NEW TO FITNESS AND PERSONAL TRAINING...or just browsing?

Welcome and thank you for visiting Functional Power by Rick Hills. This page is designed to help those that are new to personal training understand it better.  For the experienced fitness enthusiasts reading this: I hope I am able to add something you didn’t already know.

PERSONAL TRAINERS ARE NOT JUST FOR CELEBRITIES  AND PEOPLE WHO ARE ALREADY FIT!  Reading other personal trainer websites, which state they are "celebrity trainers" or "trainer to the stars," cracks me up. With all due respect . . . who cares?  When did celebrities become a new species? Gravity and ground reaction forces effect EVERYBODY and EVERYONES’ BODIES. The different states our bodies may be in as they react to gravity and those ground reaction forces dictate how we feel. Dysfunction breeds dysfunction; functional power breeds health and enhanced function.

Personal training is not an exact science; it is an art. We didn't learn to walk in one day and we didn't wake one morning having become out of shape up over night. Be patient and have fun while you train; the reward will be well worth it.  The definition of health is freedom from physical disease and pain. So, no matter what level of fitness you are now in, your number one goal should be enhanced health. Cosmetic improvements will be a byproduct of your attainment of health.

The most important step before starting any new training or fitness program is making sure you’re ready to begin. Please read the cardiovascular risk factors that are listed below. If there’s any chance you might be at risk, if you’re new to training, if you have been sedentary for a while or if you’re just not sure, PLEASE call your doctor for a complete physical.  Remember: you are training for a lifetime marathon of good health, not an instant gratification sprint.

Here is the American College of Sports Medicine www.acsm.org for complete information on their guidelines of cardiovascular risk factors; I have listed them below without going into detail. Their link is provided above.

1. Family History
2. Cigarette Smoking
3. High Blood Pressure
4. High Blood Cholesterol
5. Impaired Fasting Blood Glucose
6. Obesity
7. Sedentary Lifestyle
8. Blood Cholesterol NEGATIVE Risk Factor. Is your high-density lipoprotein
(HDL) cholesterol greater than 60 mg/dL?



Fitness/Training terminology and definitions:

Reps
The number of times you push, pull, or squat internal or external resistance for 1 complete movement of an exercise.
Sets
A collection or series of reps or single work unit.
Supersets
Doing one exercise right after the other, with little or no rest until second
exercise is completed
Tri-sets
A group of three exercises, right after the other until the third one is done with
little or no rest in between.
Pyramid Training
Start with high reps, low weight (to warm up) then decrease the reps
as you add weight, then work your way down.
Forced Reps
Partner assists (slightly) to do a few more reps after failure on your own.

The FITT Principle
Frequency -How often
Intensity - The quality of the effort put forth
Time - duration of the exercise
Time under tension - The amount of time it takes to finish a particular rep.