Tag: Personal Trainer

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5 Steps to Getting Back on Track

September is already half way done, did you plan to get back into your fitness routine once the kids went back to school, or after vacation but you just can’t seem to get back at it? Maybe you need to get back on the fitness wagon or your present fitness routine feels just blah and you need to shake things up to stay motivated. Whatever your situation may be, here are 5 steps to take before you jump head first into something new.

Step 1: Find Your Why?

What’s your internal motivation? All too often we focus on external motivators like weight loss for appearance or to make someone else happy; but if you want to start a fitness plan that works for you and makes YOU happy, you need to identify your fundamental reason for being active.

What internally motivates you to move your body and seek a healthier, active lifestyle? For example: do you want to feel stronger, more confident, and energetic? Do you want to relieve aches and pains that come from leading a sedentary lifestyle? Or are you an avid endorphin chaser that has hit a wall and wants to make a change?

External motivators won’t keep you motivated for long because more often than not, goals like weight loss are too subjective and depend on a variety of other factors such as nutrition, sleep, stress, hormones, and much more. When we fail to attain these goals we get demotivated. However, once you find the root reason for being active and feel it working (energy, strength, mood elevation) you’ll be more likely to stick with your fitness goals.

Step 2: Baby Steps

You may have lofty goals but trying to overhaul your entire lifestyle (exercise, nutrition, sleep, water intake, etc) all at once will most likely leave you overwhelmed, drained and defeated. Start with what you can reasonably manage and add on from there. If you currently don’t exercise at all, eat a diet of processed foods and have a low water intake you shouldn’t start by buying a fridge full of whole foods, plan a 4 day a week gym routine and try to drink 2 L of water daily all at the same time. Try adding 2- 30 min walks to your week and cooking a healthy meal 1-2 times per week. Real, sustainable, and healthy change takes time because the outcome is to become more intuitively healthy for life. If you’re stressed about getting everything right from the get go; you’re more likely to fall short of your goals, feel like a failure and give up.

Ask yourself on a scale of 1-10, how likely are you to stick with a goal (Ex. Exercising 3 times/week) if the answer is less than 8 out of 10, you will most certainly not meet your goal. Adjust your goal until your answer is 8 or higher and you will most likely succeed.

Step 3: Don’t Overcommit

If committing to an hour long session at the gym or Bootcamp class feels daunting, then start with 20 minutes a few times a week. Some studios offer 30 minute classes, or you could work with a trainer to write you a 30 minute workout program. Heading out for a 20 minute bike ride or walk is better than doing 0 minutes and you will feel much better physically and mentally for having moved your body. You can gradually work your way up to the recommended 150 minutes of weekly activity.

On the other end of the spectrum, if you feel like the only way you will commit to a fitness routine is to make it official, look for a 4-6 week training program that takes into account your fitness level, your personal goals, and keeps you accountable.

Step 4: Recovery is Essential

Often when people jump into a new fitness regimen, they have an all or nothing mentality; this mentality is certainly fed by the fitness industry telling you that to be fit you have to be 110% committed. This mindset can lead people into dangerous territory, particularly when it comes to over training. Rest days, and active recovery are just as essential to your training program as your gym days. Cool down, stretching and recovery help your body heal and ultimately get faster and stronger more efficiently. Recovery looks like stretching, yin yoga, taking a walk, getting a massage, stretching, meditation, gardening, etc. Your body and your mind will benefit from these recovery activities, giving you time to enjoy other things which creates a more balanced lifestyle.

Step 5: Find What you Love!

Getting to the gym is half the battle; if you hate running on the treadmill and find yourself dreading it then DON’T run on the treadmill! If you absolutely abhor gyms, cardio machines and lifting weights then by all means abstain from doing these activities. The most important thing you can do to maintain an active and healthy lifestyle is to find an activity that makes you happy. Go hiking, skiing, skating, biking, rock climbing, or dancing. Join a soccer league or learn a new sport. If nothing truly interests you, don’t underestimate the power of a workout bud to make the gym or a fitness classes more interesting. Most importantly, keep an open mind; just because your high school gym teacher made you run beep tests and you hated it doesn’t mean you won’t like running now. Or you might think yoga is for hippies, cross training is for bros and biking requires far too much spandex, but you’ll never know what you enjoy most unless you get out there, lay down your heart and give it a go!

