Make sure to make plans to attend the HIT Centers Open House, Saturday, Feb. 18th. You, your friends, and your family are all welcome! There will be special events and plenty of helpful information available.

Hours: 8am – 1:00pm

Events:

9:00am Youth Sports Performance Ages 11-14
Kick-off for our new program that improves speed, agility, and
sports skills. Space limited to 10.

10:00am Boot Camp – Adult
One hour of fitness excitement! Space limited to 20

Bod Pod body composition assessments, 75% off. By appointment.

Basic Fitness Assessment, FREE! By appointment.

Raffle prizes and more.

RSVP to info@mesapersonaltraining.com

Make sure to make plans to attend the HIT Centers Open House, Saturday, Feb. 18th. You, your friends, and family are welcome. There will be special events and plenty of helpful information available.

Hours: 8am – 1:00pm

Events:

9:00am Youth Sports Performance Ages 11-4
Kick-off for our new program that improves speed, agility, and
sports skills. Space limited to 10.

10:00am Boot Camp – Adult
One hour of fitness excitement! Space limited to 20

Bod Pod body composition assessments, 75% off. By appointment.

Basic Fitness Assessment, FREE!. By appointment.

Raffle prizes and more.

RSVP to info@mesapersonaltraining.com

So, it seems the internet has been sipping on some Crossfit hateraid lately and Im having a little trouble figuring out why? My initial response was that trainers that dont train or believe in Crossfit are all bent up about the recent commercials for it and “the sport of fitness.”

This is my first response to Crossfit commercials…..thanks Kenny.

My second response to Crossfit commercials is the literal one…..THE………SPORT……..OF…………FITNESS………

Now there are trainers all over the internet spewing blogs on how bad Crossfit is, how it has horrible program design with no periodization or specificity, coached by weekend warrior certified trainers, and how you are going to tear your rotator “Cup”………

That makes this much sense…..

Here is my problem with these trainers (and I am not a Crossfit trainer).

Just like anything, Crossfit may not fit for everyone, on the other hand, it can be made to fit for ALMOST anyone.

The lack of imaginative design IS THE DESIGN! The workouts are designed to elicit a certain physiological response. A row machine only gets as exciting as the Fish Game. Your overly thought out progressive workouts are also un-imaginative if you really sit and think about it. (trust me……I write plenty of them….then spend more time trying to explain why we are doing something so slow and boring for so long)

If you call it a rotator cup, your fired, never step foot in a gym again.

You can tear muscles, break bones, tear ligaments, drop weights on your face, fall off the back of a treadmill, twist your ankle, strain your back, OR TEAR YOUR ROTATOR CUFF doing any type of exercise. Like I said before, I dont train Crossfit and I am not a coach, but guess what……I have torn ligaments in my shoulder that required surgery as well as tearing meniscus’ in both of my knees…..Injuries will happen.

Here is how you should look at Crossfit, its theory and methodology, and what the haters are lacking.

It is a game.

Baseball is a game too, yet nobody says, “hey, baseball is a horrible fitness program! You could get hurt, It has unimaginative designs and rules, dont play it.” All of that might be correct looking at it from the wrong angle.

If we think about Crossfit as a sport, or a game, rather than a stand alone exercise program you will see it for much more of what it is. Your WOD (workout of the day) is your practice, or your training (specific) to the sport you have involved yourself in. Your event (which you may or may not know what exercises you will be doing at it) is the game.

Kipping pull ups and handstand pushups are just part of the game. So dont get all tangled up on the fact that when someone does 100 pullups you are stuck on the fact that you can only do 8……..learn to kip.

I would love to say come into the Hit Center and give Crossfit a try…..but we dont do it. However, the intensity you achieve with Crossfit is achievable and programs are designed to be fun and challenging. So, maybe your not ready for Crossfit, stop by and see us and what we can do to get you ready!

Your life is busy. You probably dont have time to make healthy meals, let alone get a worth while workout in! You have kids and you probably have to take them to soccer practice. Your minivan probably looks like a McDonalds garbage can. After your long day of work you probably just want to sit down and have some family time. Your dog doesnt really want to go on a walk, he would rather sit down and continue sleeping his life away. Your kids know that they are in control of their own lives and that their health is their decision, so they will choose the right path of health soon. Your doctor has your best interest at heart and he is not worried about how he is going to pay his insurance premiums, so the pills he prescribes you after a 3 minute conversation are probably what you actually need. When it is time to lose weight you will just take HCG because what you dont know cant hurt you. You earn your relaxing vacations and deserve to indulge while on them.

