WorkoutSmart Personal Training

WorkoutSmart was created to make a positive impact on the local community. Each of our certified personal trainers is a Performance Consultant who works to tailor dynamic programs that meet individual goals. We’ve just celebrated our 2nd anniversary and are at a point where we’re well known for the convenience with which we bring fitness to people’s homes. Most of our clients force us on unsuspecting family members whose sedentary lifestyles we turn right around. And we make it interesting to be as physically strong as you can be, to lose weight or to gain balance and improve mobility.

For 2012 we’re doing some really cool things. As you may have seen in the Christmas edition of the Free Press and in the Town Planner Calendar, we’re re-publishing the WinterSmart guide to safe winter activity. How to have fun and get your stuff done safely. If you’re thinking about sponsoring next year’s edition, let me know.
 
We have the most popular Facebook and Twitter pages in Stouffville, and constantly post things of interest to everyone. We’re launching WorkoutSmart Science – A publishing venture that produces free infosheets on topics of interest to the community. These Community Bulletins are effectively an FAQ on topics ranging from analyzing the health claims of magnetic bracelets to the safety of nutritional supplements.

Membership has many privileges.

Finally, the most ambitious initiative for 2012 is our VIP Club. Each and every client receives personalized fitness training in their chosen environment, progress is measured against goals on a monthly basis and programs are frequently changed to maximize efficiency. With the introduction of the annual VIP Club Membership, valued clients qualify for discounts on all WorkoutSmart services. But that’s not all, VIP clients also benefit from unique offers and special discounts from participating local businesses. If you are a business that wants to make a difference in the community, we want to hear from you. If you are or know a potential client, keep a free VIP Card in your wallet and when ready, use the Web address on the back or scan the QR code to activate your membership. Our new SmartPay system accepts all credit cards and PayPal accounts, and it works right from any smartphone.

Use the Web address or be awesome and scan the QR code to activate!

One last thing: if you can get your hands on a card, take a close look at the red texture at the bottom. It looks like wood, but it’s actually an enhanced and slightly tinted photographic closeup of muscle fibre. Keep it in your wallet to always remind yourself about the importance of your own health and fitness!

Let’s have a fantastic 2012 together!

Anytime someone is unhappy with their shape or size, they automatically think of  diets first. I certainly can’t

Why does dieting often achieve the opposite effect?

blame them, since they consume good portions of television programming, from news of post-pregnancy starlets returning to athletic shape in record time to late night infomercials that prey on our exhausted minds to facilitate an impulse purchase. And then there are those who always ask: will dieting work for me? The answer is yes. They were actually conceived to work for everyone. But there’s a catch.

Diets are designed to work in the short term. They’re not intended for sustained weight loss. This means that within a month or two your body has lost all it can lose and you’ve plateaued at about 85-90% of the original mass. This naturally comes with all the side-effects of hunger: grumpiness, weakness, chemical imbalance, low energy and the instinctive knowledge that you’re doing something wrong. That’s just your body’s way of telling you that without an actual lifestyle change, things just aren’t going to change. A reduction in the number of calories ingested is not the same as calories burned. In effect, it’s practically the opposite, since fasting brings with it fatigue, which makes it difficult to exercise enough to burn calories in the first place.

But the biggest reason for avoiding diets is their effect on muscle. They not only cause it to atrophy during periods of caloric restriction, but they destroy it by reducing the metabolic rate. This doesn’t cause muscle to turn into fat, but for all intents and purposes, once muscle mass has been reduced, the arrival of fat is a natural reaction to the panic mode that the body has been forced into.

According to a recent study published by the New England Journal of Medicine, the relapse and cravings suffered by dieters are not only behavioural but physiological. The body simply keeps producing hunger hormones even years after the diet, eventually leading to relapses. What’s more, according to a new report published in the journal Cell Metabolism, during caloric restriction certain hunger inducing neurons actually consume one another, further boosting the hunger signal and prompting the urgency to consume.

