My Approach

Hey Sam,

I know you're a trainer and stuff.  What is your basic approach to working with someone?  I want to tone up for the summer and get healthier in general.  I keep hearing different stuff from all these trainers and bloggers.  I am serious about making healthy changes to my life. You seem like you have success, so I'd like to know what you do.

Thanks,

Manny (Fresh)

Mr. Fresh, I appreciate the question.  I always start with the goals of a client in order to turn broad goals like 'tone up' and 'get healthier' into more tangible, measurable goals we can track and put a realistic dates for improvements to be seen.  That is a necessity in my profession.  I'm not saying that you should not have intangible, highly subjective goals; in fact I recommend that you record your daily energy levels as well as how you feel you look naked into the 'lifestyle journal' I will make for you.  

You will use their 'lifestyle journal' to help you connect how your habits of eating, sleeping and exercising and recovering from exercise habits with how you perform, feel and trend in relation to your goal.  My approach to working with anyone is comprehensive; from here on in my career I am only willing to work with people who have a desire for lasting improvement to their health and fitness. It sounds like you have a sincere to improve yourself, so I have to tell you that working on your own personal development can really facilitate this; experimentation with implementing rational living therapy, mental acuity drills and reading about various interesting topics are good examples. 

I am a big fan of the 'lifestyle journal' because it is a direct way to give you feedback in relation to how the choices you make either bring you closer to, or further away from your short-term and ultimate goals. I also feel that we, you and I have to negotiate performance goals that are relevant to your pursuit of a toned body  and improved health.  The performance goals I will recommend are always rooted in strength, because strength is "the most general of athletic adaptations" according to notable strength guru Mark Rippetoe.

Your ability to become significantly more proficient with balance, coordination, power and the worthwhile cardio pursuits (thats right, many cardio-based fitness pursuits are not beneficial, potentially damaging) is dependent on your ability to repeatedly produce muscular force.  If I can directly help you improve  your physical strength then that will help improve all aspects of your performance and put you in a powerful position to fulfill your health and appearance goals.  

Therefore, I tend to focus on strength training when actually performing my training sessions with clients; complemented by conditioning drills/tests/goals that  rely on the ability to repeatedly produce force in the physical environment.  As a sincere health/fitness enthusiast improves their performance, stabilizes their sleeping habits and improves their eating/exercise recover habits they will get closer and closer to their goal.  Will that be you?  I am always looking for sincere clients. 

Keep in mind that I just made this sound easy, and that's because it can be that easy if you 'buy in' to my comprehensive approach to some significant degree. So, now I have some questions for you:

How much are you willing to re-organize your life and schedule to reach your goal?  

How good do you want to be at managing your time and energy to sleep appropriately, do recovery activities, exercise regularly on your own and eat nutritious food?  Heck, are you ready to find out what makes a food nutritious?

Are you willing to discipline yourself, make some sacrifices and persevere despite all other bullshit happening in your life?

The bottom line is that I can design the greatest comprehensive exercise program you ever smelled, but it's only as good as your motivation, focus, desire and ability to respond to adversity.   My approach is comprehensive because that is the only way to make lasting improvements to health and fitness.

If you are sincere and this sounds good to you, or anybody out there reading this then all you have to do is contact me in order to work out a time for a consultation. Love you all.  

My Resources

By Sam Suska

Nearly every week I get asked how I keep up with research, and how I continue to evolve my views on lifestyle, nutrition and exercise.  Therefore I decided to put together a blog with all of the blogs/podcasts/article sites that I frequent in order to accumulate knowledge and perspective about nutrition, exercise, health and life in general. After all, as Chris Kresser (one of the author/clinician that I follow) says "there is more to health than food, and there is more to life than health."

First, here are the scientific-dense blogs that I make a point to thoroughly understand and recall in order to integrate the new findings and thought processes into my present paradigm. I am not a scientist and have no desire to be one, but I know that being very comfortable with using the sciences to explain my suggestions will give my readers (I am writing a book) higher levels of confidence to use them to change their own lives for the better.  

Here are the best science based blogs:

http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/

http://chriskresser.com/ (check out the podcast)

http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/

http://www.jackkruse.com/

http://www.cholesterol-and-health.com/index.html

http://www.cavemandoctor.com/

http://www.archevore.com/

Next, I frequent the following sites for more practical information.  The authors of these sites also tend to use a lot of science in explaining and determining their suggestions, but that aspect is less important than simply relaying the information to the public in a readily applicable manner.

http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/#axzz2LPFFEcOs

http://undergroundwellness.com/radio/

http://evolutionarypsychiatry.blogspot.com/?m=1

http://robbwolf.com/blog/ (check out the podcast)

http://articlesofhealth.blogspot.com

Finally, within the scope of practical application here are the fitness and spirituality based sites that I frequent.   From these sites I learn a little bit almost every single day to help me as a personal trainer and more importantly keep me grounded and working toward my goals of personal development and optimal health and fitness.

http://www.mobilitywod.com/

http://www.hulsestrength.com/





http://www.charlespoliquin.com/

http://www.8weeksout.com/

http://www.jimwendler.com/category/blog/

http://robertsontrainingsystems.com/articles/

http://www.paulcheksblog.com/

In addition to these I also follow Jim Smith, a fitness writer for muscle and fitness, as well as Greg Everett who is a highly Ssuccessful Olympic lifting coach.  I watch all of Elliott Hulse's videos on YouTube and I occasionally read the work of Dr. Mark Hyman, Dr. Joel Furman and Michael Pollan all of whom have inspired me with their books in my formative years as a health and fitness enthusiast.  Best wishes in expanding your health and fitness knowledge base.  Take care.

http://www.paulcheksblog.com/

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/#axzz2LPFFEcOs

http://www.jimwendler.com/category/blog/

http://www.8weeksout.com/

http://robbwolf.com/blog/

http://evolutionarypsychiatry.blogspot

http://robertsontrainingsystems.com/articles/

Here are some other healthy, less scientific blogs:

http://www.paulcheksblog.com/

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/#axzz2LPFFEcOs

http://www.jimwendler.com/category/blog/

http://www.8weeksout.com/

http://robbwolf.com/blog/

http://evolutionarypsychiatry.blogspot.com/?m=1

http://robertsontrainingsystems.com/articles/