Questions and Answers with a Fitness Trainer

Questions and Answers with a Fitness Trainer

Throughout my tenure in New York City, I have explored the various gyms the city has to offer. A few years ago, I met a trainer (and now friend) named Jorge Sanchez who helped me work through a shoulder injury along with providing excellent nutritional advice. To help answer some common questions, Jorge and I sat down for some Q&A on various training topics. Hope the below is beneficial and please feel free to reach out to Jorge directly with any questions regarding fitness, nutrition, or potential training sessions. Jorge Sanchez - san955200@yahoo.com

In the words of Jorge:"My name is Jorge Sanchez and I am a Personal Trainer based out of the NewsCorp owned facilities in Manhattan. I have been a personal trainer for 3 years; however fitness and exercise has been my passion for much longer. I got into fitness training through sports, as I played basketball and baseball in high school and went on to play NJCAA Division Baseball in college. Most of the training and conditioning exercises for baseball introduced me to weight lifting which in turn helped prepared me for a career in the field of fitness."

1) What are your thoughts on "fad" diets (i.e. Atkins, Paleo, etc.)? Are there any that you agree or disagree with?

In my opinion, "fad" diets are just diets. In this day in age, people seem to go with the latest trends and at the end of the day diets fall in that category. Do they work? Sure, some of them work, however all diets are the same when it boils down to it as the focus is on restricting your calorie intake. If I had to choose or agree with one, I believe a Paleo diet is something that is the most beneficial. If you can avoid most processed food, you are definitely one step ahead.

 2) What is the ideal protein daily intake and timing of consumption? Does it differ from age and gender?

It all comes down to goals - are you looking to increase muscle mass? Get lean? Become more tone? Protein intake is something you will definitely need to keep in mind. If you are not a very active individual, a daily intake of 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight, or 0.36 grams per pound will be ideal. This amounts to 56 grams per day for the average sedentary person. In order to correctly guess how much protein you need, you will want to: 

1) Calculate your weight in pounds divided by 2.2 (equals weight in kg). 

2) Multiply your weight in kg by 0.8-1.8 gram/kg = ideal daily intake of protein. 

Use a number in the lower range if you are in good health and are sedentary (i.e. 0.8) or use a higher number (between 1 and 1.8) if you are experiencing stress, pregnant, recovering from an illness, or if you are involved in consistent, intense weight, or endurance training. The more you workout, the more protein your body will need.

Now let's say you just finished an intense workout, and you are trying to get your protein shake. Aim to consume about 15 to 30 minutes post-workout for best results and also try to include simple carbohydrates to increase the effectiveness of muscle recovery.

3) Can you please dispel the myths of weight lifting for females?

There is without a doubt a lot of myths behind women and weight lifting. One of the top responses I get from women I train to why they avoid weights is that they do not want to get big muscles. First of all, let's put this myth to rest. It is just about impossible for women to gain muscle mass like men do without doing some kind of illegal drug or anabolic steroids. In order for men to increase muscle, testosterone plays a big role. Women have a very low level of testosterone which therefore makes it nearly impossible to increase muscle size. What this means is that touching the weights and working out 7 days a week/365 days a year will not get you like Phil Heath if you are a woman. 

Another popular myth is reducing fat in certain/specific areas of the body like stomach, breasts and so forth. There is no way your stomach will lose fat unless you lose the weight in your whole body. Reducing calories, and increasing cardiovascular endurance while following a healthy diet plan will not only decrease body fat in certain areas that accumulate more body fat than others, but it will decrease body fat throughout the entire body including visceral fat (fat that accumulates in your organs) along with blood pressure and cholesterol. If you ask me, there is definitely no excuse to not start training with weights and going to the gym more often.

4) What is the correct balance of cardio and weight lifting? Is there a point in which too much cardio can be detrimental to any muscle gains?

The answer to this question all comes down to your goals. If you want to bulk up, doing cardio will be something that should be kept to a minimum. If you want to be more lean, cardio is definitely a priority. The reason cardio and putting on mass don't mix is because the body uses glycogen storage for energy during hard activities. If we started doing more cardio while we are trying to get bigger and stronger, glycogen storage will be depleted meaning muscle has to be sacrificed in order to complete the activity. This is the big reason why cardio is cut to a minimum when looking for muscle gains.

5) What are your recommendations to prevent injuries? Are there specific stretching or exercises?

The best way to prevent injuries is to know your body and pay attention to any red flags (listen to your body!). A great strategy to start the prevention of injury is to warm-up. Warming up the muscle prior to exercise is the most effective way of preventing an injury. Increasing your heart rate before an exercise causes the body's temperature in the rise, which in return allows more blood flow into the working muscles. Additionally, you should never stretch before warming up - why though? Muscle tendons are like an elastic band. If you put an elastic rubber band in a freezer and then try to stretch it, it will break. Muscles are quite similar, as stretching before an exercise without warming up produces micro tears to the muscle tendons which can escalate into an injury as the workout progresses.

6) What supplements would you recommend, if any?

Supplements are a booming business today, and with so many different products out there unregulated by the FDA, performing due diligence is crucial. I personally cannot make any recommendations as supplements and supplement brands go beyond my scope of practice. With that said, the most basic and most important staples will be a protein powder, multi-vitamin and/or Branch Chained Amino Acids ("BCAA"). BCAAs stimulate protein synthesis, and might do so to a greater extent than a normal protein on its own. BCAAs also increase synthesis of the cellular machinery responsible for carrying out the process of protein synthesis. What this translates into is faster recovery, increase muscle retention, and a greater percentage of losing body fat. Most BCAAs are taken during or after a workout.

That puts an end to this post, however please feel free to use the comment board to facilitate discussion on the topic or perhaps ask questions that might not have been addressed. Who knows, maybe Jorge will grace us with a Q&A Part II...