How to spot a good workout trainer, and Sweden’s stairway to fitness
Before you put someone in charge of your body, they should put your mind at ease
Let’s say you’re considering joining a fitness class or exercise group of some kind, and you want to be reasonably sure that you’re being led by a good fitness instructor or trainer. What criteria do you use? What signs do you look for?
For the answers, yours truly turned to an article from the Los Angeles Examiner, given that LA is probably the fitness instruction and training capital of the western hemisphere, and the locals should have plenty of experience in this area. In a nutshell, here is what Southern Californians look for.
- Your FI (Fitness Instructor) should be in good physical condition, obviously: If their regimen isn’t working for them, its prospects for you are not promising.
- Your FI should have a bearing of confidence and professionalism, which includes being organized, at ease, cordial and arriving on time.
- Your FI should inquire as to your goals, your current level of physical activity and your health, specifically with regard to any conditions that may limit your movements.
- Your FI should set reasonable goals based on this information, and should motivate you by being positive and giving encouragement and not by nagging and criticizing you for not attempting or achieving enough.
- Your FI should design workouts that are physically demanding, but sufficiently manageable that you will make, and want to continue making, progress.
Playing “Chopsticks” could maybe burn off 50 calories or so
There are a thousand ways of beguiling people into exercising, but in Stockholm, Sweden, they’ve come up with number 1,001. At that city’s Odenplan subway station, they painted a flight of steps, located right next to the escalator, to look exactly like enormous piano keys, and somehow technologically wired each step to sound that note, as played on a piano, when stepped on.
The result produced by those taking the stairs ranges from harmony to cacaphony, with a few moments of jazz improvisation.
The idea was to entice people off the escalator and onto the stairs for health and exercise purposes, and in fact the foot traffic has increased by 66 percent since the stairway became a Steinway, so to speak.
(By Robert S. Wieder for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)
Subscribe to our RSS feed | Weekly e-mail updates | Follow us on Twitter
Related posts from the CalorieLab Calorie Counter News archives:
