Preventing Over Use Injury

Yesterday we learned a really cool scientific alternative to metabolic training,that Rachel and her team uses at Results Fitness . This methods has proven to produces great results with all their clients.

To read more about it click here to take you back to part 2.

Today, Rachael will take us through of a typical training session.

*****************************************************

Kate: How many training session per week? Someone looking to lose fat, what do you think is most effective? Some people say two to three, others say six days a week. How many do you think is necessary or most effective and can you walk us through what these sessions are like?

Rachel:  Sure. Everyone is an individual so some people can get away with doing six sessions a week. I do recommend at least one day completely off every week. Give your body a rest. Take one day off. Let it regenerate so that you can have juice in the tank to go again.

Definitely need at least one day off but what we’ve seen with the average person and with the majority of our clients is four days a week. We do two days of a full body strength training program and two days of a metabolic interval style program.

Basically, they’re coming in four days a week and that way they can kind of think about it as every other day. Every other day, they’re getting a rest day, body’s recuperating, regenerating, recovering, and then they’re ready to go again.

That’s how the book’s laid out. I have a road map in the book of exactly how to follow the workouts. Really, it’s every other day, get something done. The key is that you get your results from recovering from the workouts. If you don’t allow for that recovery, now you’re just breaking your body down day after day after day and you’re not going to get any results.

I think a lot of people make that mistake. They think more is better. We just recently had a client who when she joined our gym was a runner. She used to do two workouts a day, seven days a week. She came in and joined our gym because she was looking for something different and she really just added a workout at our gym onto everything else she was doing.

We became one of her two workouts a day, seven days a week, and we kept talking to her, telling her, “Okay, maybe cut back on your volume. You need to decrease the amount of work you’re doing.”

Unfortunately, she had to learn the hard way. She ended up hurting herself. She ended up straining her calf because she had done too much, and that actually created a situation where she couldn’t run. She was forced to just do her strength training program.

She was doing it every other day, four days a week. She was just coming in, doing a full body strength program four days a week. She went from twice a day, seven days a week to once a day, four days a week, a huge drop. A third of the workouts, basically, and she actually lost 2% body fat.

She couldn’t believe it. She said, “Okay, you guys were right.” She’s finally a believer but it took her getting injured.

So many people think more is better. “How can doing less be better? That just can’t be. How can that be?” The problem is, hopefully you don’t get injured, but most likely your workouts aren’t going to be as effective. You’re not going to be able to really increase your strength, increase your fitness, see progression, because you’re not recovering. That leads to not getting results.

That’s really what was happening with her. She was getting some results, even though she was working out twice a day, but we kept encouraging her to cut back and cut back. Finally, when she was forced to cut back, she thought, “Oh my gosh, I’m going to gain fat and this is going to be awful.” In stead, doing only the four days a week, full body strength program, her body fat went down.

Now she’s hooked. Now I ask her, “What are you going to do with all your extra time?”

Kate: I think that happens to a lot of women, though. They go out and think “we need to do this every single day,” they get seven days of spinning in and then wonder why their body’s falling apart and they’re not getting any benefits from it. So I think that’s a fantastic case study, an example of how some people have to get hurt to see the results

You personally have done competitions, half marathons, Iron Mans, triathlons. What’s next, the next challenge, and what type of training do you enjoy doing the most?

Rachel:  Well, you hit the nail on the head. I do like the have a goal in mind. I love to lift weights. I love to strength train. Definitely love the feeling of being strong, being able to do chin ups, being able to dead lift, that’s something I’m definitely hooked on. I love that feeling and I love inspiring my clients at that, too.

Realizing that a lot of things that we as women over our lifetime have been told you can’t do, “You can’t lift heavy, you’re a girl,” “You can’t do pushups, do girl pushups,” “You can’t do a chin up, just hang from the bar.”

Instead, approach your workout with an attitude of, “You know what, what can I do? How much can I lift? Maybe I could do a chin up. How many push ups can I do?” Really shifting that mindset.

That’s really how I approach my workouts, looking for, “What can I do? What’s my next goal? What else can I train for or work towards?”

Right now, as far as my year planned out, I currently have a half marathon that’s around the corner that we do every year, the Nike Women’s Half Marathon. We take a team from our gym every year, so I also run it with them. That’s in October.

It’s funny you mention that because I was actually thinking, “I think I need another goal before October that I’ve got to figure out.” I don’t know what that’s going to be yet but I’m definitely itching to do another power lifting competition, too.

I do kind of jump around. I do power lifting. I’ve done endurance events, like you said, Iron Man. I like to mix it up and be able to do different things, be fit enough to handle basically whatever life throws at, whether it’s lift a heavy weight or run a long distance.

Kate: I think you said something important there, that was inspiring your clients. It may not necessarily be because you had a lifelong dream of doing an Iron Man, but the inspiration to your clients that is provided in all the competitions you do. I think that’s something.

Rachel:  When I think about it, every time you train for something, you learn a lot. You learn a lot about yourself, you learn a lot about the journey, you learn a lot about how to coach your clients better. You put yourself in a situation where you have to really push yourself out of your comfort zone.

You know, for me, it’s comfortable to go to the gym every day and lift weights. That’s not a big deal. That’s easy. My easy is my clients’ hard. It’s hard for them but it’s easy for me, so it is good to put myself in situations that are hard. Okay, what’s something that’s going to be hard for me so that I’m actually pushing myself to ask more of myself so that I can really connect with my clients at a level that I couldn’t if I didn’t do those things.

Kate: Cool. I think that’s fantastic and just a great takeaway for everyone to inspire their clients and do something that makes you uncomfortable.

Join us tomorrow in part 4 where we talk about the differences between men and women when it comes to nutrition.

To listen to the call click here

Keep inspiring and train safe!

Kate Vidulich
Certified Turbulence Trainer