Maintaining my edge

As you know, I’m always trying to maintain my edge. This week, I took two steps to further that goal, to make sure that you, the client, get the best possible value for the trust you place in me as your personal trainer.

Obviously it’s important to exercise our bodies, but it’s also helpful to challenge our minds and be open to new ideas. To that end, I attended the 2015 Functional Training Summit in Providence, Rhode Island this past week. I learned new techniques for reducing pain and isolating its causes from renowned TPI director Dr. Greg Rose, who hosted a lecture called “Pain: Is it you or your environment?” I learned more about balance and posture from physical therapist and author Gray Cook, attended lectures on new workout planning techniques, movement efficiency, and other topics.

I got to meet with Mike Boyle, one of the top athletic trainers in the world, who works with college, Olympic, professional, and top amateur athletes:

mikeboyle

I also got to meet Dr. Greg Rose, TPI director, who appears regularly on the Golf Channel:

gregrose

Over a thousand fitness professionals attended.

Interestingly, I didn’t see any other trainers from the Capital District at the conference. Not everyone is as passionate as I am about maintaining their knowledge and techniques so they can serve their clients better than the next guy.

In addition to upgrading my knowledge, I’ve also decided to upgrade my practice with a new and promising therapy known as Cold Laser therapy. It’s designed to relieve pain and increase the rate that your body can heal itself after an injury. It can reduce pain related to inflammation by lowering the levels of prostaglandins in the affected cells, and by applying heat and increasing circulation to speed the healing process.

The FDA has approved this laser device for relieving muscle spasms and joint stiffness, and preliminary research indicates that its mechanisms of action have even more beneficial effects.

If you’d like to make an appointment, or just have questions about Cold Laser therapy, please give me a call at 518-281-3772.

If you found any of this information helpful, or think that someone you know could benefit from this new therapy, don’t hesitate to share this newsletter with them!

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July 7, 2015

In other newsletters, I’ve talked about the five pillars of the kinetic chain: flexibility, balance, strength, endurance, and power.  Now it’s time to talk about Power, the last, but not least, link in that chain.
Power is key for optimal performance, and to have it you need to develop two things: speed and strength.
In order to increase power, you must first have mobility of the joints and full range of motion in the muscles.  Power in the  golf swing is measured as club head speed.
Power is developed in stages.  Speed development begins with the lower body, progresses to the torso, and is completed with the wrist angle of the head arm.  It is a combination of all these body segments working together to develop club head speed.  It is necessary for each segment of the body to contain levels of strength.  If you’re going to increase your club speed from 95 mph to 100 mph, the distance you hit the golf ball would increase significantly.  The equipment you need are medicine balls, tubing, and TRX suspension.
With a partner or next to a wall, get in golf stance and mimic golf swing with a 2-4 pound medicine ball, ten times each side.  Then perform the same movement with resistance tubing ten times each side, then execute the TRX standing back pull 16 times.  After that, do five body-weight-only squats with a golf rotation, and do five more, this time rotating in the opposite direction.

If you found this information helpful, please share it!

Client Spotlight: Morris M of Albany says: “I would highly recommend your services to anybody that is in my age bracket or younger to obtain your services as a personal trainer.  You have made a world of difference in my life, and I can’t begin to thank you for building up my body.”