A glimpse into a workout

This entire video is only a brief clip of one of my workouts.  Regarding the circuit, I did 5 rounds of that circuit and with the kicks, another 20 or so minutes on top of that.  Please let me know if you've got questions.  Like & Share this post.  

What the "experts" say?

Fitness & nutrition are some of the most misunderstood topics.  I can be considered an expert at fitness and nutrition due to my experience and education, and in many ways I am.  In other ways, I would consider myself to be a novice.  This would definitely be based off of my experience in training. 

There are many who may be considered experts in fitness & nutrition, and like myself they are in many ways.  However you don't know what you don't know.  And there are many things that these experts get right, and many others that they don't.  One thing to consider is that each person is different, and in many ways we can focus on training and nutrition in the same way. 

Now, we have many people who enter the gym and do their own thing.  You have many who truly know what they're doing, and this is evident based upon the technique, exercise selection, and distribution of exercises, not to mention physique.  You have others who kind of know what they're doing, and fall into a lot of what I had said in the previous sentence, but their routine is identical day-to-day and week-to-week.  There's nothing exceptionally wrong with this approach, it's the comfort routine, but progress will stall after awhile. 

Finally, we have many who for whatever their own reasons choose to attempt to exercise and follow nutrition plans piece-mealed.  Now, some of these are sound, but unless you have a descent understanding of physiology and mechanics, it's not always the best approach.  Often, its wise to pursue some degree of expertise prior to beginning an exercise program and nutrition plan.  And to note, most physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician-assistants (all providers) are likely to have a limited understanding of nutrition and exercise....maybe an undergraduate course or two.  Some of them do, but you'll need to check their credentials and history. 

Overall, it's best that you consult an expert...especially in matters pertaining to fitness & nutrition.  For the overall "plan" you can easily look online (like me!) and get plans built custom for you to achieve your goals.  For the technical parts, it's more challenging.  If you do it remotely, you can always put your phone to good use and film yourself performing something or live-stream it.  Though with much of the technical (form) work, it's best to get private lessons, even if it's only a few. 

Back to school again....

It's that time of year, and many in other states have already done so, but it's back to school.  Where we live, the public school system begins this upcoming Monday, and the University on Tuesday.  This is that time where the students are "hungover" from their summers, the teachers/instructors/professors are anxious to get back into the swing of things and earn that paycheck.

It's the time of year to where schedules that were once open are now closed and full of activities, meetings, etc. for all of the parties involved.  It's also when nutrition and fitness become an afterthought.
Do not forget, that if you're a parent of a student or a teacher of one that your fitness and nutrition is important.  Just because you put it out there for another doesn't mean that it's the right decision.  Make sure that you take care of yourself so that you may take care of others.

If you don't have time to hit the gym, there are other options available.  Go for a walk, get together with other teachers, parents, or whomever and do a home workout.  Plan your meals and prepare them in advance if possible.  Whatever the best scenario, go ahead and work through it.

Think of this time of year being for a new you, and not the New Year.  This is the moment to seize the change, not the New Year.  Go ahead and make it so.  

Need some training?

I'm sure that in the last several weeks, those of you who have paid attention have noticed that I've shared one of my client's stories, a walk through of my online training approach, and my philosophy of training.  

Well, all roads lead me to this point of which I'd like to offer my online personal training to you for $75 per month.  This is much less expensive then I should offer it, but since those of you who read this are giving me some of your attention, I wanted to offer it at that rate.  I could easily offer it at $200 per month or more based off of my qualifications and experience, but that doesn't serve you well. 

With the online training, you get the nutritional coaching, fitness programming, a weekly call/video chat check in, and daily reminders.  

As a bonus, if you also refer anyone who decides to train with me, then you'll get a 10% discount (up to 50%).  

All payments are accepted via PayPal. 

Please send me an email at martinlhiii83@gmail.com to get started. 

Kendall's Journey, part 3

In this video, Kendall shares why she began training with me. 

How do I learn about you?

A walk-through of how I go about learning about my potential clients for online personal training.  This is to show you how in depth I will look at you as my prospective client.

Please share with anyone who may be interested.....or just share in general!

Where do you need help?

Being part of the fitness industry, especially coaching, for the last several years has granted me some insight on how to better help people.  Thus, my question that I'd like to pose to all of you who read this is, "Where do you need help?"  This can be in any form, and some examples are as follows:

• Do you need help starting an exercise program? 
• Are you bored with your current exercise program and unsure how to continue? 
• Do you need help finding the time to exercise?  
• Do you have questions regarding technique? 
• Does something hurt and you're unsure how to go about working around it? 

These are just some that I'd love to answer for you.  Every person has different circumstances and reasons to ask.  

In the comments section below, post your question of you have one.  Please share this post to help your friends and family too!

You know that will probably kill you?

