Warrior Fit Boot Camp Fitness Fun!

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Last week, Craig Emmerich graced us with a great post on the oxidative priority of various dietary fuel sources, namely fats, carbohydrates, and protein.

If you haven’t had the chance to read through Craig’s post, definitely do. The visuals really drive home the point of fuel priority. Visuals appeal to me. They have a way of sticking with you, and there’s a power in recalling them when you’re making daily choices.

Today, I’m going through and answering some of the questions you folks had in the comment board.

I’m actually answering a great series of questions from Gerard.

I’ve seen this analysis before, and always had the question – can we really lump “carbohydrates” together like this?

No, we can’t. Craig gave a great overview, a useful 30,000 foot view that’s sufficient for most people who just want to eat and metabolize their fuel better, but there are differences between different carbohydrates. I know he’d say as much, and he may have time to weigh in here, too. If his schedule allows, I’ll include his response later today. But back to the differences in carbohydrates…. I’ll save fructose versus glucose for my answers to Gerard’s next questions. What about others?

Think of fiber. Fiber the monolith is already different from more digestible carbohydrates like glucose and fructose in that we can’t extract very much (or even any) caloric energy from it. But you can go even further and look at the individual metabolic fates of the different types of fiber.

Fermentable fibers like inulin and resistant starch are fermented into short chain fatty acids like butyrate and propionate. These provide important cell signaling and are worth about 2 calories per gram, give or take. Others forms of fiber are not fermented and provide colonic bulk but not calories.

Certain carbohydrates are treated differently in different people. Lactose tolerance allows people to digest lactose with lactase and use it for fuel. Lactose intolerance prevents people from digesting lactose, instead diverting it to gut bacteria to ferment and cause terrible digestive distress. FODMAP intolerance is similar. Those with FODMAP intolerance ferment carbs like sugar, lactose, and others in the gut, producing gas but not calories; those without it digest the carbs, producing useable energy.

Are fructose and glucose metabolized differently for this purpose?

There are definitely differences. For one, glucose stimulates insulin production, while fructose does not. But the differences may not be as stark as we often think.

When scientists attached isotopes to fructose, had healthy sedentary people eat it, then tracked the metabolic fate of the fructose molecules, they found:

• 50% ended up as glucose, converted by the liver to be used elsewhere in the body.
• 25% ended up as lactate, converted by the liver.
• 17% ended up as liver glycogen.
• 2-3% was converted to fat in the liver via de novo lipogenesis.
• The rest was oxidized and expelled as CO2.

According to the study authors, this is quite similar to the metabolic fate of glucose. Even if you’re talking about de novo lipogenesis, often considered the sole province of fructose overfeeding, research shows that overfeeding with glucose also provokes the creation of new fat.

As far as burning/oxidizing of ingested glucose and fructose, there are differences. At rest, people tend to burn fructose faster than glucose. During exercise, people tend to oxidize glucose faster than fructose. However, when you give someone both fructose and glucose together, they burn them faster than either fuel source alone. In one study, subjects were either given 100 grams of fructose, glucose, or fructose+glucose. The fructose group burned through 43.8% of their dose, the glucose group burned through 48.1% of theirs, while the fructose+glucose group burned through 73.6% of their dose.

Is the storage capacity for energy from fructose and glucose equivalent (i.e., liver vs muscle glycogen)?

There’s actually a misconception about fructose and glycogen repletion. Here’s the story you may have heard: Fructose can only contribute to liver glycogen, while glucose only contributes to muscle glycogen.

It’s not quite accurate. I believed it for awhile, too, until I actually checked it out. It turns out that both fructose and glucose are able to contribute toward both liver and muscle glycogen. Fructose is about half as efficient as glucose at replenishing muscle glycogen, as it first must be converted into glucose in the liver before being sent out, but it will eventually get the job done.

