Be sure to check back or subscribe to S.P.A.R.T.A.’s business of personal training blog for more updates and personal trainer business tools and services.

Whether you are a high intensity training fitness enthusiast or a professional personal trainer in the field, Master Trainer, Chris Lutz, has the answer for you to help perfect your training experience. A little knowledge goes a long way.

Are you having trouble making progress? Don’t know how to organize a routine? Don’t know how to figure out appropriate resistances to use? Equipment problems? Don’t know how to work with or around an injury? Specific problems with your clients that you train?

Whatever your problem, more than likely the answer is within reach and can be solved relatively quickly and you can get back to productive training.

Master Trainer, Chris Lutz, has been thoroughly involved specifically in HIT for well over a decade professionally being certified when he was only 19 years old and obtaining a college degree in exercise science. He’s been using HIT principles since the age of 14. Through constant academic study, good further technical training from some of the best minds in the industry, several years of management of other HIT facilities, and owning a HIT company currently, put him at Master Trainer status. He has seen and worked through just about every issue relating to safe and effective high intensity training.

Testimonials:

“Chris Lutz has been our personal trainer for 4 years, and in our opinion, you will not find a better trainer with a better program. We’re both turning 45 years old this summer, and are thankful to say that we’re in the best shape of our lives due to our regimen with S.P.A.R.T.A.. Every week for 4 years we’ve done a High Intensity Training (HIT) workout for 30 minutes a session, that’s it. We both have gained strength/muscle mass, and also have lost a significant amount of fat by maximizing our efforts during training sessions and minimizing unhealthy food choices. If you’re looking for a personal trainer who can guide you to your personal best, please give S.P.A.R.T.A. a call.”

June 2, 2008
Tina and Marcus Pluntke

“I am so excited to have found Chris Lutz and S.P.A.R.T.A.! I have worked with other trainers in the past—have spent a lot of money—and have gotten minimal results. In just 2 months at S.P.A.R.T.A. and the program they employ, I am down in weight, up in muscle tone, and thrilled with the results. You know it’s working when others notice a difference in you, too—and that’s just further proof that the knowledge and expertise is what separates them from others in the personal training profession. If you want great results in a short amount of time, look to Chris and his S.P.A.R.T.A. team. You will NOT be disappointed.”

July 22, 2008
Top qualities: Great Results, Expert, High Integrity
Kristine Condie – business owner and busy mom.
training with S.P.A.R.T.A. since 2008, and hired S.P.A.R.T.A. more than once

“I have worked with S.P.A.R.T.A. for over 2 years on conditioning and weight training. They have helped me get stronger, lose weight and stay focused. I highly recommend them to anyone wanting to get in to shape. The president is a great person and really cares about his clients and his work!”

July 7, 2008
Top qualities: Great Results, Expert, High Integrity
David B. Smith – training with S.P.A.R.T.A. since 2007, and hired S.P.A.R.T.A. more than once

“If you ever want to truly make a lifestyle change, have proven weight control results, or tone up S.P.A.R.T.A.’s system truly works! Their personal training regime is doable for anyone at any age. They make the process so simple and so attainable. It’s easy to lose weight and get fit with the schedule. Chris Lutz’s knowledge of anatomy and it’s relation to fitness, and health is extraordinary. He not only gives you a plan, but the why behind it. He is very low pressure with measurable results. I highly recommend S.P.A.R.T.A.. They will change your life!”

April 15, 2008
Top qualities: Personable, Expert, High Integrity
Sharon Inetas – training with S.P.A.R.T.A. since 2008

“I hired Chris Lutz to help me correct 9 years of weight gain and muscle loss due to an out of control thyroid. In the last year I have lost 50 pounds and gained muscle thanks to Chris’ ability to provide a personal training regime that works for me. S.P.A.R.T.A. understands the body and illnesses and worked with me to overcome the obstacles for my specific condition. You have nothing to lose by visiting them for a consultation to see if they can improve your health and fitness level. I guarantee you will be pleased by the results if you follow the program….and who can’t do two thirty minute workouts each week?”

