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When working with clients who are new to personal training, I often start our first “leg day” addressing the most common issue I come across when beginners hire me to transform their physique –  The glute/ quad issue. Perhaps this has happened to you too, you start any resistance program that includes squats, lunges, single leg squats etc and your quads/ thighs are absolutely on fire but nothing else seems to be fired up. We all want bigger stronger glutes but not everyone wants big quads. If you can relate then you are quad dominant and need to focus on posterior chain exercises. Any exercises that can access the quad are off limits for the first few weeks until we can swap the quads for the glutes as the dominant muscle group.

So what does this look like?

Floor exercises such as donkey kicks are a great starting point. Donkey kicks rely on your own body weight and movement patterns to fire up the glutes and start sending a signal to the glutes to get moving and start taking the workload away from the quads.

Kickbacks are typically next on the list as they are a similar movement pattern to donkey kicks but with the added bonus of a level of resistance of our choosing. Next is typically an RDL which is a hip hinge movement pattern but again does not require the quads to do any of the work. This is definitely the most technically difficult of the beginner glute exercises but it is an amazing exercise that uses all of the posterior chain muscles.

The last exercise is the hip thrust which is in my opinion the best glute exercise on the market. But this can begin to bring in the quads if the resistance is too high so lighter is better here. And even if the weight is not very heavy the glutes will get tired and your intelligent brain will incorporate the quads to help you out so as soon as the quads are even beginning to burn the set is over.

This will continue until we have enough glute development and they are now the dominant muscle group. At this point we incorporate squats, single legs squats, lunges, box squats, heavy hip thrusts and any other relevant exercise that will help grow and develop your leg and glute muscles.

The decision to work out at home or at the gym depends on several factors, including personal preference, budget, and fitness goals.

The average cost of a personal trainer in Galway is €40 per gym session. Do you think this is expensive? Let’s break it down and see if it’s worth the cost…

1. Expertise: Personal trainers are experts in fitness and can provide guidance on proper form, exercise selection, and program design. If you decide to wing it and figure it out as you go, you ring the risk of injuries first and foremost, and a much longer time period to see results. The removal of mistakes immediately results in better time management. You are paying for knowledge that will result in you reaching goals and targets quicker.

2.Motivation: Personal trainers will help keep you motivated by setting goals, providing feedback, and holding you accountable. Often a trainer is there to keep you on the right track, they will ask questions about your commitment, nutrition and achieving goals. Your trainer acts as your training partner who won’t let you slack off and miss the days when you don’t feel like showing up.

3. Injury: Without proper guidance on form and technique, you may be at a higher risk of injury. Personal trainers can help ensure that you are using proper form and technique, which can reduce the risk of injury. An injury is costly on your bank balance, often a physio will charge more than a trainer. Your progress may come to a grinding halt and then rehab begins where achievements should be.

4. Plateaus: If you are not varying your workouts or pushing yourself to new limits, you may experience a plateau in your progress. Personal trainers can help you avoid these plateaus by introducing new exercises, increasing the intensity of your workouts, and providing new challenges. This is called progressive overload and it is essential to constant progress. The body needs something to adapt to make progress.

5. Time Management: Personal trainers can help you create a workout program that fits your schedule and lifestyle. Without their guidance, you may struggle to find the time to exercise. With a trainers guidance no time is wasted. Your time is precious and making the most of all of the time you can allow to your sessions is extremely important to achieving goals and targets in the shortest amount of time possible.

6. Longevity: Your over all health and your longevity are greatly increased though regular exercise. Resistance training will increase muscular strength, bone density, and ligament and tendon durability. Cardiovascular exercise will increase your heart strength, your lungs will be able to take in more oxygen and with a stronger heart your circulatory system will function at a much higher rate. You get one body to live your life with and a stronger body that has a high rate of cardiovascular ability results in increased longevity and a vastly increased quality of life.

Hiring a personal trainer can be costly, however a good trainer is worth paying for. A healthier version of you is not only possible but an absolute guarantee if you hire a good personal trainer. Your life, happiness and wellbeing are worth far more than the short term cost of a personal trainer.