According to a UCLA study, dieting often has the opposite effect of the desired weight loss. Whether it is a fad diet, crash diet or other abrupt caloric restriction, your body will react negatively to it. In fact, several studies now show that dieting is a consistent predictor of future weight gain. The answer is simple: moderate consumption and regular exercise. It works. And let’s not lose sight of the fact that prevention works even better. This is why efforts should be focused on preventing weight gain initially – in particular for young people – rather than counting on the ability to lose it later.

Why not talk to your WorkoutSmart Health & Fitness Advisor about creating a good balance between nutrition and exercise? It’s free, and only one phone call away. Simply email to schedule a time for a free discussion. It will do you or a loved one some good.

Whether you’re predisposed to heart health problems or you’re at the top of your game, extreme heat and

Drink plenty of water to avoid dehydration

humidity have been shown to boost your chances of heat cramps, heat exhaustion and heat stroke. When the weather turns from warm to hot, to extremely hot, muggy and humid, everyone is advised to stay inside, not just those with preexisting health conditions.

“It makes good sense! The more water you lose, the less your body is able to keep you cool. And that poses greater strain on your internal organs. Dehydration is not a weight loss strategy. It’s a dangerous practice that should certainly not be supplemented with exercise” said Claudiu Popa, owner of Workout Smart Personal Training.

A certified personal trainer himself, Mr. Popa specializes in improving the health and well being of older adults – clients 55 and over – through safe, regular exercise and a commitment to fitness. “Being fit and healthy implies adopting a safe, calculated and non-damaging lifestyle” added Mr. Popa, who pointed out that as we age, our body’s ability to retain water decreases as the risk of dehydration increases.

According to clinical studies, the body’s process for dealing with heat and dehydration is gradual and involves heat cramps, heat exhaustion and heat stroke. This is accelerated by factors such as age, obesity and overall health. “What most people don’t realize is that dehydration isn’t just thirst. It brings with it a reduction in the amount of blood available for the struggling heart to pump” said Mr. Popa. The reduced blood volume’s viscosity increases, making it more prone to clotting and increasing the risk of a heart attack. In such situations, alcoholic beverages are akin to poison and water may not cut it. Sports drinks with electrolytes and vital salts should be consumed in abundance.

Risky Symptoms

Physical exertion is unnecessary in hot weather. Take a day to stretch: stay cool, limber and safe!

What are the symptoms of impending doom? Beyond the muscle cramps and spasms, beyond sweating and dizziness you should worry when you experience rapid heart beat, headaches, nausea, warm skin or confusion. These symptoms can be immediately followed by a crash in blood pressure and a loss of unconsciousness.

“If you’re feeling thirsty, you’re already dehydrated” said Mr. Popa, who recommends outdoor exercise as a way to stay cool and refreshed. In hot weather, he insists that people exercise indoors, in air conditioned environments with plenty of liquids and an eye on their own well-being.

People with existing heart conditions and a higher risk of other diseases should avoid outdoor (or indoor) exercise in torrid weather. Smoking, drinking, diabetes, excess weight, hypertension and a sedentary lifestyle are all risk factors that should be considered, as they boost the chances of complications in this kind of weather. And be a good son, daughter, friend or Samaritan and check on seniors (in particular those who depend on blood and heart medication) at least once a day. A few glasses a day go a long way towards reducing the risk of summer weather.

New study exposes the short term risks of smoking

The first study of its kind to analyze the direct impact of smoking on the production of cancer causing chemicals has determined that tobacco’s damaging effect on DNA begins within minutes, not years or decades as previously thought. The accumulation of the extremely toxic substances within the volunteers’ bodies was in the order of 15-30 minutes, the equivalent of literally injecting it directly into the bloodstream.

“The results reported here should serve as a stark warning to those who are considering starting to smoke cigarettes,” lead study author Stephen S. Hecht, from the Masonic Cancer Center and department of pharmacology at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, said in a news release from the American Chemical Society. Since almost 3000 people worldwide die each day of smoke-related cancers, we can’t wait to see a similar study focused on second-hand smoking.

That said, Canadians have made significant progress in the last 2 decades. As a percentage of the total population, smokers have decreased from a high of 35% in 1985 to under 18%, according to the Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey (CTUMS).

