Friends and neighbors

Exercise – our story.  Exercise of course is a huge component of any health improvement plan.  As you probably know, there are many different ideas about what the best type of exercise or exercise program is.  Here is a list of some of the most well known types of exercise: Cardiovascular Training (what most people call it for running, cycling, etc); Strength Training; Core Training; Yoga; Bootcamp Training; and Interval Training.  All of these are great forms of exercise, and all sorts of people see great results using 1 or more of them in their workout program. 

I have been training and coaching people for 15 years now to improve their health and lives.  In the beginning of my career I focused mainly on having my clients focus on strength and core training using a variety of workout methods such as the regular “bodybuilding” method and circuit or interval training.  The bodybuilding method is basically where you train “bodyparts” at a high intensity for a given set of reps then rest 1-3 minutes between sets.  Also I would instruct my clients to make sure and get there “cardio” training either after our 45 minute strength training workout and or on the days they were not training with me. 

In 2001 or 2002 I went to a seminar for continuing education credits.  Honestly I was very unhappy about going because most of the courses I had been to in the past for the c.e.c.’s had not been very good as far as actually learning anything applicable.  One of the presenters was Juan Carlos Santana.  He took 50+ of us trainers in a huge room and showed us how to quickly and easily set up a workout that trainers could use to train 1 or much more clients at the same time.  And the beauty was that it was simple to make it work for almost anyone at any level of fitness.  The workout was based off of “functional” real life movements, and focused on building many important variables of fitness: Strength, Power, Flexibility; Agility; coordination; and Cardiovascular fitness.  And all this was accomplished in the same workout!  And again, it was so simple.  He chose 5 basic exercises that took about 10 seconds each to demonstrate, and all together they encompassed the above mentioned fitness variables.  The workout was set up on the basis of “Interval Training” in a Circuit.  We worked for short periods of high intensity (relative to individual) work, followed by short rest periods.  ANd voila, that is where our Super Circuit Training was born from.

Again, I had used Interval and Circuit training before, especially with our athletes in the attempt to get more done in less time.  But I had never seen the power and simplicity of it before in this light.  I had one of those “Oh Yeh!” moments.  I left that seminar and the next week we had a trainer’s meeting at God-Built.  I introduced this workout style to all the trainers and let them know that we were transitioning to this type of workout from here forward.  So we did, and so we still do focus mainly on Interval type workouts.

Now let me just tell you that I am not one usually to jump on the bandwagon, especially in my line of work with fitness and health.  When I saw that weekend that I could accomplish all my goals with my clients of improving their overall strength, mobility, agility, coordination, core power, and cardio conditioning all in the same workout, I knew this was what we were going to do at God-Built.  The main reason of course came down to effeciency and results.  For years I knew it was a “reach” to try to get our clients to commit to doing “cardio” work outside of their training with us.  So this was a true solution for us in helping our clients.

So there is the story of a big part of where our type or style of workouts came from.  We of course have evolved over the last 9-10 years since then, constantly working on improving our workouts and challenging our clients.  And all this is told in part to let you know that Interval Training is by far the best overall style of training that there is.  Yes you can workout other ways and get good results, but if your goal is to improve several areas of performance and fitness in less time, then INTERVAL training is your best bet.  Check out this for an easy way to describe Interval training: Performing Work at a High Intensity for short bursts of time followed by short rest periods.

Here are a few specific examples of High Intensity Interval Training:

Choose 1+ exercise then Work 20 seconds, rest 10 seconds, repeat 8 times

Choose 5 exercises, complete as many reps in 1 minute of each exercise.  Rest 20 seconds between exercises.  complete 1+ round

Run 1 minute, Rest 1 minute.  Repeat 5+ times.

Remember with High Intensity Interval Training FORM / CONTROL is extremely important.  You must understand and be able to perform your exercises correctly or you drastically increase your chance of injury.  Also, remember, intensity is relative to each individual.  You push yourself at a level that is hard, but doable under control.  ANd of course, your best bet is always to find a qualified Trainer to help you to make sure you are doing the right things the right ways.

YOUR HEALTH, YOUR LIFE, YOUR CHOICE  Godbless u kj