One big difference is that there’s a lot more room in your muscles than in your liver. The average person can store about 300 grams of glycogen in their muscles but only 90 grams in their liver. Even if the metabolic fates are ultimately pretty similar in a vacuum, in the real world there’s simply less room for liver glycogen, and, thus, less room for fructose in the diet without overstepping the bounds and incurring metabolic dysfunction.

So, if you’re talking about an overweight, sedentary person walking around with full glycogen stores eating a hypercaloric diet, fructose will behave differently than glucose. In the healthy, lean, eucaloric, and active, whole foods-based fructose isn’t a big deal and may not have a drastically different metabolic effect compared to glucose.

At any rate, discussing isolated fructose and isolated glucose may not even be very relevant to real world results. You’re eating fruit, not quaffing cola. You’re enjoying a sweet potato, not a bag of Skittles smothered in agave nectar. You’re eating both glucose and fructose together in the context of a meal, of a whole food. Don’t get too bogged down in the effects of isolated nutrient-poor sugars unless you’re consuming them that way.

To what extent is fructose metabolized in a manner that is more similar to alcohol than carbohydrate?

Fructose is metabolized in the liver. Alcohol is metabolized in the liver.

Fructose gets taken up by the liver without insulin. Alcohol ends up in the liver without insulin rising.

But after that, according to Richard Feinman, the similarities stop. Alcohol is a toxin with known toxic metabolites. There may be some benefit to low level exposure to alcohol, but it remains a toxin. Fructose can be situationally toxic, as in the obese guy with glycogen-replete fatty liver and full-blown diabetes, but we are physiologically capable of handing normal amounts without producing toxic metabolites. Feinman considers it more of a rhetorical device than a statement of facts.

That’s it for today, folks. Thanks for reading and if you have any further questions on the topic, let me know down below and I’ll do my best to get to them.

Take care!

References:

Tappy L, Lê KA. Metabolic effects of fructose and the worldwide increase in obesity. Physiol Rev. 2010;90(1):23-46.

Sun SZ, Empie MW. Fructose metabolism in humans – what isotopic tracer studies tell us. Nutr Metab (Lond). 2012;9(1):89.

Blom PC, Høstmark AT, Vaage O, Kardel KR, Maehlum S. Effect of different post-exercise sugar diets on the rate of muscle glycogen synthesis. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 1987;19(5):491-6.

Mcdevitt RM, Bott SJ, Harding M, Coward WA, Bluck LJ, Prentice AM. De novo lipogenesis during controlled overfeeding with sucrose or glucose in lean and obese women. Am J Clin Nutr. 2001;74(6):737-46.

Rosset R, Lecoultre V, Egli L, et al. Postexercise repletion of muscle energy stores with fructose or glucose in mixed meals. Am J Clin Nutr. 2017;105(3):609-617.

The post Dear Mark: Oxidative Priority Followup appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.

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I have told you that brunch is my favorite meal of the day, and winter is perhaps the high point for brunch. But while I am looking forward to these sleepy morning meals, I have to admit that many brunch recipes are too sweet for me. If this sweet monkey bread with a gooey glaze showed up it certainly wouldn’t go to waste, but I would need something else too, something to nourish and satisfy. I need something savory to start the day off right.

The other requirement for a good brunch recipe, of course, is that it be easy to make ahead. Because who can roll out dough and fry potatoes before breakfast? Not me. So I must tell you about my make-ahead favorite recipe for a big family brunch: savory, garlicky sweet potato hash, roasted with sausage and rosemary, and baked the next day with eggs on top.

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Originally posted at: http://www.nerdfitness.com/

You hear a lot of outlandish claims in the fitness world.

• Drink beet juice to lose weight.
• Electrocute your abs for a six pack.
• Do this four minute workout to “get shredded.”

Hold the phone, that last one could really be true. It’s known as Tabata training, and the exercise can actually improve one’s physical endurance and increase muscle power^[1].

Boom! That’s a 2-for-1 special right there

Of course, a brutal Tabata workout can also result in you passing out in a pile of your own drool and sweat at the end. Gross.

