Personal Trainer Archives | Page 11 of 16

From the Gym to the Office

November 10, 2015April 25, 2018 Alex Coombes1 Comment

Hello, my name is Phil and I’m the Marketing Manager at TruBe. I’ve never worked in an office before, so when I sat down at the desk on my first day, I started to experience some nerves.

You see, before all this, I was a Personal Trainer for five years, and as a PT, I had some fitness goals that I wanted to achieve, namely:

1. To be to do thirty pull-ups in a row and at least five muscle-ups
2. To be able to planche the pinnacle of all push exercises
3. To be better at squatting and deadlifting
4. To win a 200m race

As a PT, I was used to working early mornings and late evenings, exercising in-between when the gym was less busy and my energy levels were high. I don’t have that routine anymore, so it was time to find a new place to train at and to make time for it.

Being in London, finding a gym close to the office wasn’t difficult. I settled on one literally just a two minute walk away and for my running, I found an amazing free track at Paddington’s recreational ground.

I still needed to make time to train, and I found that planning my week on a Sunday helps.

The final step was to motivate and make myself accountable. The motivation barrier is the trickiest for sure. I’ve found that by telling others about my goals, I have automatically made myself accountable. This drives me to want to succeed so that I can share my success with my friends and family.

Now that I’m feeling motivated again I have no excuses!

Phil – Marketing Manager

P.s As marketing manager I need to shamelessly plug our app, so go download it now!

Functional strength training – without the gym

October 28, 2015November 1, 2018 Alex CoombesLeave a comment

What is your max deadlift/bench/squat/bicep curl….??

As a trainer and sportsman I’m often expected to meet these questions with responses of mammoth figures. Seriously, my max bicep curl?? Um I don’t know… how much does my cup of coffee weigh in the morning?

My max deadlift could completely vary from around 150-180kg, squat 120-160kg and my bench from 85-100kg all dependant on circumstances. What variation of the lift I use, my mood, daily food intake, hours of sleep and sometimes even what music I listen to.

The truth is I really don’t know and to be honest I don’t care much either.

How often in a day are you expected to push hundreds of kilos away from your chest or pick up an unnecessarily heavy weight from the floor and put it down repeatedly? I bet this happens very few times in a day, year or even a lifetime.

Now I’m not saying that conventional strength training and weight lifting isn’t beneficial at all and by no means am I saying that sportsmen should leave this out of their programming. I just want to talk about what we at TruBe believe true functional strength is.

While training with good form (neutral spine, perfect joint alignment etc) is highly important when grooving basic movement patterns, we shouldn’t ignore the fact that our bodies still have the ability to perform exercises outside of these perfect movements. They can extend, flex and rotate at many joints in many different planes and positions.

In daily life your joints will be required to leave their ‘neutral’ positions many times and also during sporting situations whilst taking in large amounts of force. This is why it is not only important to train your neutral positions but to also get comfortable performing multidirectional exercises to help you to improve your strength, power, stability and therefore overall athleticism and functional ability.

You’d be kicking yourself if you picked up an injury in a position that your body should be able to deal with, but you didn’t train it because deadlifting is much more fun and your buddies said ‘do you even lift’ when you tried to include it in your bro workout. Seriously, leave your ego way behind when it comes to training. You will find you excel much more this way.

Try this quick functional legs workout using only your bodyweight:

10 reps on each exercise on each leg, take a 1 min rest then repeat 2 more times.

Side Lunges

Split Squat

Raised Single Leg Squats

Let us know how your legs are feeling after this circuit.

Ben Howard – London Personal Trainer

Book a session with me by downloading the app.

Introducing Personal Trainer Chelsea

October 9, 2015November 1, 2018 Alex CoombesLeave a comment

Meet Chelsea, one of our top female personal trainers. She specialises in endurance bodyweight training.

What is your favourite exercise and why?
My favourite exercise is a ‘power thruster’ (press up to squat) as it works everything. And I love the name!

Why did you become a personal trainer?
I became a PT because I wanted to work in an industry that I’m passionate about and reflected my own lifestyle. I love seeing my clients progress in strength and confidence – it’s the best feeling.

Do you stretch and why?
Coming from a dance background I stretch all the time to prevent injuries. I always take the time to warm up and cool down properly. I’m also an enthusiastic yogi and use self practice to improve my flexibility.