You are a product of society.

You are busy, you work 2 jobs, so you routinely see 5am. You welcome your day with a quick run or 50 pushups because you know that working out, even just a little, will help you have energy throughout the day. You make the majority of your meals on Sunday in preparation for your week because that’s the only day you have time. You make cooking family time, and when you are done you take your dog and family on a nice walk around your neighborhood (your dog thanks you). You know that the examples you set for your kids will impact them for the rest of your life and you use that as motivation to be the best you can be for yourself. You know that your kids will see that you take care of yourself, and they will reflect on that. You haven’t even turned your tv on today so you are unaware of the fad diets and workout videos, you use your kettlebell and pull up bar. You never get sick, so you dont take pills. You know that proper nutrition reflects a strong immune system and that motivates you. You wish the doctors all the best and respect and understand their necessity and you avoid judgment of others, but you know how to take care of yourself. You plan your vacations around the activities they can offer you and use them as opportunities to experience the world.

You are NOT a product of society, you are an outlier.

Where do you fit in? What are you doing to do about it?

Do you sometimes feel lightheaded or does your face turn bright red after a set of lifting?  Chances are you are not breathing correctly. Breathing correctly can be just as important as making sure you are lifting the right amount of weight or your lifting for enough repetitions. When breathing is done correctly you are clearing all of the carbon dioxide in your body and you are fully oxygenating the working muscles in the lift.  If your muscles are fully stocked with the right amount of oxygen then don’t expect your muscles to give you 100% effort.  Not only will you not be at 100% effort but holding your breathe can have negative side effects such as a sudden increase in dizziness, quick increase in blood pressure, and being prone to fainting.  According to an article published in Heart Lung, the physiological process that occurs while holding your breath, starts with a decrease in venous return (the amount of blood coming from the veins to the heart), due to the strain of effort. Next, an increase in both venous and artery pressures occurs. Because this increased pressure makes it harder for your heart to pump blood, it compensates by increasing its pumping rate and force. Once you resume normal breathing, the blood that pumps to the heart  increases so quickly that the heart does not have time to alter its rate and force of pumping. Thus, it continues pumping hard and fast with a much higher volume of blood, while the arteries remain constricted. Since there is no room for that extra blood in your arteries, the pressure of your arteries elevates to a much higher level than if you were to breathe normally during exercise.

So how do you fix this? The exhale portion should be down during the concentric portion of a lift. Simply put, when you are doing the actual work part of the lift or the exertion part, that is when you should be exhaling.  An example would be when you are doing a dumbbell bicep curl, the easier part of the lift is when you are lowing the dumbbells the harder part is the curl part which is the exertion portion of the lift; in which case you are going to inhale while you lower the dumbbell and exhale when you are doing the work or curling the dumbbell. Another example would be a crunch or sit up.  The hardest part is bringing the head to the knees, which would be your “doing the work” portion of the exercise, so when you are lowering yourself inhale and when you come back up exhale.

Is this little tip going to turn you into a superhero or take your max bench press from 150 to 300? Not a chance, BUT it will help you become as efficient as possible when you are doing every rep for your whole workout. Not to mention it is nice to have less feelings  of dizziness and possibly fainting!

It always helps to understand the basic principles of strength training when you start a program to maximize the benefits by shortening your learning curve.  As you progress keep asking questions of your fitness professional/trainer, knowledge is power!

Muscular strength is a muscles ability to generate force. The purpose of strength training is to increase muscle and connective tissue size, density, and resilience. Bigger muscles and stronger connective tissues are less prone to injury and aid in long-term weight management. Muscle tissue burns more calories than fat at rest. Strength training will also improve muscular endurance, the muscles ability to perform repeated muscular contractions over a period of time.
Muscular endurance is important in the ability to perform everyday activities like standing, walking, running, and sitting!

Keys to developing strength:

* Warm-up to increase tissue temperatures and flexibility before any training.
* Vary your exercises so you don’t overload/overuse a specific muscle group.
* Work slowly, focusing on proper technique.
* Use a gentle progression as you strength improves.
* Moderation is the key to avoiding injury and downtime.
* Schedule adequate rest periods to allow your body to recover and become stronger.

