Do I need a personal trainer?

Do I need a personal trainer in Charlottesville? When we discuss strength training, it is not about pumping you up. Our aim is to strengthen the muscles that support your body. Strength training increases muscle density and helps protect you against injury. Regular strength training retards degeneration and supports the body’s defenses against the aging process by improving bone density and structure. Our primary concern in this respect is not absolute weight, but body composition. If tissue consists primarily of fat, you carry it. If tissue consists primarily of muscle, it carries you. We know your muscles are your best fat burners, but it is helpful to know why. Credit your mitochondria, the part of your cells that contain the calories you consume with oxygen utilized and turn this mixture into energy which you use to run everything in your body. The rate at which these mitochondria transform food into energy is called the metabolic rate, and it is determined by two factors: The number of mitochondria you have and how efficiently they burn oxygen and calories. Fortunately we have the power to dramatically influence both of these factors with Exercise! When you work out, the mitochondria get better at consuming oxygen and increase your metabolic power. An increase in your metabolic rate increases the number and function of mitochondria and the amount of calories burned even while you work at your computer or sleep. This fact explains why fad diets often do not produce permanent weight loss. The weight lost is half fat and half muscle. Since muscle burns calories 70 times faster than fat, losing muscle slows down metabolism. This makes it easier to gain weight, and harder to lose it, even while eating the same amount of calories. It is easier to gain and retain fat than muscle. Losing fat takes work. Losing muscle is effortless. After age 35, muscle loss accelerates if nothing is done to prevent it. As one approaches 50 and beyond, this condition increases at an ever increasing rate. Cardiovascular function is well known to be supported by aerobic exercise and we will assess your aerobic capacity and develop a program of improvement if called for. Your body and health circumstances are unique, and any program designed to change them must be professionally designed and custom tailored just for you. A properly qualified personal trainer will measure, assess, and discuss you and your fitness goals. Based on that assessment, we will custom design a program to achieve your desired goals in a timeframe that matches your schedule and lifestyle. Fifty + Fitness is owned by Patrick Foy, ACSM certified personal trainer. ACSM is the organization you often see quoted in newspapers and magizine articles on health and fitness, and is generally considered the gold standard of fitness certifications. Contact Personal Trainer Charlottesville by phone at (434) 962-1681 or by email at pat@personaltrainercharlottesville.com.