July 6, 2008
Top qualities: Great Results, Expert, Creative
Indra Books – busy business professional combating a medical condition.
training with S.P.A.R.T.A. since 2007

“Chris Lutz is a true expert in his field and is not afraid to shoot down myths about exercise. The workouts he puts his clients through are TOUGH, and they get the job done in a small amount of time. Regardless of your level of exercise expertise, S.P.A.R.T.A. is the perfect solution.”

July 7, 2008
Top qualities: Personable, Expert, High Integrity
Butch Porter – training with S.P.A.R.T.A. since 2007

As you can see people have had a positive and productive experience working with Master Trainer, Chris Lutz. If you’d like to get the same kind of result producing advice, then simply click add to cart below and grab your 1 hour block. You’ll receive an email to schedule your phone call with the Master Trainer withing 24 hours.

Need a new workout? Need a new meal plan? Need personal training business advice? That will all be included should you need it. You will also receive a sizable discount on S.P.A.R.T.A.’s High Tech Training monthly program if you decide to continue.

We have a limited number of time slots so make sure to grab your’s now. This service is not available all the time because he does not work 1 on 1 with new clients any more. Phone consultations are only open for a limited time frame so set one up now by clicking below. As soon as you’re registered, you’ll receive an email to schedule your call within 24 hours.

Be sure to check back or subscribe to S.P.A.R.T.A.’s business of personal training blog for more updates and personal trainer business tools and services.

About Markus: “If you’ve been reading bodybuilding magazines for any length of time, you’ve probably noticed that most of the top bodybuilders train in a remarkably similar fashion. They’re in the gym five or six days a week, hitting body parts with 12-20 sets. Sometimes you could almost switch the names and pictures around on the articles and few would notice the difference. Enter Markus Reinhardt. You’ll soon discover that his methods are a radical departure from the rest of the bodybuilding herd, based on principles of reason and logic rather than merely a blind imitation of those around him. ”

Learn from a Master in person and discover:

-Common weight training terms
-Different muscular actions in weight training
-How to differentiate types of exercises
-Characteristics of HIT routines
-How to moderate frequency, intensity, and duration
-The real function of the cardiovascular system
-Appropriate rep ranges
-HIT principles
-HIT advanced techniques
-Basic nutrition principles and acceptable body fat ranges
-Proper way to determine new client resistance
-Client tracking and progression models
-How to identify overtraining
-Possible exercise contraindications
-And MORE!

Study materials are downloadable. 60 day completion time frame.

Click here to learn more about the HIT Personal Trainer Certificate if you live in or around Las Vegas, NV. Be sure to ask Markus about his special code to get 10% off and to indicate that you want to be graded by Markus, himself.

Be sure to check back or subscribe to S.P.A.R.T.A.’s business of personal training blog for more updates and personal trainer business tools and services.

A recording of our Natural HIT Bodybuilding Webinar with Markus is available here.

Benefit One: Avoid Muscle Loss
Adults who don’t strength train lose between 5-7 pounds of muscle every decade. Although endurance exercise improves our cardiovascular fitness, it does not prevent the loss of muscle tissue. Only strength exercise maintains our muscle mass and strength throughout our mid-life and senior years.

Benefit Two: Avoid Metabolic Rate Reduction
Because muscle is very active tissue, muscle loss is accompanied by a reduction in our resting metabolism. Information from Tufts University indicates that the average adult experiences a 2-5 percent reduction in metabolic rate during every decade of life. Because regular strength exercise prevents muscle loss, it also prevents the accompanying decrease in resting metabolic rate.

Benefit Three: Increase Muscle Mass
Because most adults do not perform strength exercise, they need to first replace the muscle tissue that has been lost through inactivity. Fortunately, research from the South Shore YMCA shows that a standard strength-training program can increase muscle mass by about three pounds over an eight-week training period. This is the typical training response for men and women who do 25 minutes of strength exercise two or three days per week, and represents an excellent return on a time-efficient investment.

