Certification Announcement

 Hello Everyone!!!!!!

I am very excited to announce that I will be working through the certified personal trainer exam this year and will be able to offer coaching to you all by 2021.  It has been a long road to reach this decision but I am finally here and excited to bring things to you that I wouldn't be able to without this piece of paper saying that I am legally allowed to.  Anyway here is a bit about my journey to this point. 

Middle and High School:

I started lifting because of sports and found out that I really enjoyed it.  Never was able to increase much of anything but really enjoyed working towards a goal.  I had one coach that really helped me understand my love for the gym and sport and pushed me to be my best self. 

University:

Here I spent a lot of time trying to find out what I wanted to do.  It is hard to have a direction when you don't know the destination.  The one thing that was always there for me was the gym, and it was one of the highlights of my day to be able to go and workout with the rugby team or whoever happened to be in the gym at the time. 

Post University:

I have spent the last 18 years working with young adults in special education.  I love working with this population but about two years ago I had a breakthrough.  I got to work with a young man in the high school weight training class who has a disease that makes him require a wheelchair for movement and accessibility.  Due to the nature of his disease we worked really hard on muscle maintenance and working on balancing some imbalances in his muscular system.  I enjoyed that experience so much that I ended up implementing some of the techniques that I used to help him to my track athletes that I have been coaching.  

I remember coming home every day while I was working with this special young man excited for the work ahead.  It made me feel that I was really doing something to help out and make life better for this child.  Unfortunately I did not realize the possibilities at that time so I put these great feelings away and pushed through with everything that I thought I should be working towards. 

Present:

The quarantine surrounding the Covid-19 Pandemic made it so my current job of working in the schools with people who have special needs not possible in the traditional sense.  This combined with a new hobby of competing in the Scottish Highland Games got me to spend a lot of time in the gym or outside.  During the height of quarantine I was really struggling figuring out how to stay healthy with so much seat time happening.  I spent a lot of time creating and implementing new fitness regimes utilizing the items I had access to around the house. I had so much fun pushing myself in this way and realized that if I could wake up every day and help those around me to realize health I would be extremely happy.  So I decided to enroll in an online course in which I would walk out of it as a certified personal trainer.  

Announcement:

I will be getting my certification this year and start taking on clients in the new year.  My goal is to make fitness available to those with special needs, but I will also be available for any clients who may desire some help.  

Phase 2: Reintroduction to The Gym

 As the Longs Peak Highland Games has been approaching I have been working hard to build some strength in my muscles.  It has been an amazing program and I feel really confident in how I have built up some good strength in my body.  There are a few tweaks that I will be making next time that I have a strength phase as some of the lifts that I chose are not that great for performance (i.e. shrugs) and some of the lifts I had in the wrong order (i.e. snatch pulls, lat pulls).  One of the joys of creating your own program is that you get to test out different exercise orders and really try and figure out what works best for your own body.  Creating my own program has been almost like a game of chess, where I have to figure out the best movement for my body and how to implement it in my life. 

The games are next week which means that I will be taking a week off for active rest.  It has been a long time since I have had to figure out what active rest means.  I think what I will do is a basic weight circuit Tuesday and Wednesday where I will work at 50% capacity on the major compound movements to keep flexibility up without expending too much strength.  My goal is not to get stronger next week it is to make sure that I have the best chance of performance.

After our competition we will be heading into phase 2 of the gym.  I will be working for 4-6 weeks on muscle hypertrophy, which is the growth of the muscle fibers in the muscle to make them look bigger and hopefully increase energy stores within the muscle.  I will be attempting to do this by bringing down the weight and increasing the reps.  If this sounds familiar this is what many bodybuilders do to maximize growth.  During this phase I will be working on two of my greatest weaknesses, eating enough for muscle growth and getting enough sleep to convince my body that it is not under stress. 

Phase 2 workout: (Mid September - October)

Upper/Lower Split

Lower:

Squat 3x10 @ 60%, 65%, 70%, 65%, 70%, 75%

Deadlifts 2x10 Session 1,  Cleans 3x10 Session 2

Leg Extension 3x10

Leg Curl 3x10

Calf Raises 2x20

Upper:

Bench 3x10 (Same percentages of max as above)

Row Variation 3x10

Shoulder Press 3x10

Snatch Pull or Upright Row 3x10

Lat Pull 3x10

Tricep Extension 3x10

Bicep Curls 3x10

This Phase is all about muscle growth.  The goal is not to exhaust your body every set it is to overload your muscle.  If you are following along at home the tempo should be somewhere between slow and medium speed on the lifts, I personally try to employ a 3 second lower followed by a two second push.

Stay tuned for more information and a follow up of the Highland Games.