So what’s the dealio?

Should you be implementing this four minute workout strategy into your routines?

Or is it something best left to Olympic athletes and Spartan Race champions?

Grab your headband and let’s explore!  

What is Tabata Training?

“Tabata” comes from Dr. Izumi Tabata, a former researcher at Japan’s National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Kanoya. Tabata developed an extreme form of High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), which can already be pretty extreme.

Let’s back up there a minute, because you may be asking, “What is HIIT, Steve-a-rino”?

HIIT is a form of interval training. It’s a sequence of intense exercise followed by a short pause to rest, then back to intense exercise, and then back to rest. Annnnnnd repeat!

In other words, doing sprints, then walking, then back to sprints. Alternating back and forth for roughly ten minutes. This would be an example of High Intensity Interval Training.

Dr. Tabata wanted to see just how short, and how intense, the interval training could be to observe measurable gains.

He got an answer:

Four minutes.

The doctor designed a training where participants gave their maximum effort for 20 seconds, then 10 seconds for rest. They repeated this cycle for four minutes – in other words, eight 30-second cycles. That in a nutshell is a Tabata exercise.

Brutal, but potentially very effective for improving cardiovascular health and endurance.

Let’s dig into the study itself and the results!

Does Tabata Training Work?

Dr. Tabata tested his routine on two groups of athletes^[2]. Five days a week, for six weeks, they were prescribed the following routines:

• For all five days, Group 1 pedaled a stationary bike for an hour at 70% capacity.
• For the first four days, Group 2 did eight intervals on the bike using the Tabata principle (sprint for 20 seconds, rest for 10, repeat). On the last and fifth day, they did a 30 minute “moderate” ride, followed by an extra two minutes of Tabata sprints.

How’d the results go?

Group 1 strictly increased their maximum aerobic capacity by 9.5% (how long you can run). However, the second group crushed it.

Group 2 not only increased their aerobic capacity by 14%, but they also increased their anaerobic capacity (how long you can run at maximum effort) by 28%!

Said another way: after the experiment, the Tabata training group increased their ability to bike for longer, and harder, compared to the group who trained with regular cardio.

The amazing thing to consider is the time dedicated:

• Group 1 worked out for 300 minutes a week.
• Group 2 worked out for only 88 minutes (they did a 10 minute warm up prior to their intervals, which we’ll talk about shortly).

More results in less time? As a lazy nerd who also wants to look good, sign me up!

The experiment left Dr. Tabata with the belief that six to eight very hard 20-second intervals with 10-second rest periods may be one of the best possible training protocols when it comes to efficiency.

“Never train for more than 4 minutes, great! Back to the couch for me. Thanks Steve!”

Hold your horses there, partner.

For starters, what are you even doing with horses while reading this article?

Secondly, I need to mention this: Tabata developed and tested his protocol on Olympic athletes (skaters, specifically) with one specific type of exercise.

These folks are some of the top of the top when it comes to fitness. And the Tabata workout left them physically exhausted.

So, what if you’re not an Olympic athlete? 

Can you still receive a lot of benefits from training in this style?

It’s worth giving it a chance.

The big point I want to make: “intense exercise” is purely subjective.

“Sprint” doesn’t have to mean ALL OUT SPRINT. If you are very out of shape and training for your first 5K, then your “sprint for 20 seconds” might be a VERY light jog.

And that’s perfectly okay.

The goal is to push yourself outside of your comfort zone for 20 seconds at a time, before resting for 10 seconds, and repeating. Everybody’s “comfort zone” is different. Which means everybody can challenge themselves.

We’ll touch on this again later.

For now, let’s chat about some practical ways to start Tabata training.

What are some Tabata Exercises?

You’ve got a lot of options for Tabata exercises, but you can’t do any Tabata training if you get hurt or end up collapsed on the ground, right!?