Benefit Four: Increase Metabolic Rate
Research from Tufts University and the University of Maryland reveals that adding three pounds of muscle increases our resting metabolic rate by seven percent, and our daily calorie requirements by 15 percent. At rest, a pound of muscle requires about 35 calories per day for tissue maintenance. During exercise, muscle energy utilization increases dramatically. Adults who replace muscle through sensible strength exercise use more calories all day long, thereby reducing the likelihood of fat accumulation.

Benefit Five: Reduce Body Fat
Campbell and his co-workers at Tufts found that strength exercise produced four pounds of fat loss after three months of training, even though the subjects were eating 15 percent more calories per day. That is, a basic strength-training program resulted in 3 pounds more lean weight, 4 pounds less fat weight and 370 more calories per day food intake.

Benefit Six: Increase Bone Mineral Density
The effects of progressive resistance exercise are similar for muscle tissue and bone tissue. The same training stimulus that increases muscle proteins also increases bone proteins and mineral content. A University of Maryland study demonstrated significant increases in the bone mineral density of the femur bone (upper leg) after four months of strength exercise.

Benefit Seven: Improve Glucose Metabolism
The University of Maryland research center has also reported a 23 percent increase in glucose utilization after four months of strength training. Because poor glucose metabolism is associated with adult onset diabetes, improved glucose metabolism is an important benefit of regular strength exercise.

Benefit Eight: Increase Gastrointestinal Transit Speed
Another study at the University of Maryland showed a 56 percent increase in gastrointestinal transit speed after three months of strength training. This is a significant finding due to the fact that delayed gastrointestinal transit time is related to a higher risk of colon cancer.

Benefit Nine: Reduce Resting Blood Pressure
Strength training alone has been shown to significantly reduce resting blood pressure. Our YMCA studies have revealed that strength plus aerobic exercise is highly effective for improving blood pressure readings. After two months of combined exercise (Nautilus and treadmill walking), the program participants dropped their systolic blood pressure by 4 mm Hg. and their diastolic blood pressure by 3 mm Hg.

Benefit Ten: Improve Blood Lipid Levels
Although the effects of strength training on blood lipid levels needs further research, at least two studies from excellent universities have revealed improved blood lipid profiles after several weeks of strength exercise. It is important to note that improvements in blood lipid levels are similar for both endurance and strength exercise.

Benefit Eleven: Reduce Low Back Pain
Several years of research on strength training and back pain conducted at the University of Florida Medical School has shown that strong low-back muscles are less likely to be injured low-back muscles. A recent study by at the University of Florida found that low-back patients had significantly less back pain after 10 weeks of specific (full-range) strength exercise for the lumbar spine muscles. Because 80 percent of all Americans experience low back problems, it is advisable for all adults to properly strengthen their low back muscles.

Benefit Twelve: Reduce Arthritic Pain
According to a recent edition of the Tufts University Diet and Nutrition Letter, sensible strength training eases the pain of osteo and rheumatoid arthritis. This is good news, because most men and women who suffer from arthritic pain need strength exercise to develop stronger muscles, bones and connective tissue to improve joint function.

Benefit Thirteen: Reduce Depression
A Harvard University study found that seriously depressed seniors responded most favorably to a basic program of strength exercise. After 10 weeks of strength training, 87 percent of the program participants no longer met the criteria for clinical depression, even though they received no other treatment. Apparently, increasing muscle strength and physical functionality is highly effective for improving emotional states in previously depressed senior men and women.

Summary of Strength Training Benefits
There are 13 physiological reasons why older adults should perform regular strength exercise. On a more basic level, it is important to realize that proper strength training may help us look better, feel better and function better. Understand that our skeletal muscles serve as the engine, chassis and shock absorbers of our bodies. Consequently, strength training is an effective means for increasing our physical capacity, improving our athletic performance, reducing our injury risk, enhancing our personal appearance and improving our self-confidence.

Used with permission from Wayne L. Westcott, Ph.D. the Fitness Research Director at the South Shore YMCA and author of 15 fitness books, including Strength Training Past 50 and Strength Training for Seniors.

Take a look at what some other people are saying about S.P.A.R.T.A. Training here. And sign up for a program today to get your FREE consultation!

