Hey Everybody! This is Karen from Wellness Works NW. Someone asked me the other day why I would want to be a Personal Trainer. I said, “Are you kidding? I’ve been training all of my life. When I was in the military we were training and we were preparing to go to the Gulf War. I would work out with people to help them make sure that they actually got through their PT (Physical Training) test.
As a matter of fact, when I tried out for the basketball team, when I was in 7th grade, the coach said: Well I don’t know if you got a lot of talent but I’d like for you to manage the team; help them with training. So I think God’s been telling me all my life to train! So it just came natural to me. I really enjoy seeing people meet their goals, feel better, recover from an injury. I just love that stuff!
Today I want to tell you about a couple of my clients; my wonderful clients. I do this because my clients are absolutely wonderful. The connection — the human connection that I have with my clients is outstanding and its results oriented too because we want you to have results. Well one of my clients is an area social worker and shortly after she started to workout with me she learned she had Psoriatic Arthritis. She wanted to know what it was and how to handle it; she already had a couple other chronic illnesses, and now to have this, she didn’t know what to do. Through the whole process I encouraged her to get tested, so she could actually define what she had; that was our first step. Then we started to lose weight and she started to feel better because she had success losing weight. We went through the whole medication process to make the proper choices for medication and it was great. Now I can take an experience that I might have had with another client and share it with the newest client and together, we all learn. It is a great sense of community. I love that! Now that client is doing well and she is adjusting to some of the things that arthritis gives you and the new medications, but she is thriving.
I also have another client that came to me last November, it has been a year now, and she said her A1C really high. She was just crazed. She felt she couldn’t handle this and she didn’t want to be a diabetic. So we started to work with her. It was a great experience. We do a lot of cardio, she enjoys cardio, so we do a lot of cardio and we got that A1C down. She started to lose weight, her attitude started to improve and she was really enjoying life. The depression she had been dealing with kind of waned away because her A1C was great and she was having success. I even when to the doctor with her. Now I don’t normally do that unless someone requests it and everybody had to agree (the client, the medical professional and myself). I am so proud of her! 75 pounds later, she is thriving! Yeah! And this is just a couple of stories about a few people I have helped and we formed a great connection. I’ve got tons of other stories too and I’d like to make you my next story. What do you think?
…And you say, I don’t know. Do I have to exercise? Of course! Let’s move it, move it, move it!
Today I want to start out with a Plank. This is a great exercise for the core. You are going to get down on your hands and knees. There are many variations of planks. So we are going to start on our knees. Come down onto your forearms, with your arms bent and bring your toes up so that your weight is on your knees. Hold that position for however long you can stand it. Most of the time, when you are first starting out, you can hold it for about 10 seconds, until you realize that kind of hurts your elbow. After you get a little bit better at this you can actually bring your lower body up on your toes. You are trying to be as straight as you possibly can and you are holding yourself up. You are your own resistance. Try to do this for about 30 seconds. When you are doing that, everything should be tight. Squeeze those butt cheeks! Hold in that tummy! That is a great exercise.
Now, another exercise I want to show you is the Sidekick which is really great for those wonderful glutes! Start on your hands and knees and bring your left knee off the the floor and kick your leg out to the side, nice and easy. Bring it back and squeeze! That’s right, every time you are doing this, squeeze those glutes! Then, of course, you want to do the other side. Bring that right leg up and out and squeeze! If it hurts to go too far, we can make modifications just for you.
This next one is the Kickback which is really good for the glutes and the abs. So you start out on your hands and knees and you kick your left leg back and up. When you kick out your squeeze your butt. Do about ten of those and then do ten on the other side.
Now you can do the plank for about 30 seconds, and then you can do sidekicks and kickbacks, about ten of them and make that into a routine. Bam! We can do anything together! I would love to help you. I know we’ve got this. It always helps to have someone on your team to kick some butt! Send me an email.
I am sending all kinds of prayers and positive vibes. See you soon!
If you need any help just to our website at WellnessWorksNW.com. Our website has all kinds of great information that will help you.
#KeepMoving #WellnessWorks #WootWoot
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Karen G. Clemenson is not a doctor or a scientist. She is a real person that eats too much sometimes and misses her workout on occasion but is mindful of her path toward wellness, all the time. Karen understands that your physical wellness does not begin and end with your membership to a local gym. She knows that weight loss management begins with steps; some small and some large. These steps include diet, physical activity and retraining of the thoughts and habits that keep you from being successful on your path toward wellness.
