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Preventing Injuries
David Hansey
NASM Certified Performance Enhancement Specialist
NASM Certified Sports Fitness Specialist
NASM Certified Personal Trainer

I get a lot of questions from people on how to recover from injury and how to work out without aggravating an injury. Well, the best time to think about injury prevention is before you start training. We are all different. We all have different strengths and weaknesses and different levels of conditioning. This is why regardless of whether you are training for sports or whether you are training for fitness, you should do something that is unique for you.
So before you begin training, approach it in a scientific way so that you do not get to a point where you have to worry about recovery. First, before any training program, you need to sit down with your doctor and your trainer and review your fitness level and overall health. Are you seriously overweight? Then it is great that you want to get in shape or play a sport but it is also crucial that you understand your unique limitations. Are you going to put undue pressure on your joints? Do you have other health concerns? Or previous injuries?
Kids are a perfect example here. Kids today cannot go from couch to playing field. Most of them are just not in condition to play many sports without serious risk of injury. It is important that your body be conditioned to handle the demands of your sport. A study conducted by the National Association of Sport and Physical Education found that 50% of sports injuries are from overuse. You know these injuries. You know these as tennis elbow, golf elbow, lower back pain from golf, shoulder pain from baseball, etc.
The more interesting part of that study was that half of the sports injuries studied were found to have been preventable. How do you prevent them? By warming up, doing proper training for the sport and changing poor mechanics.
Many of us feel we understand these concepts. However, most people do all of these incorrectly or not at all. Warming up is NOT stretching. It is getting the muscle limber and warm so it can handle the demands of stretching during the sport. So, for example, if your sport is golf, this would mean moves like lunges and arm circles more than stretches.
Training for sports is another area where many people think they are doing the right thing. Even coaches get this one wrong. Even professional coaches have had this one wrong at times. Consider the elite tennis player. Coaches in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s used long distance running as a training tool. The mileage these athletes ran was great for cardiovascular conditioning but did nothing for the court game and did damage to joints. Tennis does not require that you can run at a steady pace in a forward motion for several miles. It requires you to run in many different directions (half of the game is lateral movement) in quick sprints. By running long distances, the athletes were never actually training for the sport.
Poor mechanics is another way to easily be injured. Many sports injuries are caused by this but many people also use poor mechanics at the gym. Lifting weights, whether in a fitness class or on a machine or on your own, is not just grabbing a weight and lifting up and down. If it is a machine, there are adjustments to make the machine fit you. If it is a free weight in the gym or in a class, there are key alignment issues for your body. And that is after you have ensured that these exercises are the right ones for you. Poor mechanics means you are not performing the move correctly. Normally this is due to the fact that you have weak or tight muscles that do not allow you to perform the move correctly and you compensate for those. An example is to do a squat and see if you move your knees in or out or turn your feet or lift your heels. Those are all compensation moves that make up for weak and tight muscles. Continually doing moves incorrectly can lead to injury because you put undue pressure on your joints. All the training in the world will not help you improve if you do not identify and target the weak and tight muscles and take steps to do corrective exercises for those muscles.
For more information on Sports Specific Training, visit my website at www.4fitbodies.com.

Tags: Chapel Hill News, Douglasville, Personal Training by David Hansey, Personal Trainer
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Functional Training – Not just for Sports

David Hansey
NASM Certified Performance Enhancement Specialist
NASM Certified Sports Fitness Specialist
NASM Certified Personal Trainer

I talk a lot about training for sports here. And while sports are a fun part of a lot of people’s lives, I think sometimes people think that personal training is only for the athlete. They forget that we are all involved in the sport of life and that life takes a toll on us in more ways than our sport ever could. You know when you hear about someone bending over and not being able to get back up because they have hurt their back so badly. Or someone’s knee just “giving out” and they fall and are injured. These are not freak accidents. They are signs from your body that you have been doing damage for a while and it finally has to let you down because it just cannot take the abuse anymore. Functional training allows you to stop abusing your body and allows you to do these things without the worry that you are going to injure yourself.

Do you lift children and packages in and out of your car? Do you sit at a desk (or in your vehicle or on a plane) for large periods of time? Do you have to stand for long periods of time? Are you a caregiver (to an adult or child) who must lift someone regularly or in an emergency? These are just examples but I think you will find that regardless of profession or lifestyle, we all have times where we do movements that put a strain on our body.

I realize that this kind of training may not be as glamorous as sports training, but the functional training concepts people use for sport training can help you do all of these things better. One of the concepts of functional training is to lift weights in a method that emulates the movement you are trying to perfect. So for example if you play tennis, you would have weight training movements that emulate the reach of the serve and you would do drills that emulate the quick directional changes required for tennis. A baseball player may use cable crossovers to emulate the motion of swinging a bat. Well this twisting weighted movement also works well for anyone because we all lift things out of our cars and twist with them. Think of all the times you lift your groceries or your golf clubs or your children out of the car.