This is yet another example that there are very few conditions in which proper exercise is totally contraindicated. In fact, nothing or bed rest as recommended may be the worst thing to do, or at the least, prevent healing and regaining function.

Read the study here.

I have personally trained many breast cancer survivors and have never seen a flare up of lymphedema as a result of exercise, especially proper weight training. Many times, patients are advised not to lift more than 5 or 10 pounds with the affected arm. However, one could easily see that this is unrealistic advice considering even opening a door exposes an arm to more force than that. Likewise, we know that circuit weight training methods such as S.P.A.R.T.A. Training™ have beneficial effects on circulation which is the problem when lymph nodes are removed due to breast cancer. There have been such good vascular effects that even new growth of vascular pathways have been documented developing in trained musculature. Logic would tell us that since the cardiovascular system and lymph system are connected, the same would probably occur there as well. Of course, vague and non-descript statements like “don’t lift more than 5 pounds” are worthless. And the fact that it is nearly impossible to communicate with a patient’s doctor, we just did the best we could and started slow and continued with a progressive program and our clients did wonderfully and this has been continuing for years. This has helped them immensely to regain strength, function, and circulation problems that they may have lost. Not to mention the money it will save them. As pointed out in the study, the participants who weight trained went to their doctors for flare ups less than half as much as the participants who did not exercise. The group who did not exercise went to the doctor 195 times. Even if just the cost of their co-pays were saved, this amounts to a sizeable benefit from a little bit of exercise.

For more information on how proper exercise can help cancer survivors and other conditions visit our medical page.

Working with injuries

• “Make sure not to hyper-extend your back during _____ exercise.”
• “Don’t arch your back on Leg curl.”
• “Don’t use overhead press if you have a back injury.”
• “Don’t use lateral raise if you have a neck problem.”
• “Don’t use _____exercise if you have a shoulder problem.”

You’ve probably heard most of these statements, and more. They are all true, and not true. Many exercises irritate certain injuries. The same exercises will actually help those injuries. Many exercise instructors tell people not to do this or that exercise because it may hurt your back. They are probably wrong. Injury occurs when an exercise is performed incorrectly. Overhead press, for instance, should be avoided by people with lower-back pain. At least that’s what many therapists might tell us. They may not be aware that some equipment like the Medx overhead press is designed especially for patients with lower-back pain. The reactionary force of the exercise is transferred through the arms and shoulders into the back pad, not down the spinal column. Many exercises are now designed this way.

Post-Rehabilitation and Medical Exercise

The three part process to determining if an exercise is going to irritate an area:

1. Determine if the movement is tolerable to the injured area.

This is actually one of the purposes of the first workout. In order to test movement, you must eliminate the next two parts of the process. Make sure the resistance is light, but not so light as to make learning S.P.A.R.T.A. Training™ even more difficult to learn. We let the client know they will be exercising with a relatively light weight, performing only a few repetitions. Doing this will let us, the trainer, know if the movement only exacerbates an injury. If they have no adverse effects from this session, go on to the next part of the process. If they do have irritation to the area, you must decide what to do next. You have three choices. First, you can choose to change the settings, range, resistance, etc. on the current exercise. Second, you can choose to replace it with a similar exercise or an exercise that works the same body part in a different manner. Third, you can choose to eliminate the exercise completely.

2. Determine if the injured area has enough endurance.

This refers to muscular endurance. As long as the exercise was tolerated from the last session, increase the resistance slightly. The resistance should not be significant enough that the client will achieve momentary muscular fatigue, but the client should feel some fatigue in the area being exercised. Ideally, this procedure should be part of the second session. If the client has a chronic injury, we do not increase the resistance. The purpose of the exercise for this session will be to test if the injured area is irritated by too many repetitions. This way we can narrow down what actually is irritating to the client and what is beneficial and tolerable. We have the client begin the exercise. The client should continue the exercise as long as no irritations develop. We will stop the exercise after eight or ten repetitions. If the client tolerated ten repetitions, we attempt the third part of the process on the next session. If the client did not tolerate this phase of the process, you have two choices: First, you can eliminate the exercise. This is not necessary especially if the exercise is part of the general routine. Second, you can choose to redefine the point of termination of the exercise. If the client begins to feel anything in the area that is not muscular stress, terminate the exercise. After a few sessions, you should have a good idea how many repetitions occur when this happens. Once you have determined that, you can set the upper limit of repetitions for the exercise. For instance, if the client feels their shoulder on chest press after 6 repetitions, set the upper limit at 5 repetitions.