So no matter which one you pick, please always start with a 5-10 minute warm-up! You want your heart rate up and muscles loose so you don’t hurt yourself. Tabata himself made sure his athletes warmed up before going all out.

And then after you’re done, cool down! Your heart will be racing and your muscles will be twitching. You need to bring them back to down to normal levels. So go for a slow walk. Do some stretches or some yoga. Bust out that foam roller.

Deal? Deal.

Here are my favorite types of Tabata training:

• Sprints. Simple enough.  Sprint for 20 seconds, rest for 10. Sprint for 20, rest for 10.  This is tough to do without a partner yelling out your times. Personally, I run with a stopwatch with big numbers and glance at it around 20 seconds to make sure I stay on time.
• Elliptical Machine. Less wear and tear on your joints, but tougher to go “all out” because it can only go so fast. Crank the resistance all the way up if you can handle it.
• Rowing Machine. This was the exercise of choice to shred pounds for Gerard Butler (King Leonidas in 300) 
• Stationary Bike. It’s a bike.  Pedal like hell. This is what Tabata used with his athletes.
• Jump Rope. Grab a jump rope, and go as quickly as possible following the Tabata protocol. Guaranteed to leave you jumping up and down like a little kid in a puddle…of sweat. Nasty. Effective.

Cardio workouts are generally the recommended type of exercise for Tabata. In theory, it’s pretty easy to rev up your effort to max when doing sprints or biking.

That’s why they are popular for Tabata.

However, I want to note that all sorts of other exercises can offer a full body workout when doing Tabata.

Consider these for Advanced Tabata movements, especially if you’re looking to build more than just endurance or cardiovascular health:

• Squat Thrusters. Start by standing tall. You then want to squat down and explode your legs back into a plank position (top of a push-up). Then bring your legs forward to a squat position and jump up! Like so:

• Push-Ups. Make sure you do your push-ups correctly! It pains me to see so many people with improper form at the gym. You can scope out my in-depth article right here, but I’ll mention an important point on form: think of your body as one giant straight line. Also, if you need to start on your knees, that’s okely-dokely. A knee push-up is WAY better than no push-up. Want a video to get started? Of course you do:

• Burpees. A burpee is kind of like a squat thruster, but with a push-up included! Extra credit! Start just like you would with a squat thruster, but when you’re at the top of your push-up, go all the way down and back up. When your back at the top, bring your legs up to a squat and then jump. Like this:

• Pull Ups. (Can’t do a pull-up yet? Read this). My favorite exercise. Start with your hands shoulder width apart on your chosen bar. As you lift, focus on pinching your shoulder blades down and back. Once at the top, lower yourself slowly. We’ll walk you through it here:

For all the above, try and follow the Tabata protocol the best you can. For 20 seconds, do as many burpees as possible while keeping perfect form. Then give yourself 10 seconds to catch your breath before jumping into more burpees. Follow the same cadence for any of the more advanced moves.

Hang in there.

Four minutes will go quick! Here’s Everclear’s “I Will Buy You a New Life,” which is almost exactly four minutes long, and is the most obscure reason I could work this wonderful band from my youth into this article:

When you’re done with your Tabata routine, record your results (once your hands stop shaking), and next time around – try to beat your score for total reps!

Let’s chat about some resources so you don’t have to count in your head. Or coordinate your workout to pop songs.

Tabata Timer Recommendations

A timer is useful for doing Tabata – especially if you’re running and aren’t able to look at a screen to see the time remaining for each segment.

As previously mentioned, you can rock an old school stopwatch like a boss, or you can get a bit more technologically advanced. 