Now that said, I don’t want to see everyone at the gym just twisting all over the place. The idea of personal training is to design a program for your life, your goals and your needs. In order to truly get a routine for you, you have to spend some time with a Certified Personal Trainer who can do an assessment on your posture and your movements in order to determine if you have any tight or weak muscles that need to be corrected. When your trainer pairs that assessment with your goals (to not have a stiff back in the morning, to lose 15 pounds, to run the Peachtree, etc) then it is possible to design a program that you can work on to meet these goals.

Functional training movements in your customized workout will make major differences to an athlete’s performance when they are added to a workout. And they will make a major difference in not only your fitness and appearance but also in the quality of life. Those little aches and pains like that sore back when you lift your toddler will be gone. For more information on Functional Training and Sports Specific Training, call me at 404-514-1896 or visit my website at www.4fitbodies.com.

Tags: Chapel Hill News, Douglasville, functional training, Personal Training by David Hansey, Personal Trainer
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Yes, it is that time of year again — WOOT!!

This weekend I will be running the ING Georgia Marathon. Ran it last year and fully expect to be fine but you know a marathon is a long way so I have been training but there is always that excitement that comes with such a long race.

So I am totally excited and doing my last week of prep work

Wish me luck
Dave

Tags: Douglasville, Fitness, Marathon Training, Personal Training by David Hansey, Personal Trainer
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I get all kinds of people asking me what is the best workout for them. And I see all kinds of ads and promotions here in Douglasville promoting this class, that class or that gym as the best group fitness class or workout program for everyone.

So let me lay it out for you. The best fitness program for you is one that is custom designed for you. BUT more than that, it has to be something you will do.

While I love to run, I meet people every day at the gym who would rather eat rocks than run. So running is not and should not be something that they consider. There are so many fun and effective fitness options.

Do you love the fine detailed look of muscle on your body. Then you need to strength train. So a 1/2 hour strength training workout custom designed for you by a board certified personal trainer is going to be something you want to look at. But you may HATE exercise machines. Guess what, then don’t use them. Come to the gym and learn how to use some free weights and cables and your own body weight to get an amazing workout. It will be better for your body and your mind.

Do you love fresh air? Me too. I am like a little kid that way. I feel better if I have had time to play outside. So every Saturday as much as I want to relax or work in the yard, I go out for a run at Sweetwater. I feel so refreshed after. There truly is nothing like seeing deer grazing in the field on a beautiful morning.

So step back for a second from what people tell you that you SHOULD DO. Or what ads are telling you is “right for you” Make a list of what you enjoy. Even things that are not necessarily fitness related.

Like here is an example: fresh air, rest, lowered stress, lean look of muscles, being with friends.

That list helps a personal trainer design your program. So you can do a couple of strength training sessions in the gym with your trainer for those muscles and then go walking with a couple of your friends at one of the great places to walk here in Douglas County.

Hope that helps you get some ideas on how to make fitness and working out more fun and to incorporate it into your life.

Tags: Douglasville, Fitness, fitness classes, group fitness, Personal Training by David Hansey, Personal Trainer
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Many people live life in a state of perpetual dehydration. There are external forces that cause it, sure. Like forced air heating, hot weather, sweating from a workout.

But I don’t usually find that people are dehydrated because they worked out too hard — sure sometimes — but not usually. And really I am not talking about that odd day where you feel a bit tired or dehydrated from your workout (or this time of year from your cold medicine)

I am talking about that fog that surrounds you regularly if you fail to hydrate. Those small headaches you might get, that rundown feeling, that need for a sugar boost or caffeine boost in the middle of the afternoon.

On the medical questionnaire for my personal training clients here in Douglasville, I ask about alcohol and caffeine consumption as well as medication and all the other host of medical questions. Some people drink WAY TOO MUCH CAFFEINE. Now, I love a couple of cups of coffee in the morning too but I am talking about chronic overconsumption. Reaching for a Red Bull or a Coke or even a coffee when you really should be downing some water not only does not hydrate you, it does the opposite.

As does alcohol. Both alcohol and caffeine have been found in studies to have beneficial uses in our life. But seriously, you know the studies were not assuming you drank 3 cups of coffee in the morning and then a few cokes and then a few beers. There are MANY people that go not only the entire day BUT DAYS without drinking pure water.

This week, take a couple of days and write down what you drink. EVERYTHING you drink. Juices, smoothies, juice drinks — these can all be packing on a lot of calories that are “hidden”. Beer, wine and coke can also be a lot of hidden calories and are dehydrating. So spend 2 days writing everything down. Get honest and see if you really drink 8 glasses of water or if it is more like 2. Want to get really honest? Record your food too and see the connection between lack of water consumption and overeating.

I hope this helps you to realize the importance of water on the basic functions of your body (one of those being metabolism)

Tags: Douglasville, healthy eating, Personal Training by David Hansey, Personal Trainer
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