Sticking to Your New Year’s Resolutions
2018 is just around the corner, and the majority of Americans are thinking about goals they’d like to achieve in the new year. Weight loss, dieting, and other self-improvement goals are the most common, but New Year’s resolutions are notorious for crashing and burning by February. In this blog post, we’ll give you a few tips that will help you to both keep and achieve your goals in 2018. Contact Midtown Trainers today if you’re thinking about setting a weight loss goal or would like to invest in personal training in Atlanta! Our professional and caring staff is here for you, whatever you goals for the new year might be.
Start Small
It might sound counterintuitive, but the easiest changes to make are the ones that don’t require much change at all. If you’re trying to cook at home instead of going out to eat, try staying at home to cook just one or two times more each week than usual. You can always work your way up to more days each week, but you can set yourself up for success by maintaining your routine and making small, incremental changes.
Go Easy on Yourself
Birthdays, treats at the office, and happy hour can all start to seem like your enemies when you’re trying to lose weight or clean up your diet. Many people become discouraged and feel like failures when they break their routines by having a slice of cake or by going out for drinks rather than going to the gym.
Perfection is unattainable, and studies have regularly shown that viewing your goals in an all-or-nothing way is incredibly counterproductive. Rather than viewing a cheat day as a complete failure and giving up on your goals, visualize the big picture and think about all of the successful days that you’ve had. Taking a step back and viewing your progress as a long-term trend will show you that small missteps are nothing to worry about.
Track Your Progress
Most people tend to view their progress in a very narrow way; take weight loss as an example. We see ourselves in the mirror each and every day, which makes it difficult to visualize weight loss. We become accustomed to how we look in the present moment, and it can be hard to visualize where we started from.
You don’t have to work on your weight loss or fitness goals on your own. Midtown Trainers has helped hundreds of men and women in Atlanta with their personal goals, and we hope that we can help you with yours in the new year. We’re currently offering a free jumpstart session, which includes a one-on-one personal training session with one of our expert personal trainers. Contact us today and set yourself up for success in 2018.
The Importance of Proper Form
Using Proper Form When Working Out
First of all, we want to give you props on starting your weight loss plan. It’s no easy feat to get it started, and it’s even harder to keep it going. Staying dedicated and consistent are some of the biggest hurdles for people to overcome. While working out and eating well are all great, it’s important to make sure that you’re working out well. One of the most important aspects of working out correctly is proper form. Here’s why.
You Want Results
Machines and exercises serve specific purposes. Making sure that you have the right form ensures that you are targeting the right muscles. Without the proper form, you could be working out the wrong muscles. This is a waste of time and energy, as you won’t be able to get the results you seek.
Severe Injury
Using improper form is one of the easiest ways to injure yourself. Lifting heavy weights the wrong way can lead to torn muscles, slipped discs, and other severe injuries. Oftentimes, the injuries from using improper form require surgery.
You Need to Create Good Habits
Muscle memory is a very real thing, especially when it comes to exercise. It is of the utmost importance that you use the right form with every single rep so that you can teach your body the movements it needs to make in order to continue working out well.
It’s Easier
Believe it or not, you make it much harder on yourself than it needs to be when you use improper form. Using the wrong form wastes energy that you could be using on exercises that actually work, rather than using it to over correct what you’re doing wrong.
It Feels Better
Hard work and exercise tend to have a painful edge to them, but when something is full-on painful there’s something wrong. If you’re working on an exercise and it starts to actually hurt (not just the burn from working hard), you should stop immediately to avoid injury. When you’re using proper form, it will feel much better than if you weren’t.
It’s More Beneficial
Using the proper form will actually give you what you’re looking for. Yes, the next day you will be sore, but you won’t be hurt. Your soreness is just your muscles building and you should embrace it by going to workout again and get all that lactic acid out.
It Allows You To Push Yourself
If getting in shape is important to you, then you know you really have to push yourself to get the best results. When using the proper form with every rep, you give yourself the opportunity to challenge yourself by adding weight or extra reps. However, you need to push yourself, do so, but make sure your form is right first.
If you’re not sure what the proper form for any exercise or workout is, you need to hire a personal trainer. Our fitness trainers here at Midtown Trainers are ready to take on your fitness needs and goals. We’ll help teach you what you need to know to have a successful weight loss plan. Get signed up with our fitness training program today!