Hiring a personal trainer in Galway can be an excellent investment in your health and fitness journey, but it’s essential to choose the right one. Unfortunately, many people make common mistakes when hiring a personal trainer that can lead to a less-than-ideal experience or even result in injury. In this blog post, we’ll discuss some of the most frequent errors people make when hiring a personal trainer and how to avoid them. Whether you’re new to working out or looking to switch trainers, keep reading to ensure you make an informed decision

1. Not being clear about goals: Many people hire a personal trainer without a clear idea of what they want to achieve. Think about what you would like to achieve, be it fat loss, gaining muscle, general health and fitness, or all of the above and then ensure that your trainer understands those goals.
2. Not communicating effectively: Communication is vital when working with a trainer. Are you comfortable with the exercises you are doing? Do you feel they are effective? Why are you doing this exercise? It’s important to be open and honest with your trainer about your needs and concerns.
3. Not following through on their trainer’s advice: A personal trainer will likely provide recommendations for exercises, nutrition, and lifestyle changes outside of the gym. This advice is going to be beneficial to you and help you achieve your goals. Listen to this advice.
4. Overlooking the importance of rest and recovery: Rest and recovery are essential for progress in fitness. Many people ignore the importance of rest days, sleep, and nutrition when working with a personal trainer. Every training session is breaking down the body; rest and recovery is when the body repairs itself, and this is when progress is made.
5. Focusing too much on short-term results: While it’s important to see progress in the short-term, it’s also important to focus on long-term goals.
6. Not being consistent: Consistency is key when it comes to fitness. Many people start off strong with their personal trainer but eventually fall off track due to lack of motivation or commitment. Motivation is temporary, dedication is long-term. Dedicating yourself to your goals results in achieving those goals, and consistency is vital.

A trainer is an investment, and of course, you want the most from your investment. Be clear about your goals, communicate those goals, trust the trainer you have invested in, and commit yourself to achieving your desired goals, and your investment will pay off.

Hiring a personal trainer is a working relationship that is supposed to end at some point. But how do we know you have reached that point?

I am very happy and proud to say that I have great client retention. I have worked with the  same clients time and time again as I get results and form positive relationships with my clients, so there are times when clients leave and return to work with me again. Some clients stay on for the motivation and accountability aspect of training, when you are with a PT you have to show up and you have to perform, questions will be asked about diet and nutrition. Accountability is necessary for some and that is just fine as we all operate differently. That being said, some do want to move along and train themselves.

So here are the indicators that will tell you when you are ready to move forward alone.

• Can you demonstrate an exercise confidently and describe what the benefits of the exercise are and what muscles this will have a positive effect on.
• Do you understand what progressive overload is and how to implement this into your training plan?
• Do you understand the difference between type 1 and type 2 muscle fibres and understand how to work each fibre type correctly.
• An understanding of muscle contractions and how to use each one so your workouts are as effective as possible.
• Awareness of the messages your body is sending you, by this I mean do you know when to pull back and allow your body to recover rather than forcing a session that will have a negative outcome as opposed to positive.
• An understanding of nutrition that will facilitate your muscle growth and continued good health.

If you are confident that you have an understanding of all of the above this is an indicator that you might be ready to move away from PT sessions.

A final note that I would strongly recommend is that you find a training partner. I love exercise , it’s not a chore or hard for me, I enjoy it but I will take a workout with a good training partner rather than training alone every single time. Competition with ego is not healthy, however competition in terms of constantly showing up, motivating your training partner and supporting their achievements is what a good training partner does. If you can find a training partner who will do this for you and vice versa your training will be enjoyable and productive.

If you are not yet ready to go it alone, or are just getting started on your fitness journey, please do contact me for a no obligation consultation

How do we track your progress… 

Once we have started working together with our personal training and we are confident that the fundamentals of movement patterns, exercise technique have been completed and your confidence has grown in these areas, we move to tracking progress. 