Hello, my name is Paige Parke and I am new to the Hit Center. I thought a short story might be fitting to introduce myself:

Short story

I am originally from Dallas, Texas. I then carried on my education to Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah on a softball scholarship. I graduated from BYU in 2006 with a B.S. in Exercise Science. I truly enjoyed my time there however the cold was always hard for this southern girl. After graduating I returned back to Texas for about a year working as an exercise specialist in a facility in my home town and also starting my own business giving softball lessons. At this point in my story I met my future husband and we dated for over a year and then married in 2007. Once married we moved back up to Salt Lake City, Utah because my husband was getting his masters at the University of Utah. We resided in Utah for the length of his master’s degree and once he graduated we promptly moved down here to Arizona. We absolutely love Arizona, I love the fact that I can be outside everyday! I love watching and playing any sport (except soccer, sorry). While being here in Arizona, my husband and I are first time home buyers and we also have two little dogs; Yogi and Vader that are full of energy. So, this is my short story in a nutshell. I am energized about being apart of the team here at the Hit Center and looking forward to getting to know all the wonderful members.

Who wants to go to the beach!?

Ok, me too! Make sure you bring everything you own, that way when we walk down to the area we are going to set out our blanket your legs are on fire and your shoulder is about to fall off.

Make sure you have a rolling cooler (cuz 3 inch wheels work great in sand) that way its like your dragging a dead body across 200 feet of deep dry sand.

Tired yet? Now go run in the surf…..make it in slow motion……also shake your hair all over the place until your neck spasms.

lol

Sounds like a workout right? We have all done something like this at one point or another (maybe not the slow motion run. Besides when you run in slomo but the ocean doesn’t,  it just doesn’t look as good..)

I began integrating sand workouts into my bootcamps a while ago. At first to just change up the routine and start to activate a little different type of muscle warfare. Turns out adults like to play in the sand! On top of that, the cool new thing is to get as filthy as possible while you are working out…..get all primal on those weights!

Look how fun this look!

Sand is a great….substance…..to force your body to get stronger. Its unstable, uneven, does not allow for proper(normal) force production, and your body cant predict it. These are also a big component of why your body complains about it afterwords. On top of playing in the sand, sand bags (another new cool thing) are cheap, heavier than hell, adjustable, and can mimic movements you usually would need a lot more equipment to do.

Take that sandbag!

We have all seen that 300 year old guy running on the beach in the mornigs, whether it be in a movie or real life….just think to yourself………he must be doing something right huh? I try to keep science out of as much explanation as possible, because even though science is awesome to me, its stupid to most of you. So lets just try to be like that 300 year old. PLAY IN THE SAND!!!

like I said…..300 years old!

You survived!

Atleast you think so, I mean, your still functioning. You still find yourself at work and going through the daily grind right?

The holidays are, at best, lifestyle homicide. Its no wonder new years comes a week later! It if were any later we would never pull out! The time from Thanksgiving to New Years is often filled with excuses on why you should eat out (your busy right!?), why you should eat excessively at home (you only eat this stuff once a year…….so go big or get out!), your family is around (you generally don’t like them, so put food in everyone’s mouth so talking is harder and there is a good excuse not to!).

You work all year at developing a healthy lifestyle all to let it go over the holidays, because the year was long and hard and its a perfect time to give up.

Now, im not saying you shouldn’t enjoy the holidays, by all means its the holidays! Im just as guilty as the next person, but there’s a distinct difference in celebrating in moderation or in excess and the difficulty associated with falling back to normalcy.

Here are some things that happen over the holidays-

When you eat high amounts of calories over an extended period of time you are training your body to expect higher amounts of calories. You essentially are telling your body to expect “this” as a new normal. So, when you go back to your nomal ~2000 calories per day diet you feel like your starving. (its ok, your not)

When you eat higher fat/sodium/sugar your body starts to crave more of it. These three substances are our bodies innate physiological cravings. You will absolutely have a difficult time over coming these cravings once your body expects them.

Your body wants to be lazy. This is why working out inherently sucks and eating always feels good. We have ancient bodies and the more you are lazy, the easier it is to continue to be lazy. 1+1=1…..

It takes 21 days to make a break a habit. Perfect timing from Thanksgiving to New Years (5 weeks). That’s 2 weeks longer than necessary, and generally the Christmas/New Years extensions can make up that 21 days alone. Expect that it will take you as long, or longer, to break the habits you make over the holidays!

The New Years resolution excuse. This is everyone’s feel good excuse for destroying last years habits in December. Your just going to fix it all in January right? Well consider everything you just read and actually stick to that excuse (or for some of you “reason”). Its not always fun, easy, or convenient, but you can change for the better just like you changed for the worse. Just take on the same determination and you’ll be all leveled out and normal again in no time!

And remember – The Hit Center can help! We are running some sweet deals on bootcamp classes as well as Personal Training this month so stop in or give us a call at 480-981-0600

Have a great ……normal life!