This is the dawning of the age of aquarius apps, so download one of the following and use it to track your Tabata workouts:

• Runtastic. Don’t let the name fool you, this free app is for more than just running. You can customize for many different interval workouts, including Tabata. And the interface looks slick.
• Seconds. It’s free and customizable to Tabata and other forms of HIIT. It can also integrate with your music, which is pretty sweet.
• Tabata Stopwatch Pro. This app is specifically designed for Tabata. And it shows. The display can be seen from far away, useful for burpees or squat thrusters. Also, it’s free.
• Tabata Timer for HIIT. This app is one of the best reviewed on the market. Which is awesome, considering it too is free. It can also track your weight, BMI and daily workout history. Plus, the trumpet sound effect found in the app is hilarious.
• TABATACH. I’ll be honest, I just really like the name of this one. Makes me giggle.

We’ve gone over some tools to help you during a Tabata workout. I want to make an important point about Tabata training before we get too ahead of ourselves.

Mistakes to avoid when doing Tabata Training

You might hear that it’s actually extremely difficult to do true Tabata training. Tabata ran his experiment with Olympic athletes, who were able to reach a crazy amount of oxygen utilization, 170% VO2max.

For a normal person to get anywhere close would probably make them vomit from extreme exertion.

Who cares!?

I don’t care if you’re doing ugly push-ups and you can’t run.

You’re trying, right!? And you’re doing the work.

Worry about getting started first. Deal with getting better next.

Studies have replicated Tabata’s results with subjects who were “recreationally active” and did exercises such as burpees and squat thrusters^[3]. So claims of not doing “true Tabata” miss the point.

Tabata himself has stated as such by explaining it’s the effort of going to one’s physical max, that is critical of the benefit of Tabata training^[4]. Don’t worry about VO2max. If you try a Tabata program, the importance is going hard for YOU. We’re not going to worry about VO2max – we’re gonna worry about challenging ourselves.

This means if you need to do “Tabata” in a way that is just walking faster vs walking slower, it’s a start!

We all start somewhere, and it begins with taking the first step.

Still overwhelmed and need help on taking your first step?  

Don’t beat yourself up, we can help!

One of the reasons we created our 1-on-1 coaching program is to make exercise less scary for busy people like you. We can help you get started with interval training, strength training, or help you find something else without a stopwatch that might be a better fit for you.

Want to learn more about our private coaching? We’ll be happy to talk with you and learn your story and see where we can help, no matter what! Click on the button below to schedule a free call with Team Nerd Fitness.

Will Tabata Training or HIIT help me lose weight?

Maybe!

Exercise is important for cardiovascular health and overall wellness. However, to ALSO lose weight, you need to focus on what you eat.

As we say in our Rules of the Rebellion, “you can’t outrun your fork.”

That means your nutrition is 80-90% of the battle in the war for weight loss. If you get most of your food via drive-thru, you don’t like veggies, or you’re just not quite sure how to fix your nutrition, I hear ya.

Check out our Beginner’s Guide to Healthy Eating for guidance on how to dial in your diet.

The other 10-20% of the battle for weight loss? It’s exercise. So if you’re already eating well, a Tabata or HIIT style workout would be a great tool. It’s not hard to find studies of HIIT helping with fat loss^[5]. 

It’s one of the reasons interval training has become a staple in the fitness community.

Another beauty of Tabata: it only takes 4ish minutes, and ANYBODY can find 4 minutes in the day to get a quick workout in. The REAL benefits come from the fact that training for 4 minutes can:

• Help you keep momentum. If you’re trying to stay consistent with your workouts during a hectic week, 4 minutes is better than no minutes!
• Assist with thinking “I am exercising to be healthy, so I need to continue eating well.” I personally eat better on days when I exercise, because I know how important nutrition is for overall health.
• Be done anytime, anywhere.  It’s snowing out, your kid is sick, and you don’t have any gym equipment? Great – you still have the time (4 minutes), space (anywhere), and the equipment (nothing) to pick an exercise above and go for 4 minutes.

If the idea of Tabata or HIIT freaks you out and you’re afraid you’ll hurt yourself, check out our Beginner Body Weight Workout for a great alternative to begin.

If you are looking to develop more endurance and cardiovascular health, check out our Couch to 5K write-up and start there.

