Welcome to the Neighborhood 

Kevin Tejada          Erica Clare

Danielle Kwoka   Susie Lenovitz   
Allynn Simons      Doug Joachim
Tasha Ingram       Gene Kovalinski 
 
Michelle Yung      Jonathan Keltai
Jim Quinn               Les James

Justin Walker
geo Spring Bootcamps
geo
 
Who are we kidding,  spring is here.  Before you know it , we will be ridding our winter coats and jackets in exchange for shorts and tank tops.  Most of us aren't ready, and we want to be sure we look our best.

One of the most effective ways to get in shape are bootcamps. Here are top 5 reasons why bootcamps are great for you this spring: 

boot camp Time Efficiency

If you are like most people, your schedule has a limited amount of time set aside for fitness.  In fact, if you are like a lot of people, your exercise time frequently gets moved to the bottom of the "to do" list.  
Taking care of yourself is one of the most important things you do in your life, because it has a direct impact on your longevity and quality of life. 
Spring bootcamps are fitness camps modelled after military style of intense exercise periods meant to build strong bodies with high endurance.  They are built for the every day gym-goer in mind, but still adhere to the military principles of intensity.  They are ideal for overall conditioning, and increasing endurance. 
 
With bootcamps, not a single moment is wasted. You get in, and you get out, but you get out much fitter!
 
boot camp Pushing Limits
Bootcamps offer different programs for all levels of conditioning.  Fitness bootcamps are designed to be progressive, pushing your body to what it is capable of doing without injury is the only way to achieve your fitness goals. You will never have time to get bored, because you will be busy and constantly moving. 
 
Fun in the Sun!
Many bootcamps are offered outdoors with weather permitting.  Classes may be held in the local park or in an outside area near the fitness facility.   With the Vitamin D sunshine on your skin, and the wind in your hair, and fresh new sights as opposed to the same old gym walls , nothing is more refreshing and motivating than to be in the great outdoors!
 
If you feel like you'd like personal attention to your workouts, feel free to reach us for one-on-one training as well! Contact Geo today!

 
Let's play outside!
Happy Spring!
 
lisaMeasuring Time Vs. Reps
Lisa Snow By Lisa Snow, Personal Trainer 

Many gym goers are doing random activity - definitely better than being at home on their couch - but not the most efficient use of their time.  Once a person starts trying to follow a logical plan or "program," there are a lot of things to decide: which exercises to perform, what order to do them in, and how many of each to do.  Whether you're getting an exercise program from a book, a personal trainer, or trying to create one for yourself, a timer can help make your workout easier.

What are "reps" anyway?  

A rep is one "repetition" of an exercise - one time through the whole movement.  One "rep" is one pushup, one squat, one time lifting and lowering dumbbells.  A "set" is however many reps you do before you stop to rest.  Depending on the exercise, your strength level, and how much weight you are using, a set might be 5, 10, 15, or 20 reps.  After you rest and start the same exercise or a different exercise, you've begun a new "set."

Lots of people keep track of their workouts by counting how many reps they can do of each exercise.  This is absolutely better than just showing up at the gym and doing as much of each thing as you feel like, and helps you notice how much stronger you are getting over time.  But using a timer has several advantages over counting reps:
  • It frees up your mind to focus on doing the exercises correctly ("good form")
  • It allows you to measure what you're doing while still carrying on a conversation with a friend
  • If you're working out with a buddy, you can each go at your own pace while doing the same exercises.  You might get 10 reps while she gets 12, but you can both move on to the next move at the end of that minute.  