That may be due to the fact that smoking just isn’t cool anymore (at least not since the demise of Joe Camel in 1997) . Perhaps the only remaining benefit of smoking is the opportunity to quit and win a brand new car (a hybrid, naturally). If you’re a smoker, be smart and check out the DriventoQuit Challenge!

For more information on the risks associated with smoking, visit the Canadian Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute. Pass it on!

The WinterSmart Safe Activity Guide is now readable right here!

You can also read it right on our Facebook Page or from the WorkoutSmart Online Library! Enjoy the embedded Guide below (the pages even turn themselves, how much easier can it get)!

How to Validate Scientific or "Alternative" Claims

Call it ‘revenge of the nerds’. Thousands of scientists have banded together under the “Sense About Science” charitable trust to communicate valid theories and discredit charlatans that perpetuate myths about diet and exercise. Aside from being a waste of time and inbox space, claims made by charlatans and individuals throwing their celebrity weight behind quackery can be very dangerous to those who don’t know any better.

“When people in the public eye give opinions about causes of disease, cures, diets, or products we should buy or avoid, that’s it, their opinion goes worldwide in seconds,” said Lindsay Hogg, assistant director of SAS. “It gets public attention and appears in every related Google search for months. So if it’s scientifically wrong, we’re stuck with the fallout from that.” (excellent Guardian article)

From bodily ‘detox’ to homeopathy and from anti-vaccination to energy bracelets, the zany nonsense embraced by celebrities the world over (that means you David Beckham, Naomi Campbell, Kate Middleton and numerous others) is exposed in one fell swoop with a simple suggestion to the public: you’re not expected to be scientists, so look for peer-reviewed science before you share such information with others who may take it at face value.

Debunked myths include:

• Everything contains chemicals, be they synthetic or not
• Detox is a myth: our bodies do a perfectly fine job of ridding us of ‘toxins’
• Energy doesn’t come from hoaky bracelets or miracle ‘touch’ therapy but from proper exercise and nutrition

Here are three links you may want to follow and share:

1. Sense About Science Press Release
2. Top Myths Paper: Making Sense of Chemical Stories
3. What is peer-reviewed science?

Got wind of a new ’scientific’ claim or alternative medicine ‘report’? Be Smart and validate it properly before forwarding to your friends and family. Their inboxes may not thank you, but they should!

The smartest 1600 words you'll read this winter!

Great news! The 2010 WinterSmart Safe Activity Guide has been published and is now available for download in PDF format (click on its name anywhere in this article to download it). What’s special about it? You can put your name on the cover and share it with friends, family and clients!  

Be WinterSmart – and help someone else work and play safely this winter, from the proper way to hanging outdoor lighting to avoiding sledding and snowmobile injuries.

Why should you download it right now? That’s easy: 

1. We’ve taken the most trusted knowledge from the best sources and distilled it into this Guide
2. You can prevent injuries and perhaps even save lives, 3 quick tips at a time
3. We’ve made it fun to literally etch your name into the guide and share it with everyone you care about.

Guaranteed: You will not find a more complete personal guide for winter activity safety and injury prevention anywhere! The WinterSmart Guide is the 900 pound gorilla that’s fit for older adults and kids alike.

Is it for you? If you, your family, friends or clients ever set foot outside this winter, then hurry up and put your name on a copy. It may just help someone avoid an injury, or save a child.

If you like the 2010 WinterSmart Safe Activity Guide, be sure to connect to our Facebook Page and leave a few words of feedback.

iPhone Health and Fitness Apps

What better way to embrace an active lifestyle at ANY age than to use pervasive technology to make our lives easier? People of all ages now have mobile phones and most of those handsets are smartphones that are more computer than phone. The sleek look and feel of today’s communication devices makes us want to leverage their convergence features and use them for everything from surving the Web to playing addictive games on Facebook.

