Seven Questions Your Fitness Trainer Needs the Answers To

Choosing the right professional fitness trainer is an important step in your wellness programme, but how do you know which one is right for you? As a general rule, the best trainers will – on the first meeting – sit you down and ask you lots of questions so that they can determine exactly what you need to enhance your wellbeing. Before you even touch a weight, your trainer should be able to devise the exercise programme that suits your needs best—and one that will give you the best results. To do that, he or she has to ask you the following questions:

 

1. Have you ever had health problems? There is a broad list of health problems that will affect your exercise programme, so never leave anything out, no matter how small a health concern it may seem. The main players include:

• Cardiovascular problems – Heart attacks, cardiac surgery, chest pains, high blood pressure (over 140/90), high blood cholesterol (more than 200 mg/dl), heart murmurs, arrhythmia, vascular diseases, phlebitis, stroke, and high blood fat levels.


• Breathing problems – Smoking problems, fainting, shortness of breath, bronchitis, asthma, and emphysema.


• Joint and bone problems – Ankle swelling, rheumatic fever, arthritis, and orthopaedic problems.


• Miscellaneous problems – Emotional disorders, recent illnesses or hospitalisations, drug allergies, etc.

 

2. Do you have diabetes? This one deserves a special question all of its own as diabetes is a major health risk factor. Many professional trainers are not qualified to train you if you have such a risk factor, so make sure your trainer is adequately prepared to take you on.

 

3. What is your waist size? As with diabetes and other major health risk factors, many trainers aren’t certified to train obese people. You’re considered to be obese if you’re a man with a girth of 40 inches or greater or a woman with a girth of 35 inches or greater, so make sure you measure yourself before your interview, and choose a trainer who is properly trained to help you lose weight.

 

4. What is your resting heart rate? If you have an abnormal resting heart rate, this is another major risk factor that many trainers aren’t qualified to deal with. Make sure your trainer is certified to train you.

 

5. What are your goals? This is perhaps the most important question your trainer can ask you, as your goals provide a direction for your training programme. With your answer to this question, your trainer will be able to create a diet and exercise regime specifically for you and what you want out of it. In order to do a good job of this, your trainer will need to take into account both your long-term and short-term goals, so come to your interview prepared to answer this question as fully as possible.

 

6. What are your eating habits? If one of your fitness focuses is on your weight – whether you want to bulk up, slim down or maintain the healthy weight you’re at – your trainer will ask about your current eating habits to see how they can be adjusted to help you achieve your weight goals. Go to your interview knowing the number of calories you consume, the types of foods you eat, the timing and size of your meals, your number of meals per day and any supplements you’re taking.

 

7. Have you done resistance exercise before? In order to create a programme that delivers optimum results, trainers will want to know about your resistance exercise past. This means telling your trainer the type of routines you have done, what time of the day you are usually train, how long you work out for, how you target your various muscles, and what kind of exercise you prefer.

Categories: eating habits, Fitness Trainer, health problems, Heart Rate, high blood, Interview, major health, prepare, resistance exercise, risk factor, trainers aren

How to Celebrate Diwali Safely if You Are a Diabetic

Diabetics have to take extreme care at Diwali, as the sweet treats offered up by the festivities can put their wellness and wellbeing at extreme risk. Diwali has always involved a wide variety of sugary foods, and it can be hard for diabetics to refuse everything on the menu. The food is a huge part of the cultural celebrations, and not being able to join in the eating part of the fun can leave diabetics feeling a bit depressed. On the other hand, over-indulging in sweet foods can leave them feeling anxious, as they fear that the rich food and sugar will cause spikes in their blood sugar levels.

 

There are ways to get through Diwali as a diabetic, however, and to enjoy yourself as a diabetic without letting things get completely out of control.

 

The best thing to do is to prepare for your evening well ahead of time. Make sure that along with the sweets, you prepare some treats that are made with artificial sweeteners. This will mean that you have options that will allow you to have a treat without causing any damage to your blood sugar levels. Make sure you also prepare your body ahead of time. Make sure that the food you eat on the morning of an event is low in calories so that you still have room to digest one or two sweet treats that you cannot avoid. This particularly means the sweets that are commonly offered to the deity and then everyone is supposed to have one as ‘prasad’.

 

Diabetics should also make sure that they test their blood sugar before and after any Diwali celebrations. This will enable you to control it immediately. A workout before your celebration will help you to control your blood sugar, too.

Categories: Blood, Blood Sugar, diabetic, diabetics, Diwali, prepare, Sugar, sugar levels, sweet treats

Is Your Child Ready for Night Time Potty Training?

According to Potty Training Concepts, ‘Achieving night time potty control is not simply a learned skill, but rather a physiological development and the control is largely involuntary.’ So how do you know if your child is ready for night time potty training, and how do you help her achieve that family wellness milestone?

1. Make sure she’s ready – Is it easy for her to stay dry throughout the day, and is she waking up with a dry nappy more often than not? This mean your child is probably ready to start night time potty training. This often comes down to your child’s age, because, over time, the body develops the ability to hold urine for long periods of time plus the nerve signal from the bladder to the brain to wake  up to pee. Night time control occurs in 66% of kids under three years old, and almost 75% have it under the age of four years.

2. Prepare the area – While your kid may have the strongest bladder of all time, she is still going to have an accident. This is a learning process, but that doesn’t mean that your child’s mattress has to suffer. Protect the mattress with a waterproof mattress pad and have dry underwear and pyjamas on hand for a fast change if (or when) she wets the bed.

3. Prepare your child – Logic dictates that what goes in must come out, so even your child’s odds of night time success by limiting her fluid intake a few hours before bedtime. This may mean no drink after dinner time and only one small sip of water before bed, but what ever you decide, make sure your child uses the toilet right before bedtime.

4. Wake her up – This is an old trick but it has lasted for a reason! Each night before you go to bed, wake your child up and take her to the toilet. This gives your child a few more hours of space in her bladder, allowing her to empty anything that had been filtered in the few hours between her bedtime and 11 PM. Chances are that your child will still be half-asleep, so you might have to prop her up, but she’ll have no problem getting right back into bed.

5. Celebrate – While accidents are going to happen, and you shouldn’t reprimand your child for a natural bodily occurrence, you might want to consider giving small treats for each morning she wakes up dry. She may respond well!

Categories: Night time, potty training, prepare