This can be done in a variety of methods, my personal choice is whatever works best for each individual client. Some peoples’ main goal is to lose weight so we use the weighing scales, if your goal is to drop a dress size we will use measuring tape. If your goal is to get stronger we will track your lifts and compare them on a monthly basis. If you want to be healthier in general we will track heart rate and recovery times. 

Often we will use all of the above and at times one or more will become obsolete to us. For example if your goal is to lose weight after a while the scales aren’t going to change as you already have low body fat, at this point you may want to set new goals and news tracking methods. 

Tracking progress is an extremely useful way of keeping you on track and seeing your goals get closer and closer each week is an incredible motivator. But it can be the poison apple and I always advise my clients not to get too hung up on any progress tracking as at some point fat loss will slow down, muscle growth slows and weight numbers stagnate, simply put you plateau and at this point you have to stay confident that progress is made even if the needle is moving far slower than it began. 

Tracking progress is incredibly useful but it is just a tool. Your general feeling of wellbeing, confidence in how you look and your body’s ability to perform any function you need it to are all indicators of progress that we can’t track but I would value those methods above all others.

Working as a personal trainer in Galway, it’s my responsibility to make sure you are getting the value from your investment in your exercise regimen. If you are training alone now, stuck in a rut or just not seeing the fitness results you’d expect, please contact me to discuss how I might be able to help you.

The following paragraphs will outline what our first PT sessions in Galway will look like.

As many people can be slightly intimidated by the gym environment and even the concept of hiring a personal trainer in Galway, I try to meet my clients at the entrance door and give them a brief tour of the facilities, changing room location, lockers, and the gym floor where we will be doing the bulk of our work.

The next step is to get started with gentle warm up, we will tend to use the treadmill but any preferred piece of cardio equipment will of course be used. This initial warm up serves two purposes, number one is of course promoting blood flow to the muscles but also this allows us to chat a little bit to ease any nervous tension. This initial few minutes is just general casual conversation, nothing about exercise, this could be what you did at the weekend, or how your day is going.

When we have gotten some blood flow we will move to the assessment part of our session. We will perform a number of tests which do not give a pass or fail result, they are more to  give me a deeper look into what your strengths and weaknesses are. We will do several mobility and flexibility tests as well and stability tests. After these tests are completed we will move to whatever is most necessary at that moment. If I feel that there is a mobility issue we need to start work on that immediately and I will demonstrate various exercises or movements to improve the mobility problem.

At this point we will move to movement patterns. Movement patterns are exercise techniques and these are absolutely essential to perform correctly. This will be the bulk of the training sessions going forward which will help you to build an aesthetic and functional physique. Correct movement patterns are essential to removing the risk of injuries, and will help us to achieve your goals as quickly as possible.

Our initial session will not be intense, on the contrary it will be relaxed and easy going. The main reason for the first session is for us to get to know each other, assess your current fitness levels and practise some of the essential movement patterns. As your new personal trainer, it’s my responsibility to get your new regime off to the right start and I hope this short article tells you a little bit more about me and how I work. Reach out today for a chat and I’d be delighted to tell you more about how I can help!

Why hire a personal trainer in Galway?

The word hire is very important. Your personal trainer is providing a service and that service has a purpose that is specific to your needs and goals.

Let’s cover the reasons that might not spring to mind immediately.

Confidence is a major factor in many deciding to hire a PT, a gym environment can be an intimidating place. Those first steps into the gym environment are not very different to starting a new job and your trainer is assigned to train you into your new position.  Like a new job everyone else seems to know what they are doing which makes it all the more intimidating. Couple this with the possibility that you might not feel the best about your current physique, and of course in those moments our gaze always lands on the most impressive physiques making us even more self-conscious.

Your personal trainer will help you to feel at ease because this is their environment, they are more comfortable in this environment than most gym users as they work there every day, and this confidence will pass on to you.

Now the practical benefits of hiring a PT. A good PT will have a record of low to zero injuries, and injured clients aren’t working clients, so injury free sessions are in everyone’s best interest.

A personal trainer will also teach you now to use all the equipment correctly, showing you the best exercises to maximise your output in the quickest time possible.