Technology that helps us with our fitness goals seems to be a natural fit for mobile phones and an effortless task for them to handle. As such, we take a look at 5 awesome free apps for iPhones and iPads (and iPods) in this first Mobile Software Review (click through to download):

1. 40•30•30 – Strike the right nutritional balance. Very cool.
2. iPump – Workout exercise encyclopedia, commercial software but with a free workout
3. Prêt-à-Yoga Lite – neat Yoga workouts in the palm of your hand
4. StepTrakLite – count your steps and even tweet about them!
5. Lose it! – Really neat way to track and achieve your weight loss goals

Bonus app! WebMD for iPhone – Access Trusted Medical Information On the Go

Got a favorite? Let us know! Why not discuss it on our Facebook page at http://fp.WorkoutSmart.ca !

Transplanted Muscle Stem Cells Bring Permanent Benefits To Host

Researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder have discovered that when young mice with muscle injuries in their limbs were injected with muscle stem cells from other mice, the cells both repaired the injury and doubled the muscle size of the recipient mice. Most astonishingly, the change was permanent!

The research results are published in the November 10 issue of Science Translational Medicine:

With further research we may one day be able to greatly resist the loss of muscle mass, size and strength in humans that accompanies aging, as well as chronic degenerative diseases like muscular dystrophy.

The researchers expected the added muscle mass to dissipate after a while so the results were surprising: “We don’t yet know why the cells we transplanted are not responding to the environment around them in the way that the cells that are already there respond.  It’s fascinating, and something we need to understand.”

Instead, cellular mass grew by 50% and volume increased by 70% and stayed that way for the lifetime of the mice.The fantastic research results build on previous studies and hold promise for nearly unlimited applications. The future is exciting, so make you’re around to see it!

Workout Smart to stay healthy and strong! 
Not quite unlike milk, exercise does a body good!

It's Smart To Workout In Cool Weather

There’s something to be said for living and training our bodies to exist in warm environments. According to a study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, that something is this:

Heat acclimation (or acclimatization) improves the body’s ability to control body temperature, improves sweating and increases blood flow through the skin, and expands blood volume allowing the heart to pump to more blood to muscles, organs and the skin as needed.

The physiological adaptations encouraged by such a training regimen were calculated by researchers at the University of Oregon to be in the neighbourhood of 7%, a significant performance boost and encouraging news for an entire generation of athletes. According to the Occupational Health & Safety Administration:

Total Benefits of Heat Acclimatization include improved thermal comfort, improved exercise performance, reduced core temperature, earlier and greater sweating, earlier skin blood flow, lower body heat production, lower heart rate, improved thirst, reduced salt loses, and improved organ protection.

So go ahead: this fall and winter, step out of your cozy living rooms and Workout Smart in cool weather. The same exercise best practices still apply:

•  eat only small meals before working out and limit salt & sugar intake
• drink small amounts of water (and electrolytes) frequently
• wear loose fitting, breathable clothing

Have a cool workout!

Remember to start with Compressions, then Airway and Breathing (CAB)

Wanna help a heart attack victim? No longer do you have to get intimate by giving two breaths first – at least not south of the border. New “easiest step first” technique announced by the American Heart Association recommends starting with 30 chest compressions. In Canada, starting with compressions and following with clearing the airway and assisted breathing has been the status quo for a while.

According to the Associated Press, everyone from professionals to bystanders who use standard CPR should begin with chest compressions instead of opening the victim’s airway and breathing into their mouth first.

“When the rescuer pushes hard and fast on the victim’s chest, they’re really acting like an artificial heart. That blood carries oxygen that helps keep the organs alive till help arrives,” said Sayre, an emergency doctor at Ohio State University Medical Center. “Put one hand on top of the other and push really hard,” he said, ostensibly once you’ve determined that the victim’s heart has stopped.

Under the revised guidelines, rescuers using traditional CPR, or cardiopulmonary resuscitation, should start chest compressions immediately — 30 chest presses, then two breaths. The change applies to adults and children, but not newborns.

The guidelines issued Monday also say that rescuers should be pushing deeper, at least 2 inches in adults. Rescuers should pump the chest of the victim at a rate of at least 100 compressions a minute — some say a good guide is the beat of the old disco song “Stayin’ Alive.”

See also: The American Heart Association and the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation.

