Fit 210: Injuries, Weight Loss Scams, Support Yourself

Three ways to find out if you are injury prone, learn to harness the power of your inner support system and how to spot and avoid weight loss scams!

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TRAINING
Let’s look at three groups of people who could be injury prone, unless they take some precautions before they start to work out.

1. True Beginners: Those starting out.

Improper footwear and even wearing sneakers without socks, can cause problems with your feet! Always wear socks and the right kind of sneakers (or shoes) for the activity.
Beginners tend to be overzealous with workouts. They also forget that their muscles are very weak at this stage, and doing too much exercise is just as bad as using the wrong equipment or techniques.
You may be an avid cyclist or runner, but that doesn’t mean you are ready to do the same weight training program as someone else! Have a trainer teach you the right form and help design an appropriate program for your fitness level.

2. Regular Exercisers:

If you’ve been exercising for a long time, you might assume that you’re less likely to be injured. Not necessarily true!
These exercisers, are more likely to become complacent and forget all the basic rules.
They may take a short cuts, become lazy in the workout program or use poor form to overcome limitations and the result will be more injuries.
For example, the bench press and rotator cuff weakness…you may compromise your form because you don’t train your rotator cuff muscles and that weakness prevents you from doing a full range of motion for the bench press…eventually you won’t be able to do it at all and will blame a “bad shoulder” when the real cause is a weak shoulder support system, the rotator cuff!
My thought is that there are no bad body parts, only weak muscles!
The other problem this group faces is the micro traumas they have sustained over time. One slight injury might not make much difference, but when added together there could be various injuries for them to deal with all showing up at the same time!
An injury can come from improper form, using too much weight, poor warmup practices and muscle imbalance.
If you begin to have symptoms of an injury, do your research and find the cause!

3. Out of shape beginners.

These would include two very distinct types of people. Those who once were fit and healthy, but quit in their exercise program, and those who have never exercised or been active before.
If overweight, both groups of people will risk injury from straining and causing stress on the lower body. Specifically, the knee, lower leg and lower back.
They should begin with a few basic exercises, even machines, to develop their strength and flexibility.
It always boils down to this: Get Instruction! Even if it is just a refresher with a trainer.
There might be bad habits that have developed in your workouts.
Maybe you want to learn new exercises or learn the proper way to do a exercise that you’ve seen someone do in the gym.
When you see someone doing an exercise, Never assume:
1. That the exercise is being done correctly
2. That the exercise is appropriate for your fitness level, health history or goals.

When it comes to learning a new exercise check with a trainer first!

MOTIVATION
Self-Support:Have you been working on your inner support system?
Have you made your I am statements and written them down?
Have you made and do you say your mantra daily?
Do you have any idea what I am talking about?

If you are clueless, then you need to refresh your memory with these podcast episodes:

Fit 162: Mantra, Reps and Nutrition Truths

Fit166: Glute Training Part 2, Protein Myths “I am” Statements.

Fit 196 Eliminate Bad Habits, Thin vs Lean and Abdominals

In the Mindset Makeover Book, Chapter 5 discusses how to Harness Your Inner Power. You do this by being your best supporter! Knocking down negative thoughts and replacing them with positive, present tense statements (the “I am statements”). There are too many other techniques shared in the Mindset Makeover Book to go into all the details here, but suffice to say that every day you have a choice!

Choose to support yourself.
Make the choice to be your own best friend. When you get down or frustrated, tell yourself, “What would I say to my best friend if this was his/her problem, situation or thoughts?” Using this drill puts matters into perspective and empowers you to find solutions to stay on track.

With every event that happens in your life, comes the opportunity to determine its meaning and to learn a new lesson that will empower you for the future. Use life’s challenges in ways that will strengthen you, not make you weak. The choice is yours.

You possess the strength to pick yourself up when you are low, brush yourself off and rekindle your drive, focus and motivation! Be your biggest supporter and personal cheerleader! You have the power inside of you to be your biggest advocate! You only have to learn how to use it!

Now available in paperback: “Mindset Makeover,” available at The Book Patch.com. If you need personal help with motivation, or your workout plan, contact me for private coaching at CoachKira.com.

NUTRITION
Spotting Scams : Weight Loss Supplement

How do you tell if a product or advertisement is a scam? First, let’s define scam for our purposes: Convincing you to buy something that won’t do what it claims. How do you come across these scams anyway? In some cases, you may be following up on the advice of a friend, coworker, or perhaps simply following the link of an email you have received. Did you know that there are four places where looking for weight loss supplements will almost certainly lead you to the virtual front door of a scammer? Consider this:

Spotting Scams Tip #1: Unsolicited emails
Unsolicited emails in your inbox are a surefire place where looking for weight loss supplements might quite possibly lead you to a scam artist. If you receive spam emails that claim to have the latest and greatest in weight loss supplementation, beware! Most of these will seem real, however they may not be grounded in reality. No reputable seller of any nutritional supplementation has the need to spam potential consumers.

Spotting Scams Tip #2: The Miracle Product
Another obvious scam is any website, ad or e-mail that declares it is selling a miracle product. This may be a weight loss product which claims to be melting away the fat while you sleep, a product that promises a boost to the metabolism for fat burning, a prepackaged meal plan and diet book that offers to tell you secrets that a mythical “they” do not want anyone to know, or incredibly, a patch that – when applied to the abdomen will somehow cause weight loss in no time.

In other words, the claims are simply too good to be true. What makes the prospect so tempting is the fact that you can supposedly start losing weight as soon as the mail carrier brings the item to your door. All you have to do is follow the instructions, and before long you will be just as slim and trim as the models whose photos grace the website! Hopefully you will know better than to fall for these impossible promises.

Spotting Scams Tip #3: E-mail Hypnosis Website
A website you visit claims that with the help of their e-mail hypnosis you can lose weight. This is little more than a sales ad for an online membership to a “spiritualism” website and is not a solid weight loss idea.

The reason why this kind of scam actually works quite well is the fact that it is, in part, grounded in solid medical research. There are actual hypnotherapists who work with obese patients to help them with will power, self affirmation, self esteem, goal setting, and also motivation. These are professionals who work with people face to face. Unfortunately, hypnosis does not work via email.

Spotting Scams Tip #4: Vague Marketing
Some websites are little more than long-winded ads for a product or service. Sure, some are legit, but what makes a scammer website is when the product is not mentioned by name at any time, but instead is only loosely referred to in testimonials.

In the end, you are asked to charge $19.99, $29.99 or some such sum to your credit for the privilege of finding out about the weight loss supplement. A popular one is to charge you shipping for a “free 30-day supply.” You end up being put on an auto renewal process and your credit card charged monthly. If you forget to read the fine print, you may be paying longer than you want. Of course, if you find the product helpful and want a monthly supply on a regular basis, then fine. Always be sure to read the fine print any time you are asked for credit card information!

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