***Depending on your situation, you may want to get a doctors clearance before you start exercising and its always good to consult a professional trainer to ensure you are setting out on the right path.

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Classes In The Park Summer 2023!

Sweat in The Park is our original class series that we offered throughout the pandemic. While we no longer offer park classes during the weekdays, our Saturday Morning class will be in Parc Georges Saint Pierre during the sunny months and in case of rain, we will move the class indoors. Sweat is a high intensity cross training class that combines strength, endurance, and bootcamp style exercises. We bring equipment to the park to maximize the efficiency on the workout.

What : Group Fitness (Strength and Conditioning, HIIT, Bootcamp)

Where : Parc Georges Saint Pierre (Upper Lachine/Oxford)

When : Saturday 10-11am

Flow & Yin Yoga in the Park

Flow and Yin Yoga is held in Girouard Park (Marcil/Sherbrooke). This class is the antidote to all the intense training you engaged in throughout the week. We spend 15-20 minutes of the class warming our muscles and joints up with a gentle flow sequence and then we settle into deep Yin stretches for the remainder of the class. We bring blocks and straps to the park, you must bring your own mat.

What: Flow & Yin Yoga (Yoga Flow (Hatha/Vinyasa and Yin Yoga)

Where: Girouard Park (Marcil/Sherbrooke)

When: Sunday 11:15-12:15

Price : 20$ /class, class packs available.

***You must use our reservation system (PushPress) to pay and reserve classes.

Rules

You must bring your own mat or towel; we do not bring mats.

Don’t forget a water bottle.

Reserve your spot in advance to ensure you get a place. If you need to cancel, you must do so at least 3 hours in advance or be charged for the class.

If you have an injury or limitation, please let us know in advance so we can modify exercises accordingly.

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Fitness Basics: Discover Your Gym!

Recently I took on the challenge of creating workshops for people who walk into a gym and just don’t know where to start.  The machines can be intimidating, confusing and potentially harmful if you don’t know what you’re doing. Effective, safe training requires knowledge of how to properly sit on a machine, how to position yourself, and important reminders to not do certain things in order to avoid injuries.  

Squat and Press-Highly effective when done right…CHEST UP!

As a Personal Trainer, of course I will recommend you hire a trainer to reach your fitness goals, but I see poor form in the gym all the time, even with people who look like they were born in the gym.  

My wife and I gave a workshop at The Brix apartment building to help their residents get to know a few machines in their gym, the feedback we received was consistently the same; that they just never felt comfortable in the gym, that they only knew how to use a few things and would get bored easily.  We were so happy to be able to elevate their fitness experience in their home gym and look forward to continuing to increase their fitness knowledge.  We were excited to be able to motivate them to use their gym.

Push-ups 4 ways

YouTube videos can only take you so far, they won’t look at your form and tell you specifically what you are doing incorrectly, what you can do better and what you may want to focus on or be wary of for your specific situation.  We taught these 10 participants how to safely use the Lat Pull Down, how to use the Rowing Machine successfully, how to squat and press like a beast, as well as 4 different ways to do push-ups.   From there, in the sessions to come, we will continue to give them the basics while adding on different movements to keep things interesting.

Working out in a small group setting means everyone can get the attention they need

We followed up the workshop with a mini-bootcamp to make sure everyone left with an endorphin high, eager to get back at it!

Meeting neighbours and forming a community

Here are the photos from the first workshop, contact us if you’d like to provide this service to your residents or employees!

With MoFitness we get fit and learn together!

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Preparation and Motivation

woman in green tank top holding orange bell pepper

There are so many obstacles to getting to the gym, often they have to do with feeling ill-prepared for the class, or for the day to day things you need to get done.  Most of the time our own mind is our biggest enemy when it comes to making time for fitness; we can find a million excuses not to work out and that break in your resolve to get fit is what you need to condition yourself to overcome.  As a father of a 4 month old, with both my wife and I working; it is really easy to say, I’m too busy, I have errands, I need to wash diapers, I’m exhausted; sometimes those are very valid reasons and I do skip the workout but the best way to avoid these conflicts is to be organized. I wanted to share with you a few tips to help you get prepared for a successful and healthy week!  The following tips are from my personal life, what my wife and I do to make sure we both get in enough exercise throughout the week.