Workout Smart means “Workout safe”

Click to Visit Us On Facebook

WorkoutSmart is now on Facebook! We like the ability to post stories, pictures and links, but most importantly, we let you publish comments on our wall. Join our discussions and tell us what you’d like to see. Our collection of articles will follow soon and for those of you in the local area, drop us a line and let’s meet up for a session, or just a chat. Go to Facebook!

Healthy body, healthy mind

Researchers have long known about the link between exercise and brain function. In elderly populations, even small amounts of daily exercise showed increased levels of concentration, learning ability, and abstract reasoning – not to mention memory. Most theories have cited increased blood flow & better oxygen delivery to the brain as the major mental health benefits of exercise, and this is undoubtedly true. read on

WorkoutSmart! Exercise your mind!

Free Brand Name Equipment with Your Workout Smart Program

How can we improve on the value we deliver through the WorkoutSmart personal training programs? In addition to decades of expertise, we’ve decided to throw in the equipment as well!

Now included with the purchase of 6 or more sessions is brand name equipment you will use to improve your core strength, balance and flexibility in your own home:

• Adjustable height STEP 
• 65 cm (25.6-in.) stability ball with pump
• 2 vinyl-coated 1.4 kg (3 lb.) dumbbells
• Medium-weight resistance band

WorkoutSmart! Exercise with confidence!

(Our free equipment offer was so popular that our inventory was depleted before August. Contact us for current promotions!) 

According to a new study published in Science Translational Medicine yesterday, doctors at the Massachussetts General Hospital demonstrated that 10 minutes of brisk exercise could deliver over an hour’s worth of benefits.

The catch? It helps if you’re already fit. In fact, marathon runners metabolic response exceeds that of s

Are 10 min of exercise as good as an hour?

edentary and even active individuals by a large factor. But that’s not what we, at Workout Smart, are concerned with when we read this type of new study.

Our concern is that unprepared, sedentary individuals will begin to engage in intense activity for 10 minutes at a time in the hope of making quick progress, resulting in potentially serious harm to themselves.

Always remember to workout smart - not necessarily hard or fast - because your health and safety must be your primary concern.

If you guessed that electrolytes have something to do with electricity, you’d be right! Muscles and nerves are tissues that react to electrical impulses, but to do so adequately, they depend on a few key molecules. Such molecules enable and lubricate diverse activity between these hard-working cells. For example, to contract muscles, you’ll require the right combination of calcium (Ca2+), sodium (Na+), and potassium (K+).

Enjoy an effective and natural electrolyte replacement

Various hormones regulate kidney function that in turn balances your electrolytes. For moderate intensity (60 to 90 minutes) activity, try eating some dried apricots, salted almonds, bananas, or even pickles after your workout.

You can try adding less than a quarter teaspoon of sea salt to your water bottle, but our recommendation is to try a sports drink for effective electrolyte replacement. Choose one that contains all the key electrolytes required by the body, including sodium chloride, potassium, magnesium, and calcium.

Enjoy your Workout!

Think diet soda is better than regular pop? Think again.

According to Science News, artificially-sweetened diet drinks may be linked to insulin resistance (metabolic) syndrome and type 2 diabetes.

“When the gut’s taste sensors encounter something sweet, they send a ‘prepare for fuel’ missive that results in cranked-up insulin levels in the blood,” the biweekly reports. Insulin signals the body to draw glucose from the blood and store it in the muscles and liver. Except when the sweetener is artificial, the body gets all ready and then there’s no energy to harvest.

In addition to these findings, published studies also suggest that more weight gain is attributed to diet drinks than to regular ones. Researchers speculate that over time, reduced-calorie sweeteners like saccharin, aspartame, and sucralose condition the body to no longer associate sweetness with calories, thereby disrupting its ability to accurately assess caloric intake.

Our take: an active lifestyle requires glucose to replenish its energy stores, so go ahead and indulge in a sugary drink once in a while! And remember that if you’re going to Workout Smart, you also need to replenish your electrolyte stores!

Go to any gym, anywhere and you will find personal trainers salivating at the thought of selling something to the next person who walks in. Their willingness to help everyone is evident. But not everyone is ready to be helped, and the cost of personal training is only a small fraction of the problem.