The most important thing: get moving, and course correct along the way. The best workout program is the workout you actually stick with. Tabata said as much himself with “Any exercise is beneficial.” That’s why he encouraged readers on Reddit to train in a way that is sustainable^[6]. 

Starting a Tabata or a HIIT Workout Today

HIIT and Tabata can really shock your body. Which can be good. After all, the only way to grow and get better is to push yourself outside of your normal comfort zone.

Pushing yourself to run faster, or to do one extra push-up, or to lift one more pound…that’s where the real change starts to happen!

YOUR MISSION: Try a simple and safe Tabata protocol during your next workout.

Go to a park (or hop on a bike at the gym) and practice varying your speed by walking, running, jogging, etc, to get warmed up.

Then, after you’ve gotten comfortable, bust out your timer. Start doing a HIIT protocol (alternating periods of fast and slow), or go full Tabata for 4 minutes if you’re feeling adventurous.

Feel free to stop if you feel yourself pushing too far, or scale the intensity way back. Push yourself, but leave some in the tank to make sure you can still walk tomorrow!

Give it a shot, and let me know how it goes.

On my mark…

Get set…

Go!

-Steve

PS: If you are still confused on what exercises to do, or you are training for specific goals that you can’t quite figure out how to accomplish, we’re here for ya! Schedule a free call with us through our Nerd Fitness Coaching page. This is our 1-on-1 online coaching program where we build custom workout programs and offer nutritional guidance to busy people like you!

###

All photo credits can be read in this footnote^[7].

http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain

When you think about it, Halloween and astrology really have a lot in common. They’re both a little witchy and mysterious, bounded by the night and stars. And they both give us an opportunity to boldly embrace who we are or, sometimes, who we want to be.

But ultimately, they’re both all about having fun. So that’s what we’re channeling here: If you want to be selective in your snacking this year, or you just want to choose the most on-brand candy to stock your trick-or-treat bowl with, we’ve taken the duty of aligning classic Halloween candies to the personality traits of each sun sign.

Happy Halloween!

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As long as there’s been Pinterest (and magazines!) we’ve been celebrating Halloween with delightful crafts. Some of these are elaborate and hard to recreate; others, like this is hilariously cute and tasty party mix, come down to one thing.

Just add eyes!

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Hershey’s Kisses were invented in 1907; how long do you think it took some bright witch to realize that the Kisses plus a cookie made the absolute easiest Halloween treat of all time?

You hardly need a recipe for these classic treats, in which chocolate cookies are transformed into witches’ hats. These cookie-meets-candy cuties are perfect if you need a quick treat for a Halloween party or just something fun to do with your little kids in the days leading up to the spooky day.

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Originally Posted At: https://breakingmuscle.com/feed/rss

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https://www.girlsgonestrong.com/

Effectively coaching and training women is about more than understanding the anatomical and physiological differences between men and women. It’s also about understanding the psychological and emotional differences, including what women are conditioned to believe and say about their bodies and how it relates to their worthiness.

With a community of over 600,000 women from more than 70 countries around the world, we have been able to glean really powerful insight from our community members about their experiences working with a coach or trainer, and how these experiences have impacted them personally, as well as the effect these have had on their relationship with that professional.

In 2017, we surveyed the Girls Gone Strong community and asked women about negative experiences they’ve had with their coach or trainer — here’s what we’ve found.

Of the women we surveyed:

• 97 percent eventually fired their trainer.
• 16 percent left that gym all together to avoid seeing their trainer again.
• Only 3.5 percent shared the truth about why.

What Does This Mean for You As a Health and Fitness Professional?

It means that you are often on the front lines of this conversation about women and their bodies and you can have a profound impact on how they feel about themselves, their fitness journey, and their potential. It also means that you have the opportunity to be a tremendous force for good.

To be clear, you cannot make someone feel a particular way about themselves. We are each in charge of how we feel, how we respond, and how we react to others. What you can do, however, is work to a creative a welcoming, inclusive, safe, and body-positive environment that encourages your clients to develop a more positive body image.

