Archive for personal training
Going, Going, Back, Back, to Connecticut…
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National Championships!
No, I’m not competing, but Kat and I will be in Wallingford, Ct for the “Fitness Atlantic” WBFF National Championship series! We’ll be there with the whole FTNS radio team conducting backstage interviews, having some fun on stage, and helping introduce the world to the FTNS revolution! It’s going to be a blast meeting these amazing athletes in peak condition, and re immersing myself in the bodybuilding world.
The FTNS gang is slowly becoming like family to us, even though we’ve never met! It will be great to finally put faces to names, and see what Friday nights in Norwalk, Ct have to offer. We’ll actually get to see the studio, and maybe push some buttons, as my ADD will make it almost impossible not to, lol.
Mr. P90-X, Tony Horton. He stole my pose...
The coolest part, however, is we’ll be interviewing Mr. P90-X himself, Tony Horton for the blog. We’ll also twist his arm, and make him commit to appearing on Jumpstart sometime in the near future. He is doing a one dayworkout with over 300 people registered to participate! That’s what I call respect.
We’ll be taking video all weekend long, so stay tuned next week for some awesome new content right here on our blog, and watch out for a special message with an awesome opportunity for you to get a huge jumpstart on your efforts to “bring sexy back” this summer. If you would like to get an early notice, send your name and e-mail to hello@hometeamfitness.net with subject line “jumpstart”, and you’ll go to the head of the line. Believe me you want to be first in line…
Well, off I go, and be sure to check back here next week for our reports from one of the biggest bodybuilding and fitness events of the year!
Chad Smith is a Hagerstown personal trainer, and co-owner of Home Team Fitness Training with his wife, Kat. He has a weekly fitness column in the Herald Mail newspaper that is read by thousands weekly. Visit his website http://www.hometeamfitness.net, or find him on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/hometeamfitness. You can also listen to “Jumpstart” with Chad and Kat live weekdays at 12 pm EST on FTNS Radio http://www.ftns.co.
“Destination Transformation” Midpoint Updates
Posted by: | Comments“Destination Transformation in in full effect as we reach the 4 week midway point of our little competition. Our contestants are making strides towards the prize: a brand new Apple iPad, and a year of personal training!
Here are the current standings:
Lynn Smith:
5.4 lbs lost, -2% bodyfat, -7.5 inches, 60 sec BW Squats +18, 60 sec Pushups -2, 60 sec Situps -1 for 32 total points!
Jeff Koser:
10 lbs lost, -1.3% bodyfat, -6.75 inches, 60 sec BW Squats +24, 60 sec Pushups +18, 60 sec Situps +4 for 64 total points!
William Gorsuck, Jr:
5 lbs lost, -2.8% bodyfat, -4.25 inches, 60 sec BW Squats +18, 60 sec Pushups +4, 60 sec Situps +0 for 34 total points!
Greg Petricevic:
2.8 lbs lost, -1.4% bodyfat, -7.5 inches, 60 sec BW Squats +11, 60 sec Pushups +10, 60 sec Situps +5 for 38 total points!
Brad Kegerise
11.6 lbs lost, -8.6% bodyfat, -3 inches, 60 sec BW Squats +4, 60 sec Pushups -4, 60 sec Situps +15 for 42 total points!
These final 4 weeks are going to be trying physically and mentally. The workouts are more intense, the temptation for slackertude greater! But I’m confident that we’ll see the inner animals in this awesome group of people come through, ripping and tearing at their goals, as they head to the finish! Stay tuned for another update next week!
Chad Smith is Hagerstown personal trainer, fitness columnist, and Co-Owner of Home Team Fitness Training. visit his website, http://www.hometeamfitness.net, or find him on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/hometeamfitness
Hagerstown Personal Trainer Burns Planet Fitness
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According to Planet Fitness CEO Mike Grondahl, personal training is little more than “renting a friend”. Grondahl observes in his letter written to PF owners that selling personal training is a fraud, and doesn’t fit the “no judgement zone” model. He continues, stating that the company plans to use the no personal training rule as a marketing tool.
Oh boy, where do I begin?
First and foremost let me say that after training over 25,000+ sessions, and working with hundreds of people in my career, I’ve built a pretty strong case against Grondahl’s assertion that selling personal training is a fraud, and condescending. The life altering results I’ve produced over the years fly in the face of the ignorant mess that is currently coming out of his mouth. The whole Planet Fitness business model is the biggest fraud in the fitness industry. Let’s barebones a facility selling a bogus “no judgement” philosophy, fill it up with as many people as we can paying ten bucks a month, and bank on the fact that without proper guidance most of them will never use their memberships. Rinse, repeat.