6 Fitness Myths to Ignore
Debunking Myths About Fitness, Exercise, and Weight-Loss
When it comes to fitness, there are tons of ideas, information, tips, tricks, and shortcuts that claim to be the best and fastest solution to a better body. As someone who is looking to get into better shape, it’s important that you educate yourself with real facts, rather than alternative ones. Here are some of the most dangerous fitness myths you need to avoid.
“No Pain, No Gain.”
This just isn’t true. One of the most important aspects of exercise is listening to your body. Pushing your body to the point of pain can cause serious injury. At its worst, working out will be uncomfortable, but it won’t outright hurt. If you feel like you might have injured yourself, it’s better to stop and take a break than try to push yourself too far and injure yourself.
“Rest Days Aren’t Necessary.”
In order to get the most out every single workout, your body needs to be in it’s best condition. Your body needs rest in order to perform at it’s best and without rest, you could cause yourself harm. Over-exerting your body can lead to exhaustion and injury.
“Hydrate Before You’re Thirsty.”
How many times have you heard this one?
This myth is dangerous in that overhydration is dangerous in itself. The technical term for it is hyponatremia, which is when your blood sodium concentration is too low. This can cause nausea, dizziness and, in some cases, can even be fatal.
“Running Is Bad for Your Knees.”
A study conducted by Stanford University found that the knees of long-time runners were no worse than those knees belonging to athletes who avoid running. However, in order to prevent future knee problems, it’s important to add a total-body strength workout to your regimen.
“You Need to Spend at Least an Hour in the Gym to Gain the Benefits”
Any time in the gym is beneficial to your health. Even if you just went for a ten-minute run every day you would start to feel better. Some studies show that short spurts of exercise actually have better results than prolonged workouts do.
“Yoga Isn’t Good Exercise”
Wrong! Depending on the type of yoga you’re doing, it can be a great workout. But another reason why yoga is great for your body is because it complements cardioactive training so well. As you build strength and endurance through other fitness avenues, yoga simply reinforces your other efforts, while also helping with muscle soreness and tightness.
“Doing Crunches Will Give Me a Six-Pack”
Not quite. Getting a six pack requires so much more than just doing crunches. One of the biggest aspects of getting a cut core is nutrition. Eating the right food will help you to beat belly fat. Another way to get abs is with back workouts. These exercises will help strengthen the core overall, and give you a more balanced core as well.
Avoid sorting through the myths by working with a personal trainer at Midtown. We’ll help you establish and reach your fitness goals by using proven nutrition and exercise techniques to create your weight loss plan. Get signed up today and schedule your first free session with one of our fitness trainers!
Food for Thought: Things to Keep in Mind
3 Things to Remember When Working Out
Starting on a path to better health is a journey full trial and error. It’s full of growth, as well as failure. Fortunately, it is from that failure in which we grow the most. As we begin to push ourselves outside our comfort zone, we start to gain more than improved physical health, we also gain better mental health. Why is this important for a weight loss plan? Because without it, we can become susceptible to our fears, causing us to give up. Additionally, as our mental health begins to strengthen, we begin to push ourselves even further, achieving even greater results.
When things start to get tough, those that prevail are those that accept their failure as a challenge and choose to grow from it, rather than let it beat them. With a few simple reminders, we can face adversity and overcome it. Here are a few reminders to keep in mind when the going gets tough and starts to get you down.
“It’s not meant to be easy”
Of course it’s hard—it’s supposed to be. Working out is not meant to be leisurely, it’s meant to push you to be your best physical self and there’s no other way to attain your weight-loss goals without work. Your fitness trainer is there to push you because it will help you, and most of all, they know you’re capable.
“You’re not alone”
You’re not the first person to struggle with weight and you certainly won’t be the last. As you begin your journey to better health, it’s important to remember that you are among many others that struggle to stick to their weight loss plan. Never forget that you’re capable of surpassing these hurdles. Your personal trainer is going to be there to help you overcome these challenges.
“Trust the process”
At times, things will get so hard that you want to quit. You may even become defiant of the weight loss plan, deciding to blow off workouts and cheat on your diet because you think it’s not working. There will be times when you don’t see change, but if you trust the process you’ll see those times are temporary.