Here’s a list of the top 5 mistakes women reported their trainers making.

1. Making Comments That Leave Women Feeling Embarrassed or Ashamed

Some examples of comments made by trainers were:

• Telling a woman who pulled up her shirt to wipe off sweat, “Wow! There are abs under all of that.”
• Telling a woman struggling with an exercise that she was too weak to do it.
• Referring to a client who has competed in endurance sports as “skinny fat.”

Reported impact:

• 71 percent of clients reported feeling unworthy, discouraged, and that they should not be at the gym.
• 68 percent of clients of clients reported this shaming left them feeling vulnerable and like the gym was not a safe place for them.

2. Not Relating to the Client’s Situation

Some of the reported examples:

• A trainer trying to force his client on the scale, despite her repeated refusal to do so, when she came to him seeking nutrition advice.
• A female coach telling a client that she could never gain any muscle or lose any weight while eating a vegetarian diet, and that Paleo was her only option.

Women who felt that their trainer could not relate to their situation reported feeling:

• Unmotivated
• Angry and upset
• Ashamed of not being able to meet the trainer’s expectations
• Ignored and devalued by the trainer

3. Over- or Underestimating Clients Based on Their Appearance

Here’s what this can look like:

• Acting shocked when a client isn’t able to do certain exercises because she appears to be “in shape” (overestimating).
• Telling a client “I didn’t think you’d be able to do that” (underestimating).
• Crushing a client with intense HIIT workout because she appears to be “fit” (overestimating).
• Assuming that because a woman is overweight, she must not exercise or is a beginner (underestimating).

Reported impact:

• When underestimated, women felt insulted, angry, frustrated, upset.
• When overestimated, women felt apprehensive and unsafe.
• 86 percent of women who were judged by their appearance felt that they did not get a chance to reach their potential.

4. Ignoring Clients’ Requests

Here are some examples:

• A well-muscled male trainer consistently telling his client that she “wouldn’t look like him” if she lifted weights,” when she repeatedly told him her goal was hypertrophy/muscle gain.
• Repeatedly discussing nutrition or weighing your client when she isn’t interested.
• A trainer refusing to modify exercises for a client with prior knee injuries, and then when finally relenting, offering “less effective” exercises from the client’s perspective.

Clients were more likely to report feeling:

• Ignored
• Unmotivated
• Angry
• Defeated

Clients also often reported that when the trainer did not listen to them, it:

• Discouraged them from achieving their potential
• Led to or exacerbated injuries

5. Pushing an “All or Nothing” Approach

Some reported examples:

• A trainer refusing to give alternative exercises — insisting that particular exercises are a “must” — after being told by their female client that the original exercises made them uncomfortable.
• Calling a client 8 weeks post-abdominal surgery to tell her that she needed to take responsibility for herself and would never see results if she didn’t start upping her training (the trainer felt he was “motivating” her).

How this was received by the clients:

• The trainer was often pushing weight loss as a goal (even if unwanted), and it always ended up with clients feeling unworthy and feeling badly about themselves.
• Clients often felt that it was impossible to meet the goals set by the trainer and felt defeated.
• These trainers were more likely to shame the client.

When reading through these scenarios, it’s easy to roll your eyes and wonder who in the world would say these things or behave this way with the clients, but the reality is, this stuff happens all the time.

And even if you’re not someone who would treat their client or patient this way — many health and fitness professionals do. That means there’s a good chance that your client or patient is entering your space with some level of trauma or “baggage” related to their experience with another health professional.

What You Can Do

If these are the things we aren’t supposed to do with our clients, what can we do? Lots of things! You have the opportunity to profoundly impact your client’s life in a positive way. Here’s a specific, actionable list of things to do, and things to avoid when working with your clients and patients.

