Every Gym’s Nightmare

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Did you guys hear about this?

A coach was charged with a football players death after he collapsed during practice on a hot day.

You can read the peice here.

I can’t form an opinion. I don’t think there are enough facts out yet for me to. I was a sports kid growing up and remember throwing up many times during volleyball practice from running so many lines, or having to compete in gymnastics with pulled muscles, ripped hands and my ankles taped. I used to sit with them in ice buckets before competing floor so they would numb. I used to get migraines from having to do hundreds of handstand pirouetttes.

I broke my back one meet in high school. I landed with my knees locked after a dismount from beam and felt a little explosion in my head. To everyone on the outside, it wasn’t even noticable. It was actually a stuck landing, just a little hard of a landing. I immediately felt sick and like my arms were really heavy.

I laid down for the rest of the rotation and then went and competed floor. In the middle of my routine I forgot where I was and kind of just sat down in the middle of the floor. The next thing I remember I was strapped to a back board and in the ambulance. I remember being really embarassed cause I didn’t shave my legs and the firemen were pretty hot.

Turned out I chipped a vertebra and the chip was now floating around inside me. Luckily, it was small enough my body recognized it as something foreign and kind of disolved it on it’s own. It was right between my shoulder blades, which you don’t use very often, so I just walked around pretty stiff for a while careful not to turn my head.

It really wasn’t as bad as it sounds when someone says, “I broke my back.”

But still, i broke my back.

And my coach knew something was wrong right after I landed funny on beam. I told her my arms were heavy and everything was flourescent, but she just told me to rest. And then sent me in to compete floor.

Of course I could have said no, but I didn’t want to disappoint, and since she wasn’t worried, I wasn’t worried. I was used to competing when I was hurt or sick- but now that doesn’t seem normal to me. It seems weird to push a little kid to compete when they are hurting, or even just not 100%.

As a kid, I was always eager to please any authority figure, whether it be my parents, a teacher or a coach. I always did what I was told- and I think most kids are like that. Especially those that compete in sports.

You’re taught to never talk back because its disrespectful, but that’s assuming who ever is telling you to do something has your best interest at heart.

Gymnastics season was during wrestling season, so sometimes we would run stairs with the boys. I remember all of them having 3 sweat shirts on, and eating Jolly Ranchers so they would salivate, and then spit in a water bottle to dehydrate themselves so they could make weight. A few teachers complained because the wrestlers were sleeping in class, could barely keep their heads up and really irritable.

The thing of it was, they seemed to do it because they wanted to. They could go eat Burger King at lunch if they wanted to, their coach would never know, but they only ate bananas. They didn’t have to continue to dehydrate themselves during the day if they didn’t want to. Or sit in the sauna for hours. You don’t have to make a weight in wrestling, you can wrestle a weight class up- but they all seemed to want to be the biggest in the lowest weight class possible. And would do anything to get there.

Is this the coach’s fault, or just the nature of the game? I put a lot of pressure on myself when I was competing, but I put it on myself. No matter what score i got, I always got a hug from my coach and honestly, i was one of the favorites. I wasn’t even close to being the best on the team, but the coach and I had a special bond. She didn’t play favorites, not with the most talented girls at least.

Is it just the nature of the sport to do anything to be the best, or is someone responsible for making players feel they have to do whatever it takes?

The story of the player dying on the feild I linked to above is a little different situation, I think. It was hot out and the kid’s body couldn’t take it. I think the coach obvisouly didn’t have them in the safest environment if it was hot enough for someone to die, but is this criminal? I don’t know. I don’t know how many water breaks they got, or if anyone complained before, or if the kid said he felt sick, or how long they had been playing, but I do know that if my coach had us out there and i felt it was too hot- I’d keep my mouth shut, because I trust the coach and don’t want to seem like a whiner.

Would you?