Do you know what the leading cause of death in the world is?  It's life.  Life will ultimately kill you in the end. Our ultimate goal with "healthy eating" or "exercise" is to prolong the inevitable death that we will all face.

Not to be morbid, but it got your attention right?  At work the other day, I had a...well let's call it an encounter rather than a conversation, with someone who is probably more than knowledgeable about healthy foods and exercise.  He is another employee from our parent organization, however, we don't have the same "chain of command" and we don't have the same purpose, I'll leave it as that so I don't even accidentally let loose who or what he does.  

In any case, I was just finishing up a fairly intense workout when I went into the break room for something quick to eat prior to my going to the university for a class that I teach.  He walks in and sees that I'm pulling out food.  He came into microwave a sweet potato and I am at this point eating oatmeal for lunch. That day I packed the oatmeal, some peppers & carrots, a Greek yogurt, peanut butter, and some summer sausage that I've had since Christmas (just opened it though).  He gives me a little shit about the summer sausage having sodium nitrates, which is true, but honestly I didn't care.  

In truth, if I weren't active for the majority of my day I'd probably care about sodium nitrates.  They might kill me in the end, but they might not.  The reality is that I have probably a hundred other things ranging from accidents to genetics that will take me in the end and I really didn't care if there were sodium nitrates in my lunch.  He may have been benign and just telling me or somewhat of a douche and telling me.  Not sure, didn't feel like asking nor did I really take anything he said into great value.  

What I'm driving at here is that ultimately life will kill you, so enjoy it while you have it.  I maintain a healthy lifestyle overall, with 2-3 boxing classes per day of which I'm moving around and coaching and taking hits.  I lift 4-5 days per week, depending on which plan I'm working on.  I eat vegetables and generally lean proteins nearly every meal, though in truth I probably don't eat enough (yes, I said that; more on that concept later).  

My main concern is keeping my stress level low.  I feel like I do that, most of the time.  You can eat the cleanest diet on the planet but if you're stressed no amount of clean eating or exercise can fix that.  Anyway, I would like for you to think about the face that in the end, life will kill you, so you might as well live. 

Eating for the fluffy pillow

In my previous post, I described some of what I do regarding training the fluffy pillow.  For this post, I'd like to go into the food side of things.

For me, the nutrition side of things is the most difficult.  Not to say that I don't know what I'm doing, but I freaking love food.  For the most part, I see the best results compositionally when I do a super low carbohydrate meal plan.  The upside of this is that I do tend to see a heavy reduction in mass, mostly fat mass, but the downside is I also tend to see a dramatically reduced performance when it comes to exercise.

Most with a similar shape such as myself benefit immensely off of a lower carbohydrate diet.  However, carbs truly benefit the performance aspect of the fluffy.  So it sometimes boils down to either a composition goal or a performance goal.  There are ways to get both, and it requires a significant amount of planning and discipline, something that my life with 3 small kids is nearly impossible to complete.

I generally try to stick with eating as much protein and vegetables as I can.  Usually, for breakfast I have a quart container full of vegetables such as cucumbers, peppers, celery, carrots, and/or an apple as well; I also have a banana to accompany that.  I use a protein in my coffee that is a collagen peptide base, rather than your traditional milk-based proteins.  My goal last year, at least nutritionally, was to have vegetables for breakfast nearly every day, something of which I've carried into this year.  This year's goal, nutritionally, was to do the same but for lunch, and so far meeting a moderate degree of success.

I try to have my starchier carbs around my workouts, which the super-intense ones are only 4x per week.  I still try to maximize what I can take in, but with clients it's sometimes difficult to escape long enough to consume anything.  My kryptonite is around when I'm home from work or on the weekends when I have more time to eat something other than what I've prepared for lunch at work, usually Oreo's.

In the end, I try to keep as healthy as possible.  My goals are more or less training goals rather than compositional goals, though I wouldn't hate those when they come.  Goal setting is a characteristic of training, and not exercising.  Nevertheless, the dietary side of things is my more complicated part of my life.  

Training the "core"..practical matters

In my previous post, I alluded to what I believe the "core" of your body is.  I'm a firm believer of it being your glutes (your butt) and not necessarily your abdominal muscles or lower back muscles.  However, we can argue that including your upper back muscles may be practical in terms of defining the "core."

Focusing on your glutes, you can engage them every single day if you want.  You can also set aside time for you to go ahead and train them.  The daily engagement is simple, if you're standing....and you should be as often as you can, you should squeeze your butt every few seconds.  This is a simple method that can have profound effects on your posture, your pain or lack thereof, and honestly your well-being.  It's something that you can do wherever you are such as at work, home, sporting events, or whatever.  

As far as training the glut
es are concerned, this is a little trickier.  The simplest exercise you can perform for this would be a bridge.  The bridge can be done in a variety of ways, from simple repetitions to holds to increasing resistance with a dumbbell, barbell, or kettlebell.  There are advantages of all of these, but the glutes do respond well to increased resistance (weight), and therefore to maximize the effectiveness you should probably focus on the weight rather than the sets or repetitions.  

