Hey everyone,
My name's dayt0na, I'm relatively new to Invid.au and I'm an admin for the new CS2 division and the upcoming Open Tournament starting 22nd of Sept.
Thought I'd try to become a bit more active on the forums and after a brief scroll, I knew where to begin aha.
So, I have been in Sales and Marketing from B2C, B2B, SMB, Enterprise all the way to the International Stage.. however, when Covid happened and after being made redundant twice, I decided to do something completely different. So after the solitary confinement of COVID lockdowns was eased, I walked up to my local gym, asked the receptionist who's the best person to speak to about becoming a Personal Trainer and within 5 minutes I had the club manager and the Personal Training manager giving me all of the answers, referrals and not only did I walk out of there with all of the information I needed to get started, I also got offered a job to work in their sales team while I studied even though I had to take a big hair cut in my salary.. but totally worth it.
Fast forward, I'm working 5 days/week and 2 full days/week on-site studying the theoretical and practical elements of Fitness and Personal Training. I finally became a PT about 12 months later and spent between 2-3 years as a PT.
Long story short (lol), If you're unsure where to get started, have any questions or want any general advice please feel free to ask me directly via DM. I won't disclose any information you decide to share with me with either. Legally, I can't do that anyways lol.
I've helped and continue to assist 5 or 6 CS2 players in my own Discord community group to either get started, walk them through the basics of how things work with either weight loss (lowering body fat % in a healthy and structured and scientific matter as well as how to build muscle.. again all scientifically based), written basic programs to help them get into the gym first and foremost (or at home programs/calisthenics.. everyone's different). As well as educating them about the important of sleep (yes I see the irony of posting this at 3amn in the morning) and how this affects homeostasis, consumption of water (1L per 25kg of bodyweight not including during exercise), how stress can affect your performance on and off the field both IRL and in-game.
Everything below this point is important, however, some may see it as a TLDR and if that's the case.. copy and paste it into your favorite AI to summarise it for you haha.
Health and fitness isn't just about aesthetics, looking your best or looksmaxxing for my Gen Zoomers still reading, there's soo much more to it:
- Why? - Well, firstly, it doesn't matter if you're 15 or 85, it's never to late (or early) to start.
- Natural release of Elite Hormones - Endorphins, released during exercise for two purposes 1) Relieve Pain and 2) Improve Mood. Additionally, other chemicals like Dopamine and Serotonin are also released which contribute to feelings of happiness and well-being. Personally, I prefer training first thing in the morning before work for a few reasons 1) starts the day off right, 2) sense of accomplishment, 3) ready for whatever BS the day has to throw at me and 4) because the crowd at the gym in the AM is waaay more chill versus after work with people working through their sessions with the mental weight and even increased cortisol (the stress-hormone) from an overly stressful day at work.
- Increased Bone-Density: during and after every single session, you get tiny, micro-fractures in your bones. Which, during recovery (majority of recovery happens when you sleep).
- Increased Muscle-Mass - Self explanatory. This is the aesthetics, Zyzz movement started circa. 2010-12. The benefits of this other than looking good is increased strength, confidence in movement and self-confidence in all areas of your life.
- Mobility & Increased Range-of-Motion (ROM) - as we age, if we don't use it.. we lose it. Movement is life.
- Mobility Training is a fancy way of low impact physical movements within your individual available ROM essentially emphasizing active control of specific movements, coordination and strength. Overtime, your Mobility improves dramatically. This could be as short as 30 days before you notice dramatic differences in everyday life.
- For example, being able to touch your toes when you weren't able to originally, correcting your posture from sitting all day (gaming, in the car, at the office, wherever.. humans weren't actually designed to sit down the way westerners do.
- Additional benefits, include significantly reducing or entirely eliminating a unique movement which you cannot do without discomfort or in extreme cases, pain.
- Movement Patterns - Movement patterns are every day patterns we use in real life:
- Sitting and standing up (Pattern = Squats)
- Dropping car keys and then scooping them up (Pattern = Lunges)
- Storing items above your head like inside a wardrobe, cupboard (Pattern = overhead press - aka Shoulder Presses)
- etc. etc. etc... everything you do in any sort of training directly relates to something relevant to every day life, whether that's weight lifting aka resistance training, mobility, high or low impact cardio, mobility, sports,
- Prior to starting an Exercise Program, a new diet and the considerations you need to be aware of individually:
Firstly, I'm not selling anything:
- I spent years studying this in a classroom and in the real world with real clients, real personalities and real health concerns that I needed to be educated in, up to date on and understanding of how this could potentially affect a persons confidence, physical abilities and specifically design something with those parameters plus their individual goals, time constraints, etc.. Now that I'm no longer a PT, I give out this advice for free, because if I don't use it, I'll lose it.
- Plus.. because the the industry is built on drip feeding clients information to ensure lowering client turn over and increasing financial security for PTs which annoyed me because it's lowkey dishonest.. plus they'd give out dietary advice under the guise of a "nutritionists" prescribing macros as a loophole. Legally speaking, a PT cannot and should not be giving out dietary advice in any way shape or form due to the fact of dietary requirements, unique eating disorders./conditions that only a person who's spent 4-5 years studying the ins/out. These people are called, Dietitians, the only professionals who you can seek Dietary advice from safely.
- Important Considerations :
- Past History of Injuries? Torn ACLs, major or minor, it doesn't matter, always disclose it.
- Heart conditions: VERY Important.. this limits you what you can and cannot do, requires a doctor to clear you for an exercise program and constant back and forth with the PT and Doctor. The Doctor/Specialist ultimately gives the final green light.
- History of Strokes?
- Diseases/Disabilities/other relevant info? e.g. Osteoporosis, MS, etc.
- List of Medications?
- Asthma?
- All of this may seem intrusive however you, your trainer and your GP/Specialist need to be kept in the loop and provide professional expertise where necessary.
- Example: For my 55 year step mother with a long list of health conditions, including a heart condition, "mini stroke" in her words, with a new diagnosis of osteoporosis needed to be taken into consideration when I designed her program which aligned with her goals, but actually took close to 2 months to get a final brief green light, conditional on an open dialogue, active reporting and open communication and the initial back to forth email correspondences with a number of different Doctors, specialists, etc. to get the ball rolling.
Hope this was helpful, it's far from complete but I didn't want to write a full on essay straight out of the gates. It's supposed to be fun and it is fun! So.. if you'd like some assistance, guidance or have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me directly via DM :)
Cheers,
dayt0na