Every Gym’s Nightmare, fitness, health, yoga, pilates, strength training, personal trainer, cardiovascular, cardio, exercise, wellness, weight loss, blog, blogging, fitness blog, weightloss blog,

I’m getting slammed pretty hard around the internet for “my protein formula”. Its not my protein formula. I’m not a moron that pulls numbers out of my ass and strings them together and then laughs myself to sleep because I tricked you guys. This equation was not mine: it’s in any text book you will find on the subject.

You need a certain amount of protein a day- if you eat more your body stores it. This extra is particularly rough on the kidneys, and protein from animal sources also leads to an increase in saturated fat intake. Plain and simple. My whole purpose was to let you know that “the more, the better” does not apply with protein, as it rarely applies with any food or nutrient.

I regurgitated information I found from a credible source- which makes it a fact. If you disagree with it-call the American Council on Exercise and let them know instead of calling me names. They have thicker skin than I do.

The winner of The World is Fat giveaway is….

Katie from Up Fit Creek!

Email me your address as kelly@everygymsnightmare.com and I’ll get your book in the mail!

Next giveaway starts Sunday, so mark your calendars!

Every Gym’s Nightmare, fitness, health, yoga, pilates, strength training, personal trainer, cardiovascular, cardio, exercise, wellness, weight loss, blog, blogging, fitness blog, weightloss blog, giveaway, contest, win, free

www.marriedtothesea.com

I´d like to know how you can get into being a personal trainer or how to give fitness classes (i love yoga and kickboxing, for example). I´m aware most gyms will require you get a certification and I´ve looked up some online courses (as i do not live in the US and apparently we don´t have many here) but I was wondering what else you need, like… how do you create a good class or stuff like that. Any ideas?
Thanx

Angie

To find out how I became a personal trainer, head to the FAQS page.

ACE offers a lot of certifications, like Group Fitness Instructor and Yoga instructor. Other national certifications (NFPT, ISSA, ASCM, etc) offer the same variations of these, too.

I don’t know much about group fitness instructors, so anyone that is/was one, please pipe up.

As a personal trainer, there a few ways you can go:

Self Employed, In-Home Personal Trainer: This means you work for you, and only you. You train clients eityher in your home, their home, or very rarely, a studio you rent. This allows you to make the most money, as you can charge whatever you want, and keep it all. Its the most work though, because you have to either travel to your clients, or keep a really clean house (not for me), find and keep your clients which is way harder than it sounds (marketting, invoices, policies, waivers, random schedule, as you have to work around their’s) and you have to have insurance in case someone gets hurt. Insurance isn’t very expensive (I think ACE’s is 275 a year for 1 million coverage- don’t quote me on that though) and whatever company you are certified through usually offers it through them. Its a lot of work, but you have the freedom to run your business the way you want.

Independent contractor, but in a gym: Some gyms will let you train in their facility, but for yourself. Its exactly like training in-home except you use a gym. Gym’s are usually willing to do this because the client signs up for a membership with the gym, but you have to draw up an iron-clad contract, handle all the taxes, still have your own insurance, and in most cases pay a fee to the gym- kind of like rent.

Train for a gym: You can can be a trainer through a gym ( 24 hour fitness, etc.) and technically be an employee. A big part of this is meeting quotas and selling memberships and sessions- most of it is sales. You get paid commission so in order to make good money you have to keep bringing in more clients, which doesn’t leave much room to actually get to know and program for your clients.

Train for a studio: This is what I do. i work for Fitness Together, which is a private one-on-one training studio. Im an employee, so pretty much as far as training goes, i show up, and I train. the clients are handed to you, there is no sales (unless you want to, which I don’t.) You really get to know your clients this way, and work is guarenteed- you show up for your shift and whatever clients are scheduled during that block of time you train. You don’t have to follow your clients around, or schedule around when they can come in.

Different strokes for different folks, but I like my gig best.

Anyone have any advice for a group instructor? I have no experience with it, so I don’t know how you go about setting up a class, or getting in with a gym, or if you are their employee or a private contractor. Little help?

