Category: Personal Training

Strengthen Your Abs With Reverse Crunches

Power up your abs with this exercise - How To Perform A Reverse Crunch by Jennifer Ledford

Your abdominals are part of your body’s foundation so it’s important to maintain them properly.  Strong abdominals help support your back,  can improve your posture, and even help you look leaner.

While looking leaner or more toned can be a useful goal that motivates people to strengthen their abs, it’s important to remember that health and being physically fit is always more important than trying to achieve a perfectly flat stomach.  Bodies come in all shapes and sizes and not everyone has a naturally flat stomach so I recommend focusing on your health first. When you truly focus on being healthy on the inside, your outward appearance will benefit aswell.

In today’s video, I share a VERY effective abdominal exercise that you can perform almost anywhere.  I actually filmed the video in the tiny beach house we are renting while our house is on the market.   🙂

Enjoy the video and have a great week!

Shared with love,
Jennifer

How To Strengthen Your Abs With Reverse Crunches

Link to Power Systems Small Exercise Ball (not necessary but recommended) in video

 

Why It’s Important To Set Your Own Goals

The Importance of Setting Your Own Goals

Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash

As a personal trainer part of my job includes asking clients to share their goals and what they would like me to help them with when it comes to their health and fitness.  It’s during this initial consultation that the client will share with me what has worked for them in the past, what they like, don’t like, etc.

Human beings are designed to want to set goals and achieve them.  Goals fuel the desires of our heart and help us to live out our lives to the fullest.

I don’t think anyone ever sets a goal or takes on a challenge with the intention of giving up. However, I do think that setting goals that are unrealistic or not your own can be a recipe for failure.  What’s motivating you is a very important thing to consider when pursuing your dreams and goals.  Is it a strong desire in your heart or are you wanting acceptance from another person?  It’s okay to prove to the world they were wrong about you as long as it’s something YOU want.  Simply wanting “revenge” is still allowing another person or society to control your life.

Once you’ve determined that the goal you’ve set is something that is important to you and you would do it whether people cheer you on or not, take a moment to look closely at the goal you’ve set and ask yourself whether or not it is aligned with your values and current priorities.

While looking like your favorite Hollywood celebrity may seem like a fantastic goal, after discovering what’s required you may decide that it’s not the goal for you.  Even more importantly, you might discover that due to your natural body type it would be extremely unhealthy and painful for you to even attempt to get there.

To achieve true success it’s critical that your goals be your own. Copying someone else’s life will  never feel quite right because it wasn’t meant for you.  It’s okay to follow general guidelines and success patterns, but your own goals need to be customized to fit your life and should be meaningful to you.

It’s also important to set boundaries around your goals.  Some trainers and/or coaches can unintentionally set goals for you.  While their intentions are good, they can set the client up for failure if they are imposing goals that are unrealistic or do not fit and serve the client’s lifestyle.

Goals Are Like Oxygen

The fitness industry often makes too many assumptions that everyone wants to live and look just like a fitness model.  While that might be something everyone would love to naturally achieve, not everyone wants to live the lifestyle of a fitness model nor do they have the body type to look like the models most fitness magazines hire.  Avoid allowing a coach or trainer to try to stuff you into their box of what they think your goals should look like.  This principle doesn’t have to be limited to health and fitness and can apply to any area of your life.

Goals are like oxygen.  They help us get out of bed in the morning.  No matter what the goal is related to (i.e. family, personal, business, etc.), I encourage you to follow your own personal path. I personally believe that God has a unique journey planned for each and every one of us and when we follow that inner voice, we walk toward our destinies.

Shared with love,
Jennifer

Being Fit Versus “Looking” Fit

Being Fit Versus "Looking" Fit - by Jennifer Ledford - Certified Personal Trainer and Lifestyle Coach

For years, the fitness and diet industry has used fitness models in their advertising to sell you the notion that if you achieve this “type” of body, you will be healthy and happy.  Unfortunately, many of the programs  promoted by the diet and fitness industry have produced the opposite effect for people.  Dieting and overtraining has done more harm than good and left people unhappy and dissatisfied.

There was a period in my life when I had  shrunk down to a size zero and became obsessed with being skinny and having a perfectly flat abdomen.  People were impressed with my tiny yet muscular physique and I was constantly complimented for it.  Life was good!  Until I crashed.