What nutritional principles do you follow?
When it comes to my nutrition, I don’t have restrictions. I eat ‘healthily’ most of the time because I love how the feeling when I fuel my body with nutritious food. When I want to eat something ‘naughty’ I don’t guilt trip myself. I’m all about promoting balance and happiness.

What is your training speciality?
I feel a person’s true strength shows in how they are able to carry their own weight and their determination to keep going when the mind wants to give up. I try to develop both of these characteristics in all of my clients.

What is your biggest client success story?
I have a client who dropped from 18st to 10st by herself. She came to me to help her maintain this weight as well as building muscle definition. She had become obsessed about her food and no longer enjoyed eating. What makes her my greatest success is that I was able to fulfil her needs. She built muscle and achieved well defined abs. However she went beyond her aesthetic goals, growing in confidence, building a better relationship with food and overall become a much happier person.

What is your current fitness goal?

My current fitness obstacle is this years Royal Parks Half Marathon. This is my first one and I’ve been training hard, combining long runs with strength training has taken its toll on my joints!

If you’re looking for a great all round bodyweight training session to help lose weight, tone muscle, improve general fitness and endurance, book a session today! To book with Chelsea download the app and you can find her as one of our featured trainers.

6 reasons to do a TruBe session with a friend or partner

October 7, 2015July 22, 2017 Alex CoombesLeave a comment

We all know that having a trainer partner makes exercising less of a chore, but should you be doing a personal training session with a partner as well? Here are 7 reasons why you should!

1) Great Motivation
As the days get shorter our motivation to train dwindles. Having a training partner means you are more likely resist the temptation of cancelling your session.

2) Get to Know Them Better
Exercising with someone else breaks down many of the social barriers that prevent you from really getting to know someone. This makes it a much healthier alternative to drinking alcohol!

3) It’s More Fun
It’s a well known fact that exercising releases the happy hormones endorphins. Well, training with your buddy not only does that, it makes you laugh even through the toughest exercises. TruBe uses various complex exercises that will encourage maximum interaction and contact with your partner. So Smiles all around!

4) Cost Effective
Having a training partner can save you money. It cuts the cost of personal training session in half making it much more affordable.

5) Push Harder
Let’s face it, we all like a bit of competitive edge. Training with a partner encourages you to work harder to out perform each other and to work as a team. You wish each other well because you’re in it together. It’s a healthy attitude that will translate into your daily life making you more successful.

6) It’s just cool!
Training with a partner looks cool and is super cool. Not only do you get them to try challenging elements of acroyoga, core exercises and plyometrics moves in your training, you also grow stronger as friends or partners.

So why not download the app, book a workout, split the cost and try it with a friend.

Dana V – @DanaandAliceFitness

Is Ballet Barre For Me?

October 1, 2015July 22, 2017 Alex CoombesLeave a comment

As a ballet barre trainer there is one question that I regularly get asked, “Is ballet barre for me?”

In my opinion ballet barre and any form of ballet training is beneficial for everyone regardless of your fitness goal. Well of course I would say that, I am a former professional ballet dancer and I helped design TruBe’s ballet barre workout.

But let’s think about it objectively. Why do we train? The reasons why we train and engage in physical activity are wide and varied. But all of them can be enhanced or achieved through ballet barre training. There is a reason why ballet dancers are often touted as some of the fittest athletes alongside boxers.

One of the largest barriers we face at the moment when we exercise is poor range of motion. The way the modern westerner lives their life promotes poor posture and tight muscles. Ballet barre is a great way to improve your posture and promote greater coordination between different areas of your body simultaneously. How often do you hear about dancers with poor posture and limited range of motion? This applies to everyone, most men could add 10kgs to their three big lifts with improved movement patterns.

Let’s talk about some other fitness goals such as weight loss, tone, core strength, cardiovascular fitness, strength and power. All of these can be drastically improved through ballet barre training. When you think about all of these facets of fitness, ballet dancers display all of them. The beauty of the TruBe ballet barre is that you can achieve these results in the comfort of your own living room, ballet is about moving your body not heavy weights.

To celebrate world ballet day today, why not download the app and try one of our ballet barre sessions using this £10 off promo code:

BALLET10

Matt – @mattino22