Don’t forget to enter the giveaway! It ends tomorrow!

Every Gym’s Nightmare, fitness, health, yoga, pilates, strength training, personal trainer, cardiovascular, cardio, exercise, wellness, weight loss, blog, blogging, fitness blog, weightloss blog,

First of all I would like to say I’m a huge (new-ish) fan of this site… thanx! I don’t think I’ve ever commented or asked a question so here I go:

Angie

Specific weightloss questions are hard, because there are so many different variables, and not every person is the same. What I can say is that if you had to do 2 hours of intense cardio to maintain a weight- its not a natural weight for you. You shouldnt have to work out that hard and that often to maintain a weight, and the fact you hurt your leg is proof that you were over training (unless you fell off of a machine or something.)

It might just have been a turn of phrase you use, but the goal of lifting weights isnt to “break a sweat”- thats what cardio is for. Be thankful you are muscle bound, appreciate your body for what it is. I can honestly say that a 5 pound weightloss isnt going to make a difference with your running, 10 maybe, but 5, no. Your weight fluctuates about 5 pounds a day anyway, so I doubt you’ll notice much of a difference in your running performace by losing 5 pounds.

I dont know your definition of the word diet, but no one has to diet. If you eat healthfully, stay within your calorie range, and hit all your food groups, you’ll be fine. Restricting calories isnt going to help, and in most cases it backfires by slowing your metabolism down. If you are gaining weight when you arent “dieting” you are eating more than your body needs.

You are at a perfectly healthy weight, are obviously very active and healthy enough to get through your workouts. I would say to be happy with the weight you are at, stay consistant with your eating and exercise, and realize that 5 pounds isnt going to effect your running very much at all.

There’s nothing wrong with accepting your body the way it is. Some people are bigger than others, some are smaller, taller, shorter, etc. A weight that is right for one person is not right for another, and if you have to workout 2 hours a day to stay at a certain point, its not natural for your body to be there.

I came from an overweight familiy: my mom has been dieting her whole life,without too much success, really. So I grew up with all that and was always a few pounds overweight but not too much.When I was fifteen my mom took me to a doctor to control it (i wanted to of course) and i began dieting for as long as I can remember until now. (i am 31.) I love to eat healthy food, and I began training also, mostly aerobics one hour daily. When I finished university,about 7 years ago,i began to train more: 3.5 hours daily. I have lost weight and i am in a good spot now, weight wise but of course i feel tired in my body and my soul of this. I have more or less the same weight since about 3 years ago. But when i began to eat more,or doing less exercise, i immediately got fat (and my jeans dont fit)
So i was thinking,what can i do? I cannot living like this….

Sol

A lot of what i said to Angie goes for you, too. If you have to work out so much to maintain a weight, your body doesn’t want to be there. Dieting is neccessary- but eating healthy is. You can’t eat whatever you want and expect to maintain a weight, but you also cant be so strict with your food you are driving yourself nuts. You are burning out, and thats not a good thing. It means you are doing too much. Eat in the calorie range you need to be in, workout most days of the week, and your body will even out to the point that it is happy at. If you do this, you wont get fat. You cant have an all or nothing attitude about these kinds of things. Its not kill myself in the gym and diet to the point of bare minimum calories, and you cant not work out and eat whatever you want. Walk the middle line and your body with respond, but most importantly, do it for your peace of mind.

Whats the point of weighing a few pounds less if you are too mentally and physically exhausted from doing so you can’t enjoy it?

We all need to work just as hard at accepting ourt bodies the way they are as we work in the gym. Not everyone is the same. And that’s awesome. Focus on what your body can do for you, as opposed to what size jeans it fits into.

Every Gym’s Nightmare, fitness, health, yoga, pilates, strength training, personal trainer, cardiovascular, cardio, exercise, wellness, weight loss, blog, blogging, fitness blog, weightloss blog,

I could be like a normal person and have a midnight snack of ice cream, but I dcecided to go classy and try polenta for the first time.