A positive mental attitude is absolutely essential to a successful weight loss plan. With positive self-talk, you can reinforce the positivity necessary to get you through the hardest workouts.
Working with a personal trainer can actually help you gain the mental toughness you need to make it through each and every workout. While working with a personal trainer, you’ll not only get improved physical health, you’ll get improved mental health. Your personal trainer will also act as a nutritionist and support system, giving you every tool for success.
If working with a personal trainer to help build a weight loss plan to help you reach your fitness goals interests you, don’t hesitate any longer to get started. There’s no day like today to schedule a free session with one of our personal trainers.
Why You Need a Personal Trainer
Top 3 Reasons to Hire A Fitness Trainer
More On Why You Should Hire a Personal Trainer
Depending on who you are, getting in shape can be a great and fun thing, or it can be a taxing chore that you just don’t want to do. Whether you’re trying to shred inches, pounds, or simply want to feel better, the road ahead is not going to be easy. While it may seem difficult at times, it’s definitely going to be worth it in the end. However, if you’re like many others, it can be difficult to get the ball rolling and even harder to keep it rolling. This is just one of the many reasons you need a personal trainer. Here are some others that you may already identify with.
You’re Out of Shape
It sucks, but it’s true. However, you have already taken the first step, which is recognizing that a change needs to happen. It’s time to start changing now, and one of best ways to do so is with a personal trainer. Your fitness trainer will help you determine what your goals are and will create a weight loss plan that will help you reach them,
You Don’t Know Where to Begin
Starting on a journey to better health can be overwhelming, so much so that some people don’t ever begin on their path, and nothing could be worse. Hiring a personal trainer is not only a great place to start, but it’s a great way to get to your end goal – a healthier, more fit you.
You Don’t Know How To Workout
Going to the gym is intimidating and it’s even worse if you’re not sure how to use equipment or exercise properly. Beyond that, not knowing what to do can lead to an injury as well. A personal trainer can show you the following:
- How to Use Equipment
- How to Stretch
- How to Isolate Specific Muscle Groups
- How Exercise Without Equipment
You Don’t Know How to Meal Plan
A personal fitness trainer will not only show you the basics of exercise, but they’ll also create a meal plan within your weight-loss plan to help you properly fuel yourself for your workouts. You’ll get the proper nutrition to complete workouts but to also cut calories and burn fat.
You’ve Plateaued
Maybe you already know how to work out and you have a pretty decent idea of how to prepare healthy meals, but if what you have been doing has caused you to plateau, it might be time to take it to the next level with a personal fitness trainer. They know exactly what you need to get over that hump.
You Need to Be Pushed
Where there is no struggle, there is no strength. It can be extremely difficult to push yourself they way you need to in order to grow. A personal trainer will get behind you and push you to your fullest potential. This is where you’ll start to see results.
If you’re committed to improving your health and physique, then look no further than the personal fitness trainers at Midtown Trainers. We’ll create a personal weight loss plan that helps you reach your goals. All you have to do it schedule, commit.
and succeed. Call us today.
Top Benefits of Hiring a Personal Trainer
Personal Trainers and The Benefits of Hiring One
“The time has come,” your body said. “To talk of many things. Of droops, your hips, and cellulite, and why do you have wings?” If this sounds like your self-talk as you look in the mirror, it might be time to hire a personal trainer. While it might seem as though hiring a personal trainer isn’t up your alley, we want to you take a look at the many benefits you can gain from hiring a personal trainer. It’s time to make a change, and your body agrees, so let’s explore the many reasons you should start fitness training if you haven’t already.
How Can A Personal Trainer Benefit You?
There are multiple ways a personal trainer can benefit your life, in fact, the positives seem endless. Here’s some of the top reasons to hire a fitness trainer to help you:
Weight Loss
If you’re truly committed to the plan your personal trainer set out for you, then you can guarantee you’ll see results. Your personal trainer has the knowledge and experience to give you exactly what you need, push you, and help you succeed. Put your trust in them and give your all with everything you do.
Muscle Gain
As you start to lose excess weight, you’ll also see something else happen: muscle gain. This means at one point, you’ll stop losing weight and start losing more inches. You’ll see a great gain in muscle tone, making your efforts become more apparent than ever.