For this guy to talk this way about personal training displays an uncanny ignorance of what the proven benefits are, and his complete lack of understanding of how to make it work in a club. A strong group exercise program, and a solid, systemized personal training program are the 2 biggest member retention tools in a club. Having skilled, qualified personal trainers servicing your members fitness goals is most often the tipping point of their success in the club. This is common knowledge in our industry, and for Grondahl not to acknowledge this, and built on it makes me wonder how he became CEO of a major club chain.
While I agree that overly agressive personal trainers is not condusive to a member’s positive experience in a club, delivering results is. It takes a the right trainers being trained and led by the right managers to produce consistent results and enhance the total member experience to make your club a success. If you aren’t prepared to do that, then I guess stopping personal training in your clubs makes sense. But to me, that’s the laziest move to make. The best way to create raving fans of your club is to deliver results, so to use no personal trainers as a marketing tool is essentially saying “we don’t care about helping you reach your goals, join our club”.
Good luck Planet Fitness, I believe you’ll be out of business within ten years. More and more clubs are figuring out that the best way to beat your club is not to reduce prices, but to add more value to their memberships. I believe with this bonehead move, you’ll soon be the ones playing catch up.
For the details of this story read it HERE.
Fat loss expert Chad Smith is a Hagerstown personal trainer, and Co-Owner of Home Team Fitness Training, a personal training company that specializes in 30 minute fitness solutions for busy people. Visit his website http://www.hometeamfitness.net, or say hello on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/hometeamfitness.
It’s All Fun And Games Until…
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Not a matter of IF, but WHEN...
It is amazing the risks some people will choose to take even in the face of good advice. I ws training the other day, and I see a friend of mine, who is a pretty strong guy about to do a max effort bench press on the Smith Machine. Now, normally I don’t advise people on their training when I’m a the gym for my own training, but concerned for my friends safty, I offer up some sound advice. He was lifting into the 400′s, and I gave him a brief rundown on the dangers of max effort lifting in the Smith Machine. I told him when doing max effort lifting, mechanics is king, and allowing your joints to follow their natual movement patterns unobstructed is the key to minimizing injury risks, and insuring maximum performance. He responded with “thanks, I like the isolation though”.
Hmmm. Let’s try again.
Then I told him that the bench press isn’t an “isolation” exercise. That it is a compound exercise, using more than one set of joints to move the weight, and that if he keeps training like he is, an injury WILL happen. His training partner got it, and was moving towards the regular banch to switch to a freeweight barbell bench press, but not my man. Nope, even with the advice I was giving him from my experience as a trainer, competitive powerlifter, and bodybuilder, his response was “I’m good”.
Really? And then he asked me to spot him on a set of negative reps with weight he’d never even attempted…oy.
See, it’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt. The first and foremost thing that should be considered in any training program is risk vs payoff. If you aren’t a competitive athlete of some sort, why risk life and limb when there is clearly a better way? That’s like me offering you a clean fuel burning car that gets 50 miles per gallon, and you keep driving your same old Camry because it what you’re used to. Makes no sense. I’m done ranting. Please train smart, before you train hard. And take good advice when you get it. Even if it’s not from me, lol.
Chad Smith is a Hagerstown Personal Trainer, and Co-owner of Home Team Fitness, LLC. For more information on his life changing programs, visit www.hometeamfitness.net.
Hagerstown Fitness Exposes Terrible Home Fitness Equipment Pt. 1
Posted by: | CommentsIn my Sept 6 Herald Mail column, I talked about wht I consider to be some of the worse “ab trainers” found on TV. I wanted to show you the infomercials that go along with these horrible, and ineffective pieces of equipmet.
First the “Ab Circle Pro”:
Uggggh…just terrible. No wonder JNL had to be near naked in the commercial to sell this crap.
Body By Jake “Ab Scissors”:
This thing actually sold a few hundered thousand units. And the country is still fat. Any questions? There are a TON more I could have showed you, but you’d be here all day. Most of the home “fitness solutions” are worthless, save your money, and get an experienced trainer who will teach you how to get results safely and consistently. By the way, our “Metabolic Mayhem” Fat Loss Training is back in full effect Wednesday at 6am or 5:30pm. If you are interested in getting a guaranteed 1-2% fat loss every week, call us 240.217.5713!
Chad Smith is a Hagerstown personal trainer, and co-owner of Home Team Fitness with his wife Kat. Visit www.hometeamfitness.net for more information.