I became depressed, my body was in pain, and my hormonal system was going haywire.  It turns out that I had been overtraining and God didn’t design me to be a size zero.   The road to recovery physically was a combination of light exercise (twenty minute walks with my dogs) combined with proper rest, and a much more balanced diet that included way more fat than I had been consuming.

Fortunately, I completely recovered and times are changing.  The public is becoming more and more aware of focusing on health rather than forcing their bodies to become something they were never designed to be and we now have more models that support that concept.  People are rejecting the idea that they have to diet or beat their bodies to a pulp to be healthy.

Now that we are taking these important steps as a society to focus on health rather than dieting and overtraining, I believe it’s important for me as a personal trainer to help you learn  what focusing on being fit  looks like.

It’s important that I be completely up front with you.  Focusing on  your health is extremely personal and looks different for each individual.  We are all on our own personal journey.  For one person, focusing on health may be cutting their soda intake in half to stabilize their blood sugar and for another it could be walking their dog everyday for stress relief.

Being fit is about being able to do the things you need to do, want to do (i.e the things that bring you joy), and have to do in the event of an emergency.  It’s about getting good checkups at the doctor’s office and enjoying quality of life.  None of that has anything to do with the size of your jeans.

When it comes to overall health and fitness, balance is key.  If one area is neglected, your alignment can be off which leads to a bumpy ride.  Here are five major components that contribute to your overall health and well-being:

  1. Mentally fit.  Mental health is just as important as physical health.  Minimizing unnecessary stress in your life and talking time out to rest and restore are just as important for your mind and body as strengthening your muscles and eating leafy greens.  When your mind is strong and your body is recharged, you are able to push through challenging moments and seasons in your life.
  2. Nutritionally fit.  I personally believe it’s a good idea to eat as many whole foods as possible and to limit refined and heavily processed food in our diets.  Eating whole foods can help contribute to better energy.  With that being said, it’s also important to enjoy your food and not get too rigid about everything we eat.  Overly religious behavior around food can lead to dieting which can lead to stress and heartache which does not support mental health in a positive way.  Find balance in your life when it comes to diet and allow yourself to enjoy the foods you like.
  3. Physically fit.  Part of being physically fit is being able to perform your daily responsibilities, live a life that is fun, and being able to handle, God forbid, a crisis.  Physical fitness is generally  made up of three types of fitness.  Cardiovascular (aerobic) endurance, muscle strength, and flexibility.  Depending on your life’s demands, suggested programs will differ.  A sample program would be walking most days of the week, strength training with appropriate resistance two to three times per week, and performing stretches and self massage most days of the week.  It’s a good idea to choose exercise that focuses on function and not just “looks.”  One of the reasons I like exercising outdoors is that it can contribute to functional fitness.  Stepping over logs and/or curbs is a built-in agility routine that can protect us from falls.
  4. Financially fit.  I am not an expert on finance so I learn from others when it comes to money matters.  One thing that I do know is that money issues can cause stress.  It’s important to limit debt in our lives and to make sure we build saving accounts for surprise expenses that pop up and/or retirement.  Saving generally starts with creating a budget and living within our means.  Wise financial choices are equally as important to our health as exercise.  If you’d like more information on simple money management principles, one of my favorite people to learn from is Dave Ramsey.
  5. Environmental health.  This is a big one.  It’s important for us to be at peace where we live, work, and play.  Things like nurturing relationships, setting healthy boundaries, removing clutter from your home or life, planning family meals, taking time off to visit places that make you feel happy and restored, or spending time with your pets without your phone in hand are all examples of working  toward creating a healthy environment.  Sometimes creating a healthy environment for yourself requires changes.  My husband and I decided to move back to the area I grew up in to be closer to family and to live a simpler lifestyle.  This is an environmental change that will contribute to our overall health and well-being in a positive way.

A Fit and Healthy Lifestyle

Whether you’ve been working on these five components for awhile now or are just getting started, it’s important to remember to work at a pace that is doable for you.  We are all on our own journey and there is no need to compare your progress to anyone else.  Focus on creating a healthy lifestyle that is all your own!

Shared with love,
Jennifer