If you're doing 1 minute sets, the timer that's part of the Clock app on the iPhone is an easy option (it's free and comes preloaded on every phone).  Many wristwatches also have a stopwatch (which counts up) or a timer (which counts down).  Timers are a better option than stopwatches, but either will work.  Fancy fitness apps are worthwhile for some advanced exercisers, but for newbies, it makes more sense to get a general timer app rather than an app designed specifically for fitness.  Timer apps are easy to understand, easy to start using, and many are free.  (For example, "Timer+" is free, and works on both iPhone and iPod touch.  Unlike the standard Clock app, it allows you to run multiple timers at once.  For example, you could set one timer for 45 min for your whole workout, and another timer for 30 seconds for each set.)  Great apps exist for all types of phones and laptops.  However you choose to measure your workouts, pick exercises you enjoy and give yourself credit for all your hard work!


Lisa Snow
ACE & NSCA  Certified Personal Trainer
President
On the Mend Customized Fitness and Massage



ACE & NSCA Certified Personal Trainer
President
On the Mend Customized Fitness and Massage   
Best of Manhattan 2014 for Personal Trainers

 "Thanks to your website, I'm starting to get back into a healthier lifestyle."

 

 

heartrateLearn Your Body Mass Index (BMI)  

 

Body Mass Index (BMI) is essentially a height to weight ratio.  Am I a healthy weight for my height.

 

Figure out your BMI now.

Underweight = < 18.5

Normal Weight = 18.5-24.9

Overweight = 25-29.9

Obese- 30 or higher


 

Remember, speak to your doctor before starting a fitness program and then seek out the right personal trainer for correct program design.  Enjoy your workout! 

 

referRefer Your Favorite Fitness Pro



Let new clients find them here. NeighborhoodTrainers is looking for great trainers and instructors in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, & the Bronx.  
Want more? 
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"I thought neighborhoodtrainers was a fantastic resource - I'm so glad I stumbled across it in my googling! - and I've already shared the site with several friends."- Marie  



Many people treat Memorial Day Weekend as their fitness goal deadline. Did you?

The truth is... Your muscles don't know the difference between holidays and workdays. Beach days or snow days.  It's best to be consistent with exercise throughout the year.

Larry Twohig, Lisa Snow, Geo Chang, and James Shapiro to keep you motivated through the summer months.

Looking for a talented, motivating  personal trainer, fitness instructor, or nutritionist?  Search now.  They will meet at your home, office or anywhere in between.

To your health,
Glenn
P.S. For daily fitness tips and advice, Like us on Facebook  
james
Make Your Runs Shorter For Better Results

The weather is getting warmer and more than likely you and countless runners are going from the treadmill to the streets for cardio. 

Now instead of going on that 40-minute to an hour jog/run, it might be better to cut that time by 2/3 and focus on your intensity. Forcing your body to go through a jogging gait motion with low intensity does not prepare the body to absorb the impact of foot strikes and does not position muscles like the quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes to fire off properly.
running-man-road.jpg
Lower back and hip injuries can be included on the list of lower extremity injuries if you do not fire off and activate your muscles properly during your run.

There are many benefits to prevent those scenarios from happening when you shift from those elongated jogs to short burst sprints. The effect of a few rounds of short burst sprints can lead to a higher heart rate, improved performance, & higher VO2 max intake levels. A 2009 15-week study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that participants who performed ten sets of ten seconds of all out spinning performed a lot better on endurance and power tests compared to the continuous aerobic group. Now to those who might think that you might injure yourself further performing sprints, think about this: you perform less strides which lowers the impact from your training session. That means if you have a muscular imbalance, you are less likely to enter that injury cycle from your running.

As you progress with your cardiovascular levels make sure you perform self-checks every few weeks to gauge your progress. Try to scale your runs based on difficulty, distance covered, and recovery time between sprints just to name a few. Add in a few body weight movements and dynamic stretching and you have an outdoor program that can accommodates your overall blueprint to a better, faster, stronger self. 

Better your running results and strengthen your legs.   Contact James today!