DO: Listen to Your Client

• Ask questions about their background.
• Repeat back to them what they say and follow up with meaningful questions that show you’re listening.
• Take notes during your meeting.
• Make sure your client is comfortable performing certain exercises and/or in certain places.
• Have progressions, regressions, and variations available if their program needs to be modified on the fly.

DON’T

• Interrupt or talk over your client.
• Assume you know what your client is going to say.
• Allow yourself to get distracted by your phone, yourself, or other gym-goers during your session.
• Push them or make them feel awkward if they request a certain exercise or location be changed.

DO: Assess Their Ability Level

• Have them fill out a medical history questionnaire in addition to a questionnaire about their previous experience with training and/or nutrition.
• Review the questionnaire with them to give them an opportunity to talk more in-depth about what is important to them.
• Dig deeper, ask more/different questions based on their responses.
• Take them through an appropriate physical assessment to evaluate their abilities.

DON’T

• Tell them what is “wrong” with them during their assessment.
• Suggest that they may/should be in pain.
• Put them through an intense workout as an assessment tool or to “prove how good of a
  trainer” you are.
• Spend a lot of time talking about what they can’t do (from your perspective).

DO: Give Them The Space To Determine Their Goal

• Ask them what they would like to accomplish working with you.
• Help them get specific with their goal if they aren’t able to do it themselves.
• Ask more questions to determine if their goal is really their goal.
• Help them determine what is realistic.
• Validate their goals and discuss how you can help (or not).
• Ask more questions and educate them gently.

DON’T

• Say things that may invalidate their particular goal.
• Assume you know what their goals are based on their appearance.
• Push your personal preferences on your client.

DO: Identify and Respect Their Individual Situation

• Learn as much as you can about their individual situation.
• Ask questions to learn about what their life looks like outside of working with you (family, work, sleep, stress, etc.).
• Ease into some of these questions as they might be sensitive.

DON’T

• Make recommendations that are insensitive to their situation (culturally, morally/ethically, financially).
• Make them feel badly about their individual situation.
• Compare your client to another client in a negative way.

DO: Consistently Evaluate, Check-In, and Assess

• Regularly ask what they have going on in their life.
• Pay attention to their body language, mood, and energy level.
• Have a backup plan if they seem “off” and take advantage of when they are feeling great.
• Work with them to determine a strategy when stuff hits the fan.
• Learn what motivates them (e.g., compliments, competition, results).

DON’T

• Diminish how major life events affect their training.
• Blindly push them harder when they seem less motivated.
• Make fun of them or ridicule them for expressing their concerns.

DO: Validate What Your Client Says

• Validate your client has to say by rephrasing it to show that you’ve been listening.
• Normalize your client’s feelings.
• Recognize their body autonomy.

DON’T

• Dismiss what your client says.
• Systematically agree with what they’re saying if it goes against your views (you can communicate your knowledge in a way that demonstrates your humanity instead).

DO: Be Mindful of Your Behavior and Communication Toward Your Client

Sexual assault is far more common than one would suspect, and one in four North American will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime [1], the majority of whom are women of color (especially Black, Indigenous and mixed-race women) [2]. An overwhelming 83 percent of disabled women will be assaulted in their lifetime [1].

With this in mind, be extremely mindful of:

• The language you use
• The way you touch your client and the manual cues you give (remember to always ask permission before touching them)
• Your descriptions and verbal cues
• Your physical proximity to the client
• How you make eye contact, and where you are looking
• The physical environment you’re creating (music, pictures, culture, location, etc.)

Above all, it’s important to recognize that while you cannot make your clients feel a particular way — we all must be responsible for our own reactions and feelings — you can cultivate an environment that encourages clients to feel welcome, safe, included, and good about themselves, their potential and their body.

References

1. Sexual Assault Statistics in Canada, A Numerical Representation of the Truth, https://www.sexassault.ca/statistics.htm
2. Women of Color and Sexual Assault, Connecticut Alliance to End Sexual Violence, http://endsexualviolencect.org/resources/get-the-facts/woc-stats/

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