

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Cd0OB-xgoo&spfreload=1

Unleashing Human Potential: The Science of Prolonged Performance

The average human has more slow-twitch (oxidative) muscle fibres than fast-twitch (anaerobic) ones.  These slow twitch fibres are much easier to train and develop than fast twitch fibres.  In addition to muscle fibres, our bodies have a lot of machinery to help transport oxygen, bind oxygen, and use oxygen to create ATP (energy) for our muscles to use during activity.  Simply put, we are very good at covering long distances at a steady, constant pace (sounds a lot like distance running).  

My Advice

Resist the idea to extrapolate how hard a long-distance run will be.  So, when starting on your next considerable distance run, please don’t be nervous about how much harder it will be than your previous run. Take a moment to think about this graph.  This shows us that the initial start to a run or any activity is the hardest.

Work Smarter, Not Harder

Our body ramps oxygen consumption, and we think, “Wow, I’m already tired; there is no way I can last the whole distance.”  But in reality, once we reach our steady state (around 2 minutes of activity) and find our pace, we can maintain that for a very long time.  As you build more experience and your conditioning levels improve, you can keep a faster pace for a steady state.    Use this science to fill your mind during those long runs, and always remember, “work smarter, not harder.”

Quote

“It never gets easier. You go faster. The experience of the first run is the same experience you feel on the 500th run. You still feel the same pain, exhaustion, etc. You just are going faster by the 500th.

Lessons in the Power of Unity

It takes a village. 

Raising children, building a business, or putting on a 5k series… it takes a village. 

If it is to be successful, it always takes a village.  

This was a hard lesson for me to comprehend.  I have often tried to go it alone and always frustrated, exhausted, and failed.

Self-Reflection: Unraveling the Paradox of Success

While on a walk recently, I was replaying my life in my head, comparing and contrasting the times when I was successful versus the times when I was depressed and struggled.  

I tried to decipher what could be the cause of how the same person could experience such polar extremes of the spectrum- success and failure.  

This was especially perplexing when the time frames were not that far apart.

When I incorporated strength training into my life, I noticed a significant improvement in my physical and mental well-being. The discipline and resilience I gained from strength training translated into a more prosperous and positive mindset.

Transforming Isolation into Triumph

Finally, it hit me… when I have a support network, when I have a team when I am a part of the village, I can accomplish great things.  

When I go it alone and try to shoulder every burden myself, I eventually crumble and fail.  

I do not think I am the only person that has experienced this.  

This realization is powerful and can be applied to many different scenarios.  

It may take the village’s power to get you committed to training and preparing for a race.  To hold you accountable and to make running a habit.

The Joyful Reward of Fitness and Community

The best way to establish a lasting habit is to have a reward component to the routine, and I can guarantee you that the feeling you get after a great run or training session will feel like a reward.    

As Humans, one of our gifts is the ability to communicate and interact with each other.  We can add value to each other’s lives.  

My profession is around adding value to others’ lives.  But it doesn’t take a personal trainer to help someone commit to their goals and achieve incredible feats.  

Find your village and start adding value to each other.  Fitness, with the guidance of Smart Strength Growth , is just one way to enjoy each other’s company, and it has great benefits! It is always a worthy reward!  

Your Trainer,

Alex