Barbell bridges, and better yet barbell hip thrusters, are probably one of the single best glute exercises that you can perform.  However this does not come without adversity, the barbell in the hip crease (basically your thigh meeting your pelvic bone) is extremely uncomfortable.  A way around this is to use a squat pad or a towel or a combination of these items to dull the pressure that the bar would place on that area.  From there, it's pretty simple, push until your glutes are squeezed together.  If you can do this successfully, you will find that not only are your glutes becoming stronger, but the rest of you as well.  

There are more methods to training your "core" but this is by far the best.  Not for the faint of heart, but to become stronger and overall better, this is something that should be incorporated into your training. 

Why personal training can be cheaper than a trip to the doctor's office.

Something that I do on a regular basis is advise my clients on how they should be feeling or not.  To remember, I'm not a doctor.  However, with experience, I've learned about when one should actually go to a doctor.  This has been a gift from working with a variety of people both as clients and as colleagues.

There are some people that you will find every other week in a doctor's office waiting room.  Very often, they will get the advice that they were looking for, and perhaps the pill, and go on until they run out and need to go again.  You have others who only fear the lifestyle change that is required for them to avoid the doctor's office.

Now, I'm not going to lie, I'm sometimes very skeptical of physicians.  Not to say that they are all like that, in fact, I've met some good ones.  I only believe that to them, I'm a number.  Very few actually know who I am and what I do on a daily basis and I'd imagine that many who are reading this have the same experiences with physicians.

When you see a personal trainer, either via online or in-person, you develop a relationship with that trainer.  The great part is that depending on the network that the trainer has, they can be an asset for you and can help you learn how your body feels better than you would already know.

I have clients who routinely ask whether or not they should go see a doctor.  Very often my advice is simple....if it hurts for a few days and nothing improves, you should probably go.  If it get's better, than no doctor and you save on medical bills.  Most people don't realize that some problems can be remedied with time, and they just rush off for the pill or the wrap.

Lastly, I want to remind you that I do trust physicians overall, but I believe that many are asked to do so much that they often have lapses in judgment or fail to gain a relationship with each of their patient.  

Welcome, Who is Martin Hubner?

My name is Martin Hubner MS, CSCS, Pn1 and I'm a fitness specialist.  I have been active in the field, primarily as a personal fitness trainer, since 2010 and have had experience prior to that as part of my undergraduate internships and my military experience.

My fitness journey began in 2000 when I decided to enlist in the United States Marine Corps.  It began as a preparation for Parris Island and blossomed into an enjoyment of being fit.  While on active duty, my responsibility to myself and my Marines was to maintain a high level of physical fitness, which I did by running and performing strength training using machines.

In 2006, I got out of the Marine Corps and attended the University of North Carolina at Wilmington for a degree in Physical Education and Health, which I achieved in 2009.  While there, I continued my fitness experience and knowledge by increasing my free weight training and martial arts training.  After receiving my degree, I attended Appalachian State University for my Master of Science in Exercise Science, with a concentration of Strength and Conditioning.

I have been working in fitness actively since 2010, as I was hired out of my graduate internship at a local wellness facility.  Since then I've had the privilege of working with clientele with a variety of backgrounds.  I've also had plenty of opportunities to learn more about myself and my particular training style.

First and foremost, my main clientele suffer from various neurological/neuromuscular disorders such as Parkinson's and Stroke.  These people have touched my life in such a way that I want to give them 110% every time.  Most of the methods that I use are through strength training, boxing, and manual manipulation.  These individuals comprise of about 50% of my clientele.  The remainder is distributed amongst individuals with varying other needs, rarely do I receive a competitive athlete or figure athlete as a client, as that's not my specialty.

My second highest percentage of clientele are those who predominately need exercise programming only.  These individuals are the most highly motivated and for the most part they see me once a month or week to verify technique or to undergo the workouts where a partner is necessary for successful completion. They supplement these one on one sessions with online training so that they can maximize their potential.  Often they only need the program and to touch base on a regular basis to keep them on track.

The remaining cliente are usually the ones who require the appointment to hold them accountable for their actions.  These are the toughest overall because they are the most resistant to any outside options.  They also account for about 15% of my clientele.  So while not a majority, they do comprise of a significant amount.

I only wanted to break down my varying array of clientele to show you what my specialization is. I can work with a variety of others, but those listed above are what I do on a daily and weekly basis.  Included in many of their exercise programs are nutritional programs, which complement the exercise.

I'll be posting regularly in this blog sometimes providing fitness advice, sometimes nutritional advice, and others about my clients and the journeys each of them are on.

Thank you for taking the time to read.  I would appreciate "liking" and "sharing" each post so that others may be influenced to take a healthier life.