Finally a very important responsibility of your PT also plays the role of a reliable gym buddy who won’t cancel or let you down because they feel tired, it is my job to show up and ensure that you show up motivated to every session. If you are interested in hiring a personal trainer in Galway, please make contact with me through the contact form and we can get chatting.

How to run correctly

Do you know the movement pattern of running?

Asking this question often results in some funny looks but do you actually know how to run correctly.

As with everything in life there is a right and wrong way to do everything and often muscle strains and joint pains are caused by poor movement patterns.

From the feet up this is a description of efficient movement pattern for running.

1. The foot must stay dorsiflexed, this means toes are pointed upward. Landing on your toes can less to calf strains while landing on your hips will lead to knee and hip pain. Try to land on your midfoot every step.

2. Hips high. This refers to pelvic tilt, if your hips are pointed downward, your glutes will be pushed back as though you are closing a drawer with your bum, this will lead to your hamstrings being stressed and your hip flexors unable to fully open up.

3. Core is related to hips, keeping the hips high will allow the core to activate correctly. For correct core activation imagine a string attached to your core and coming out the top of your head. Pull on the string and your core is activated and your hips are high.

4. Shoulders are low and relaxed, if your shoulders are tense your whole body will follow this action and tighten up.

5. Head is neither too low nor too high. Slightly tip your head forward so your whole body is following this lead and moving forward.

6. Slight lean forward from the whole body starting at the ankles, never the hips. Practice this by standing tall and leaning forward from the ankles, gravity wants to bring you forward to conserve your energy and increase ease of movement by using gravity to your advantage.

7. Jaw is relaxed and mouth is left slightly open. Again any muscle tension will trickle into other muscles.

8. Hands are loose and relaxed just like the rest of your body.

Your whole body needs to be relaxed, relaxed muscles function well, tight and tensed muscles function poorly. Any tension in any part of the body will result in other muscles tensing up.

The fastest times you will run will feel almost effortless, this is because your body was relaxed and moving fluidly.

If you found this article useful and you want to know a little more about correct movement patterns for running you can book your free consultation today though the JC Fitness website. My running coach services might be just what you need.

Injuries are a constant for runners, we all know the pain of having to stop your training when you are feeling good, clocking up great times and adding miles to your weekly runs and when a dreaded injury comes along.

But the good news is there is a solution. Injuries are often caused by what we are doing and what we are not doing, this is extremely important.

Here is your checklist for injury prevention. Tick them off as read this and see if you can identify how your most recent injury happened.

1. Movement pattern  – correct movement patterns place less stress on your muscles. Movement pattern drills will help improve your running technique and reduce injuries.

2. Resistance training – strong muscles do not tear easily.

3. Muscle imbalance, if your glutes are incredibly strong and you neglect your hamstrings how long do you think the weaker muscles will be able to keep up with the stronger ones before an injury occurs? There can be no achilles heel, if you know you have a weak area you make it strong.

4. Flexibility – when you stretch do you feel a lot of discomfort? Tight muscles do not lengthen and contract efficiently.

5. Mobility – can you squat down comfortably in a low squat position with your hands raised above your head. A lack of mobility will lead to poor movement patterns.

6. Warm up- quite surprisingly many people skip this absolutely vital piece of the puzzle when it comes to running. Think of your  muscles as a stick of chewing gum, pull it apart cold and it tears , pull it apart warmed up and it stretches. Never skip the warm up.

7. Cool down- another often skipped piece of the injury puzzle, muscles that have been under intense resistance from training will tighten up so after exercise is a great time to cool them down and lightly stretch them.

8. Deep tissue massage – releasing tight muscles and especially knots require some deep tissue massage either in the hands of a professional or a simple foam roll and massage ball at home.

9. Loading – doing too much too soon, if I started a professional athletes training schedule today I would be injured within the month, allowing the body time to adapt to the stresses of training is vital.

So how many of these did you tick off? If you are missing one or more don’t be surprised when you get injured, in fact it’s in the post so expect it and day now.

If you found this useful and want to know more about the topics outlined here you can book a one to one or one to group running coaching session today