3. Determine if the resistance level is tolerable.

Estimate a resistance level that will sufficiently fatigue the muscle in about 10 repetitions. Early on in the post rehab program, the client’s only hope of muscular progress might be the miniscule benefit of performing multiple sets of the same exercise if more resistance is not tolerated. If they tolerate this session, they should have no trouble learning S.P.A.R.T.A. Training™.

No exercise needs to be avoided completely necessarily. It still may be very beneficial to perform a given exercise if you can just get the prescription right. Going into a little more depth, if it hurts too much to perform it, then the weight is probably too much initially, or the setting may be wrong. If it still hurts, then limit the range. You can try a hierarchy of techniques before eliminating an exercise completely. I usually use this protocol on a post-rehab client before eliminating exercises outright.

• Full range dynamic movement with lighter resistance
• Shortened pain free range
• Higher repetition ranges or TUL’s
• Negative only
• Static hold in pain free range
• Timed static contraction
• Multiple sets of either full range or limited

If none of these techniques work, then I eliminate the exercise completely and try to substitute with a similar one. Arching the lower back is not dangerous, unless it hurts to do so. In fact, some patients with certain lower back injuries feel better holding their back in an arched or extended position on different exercises. What will work for one client, may not work for the next one. Working with a client with an injury involves some trial and error training. The key to properly handling the situation is how you apply the trial, and how you handle and recovery from an error. Communication with the client is everything. We inform the client of what to say before the very first exercise. We must be sure the client knows what he/she may or may not feel. The client must be well informed and prepared for each exercise. S.P.A.R.T.A. Training™ uses these steps to safely and effectively work around injuries. We make sure to let the client know that we are not a rehabilitative therapist. That is beyond our scope of practice. We will do everything possible not to irritate the injury. The injury may get better during the course of the training, but we are not attempting to heal an injury. Rather, we are usually working around it to allow it to heal. Strengthening and producing integrity around an injured area may also be a continuing goal from their actual therapy program. For instance, a special routine I prescribe to work around an injury to my clients that have elbow tendonitis is below. It seems that about 25% of the clientele has it at all times due to various other activities like shoveling snow, tennis, or it may appear for no reason at all. They usually cannot grip or flex the elbow very forcefully before they feel pain. How can we work around this and not have to stop workouts for the entire body because of a very small, but painful injury? The routine looks something like this.

Calf raise
Leg press
Leg curl
Leg ext.
Chest fly (machine)
Chest press (machine with pressure on palms and no tight grip)
Super pullover (machine)
Tri. ext. (preferably machine no grip)
Lower back ext.
Abdominal crunch

As you can see, either the tendons on the medial or lateral side of the elbow are injured. Not once were those tendons engaged against any kind of resistance. The single joint upper body exercises successfully place the resistance on the pectoralis, deltoid, and latissimus by applying the resistance to the humerus bone well above where the elbow tendons originate from and are likely inflamed. We have successfully designed a routine that can work around the injury and still get 90-95% of the client’s body. With the use of several single joint exercises, the only major structure not worked would be the biceps and forearms. Perform this workout in a circuit, and they are performing quality cardiovascular work at the same time. There is no need to avoid exercise altogether for this client. It is a common injury many people have that most likely needs to rest and not be worked further. This routine can accomplish that.