FITNESS TIP
Every time I want to amp up my leg workout I add in a low or medium tension mini loop band. That extra activation to my glutes and quads really makes my legs burn and feel muscles that I need to activate better.
larry Revisiting Exercise Science Training Principles
 
Does your exercise program cause confusion and anxiety? Well, it should! When you're training at the proper intensity level, you should be a little nervous before each session. And organizing the tools at your disposal, in a way that's effective, safe and applicable to your needs, goals and lifestyle is an art. And modulating training variables in a way that promotes constant adaptation, plateau avoidance and longevity is a science.
 
How does your fitness routine stack up?
 
  1. Are you using enough weight?
 
In order to create change, you must challenge the human systems past what they're accustomed to. This exercise science principle of overload states that a greater than normal stress or load is required for training adaptation to take place. What this means is that in order to improve fitness, strength or endurance, you need to increase the workload accordingly. The training resistance should be over 50% of what you can lift once. Use less than this, and despite the exercise feeling difficult, you are not doing enough work to make lasting and continual physiological, anatomical nor neural change. To increase fitness levels, you need to add volume or intensity to your efforts.
 
Research indicates that free weight training produces superior results and a greater transfer of training effect compared to training with machines, particularly when the free weight training involves complex, multi-joint exercises, used in combination with calisthenics appropriately challenging to one's skill and strength level.
 
  1. 2. Does it stay challenging?
 
The overload principle works in concert with the principle of progression. You should build efforts over repeated sessions in a reasonable manner in order to promote adaptation as well as improve soft tissue strength/resiliency. Any demanding exercise attempted too soon risks injury. This principle implies that there is an optimal level of overload that should be achieved, and an optimal time frame for this overload to occur. One renowned method of progressing a program methodically is Periodization Training that it built upon specific training phases throughout the year. A gradual and systematic increase of the workload over a period of time will result in improvements in fitness without risk of injury. Frequency, intensity, time, and type of exercise are all important variables to modulate. If overload occurs too slowly, improvement is unlikely, but overload that is increased too rapidly may result in injury or muscle damage. For example, the weekend athlete who exercises vigorously only on weekends violates the principle of progression and most likely will not see obvious fitness gains.
 
  1. 3. Are you resting enough or maybe too much?
 
Training is the stimulus, but you get fitter and stronger only with proper recovery. Proper overload and progression and the principle of rest and recovery go hand-in-hand. Continual stress on the body and constant overload will result in exhaustion and injury if adequate repair time is not allotted. If you train too hard all the time, you risk overtraining and a decrease in fitness. Both short periods like hours between multiple sessions in a day and longer periods, like days or weeks to recover from a long season are necessary to ensure your body does not suffer from exhaustion or overuse injuries. Motivated athletes often neglect this. At the basic level, the more you train the more sleep your body needs. Not to mention proper nutrition and stress management. On the other hand, resting too much between exercises or sessions will return you to baseline, and super-compensation, an increase in fitness level, can never occur.
 
  1. 4. Are you doing the best workout for you?
 
The exercise science principle of individual differences states that everyone is different and responds differently to training. Some can handle more training while others may respond better to higher intensities, or vice versa. Exercise selection and variables should be specific to the individual, based on factors like genetic ability, past experience and skill, predominance of muscle fiber types, lifestyle, age, sex, injuries and other constraints and mental state. One size does not fit all. Group training should be kept to no more than 8 people per instructor to allow for effective scalability and to accommodate the above variables. Past that you become lost in the mix and are left to the mercy of the WOD.
 
  1. 5.   Are you training for your goals and needs?
 
Individual body type is one thing, but tailoring an exercise program to specific goals is another. The principle of specificity states that exercising a certain skill, movement or body part primarily develops that which you are focusing on. Improving your ability in an activity is very specific. If you want to be a great cyclist, running will help your overall conditioning but won't develop your skills at cycling or the power and muscular endurance required for that activity. Swimming will help improve your aerobic endurance but won't develop bone density and muscular endurance for running or cycling. Decide what you're looking to achieve, and if your training regimen is general or specific enough.
 