Most people aren’t ready to embrace physical activity and make a commitment to fitness. Even fewer are ready to join a gym, regularly visit and get value from their workouts. Fewer even would even consider working out with a personal trainer and only a fraction of those would respond positively to that form of interaction.

WorkoutSmart clients are a rarer breed still. They differ from the norm in many ways. By all accounts they can be defined in contradictory ways:

• they are committed to physical fitness, but not interested in committing to a gym
• they are passionate about their health and well-being but not eager to experience the trial and error of adapting to the status quo
• they value return on investment much more than merely comparing the cost of a gym-based trainer with a WorkoutSmart professional

WorkoutSmart: definitely not for most, maybe perfect for someone you know.

Hint: It’s not because WorkoutSmart is the cheapest personal training business around! It really isn’t!

But it may well be the least expensive!

People share WorkoutSmart because they have discovered – in some cases, after a lifetime of searching – a personal training business that works!

Satisfied clients are our most valuable asset

Hint: Smart clients don’t pay for the hour of time spent with a personal trainer!

• They pay for decades of experience and demonstrated professional expertise
• They derive value from tried and proven safety techniques
• They really benefit from effective exercise modifications

and they hit the mark on their goals! That’s progress worth talking about!

WorkoutSmart: results worth getting excited about

According to multiple fitness industry surveys:

1. 88% of all people (in the UK and US) do not ever go to a gym
2. 47% never exercise at all because of time or other constraints
3. only 16% of gym users say they enjoy it with a whopping 70% seeing it as a difficult chore

So why do things the hard way? Workout Smart, in the comfort of your home (or office), every day or every other day!

1. Don’t believe the magazines! Muscle and exercise magazines list myriads of exercises to show variety and freshness of content. That doesn’t mean you should follow them!
2. Stay away from the muscleheads at the gym! Their exercise routines probably do not apply to you and they’re at a different stage in their conditioning altogether!
3. Don’t overtrain! More is not better, especially when you put physical strains on your body. Workout Smart, not hard! Your body will thank you.

Good personal trainers are a rare breed. Great personal trainers are the stuff of legend. Luckily, we’ve got them and we can now tell you how to identify them:

1. They look the part
2. They act like the best in the business
3. They have the credentials to prove it
4. They pay attention to you and spend the time to ensure you’re comfortable
5. You have a strong feeling that they know what they’re doing and are great at communicating it
6. They have a great sense of timing and know how to pace the session for your benefit and constraints
7. They are easily reachable and strive to help you reach your goals well after the end of your session

Enjoy your workout! And remember: don’t workout hard! Workout Smart!

Whether you belong to a cool gym or qualified physiotherapy clinic, or just care about one, our Professional Referral Program (PRP) is geared to maximize business efficiencies and jointly help clients achieve their goals faster, with more reliable information exchange and a clear understanding of personal goals across the board!

Reputable organizations and healthcare institutions benefit from our PRP in numerous ways, including communications, events and preferred pricing on all professional activities!

Our new SmartMove™ program is ready for prime time!

Incorporating proven exercise physiology techniques into our proprietary workout methodology, our latest mobility fitness program is designed to bring enjoyment to our valued clients’ lives. Whether recovering from injury, long-term disability, the effects of inactivity or simply want to enhance your independence, SmartMove™ is the ideal solution for older adults and younger enthusiasts. Ask for it by name!

We’ve been working diligently on creating our online presence and we hope it’s one that you will enjoy. It will include Twitter feed, RSS feeds, Articles, Remote Personal training and much more. The best part: it’s interactive, so feel free to contribute!

Whether you’re just browsing or are here to learn, we’ve got something for you! Head over to our Downloads page for some interesting free documentation or visit our Online Shop for some of the coolest WorkoutSmart™ gear around!

Let us know what you’re looking for, this site wants to be vibrant, interactive and fun. So visit our Twitter page and enjoy our upcoming Facebook and Ning social communities. WorkoutSmart is growing, and we want you on board!

Don’t workout hard, Workout Smart!