As you can see, sometimes issues may get a little complicated. It is crucial that we have good communication with other health professionals like physical therapists and orthopedists so that we can have the clients continue to reach their health goals safely. Many times, we get a quick and cursory suggestion to do a given exercise, but not use more than 10 pounds. This is really not a helpful or descriptive suggestion. We are lacking several pieces of important information. If the client continues to use ineffective methods, they will never progress or reach their post rehab goals. A suggestion like that demonstrates lack of knowledge of equipment and techniques, but that is really within the realm of our scope of practice anyway. For instance, any given resistance amount means nothing by itself. In fact, there are two locations that we use and the same exercise in both locations is a 100 pound difference. If someone uses the Cybex VR3 Hip ABduction, they may use an average resistance of 80 pounds. If someone uses the Life Fitness Hip ABduction, they may use 180 pounds. Knowing appropriate and safe resistance levels requires knowledge of the equipment to be used. In addition, the resistance is not the same throughout the range of motion. Nautilus called this “dynamic variable resistance”. In order to match human biomechanics, the resistance was supposed to change depending on what position the body part is in at any point in the range of motion. This is not only true with regard to equipment, but also with body position in general. For example, I may prescribe a wall squat performed statically. If I have the client flex the knee to 90 degrees, that is easier and less difficult than having the client squat down to 110 degrees, but it is exactly the same body weight. What we are primarily concerned with is effective resistance. Complicating the issue even further is the speed of movement of any given exercise. We know that Force = Mass x Acceleration. We must consider all of these things when prescribing the right program. However, the real enemy, and many times the cause of, recent injury is the acceleration portion of the equation. You may have an exercise with resistance of 10 pounds, but depending on how fast you move it, it could help you strengthen and improve the area or it could send you back to the hospital depending on what you do with it. Many clients experience the exercise and are worried that it is too much resistance or that we are using “heavy weights” and rightly so. They don’t want to hurt themselves. On the contrary, that is the beauty of this methodology is that you can move slower, more controlled, use less resistance, and be placed in challenging, but very safe positions to maximize progress and minimize risk. The positions and movements may be challenging, but many times are less than a clients own body weight. And when a lower body injury is present, the post rehab exercise is the least of their worries. What people don’t realize is that many times they are exposed to more force walking up and down stairs to get into the facility or their home than they ever would be in a post rehab exercise situation. Proper prescription of post rehab exercise requires knowledge of several factors at once and it is an ever changing dynamic situation both short term during a workout and going forward in a progressive manner over time.

There are many other conditions and diseases in which S.P.A.R.T.A. Training™ is tolerable, and in many cases, beneficial. S.P.A.R.T.A. Training™ is safe and effective for clients who fall into the following special populations:

• Osteoporosis
• Rheumatoid/Osteoarthritis
• Orthopedic problems
• Lower back pain
• Neck pain
• Hypertension
• Obesity
• Cardiovascular/heart disease
• COPD
• Parkinson’s
• Fibromyalgia
• Thyroid and other Metabolic conditions
• Pre/post natal women
• Seniors
• Diabetes/Pre-diabetic
• Orthopedic problems
• Paralysis

We have had much success with lower back pain and neck pain. There is also quite a bit of research showing the effectiveness of strength training to combat insulin resistance. The hormone insulin is unable to do it’s job getting glucose into cells so exercise is the means to deplete glucose from muscle cells and then post workout, the cells pick up glucose from the blood readily.

Many times, people suffering from fibromyalgia can only tolerate slow, low-force exercise. It is challenging enough to stimulate strength and functional improvements, but will minimize any irritation to hot spots.

One of our greatest areas of success is osteopenia/osteoporosis. We have seen a magnitude of improvement of one % per month of training in bone mineral density. Many clients have even been brought out of osteoporosis.

Of course because S.P.A.R.T.A. Training™ is circuit training, the benefits of cardiovascular conditioning many and present even for those that are already diseased and rehabilitating from recent infarction.

There are few conditions or diseases where proper exercise is totally contraindicated. Something everyone should look into is the possibility of being reimbursed by your insurance company for your post rehabilitation training. I’ve had several clients obtain prescriptions from their doctor for strength training to stave off osteoporosis or other conditions. We even have a few insurance codes that may be useful for some clients depending on their conditions and insurance carriers. It’s worth looking into.

For more research about S.P.A.R.T.A. Training™ and these specific conditions, take a look at our medical page.