Better Mental Health
A healthy body can lead to a healthier mind and vice versa. Exercise is said to release dopamine, which is a benefit in itself, but exercising on a regular basis can lead to an improved mood and increased happiness. Beyond that, once you start seeing results, you’ll feel a lot better about yourself as well. The combination of looking better and feeling better makes for the perfect cocktail of self-improvement.
Strength
As you begin to make strides in your fitness training plan, you’ll begin to feel stronger. You’ll make it up ten flights of stairs with no problems, and you won’t need your boyfriend to open jars for you either. With strength comes independence and triumph, and what could be a better benefit than that?
Avoid Plateaus
Those of us who have tried to lose weight and build muscle on our own have all experienced a plateau before, and working with a personal trainer doesn’t guarantee you won’t hit one. However, your trainer knows just the thing you need to keep you building strength, losing weight, and making strides. At one point, you’ll be looking back at your plateau with your new body wondering why you thought there was ever a hurdle.
Nutrition
Working with a personal trainer on a weight loss plan includes a nutrition plan as well. Your fitness trainer will make a meal plan for you that will help you fuel your workouts and teach you better eating habits as well.
Working with a personal trainer really does offer endless benefits. If you’re interested in getting started with fitness training, please don’t hesitate to contact the pros at Midtown Trainers today.
Water and Hydration Myths Debunked
What You Need to Know About Hydration
When it comes to staying hydrated, you’ve probably heard it all. Whether it was from a friend, a coach, or some health and wellness magazine that you read, you’ve heard just about enough about what the best practices for hydration are. While many of these tips can be helpful, they might also mean absolutely nothing at all. It’s important to be able to decipher between the facts and the hearsay when it comes to your health, so we thought we would call attention to some of the worst myths about hydration to help you out a little.
Hydration Myths
The 8×8 Rule
You’ve heard it before. To stay hydrated, you have to drink eight, eight ounce glasses of water per day. Fact or myth? Well, it’s hard to call it a myth, but it can’t be called a fact either. You see, it’s not just about making sure you consume 64 ounces of water per day, it’s about many other factors as well, one being your level of physical activity. If you’re physically active for 60 minutes or more per day, then you want to be drinking more water than 64 ounces in a day. In addition to that, you don’t have to get all of your water intake by just drinking it. Eating fruits and veggies and taking in other beverages also helps you get the amount of water you need per day.
You’re Already Dehydrated if You’re Thirsty
The idea that it’s too late to drink water isn’t true at all. If you’re dehydrated, being thirsty isn’t the first effect you’ll feel. You’ll feel lethargic and might even get a headache. Your body is much better at informing you of when to drink water than waiting until it’s already too late. Even if you’re feeling dehydrated, that’s not to say that drinking water now won’t help you.
Coffee and Tea Dehydrate You
While this isn’t necessarily a myth, there isn’t any evidence behind it that proves that it’s true either. As we said before, you can get your water intake in multiple ways, and this is true for coffee and tea.
You Can Avoid Heat Stroke With Water
To say you won’t get heat stroke just because you drank water is to say that there’s a simple solution to a serious problem. It just isn’t true. However, by not drinking water you can make yourself more likely to experience heat stroke, but don’t think that by staying hydrated, you’re completely safe from experiencing heat stroke. There are other factors that play a role in this, such as body size, exercise intensity and age can affect how prone you are to heat stroke.
You Can Never Drink Enough Water
This couldn’t be further from the truth. Think of drinking too much water as a way of diluting yourself. When you drink too much water, your sodium levels can drop. This is known as hyponatremia, and some people are more prone to it than others.
If you’re currently working with a personal trainer on a weight loss plan, then it is of the utmost importance that you’re getting your full, daily intake of water. In fact, drinking water in itself can help you lose weight in multiple ways. If you have any other questions about water intake and what you need, be sure to talk to your fitness trainer.
Weight Loss Plan Saboteurs
Don’t Let These Saboteurs Affect Your Weight Loss Plan
Welcome back! In our last blog, we discussed a couple different external forces that could be negatively affecting your weight loss plan. We specifically addressed
the effects that work and friends and family could keep you from stick to your plan. The influence of those with bad habits could be strong if you haven’t developed the right habits, so it’s important that you steer clear of those problems until you’re strongly developed in your good habits. Here are a couple more saboteurs for you to look out for when working with a personal trainer in Atlanta to lose weight.