Training can be broken up into two main phases: GPP and SPP. General Physical Preparedness refers to wide-ranging and multi-purpose, typically low skill strength and conditioning. Specific Physical Preparedness refers to training with a specific sport or activity in mind. What puzzles me is why so many people these days rely on classes geared towards SPP, such as cycling or dancing, when their goals usually fall within the realm of GPP, such as tone, weight management, flexibility or endurance. They are becoming more efficient at specific activities indeed, and as fun as these may be, they're really not getting them any close to their real objectives. Most modern classes are too specialized and one-dimensional. Keep your scope broad, and your hard work and results will transfer towards meeting your real goals.
 
  1. 6. Does your training program incorporate the right variety?
 
Adequate variation in a training program should be included, to avoid staleness and plateau, but not to the point where the movements are varied so frequently that skill cannot be developed. There's a fine line between a routine becoming too routine, and a constantly varying 'muscle-confusion plan' that ends up being no plan, and too confusing.
 
Strength is a skill, and if you do not build adequate motor pathways by performing an action repeatedly, then you are not promoting strength, a key component in a comprehensive fitness program. Movements can be consistent, and variables surrounding that movement should be the moving parts in the equation. Repeatedly practicing a skill or activity makes it second-nature and easier to perform.
 
Over time the body becomes accustomed to exercising at a given level - it accommodates, according to the principle of use/disuse. When it comes to fitness, you "use it or lose it." This simply means that your muscles hypertrophy with use and atrophy with disuse. This also explains why we become de-conditioned or lose fitness when we stop moving or exercising. This is the body's way of adapting.
 
Additionally, it makes an athlete very efficient and allows him to expend less energy doing the same movements. This reinforces the need to vary a workout routine if you want to see continued improvement.
 
This adaptation results in improved efficiency, less effort and less muscle breakdown at that level. That is why the first time you ran a mile you were sore after, but now it's just a warmup for your main workout. According to the principle of adaptation, this is why you need to change the stimulus via higher intensity or longer duration in order to continue improvements, and keep adapting. The same holds true for adapting to lesser amounts of exercise. The body naturally tries to conserve energy. If you don't need strength or muscle mass to complete a certain task, the body will lose it. This reversibility also goes for endurance, flexibility, circulation, range of motion, skill, and bone density - resulting in atrophy/sarcopenia, osteopenia, and fat gain.
 
In Conclusion
 
The fitness industry is plagued with smoke and mirrors. Sifting through the piles of misinformation fueled by infomercials and self-proclaimed fitness gurus can be overwhelming. The sexy appeal of the churn-and-burn specialty fitness class craze is enticing, fun and easy. But by now you should at least question their effectiveness. Used as a tool in an overall training program, these classes may certainly find a place to fit in. But most group classes claiming to be comprehensive workouts?! Let the buyer beware.
 
Exercise science principles must be adhered to if you hope to become the best that you can truly be, and to make every drop of sweat count towards something meaningful.
Designing a training program that adheres to all of the above guidelines can be perplexing, so it's not a surprise that many in-the-know turn to a coach or trainer for guidance with the details so they can focus on the effort. 

A proper training program setup to maximize your body's potential, left in the hands of a professional will save years, if not decades of wasted trial and error efforts, not to mention keep the process fun and safe.

best,
Larry
917.837.3227 
Get the proper training program you need. Contact Larry today!
 
chris Exploring NYC's Personal Training Gyms: 

We'll return next month with another visit

By Glenn Dickstein

By Chris Granville

Gramercy Pilates                               Gotham Gym

Mid-City Gym                                    Thrive 

X93                                                        Remora Fitness

Hype Gym                                            Work Train Fight

Fitness Results                                     Steel Gym

Titan Fitness                                        Atomic Total Fitness

Core Fitness                                         As1Fitness 

Tribeca Health & Fitness                  Velocity Sports NYC

Do you have a gym in your apartment building?  
Have a personal trainer give you and your neighbors an equipment demonstration.

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