My first sign I knew I would like it?

It looks like cookie dough.

I desperately need new baking sheets. Look how black that is.

Something I wish I knew before hand- its full of water. That discovery led to a few minutes of swearing as I cleaned it up off the floor.

I sliced it and baked it with a few brussels sprouts. Which I forgot to take a picture of.

But what should I garnish it with? I thought spagetti sauce would be a good touch.

But was it still good?

Not even close.

I tossed it and chose an equally delicious substitute:

Diet Coke with Lime: Now with more over-priced ginger ale taster!

I’ll be a foodie yet. Just look at the expert execution of the foodie “sliced fan presentation.” Flawless.

And then I had an ice cream cone. Because I wanted one.

Every Gym’s Nightmare, fitness, health, yoga, pilates, strength training, personal trainer, cardiovascular, cardio, exercise, wellness, weight loss, blog, blogging, fitness blog, weightloss blog,

www.marriedtothesea.com

Hey Kelly,
I was just reading your post on rest, and you mentioned the importance of protein intake. I hear so many different things on this topic. I tried doing Body For Life not too long ago, and I did notice a difference in my arms and legs, but I felt like I was eating so much protein. How much is truly necessary when trying to add lean muscle mass, and what are the best sources? I’ll eat meat, but I find myself eating less and less these days. I love yogurt and cottage cheese. Do I really need to be drinking whey protein shakes right after a workout and eat some type of casein protein before I go to bed? Are 6 smaller meals really better than 3 big meals? Ugh, totally confused. I would love some input whenever you get a chance.
Thanks so much!
Sincerely,
Heather

Great question.

Protein’s function is to rebuild your muscles. When you work out, you tear your muscles, and protein swoops in to repair them stronger than when you started.

Every person needs a certain amount of protein a day. Just like calories, if you eat more protein than you need, you store it as fat.

To figure out how much protein you need in a day; plug your stats into this equation:

Its as simple as that. No more, no less.

To put it simply- it doesn’t matter when you eat it. A lot of people think you have to eat it right after a workout to repair your muscles, but it will do that whenever you eat it. Calcium repairs bone, but you don’t eat calcium right after you break a bone, do you? You should eat calcium everyday to make sure when you need it, its there. Protein is the same way.

As far as where you get your protein, its up to you. But, when you get your protein from natural sources, such as meat and dairy, you also consume a whole host of other vitamins, and minerals- its like killing two birds with one stone. Most people get more protein than they need in a day anyway, so most of the time, protein powders and bars are unnecessary. When you get your protein from meat, however, you are also consuming saturated fat, so watch your portions. In terms of health concerns, too high saturated fat intake is more of an issue that not enough protein- so pay attention.

The world got on a protein kick after science discovered it repairs tissue. Scientists touting findings that eating protein would make you stronger physically, as well as mentally (by repairing brain tissue), caused people to start pumping themselves full of protein. This caused a saturated fat (ie. heart disease and high cholesterol) epidemic, which then brought us to the obesity epidemic we have today. Unfortunately, people are still stuck with this idea that the more protein the better- but that’s old, out dated science.

Don’t over think it.

Check out my guest video post on Kath Eats.

Every Gym’s Nightmare, fitness, health, yoga, pilates, strength training, personal trainer, cardiovascular, cardio, exercise, wellness, weight loss, blog, blogging, fitness blog, weightloss blog,

I go through phases with my strength training workouts. I find that most of the time, I work my abs and upper body, which, for me, are fine the way they are. I’m happy with them and am not looking to get any more cut in that area. Obviously, sometimes I focus mainly on my lower body, which I would like to get more defined, and possibly drop and inch or two. I rarely do split strength training (upper body one day, lower body the next).

Generally, I focus on upper body. I’d say probably about 70% of the time. That’s not good, just so you know. Ideally, you should work everything evenly.