- Media – Whether it’s advertising or a TV show, the way marketing companies and movies make food and drink look appealing can be extremely convincing. Watching certain movies or channels can lead you to develop cravings for unhealthy, high-calorie food, so be sure to wisely pick and choose what media you’re taking in.
- Vacations – You spent all this time working with your personal trainer to get your body ready for a bikini, why sabotage that physique by suddenly indulging in all things fatty and sweet just because you’re on vacation. Breaking your good habits while on vacation can lead to falling back into bad habits when you get home, so don’t let your vacation ruin your weight loss plan. But please, enjoy your vacation, just do it the smart way.
Work With A Personal Trainer To Develop Discipline
Now that you’re aware of the many ways that external forces can negatively affect your fitness training, be sure to be diligent in fighting these forces, and continue to be strong in your good habits. Eat healthy and don’t skip the gym for any reason.
If you need help developing good habits and a weight loss plan, don’t hesitate to consult with one of our Top Rated Local® personal trainers. We can develop a fitness training plan that will help you achieve your goals.
What Could Be Sabotaging Your Personal Training?
Personal Training and Developing Good Habits
When it comes to developing healthy habits, there is a multitude of things you could be doing to improve your health. With the access to information that we have today, you can find multiple outlets for creating weight loss plans on your own. Regardless of what you read on the internet for health and wellness, there are other external forces that could be sabotaging your healthy efforts. It’s important to know how to recognize theses saboteurs and how to combat them. Here are some things that could be negatively affecting your weight loss efforts and how you can fight them.
Saboteurs of Weight Loss Plans
- Friends and Family – This isn’t a dig at your loved ones. But if they aren’t on the same track as you, they could be ruining your efforts to get healthy.
Between happy hours and weekend plans, the unhealthy habits they exhibit can become your own and keep you from getting in shape. The best way to
combat this is by just saying no. Take a pass on the happy hour or high-calorie lunch as much as you can.
- Work – This is especially true if you have a desk job. If your sit for most of your day, find time to walk around. Make it a point to take a walk outside or around your office every couple of hours. You should also consider going for a run at lunch to stay super healthy!
Does this come as a surprise to you? If so, take a second to think about it. How often are you sitting at your desk and not doing anything to combat it? How often do your friends and family try to convince you to skip the gym and go drink instead? Answer honestly, and if you realize this is a frequent occurrence then it’s time to develop a backbone and just say no. Working with a personal trainer can help you learn better habits, including saying no to bad habits. Develop a weight loss plan today and stick to it. Call our fitness trainers in Atlanta today and start getting in shape.
THE IMPORTANCE OF MENTAL ATTITUDE
YOUR WEIGHT LOSS PLAN AND YOUR MENTAL ATTITUDE
When it comes to working out and the physical challenges you will face, it’s important to understand how important your mentality is towards it. Not having the right attitude will not only keep you from progressing, but it will pull you farther and farther away from achieving any of your goals. Keeping a positive mental attitude in any aspect of life is important for getting positive results, but this is especially true for a fitness plan.
YOUR MENTAL ATTITUDE MATTERS
Once you have created your fitness plan with your personal trainer, you should think about making a mental game plan for times of adversity. Hard times will come and hard times will go, but what matters most is how you face adversity when those difficult times arise. Will you rise above and achieve your goals in spite of your challenges? Or will you fold under pressure and set yourself back even further? Face adversity with a fierce, can-do attitude to overcome all challenges in life and in the gym.
One challenge you will face in the gym is a plateau in your weight loss program. After working with a personal trainer for an extended period of time, you are going to come across a point in your training where you won’t see drastic changes in your physique the way you did before. It would be easy to decide that nothing is working for you and to give up, but the benefits of seeing these challenges as opportunities to push yourself are endless. You’ll feel better and stronger, and you’ll condition yourself to be poised in these stagnant times.
Keeping a strong mental attitude through the challenges in your fitness plan will help you overcome these times of adversity with ease. You’ll surprise yourself at just how far you can go when you simply say “yes I can.”
If challenging yourself and working with a fitness trainer sounds like something you want in your life, call the personal trainers at Midtown Trainers today.
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