Meal Prep: Planning out your week’s meals means that you know exactly what you need to buy at the grocery store for the whole week thus eliminating multiple runs to the store.  You can chop and freeze your veggies ahead of time, prepare smoothie jars, pack a few days of lunches, etc…Weeks that we don’t meal plan are always way more hectic and I found that we don’t eat as healthy either.

Shakshuka!

Pack your bag :  Pack your bag the night before, that way it doesn’t feel as daunting or rushed when the time comes to go to your class. 

Don’t sit down :  Some days you can’t imagine leaving your sofa after you get home from work, the best way to overcome this mental obstacle is to power through and just do housework until you have to leave for class.  Clean the house, cook dinner…doesn’t matter what as long as you stay active.  Another way to motivate yourself for an evening class is to put your workout clothes on as soon as you get home.  

Drink tea : My wife is a teacher and she says that at least once a week after lunch, she often feels like she knows she wants to skip the gym after work because she feels too tired.  On those days she will drink an afternoon tea so that she has the energy to get to the gym.  

Drink water :  It’s a really good idea to hydrate through out the day.  When you don’t drink enough water, your body can feel sluggish, drinking enough water can keep you energized throughout the day and make sure you are properly hydrated for a sweaty workout.

Eat Properly :  Make sure you eat enough throughout the day to keep your body happy but don’t eat so much that you need a nap after lunch.

The 2 Hour Rule : Do not eat anything heavy within 2 hours of going to exercise…It’s best not to eat anything at all within that 2-hour period but sometimes with our chaotic life we can’t always plan things out so neatly. If you are STARVING then have something small and easy to digest like a banana, a handful of nuts, a piece of cheese. 

Get Enough Sleep : I know this is a tough one but getting 7 good hours of sleep consistently, lays the foundation for a successful day.  You’ll have enough mental and physical energy to accomplish what you need to do!

As with any good habit you want to adopt, consistency and frequency is key.  Prioritizing your health might feel like you have to sacrifice down time, or social time, but after a while it won’t feel like a sacrifice at all and you’ll find yourself looking forward to that endorphin rush.  Tell your friends you’ll meet them after your workout and they’ll admire you for your resolve and lament their inability to get to the gym.  On the days that it’s toughest to get to the gym, those are the workouts that will make you feel the best because not only will you have those happy exercise endorphins rushing through you but you’ll also have the knowledge that you put mind over matter and really earned an evening on the couch!

Moses

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Let’s Get Started!

I would just like to take the opportunity to tell you a little bit more about myself, my background, what brings me to Montreal, and what I can offer to the community.

First of all, I love fitness, leading an active lifestyle makes me the happy and well rounded individual that I have grown to be over the years. I believe that you can achieve your goals through natural means, without harmful substances; I will never advise anyone to take supplements, but I will help you build muscle or slim down through a sustainable and meaningful training program. My goal is not to train you forever but to teach you to become a fitness lover and to have the knowledge and confidence to continue the journey on your own.

Originally I am from Mwanza, Tanzania, a beautiful city on Lake Victoria, where I grew up picking fresh mangoes from trees and climbing the massive boulders around the lake shore. Due to my aptitude for fitness and friendly nature, I got my first job as a trainer in Mwanza at a small local gym. After some time, I moved to Morogoro and worked for the first ever fitness club in that city before moving to Dar Es Salaam, the largest city of Tanzania, to work in a high-end fitness club in the city centre. I was eventually recruited to work for the United Arab Emirates military on a base near Dubai, where I helped create a fitness program for soldiers and other personnel on site. After that I went to work for Etihad Airway’s ‘Fit to Fly’ program, where I trained pilots and cabin crew and developed a fitness program for their staff. Since then I have been working as a freelance trainer and fitness instructor in Abu Dhabi, UAE. I enjoy freelance work because it allows me the flexibility I need to work with clients on an individual level. I can train people at their home, in their gyms, at work, or in the park. I aim to build positive, strong, and long-lasting relationships with my clients.

I relocated to Montreal in 2019 with my wife and we have since had 2 beautiful children. When I first moved here I worked for a few different gyms around the island until Covid shut everything down. My wife and I started to give classes in the park and from there we expanded into a studio. We gave classes in the park all through the pandemic and online as well. Last year (2022) we expanded our studio and have been working hard to help our community stay active and achieve their goals. Opening my own studio has been a lifelong dream and we are so happy to be able to offer fitness services to our neighbours.