I’m stronger up top, too, so it’s easier to work my upper body. Great, now I feel lazy, too

I think people that view exercise as punishment (bad, bad) would be more inclined to work on their “trouble spots.” You know, a way to beat their body into submission, paying special attention to those parts of their body they hate the most- the places that need to be punished the most.

What do you guys think? Do you focus on your trouble spots as punishment or as a challenge? Do you focus on the parts of your body you are most proud of/pleased with? Why? Or are you a balanced exerciser? Do you wish I would stop ending my posts in so many questions, because you are all intelligent individuals who are perfectly capable of coming up with an opinion without prodding?

Every Gym’s Nightmare, fitness, health, yoga, pilates, strength training, personal trainer, cardiovascular, cardio, exercise, wellness, weight loss, blog, blogging, fitness blog, weightloss blog,

You guys are going to start hating me soon. What!? Read!?

This week’s giveaway is the book, The World Is Fat: The Fads, Trends, Policies, and Products That Are Fattening the Human Race. by Mary Poppins Barry Popkin.

I’m only a few pages into my copy, but so far, its really good. I’m usually not a big statistics for fun kind of girl, but this book is awesome. It picks apart all the fad diets and products, exposing the companies that know they are frauds and how they can get away with it and analyzes why we as Americans have such a skewed veiw of healthy eating and dieting (and why we find dieting neccessary in the first place. Which it isn’t. At all.)

To enter into the giveaway for this book, you can do one (or all for extra entries) of the following:

Giveaway ends Friday, January 30th (holy crap, where did the month go?)

Good luck!

ALSO: head to Oh She Glows and check out Angela’s awesome Fit Gear Shop. All proceeds for her adorable clothes are going to the Canadian Cancer Society. The clothes are cute and affordable, and best of all, for a good cause!

To recieve email alerts of the weekly giveaways, email me at kelly@everygymsnightmare.com with “email alert” as the subject.

Every Gym’s Nightmare, fitness, health, yoga, pilates, strength training, personal trainer, cardiovascular, cardio, exercise, wellness, weight loss, blog, blogging, fitness blog, weightloss blog, giveaway, contest, win, free

www.marriedtothesea.com

Ahhh, the weekend. In honor of this glorious occassion, I’m going to make you do my work for me give you all a chance to shine.

These two weekend Q and A’s are up to you to answer:

So I waste plenty of valuable time at work every day perusing the
fitness blogs (read you everyday, glad youre back to just EGN!), and
everyone seems to be extolling the virtues of Heart Rate Monitors. As
I am a big walker (hate running but going to try it out - just signed
up for my first 5K!), I also want a pedometer, so I’m looking for a
2-in-one product, but it seems that most HR monitors can’t monitor
steps. I was wondering if you had any recommendations of specific
brands or products to try.

Any ideas?
Rebecca

The next questions is about running shoes:

what would you recommend as running shoes- i’m training for a half marathon and then a marathon later on in the year but i just want to know what you think would be the best shoe for such an event… should i get shoes custom fit? because i’ve heard that’s a good alternative than buying running shoes.

Mariah

Do you guys have any suggestions of your favorite Heart Rate monitors or shoes?

What’s everyone doing this weekend? I have a Wild West Party to go to- i think I’ll just throw on my Frye Boots (see here aw, remember The Flaw Contest? I should do something like that again….) except the heel fell off so Ill have to super glue it back on.

I’m making some videos this weekend, have a new product to review for you (its so cool!) and some new Danskin swag to show off, some of which you will have a chance to win. Next Giveaway starts Sunday, so check back, or to get an email reminder, email me at kelly@everygymsnightmare.com and put “giveaway alert” as the subject.

Every Gym’s Nightmare, fitness, health, yoga, pilates, strength training, personal trainer, cardiovascular, cardio, exercise, wellness, weight loss, blog, blogging, fitness blog, weightloss blog,